LogFAQs > #904898675

Episodes 116-120

Recap: Gon confronts Pitou and agrees to give her one hour to work on Komugi. Knuckle has a chance to escape Youpi, who is disinterested in their fight - but pride brings him back in. He's saved from death multiple times by Morel and Killua (who's aided by Melereon). Morel, baffled by the cocoon, strikes it down and dissipates Smoke Jail, freeing Pouf - who eventually makes his way to Pitou and Gon. Ikalgo does not find Palm and instead gets entangled with Brovada, whom he finds himself unwilling to kill.

My calls are fucking answered. Five action-packed, high-stakes episodes full of riveting character decisions and fist-pump moments.

The Animal Within

Gon features in only one of these episodes, but it's a firecracker and undoubtedly the most emotionally draining of them. The animalistic side of Gon is out in full force. With Kite deposed, the moral question of "How will Gon handle a chimerant with morals" vs "How much does Gon despise it when evil people take care of their own" has been clearly answered - in this case, the latter triumphs massively.

It's particularly telling that even Killua, an assassin not known for sympathizing with the enemy, is less eager to kill Pitou. And while he decides at first not to tell Gon that Pitou is healing Komogi, his every effort to let Gon do his violent thing is subverted when Pitou herself prostrates herself and even breaks her left arm. And he shrugs it off when Gon lashes out at him, claiming that he doesn't care, because dude is a bro.

(An example of the narrator redunancy here - narrator says "Meanwhile, Killua had noticed something strange" and Killua's internal monologue immediately says "Why isn't the enemy preparing for battle when we're right here?" I'll leave it at that. There are acceptable uses of a narrator, but that is not one.)

This fucking show, man - we've had two arcs end in non-violent anticlimax already in the Hunter Exam and the Phantom Troupe. You can see lots of parallels to the Phantom Troupe arc here - a highly charismatic leader whose people are utterly devoted to him has been separated. Notably absent from the screen as the action heats up are Netero and the King himself - with the King's humanity shown, I could actually conceive of a non-violent ending here (though I would certainly not bet on it).

More immediately, is it possible that Gon himself will be denied the opportunity to take bloody revenge? He's smashing the floor with an aura he's never put forth before; he's literally baring fangs with trembling jowls; his eyes are blank with rage. And now he has to sit and wait for a possibly non-violent end to his journey. Power reversals - Pitou has always held the power of being more dangerous in combat by orders of magnitude. Gon has always held the power of an unexpected strike. And at the climax, Gon is suddenly in command power-wise, while Pitou is calling the shots on when the battle is to occur. Fuckin' love it.

Some Things Are More Important Than the World

There's something that feels strange - delectable, but strange - about a plan working this well. Pouf was isolated in Morel's Smoky Jail, Pitou is literally incapable of moving or fighting, and Youpi has no idea where his King is, thinking that he is in Smoky Jail and mostly directionless. Knuckle has been escaping by the skin of his teeth but has been mostly unable to do anything. But the plan is working.

And that's why we feel dread when the narrator says that Knuckle has made mistakes. We're afraid that for some reason, Shoot has been compromised during the time when Youpi walked back, that perhaps strategically, something has been lost.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness