One of the central themes of hunterxhunter is the value of experience.

In chapter 405, dogman reveals his ability is to detect the strength and type of nearby nen users. This is a fucking stupid ability.

But.

It's deeply evocative of his design and name. He's a loyal guardog to an insane murderous fascist, with no understanding or interest in understanding the abject cruelty and stupidity of his and his faction's actions.

For anyone who cares, (no one) I will be updating the infographic soon with all of the levels.

ANYWAY his abilty reflects his, like most of his compatriots, lack of understanding of nen. He doesn't understand that you can, through experience, clever thinking, and team work, identify and isolate nen users (we've seen Furykov and THE SPIDERS do it before). It does however solve the problem immidiately in front of Dogman. They need to be certain that the kidnap ability will work. In orded fo ensure this, the target must not be a nen user. This target will presumibly be one of the princes, or one of their inner circle.

I immediately think of an earlier chapter where, after Morena's group fails to kill Hinrigh, they yelled out for "Someone who can beat conjured birds" or something similar. This indicates their complete lack of understanding. They don't understand hinrigh's ability, they don't understand nen, and they don't understand the goals of nen combat.

The kidnappers ability only working on someone unaware of nen is also deeply evocative and very character revealing; his ability only works on the defenseless.

Cool chapter, fuck I love this arc so much. It has everything I love about hxh other than it's main characters.

I love hunterxhunter.

Anyway, Nobunaga has figured out the Hei-ley plans, or at least the outline of one. He assumed the other mafia families know them better and he has presumably figured this out from the "organ" refence the Hei-Ley were referring to.

The organ is someone able to heal their ability.

Halkenburg's ability is so expressive of his ideology. He will turn his enemies into allies by risking one his friends, even himself, in the hopes of avoiding unneeded death. The fact it's random, and does not instead just kill the person possessed deeply revealing his psychology.

If Benjamin gets everything he wants, the mafia families will wipe each other out along with the spiders and Hisoka, but cause enough damage he can declare martial law and use the cover of military force to execute the remaining princes.

Tsrrie is pretty much training for a one-on-one, or perhaps just to master his abilities. I would honestly say that he is the only one currently biding his time like his father before him; he's setting aside time to master magic and allow the weaker prince to pick one another off.

If I had to guess, I would say he predicted the extremist violence of Morena and knew, roughly, that Benjamin would use the threat of riots and mob violence to start martial law. I would gather that he has a specific plan for this eventuality, and until then is just waiting.

My evidence for this is that of all of princes, Tsrri and Ben hate each other the most, except ben and camilla perhaps. I seriously doubt he began this conflict, that his entire identity was built around, without a plan to kill the person he hates the most.

Prince Halkenburg possessing Balsamilco is the kind of plot event whose implications are so staggering and far beyond my understanding that I struggle to predict what happens next.

First, prince halkenburg is, in name only, out of the race. The specifics of his ability may mean that his plan is to use it again to possess Prince Benjamin, but his body, and Balsamilco's mind, are dead.

If that is his plan, and his goal is to achieve kinghood, his next steps would probably look exactly like Benjamin's, and the other princes may be unaware of the change.

Part of his (ben's) plan, longer term, is to declare martial law. This might be the tell if Halkenburg succeeds in possession. The lower princes catagorize Halkenburg as the best option for survival, meaning he has a reputation of fairness and mercy.

And when Nasubi is trying to bait him into the war, he uses the trolley problem, appealing to Halkenburg's desire for lesser suffering (I doubt that argument would have swayed Camilla or Tsrrie).

These taken together mean to me that Halkenburg's goal is to end the succession war with as few deaths as possible. This is very dissimilar to Benjamin, and will likely reveal him. This means the plan is probably to remove the top four or five princes with as few casualties as possible, ideally 1 per prince, then use his influence (as 1st prince) to leverage the lower princes into submission.

If I'm trying to call my shots, Zhang Lei goes to Kurapika for nen advice, uncovers the secret of his ability, then later discovers the nature of Halkenburg's ability through understanding his own.

Halkenburg's ability leaves him vulnerable in some ways, and exploiting this zhang lei kills him. Then the underworld storyline comes back and I have no idea where thats going. Probably ends with Zhang Lei being killed and woble, along with a few others, peacing out of the succession war.

Whose your daddy? chapter 401

One of the major themes of the Kakin Succession is family.

