3dchoujinbag

[3dchoujinbag]

no theta mention...

[3dchoujinbag]

a life for a life: on post-mortem nen and diminishing returns

I am once again thinking about Prince Camilla’s Untouchables. 

The Have-Nots are a caste created and perpetuated by a belief that some lives are inherently worth more than others. They are born to be less than human, less than tools even— just symbols, the power of the royal family shoved front and center to be ogled. Dead trophies for dead royals.

Very interesting that the initial idea behind afterlife companions was to make sure the royals didn't turn into vengeful curses... It makes their current ability extra ironic, and also feels maybe like foreshadowing for the future of this succession game?

Even after their traditional 'human sacrifice' function went out of style, they remained at the bottom of the system: still not treated as human, much less full citizens.

Enter Camilla:

Notice how it's "the same rights as the armed forces." they're only allowed to be treated as citizens if they agree to be weapons. And I'm not entirely buying that the reinstatement of afterlife companions was solely the idea of the have-nots....

This is not a gesture of altruism. Prince Camilla sees people in general as useful tools at best— she grants some select Have-Nots status akin to a normal citizen and calls it charity. In return, she expects them to fulfill their age-old purpose, as dictated by Kakin society: to die for her, with her, however she requests. Notice that the only option open to them is the military: they've been upgraded from discarded symbols of wealth to weapons. And it speaks to how awful their treatment must have been that Camilla's Have-Not guards see being used as a tool to be an improvement. So much so that they are not just willing but eager to throw their lives away for her, just as their ancestors did.

"Why I was born," and "reunited in the afterlife," seem to suggest Moswana is taking the concept of afterlife companion very seriously. Sarahell on the other hand seems to take more of a pragmatic approach: quid pro quo Camilla.

Maybe its purely misplaced loyalty borne out of not knowing any better. Maybe its a desire for a purpose, to make their mark on history. Maybe its revenge for a nation that discarded them. Likely, it's a mix of many things. What it results in is a task force of living voodoo dolls that seem, at first glance, utterly unstoppable.

But thats the crazy, brilliant thing: they're not. In light of what we know, it seems that— especially in comparison to some of the other metaphorical ticking time bombs on this ship— the Have-Nots are actually quite weak.

Their abliity, Dust in the Wind: Hell Fruit, initially seemed so overpowered to me that I immediately sat up and took notice, mentally rearranging Camilla to the very top of my "Objectively Most Capable of Winning the Succession War List." (Mind you, she's still pretty high up there. But not at the Landslide placement I'd just thrust her into). However, the series is quick to undercut their curse in the same breath it introduces it.

Sarahell (with the unfortunate mission of cursing Prince Woble) discusses the logistics of the curse with the Majordomo and immediately starts poking holes in their strategy. The curse already needs quite a few steps to work: anywhere from days to years of preparation, acquiring and then carrying an object belonging to your (sole) target for as long as you can, then burning it, drinking the ashes, and committing ritual suicide with a specific dagger. Now, we're being told it probably won't even work unless they are in the same room as the target, possibly eye-to-eye. Something that would be difficult to accomplish in a normal assassination, let alone one staged on this goddamn Murderboat.

One might be inclined to say this as par for the course: nen is about sacrifice after all, and the power it brings is all based on risk and reward. Of course a killing curse is going to have a lot of restrictions baked into it's rules: it couldn't work otherwise, right? Right?

Gentle reminder that Kurapika can kill people near-instantly by pointing a finger at them.

Ok, yes, thats an exaggeration. What he's actually able to do is throw a chain into a person's heart, then setting terms for a vow the target must now uphold. That target has to break the vow the chain places on them willingly to trigger the death clause. And yes, Judgement Chain requires Emperor Time, which shortens Kurapika's lifespan and weakens him significantly. I'm not saying its an ability without sacrifice— quite the opposite! It comes with high risk, which is what makes it powerful.

You know what's also high risk? KILLING YOURSELF.

