#i haven't had a proper HxH Thought in about 6 months

[thehuntyhunties]

oh wait so like. so what it is in the ant arc is that Gon becomes so overwhelmed by his fear of losing someone he cares about that the entire fundamental concept of the archetypal Shounen Battle Friendship breaks down, i.e. he stops implicitly trusting that Killua's strength and abilities will always overcome any obstacle and he stops assuming that Killua/the two of them will always win.

Because like. It is Not that he doesn't believe that Killua is strong and skilled and capable of all sorts of incredible things. It's that Plot Armor isn't actually carrying them anymore, it never truly was, and now the situation they're in has finally outpaced their abilities and they've Lost in a profound and terrible way that they have never Lost before, and now he knows that no matter how strong you are nothing is truly safe

like i,, i feel like all of this is, obvious, to be clear,,, but, it is. it's. the complete erosion of the genre tropes to underscore the terrible reality of the situation. it is, hitting me,