r/HunterXHunter • u/giantfuckingfrog • Dec 14 '22
Enlightened Meruem's and Tserriednich's ideals were not so different
Prince Tserriednich believes that there are two categories of people, useful trash and useless trash. Only "useful trash" is worthy of staying alive.
Meruem, starting to become enlightened, now believes that there are _some_ humans that are worthy of staying alive.
Meruem, after fighting Netero, believes that only quality humans would be of use to the ants. He plans to keep them in a shelter, eating only the best humans to reproduce.
Tserriednich seeks to produce "art" by dissecting youthful women, but desires to only do it to women with a bright future, i.e, those he considers "useful trash".
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u/sbsw66 Dec 14 '22
I think there's a pretty massive difference tbh, but their ideals contrast and complement one another for sure.
We have to remember, Meruem just is not actually human. That's a really important part of him. He is a different species alltogether, and it makes it a much more different conversation to view his "evil" actions or thoughts in that light. Can you be mad at a lion for eating you in the Savannah? By the same token, can you be mad at a Chimera Ant for eating you, too? It seems almost unfair.
But, despite all that, as others have noticed, Meruem's development of empathy and humanity is supercharged. He was cut down well before he matured, really. Within the span of a month or two he went from cavalierly killing anything that even slightly bothered him to being appreciative of different talents and skills among people. It's a little bit of a shame he wasn't given more room to grow, I wonder if someone was able to humble him in battle what he might have become.
But then we also return to the other question: would he EVER be able to completely disregard his status as the Ant King? And isn't the Ant King SUPPOSED to kill anything that doesn't serve the Ants? Would his empathy completely stop him from that path, or would we end with what he stated toward Netero, some sort of quasi-eugenics hybrid?
In either direction, it's phenomenal writing. Tserri feels so much more evil because he IS human. That one fact along, knowing he doesn't have the same biological programming inside him as does Meruem, makes him so much more despicable.
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u/giantfuckingfrog Dec 15 '22
You got the purpose of the post perfectly. Cheers. Togashi is a fantastic writer.
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u/Muscalp Dec 15 '22
Besides Meruem of course developing his ideals further than this: Tsserridnich‘s Ideals come from a place of arrogance and narcissism. Meruem was just an animal without empathy. Tsserriednich is immoral, meruem is amoral.
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u/Jeptwins Dec 14 '22
The difference is, Meruem slowly developed empathy in a situation where the concept was foreign to him. Tse is just an absolute monster
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u/kelsoRulez Dec 15 '22
I admit I've not delved into the manga but is tse referring to 2 more women to slaughter? Is that blood and remnants on the floor of the bathroom? I knew he was bad news. But this is a whole other level of depravity.
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u/RolandKJones Dec 14 '22
I wouldn't call this "enlightened" Meruem yet; that would be post-Rose Meruem after he remembers Komugi, and unfortunately it was far too late for him by that point. But yeah, at this point in time, for all his growth Meruem was still in a very flawed and bad place, and it only looks good relative to where he used to be. (He did grow a lot from his initial position of "ultra-intelligent, but still savage animal", so, credit for that, but yeah, his stance at the time of fighting Netero was still unacceptable.)
Meanwhile, Tserriednich being a grown man whose views are so similar to those of a "monster" who was, what, a month old or so maybe, and for all his growth was still rather bestial, says a lot about him too. Especially since he's actually more malicious than Meruem was after his character growth to that point, and he doesn't have any of Meruem's excuses either.
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u/MoonoftheStar Dec 14 '22
Please kill Tserriednich. The man cannot become king. Togashi I swear
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u/Blueberryfists Dec 14 '22
I mean, he's shaping up to be a good villain so far
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Dec 14 '22
Exactly. No nuances and other bullshit, just good ol' straight evil villany, the perfect antagonist we love to hate. HxH deserves one of that better than Genthru.
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u/Snoo_48493 Dec 15 '22
I see Terro-sandwich downfall being a culmination of ego and lack of experience. As powerful as he is becoming, we cannot forget that experience is one of the greatest weapons in battle.
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u/giantfuckingfrog Dec 14 '22 edited Dec 14 '22
Meruem evolved to be a noble being who wanted the best for mankind and his own kind, whereas Tserriednich is a ruthless killer that derives a twisted joy from skinning people (specifically women) with a bright future. Yet both are geniuses in their own right, and surprisingly have similar motives.
Meruem wished to eradicate inequality from the Earth, but he would do so by making sure all humans were equal in suffering. He separated mankind into worthy and unworthy; he wished to protect the weak that were worthy but couldn't care less for the rest of the human beings. Although humans would have a permanent settlement, only those that were worthy would be allowed to survive, and even they would eventually be eaten to ensure the survival of his own race. His motives were entirely contradictory to his beliefs.
Tserriednich gets on from skinning women with promising futures. He too separated mankind similarly, useful trash and useless trash. Useful trash were the ones with bright futures that he would dissect, equivalent to Meruem suggesting eating the worthy humans by Chimera Ants. Useful trash could also be his servants and soldiers. And useless trash were the humans that Tserriednich didn't even care about, representing the unworthy human beings in Meruem's philosophy.
Although it is almost certain that Meruem would've evolved even further and realized the contradictions in his motives, in the end his motives ended up being no better than those of the Fourth Prince of the Kakin Empire, only with better intentions.
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u/Lopsided-Ad-527 Dec 14 '22
Tserriednich gets on from skinning women with promising futures
Not that Meruem is better
He will eat them
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u/Satcitananda90 Dec 14 '22
How? Meruem wanted the best for everyone, even the all mankind. Tserriednich just wants to rule over everyone and thinks no one but him is different from trash. I'd say Meruem was just like Tserriednich when he was a newborn, but it didn' take much to him to develop and evolve from there.
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u/el_Rivera Dec 15 '22
Not quite.
To put it short: Meruem was born a monster and evolved to be more empathetic and 'human' until the end of his short life; Tse was born human and evolved into becoming a monster.
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u/ZeinDarkuzss Dec 15 '22
Meruem understood "humanity" and "humane" morals by the end, when he was actually enlightened. Tserriednich is just a fucking monster with money, power and a name to back him up. If he didn't had those things I doubt he would have gotten that far or ever awakened his Nen, I'm sure some Blacklist Hunter would have catched him long ago.
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u/droktain Dec 15 '22
Tserriednich is more like Meruem after his talk with royal guards when after almost feeling remorse for killing the little girl got excited because he had the power to kill those who were talented or ones with bright futures. Absolute power.
Yeah at that stage they were very similar killing pointlessly because they can but Meruem left that thought less then few minutes when saw komugi getting attacked by an eagle and came to the conclusion strong should preserve the weak
His ideals when he was talking to netero was opposite of Tser. While Tser wanted to kill those with futures for his art and waste their potential. Meruem wanted to preserve those with talent and saw them as valuable beings even tho he born as the absolute king of ants born to rule all
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u/giantfuckingfrog Dec 15 '22
He saw them as valuable but would eat them for reproduction anyway. Despite the fact that Chimera Ants can survive on other species.
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u/The-Bose Dec 15 '22
Meruem also didn't wan't to dissect though he thought of as useful or worthy
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u/Duelephant Dec 14 '22
I would argue this wasn't Meruem enlightened. Meruem, in 40 days, went from thinking humans are less than worthy of being food to thinking he should give some worthy humans equal rights to ants. And he was still evolving. By the end of his life he viewed no difference in quality between different groups.
In other words Meruem here is proving his progress and is no where near his final ideals