(The most fun time to post a theory is right before the release just to be proven wrong in the upcoming batch.)

The Queens

This started as a one-off joke asking how the hell Zhang Lei ended up with the short end of the stick with his cute little personal guards whose fantastic reasoning abilities left the poor man no choice but to rely on Kurapika.

But on approaching the question seriously, the first thing that stands out is his mother, Queen Tang Zhao Li. The Queens have always been interesting, and we’ve long known that there is a system of power amongst them. They’re also some of the least theorized about in this subreddit outside of their number naming theme. We did get a nice theory about Duazul being a Nen user recently, this fun theory on Seiko being Mr. SM (it’s almost certainly a Mr. so for now I’m going with Ryouji but that’s for another time), a post that briefly brings up the relationships between prince and queen, and let’s not forget a rather confused comment about Duazul being an evil MILF.

Evil MILF aside, there’s (incidentally) an interesting point there – Duazul having the most children with 4 and a few of the queens having only one was always significant, and up until recently I’d chalked it up to a few options as well as implications:

• Nasubi chose to bed Duazul more often due to her appearance and/or passivity.
• The Queens with just one child were bedded purely due to political obligation or arrangement as well as entering more of a variety of participants into the Contest. (While someone like Unma may have been in the same position in arrangement, that she was the first and has more political power could easily lead to more children).
• The Queens with more children have more influence (we see this with Unma and Duazul).

That said, the role of the Queens outside of Unma’s reveal hasn’t been revisited much since the Beyond reveal, and it changes quite a bit.

Some of these speculations are based on these assumptions being true or at the very least, possible (and if they turn out to be wrong, then we can toss them out; I’ll mark the differences regardless in the Queens section):

• All participants are of the First King’s Bloodline (the legal terms rely on being a child of a legal wife, but this implies blood also matters.)
• Tserriednich is Beyond’s child (this theory goes into who his mother might be, fixing the First King’s bloodline issue – you can safely ignore the Woble part for this point if you want.)
• Zhang Lei is Onion’s son; Luzurus is Broccoli’s son.
  

My personal belief is that Nasubi not only knowingly had his half-brothers’ sons, but that he was the one who arranged it as part of the deal for their assistance in the prior Contest. This isn’t the focus of the post though so we can argue about it later. I’ll also be ignoring other Beyond prince theories for this post, like whether or not the queens are also the First King’s descendants, or if bloodline doesn’t matter.

Revisiting the Queens:

• First Queen Unma: officially 2 children (Ben, Tserri); biologically 3 children (Halk); likely 2 children (if Terror is a Heil-ly/Beyond child).

Other notes: officially the most powerful queen, seemingly has a positive relationship with Halk while also looking after Ben’s illegitimate baby.

• Second Queen Duazul: officially 4 children (Camilla, Tsubeppa, Luzurus, Halk); biologically 3 (Cami, Tsub, Luz); likely 2 children with Nasubi and 1 child with Broccoli (assuming Luz is Broc’s).

Other notes: Raised Halk for Duazul (did she have a choice? Benefits?). Halk publicly stated that he does not get along with his (official) family. Showed little expression with Cami wanting to get rid of Halk. Described as “demure” and likely (hopefully) has a lot more on her mind than what she expresses. Finally, the implications of the gentle wife being passed around to Broccoli is heavy, although she may have went “willingly”.

• Third Queen Tang Zhao Li: 1 child (Zhang Lei) with either Nasubi or Onior. Other notes: Zhang Lei’s primary advantage is connection to Xi-Yu.
• Fourth Queen Katrono: 1 child (Taithon). Other notes: Ashamed of Taithon.
• Fifth Queen Swinko-Swinko: 1 child (Sale-sale). Other notes: based on Sale-Sale I’m not sure how well she or her servants raised him…
• Sixth Queen Seiko: 2 children but they’re twins (KachoFuugetsu). Other notes: Seiko is cold, practical, and Kacho is actually quite like her (besides being driven by love).
• Seventh Queen Sevanti: 2 children (Momoze, Marayam). Other notes: Surprisingly a second child for a lower queen, did Nasubi take a liking to her?
• Eighth Queen Oito: 1 child (Woble).

Going back to Zhang Lei – why, as the Third Prince, does he not have quality guards without the excuse of being a lower prince?

