#prince fugetsu

[moretheta]

they're my roman empire tbh. my hbo succession

[basedkikuenjoyer]

Let's have a fun one. I'm really excited for the next batch of Hunter x Hunter and plan to have a lot of fun here with the new chapters. Probably going to shoot for full reviews like I do One Piece, Jojolands, and Skip & Loafer presently. When you have these big cast shonens, I feel like it really helps to know what kind of fan someone is. Who do they gravitate to? This is the bulk of my top 10, #1 is after the cut but don't think there's a super important order. It was hard to pare it down to 10. The rest of the main quartet, Ging, other Phantom Troupe members like Machi, Shizuku, Kalluto, & Chrollo could have been on here.

Pariston & Pouf are such good antagonists. "I can't wait to see what I do to someone I hate" is a line that goes so hard. Melody on the other hand? She's just so lovely and the whole Sonata of Darkness quest is really cool world building. Alluka is a sweetie and we say trans rights here. Kurapika is a sweetie and we say trans rights here. I kid...but Pika's easily my favorite of the main four. Shocker given how much I loved Kurama in YYH.

Nobunaga's my favorite in the Troupe. I love samurai, even more when their backstory implies he probably went with that aesthetic because of some old samurai movie he found in the Meteor City trash heaps. I want a drag off of Morel's pipe. His ability is so cool. If you've followed my Kakin Succession stuff you probably know I like the twins and yes Katty & FuuFuu can share a slot. They just keep getting better. I love a good brat especially when one like Kacho has a heart of gold underneath. Speaking of brats, my most controversial entry but I love Neon Nostrade. Lovely Ghostwriter is my favorite ability, funny lil brat at first but she develops well. So now for #1...

Oh Biscuit. Bisky. Bisky-chan. Miss Kruger. I have loved this girl since she first showed up. Top-class hunter despite her ability being completely useless for combat. I think that says it all really. She's still that fearsome even if she uses much of her Nen for cosmetic reasons. Buff Biscuit is always a classic gag, especially this new guy on the boat who is absolutely smitten. All wrapped up in a lovely Fujoshi package.

I like that she's a mentor figure, especially the twist of being Wing's master, but how it fits in her own goals. Biscuit is a Gem Hunter, she sees her students as uncut gems. That's something I can really relate to especially as I get older. I love nothing more than working with younger people who want to better themselves. And that's why she's my fav.

[star-fiend]

I think I like this Fugetsu because her possession might provide her a fighting chance. It's like she's ready for anything with her newfound bloodlust.

Hunter X Hunter, chapter 400, "Concealed"

[dee-rrh]

I am not okay....

[ninthprime]

now that hxh is officially coming back here's my attempt to count how many plots are going on at once right now

a plot: the kakin royal family, joined by beyond netero, has chartered an expedition to the forbidden dark continent on a huge whale ship with thousands of civilians. the hunter association signed on to join with the plan of actually sending the ship to a fake “new continent”, dropping off the family and civilians there, and then continuing to the real continent. the problem is the king of kakin is also using this expedition to force his fourteen (legitimate) children into a death match, with the survivor as heir

b plot: kurapika has discovered that kakin’s fourth prince tserriednich is in possession of the remaining scarlet eyes and, in order to get close to him, has signed on as a bodyguard to the fourteenth prince, baby woble, and her mom queen oito. as it turns out all the princes have autonomous nen beasts so this is a more complicated job than it looks. by which i mean at one point he gave up a substantial part of his life to possess a cockroach

c plot: to get more specific, kurapika has been trying to keep the peace by inviting the servants and bodyguards of the other princes to come to nen classes taught by him (read: he and fellow bodyguard bill are just forcibly opening their nen abilities), but a mysterious nen construct called “silent majority” killed most of woble’s other servants and now keeps killing people in the classes. there are apparently multiple people who can use nen in the classes already and who are mostly not telling him.

