I Think There’s A Consensus That Most Of The Adults In The CAA Failed Gon And Killua Miserably (mainly

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.