(Art Response, Pls, If You Have Time. 🙏🏻)

i have made the executive decision to start listening to ghost.

Do you think Killua and Gon's love languages are compatible and how so?

Heya!

huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh depends what you mean by that?

Gon’s way to reach out, to remind Killua how much he likes being with him, the declarations out of the blue, those are all compatible for Killua - everytime Gon had been vocal out of the blue about his affections for Killua, we saw direct physical reaction from him showing he was touched. So I think that works out.

On the other hand, Gon is rather perseptive, while he can’t realizes everything and is still oblivious at time, he has a strong understanding of some situation which allow him to get past some of Killua’s barrers and therefore, can make up for the amount of time Killua does not talk about his feelings. So Gon can look past how Killua closes himself about his feelings, and can still identify the actions Killua takes that are completely genuine. It can help with Killua’s language barrers a lot.

It works, but on the long term, they need to instore more communications. While so far they managed to get a lot through those, a lot of the unsaid is what brought the mutual breakdowns from the CA arc. Because sometimes Killua is too quiet for Gon to pick up what to cheer him up from, (The needle, the Bisky dilema, and Killua almost dying were all stuff Killua kept hiden from Gon and that Gon could never pick up on his own, no matter how perseptive he can be) or Gon will try cheering Killua up before the actual issue (Spending his time as he woke up from the Kite’s attack to reassure Killua only then to be in denial, which had Killua feel unable to tell Gon the truth by fear he may end up blaming him - and the fact when Gon legit killed himself he spent his last minutes reassuring Killua.).

The thing is that both knows that the other have a huge affection for them. On the most part, some of it works. But the CA arc also showed that, pushed to some extreme, those two behaviors wouldn’t be as compatible as they could have been in the Greed Island Arc. The GI arc showed us a lot of this Unsaid Understanding between those two, of Gon reading the situation despite Killua’s quietness over his feelings, and Gon acknowledging Killua’s action. This is the exact thing we can see as a parallel in the CA arc while, while pushed to personal extreme, those doesn’t work anymore.

I don’t think it’s a question of love language. It’s a little more complicated than that, and it enters a lot of conditional situations for it to work. The GI arc was proof that yes, their love languages were compatible, but the CA arc, with both pushed to those extreme, proved als that it wasn’t. Because they were at different personal mental state where it wasn’t working as well as before. 

Again, i’ll repeat it over and over again, but they are in desperate need of communication. It may have worked in the begining with their unsaid understanding, but on the long term…. They need to talk more, to be honest. Killua needs to talk about what he feels, Gon needs to stop putting reassuring Killua over the things they should be talking about.

So y e. Idk i don’t think it’s a love language thing, and it’s not that easy to narrow down because Gon and Killua changed a lot during the course of the series and the events that happened to them challenged their habits and their ways to react to it. IT’s not that easy, it can’t be that easily narrowed down imo.

Take care!

so silly

something i was thinking about

If someone were to ask me what I could binge hours upon hours of, clearly, I’d say Hunter X Hunter. It could be either the 2011, 1999, or even the manga, but I can say that I most definitely can watch hours worth of people analyzing the characters and the impact their backgrounds and walks of life play on their emotional, physical, and mental states.

Through those videos, I can understand the characters better and understand how they got there, with those specific motives and drives for what they do on a more in-depth level.

Another thing that I get from the videos is understanding not only the true impacts certain ways of life, habits, trauma, and issues have on the psyche of the characters and those around them, but it also helps me to understand the show waaaaaayyyy better.

Little side note, I notice that it also seeps into my life. The impact this show had on me didn’t entirely occur to me until I binged people analyzing the world and characters. I, for once, truly learned something that has stuck with me for longer than most other things have.

do y'all think that maybe killua loved illumi at all?

i wanna think that before the training started, maybe he did, probably thought he looked kinda weird but still loved him even tho he looked creepy

I think there’s a consensus that most of the adults in the CAA failed Gon and Killua miserably (mainly by treating them like adults and not traumatized children). But if a responsible adult HAD shown up, and told them Kite’s death wasn’t their fault and they shouldn’t be involved in the operation, would they have even listened? Neither takes kindly to being “treated like a kid”.