d plot: the three big mafia families of kakin (the hei-ly, xi-yu and cha-r) have been invited onto the ship mostly because their leaders are all illegitimately related to the king and been told to not cause any trouble…but the king’s illegitimate daughter morena, the new leader of the hei-ly and certified #gamergirl, actively wants to the destroy the world and is breaking the peace by spreading nen to her followers using her ability and letting them gain “levels” by killing people on the ship.

e plot: the phantom troupe has shown up knowing that hisoka will have followed them here and are trying to track him down and kill him. they’ve split into groups and the only group we’ve followed- phinks, feitan and nobunaga- have teamed up with the xi-yu and cha-r to deal with both hisoka and morena. during this we get an extended flashback about how the phantom troupe used to be tween anime dubbers and originally became criminals to track down those who killed their friend.

f plot: unbeknownst to the phantom troupe, the xi-yu’s underboss hinrigh has already met with hisoka (or at least someone who looks a lot like him) and given him a passage to the top level, where the royal family is, because the mafia knows a fight against hisoka will be more trouble than it’s worth while also trying to stop morena. in other words: hisoka is going to where kurapika is

g plot: tserriednich, the previously mentioned guy with the eyes, is also a misogynist serial killer and has gotten interested in nen, so his bodyguard theta has decided to teach him nen herself in order to slow him down and potentially stop him. unfortunately he’s a nen genius and has already developed an ability that lets him see into the future and overwrite reality by reacting accordingly, which he used to get out of theta shooting him. his nen beast has now marked theta for lying to him twice and will make her “no longer human” if she lies a third time.

h plot: melody, hired to be here by kurapika, attempted to sneak the teenage twin tenth and eleven princes off the ship only for the tenth prince (and the other hunter she was working with) to be killed, revealing the princes cannot leave the ship. thankfully the tenth prince kacho’s nen beast is basically her ghost. melody is now likely going to have to deal with an investigation into her actions and has also noticed that eleventh prince fugetsu is rapidly having her nen depleted. kaiser, a member of the justice bureau, claims to have fallen in love with melody after she performed her music for the ship and intends to help her, but melody doesn’t trust him and thinks he’s using manipulation nen on himself. oh and a large amount of the princes have invited her to perform for them, including tserriednich.

i plot: first prince benjamin, a nen user, has control of the military and has used his customary status as firstborn to send one of his guards to each of his younger siblings, which in at least one case led to a successful kill (the eighth prince). he’s in lockdown currently however because second prince camilla, also a nen user with an extremely powerful ability that seems to prevent her from being killed, attempted to kill him herself, and the justice bureau on the ship is trying to figure out who started what.

j plot: camilla has a group of ultra-loyal guards from the lower caste who have developed nen curses to kill her siblings in exchange for their own deaths. their captain, sarahell, has been developing a curse on woble and intends to attend kurapika’s class to deploy it.

k plot: ninth prince halkenburg, a baby marxist who progressive civilians and the younger princes both see as a potential savior, tried to kill his father and then himself after the first death in the succession battle and got stopped by nen beasts both times. he has responded to this by going apeshit and developing an ability that appears to allow him to put the souls of his guards into other people. his testing of this involved having one of his men shoot himself while in the body of one of benjamin’s men, so benjamin has him arrested now too.

l plot: third prince zhang-li’s nen beast is dispensing mysterious coins and zhang-li is dispensing said coins amongst his guards as well as to melody, whose performance he liked. zhang-li also appears to be hiding that he’s actually the son of the king’s illegitimate half-brother onior, the head of the xi-yu, who he’s asked to look into the last succession battle.

m plot: hanzo and bisky, also hired to be here by kurapika, were working as bodyguards for the twelfth and thirteenth princes until the twelfth prince was the first death of the war. the kindergarten-aged thirteenth prince’s stress in response to his sister dying now appears to have led his nen beast to trap their group in some sort of reality bubble. bisky had to reveal her battle form to head servant vergei to explain nen and what was happening, which has mostly just led to vergei getting a mad crush on her.