For the average person, death is Thee Ultimate Sacrifice! Emperor Time merely plays with death, and it was scary enough to spook the Phantom Troupe into staying the hell away from Kurapika— at least until they could safely remove the curse on their boss. Hell, that trepidation could be a major reason why they don't mess with him now, despite having a score to settle. Another analysis for another day. The point is, Kurapika being willing to give up some of his lifespan was enough to nearly wipe out the Spiders in Yorknew. They were not keen on finding out what his nen would do post-mortem.

Postmortem nen, or "Nen-after-death," is becoming a big theme in the succession war: from Misha Hao's loyalty keeping her ghost employed as a corpse-disposer to Kacho's love for her sister manifesting in a guardian angel pseudo-reincarnation. And of course, whatever is going on with the Seed Urn and those fourteen coffins. We know Nen-after-death is a powerful thing. Abengane, the excorcist from Greed Island and the man who ultimately removed the chain on Chrollo's heart is considered in the series to be an extremely powerful exorcist, and even he is cautious about post-mortem nen: we see this first in his attitude towards the Bomber, and then presumably his handling of Kurapika's chains (whatever happened there, we know he did not give the Troupe the go-ahead to merk Kurapika). And then we saw how people reacted to Gon's self-inflicted state post-Chimera Ant: that shit was scary! They were not messing with that!

So, where are we, what does all of that have to do with the Have-nots. Well, lets put it into context, shall we? The Have-nots are (with preparation) able to perform a complicated, multistage curse on one person, one time. It costs them their lives.

And they are convinced that it could be exorcised with a glance.

Mind you, nen beasts aren't the only concern Sarahell and the others pose. They are strongest in situations where their targets don't even know of the existence of nen, and therefore cannot prepare for its attack. Now, with word spreading across the ship, they fear they'll have to contend not only with pre-existing exorcists brought on board by the savvier princes or queens (previously thought unlikely since Benjanmin and Camilla were the only ones in-the-know, but every dayI suspect the queens more and more), now they are worried about new exorcists being made from an existing guards loyalty to their prince.... understandable on a surface level, but still! You guys have a death curse! You think some guard with two weeks training will be able to counteract your human voodoo doll act? Doesn't that seem absurd on the surface level?

Oh.

Ohhhhhhh.

Nen requires sacrifice. And Sarahell, Moswana, Taler, and all the other Have-Nots have grown up believing their lives mean nothing.

They can't risk what they don't value.

[The Majordomo's face above tells me she's probably already come to the same conclusion.]

And how could they? Even when Camilla raised them up from destitution, I can't imagine she tried to hammer in the idea that they were people that mattered. To Camilla, people don't matter! They're tools! She believes everyone, not just the Have-Nots, should kill themselves in front of her because she is so special and important. But its so beautiful to me that this tiny storyline, a Q plot if you will, can impress the themes of this arc with only a few broad brushstrokes.

Camilla is, inadvertently, shooting herself in the foot with her inability to value other people as anything but tools. She upholds a system that dehumanizes its subjects— cherrypicking a few people out of poverty does not change that fact. Because she views them as tools, they view themselves as tools: and thus are unable to realize their full potential as human beings. It reminds me of that moment in CAA when Komugi is explaining to the King her vow: to take her life should she ever lose a game. Believing herself to be a burden on her family without gungi, Komugi says that should she ever lose her title she would become "trash." Then, she apologizes to the king for offering her life in their wager, as loosing would automatically mean she'd just be offering him "a piece of rubbish".

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts: if someone views others as worthless, worthless is all they can be to you. And, more importantly, viewing oneself as worthless, subhuman, or all-but-dead is a surefire way to be doomed to that same fate.

I'm looking at YOU JOKERS:

TL;DR... should we expect Emperor Time to suffer inflation costs now that Kurapika values his life less and less? 🤔🤔🤔

[3dchoujinbag]

What I find really interesting is how different people think about nen abilities, and if they care to keep it a secret at all.

Lots of people play their abilities, and the full extent of their abilities, very close to the chest, but there are a few exceptions, and I think this is honesty super interesting.

Hinrigh and Hisoka don't care who knows their ability, friend or foe, and there are a few very logical reasons for this.