What first began this arc was the death of Isaac Netero who, at the behest of the very wealthy, killed himself to stop the Chimera Ants. The events of the arc proceed a long a plan Isaac had set up for his son, Beyond Netero.

Beyond is the leader of a small paramilitary group currently headed by Ging. Pariston and Ging both assessed the situation immidiately, deciding that Netero's small group would be more qualified to reach their goals than aligning with the Zodiacs, hunter association and Kakin government.

In the recent chapter, we have discovered that the Netero dynasty reaches far deeper into the Kakin empire than we thought. A bodyguard of 5th prince tubeppa reveals that she is the child of beyond, cursed from birth with the explicit goal of being used in the succession war. Further, she revealed the theory that one of the princes is a half sibling of hers.

This makes sense.

The first thing to note is that Nasubi thinks of children as political tokens of value. He sorts them by number, treats them according to this rank and dehumanizes all of them, ignoring their preferences and desires. He insults Camilla based on her rank and he manipulates Halkenburg into doing his will as two examples.

The second thing to note is that he's done this before. Zhang-lei refers to Onior Longbao as his father (who is Nasubi's half brother.) If I had to guess, I would say that Nasubi offered Onior a "re-try" in the next kakin war of succession in exchange for surrendering the one they fought in, and possible offered the same deal to Brocco-li (whose son would be Luzurus).

The third thing to not is that this is somewhat similar to Camilla's plan. Camilla's plan involves "untouchables" or their equivalent, committing suicide in front of their targets to unleash a curse upon them. This similarity of methodology is interesting. Along this same line, Tsrriednich is a nen savant while his father and mother showed no notable aptitude for it. Beyond however...

Taken together, I would assert the following:

1. Tserriednich and/or Camilla is Beyond's child/children.

2. Beyond and Nasubi worked out an agreement whereby one or more of his children will be inserted into the succession contest. This is possibly in exchange for Beyond's ability to reach the Dark Continent

3. Tubeppa might be the only prince aware of Beyond's children and her first move was to ally with Tsrriednich, then Kurapika.

Below is a list of the 14 princes with who I think their real dads are. People who are dead will have no listed dad and are assumed to be Nasubi's.

I'm trying to formulate a post about Hisoka and Hinrigh and that neither of them care who knows what their abilities are. Work in progress. The conclusion is that they are gay.

While his work on the phantom troupe is some of the most important thematic work togashi ever does, I love Hinrigh and co sleuthing out nen abilities more

If I had to guess next chapter off the cuff, I would guess Dogman ability reveal + Hinrigh death + Lover's contagion level split.

Keeping up with the scores:

Current Kill count: at least 425

“Hisoka” is Illumi

Food is gay

-

The basics of the theory is that Hisoka is currently disguised as Illumi and Illuimi is currently disguised as Hisoka.

Here a few supporting pieces of evidence:

First, Illumi’s talk with Mizaistrom on the viewing deck.

What he says and who he says it to is important.

Keep up with the scores

This is a cute lil infographic I made to show what we know about morena’s crew.

In total, these levels mean they have killed at least 183 people. The mafia reports losses of more than 300 people. This means it’s unlikely that in the remaining 13 members of the group we do not know the levels of, more than 6 are capable of producing nen.

If I missed anything, please let me know

The brutal benality of mass killing by comittee. The weak, barely present sense identity of those caught in morena's web. Their poor sense of self making for weak, short sighted hatsu. (Turning your hands into tools, really?) I could eat the current chapters. I could crumple up the paper and chew it like a dog eating napkins smeared with grease.

They fundimentally don't understand that nen typing, and hatsu if you're smart, is decided by who you are as a person before anything else. They immidiately want to recreate an ability of their group member after his death, and fail to understand why an emitter's blasts may not solve Hinrigh's ability.

The Hei Lei family view nen as a tool for death first, and a tool of self expression second. They lack the individuality and the creativity of their hunter counterparts.

TOGASHI SAYS IF YOU DO NOT VALUE YOURSELF AS AN INDIVIDUAL YOU WILL FAIL TO MATCH THOSE WHO DO. IF YOU VIEW YOUR LIFE AS DISPOSABLE OR INTERCHANGABLE, SO IT WILL BECOME.

Ahahfhauzuwb djoabxhi nakapxofheiwpbl akwgfu oajd9ehxuw kevxuqo3vfi xksvsuciehsucish dixjwyxiwbeiqpzjxuaovd (sound of me eating the paper)

Now I'm not SAYING Hisoka gave Hinrigh a blowjob in that movie theatre, what I'm saying is

WHAT I'm saying, what the larger theory is, is that the nen beasts Reveal. In line with togashi's theory on power, such a grand display of power and desire could take no other form than something deeply, nakedly revealing.

WHAT I am saying is that this metaphor shit Kicks Ass.

Benjamin's nen beast is a humaniod angel of sharp jagged features and ever beared teeth. He is agressive, militaristic and has a need for dominence. At the same time, the beast stands on his shoulders and grins. It is his ego and idealized self, as a lightweight, combat ready creature of vanity. As far as I remember, he's one of the only princes who ask what his beast looks like.

Camilla's nen beast is an abstraction, strange and surreal while overtly sexual and almost comedic. It's disconnected with reality, her alien mindset and vanity given form as as beautiful memory of an anemone.

Zhang lei's beast is a flat circle, with a crude rendition of his face at its center. The beast is wheels within wheels, with a flare like the sun, suggesting days, months and years on a crude calender, with Zhang Lei resting at the center. It's his narcisism, his scheming, and his spanning ambition, all on display.

Lets talk about penis head.

Ok: so penis head isn't technically a nen guardian beast. Technically I already talked about his nen beast, boob horse in another post. Shush.

Tsrriednich's beast is a mix flesh and fauna, virile and dessicated in turns. It's bulging muscle interpearsed with bear bones and ingraining roots. It is his fixation on death and rebirth, his sexism and reverence for the "natural" order where trash is burned. It's otherworldly wings and demented veggie head tell us his ideas of "natural" is similarly distorted.

Tubeppa's beast is a weird frog car.

Fuck if I know.

I know this old hat but the nen guardian beasts make me want to chew through steel.

The grotesque sexual imagry of King Nasubi's nen best is fascinating when contrasted with the beasts of his children. I think it says a lot about how the family views gender.

His nen beast is 60% boobs, 20% insectoid and 20% vagina. It shows his tendancy of objectify women while viewing them as a threat to his power. In addition, the hairy and insectoid arms seem to suggest a lower life form, something like a pun on spider monkey. (Given the 8 limbs)

But what is fascinating about this design is how much is shares with Camilla's nen beast.

60% boobs, 20% scales and 20% frills.

This nen beast takes a more rounded and abstract form. You could even argue it looks like some strange under sea creature, but its clearly suggested to be feminine by the features it shares with camilla; the frills mimic her dress, the scales mimic the corset of her dress and the boobs mimic (her boobs) but also her hair, as it splays out in all directions.

This tells us the two perspectives of the same view: Nasubi views women as sexual creatures in a way that rubbed off on his daughter. He views them as consuming predators using sex. Camilla's interpritation is less agressive, suggested by the smooth clean lines and lack any way to interact with the world (no hands or tendrils.) Going even further, the beast lacks a face. She almost views other women like vases or statues, something pretty but with no will of their own. The way she treats her mother supports this.

Now. I've been avoiding him like fuck, but we're going to have to talk about Tsrriednich.

He has two subconciously created nen beasts with radically different commentaries on gender.

We will call them Penis Head and Boobs Horse respectively, but today I'm only going to talk about Boobs Horse and how it relates to his shifting relationship with Theta.

Boobs Horse might be the most human of the guardians; it has a face and hands, along with humanoid legs and Boobs. It's a more blended mix than either of the previous nen beasts; about 40% horse 40% person and 20% neck.

It exists on all fours, like a horse would do, but it stands on high heels and hands of long thin fingers instead of feet. This evokes the mental image of a girl bending over with her breasts hanging down, while maintaining the animal aesthetic of a work horse or cow on all fours.

It's this synergy of animal and sexual imagry that better expresses the fourth prince's view of women: he sees them as beasts of burden you can fuck. Useful, sexually gratifying, but inheirently lower in all respects.

Inconspicious Psychopomp

The user must be dead¹.

Whenever an ally of the user kills another character², the user's soul appears to dispose of the body¹. The user may manipulate the target's corpse to walk or talk as needed². Then, as soon as this task is finished, the user's soul dissapears again³.