Oh no, it’s Terminal Anime Disease! He’s got only a few hours to live!
Well, it didn’t take Hunter x Hunter all that long to hint at the sort of shenanigans I thought would appear eventually, and then all but confirm what is happening without outright stating it. Even a dope like me could see where everything is going when Youpi conspicuously coughs and then has blood drip out of his nose not that long after. (Will say, though, that the first instance of blood drippage is at least decently subtle since one could plausibly think, “Well, Youpi is just super crazy/angry right now and that’s why the blood is flowing!”) When blood flowed from Meruem’s nose, that’s when the, “OK, they’re definitely sick somehow” thought hit me. From there, it’s not all that difficult to connect it with the bomb: That’s the only thing that has truly disrupted the Chimera Ants and involved the King, Youpi and Pouf was that bomb.
That Netero is a wily rascal, ain’t he? He went all out on the preparation of this plot. If I’m remembering correctly, he had that bomb implanted before the mission even began, so he was always open to the possibility that someone would be stronger than him and that he’d need to kill it no matter what. Netero was prideful enough to goad Meruem into battle to test his own strength at max power, but he also wouldn’t let his pride be humanity’s undoing. Safeguards upon safeguards: first, a bomb to blow everything to hell, and in case that isn’t enough, then everything is poisoned just to get that extra bit of death going. Pouf and Youpi will be a bit too dead to appreciate the irony that their concern for the King ended up killing them both.
As for the quality of shenanigans? It feels sort of cheap, but overall it’s plausible enough for me to buy without getting NERD OUTRAGED. Considering the alternative — Gon or whoever gets some permanent bullshit power-up that enables them to defeat the King — I’ll take this 100 times out of 100. It fits much better with the themes and tone of the Chimera Ant arc, as well. Humanity isn’t victorious by rising to the occasion and establishing dominance over evil monsters. It wins by being sneaky, cruel and acting out of a sense of vengeance. Ugly feelings propel the way to survival. The Chimera Ants aren’t entirely innocent, themselves, of course. There ain’t nothin’ good about this scenario. That said, I’m the last person who’s get on Palm and Ikalgo’s case for this. Shit’s fucked up, but honor doesn’t mean much if you’re dead. They’re doing what they can to stay alive when face-to-face with someone who can kill them by blinking.
Sure, anyone would like to be a nice person and not use Komugi for the purposes of saving their own skins, but from where I stand, Palm and Ikalgo don’t have much of a choice, given their options. At least they’re trying to keep her safe.
At least this episode has one heartwarming moment when it’s revealed that Ikalgo and Welfin used to be bros. (Albeit, bros who worked for someone who operated an entire country as a drug running operation.) Part of the genius of this whole “humans can be reborn as Chimera Ants” thing is that it can lead to ironic moments like this where people who fought each other later find out they had once been best friends or whatever. A classic scenario with a weird twist. That’s Hunter x Hunter in a nutshell, yeah?
I also want to say how interesting I find it that a character who is so key to many others — Gyro — has existed mostly in flashbacks and the thoughts of others. I expected him to pop up in a Chimera Ant body at some point, but nope. It’s neat that such a background characters has evolved into a myth of sorts. He was the leader of this crazy nation at one time, and now he’s gone. Vanished. But he still might be alive! It’s also interesting that, again, the mythical figure of this arc literally ran a country whose existence hid a major drug operation. Heroes are the best!
The Cart Driver 
Radiation’s a bitch.
Okay… fair enough… Radiation poisoning would a pretty damn logical conclusion.
It always comes back to radiation.
“If I’m remembering correctly, he had that bomb implanted before the mission even began”
I think the bomb was specifically implanted for the palace invasion. It would have been extremely risky though if he had carried the bomb all the time. Imagine if one day he suddenly died from heart attack in the Hunter HQ…
That’s a good point. He stayed far enough away from the front lines until the invasion that I can buy that.
A little bit disappointed but certainly not in a “drop” way… I made a joke in one of these comments a few episodes ago about HxH morphing into a cold war strategy drama. And during the last few episodes I was thinking that we might have some seriously significant twist via the ants creating a multi-polar world where we have ants and humans at an uncomfortable stand-off due mainly to the King conceding something to humanity via his crush on his Elite Game Theory Girlfriend (allowing at the same time some interesting word building).
But no… Now, I fear a neat tying up of all loose ends. The type of ending that I was rather happy that HxH avoided. Still… I am not a manga reader, and they keep saying it gets better, so I guess we’ll see.
No Gungi No Life, uh?
But really, I don’t think you’re completely off. I mean, the King and his immediate denizens may be doomed, but Chimera Ants are much more than that. As a species, they’re here to stay. They’ve just been cut down a size or two for good measure.
Well, I don’t see this as a “happy” ending, per se. Humanity went to some fucked up places to survive, and even though the likeliest outcome is Meruem enslaving humanity or whatever, you never know what might have come from working with the Ants. This definitely isn’t an easy heroic ending to me.
in episode 79… welfin was this guy as referred to by the guy with thick eyebrows who we can assume is Ikalgo
Oh, holy shit!
Crazy!
I feel terribly bad for komugi she is a innocent victim I know she has been used by palm inorder to stay alive but seriously ever since the invasion started she was impaled by in the stomach (zeno), threated to be killed by a 14 year old boy (Gon), knocked out ( Killua), “kidnapped”& placed in a casket/box(Palm & ikalgo). Imagine if she wakes up she might think that she was buried alive. whats even more sad is that palm knows that meruem wants to meet her but she decides to let the king die first that is messed up even ikalgo lowered his head. but I guess they have to do dirty deeds inorder to survive. rip youpi btw he died like a dog.
Ah I wanted to make a joke about the nose bleed being caused by some weird for chimera ant fanservice we humans don’t notice, but as I see from your tags you did think about the usual nose bleed cause.
I see all and know all. Except when I don’t.
Pouf in the 1st screen-shot: “I am so fucked up”
I laughed.
I always thought Gyro was actually Meleoron, though.
It makes far too much sense.
And him being there all along, but with no one noticing it would also kinda makes sense, actually.
I doubt it. Gyro was said to be extremely evil because nobody loved him. Meleoron had Peggy as his caretaker when they were human. Meleoron is too good of a person.
Awww yeah nukes and their radiation poisoning. GOOD THING ANTS KNOW NOTHING OF TECHNOLOGY.
also I always thought meruem was gyro…
I always thought Pouf was Gyro since Pouf is evil enough to pull it off.
They skipped a scene. Gyro left the Queens Service shortly before . Meruem was born.
It’s me, I’m Gyro.
Certainly, this is the only way to end this. And letting nerds rage all they want.
Nerd rage is the fuel that keeps the Internet going.
Also it appears this Image is our sendoff to the Royal Guard.
D’awwwww.
“Jun Maeda presents: Hunter x Hunter”
Clearly, Scamp would hate this arc!
Scamp hates everything wonderful because he is a big, grumpy jerk.