The first is that their abilities don't have only one purpose. By revealing an ability without an obvious use, even people who know the ability are left guessing what could come next. Contrast this with something like Gon's abilities: all violence all the time.

The second is the fact they don't require input from other people. Abilities like Feitan's become far weaker when opponents know the activation clause, while Hinrigh and Hisoka requirely nearly no input from their opponents.

Finally, and the least well reasoned, I think its decided by personality.

Hinrigh is blunt and direct: like nobunaga says, he says what needs saying and then does what needs doing.

Hisoka is what I would call an honest liar. He wants you on alert, to know a trick is coming and then trick you anyway.

In this way, their abilities are perfect for who they are.

[3dchoujinbag]

I wanna take a minute to talk about Mahito's "final form" (Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing) and why I really like it and why I think people tend to misinterpret what it means for Mahito and the story.

I'm just gonna refer to this form as Mahito's Spirit Body for simplify. As a brief summary this is the form Mahito takes on right at the end of his fight against Yuji. To really understand this form we need to go back to early in Shibuya when Kenjaku and Mahito where talking about the soul and body. Essentially the outcome of that conversation surrounded Jujutsu as an interpretative art and how techniques define a person's viewpoint (or vice versa). Mahito's obsession throughout his time in the series has always been with becoming a 'true curse'. He literally exclaims "I TRULY AM A CURSE!!" after hitting a black flash. Mahito, Moreso than any other curse, is formed from humans. He hates humans because he's a curse yet he simultaneously is a curse. He never really acknowledges his human side because to him it's not who he is. Spirit body is his interpretation of his true form. It's not his ACTUAL perfect form it's what he thinks that form should be. His human side is what gives him form and Spirit Body is him forcing himself into a new non-human form. That's why he loses his face and most of his transformation/morphing abilities because he's rejecting his human side and so he loses access to the abilities that come from his human side. It's also why he begins to revert to his regular form during the fight as he takes more damage.

It's because this isn't actually who he is. It's what he believes he should be as a curse. Mahito has consistently had the greatest potential out of any JJK character when faced with the mirror that is death. So when he's faced with it at Yuji's hands he does not remain in his Spirit Body form, he returns to his regular form. He tried to maintain his Spirit Body but he physically can't because it's a denial of who he is. This is all to say Spirit Body is Mahito's interpretation of his perfect body. He literally tailored it to fight Against Yuji to the point he gains similar 'hair' to him.

He sees Yuji as the ultimate Human, his natural enemy. It would only make sense that his "true form" is a mirror of that. This is why Mahito loses in the end. He stops fighting as Mahito and tries to fight as Yuji. But he isn't Yuji. In the end he'll always be Mahito. Yuji has changed as well, but he still remains as Yuji. Accepting of who he is even if he's reviled by it. When finally faced with that truth all Mahito can do is run from it, because Mahito will never accept his own humanity.

[3dchoujinbag]

Renko the embalmer (Ch. 397)

Tserriednich’s Guardian Spirit Beast (Ch. 362)

[3dchoujinbag]

[3dchoujinbag]

Lore accurate

[3dchoujinbag]

it’s insane how complete of a character Azuma was before we even found out that his backstory that he based his entire worldview off of was just made up in his head the whole time.

like yeah no wonder he feels like he can’t leave the persona he’s built around himself (wet spot), he literally had no stability in his life other than the things he got by faking it (to an extent) until he made it.

just a running list of things about azuma that make me feel some kind of way:

that line about how maybe a roly poly doesn't like damp places so much as it dislikes dry places

sandek saying that his goal is to stop the people causing chaos on a busy street that interferes with other people just driving/living their lives, and azuma's rebirth as a choujin culminating in a fight that takes place on a highway and causes a bunch of accidents (pretty on the nose there bro)

sandek saying that azuma reminds him of his younger brother...

azuma mourning that he and tokio became choujin because it meant he was no longer tokio's personal hero (where is his sense of identity? who is he if he's not what tokio saw in him? all that work to be that person and what did it amount to?)

asking tokio to kill him if he lost control again (he didn't see how tokio reacted to finding him dead, he didn't know what tokio went through, he doesn't know what kind of ask this really is)

crying over the hyena

urging tokio to take zora's power because he was afraid that he would cause the calamity (see also: asking tokio to kill him)

after the timeskip, wanting to kill a chaos choujin before trying to save them (does he still want to be the person who risks his life to save someone when tokio is gone? )

absolutely ignores tokio from the moment he gets back but then "i wanted tokio to talk to me once he got back" bro...