Anon, I love you! 

Yes, I completely agree this is the issue in CAA.  Here’s some panels for the folks following along at home: 

SO, I’ve been saying for a while that one thing Kite does, that Gon and Killua’s previous mentors did *not* do, is treat both Gon and Killua as professional - adult - hunters. 

I believe Kite does this because - unlike Wing and Bisky - he isn’t used to working with kids.... Wing is also training Zushi, who’s even younger than Killua and Gon, when they meet.  And this isn’t Bisky’s first go-round training child protegies in nen, either.

On the other hand, Kite works with a crew of adults, he treats Gon and Killua the same way he treats anyone else on the crew:  

Look at Gon and Killua’s faces in the last panel... they freaking LOVE Kite telling his crew, of adults, that they have a lot to learn from them haha.

Also, there’s actually a bit of time between when Gon and Killua reconnect with Kite, and when they go to NGL to investigate the Chimera Ants....if you only watched the anime you might not realize this, but in the manga, Gon and Killua work with Kite’s crew for a month before the Chimera Ant Queen washes up on shore in NGL. 

And that whole time, they aren’t just two well-respected members of the team, but like... two of the BEST two members of the team???  Kite’s assessment of their abilities is not based on nothing, it’s based on his observation of them and their abilities. 

Here’s what Kite’s crew think about Gon and Killua’s abilities:

Here’s what Kite thinks:

SO, when Gon and Killua choose to follow Kite into the NGL battefield, it’s actually against this background of working as professional hunters for the first time, and being respected for it!

Gon is earning the respect of Kite, the hunter he respects the MOST because of his connection to Ging, and because he saved Gon’s life as a kid.  We all know how much Gon hates feeling weak, right?  When Kite rescued him as a kid he was weak, but he got stronger, passed the Hunter exam, did a bunch of stuff and now he’s on equal footing with Kite, in the sense that they are both Pro Hunters. 

And Killua is also earning respect as a Pro Hunter, not an assassin... it’s only because Gon and Bisky encouraged him that he left Greed Island to take the Hunter exam, but it seems at this point in the story that he’s fully resolved to stop working as an assassin, and work as a Pro Hunter with Gon instead. 

So getting back to the question of whether Gon and Killua would have gone home, if the adults in charge had told them to... I mean, that’s what Kite, Netero, Morel and Knov ALL told them to do.

It’s in chapter 196, if you’re curious. 

Kite was wrong, he underestimated the enemy. He admits as much to Gon, when Gon comes to apologize to him (chapter 338 “repentance”).  He could have been a lot more firm about excluding Gon and Killua. 

Netero, Knov and Morel were also wrong, they also underestimated the enemy (and Killua).   For example, when they heard that Killua had knocked Gon out and retreated from Pitou, they told him it was a cowardly thing to do, and a real Hunter would believe in his ability to win even against a stronger foe (something Bisky also says to Kilua). 

And that assessment is something Killua takes to heart, because it’s something he’s struggled with since the beginning of the manga, when Netero told him Gon had more potential as a Hunter.  (Also when he failed the exam on purpose and went home, and also when he struggled in Yorknew with his desire to prove Illumi was wrong about him by sacrificing himself for Gon.)

(And also, you know... when he pulled the needle out!)

I think we’re supposed to believe it to an extent, BTW, that this kind of blindly optimistic attitude - Gon’s shounen protagonist(TM) attitude that everything will work out if you just give it your all - is somewhat correct.  That there’s some truth to the idea that being willing to risk your life to win is how you win.  Bisuke says as much to Killua, and Bisuke is usually right... Like they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.  It’s the highest-risk situations that also have the highest rewards.

