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dee-rrh · 2 months ago

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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:

I highly doubt that it was just the Have-Nots idea to spontaneously reinstate the afterlife companions... Camilla must have known what she was doing. Which is odd, because she hasn't demonstrated herself so far as the scheming, play the long game type. Perhaps we've been reading her all wrong? Or perhaps there really is more to the relationship between her and her guard... or someone else pulling the strings behind the scenes... Duazul?!?

I would wager this is not a gesture of altruism. From what we know of her, Prince Camilla sees people (in general) as useful tools at best. So ok, 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 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.

There's also a conversation to be had here about the way the Have-Nots are linked thematically to Longhi and Beyond's curse-children.... fodder for the Beyond Baby Camilla theory...

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.

The risk here not being death, but failure... the worst thing a weapon can do.

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.

Even Phinks, one of the most hotheaded members of the Troupe, has the grace to step back and say "nah we can't mess with this i fear." I also do find it fascinating that the first person to explain the concept of postmortem nen via grudges is a member of the Phantom Troupe.... very fitting.

Its safe to say that postmortem nen, or "Nen-after-death," is a rising theme in the succession war: from Chrollo's Sun and Moon remaining in his book as a testament to the survival of Meteor City to Hisoka Bungee gum jumpstarting his heart to Misha Hao's loyalty keeping her ghost employed 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.

Phinks speculates there are LESS THAN TEN exorcists in the WORLD capable of removing a postmortem curse. even if he's seriously lowballing here, that shit means trouble.

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?

Wait.

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

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.

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? 🤔🤔🤔

[edit: more receipts]

#omgg how did I not notice??#always so happy to read your hxh posts!#hxh manga #hxh succession contest arc #hxh succession war

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dee-rrh · 8 months ago

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Honestly at this point i'm pronouncing "hxh has no noteworthy female characters" to be an ice cold, bottom of the barrel take.

Come on a journey with me.

Anyone who knows me in real life (which is hopefully almost no one on here) knows how insane I am when it comes to female characters getting shafted in media- and in shonen manga specifically. No doubt a side effects of being a girl who's favorite character was sakura in the 2015 naruto fandom- but that's another story. The point is I'm not coming at this from a "boo hoo why so woke" standpoint, or an "it's really not the deep" mentality. I care about this shit- truly i do. which is exactly why the way people talk about this issue bothers me so much.

I distinctly remover being 13 or so when I saw HxH pop up on netflix (or some other streaming service, i don't remember) and looking at the title card with Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio and thinking "huh. no women?" bc damn, even nart had women (they were written misogynistically, shafted from the narrative, and treated like fucking pariahs by fans... but they were there), and at the time i had a disease where I couldn't dedicate time towards watching something unless it had a prominent female character for me to latch on to. that disease is called ~being tired of misogyny~ and i'm still a carrier to this day. so this past version of me wanted to do some research, so i looked up something like "does HxH have female characters." I saw one of two responses: 1) sadly no. and 2. no, shut up snowflake.

I honestly don't remember what finally pushed me over the edge to start watching it, but i'm so so glad i did. had several queer awakenings. a very formative time for me, etc. aaaaaallll that is to say: I get it. I’ve been there. i don't withhold criticism from a show just because i like it.

Because it's true that HxH had no female characters... in 1998, when it's started it's serialization. like there were a few background women and also Mito, but that's it, that's all we got. and for a while that's what we would continue to get: every female character introduced seemed to exist as a cog in the wheel of one of the main male characters' storylines. even characters who i love very much and think have a lot of potential, like Canary, only seemed to show up briefly to supplement Killua's narrative and then leave. all of this is true.

But the thing people need to realize about Hunter x Hunter is that it has been going on for a long time. The chimera ant arc concluded it's serialization in 2012. and with the hiatuses that became necessary due to Togashi's health, it meant publishing continued really slowly. this current arc of the manga- the succession war- has been going on since 2017- (arguably longer, if you count the expedition arc as a prelude which i personally kinda do), but either way we have over half a decade of real time years that have passed. and one of the things i really admire about Togashi is his ability to grow as an author- to take in feedback and improve where he needed to improve. We can see it, for instance, in his history of writing queer characters- trans characters in particular. See this great video for a further breakdown.

There’s more to be said on this topic but that’s for another day. This isn’t an “in defense of Togashi” post, he’ll be ok. It’s the female characters themselves that I must rise up and defend. I fight an endless war on an empty battlefield, population Me, and this is my life’s purpose.

What I am trying to say is this: HxH is not the same series it was in 1998. It’s not the same series as it was in 2011. And what we have seen as the series progressed, was the introduction and elevation of more and more interesting female characters. This has culminated in what very well might be my favorite arc in the series -unfinished as it is- the succession war. and, without giving away any spoilers, I just have to say……

THERE ARE SO MANY WONDERFUL WOMEN. DO YOU SEE THEM?!!? DO YOU SEE MY BEAUTIFUL WIVES?!? MY LARGE AUTOMOBILES MY-

I cannot fathom how anyone who is caught up with the manga continues to parrot this take. Why would you say that. Why would you do this to our women. There are soosososo sososoooo many fantastic female characters, old and new, and more are added literally every chapter because togashi loves it when I (me specifically) have to make more flashcards. There are female protagonists, antagonists, supporting characters, antiheroes, etc. women with all different kinds of personalities and motivations that don’t feel like a copy-pasted trope. Women who (gasp!) come in different shapes and sizes!?!? Women who don’t fit the traditional standards of beauty are just as important and just as beloved as those who do. and because I’m a crazy person I have gone around and calculated “screen time” (page time?) as well as ratios of male to female characters and folks the numbers are looking good. There was a point in time when I tried to memorize the names and faces of every single female character on the wiki (see above note on flashcards) because again, I’m a crazy person, and it just made me realize how incredible this ensemble cast is looking right now and how excited I am to see more of them. I am the succession war’s biggest glazer so yes, obviously I come with a bias; but here me when I tell you this: you want more well-written, prominently featured, multidimensional female characters in your little shonens (bad place to look, but unfortunately I am the biggest offender of this) please for god’s sake. For god’s sake read the manga.

So yeah. Sick and fucking tired of seeing people say “HxH has no women” They’re there babe!!!! They’re there!!! You wanna say some shit like that, at least put a caveat of *up until the end of the anime so that people know that information is eight years out of date. yeah watch me be petty. It just astounds me that someone could look me in the eyes and tell me that Melody, Bisky, Theta, Morena, Oito, Woble, Kacho, Fugetsu, Camilla, Machi, Pakunoda, Alluka, Komugi, Kite(yes welcome), Cheadle, Canary, and now Longhi have no importance in the narrative.

It’s true that there is always a time and a place for criticism… but why does it seem like there’s only five of us trapped in here in this room who are excited to talk about the potential for Theta x Vorksen work situationship... on the ethics of Morena's class war, or an Oito Phantom Troupe connection, or the thematic implications of the madonna being juxtaposed with the antichrist and also maybe satan. Yeah so we're trapped in this room and it's great but occasionally I'll hear shouting from the outside and it's some horrible take or the same unfunny, super gross joke, or some guy who thinks netero setting off a nuke was "peak aura" or smth. And we're still in here, beckoning, offering shelter from the storm.

All you gotta do is open the doors and start taking notes.

#I love my hxh women sm #hxh manga

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