#Like you can tell Killua is strong from the very beginning but they don't tell you exactly HOW strong

[turbocao]

Yo I've started Hunter x Hunter (idk why) and I'm actually enjoying it quite a lot? (also idk why)

[aspoonofsugar]

Hi...how are you? If you don't mind me asking who are your favorite siblings' relationship in anime/movies/tv series? Sorry if you've answered this question before......

Hello!

Here is my list in no particular order.

1) Nina and Johan (Monster)

Their relationship is very interesting and complicated and it basically deconstructs the bond between twins and the trope of the good twin and evil twin (which is what makes it acceptable for my friend @hamliet <3<3<3).

The two twins were never treated as children and as a result they developed an extremely frail sense of self and kind of a symbiotic relationship. In particular, Johan decided to become Nina’s coping mechanism, a sort of living Jungian Shadow of her. The result is a disaster and the two siblings ended up hurting each other.

Still, their recovery goes through uncovering their shared past and the past they do not share. It is a path of self-discovery and forgiveness.

2) Zuko and Azula (ATLA)

Theirs is a tragic bond. They are two abused children who turn into two troubled teenagers. They are pitted one against the other by their abuser and in the end they are not able to overcome how their upgringing has shaped their relationship (at least in the show proper).

They are also two different answers to abuse and even if just Zuko is able to change for the better, Azula is still shown empathy.

In particular, they have opposite problems when it comes to their feelings. Zuko’s feelings explode and this is why he lacks control of his fire. Azula instead represses all her feelings to have perfect control. However, in the end it is necessary to aknowledge one’s emotions and to face them to truly reach harmony.

3) Soren and Claudia (The Dragon Prince)

In my opinion, Soren and Claudia (together with their father Viren) are the two best written characters in the series (as for now) and the main reason I got invested in it.

Soren and Claudia’s bond is one of mutual affection and trust. However, it is being challenged by the toxic influence their father has on both. They both risk to lose themselves to the flaws they very clearly inherited from Viren. Moreover, their different reactions to their father’s spiral has created a rift between them.

I love how they are both shown at their best and at their lowest points because of that same trait that, if well balanced can save them. Soren risks to lose himself to the desire to prove he is a good royal guard. Still, later on is that same desire that leads him to make the right thing. Claudia is his inversion. She is shown doing the right thing out of love, but then she spirals for that same love.

Still, I think that in the end they will be there for each other.

4) Krel and Aja (Tales of Arcadia)

Krel and Aja’s arcs are powerful and complementary. They both start thinking they are meant to be what the other will become in the end.

Krel starts as more responsible towards his role as Prince and shows disdain and discrimination towards Earthlings.

Aja initially wants to run away from her role and enjoys her normal life on Earth.

However, by the end Krel is the one who discovers himself through his relationships on Earth, while Aja finds herself a queen.

It is this paralleled and inverted structure together with the siblings’ complementarity and the strong bond they share that make them such good protagonists.

5) Hargreeves siblings (The Umbrella Academy)

They are all disasters and this is why their family is the best.

I love how after years spent avoiding each other, they still very clearly love each other and see each other as family. Despite being already adults, they are all still children when the story begins and they need to face each other to heal and truly grow.

I also like how each sibling has their own well defined personality and how each bond is different.

Luther and Diego have a rivalry.

Allison is everyone’s big sis and Luther’s love interest.

Vanya is estranged from everyone, but she develops a strong bond with Allison and is shown to get along with Five.

Five adores all his siblings, but often does not care for their individual needs.

Klaus is loved, but also underestimated by the others and he shares a special bond with Ben.

All in all, the family dynamic is very well flashed out and I think this is why the show works so well.

6) Zoldyck siiblings (HxH)

I love love love the Zoldyck Family and I love how all the other four siblings clearly foil Killua aka one of the MC. His two older brothers are who Killua must not become (an assassin like Illumi or dependent and unable to leave home like Milluki). Kalluto and Alluka are instead who Killua needs to save from the family. At the same time, Alluka, Kalluto, Milluki and Illumi all foil each other or have the potential to do so. They are all pretty different people and their dynamics are dysfunctional, but also entertaining to watch.

7) Schneeblings (RWBY)

This trio’s dynamic might be less central to their series than the other examples. Still, they are all pretty flashed out and their interactions are funny to watch.