n plot: izunavi and basho are also here on kurapika’s behest guarding the sixth and seventh princes, who both have not done much yet; sixth prince tyson has a mysterious religious creed that izunavi has convinced her to pass onto her father and seventh prince luzurus mostly likes to smoke weed everyday but seems surprisingly perceptive and, more importantly, apparently funds the cha-r.

o plot: despite being a deranged maniac, tserriednich has a group of childhood friends working fairly standard military guard positions on the lower floors; they’re trying to find out more about nen after picking up that the hei-ly, which tserriednich was allied with before morena took over, are using it.

p plot: fifth prince tubeppa, aware she has few allies and little knowledge of nen, has been trying to meet with kurapika for a while. the literal last thing teased before this hiatus was her bodyguard longhi revealing to kurapika that she knows nen and kurapika agreeing to meet with tubeppa.

q plot: the rest of the phantom troupe has split off: machi and franklin are both on their own (but nobunaga wants to go get franklin), chrollo is making a plan with shizuku and bonolenov that appears to involve a disguise ability bono has, and illumi joined the troupe on hisoka’s request so they could have a yaoi death battle and is with kalluto. speaking of which:

r plot: mizai ran into illumi and kalluto and has them staying in a room in the quarters the zodiacs are using. he’s currently trying to figure out whether he should be telling kurapika the troupe is on the ship or not, knowing it could risk the well-being of both woble and kurapika himself. (he also secretly gave melody clearance to try to save the twins.)

s plot: beyond netero is still in lock up and being watched by members of the zodiacs. he hasn’t done anything yet, but it has been implied he’ll try to escape at the fake “dark continent.”

t plot: ging and pariston have a group allied with beyond who are going to the dark continent themselves; ging joined because he knows pariston must be up to something. it remains ambiguous whether they have their own boat or are on the whale somewhere.

u plot: leorio and cheadle are working at an understaffed clinic near the zodiac headquarters, meaning that once again Leorio Is Just Offscreen

v plot: a random member of the cha-r is trying to get the autographs of the phantom troupe members. this has been used to dispense plot info about how far we are from being out of contact with land. pray for his success

TOTAL PLOTS COUNT: 22

[ragde890]

HxH chapter 408 commentary and pseudo-analysis

There's a lot to say about this chapter, so let's analyze the information we've got bit by bit:

Heil-Ly and the Spider

The paralelisms between Heil-Ly and the spider are way too many not to be intentional.

Nobunaga states that Heil-Ly reminds him of the begginings of the Spider, when they were driven by rage

Both groups are made out of outcasts and people who have been rejected by society. Both the Carnival Children and the Meteor City inhabitants are "non-existant" according to official records.

Both groups are murderous, with Heil-Ly maybe being more chaotic

Both have specialists as their leaders. Both Morena and Chrollo have christian symbolism in their character designs and both isolate mentally from other human beings.

The human trafficking backstory. We'll get to that later.

This makes the incoming meet-up between the spiders and Heil-Ly more interesting. Not only that, but it also makes some improbable events possible. For example, what if Morena has the ability Chrollo is looking for? This chapter has established that Morena knows about Chrollo. What if there's a team-up between the spiders and Heil-Ly? Again, this is improbable, but it's possible given the context we're in right now.

About Contagion

This is unlikely, but the Card Game could be a new ability that Morena developed by reaching level 20 of Contagion. This would mean that Contagion can awaken abilities in people that already know nen. Again, this is very unlikely. But not completely nonsensical.

A less farfetched theory is that Contagion can keep up to 22 members because that's the time that happened between her "class" and the most recent (22 years). Therefore, the more Kakin's evil continues, the more powerful Contagion becomes.

Who killed Risnorth?

Let's start by saying that, in this chapter, we've learned just how isolated Kakin is from the rest of the world. With this in mind, if Risnorth, the one responsible for Sarasa's murder, is being talked about in the boat's news, we can ascertain that he's from Kakin. The panel with the news about Risnorth and Chrollo giving it his back seems to indicate that they were the ones to kill him. However, we don't know this. In fact, if the Spider killed him, then why was there no revenge note, unless with the Kuruta clan? Why hide themselves, if it goes against their whole shtick?