But we’re also supposed to see the limits to this kind of blind optimism.  Gon is optimistic that he can defeat Pitou and save Kite (or he’s in denial that he can’t), and look what happened with that, right?  Sometimes the enemy really is too strong.

SO I see I number of things going on here: One, the fact that the adults are treating Gon and Killua like professionals (or at least not being discouraging enough); and Two, that the adults are failable, in the end.  They don’t realize the true extent of the threat, they overestimate themselves and underestimate the enemy.  

That’s Kilua’s assessment, by the way.

As for Knov, Morel and Netero:

(Netero asks, was it such a powerful adversary?  And Killua explains about Pitou’s aura.  At which point:) 

Only Netero takes Killua assessment of Pitou’s strength - “You guys are powerful, too... and still I don’t think you could defeat him” - even a little bit seriously.   But then, Netero is also the only one, of the three of them, who knows exactly who Killua is and what he is capable of. 

Knov, and Morel and Netero in the end get their comeuppance, when they experience firsthand exactly how strong the enemy is (Knov especially).  All three characters come up against the limits of their abilities, where they’re just outmatched in terms of strength, even as powerful pro hunters.   Netero and Morel fight through it, Knov retreats to a support role.  But definitely they are all humbled. 

People can be wrong,  you know?   All of these characters were wrong about how strong the Chimera Ants would be...    

If you want my opinion, HxH Chimera Ant Arc is a Deconstruction, it shows the limits to the Weekly Shonen Jump core values of Friendship, Hard Work, Victory. Sometimes the enemy is just too strong. 

And it’s also a Tragedy.  The thing that defines tragedy, as a genre, is that it is the inevitable result of a specific character flaw of the protagonist... which in this case is Gon’s willingness to sacrifice his own life, because he doesn’t value his life enough compared to others’ lives.  And it’s also Killua’s flaw of following what Gon wants to do, and not voicing his objections because he fears they would damage the relationship.  Because both of them are protagonists, it’s a double tragedy...

Here’s what Hegel says about Tragedy, as a genre, btw:

His later lectures formulate such a theory of tragedy as a conflict of ethical forces, represented by characters...

The heroes of ancient classical tragedy encounter situations in which, if they firmly decide in favor of the one ethical pathos that alone suits their finished character, they must necessarily come into conflict with the equally justified ethical power that confronts them.

Modern characters, on the other hand, stand in a wealth of more accidental circumstances, within which one could act this way or that, so that the conflict is, though occasioned by external preconditions, still essentially grounded in the character. The new individuals, in their passions, obey their own nature... simply because they are what they are.

Hegel's comments on a particular play may better elucidate his theory: "Viewed externally, Hamlet's death may be seen to have been brought about accidentally... but in Hamlet's soul, we understand that death has lurked from the beginning: the sandbank of finitude cannot suffice his sorrow and tenderness, such grief and nausea at all conditions of life... we feel he is a man whom inner disgust has almost consumed well before death comes upon him from outside."[71]  

Anyway.  The Chimera Ant Arc is a Tragedy.  Possibly it could have happened differently, but at the same time, exactly because the characters are the people they are, and “individual personality... must manifest self-destructive passions because only such passions are strong enough to defend the individual from a hostile and capricious external world” (Hegal again), there was no other outcome that could have occurred.

theres a lot of things that scare me in this world, but i'd like to think that as of late, i've been working twards a better life, a slightly better me, slowly but surely.

I have a orange cat plushie that's named Kitty Soft Paws(after Kitty from the old Puss in Boots movie ofc) tho i just call her Kitty.

I've had her for years, and at first she was all brand new but now, her legs have no stuffing, the beanie toe pads have fallen out, her fur is completely matted, her scent pack is on its final stretch of smell after all these years, but shes still Kitty👍 (despite the fact shes literally falling apart, shes still the stuffed animal i love and will continue to cuddle with :DD)

just made a tumblr- i guess