The Schnee siblings have all reacted differently to their abusive environment. Still, they all share a warm heart behind a cold exterior. It is telling that they all work together to save Atlas and it is telling they all break free from their abusive home life also because of the others.

Winter inspires Weiss to leave and Weiss inspires Whitley to use his power for good. They make a virtuous chain of sibling love.

8) Kirishima siblings (TG)

Ayato and Touka’s backstory is one of my favourite parts of TG. It is interesting to see how they both changed in ways that turned them into their antithesis, but that are also consistent with the personalities they show as small children.

It is heartbreaking to see how close they were as children and how much they have grown apart as teenagers. Still, their bond remains strong and they still clearly love each other. Touka used to protect Ayato as a child and Ayato is trying to protect Touka now that he has grown. Still, he goes at it in the worst way possible.

SPECIAL MENTION: The Gandor brothers (Claire included) from Baccano! I just love how surreal their interactions are!

Thank you for the ask!

[aspoonofsugar]

How do you think the narrative handled Ging's character? I still can't get over the fact that he just believed Gon could overcome every challenge and survive with his friends' help. He didn't seem to care about his mental health. Seems like a bad shounen cliche. Will Togashi adress it at some point, I mean, deconstructing Ging like he did with Gon (who always got what he wanted because of his determination and optimism untill chimera ant arc) or maybe I just don't understand his character?

Hello anon! Sorry if I took a while!

So my simplest answer to your question on how the narrative handled Ging is: I think Togashi has just begun with him and so it is difficult to say how he will be used and explored in the future.

As a matter of fact the Election arc where Ging appeared for the first time is basically a short arc which serves both as a closure to the first part of the manga with Gon and Killua separating and each one ending a significant part of their arc:

And as an introduction arc to new characters like the Zodiacs who will be at the centre of future arcs. Among these characters Ging and Pariston in particular are set up as important and will probably get arcs of their own.

In short, right now trying to predict where Ging’s character will go or to give a final judgement on him would be equivalent to basically doing the same with Gon based on the first three volumes of the manga.

What’s more, I think that thoughts on Ging should be divided into two categories.

a) Thoughts on him as a central part of Gon’s arc since he has been Gon’s main motivation up until they met.

b) Thoughts on him as a character with his own arc and personal involvement into the main plot.

So I’ll try to give you some thoughts on him by foiling him with two other characters: Silva Zoldyck and Gon himself. In particular the first will help me analyze him as Gon’s father, while comparing him to Gon will help me trying to define him better as his own character.

1) Silva and Ging

Silva and Ging are the fathers of our two main characters and Gon and Killua foil each other in how they relate to their families.

Gon wants to become a hunter like his father, while Killua doesn’t want to become an assassin like his. These opposite attitudes are due to the different treatment they received from their parent:

Gon and Killua’s problems with their fathers are opposite.

Gon has been left behind.

Killua has been controlled.

These opposite style of parenting are at the root of Gon and Killua’s opposite flaws.

Because of Silva (and Illumi)’s teachings KIllua is prone to give up too easily, to be too prudent and to lack willingness:

On the other hand because of Ging’s challenge Gon feels motivated to put himself into dangerous situations:

He also feels pressured in proving himself as his fight with Razor shows:

What’s interesting is that both fathers seem to have realized at one point that the traits they have tried to make Gon and Killua develop have become too preponderant and have ended up damaging the two children too much.

This is what Milluki and Zeno say about Killua:

Let’s leave Milluki’s comment about Killua having friends out and let’s concentrate on the fact that he implies that Killua is mentally weak to which Zeno agrees with. This description is coherent with Killua’s tendency to be unable to handle psychological pressure and to run away:

However, he developed this tendency because he has been taught so as Silva’s speech above and Illumi’s needle demonstrate.

On the other hand let’s look at what Gon tells Ging during his breakdown when he meets his father for the first time:

Here Gon is expressing all his guilt over what happened to Kite. He considers himself the one responsible for Kite’s metamorphosis because he has internalized that he has to be strong and he did so because Ging put in front of him a series of challenges (the hunter exam, Greed Island and so on) which demanded it from Gon. The message Ging delivered to Gon wasn’t to be happy and to have fun, but to be strong and that he had to earn the right to meet Ging. This led Gon to basically develop an irrealistic vision of what he should be able to do.