"maybe i'll feel better if i punch you" but then feeling worse because he can't beat tokio in a fight anymore

this is cheating because it's a tokio thing but it's ABOUT azuma: sato trying to convince tokio of his way of doing things and failing, and then having the thought that "baby chicks imprint on the first thing they see" and the very next panel being azuma (tokio imprinted on azuma but azuma was a reflection of tokio who admired azuma who admired tokio who -)

"i'm going to make sure each of you gets me a present" then his present is an existential crisis

he does the thing kaneki did where he copies things easily. learns weapons from books, sees other battle strategies and uses them as his own, that honors student learning without trying vibe (is it because he had to learn how to be human that way?)

trying to be the thing people see in him. the hero tokio saw, the reliable partner ely saw, the battle prodigy bb saw, where does he start and where do other people's expectations end?

[3dchoujinbag]

Azuely began to rot my brain, perhaps Ironsmoke can be its alternative name, ended up making the ship look more serious than it should be, they have such a “troublemakers” vibes

I’m such an Ely fan and an Azuma apologist, and I think Ely can slays when she wants to

Also little Easter egg that I accidentally made during sketch but ended up keeping it when I realized it also appeared in the manga (tarot card number 3, the empress)

[3dchoujinbag]

more Choujin X part 3

[3dchoujinbag]

my brain has been rotted by Choujin X

[3dchoujinbag]

Selfless Sacrifice vs Selfish Survival: A Comparison of Kurapika and Borksen

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone compare these two characters yet, but they make a really interesting contrast. Both are caught up in a mess not of their making, both will have to face the fourth prince at some point…both are very analytical and intelligent specialists.

For all of their similarities, their perspectives are incredibly different.

Kurapika, currently, seems to care about everything but his own survival. He’s trying to save all these lives at the cost of his own, willing to sacrifice himself to ensure Queen Oito and Prince Woble’s survival. His goal started with the eyes, but the problem is Kurapika cares too much. Now he’s not only trying to save Oito and Woble, he’s also doing his best to control the course of the entire battle for succession, just to save the children caught up in it.

It would make Kurapika’s life so much easier if he cared less, but that’s not who he is. Still, he needs to learn how to be more selfish and prioritize his own survival along with the lives of the people he’s trying to protect.

Hopefully, his arc will end with the realization that there are reasons for him to keep living. And then he can finally allow himself to enjoy his journey, like he promised Pairo.

In complete contrast with how Kurapika seems to have given up on living, Borksen is entirely determined to survive. While Kurapika’s life is literally being eaten away slowly by his use of emperor time, Borksen’s inner monologue at some point states that she plans to live a long and peaceful life.

(This is really funny in retrospect…)

Moderate career ambitions aside, Borksen’s primary goal is her survival along with the survival of her friends. As we’ve seen in chapter 408, she avoids thinking too much about the deep-rooted problems of her country because she doesn’t want to put her own life at risk. Speaking up or trying to create any change would no doubt be dangerous.

Borksen will put all her effort and considerable intelligence into her simple goal of survival. She just wants to life a good, long life—and who can blame her for that?

Except now, thanks to Morena’s manipulations, she’s finally left with no other choice but to put her life at risk. Borksen won’t allow herself to be subsumed into the Heil-Ly’s murderous philosophy. She can no longer choose inaction. Now, her only choice is to try to do what she can to defy Morena: even if her own life wasn’t directly at risk, the whole world is at stake.

Borksen can’t walk away from this fight. Whether she likes it or not, she’s now a major player in this multi-faceted war on the Black Whale. Now that martial law has finally been declared, we’re about to see the war on the lower decks and the succession contest on tier 1 collide, and it’s going to be messy.