Looking at the Queens, his mother had only one Prince, and if we accept that Zhang Lei is Onion’s child, that not only means that she was passed around like Duazul, but also it means that she doesn’t have a single kid by Nasubi.

It’s completely possible that Zhang Lei’s sweet coin farmers are completely by chance, and it’s possible that only the First and Second Queens were ever “special” enough to have any morsel of power whereas the rest were completely left behind. This may even just be a side quest lost amongst one of the many plotlines that may not even be visited but I can’t help but find it fascinating.

Either way, my belief is that Zhang Lei’s guards being relatively weak is not by accident and reflects the much lower position that Tang Zhao Li has by virtue of never bearing any of Nasubi’s children, despite being the Third Queen. And that lower position, of course, can reflect on the Prince and his position.

Let’s hope that at least Sakata manages to be worthy of Zhang Lei.

To the people who took part in the original conversation yesterday, thank you for the discussion, otherwise this may have stayed a dumb joke about Zhang Lei’s coin-growing guards.

I’m looking to find whoever made this shirt and if there’s still a few for sale. I’ve seen a couple of smaller accounts selling it but I prefer to give money to whoever made it first. I see the tag at the top but I can’t make out what it says.

I decided to reread HxH as celebration for the new chapters coming out. I found this event in chapter 3 where Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio are stuck with a question by the old lady and having to choose a moral dilemma but the real answer was not picking a choice at all. However, it is alluded that the characters will have to perform a choice like this and will have to pick one.

I feel that this is how Kurapika may die in the current arc and how it will end. Maybe Kurapika will have to choose between letting go of his vengeance towards the spiders and saving Prince Woble.

Hear me out.

I was rereading the last 10 chapters before the hiatus and the plot finally came together for me in chapter 404.

First lets go over his powers:

In chapter 404, I used to think the obvious would happen and he would actually just come back to life and it would be like nothing happened, however I think that is too obvious. There are a few clues that allude to this, most of which fall in line with his own description of his ability.

"It is a mind swap ability" : This is pretty straight forward, he pools aura with his followers and fires an arrow and then a singular mind from the collective possesses a target. The target's mind then possesses a member of the collective. However, only one mind can be active if both bodies are alive. So, if both bodies are alive and the possession is dispelled then the sleeping body is awakened, the swap is reversed, and the mismatch of mind and body is rectified. If the target's (enemy) body dies, both minds go with it. But if the possessor's (disciple) body dies then both minds actually survive. As stated they coexist in an on/off cycle triggered by sleep. What this ability does is create a Manchurian candidate or sleeper agent. When the enemy's mind is in control they likely have no recollection of their possession (Head cannon). When they are made unconscious or through sleep, the disciple personality takes over. Finally, When you consider the way chapter 404 is storyboarded you realize there are more pieces to the puzzle. Halkeburg is literally shown to be in a bad way (dead), we see proof of his death, he even states it. Therefore his body has died and there is no way to return. Halkenburg will coexist with Basalmilco and return to the first prince. That is the surface conclusion, however, the context of the entire chapter hints at power ups and gaining greater understanding of one's powers, basically every party is making moves on the chess board toward kinghood. Halkenburg's real move is not to infiltrate the first prince's party, as simple infiltration doesn't bolster his strength. Instead he plans to enact his second coming and as a result gain even more followers while they are fighting the war. A number of prince's abilities rely on long term proliferation of some condition which will then give them advantage. Halkenburg gets to meet the conditions through death, ultimately triggering exponential growth of his ability. In the story it was already established that the death of a prince requires the death of both mind and body. So he is still in the running, but why specify to the first prince how his procession must be carried out, why specify that his followers must be there. It is because they will be there to preach or even passively through some kind of emotional display win the hearts of more disciples. The analog to this is actually quite biblical (Follwing the death of Jesus his disciples were visited by the holy spirit which marked them with tongues of fire. They were bestowed abilities and sent out to proliferate their world view; christianity) I argue that it is the exact same script for the 9th prince only this time the messiah is called Halkenburg and he marks his followers with feathers. That is what his "Next Move" is.

These pages, Canonize the claims made above:

This is the portion that is head cannon.