Ging seems to have realized it to an extent and tells Gon this:

In this speech Ging stresses how what happened to Kite wasn’t Gon’s fault, but at the same time he still gives a lot of importance to one’s personal strength and invites Gon to become stronger once again. As you noticed this is a shonen cliche and it is the shonen cliche which was partly deconstructed in the Chimera Ant Arc: the idea that being strong matters.

Ging’s interest in Gon’s strength is once again hinted here:

He accepted to meet Gon, but he still set up a trial for him before their meeting. This trial is very minor considering Gon’s abilities and everything he has been through, but it’s still there.

That said, we should also consider that Ging was the one who told Gon this:

Basically he told Gon to stop and to try to figure out for himself what he wants from his life. This is not a bad advice and is probably what Gon needs to do now. Ging even underlines how Gon not being able to use nen is actually not too much of a high price to pay considering he got to basically come back to life. This is a different approach from the one he had shown up until that moment which emphasized the necessity for Gon to be strong.

So, do I think Ging has suddenly become a better parent after seeing how much Gon suffered because of his irrational challenges?

Not at all. His flaws at parenting are probably still there and his foiling with Silva helps us shading light on them:

As a matter of fact Silva too, like Ging, showed a strange change in his behaviour as a parent when he let Killua leave home. He told Killua he was free to do as he wanted and he even made him promise not to betray his friends. This is strange considering the fact that both Milluki and Illumi have commented multiple times that friends are unimportant. Why did Silva do it then?

He explains it immediately later: Silva let Killua go because he thinks this is the best way to nurture him as the next heir of the family. My personal theory is that he realized Killua’s tendency to run away and to change his mind continuously may go in the way of him inheriting the family business. It’s true the heir should give his life to the family, but it’s also true he can’t be completely subdued to one of his siblings like the Hunter Exam proved Killua to be to Illumi. In short, I think Silva’s intentions are to have Killua man up and to develop his personality more by using the friendships Killua forged as motivators. So we have a parenting choice that might make sense and might also have positive consequences (as we have seen it had for Killua’s development), but it is a choice which absolutely doesn’t change the fact that Silva is a horrible father:

Just after Silva’s heartwarming chat with Killua we are given evidence that he still considers Killua as an extension of himself. Let’s underline the fact that Ging says the same line here:

So, it makes sense to assume that, if Silva considers Killua an extension of himself, so does Ging with Gon. It’s just that in Silva’s case we know what he wants from Killua (him inheriting the family business), while in Ging’s case it’s possible he doesn’t want anything in particular from Gon if not thrill and entertainment:

Ging said so himself multiple times: he doesn’t care about the result, but he wants an enjoyable journey. It’s probable he left behind a series of hints Gon was free to follow or not. If he had followed them (as he did), Ging would have had fun trying to foresee his development, if he hadn’t… then never mind:

In short while Silva needs Killua to follow a specific path, Ging doesn’t care what Gon does. They are two extremes and they are both bad.

That said, in the interactions he had with Gon Ging was decent and gave him useful advice, but at the same time you can see how in his speeches there is still a lot of focus on strength and on one’s worth based on one’s talents. He is also never the one to start an interaction with Gon. Gon is always the one running after him or calling him.

Another point of comparison between Ging and Silva is their behaviour during the Election Arc. As a matter of fact both haven’t had an active role in trying to influence their children’s fates in that arc, but both have been hinted to actually know more than what they let on and to have observed their children pretty closely.

At first sight it may seem that Killua’s main enemy in his family is Illumi and Illumi is the character he has always clashed with since the beginning. However, this arc makes clear that, despite not having acted in any particular way, Silva is always there observing his children and monitoring them:

Killua assumes that his father simply wants to monitor Alluka and to find a way to control her, while Illumi wants to kill her. However, his phone call with Illumi shows how Illumi’s own plan to kill Alluka could come to be only because Silva set the terrain for it by declaring Alluka not a part of the family. If Silva had made clear that, despite being despicable, Alluka was to be considered a family member Illumi would have probably given up the idea of killing her. This is a minor detail, but it may suggest that Silva will be a more proactive antagonist in the future.