Both the Ryodan and Morena have backstories related to human trafficking, with Heil-ly being involved in the latter. Going back to the van scene where we see the kidnapped children at the back and Risnorth and the tattooed man (who could be Tserriednich's) in the front, there was also a third criminal sitting where the children are, whose face was hidden. Who could he be? A young Tserriednich, maybe, as he's the one who funds Heil-Ly? We don't know. But if he's related to this plot, damn, it's gonna get very bloody. And, anyway, it would mean that Morena and the Spider would have a common enemy — which doesn't necessarily mean they'll become allies. Who knows, maybe their backstories intertwine even more (with Sheila being related to Heil-Ly or Kakin somehow or something like that).

Tserriednich and the Carne Levare

Do the princes know about Carne Levare? Obviously Wobble, Marayam, Fugetsu and Kacho are too young to be in the know. But what about the others? What does "royals" refer to? Obviously to Nasubi, but he can't be the only one. His half-siblings? Followers? If Tserriednich knows about the Carne Levares and, thus, has participated, then why keep his "hobbies" a secret to his family? It doesn't make sense. It's not like these Carne Levares are top secret: if Borksen knows about "Carnival Children", then it must be an open secret.

As a side note, the act of separating festival orphan's in Meat and Track Fakers is similar to how Tserriednich wants to segregate people into two bins: useless trash and useful trash. When we add his nen beast, the "inside face" of which has a two slash mark reminiscent of the second class faker's, it looks like we've got a connection (specially considering that Tserriednich funds Heil-Ly).

Some people said that, going by interval and occurance of the carnivals, it might happen each time a new legal prince is born. Not much to speculate about this, but worth mentioning.

The real Morena Prudo

This chapter revealed that Morena doesn't belong to the royal family. This creates the mystery of what happened to the real Morena Prudo: why is she in Fake-Morena's grave? The fact that we don't even know Fake-Morena's real name really accentuates her dehumanization. In any case, exactly what happened to Morena Prudo (was she Fake-Morena's friend? Did Fake-Morena kill her?) might remain a mystery.

What we know is that Fake-Morena occupied Morena's placed and then murdered the Heil-Ly boss, a real Fake Tracker (who was maybe, following the pattern of the other mafia bosses, Tserriednich biological father).

Martial Law

The martial law announcement was sublime. Despite having built up to this for several chapters now, it still felt unexpected. I see Togashi wanted to convey the surprise and impact of martial law being suddenly imposed without warning, just like a random citizien from the ship would experiment it.

Martial Law actually benefits Borksen here: with a curfew, Dogman can't move around, so he can't search for specialists. This means Borksen can now stall time (unless Feitan and Phinks show up).

Also, we still don't know why was Martial Law enacted. The possibilities are:

Benjamin saw through Halkenburg's trick.

One of the mafia benefactors was murdered (unlikely).

Halkenburg took over Benjamin and declared it himself (very unlikely).

Something else entirely.

Borksen's and Morena's ideologies

Borksen's line of reasoning is very human. She knows about Kakin's depravity and crimes, but she hasn't experienced it first-hand. She can sympathise with Morena, but her main concern is her mundane life not being affected. She doesn't want no violent revolution. And, on the one hand, it's understandable: she's not out of line for refusing something so extreme, specially considering Morena's misanthropic and chaotic goals, which wouldn't solve anything. But, on the other, it's because people like Borksen exist, who are not monsters but will not do anything about them (so that they can mantain their relatively privileged quiet life), that things have become the way their are. It's the reason Kakin hasn't changed.

On the other side of the spectrum, we've got Morena's radicalized ambition, so big that it has become hypoctricial in itself. One of Morena's followers, Baconte, is a human trafficker. Does she not care about this? Have her motivations blinded her to the point that she accepts to collaborate with the kind of person that caused her to experience all that suffering if it's for revenge? Don't take me wrong: I'm not criticising her character for this. In fact, I think her whole deeply contrasting and contradictory character is very well written. I also love the way Togashi portrayed her more "human" side: her reactions to Borksen's actions, her fixation on games... It all shows the kind of person she could have been if Kakin didn't steal that from her. It makes her very easy to sympathise with.

Miscellanious Stuff

Morena never explained to Borksen the punctuation system (normal people = 1 point, princes = 50 points etc.). She might have omitted this so that Borksen doesn't suspect that Morena's real intention (maybe) is to use her to kill Tserriednich. The specialist talk was not a lie: she merely omitted some information, which is different. If she's omitted this, it's likely she's also hiding key details about her past and motivations.

Some people are confused about specialists not following normal affinity rules, although this is something we've already seen before (Pitou's abilities would make no sense if they were restricted to standard affinity rules). Basically, specialists can master any given category via training, but that doesn't mean that they have full eficiency on them: that's unique to Kurapika's emperor time.

The panel with the binary code background has multiple interpretations. It could be a reference to Matrix, with Morena considering her followers have "awakened" from the simulation that is Kakin/the world. It could also be another RPG reference meant to symbolize their detachment (like the "grinding area"), or just refering to how "binary" their reasoning is ("either you're with us, or you're against us").

[progg]

Chapter 402 Thoughts

Here are my thoughts on Chapter 402 of Hunter x Hunter, “Letter”.

Salkov

Salkov has been able to use Nen since birth. Given the discussion in the previous chapter, this all but confirms that he is one of the “strong curse sacrifices” and Beyond’s son.

Halkenburg’s Illness

On Day 10, Balsamilco describes his plan to poison Halkenburg.

At 8:50 AM on Day 11, Melody reveals that Halkenburg has fallen ill. This could be the result of Balsamilco’s poison.

The Plan to Assassinate Luzurus

Kacho discusses assassinating Luzurus with a disturbing lack of empathy.

I felt a bit uncomfortable reading this!

Melody doesn’t flinch, though she expressed discomfort with assassination in Chapter 400. 

Another relevant scene is Oito’s reaction to Momoze’s death in Chapter 368, where she criticizes Babimayna and Kurapika for their lack of empathy in the Succession War.

Despite the grisly discussion about assassinating Luzurus, the prince is portrayed mostly positively in this chapter. He is absolved of blame for Fugetsu’s condition and shows sympathy for Kacho’s death.

In Chapter 362, Nasubi claims Spirit Beasts “cannot directly attack” other people with Spirit Beasts. However, the traps laid by his Spirit Beast may qualify as “indirect attacks”. It’s unclear.

Luzurus also expressed admirable views on rehabilitation to Basho in Chapter 366. Meanwhile, Kaiser is planning to make it look like he overdosed, which—when you think about it—is extremely dark.

On a side note, it seems Kacho was successful in convincing Fugetsu that everyone else mistakenly thinks she is dead—a plan she laid out in Chapter 400:

Covering Up the Truth

In my previous breakdown, I mentioned how I often reference the seemingly unimportant panel of Cheadle talking about the Silent Revolution. Another panel I bring up a lot is this one with Steiner and the IPA Director:

This panel sets up a major theme in the Succession Arc about valuing peace over truth. There are undoubtedly strategic reasons for keeping Luzurus and Halkenburg’s deaths under wraps, but I still believe the Succession War is going to eventually be completely covered up. Kaiser and Balsamilco’s plans echo this theme, as well as Kacho’s plan to conceal her death from Fugetsu.

Benjamin and Balsamilco

I once saw someone liken Benjamin’s character to the phrase “a ship with no compass gets lost at sea.” I think this is a pretty good description of what will happen to Benjamin. Benjamin, while powerful, is heavily reliant on others to steer him in the right direction. Balsamilco says as much:

In this chapter, we receive yet another reminder of how the soldiers around Benjamin elevate him. Kaiser believes he was only able to extract information from Benjamin because Balsamilco wasn’t present.