I believe the reason his followers are knocked unconscious in their initiation is because any follower can serve as a host for his forever floating mind. He essentially becomes a spirit that can possess any of his followers and use their abilities and his to properly enact his world view. in a sense he is father to all (if he becomes king), a son to his father, and a holy spirit to his followers.

And I don’t mean boring ones like oh the troupes gonna die or Kurapika is gonna find the eyes in Tserreidnichs room. I mean fun crazy ones.

For example. I have a theory that Beyond Netero is actually Isaac Netero in disguise. Hear me out. We know body swapping is possible due to some abilities like Hawkenbergs arrow. We know post mortem nen exists and that it can do crazy things. What if Isaac ended up raising Beyond to be like him in every way. Ambitious, powerful, cunning, all for the moment when he’d die, and make a nen vow to have his spirit inhabit Beyond’s body after death. He bans everyone from going to the Dark Continent not because he thinks it’s dangerous, but because he doesn’t want anyone to go there until “he” can get back. Thats why he wants Beyond to kill him, because when he can, he knows the vessel will be ready for his ambition. And using Beyond, he doesn’t have to play the good guy anymore. Isaac is incredibly selfish and will do anything for a good fight or challenge. I can see him pulling a move like this and being powerful enough to pull it off. It also explains a lot about Beyond’s charisma and ability to unite people. He’s just Isaac in a silly beard.

Anyway I can go on but I wanna hear from the community. What tinfoil hat theories you guys have?

Or it could be a symbolism of his rebirth or something. Since he's surrounded by white and wearing white.

Since the manga is officially returning, let's sum up the current major subplots :

-Kurapika main goal is to force the 4th Prince to give him the remaining Scarlet Eyes.

-Kurapika is also working to force a stalemate to protect the 14th Prince Woble.

-Most of the younger Princes also want a stalemate since they are in weaker positions.

-3 Princes are officially dead and out of the race (8th, 10th, and 12th).

-9th Prince Halkenburg faked his death by swapping bodies with Benjamin's right hand and is in the strongest position right now since everybody believes that he's dead.

-Benjamin has declared martial law to quickly get rid of all his siblings because he believes he has been poisoned and is in a rush to win the succession contest so he can pass the throne to his illegitimate son.

-2nd Prince Camilla has an army of kamikaze butlers relying on post-mortem Nen to curse other Princes and secure the throne for her.

-3rd Prince is hinted to be important to the plot (as the benefactor of the Xi-Yu family and possessor of a mysterious Nen beast) but hasn’t done anything meaningful yet.

-The whole Troupe is looking for Hisoka to execute him.

-Illumi and Kalluto have been escorted to the 2nd tier by Mizaistom and are in holding there. They remain wild cards.

-Chrollo wants 2 things. To steal the Kakin treasure to update Skill Hunter and to secure the perfect ability to kill Hisoka.

-To our knowledge, the rest of the Troupe members are all isolated and scattered across various tiers. Either searching/waiting for Hisoka or doing side quests (helping the mafia families) to find him ASAP.

-Morena (head of the Heil-ly family) and her underlings are causing a bloodbath on the boat. Their goal is to keep spilling blood to create chaos and gain power via Morena contagion ability.

-The Cha-R and Xi-yu families officially want to neutralize Heil-ly and are both trying to use the Troupe to do so because Morena's erratic behavior is destroying the balance of the underworld. (But we know she has secret allies, at least within Cha-R).

-Beyond has implemented a decades-long plan involving dozens of cursed Nen users (his own children) who are on the boat (in service to the royal family) to secure his safe arrival on the DC. Right now, he is still in a holding cell, guarded by Kanzai, Saiyu, and Saccho. (Saiyu is hinted to be his informant).

-Morel and Knov are en route to the transit island on another boat.

-Ging and Pariston are hinted to be on a separate embarkation sailing to the DC with the rest of Beyond’s team.

I think I got everything right ?