In conclusion: Kurapika and Borksen will likely meet at some point, and I’m so curious about how that will go.

[3dchoujinbag]

Call me cringe or whatever, but I still think Mahito's "I am you" is one of the most interesting lines in all of Shounen

because on one hand, he could be just doing it as a cliche "we're not so different you and I" type of things where Yuuji hates curses just like Mahito hates humans

but on another more fascinating read, he's being completely honest. All those feelings Yuuji is feeling right now, all of the hatred and disgust and disdain? That's Mahito's entire existence, what he'smade of. That's why Mahito doesn't just kill people, he warps them, changes them into unthinking murderous monsters because that's what hate does to a person. You ask why he delights in carnage and pain then goes back to being a silly little goofball? Because that's what humanity at its worst is. A selfish violent child that revels in the power they have over others and then runs screaming and crying the moment that power is gone

[3dchoujinbag]

[3dchoujinbag]

The wait for the next chapters is excruciating and it's murdering me, so I've decided to write a long review/retrospective on the themes and community reactions to these latest chapters. It was my first time reading HxH as it was publishing so I sort of cherish each chapter released here. These ten chapters can be divided into three parts: a return to the Succession War, the Mafia, and lastly Morena's card game. It's a story that has almost twenty storylines and it sometimes feels like there isn't really a possible way to connect it all and have satisfying ending (or even just an ending, whether satisfying or not) to these storylines. But more than other batches so far, each of the story's plotlines are slowly connecting.

Part 1 (401-404): The Somewhat Tedious and Genius Succession War Edit: 401 had a lot to cover and analyze so I only did that for this first post. I'll make another one covering 402-404!

For almost two years, no one else was in the room where it happened. Chapter 400 left us with Kurapika's reappearance and accepting Tuppeba's contract from Longhi. But that felt like a painful while simultaneously underwhelming cliffhanger. At that point, we hadn't seen Kurapika for a little over ten chapters…which for the fan base then mattered a lot as there was a five year long hiatus to get to those chapters. It also felt like a strange plot beat to end on, why would Kurapika accept a contract from Longhi when she hid the fact she used nen (making her the most possible candidate for Silent Majority)? It also felt like somewhat of an underwhelming plot thread to get back to since Tupebba so far felt like a boring prince who was already searching for some peace in the war and an alliance with Kurapika was already expected (or at least this is what I think of her). The only possibly interesting threads here are Kurapika being the collaborator for Tuppeba's nen beast or Longhi (who up to this point hadn't even spoken a line) being Silent Majority…It just felt like plot, not anything emotional to cling to with this story line!

And then 401 completely subverts everything we thought could have happened in that room by possibly making one of the most theme wise relevant chapters of the whole series, characterizing a dozen characters in one swoop, making Longhi one of the best written women in this arc, making the whole community go rabid with theories, and connecting the Succession War to the overarching Dark Continent.

Before I get really into how perfect of a twist this was, I do have to complement the dialogue and art itself. As always with this arc, characters aren't dumb. They know what the others might be thinking and usually don't make as many stupid mistakes. But they do make mistakes and like most readers theorized wrongly that Longhi was Silent Majority. So in a sense, Furykov is somewhat a stand-in for the reader in being convinced she's Silent Majority. But Longhi as a character is straight-forward, they know what they have been theorized of being and immediately disproves themselves as Silent Majority. Her dialogue is always on the defensive and in complete composure (until it's broken towards the end). A main flaw in this arc is that a person's character gets lost quickly under their long monologues. They almost feel like an inhuman smart robot and by "they" I mostly mean Kurapika. I love them to death, but it feels like for some portions we barely got to see him have personality past the first ten chapters of this arc. But in this chapter he feels appropriately snarky. Hell, he was even sarcastic!11! (Also just look at how the chain falls between them...I feel like Bateman looking at that one business card)

Longhi matches Kurapika's tempo, infact she uses his own lines against him and it works as great writing on two levels. It not only counters Kurapika's threat and establishes Longhi as perhaps similarly smart (setting off some potential parallels between the two as well), but it also might serve as foreshadowing. I think this is Chekhov's .22. We've constantly seen guns against nen users in this arc, more than in any other. We've had Theta shooting Tserrie, Musse shooting Cammy, Cammy shooting Benjamin, Halkenburg shooting his father, and Halkenburg shooting himself. It's always ineffectual and I fully believe this arc will payoff this motif by making it actually effective in killing some nen user possibly blinded by ego. Throughout the chapter, we basically see Longhi's defensive composure break down. It's not really that deep to analyze, we can just notice her breaking down as she explains the more personally affecting parts of her past. Especially, how she sees (and refuses to internalize?) how Beyond sees her.

