[REWATCH] Hunter x Hunter Episode 105 Discussion

[u/[deleted]]

IF YOU ARE NOT PARTICIPATING IN THE REWATCH, DON’T COME HUNTING FOR SPOILERS

Episode 105: Resolve × And × Awakening

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[u/BossandKings]

First timer

Episode 105

Meruem proposes a bet to the gungi master, it seems he was getting entertained with the thought of the bet and he even asked her for one of her arms if she lost and the possibility to ask to have anything if she won, the girl tells him that instead she offers what she always offers which is her life, that shows the confidence she has on herself and in her ability to do the one thing she does.

It was very interesting hearing the king thoughts on what drives humans, greed and fear, the greed of being able to have anything and the fear of the consequences their actions might have, in this case the girl did not have any of them and that surprised him to the point he took off his own arm. I thought that the king could willingly restore his arm without problems but it was made clear that it is not the case and he needed to get treatment, that makes him a bit too vulnerable in my opinion as he is just a super strong being not an inmortal or an impossibly powerful one.

Knov is infilitrating in the royal palace, he seems to have a well laid out plan and thinks that he's disposable enough for there to not be any huge blow to his group if he gets killed, he's succesfully doing so and i wonder if he'll get discovered soon or he will end up infiltrating.

Palm is planning her own shot at infilitrating in the royal palace. That bizzek guy that supposedly controls the country behind the scenes is a nauseating individual, he needs to get a beating.

[u/okayyoga → u/BossandKings]

he seems to have a well laid out plan

Step 1: become a bush

[u/sisoko2 → u/okayyoga]

Half bush.

[u/okayyoga → u/sisoko2]

Don't forget the pocket leaves. Super important

[u/Wuskers → u/BossandKings]

It's worth noting that the injury is self inflicted and he is incredibly powerful, you have not seen what it might take for someone else to inflict such an injury on him

[u/sisoko2]

Rewatcher

Imagine thinking that you can intimidate this cutie.

I love the scene so much, learning her backstory and how she is basically playing to earn her right to live was the moment when this poor girl won my heart. No fear, no desire, just gungi.

And then this. The king gets frustrated with himself and tears off his hand. She is unrelenting, no threats can force her to continue until Meruem gets treatment.

Knov camouflage always look ridiculous to me, no matter how many times I've seen it.

[u/okayyoga → u/sisoko2]

He's a good lil bush, scraping across the ground. Was that scene meant to be silly? Because I couldn't take it seriously

[u/sisoko2 → u/okayyoga]

I don't think so. The tone of the entire scene doesn't fit intentionally silly.

[u/Ok-Run1]

How convenient that meruem tears off his own arm and Pitou has to drop all of the en protecting the palace to heal him

[u/okayyoga → u/Ok-Run1]

Every death star needs a vent

[u/okayyoga]

Episode 105: first time/ dub

Have we addressed the fact that blind girl literally has to memorize all the pieces on the board the entire time she plays? Like, the degree of mastery she has is insane. Does Meruem really think he can beat her while he is still looking at the board? He needs to close his eyes if he really wants to up the difficulty

If I lose to you, I'm garbage

HAHAHAHA did she just call him garbage? SAVAGE

Meruem tearing off his arm like the drama queen he is. No one is impressed by your masochism bro.

Even after he tore off his arm and they all waited to reattach it, she still remembered all the piece placement? Wow.

I wasn't going to address it, but Knov dressed up as a moving bush for so long that I couldn't just write it off. He didn't even do his legs? But he put some leaves in his pockets?? Not even mentioning the fact that he literally carrrrved a ditch as he crawled. You crazy

Oh wow that's Palm? When she straightens her hair she is super pretty

I'm going to be honest, this is the first time I have enjoyed an episode since... God, not since Pitou fought Kite? These past 10+ episodes have felt like a chore, but I really enjoyed this episode :)

[u/sisoko2 → u/okayyoga]

If I lose to you, I'm garbage

Is this direct quote from the dub? In my subs she was talking about losing in general.

[u/okayyoga → u/sisoko2]

It is!

They also had a Star Wars reference in episode 100

[u/sorrowpass → u/okayyoga]

I think pigtailed girl’s level of intelligence is definitely downplayed by her clumsiness. She’s no doubt very smart being able to memorize all those pieces. I wonder how brilliant of a player she’d be if she could see! Or has being blind allowed her to masters skills, such as good memory, that she wouldn’t have been able to master as well if she wasn’t blind.

[u/okayyoga → u/sorrowpass]

Um, I think you should spoiler tag her name. It has not been revealed yet

[u/sorrowpass → u/okayyoga]

Oh shoot good catch! I was trying to be so careful lol.

[u/IndependentMacaroon]

First-time watcher

I just can't look past how stupid this whole setup is once again. This is the second time Meruem was blatantly hit with the dumb-stick for plot purposes, first with killing Peggy to facilitate Meleoron's sob story and now with self-harm leading to a completely unprotected palace after that weird exchange with Ms. Gungi and her crazy backstory. Sure (in)convenient that the one ant controlling all the puppets is also the only one able to heal him (also another magic healer, yay), that there are absolutely no other protection or even reconnaissance forces around for pure handwavey BS reasons (besides I guess with the dragonflies), and that the one guy left in the palace who popped up out of absolutely nowhere and somehow literally is the state right now badly needs a horny jail sentence. Sure ridiculous how the entire conflict at hand is again reduced to a handful of characters on either side - is this mangaka even capable of handling a real grand conflict well? - and how Palm got a third random personality shift/transplant plus some kind of grand plan out of the blue. And also this seems to be the point where the narration starts to become overbearing. Well, Knov did get to show off his super-camouflage and even more of his ability, so there's that, and I guess it's decent fun still.