Kacho’s Letter

The contents of Kacho’s letter (really Kaiser’s) seem extremely important. We get some description about the contents from Luzurus and Melody.

Summarized:

Benjamin has some kind of secret that Luzurus thinks will ‘milk his tears’ and buy Fugetsu’s protection.

Luzurus and Tserriednich are ‘snakes’ and have ‘dirt’ (we already knew this, to an extent).

There is something that Halkenburg can ‘use’ (possibly to exonerate himself).

There is a secret regarding Halkenburg’s birth (I don’t think it's being Beyond’s child).

More information that shakes up the Succession itself (this could include Zhang Lei’s parentage)

It seem each prince’s letter contained different information, while Halkenburg’s and Kurapika’s contained all of it.

Basho

The dark spirits following Fugetsu flee at the sight of Benjamin and his Spirit Beast.

In a cool moment, the spirits also flee from Basho.

This could be because of the good luck charm, but I think it may also be a testament to Basho’s strength and character.

[onepiecebdays]

thank you all for sticking with this blog for the past year! here's just a quick clean-up before 2025!

i accidentally missed 3 birthdays: july 22nd - charlotte prim, august 9th - vegapunk, and august 21st - holed'em. i've made posts for them which are linked above in their names! i'm pretty sure that these are the last of the unlisted ones.

three new vivre card packs came out this year and revealed 18 new birthdays that had already passed by the time they were released. they'll be incorporated in at the right times next year, but i wanted every character to have a post for this year. they're all linked below the cut! the vivre cards also included ages for stussy (36) and hattori (20), their posts have been updated with this information.

once again, thanks for following and have a nice 2025!

january 18th - hibari

february 5th - fuga

february 29th - aramaki

march 17th - hera

march 22nd - shaka, lilith, edison, pythagoras, atlas, york

may 21st - conney

june 30th - fugetsu omusubi

july 23rd - uzuki tempura

august 19th - kurozumi higurashi

august 23rd - kurozumi semimaru

september 18th - kujaku

october 20th - prince grus

october 21st - ginny

congrats on reading to the end of this post! here's a fun fact: this year's shonen jump issue 36-37 which contained chapter 1122 had this graphic saying which birthdays were happening those weeks! i'm unsure if this is a regular thing or if it was only included because it was part of a promo for one piece day, but i thought it was pretty cool! please note the missing vegapunk for the 9th lmao.

[promoxie]

So anyway about Fugetsu ok, I THINK that she is one of the princes who haven't yet been captured by Benjamin (I'm taking Benjamin's "only four princes left!" to mean that there are "four left to be captured" because yeah I don't believe that we'd have all these princes murked all the while we was watching card games)

The last time we saw Fugetsu she was not staying in tier one, she was in a lower tier two medical facility. She's been held here since chapter 402, excepting when she went to tier one to give out Kacho's letters.

At this moment, two zodiacs are confirmed in tier two, although there is some confusion on whether or not this stand off Between Mizai and Botobai and Kaiser against Benjamin is happening in tier two or three... It is currently being assumed to be happening in the Justice Bureau, which is in tier two. If Fugetsu is lucky the she will still be in tier two where Benjamin's authority is being tested, or she will be close enough to the zodiacs to where she is left alone.

The missing princes are Zhang, confirmed, Luzurus, confirmed, with these two being the only princes that Benjamin seems to be worried about. The other two that are missing, since they aren't mentioned, are probably lower princes. This makes it possible to be Fugetsu and/or Marayam, the boy with the room displacement ability. It is also possibly Woble, but in my opinion, Babimyna would have heeded Benjamin's orders to "secure" the princes, even though he doesn't seem to be all bad buy and large. Maybe he'll come around...? Well we will wait for the next batch 👀 happy hxh anticipation y'all hehe

[moretheta]

mmm.... devastating!

[basedkikuenjoyer]

HxH 408: Dear Prudo

Damn it Togashi, you did it again. I knew it was gonna be a banger when we spent a whole chapter setting up the game. But as is often the case with these types of scenes in his work...you know you don't really have to remember all the window dressing if it's too much to keep track of, right? It's all just a vehicle to give us this tense negotiation in a way that feels a little more engaging. Ultimately this is just a chat between Morena and Borksen, really giving us a good look at the character of Morena Prudo.

Which...gets complicated. For reasons I'll get to in a minute. But one thing I have to acknowledge hanging over this whole exchange. Morena is adorable. I know she's psychotic. I know she's probably doing it as a facade. But she's so cute! Like, this whole time. Her expressions, her tone. So affable. And that makes what lurks underneath that even more unsettling.

Okay, so the big reveal here has a lot of dimensions. First being that this is not the actual Morena Prudo. In the sense of being a bastard of the Kakin royal family. It's a lot to take in, but it seems as if this woman managed to awaken her Nen ability in hellish conditions and enacted a slow plan to replace the actual Morena as head of the Heil-Ly.

The circumstances and Borksen's own POV paint a very dark picture of Kakin compared to what we've seen. And it incidentally clarifies a lot. So Morena comes from something not unlike God Valley in One Piece. The royals occasionally descend on a random village and put them through a "Carnival" that's really just abusing the people as much as they want. We also introduce the idea of "Blasphemy" in that anything tampering with heredity and the royal family is forbidden. The key on there is genetic testing. Not only would it allow this Morena to pull off the switch but it'd hide which one of the princes is Beyond's kid.

This whole Carnival thing really makes Kakin look brutally repressive and Borksen follows that up with her own thoughts that paint her in the same light as someone growing up in a brutal regime just trying to find a spot to have a decent life. Shows she could actually get behind dismantling Kakin to a degree. Even with recent democratic reforms these issues persist. I've been comparing Kakin to China this whole time which does have its issues, but this is a much more brutal take that starts to feel a bit more like a much more powerful North Korea. FWIW, given my vies of the Succession Contest this knowledge actually makes me a bit more ready to buy the Justice Bureau guys getting behind someone like Fugetsu and just being good at keeping up a calm facade.

Borksen doesn't seem like she's going to bite though, and we do get a lot about why she was picked. Makes sense, Morena's looking for people with the potential to be Specialists. That makes me more interested in Borksen. Also peep the little blip about Dogman sniffing out a candidate I'm guessing was Chrollo. That team-up could be grisly.

That said...Borksen's trying to delay when members of the Troupe are inbound. Don't forget that. We also see a certain amount of honesty from Morena in this negotiation. Admitting it'll only be temporary given her overall goals but offering to make the effort to spare anyone Borksen wants for as long as she can and all. Either way, this whole exchange gets upended by one big bang to end the chapter:

Benjamin has pulled the trigger. Martial law. Something that's been floating around his story for a long time and something that really kicks everything on the ship into high gear. I'm wondering right now what the causus belli ultimately was and how this will effect ongoing plans for a lot of the princes and it looks like we're ready to get to that next chapter. Looking forward to it.

[mobiuslake]

[blowing the dust off this blog] is anybody on hxhblr anymore

401 thoughts

what i love about this chapter (and a few from the last batch) is that togashi's had all these years to sit with these plotlines and at a moment where he could move towards the endgame he throws us a dozen new pieces. i love that i've been reading hxh long enough that i can see theories confirmed—in this case the wording of the requirements to join succession battle allowing for genetic bastards, which would allow zhang lei to qualify despite being onior's child. atp i believe that's on purpose because of the entanglement between the royal family and the mafia (ALL princes would still be descendants of the first kakin king), which beyond took advantage of. idt nasubi is his child because that makes deciding the succession battle less important for him, but i wouldn't rule out one of the queens. we now have an explanation for fugetsu's nen curse, one we barely could have guessed beforehand.

also glad we got the silly claims that longhi was the user of silent majority out of the way.

i'm not going even going to try to narrow down who beyond's other secret children are

still betting on slakka being the user of silent majority

still betting on kaiser being manipulated by pariston

what other puzzles are we still sitting on. might as well reread the entire arc for the 13940560th time.