On the other hand Ging, despite showing absolutely no intention to act to save Gon, is implied to have known since the beginning how things would have turned out:

Pariston says as much. He realized Ging was sure Gon would have been saved and based his whole strategy to win the election on this assumption. At the same time I don’t believe Ging was sure Gon would have been saved because of a generic power of friendship trope. I actually believe Ging knew something about the Zoldycks and Nanika:

As a matter of fact when Ging feels Nanika’s aura he is implied to know that in that moment Gon is being restored. After all it’s by observing his reaction that Pariston becomes convinced of this as well. Considering Ging has been preparing for an expediction to the Dark Continent for some time now, I wouldn’t be surprised if he managed to discover about Nanika and the Zoldycks. Then, after knowing that Gon’s best friend happened to be Killua Zoldyck, it wouldn’t have been difficult for Ging to do the math and to deduce how things would have turned out in the end. Mind it, Ging’s assumption was probably nothing more than a bet. He treated Gon’s life as the election. He was sure that Gon would have been saved in the end, but he was also sure things would have developed in a certain way during the election and he was proven wrong when Pariston gave up his position immediately after winning.

So both Silva and Ging are flawed fathers. Yet, it’s true that the framing around them is different. When Silva speaks of Killua as his son he is framed as a villain, while when Ging says the same thing abt Gon he is filtered positively thanks to Razor’s flashback. So how should we read this difference? It’s too soon to say, but as you noticed in your ask Gon’s arc has been one which has been strongly deconstructed. Killua’s on the other hand has been clearer since the beginning. Killua’s flaw has been presented as a flaw pretty openly since the hunter exam, while Gon’s has been treated as a merit in the beginning and has been deconstructed later on. It has been made clear since the beginning that Killua’s family was a terrible one and that his arc was about breaking free from them. Gon’s journey to find his father on the other hand has been framed positively by the narrative and has been deconstructed partly later on with Gon finding Ging in the least climatic way possible and with Gon realizing he doesn’t even care that much about staying with Ging in the first place.

So I wouldn’t be surprised if by the end we were to discover that both Killua and Gon’s final trials will be to overcome their respective fathers, but in different ways. I can easily see Silva having a more traditional villainous role in Killua’s arc, while I don’t think Ging has been set up to be an antagonist. However, I think Gon has been set up to realize he doesn’t really need any particular relationship with his father to feel validated.

Let’s consider Jairo’s character for a moment:

It’s been foreshadowed he and Gon will meet each other which means that they will probably be foils.

The turning point of Jairo’s background story was to realize that his father didn’t care about him:

This realization together with the neglect and the mistreatment he endured day after day is what led him to start his criminal career. It’s possible Gon too will have to accept Ging doesn’t really care about him. However, I am expecting that by then Gon will have developed enough to realize he doesn’t really need Ging because he has his own support system made of people he met along the way:

2) Gon and Ging

Ging has been set up to be one of the main characters in the current arc and he has been given a goal:

But this is the same goal Gon had in the beginning i.e. finding a long lost relative who is exploring the vast world:

Gon faced his journey with the help of a trusted friend:

Ging is about to start his with a trusted enemy:

The Chimera Ant Arc deconstructed the steretype of the World Strongest Man through Netero who wasn’t able to win in a contest of strength against Meruem:

In this arc we have Beyond who is supposed to embody a different kind of hunter from the one his father was. Netero was a warrior. Beyond is a bold explorer:

All these elements may not lead anywhere, but they may also be hints that this time the story will partially target the figure of the explorer aka of the man ready to leave all connections behind in order to discover the world. If the story intends to do so then I wouldn’t be surprised if Ging and Beyond as representatives of this category will end up deconstructed later on. However, right now we are lacking elements. Like, is Ging’s wish to find Don reflective of his Man-Child tendencies (which he clearly has since he is sure he will never change aka never grow)?

We will hopefully get an answer soon, but for now these are the most coherent and objective thoughts I can give you about Ging’s character. He is foiled with Silva, but he is also framed far more positively than him. He has also been set up to be a protagonist and the setting up of his arc reminds me of Gon’s. I am pretty sure an important part of Gon’s arc will be to overcome his father’s shadow. I am not sure for now that being Gon’s father will be a central part of Ging’s arc or at least of a first part of it.

Thank you for the ask and I hope I was of some help!