#half of this post was just me hating on silva and i'm totally fine with that

[rebellionmoon]

Illumi Zoldyck, The One True Heir

I'm feeling better enough that the illumi brain rot is settling back in (as it should) so therefore i'm going to talk about my personal head canon about the one true heir of the Zoldyck Family.

Let's begin!

Illumi may not be the current heir to the Zoldyck Family, but in his eyes he is the one true heir. We all know how he vies for that role, to control killua, control the heir, and therefore be the one singlehandedly in charge. Which is the exact same thing Silva wants, but pretends to be the cool dad and yet has zero qualms with his children abusing, using, and hating on each other! In his life, Illumi was definitely molded like Killua to be the future head of the family and probably each Zoldyck child was molded, in some way, to become the head of the family if the situation ever called for them to take up the mantle. But I think Illumi isn't the heir is because Silva doesn't trust him and can't control him. And he's a little more evil than what's expected of an assassin (love him for that honestly. Silva must accept the monster he created. Silva must deal with the consequences of his own actions.)

That and the relationship between Silva and Illumi is probably very botched. Like I said above, Silva doesn't trust Illumi but trust goes both ways because neither does Illumi trust Silva. Silva was a terrible dad and whatever mistakes he made with Illumi he tried to fix with the later kids, Killua specifically. No doubt Illumi knows it but tolerates Silva anyway for his own and everyone else's sake. My headcanon is that when one enters the room the other leaves just to keep peace in their own home, if the situation allows. If they're working together on a mission, they're profesisonal enough to cooperate, but if not, then nope.

Another factor, I think, is the honor or code of being an assassin has eroded through the generations. For example, in the chimera ant arc, Zeno stated that he never kills bystanders on the job and briefly lamented about that when he thought he killed Komugi. Where as the current generation as no problem killing bystanders. Illumi doesn't care and will use bystanders. Milluki doesn't care, collateral damage know? Kalluto doesn't care (his weakness may be to enjoy torturing his victims). Even though Killua doesn't want to be an assassin, he is decensitized to death and doesn't care when he does slice and dice a person up, like on the blimp in the hunter exam arc) Who can we blame for this? The person who taught them and stood silently by to let these 'bad' habits sink in and become permanent. SILVA.

I can see Silva accepting the unnecessary death toll his children rack up. Possibly even rationalizing it. Even Silva himself will kill a bystander if it is necessary, though not to the extreme as his children. Headcanon: To fulfill the end goal of their missions, he'll let needle men and explosions slide. Silva might even be lenient with Kalluto's affinity towards torture, since he himself collects knives from serial killers. Another headcanon I have is that Silva took a morbid interest in serial killers (totally different from professional assassins), their methods and truthfully sees more of himself (at least the younger him from years past) in Kalluto rather than Killua.

The bridge between Silva and Illumi has been burned, but they're still standing at the edge and shouting at eachother from both sides. Toxic be as toxic does.