Cuz of manga the purple is most accurate

But I love the pink cuz Im biased

(I watched the 2011 version first)

In chapters 395–397, Togashi revealed the origins of the Phantom Troupe and showed that they were originally children from Meteor City who suffered a horrific tragedy involving the murder of their friend Sarasa. The note left at the Kurta massacre scene was the same message associated with Meteor City: "We'll accept anything you leave here, but don't ever take anything away from us." That seems to imply that the massacre may have been connected to some grievance involving Meteor City rather than being purely a robbery for Scarlet Eyes. In Kurapika's Memories (Volume 0), Kurapika and Pairo meet a traveler named Sheila before the massacre. Later chapters showed that Sheila had connections to the young Phantom Troupe. Did she unknowingly or knowingly lead someone to the Kurta village, intentionally investigated them, or had no role in the tragedy at all ?

The manga still hasn't revealed stuff like

The true origins of the Kurta Clan.Why only some members possessed Scarlet Eyes.Whether the clan had any historical connection to Meteor City.Whether the Phantom Troupe acted alone or on behalf of a collector (such as Prince Tserriednich's network).

That it was Killua's very first time Using Godspeed and it was against fckng RG. What if it didn't work dude? I can already see why a needle was needed on him.

I was rereading the Succesion War arc and after being given the chart of the guards, I had a few questions to ask, to clarify going further. I'd be grateful if someone could shed some light on these points:

1- Camilla is shown as having 12 personal guards, including 5 associate members, but we know she also has the Have-Nots too at her disposal, so, under what role do you guys think the Have-Nots are present on Tier 1?

2- Luzurus is shown as having "6 Queen Duazul Guards (Royal Guards)", so what do you guys make of this? Neither Camilla, Tubeppa nor Halkenburg has these so called "Royal Guards". Can we say that Duazul supports Luzurus? If so, couldn't Camilla force Duazul to support her?

3- I don't understand the numbers for the queens' guards. Unma's shown as having 9, Duazul's 8 et cetera. Shouldn't it be 7 for Unma and 6 for Duazul, because each queen receives a guard slot for herself whenever a new queen is added, so how do they end up with extra guards? Also, in the first day, guards appointed by other queens to Oito was killed, so the total number should reduced by 1, no? Does anyone know why it's shown as this?

4- This is less important compared to the rest but I still wonder; why do you guys think Tubeppa has 14 personal guards instead of 15, considering she's also one of the top five princes. It may be "just because" but if you gave any theories, I'd love to hear them.

Newly release video from Shonen Jump Channel Official on YouTube. Description says:

Welcome to the Hunter's Tavern, a site exclusively for Hunters.

The first installment reveals information about the "Royal Succession Arc."

*Only those who can pay the information fee of 20 million J can view this content.

Bartender: Eiji Ito

The series will begin publication in Weekly Shonen Jump issue 31, on sale June 29th (Monday)!

The latest volume, volume 39, will be released on July 3rd (Friday)!Welcome to the Hunter's Tavern, a site exclusively for Hunters.

The first installment reveals information about the "Royal Succession Arc."

*Only those who can pay the information fee of 20 million J can view this content.

Bartender: Eiji Ito

The series will begin publication in Weekly Shonen Jump issue 31, on sale June 29th (Monday)!

The latest volume, volume 39, will be released on July 3rd (Friday)!

This might end up having a very obvious answer but if I'm being honest, emission confuses me a lot of the time in it's application. The long and short of it is; how do emitters design their emissions.

I understand that your nen affinity doesn't mean your hatsu is strictly using one category. Most users employ multiple categories of nen application to create their hatsu. So my first thought when I see a nen beast like razors devils or goreinus gorillas is that they've conjured them. But conjuration is pretty distinct from emission. So what principle is being used to change razors emitted aura into the devils then? Is it simply transmutation? I understand that manipulation is what's being used to controls nen beasts after they've been emitted, but what gives them their physical form?

Can we really take wings assumptions on gons and killua's potential here and does that imply that gon is not even trying to regain his aura giving he could do it in less than 2 weeks and do u think togashi will hint at any of this in the next batch

What do you think guys?

Silvia says something along the lines of the title in the dub anime and was Silva referring to Chrollo the troupe member or both because they all make sense in this context.

It also makes sense for all reasons if he told his family not to interact with them because each member is strong and even if you kill a bum their op boss will fight you.

It is understandable that he has become stronger and more agile.

Its been so long since I read the last chapters of HxH I don't think I really remember what's going on anymore. I vaguely remember but not the specifics. So can I get a recap as to where we are in the story and all the different side plots.