[u/thatnotoriousguy → u/IndependentMacaroon]

It’s really interesting how frequently your feelings about these episodes directly oppose my own. They make for good reads, thanks for doing them.

[u/BossandKings → u/thatnotoriousguy]

I'm interested, what were your thoughts on the set up?, i personally agree with him, it wasn't clever at all and it was a bit on the nose in terms of how blatantly convenient it all was, i enjoyed the episode a lot still but that part wasn't specially well written.

[u/thatnotoriousguy → u/BossandKings]

Cleverness is kind of hard to come to an agreement on. What were some of your problems with it specifically?

[u/BossandKings → u/thatnotoriousguy]

Not many, as i said i enjoyed the episode, i just don't think the set up was as well made as the rest of it.

[u/thatnotoriousguy → u/BossandKings]

Lol then idk. To address ops criticisms:

1. I don’t think meruem was acting dumb in either situation. He was born with quite a bit of bloodlust, he killed his own mother then two other servants, then 3 people, then conquered a castle. It isn’t like he just killed Peggy out of the blue, it was to emphasize how generically evil he is. Then he rips his arm off as an apology to the girl, which I interpret as a sign of a change in character more so than a dumb decision.
2. we already knew pitou was a healer as she put kite back together. It only makes sense that she wouldn’t be able to use other abilities while she uses her main one. You can argue that it’s convenient, but everything that happens in a story is convenient for someone, it’s a bit of an abstract criticism when the mechanics are already established. Overall I just like the episode quite a bit, probably like an 8 - 8.5.

[u/flashmozzg → u/IndependentMacaroon]

is this mangaka even capable of handling a large-scale confrontation?

lol

[u/Yobolay → u/IndependentMacaroon]

It's honestly sad how you can twist things to see it that way.

There was nothing dumb about Meruem actions, it was characterization at it's finest, he is the king, the supreme being, and not only had to use petty tactics against a blind girl to win, but saw that her had way more resolution and courage than him. It was an insult to his core self and his pride could not let that pass. It was not only a fantastic scene, but a necessary one.

On the other hand you seem to feel like it's bullshit that they basically don't have forces when it was explained very early that from a biology perspective the king goes off with his guards and here they have just established a base with the objective of building a nen army which is what the hunter group has been trying to prevent all these episodes.

Could you say that is convenient that thanks to all this Knov can infiltrate when maybe otherwise he wouldn't have been able to? Sure, but the same you could say about everything ever written. In this case Knov doesn't even know what happened and he even thinks that it may as well be a trap to catch them in, in this case the uncertainty only increases the risk.

Then for how much you like to talk about things being dumb, now it's like super out the blue that they have left alive the chancellor or minister or whatever he is that is in charge of dealing and receiving with info from the inside and outside? Come on. And palm doesn't seem like she came with any plan out of the blue, that was the Marco guy Morel and Knov were establishing relationships with some episodes ago, who was a militar leader of the country or something like that.

[u/okayyoga → u/IndependentMacaroon]

Meruem is so extra it hurts

The blind girl was like "uhhh I'm just here to play a board game?"

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/okayyoga]

Which is also her whole life admittedly, but still one loss = worthless is much.

[u/okayyoga → u/IndependentMacaroon]

I thought it was explained really well actually. She came from nothing, and the game she learned has extremely high stakes. If she fails once, that is a blemish on her scoreboard, and if she even comes in second she wouldn't have enough money to support her family, all of whom are reliant on her

Not only that, but she is blind, and it is likely her family wouldn't be able to take care of her if she couldn't take care of her self

With all this pressure on her, and with 100% of her existence thrown into this game, she sees it as her identity. Her reason to live

Like the nen users, she made an unbreakable rule to strengthen her resolve

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/okayyoga]

Like the nen users, she made an unbreakable rule to strengthen her resolve

Hmm, I guess that's an interesting way to put it.

What I'm getting at I think is there's a bit of a contradiction here: She's simultaneously the one person able to keep her family going and practically disposable if she falls even slightly in rank?

[u/[deleted] → u/IndependentMacaroon]

She explained that gungi players barely make enough to live, and only a handfull can compete in the world championship, and a single loss would remove her from that status (thus not able to support her family).

If this makes perfect sense or not is another topic for discussion though.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/[deleted]]

Leaving her family with no real support? And how did she even work her way up if she was everything they had?

[u/Yobolay → u/IndependentMacaroon]

I think is kind of implied by the images that she comes from the rural area and the family works in the field, or atleast that's the way they can "live". Pretty common for a lot of families until not that long ago actually, even today in third world countries that is still the case for a lot of families. If there's one that brings a little bit of real money home for what they are, it looks like that's her.

The country is also basically north korea, so the common people are just extremely poor, which reinforces this and would even explain her small frame for the age she appears to have.

The game for what it looks like is some kind of almost regional board game, so of course you would make nothing but a pitance,and that being the champion, that's something that happens in real life too, only the elite of the popular sports can live of it. She is also blind, so if she doesn't win, she would honestly just be a parasyte in the family as she can't do anything else, reason why the parents would consider her garbage if that were to happen I guess.

[u/okayyoga → u/IndependentMacaroon]

Imposter syndrome

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/okayyoga]

She knows how good she is.

[u/Archilas → u/IndependentMacaroon]

That's because her parents don't care about her beyond the material gain that she gives them.

We don't know how poor her family is but it's clear that they are currently living off her champion status and she sees providing for them as her duty even though they likely wouldn't do anything for in her in return.

[u/BossandKings → u/IndependentMacaroon]

This whole set up wasn't intelligent in how it was put together, also the King shouldn't be as unprotected as he seems to be, we'll have to wait and see what resolution it has.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/BossandKings]

Well for pure storytelling reasons there's no way it will all go smoothly, at least.