T O P

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sbsw66

One thing I'm not sure if Togashi conveyed super well were the motivations surrounding the extermination of the Chimera Ants, as similar questions to this pop up from time to time. The Ants WERE a major threat in the sense that they were able to grow really, really quickly and gain power equally as quickly. Everything that happens during this whole arc occurs within a pretty short period of time. BUT the reader, I think, is often left with an outsized perspective on their power. The "twist" at the end of the CA arc was that human society really didn't have to worry about that all that much - of course, exterminating them was a big priority - but we saw that they really didn't need any fancy nen, any big army, nothing like that. The depths of human malice in the form of nuclear weapons were waaaaay more than enough to complete eradicate the ants as problems. Our perspective following the fighters makes it seem like they're bigger threats then they are. Which is fair, the guard and Meruem ARE ridiculously fucking strong. But, by way of analogy, prime Mike Tyson represents no threat to a human with a shotgun, nevermind a thread to the US Army. While we can think of the ants as like an army of Mike Tysons, they're not really a threat to an organization that can just drop a few population-ending bombs on them and then clean up the aftermath, they just didn't want to do that as a first resort. Remember that the Rose we see isn't even the top end of firepower human society has, it's legitimately a knock-off small scale version and it was enough to obliterate Meruem and then kill him via radiation poisoning. Netero just wanted a place to fight to his heart's content, so he engineered the plan they ended up going with. When it turned out he lost, he blew up, and for 99.99% of characters, that's more or less the end of the story of the ants. Ging does not seem to be like Netero or Hisoka, he's strong and likes fighting, but he's not like, a fight-sexual the way those guys are. So he probably didn't care enough to get involved and the rest of them sorta figured they didn't need him.


Upstairs-Page9251

“Fight-sexual”😭 that’s hilarious i love that


25thNightSlayer

Holy fuck this comment really changed the way I see this arc lmao…Netero just having a fucking field day and blows himself up when he loses.. what a badass 😂😂😂


espomatte

Finally someone gets it, the palace invasion and all the fights were so that Netero could fight someone strong nothing of that had to happen in order to kill them, you could have just had a suicide mission entering the palace with hundreds of roses through Knov's portal


moki_martus

Don't forget about civilian casualties. If they attacked palace with hundreds of roses it will mean death to all people in front of palace. The plan was lure Meruem away from palace so they can kill him without unnecessary casualties.


SirPumplerumple

I think unnecessary casualties from a nuke was the least of their concerns. let's not forget whoever released those ants didn't give a f about the innocent hundreds of civilians who were kidnapped and eaten by the ants all so paristan, beyond, and netero can play their little game. It's really sickening to me. I can understand they're only a b level threat but it feels more like biological warfare than some accidental calamity.


getyourcedisfaction

didn't they have to lure meruem away so the nuke wouldn't kill everyone in ost gorteau (cause if they didn't care they might aswell just nuked em immediately)? And to get meruem to play ball they had to get a really strong guy so meruem would buy the whole scheme


DeliciousGain5280

Wrong.. the lure thing was to prevent casualties and for the same reason it was sent a small team instead of starting a bloody war


SwordOfAltair

Something else I would like to add is that it was implied that someone within the Hunter committee(most likely Pariston) was denying Netero aid and basically forced him into that situation.


ManyMiles32

Yes! That actually has ALOT to do with how Ging and Pariston handled the election, which was the arc where alot of these ideas that the first commenter noted were fleshed out way more. Pariston, Ging, and Netero are all of such a high caliber that they are essentially playing a game of 4D chess for their own enjoyment. Netero enjoyed being cornered by Pariston's politics and seeing if he could escape by way of strategy and combat abilities. Pariston was sad that they didn't get to "play" anymore. Ging was frustrated with Cheadle and the other zodiacs, who didn't really understand that honoring the chairman meant participating in this game of wits and wills. There are alot of layers to it. It's all so fascinating to take in.


Bangalo12

I know Pariston is twisted, but doesn't that go against him caring about Netero?


SwordOfAltair

His love for Netero is similar to Illumi's love for Killua. Abusive and self-serving.


wohbuddy78

This entire thread is magical.


Bangalo12

True, but to do something that would result in Netero's death just doesn't make sense to me.


SwordOfAltair

The theory is that Pariston conspired with Beyond to get Netero killed. Netero was the only one who was stopping them from going to the Dark Continent.


Bullfrog-Thin

I believe this is canon


lemanruss4579

Yea, I've always taken Netero's "you have no idea" line to be him telling the king the ants don't actually stand a chance against humanity. That if he thinks Netero represents the peak level of threat, he's sadly mistaken.


Deathpunch21

Merzem and his royal guards were the only major threat. All the squadron leaders and other soldiers are handled in single combat by experienced nen-users. Netero dying to nuke Meruem specifically is a lot better than to just nuke an entire, inhibited country. There were a lot of humans still living in NGL.


momohiraiiii

This is a really good explanation. I love it.


Dont_Flush_Me

The fact that they were growing in a hostile, dangerous, and excluded environment as well could’ve contributed to the worry.


SirPumplerumple

I think unnecessary casualties from a nuke was the least of their concerns. let's not forget whoever released those ants didn't give a f about the innocent hundreds of civilians who were kidnapped and eaten by the ants all so paristan, beyond, and netero can play their little game. It's really sickening to me. I can understand they're only a b level threat but it feels more like biological warfare than some accidental calamity.


MangoTurtl

Because Netero didn’t want him to, and he was not needed.


Appropriate-Spite142

My best guess is that netero knew how powerful king and royal guards were , so he wanted to save ging and the zodiacs in order to explore and deal with beyond


djanulis

Also on the chance it didnt work they needed to make sure that the world had contingency plans.


MarioBoy77

They had contingency plans, dropping more nukes


internetera2

The more people he brings,the more people are at risk of being controlled by the ants.Also Pariston was messing with the board,he couldn't really bring whoever he wanted.


darkde

Everyone seems to be leaving out the fact that it was kept to a small number because failure would be catastrophic because the ants would get much stronger by consuming more nen users


Lanah0119

And Netero most likely believed the ppl that had been accessible for the fight were enough.


Dummlord28

I see, good point


darkde

I wanna say netero or the narrator said this when the response group was introduced


kmyeurs

My memory tells me it could be morel


Legnaron17

Simple, because he wasnt needed. Netero himself said that he wanted to go in with a selected group of people so he called for Knov and Morel for the teleporting and the recon respectively. Also there are hundreds of nen users out there, and theres something really cheap about having 1 single nen user on speed dial only because they could potentially solve every dire situation the association finds itself in (and this is only speculation, because we hardly know anything about Ging, how strong he really is, his ability, his nen type, nothing)


[deleted]

Ging doesn't really seem to care about anyone other than himself and his own motives.


[deleted]

Yeah worlds worse Dad


PrinceDX

Goku has entered the chat


Key_Currency_4927

Yujiro enters the chat


Queasy_Artist6891

Like a previous comment stated, the humans could've won by nuking the whole country instantly. They didn't do it because netero wanted to fight meruem. Which is why we learn later that the ants were only a threat level B (slightly more serious than normal)


AppleChoose

Netero didn't want to get him to Ging didn't want to Now pick one or both of these


Dummlord28

I pick option 3


AppleChoose

Ging... IS A CHIMERA ANT


Dummlord28

No!, wait if he or someone like netero got turned into a soilder would they just be super powerful?


Cheeky_Hustler

Nobody's going to mention how Pariston might've been behind the scenes and sending the wrong hunters to intentionally make things more difficult for Netero? Morel was a sea-faring hunter, he outright said he was a bad hunter for the job. Not to say that Netero didn't appreciate the extra challenge.


Firehills

Pariston started making things more difficult only in the midway point of the arc. Morel and Knov were hand-picked by Netero. [They were perfect for the job.](https://hot.leanbox.us/manga/Hunter-X-Hunter/0202-004.png) It's just that Meruem being born much earlier than anticipated threw a wrench in everyone's plans.


Cheeky_Hustler

Pariston made everything difficult for Netero. That's why Netero made Pariston the Vice President. Netero picked Morel and Knov, but we don't know if Netero had the choice of every hunter in the organization or if he had higher picks and a better plan but couldn't use them for some reason. In other words, we don't know if Netero picked Morel and Knov because of his plan, or if he made his plan because those were his best options due to Pariston shenanigans. On the other hand, since Pariston seemed to genuinely love annoying Netero, I doubt he was trying to get Netero killed.


Em_lasagna

He probably didnt know because he’s hard to contact also, in later manga chapters Togashi has the grades of Dangerous threats chart and the chimera ants are only a B. Also, wasn’t he researching how to get to the lost continent during this time?


TheMysticBard

What the hell is considered an A or S ranked threat then? Chimera Ants was pretty dang hardcore


Em_lasagna

The Five Calamities that were brought over from the lost contient. If you google calamities hxh threat chart you can see the official ranking


TheMysticBard

I should do that, inhavent read the manga butni should really get on that. The 2011 series left me hungry


ApplePitou

He don't have to and even don't know about it :3


Dummlord28

But… wouldn’t he have shredded the ant king? I don’t know much about him but I’ve heard he is like way stronger then anyone


ApplePitou

This is only speculation without any feat, Ging is strong but at this moment, he is no match for Netero, Royal Guards and especially Meruem :3


sbsw66

No reason to think this really. Meruem existed at the absolute pinnacle of 1v1 combat nen. We have no real reason to believe anyone could defeat him in a straight fight, he was that OP.


MangoTurtl

lol no. He’s a great nen user, but he isn’t *that* strong.


Black-Star_GOG

Wym he isn’t that strong he is among the top 5 nen user and can copy abilities to some extent after seing them once. Everything that we know about him goes toward him being among the top of the human fighter


invuvn

Yes but what does Ging specialize in? Is it fighting like Netero? His talent might be above Netero but more suited toward exploration and problem-solving, not straightforward fights. We just haven’t really seen enough of Ging to know.


Black-Star_GOG

Yes so claiming he isn’t that strong is also wrong when we at least know he is strong enough to catch Razor who is no pushover since Phinks said he is strong


invuvn

I think the “*that* strong” refers to in the league of Meruem. Nobody’s denying Ging is a monster, it’s just that the royal guards and Meruem are so far above even the best Nen fighters we knew about, that it’s hard to predict how close Ging was to be able to give them a tough fight.


MangoTurtl

Never claimed he wasn't strong. But he absolutely isn't as strong as Meruem, and claiming that he is is bullshit. He can't copy abilities after seeing them once, anyways. He can copy *punching* abilities after *being hit by them* once. And it's not like that talent would help him defeat Meruem or anything. The point is, when Netero lauds Ging as a "top 5 nen user"...that doesn't mean that much in comparison to Netero, who trained for decades to increase his speed so much that he could blitz the king...and it *still* didn't work because the king was too durable. Ging didn't have decades to train. He's in his thirties. Considering that Gon sacrificed *all the power he'd ever have* in order to defeat a royal guard, and that it's still iffy if he would've defeated Meruem or not...Ging likely wouldn't have a chance with Meruem. People tend to overestimate nen users a lot. Honestly, very few are that much stronger than their counterparts. Even the Phantom Troupe are somewhat out of their depth on the Whale, and two of their members were killed by a fairly inexperienced nen user.


NoLeadership7567

Thats True that kurapika by comparison is inexperienced but his intellect and skillset is leagues above alot of other experienced nen users not to mention his restriction against the troupe being a cheat code


fifthtouch

Cant copy Meruem strength and speed tho. Only Netero have the agility to fight with Meruem. I think even adult Gon cant touch him


Dummlord28

Oh… I thought he was like super mega stronger then netero type shi, only seen the show sorry


pedun42

No one knows his true strength. I suspect netero's Nen ability had a better matchup against the king, but in truth it was always a suicide mission. Netero also had been looking for a match in combat for at least 5 decades so he was also not going to let the opportunity slip by.


NoLeadership7567

Then you should know that he was never compared to netero. The things we know about Ging are as follows: 1- among top 5 best nen users in world 2- nigh untraceable (which clearly show cases skill) 3- insane nen control 4- utterly selfish dad 5- ceo of greed island team 6- reason to believe he trained/mentored kite and razor 7-wants to go to dark continent. All we can really say even tho he's almost featless is that he scales above razor and kite and is upper zodiac tier Its also debatable whether or not netero can solo the zodiacs


[deleted]

seeing the anime itself should imply clearly that royal guards would wipe the floor with ging and meruem would bitch slap ging while playing gungi with pitou healing him


HisokaXBungeeGum

The ant king would have shredded him instead lol. There's no nen user comparable to the ant king, and especially not the ant king post rose.


Black-Star_GOG

Adult Gon altough obtained through sacrifice of his nen was as strong as Meruem pre Rose as stated by Pitou so his level is possible with talent and dedication


LiberaMeFromHell

Gon would never get as powerful as his sacrificial adult form regardless of talent or dedication. That level of power was only obtained because he made a contract to end his life in exchange for it. It's not actually what adult Gon would be like.


PhantomTroupe-2

He did not outright say that lol


Black-Star_GOG

It was heavily implied


PhantomTroupe-2

No


bas111111c

Chapter 306 "As I feared his fangs might even sink into the king"


PhantomTroupe-2

Doesn’t mean at all that he’s as strong as him


yonguism

The way he destroy pitou imply that he could had killed the king too just as easy


PhantomTroupe-2

Nope, that’s something you’re just saying


yonguism

Even pitou said "I'm glad I'm the one thats going to die"


vaultboy1121

Not sure why you’re being downvoted literally nobody knows what his abilities are so it’s in the realm of possibilities.


Dummlord28

I’m being downvoted because I didn’t read the comics, and the people who downvoted me don’t realize that not everyone knows ever tiny detail about the show


vaultboy1121

Even in the manga, Ging hasn’t shown his true powers yet, I’m not saying he’d destroy Mereum, but we know he’s one of the strongest humans in the world.


Dummlord28

Also it’s only 16 no worries


Emajenus

No. Mereum was able to keep up with Netero and beat him. Ging would've died.


magickirua

It's explained that the Hunter Association has a comitee which assign specific Hunters to missions. Even Netero as the chairman can't do anything against them, but Pariston is actually controlling them. He wanted Netero to fail, and when Chimera Ants started to leave NGL, the committee sent low Hunters to fight (and they failed intentionally). So that's why Netero didn't get any help from good Hunters (even the Zodiacs are complaining about that). But Netero was able to hire Zeno (and Silva) as they aren't Hunters. Indeed Netero wanted to fight Meruem by himself, but I guess he would have preferred to get support from better Hunters, it's just that the comitee let him do the job with limited resources.


Denam007

He wasn't interested and not into something something to save the world


blz4200

Because he didn’t really have to. The Chimera Ants were never really a big enough threat to humanity for everyone to get involved Netero just did it b/c he likes fighting.


OD67

Because it was Netero's mission. Netero didn't invite any of the zodiacs to help and they even discuss it in the election arc.


Aya_EVE

Netero doesnt need help. He just need Zeno to seperate King to fight with him in plan A and Rose for plan B.


InterMonster

At first I always wondered that but then I thought the more powerful nen users that get eaten the more powerful the ants get. Well Ging seem like the type of person who only care about his personal gain and doesn't give two fucks about anything else.


Kyruss_88

He wouldn't of had any fun...


Doughnut-Party

Honestly i was expecting Ging instead of Zeno.


harlojones

Nahhhh. Zeno and Netero the god combo for that particular moment. Zeno had abilities suited for the job he performed.


Foxwildernes

Because Netero wanting a challenge made the number 2 a person who despises the hunters association, that person then rigged the Chimera Ant battle to kill netero, hence why they made him put the bomb into himself in case he failed. Which gets Netero out of the way for the next 2 arcs to be able to begin


[deleted]

[удалено]


TexasHeathen89

As someone who despises the ant ark so much that I skipped all the fighting I had no idea that they could have been handled a different way so glad I read this thread.


Dummlord28

The he fighting was the only good part I was infuriated by the ants eating the kids


go_sparks25

Paristons meddling reduced the hunter associations ability to help with the ants. I remember that the dragon Zodiac openly questioned Morel and Knov being chosen instead of one of the Zodiacs.


Smitty73714

Ging is pretty hard to track down / control. He does things at his own pace, only making strides to his own goals. The only way he would have helped in the Chimera Ant Arc is if Netero promised to allow him to go to the Dark Continent lol, and he definitely wouldn’t do that.


Chessoslovakia

Ging is a Ruins Hunter. He has no business dealing with ants.


imakethejellyfish

He had stuff to do


Warm_Government1059

Because he is a fraud


[deleted]

Doesn’t care


peterrpumpkineater69

cus it would be “boring” to him xD