I think that perhaps to analyze what is really going on here, we have to step back and look at the overarching themes of this arc and Hunter x Hunter...It's pretty much generational trauma. Both in a cultural sense and in the trauma our parents leave us. 1. The Dark Continent and the multiple generations that went to it beforehand 2. The Mafia War with Illegitimate Princes, the whole "carnival" system with Morena (More in the cultural sense of caste systems and being looked down on because of birth, so in effect they are affected by previous generations and their place in the world). This tie in also becomes a lot more obvious with Morena's card game with a Parent and Child. 3. The Have-Nots are another form of the caste system and a passed down trauma from their place in society 4. The Succession War is generational trauma in the most literal form of it. Whoever "wins" passes down what they went through to the next generation of children in a cynical cycle that has been going on for years. I feel like Longhi and the Beyond Children are another massive example of this theme. A person's purpose is practically decided before they were even born in Kakin. It's not just the caste system, it's so many systems of corrupt monarchy and people playing their large games without thinking of who it affects. People play along with these systems because they want to remain in their comfortable position in life (as eventually seen by Borksen). One of the large themes of this arc is the effect of these large world changing decisions we see main characters do on the fly on normal people around them. Up to this point, we really hadn't seen an exact evil that Beyond planned to do. He might bring back a calamity, but if we were against him for solely that then we would have to be against Netero who wanted everyone to also go to the Dark Continent before Beyond. I find it really genius that we first find out how evil he is by seeing how ruthlessly efficient he is in his plan. As Netero once described him, he is a better Hunter than he was. I feel being a better hunter makes you more morally questionable. We are even seeing a hunter like Ging, perhaps an ultimate epitome of a Hunter, team up with Beyond (he probably doesn't know a lot of the shady stuff or he might have something up his sleeve, but I'm just saying an example). All his plans were in some way set off by Netero not allowing him into the Dark Continent until his death. There is tons of reason to speculate that he manipulated events to lead to his father's death and now he is not only betting on a murder ritual which includes children, but also having children (Who their parents then feed propaganda to) who are nothing more than pawns to him and their utility is in death.

Finally with all this context, I can really explore the nuance of Longhi's character. At the surface it's the idea of being "fodder" or a "pawn" like so many in this arc. It's having someone else make your life decisions for you. I like this translation of it from when I first read this chapter where Longhi says "We've had our very lives and dreams manipulated by the hands of our cunning father." Her dreams come directly from her raising rather than her own self. She was raised in boarding schools and was sent to Military Schools etc and superseded any physical training due to her being born with Nen. I really like the nuance of the word "attack" here. Obviously, there are other forms of nen attacks, such as Longhi's ability. They could even be seen as positive, Beyond placed an ability that could be seen as helpful for a child's survival. However in effect, it was a literal attack on her person hood. It determined her life completely and actually it's best put as Longhi describes it, a "curse." And with that, Togashi basically characterized a ton of guards in the series. So far Guards had been usually not very individualistic. They had united goals, some seem supremely loyal such as Halkenburg's and Prince Benjamin's guards. Benjamin's guards such as Furykov go as far as to call him family and Furykov says he has had no other family except him. That just opens up so much narrative meat to these characters knowing that a lot of them (most of them unknown so far) have basically been manipulated to this position in which the point of their lives is to die and suffer on this boat. But I think this story will also be about the guards regaining their agency past generational and cultural trauma up to this point. This is the nuance of Longhi's character, she's trying to regain agency through an act of rebellion. What she truly wanted to have known what her purpose was even if her part had been the same. She was fine with being a pawn, but she didn't want to be manipulated into it. She wanted to feel like she was truly doing something important. We should also discuss the direct role of their "real" parents other than Beyond. They were in soem way bought out by the propaganda of a world united under Kakin and since they knew the plan, they perhaps felt their importance and agency in this while their child would never have it. But we also have to consider that some of these parents were "talked" into it. They might have been really poor and gave into these sham marriages as a chance for themselves. It's still selfish, but I feel Beyond would manipulate these societal weaknesses as well. But the parents also wanted their children to feel important without letting them know exactly what they were going into. So they spread propaganda to them. Inspire them with unifying the world etc and give a meaning to their lives that wasn't theirs, it was Beyond's in the first place.