[monosanimegenericzone]

Mono what's your opinion on the princess ( I'm crying on the insides cuz of recent chapters as the eldest siblings) and who do you want to crush and grow into the sun that most?

Also Hanzo my pookie I need to see more of him only I love the guys so much

lmao which princess. there's like 8.

or are you asking princes as in prince but plural.

i'll do all the princes just cuz this is funny

benjamin: hes the big gay uncle i want to hug him and i need him to kiss his husband

camilla: i actually dont hate her i cannot explain why. maybe i have a cat bias. maybe her shooting ben in the face was metal as fuck

zhanglei: boy you better do what im predicting or imma slap you off the face of the earth

tserreidnich: you're severely busted and thats kinda cool but also die

tubeppa: my glorious queen. i pray for you to at least get one kill

tyson: idk waht to think about her shes.... yeah

luzurus: thats my GUY. he is just high out of his mind and hes doing so great.

sale sale: and stay dead

haulkenburg: ;-;7

kacho: SLAY. GIRL POP THE FUCK OFF. GOD DAMN

fugetsu: she actually putting in work despite not knowing what the fuck shes doing. supporting her even tho she probably gon die T-T

momoze: theres a theory going around that she actually knew what she was doing and yknow what i fuck with that. o7

marayam: who

woble: PRECIOUS THING. SHES GONNA DESTROY THE WORLD SOMEDAY <3

[timeskip]

THIS PANEL IS CRAZYYYYY I LOVE YOU MORENA. I LOVE YOU, TERRIFYING VILLAINS WHO ARE SO CONFIDENT THAT BORKSEN CAN'T GO AGAINST HER IN ANY WAY THAT MATTERS. Borksen is free but she also can't do anything that matters because everyone else TRULY BELIEVES in Morena. God.

OH SHIT ZHANG-LEI? HE'S MISSING? I can only assume that Luzurus was assassinated (by the Melody team?) if he's also missing, but it's unconfirmed. Possibly disappeared in the same way Zhang-Lei did, with his mafia connections... And everything has led to martial law! But it was the disease that did it, not an assassination!

The way I'm thinking Benjamin sees it (before reading anyone else's thoughts on the chapter) is this: (Edit: some of these thoughts are obviously flawed, I have a reblog of this post with some additional thoughts after reading other people's)

Luzurus and Zhang-Lei are missing--if they stay missing, they can't take the throne. (Edit: He's trying to find them in order to get rid of them!! This is why you think through your thoughts before posting about them)

Halkenburg is "dead" and Tserriednich is framed as a co-conspirator, so neither are fit to rule

Marayam and Woble are too young for the throne, and Benjamin assumes that if he gets rid of everyone else, those two's factions will hand over the succession to Benjamin

This leaves Benjamin, Camilla, Tubeppa, Tyson, and Fugetsu. Those last four are the four that Benjamin wants to get rid of.

ALTERNATIVELY: Fugetsu is already slowly dying from spirits and Benjamin knows this, so maybe he's not considering her, and instead Tserriednich is the other prince Benjamin needs to get rid of before he gains succession, gives the throne to his child, and dies.

ALTERNATIVELY (2): Same thing with Fugetsu not being notable to him, but Benjamin already knows that Luzurus is dead somehow (I have no idea how he'd know) and is including Zhang-Lei but NOT including Luzurus in his list of four princes. So, he'd be going after Camilla, Zhang-Lei, Tubeppa, and Tyson.

Kaiser is ALSO up to something. Kaiser knows exactly what's going on, and he's prepared to stall for a day in order to keep Benjamin from the throne... I'm certain that Kaiser, with whoever is manipulating him, is way more involved in this than we know about right now. But Benjamin is going to attempt to get rid of ALL princes--and he has a child! I saw that theory floating around, it's awesome that people actually figured it out because I would not have been able to ^-^