Now in an act to reclaim agency for herself, she will betray Beyond's and her parent's plan. Killing Beyond's prince would the the ultimate act of rebellion as in a sense it would also release her siblings (Also on a side note, the concept of their also being "weaker curses" whose lives were basically manipulated as an appetizer rather than doing anything useful is quite disturbing too). There is one other guard in this arc that among a militia of very brainwashed feeling soldiers stands as somewhat individual. That would be Babimya.

368 had possibly one of the best moments in this arc for me. Babi turning of his en and being somewhat distraught from Oito's grief. As if he saw how cold his actions were and saw how devaluing life was in this contest and to himself. This posed no tactical advantage unless he is pretending to go easy on Kurapika which I really doubt. He stands as individual through his treatment of the other guards too. He dusts his shoulders every time another guard touches him as if he's repulsed to work with them. Why? Well this chapter gives us a hint at the answer and perhaps were his arc will go next.

Furykov is kind of our view as to what expression people are making. Like with Longhi, when she comes out of the room having told her past he asks himself if she was crying. We can't really tell that from the panel page itself, but he's perceptive enough to see it. He does the same here, he can see there's something wrong while the audience can't. Is he sad? Is he angry? We don't really know, all we know is that he has shown an emotion and then pretended not to. Almost everyone in the fandom jumped on one train here, he's one of Beyond's children. Just with this twist, so much meat is added to the character as I said. I believe he will eventually betray Benjamin and Beyond and regain his agency through empathy in this arc. Community Reactions to Chapter 401 I've really never seen a fandom so rapidly start making theories as after this chapter. It really felt like pieces of this arc were finally coming together in a way that seems fully intentional. Beyond having a child was planned from the start and people even before this chapter theorized that some prince might not be Nasubi's son based on 358s wording (Which is then referenced in this chapter). It raises a series of mysteries. Who is Beyond's Prince?? What really happened in the silent revolution thirty years ago around the same time Beyond had these sham marriages?? Which guards are Beyond's? Who will Kurapika use the week long zetsu on and if it's Tserriednich, would he become invincible? WHO DOES BEYOND WANT TO SEE?? And hell, this chapter was even fanservicey for a lot of the people who really wanted to see the Dark Continent. It actually connected the Succession War to the Dark Continent because now we wonder how Beyond having his child King would affect his plans on the continent. Oh and I forgot to mention the fucking art in this chapter. It was so glazed when it came out and everyone already knows the panel I'm talking about.

This design was just so well realized and it keeps cementing the Succession War as more of a horror arc. I love the shading here so much. Anyways this chapter was met with a looot of praise, but I do have some points against it, but it more generally ties into problems with the 401-404 portion. Well firstly, one complain I don't have but a lot of people did have with this chapter was that it again over complicated an already complex arc. Personally, I see this as fine as it's sort of complicating what we already have and adding end goals rather than adding a new plotline. If 401 was introducing a new faction of 40 people, I'd see that as a problem. But it was fleshing out characters we already knew so I think it works really well. What I don't like is the usage of Bill's character. I mean he was working with Beyond and didn't know this, why don't we get to know what he's thinking during this? Is he going to betray Beyond now or what? Write more instead of showing him have a sweat drop Togashi... MORE WORDS. Well that was actually my only point against it now that I think about it...

[3dchoujinbag]

Im just posting newer art because this page is outdated 😮‍💨