Thread by @nfmaster_99

An analysis of Hisoka Morrow

His significance to the themes + commentary of Hunter x Hunter, and how Togashi has made him an autonomous entity within the world he created

This will be rather basic and get fleshed out over time by complimentary threads

( art by @o49l0 )

Let me first outline Hisoka conceptually. While he is primarily a simple hedonist who goes to greath length to satisfy his desire and pursue his brand of 'pleasure', the way this almost 1-Dimensional baseline manifests within the story is insanely convoluted and complex

Furthermore, Hisoka has the function of an agent of fate within the story, someone who molds history and the reality around him to his desire, and thus assumes a kind of author function in the narrative from a meta perspective

To elaborate on this, let's take a look at the ways in which Hisoka molds the narrative to his content and in which ways specifically he is enacting fate.

The most obvious thing to point to in this context would be the ways in which he conditions and drives Gon on his journey

By saying 'agent of fate' I am not supposing that Hisoka is consciously acting out the will of the universe, rather I am implying that him shaping causality is a natural byproduct of the way he embodies Hunter x Hunter's core themes

Among of the strongest themes in HxH is one's sense of self; your identity, ego, greed - the things that signify you are human. Being wholly embracing of yourself to the point where you're not defined by your ambitions, but find pleasure and fulfillment in the process itself

Hisoka is the embodiment of exactly that - someone whose sense of self is so pronounced that each and every one of his actions serve the sole purpose of bringing him excitement; who subjugates others and is so dominant a presence that he bends everything that isn't to his liking

A person that isn't defined by a single, overarching goal but rather, finds purpose within things he discovers on the wayside. His particular obsession with Gon and Chrollo alike stems from nothing but whims. The severe effort and groundwork he puts in to create situations

all are based on nothing but things he happened to stumble upon. He's transparent and honest with himself, contrary to for example Netero who tries to cheat fate by not relying on his natural Nen Type, or Chrollo who denies his identity and is the personification of hypocrisy

His whimsical nature is perfectly encapsulated by his Nen - Bungee Gum gets stronger the more it is strechted, similar to how Hisoka likes to blueball himself. But more importantly, it quickly vanishes as soon as it is remotely detached from Hisoka himself

Mirroring perfectly how quickly his interest in his chosen subjects can vanish - as seen with Chrollo when he told him that he cannot use Nen due to the oath and thus, not fight Hisoka after Yorknew City

But enough of the obvious shit, lemme get into the more implicit ways in which his control over destiny are presented. For this we're gonna have to look into the card symbolism prevelant in his character, be it the cards themselves or well as the symbols associated

As we know based on the Yorknew City arc, the Phantom Troupe have got their fortune told by Neon Nostrade's ability. These fortunes are always accurate in some way, shape or form, and thus represent fate itself. The Troupe are symbolized by the 13 Lunar months in the fortunes

Here we already see one instances in which Hisoka tempers with fate. He forges his fortune with Texture Suprise and as a result, symbolically alters fate, thus misleading the Phantom Troupe and further creating the perfect conditions for his desired outcomes

A deck of cards contains 52 cards, representing the weeks in a year. The 13 cards in a suit represent the 13 Lunar months. Hisoka, as a magician who is often seen arranging cards in various ways and who always fights using them, is thus a symbolically in control of causality

This is further substantiated by how he causes the descriptions within the fortunes to become reality - after his fight with Chrollo, he uses the fact that the latter has Shalnark's ability to kill him. Ironically, the way this unfolds mirrors Shalnark's fortune perfectly

The phone rings, just like described, and Shalnark makes the mistake of picking it up. Note how Chrollo specifically is the one who makes the call, the character who is the most fatalistic and also one of Hisoka's most important subjects and parallels

Hisoka's speech bubbles are often decorated with the heart, clubs, diamonds or spades symbol. What I propose is that these symbols do not only function as tone indicators, but reflect Hisoka's intentions and motivations for saying the particular things he says

♥️ - The simplest of the 4. Represents sincerity and curiosity

♣️ - Signifies chaos, also often used in an inquisitive/investigative way

♦️ - Represents Hisoka working towards a specific goal,

♠️ - Represents him committing to a certain role and being more task-oriented

The suits represent seasons symbolically. Heart being spring, clubs being summer, diamonds being autmn and spades being winter. This is important in regards to Hisoka's visual characterization. In the series we see him with two different shirts, either Heart/Diamond or Club/Spade

I think the specific shirt he wears sets an overarching tone for him. Club/Spade meaning a more serious and task-oriented modus operandi, whereas Heart/Diamond indicates a far more playful and whimsical conduct. This is very much apparent when looking specific at occassions

For instance during the Hunter Exams, a context with a specific goal, he wears Club/Spade, as he does during his fight with Chrollo. Contrary to that he wears Heart/Diamond during the Heaven's Arena arc, an arc where he very much was not pursuing a specific goal

Note that during Greed Island, his outfit is blank, which very much ties into this as well. GI was a transitory place for him, as his plans to fight Chrollo seemingly just broke down and he was waiting for the seeds he planted to finally bear fruit (as they inevitably did)

All of these design choices that coincide with the thematic framework of the series are deliberate stylistic choices made by Hisoka himself, and this fact is vital in understanding his position within the story and his interplay with the reader aka us as an audience

This concludes the first part of many in this thread dissecting Hisoka. For anyone who has read until now, it's highly appreciated as always. Imma leave off with Hisoka's Nen analysis for now

Let me clarify this again.

Heart = Childhood (Spring)
Club = Youth (Summer)
Diamonds = Growth (Autumn)
Spades = Adulthood/Old age (Winter)

Also I think the red suits have a tendency of being truthful whereas the dark ones tend to be dishonest.

I use the word tendency very consciously, as I do not think this can be assigned a 100% reliable level of consistency (as can be said about Hisoka himself). Rather, I think there are patterns that occasionally get broken but, in a holistic view, still prove useful

This contextualizes the shirts - the two ambigious/transitory seasons (spring, autumn) present the more whimsical and spontaneous Hisoka (honest), whereas the more rigid/defined seasons (summer, winter) define a Hisoka who is focused on his task and not up for distractions (liar)

As I said prior, these things in particular are conscious design choices by him - HE chooses which clothes he wears just as HE chooses to use these cards. The fact that the suits are tone indicators also suggest that he is saying different things with different cadences and tones

But the question arises: Why do all that? My personal hunch is that Hisoka, in a sense, is perching on the edge - as we know he lives off the thrill, and I think all these subtextual signals serve to give whoever he is interacting with a chance of deciphering his intentions

This inherently puts him at risk, and risk is what Hisoka has a particular fondness for. The secondary way this behaviour manifests is that Hisoka, in an abstract sense, seems to be playing a game with the audience (us) as well

He hides his intentions in plain sight - the card suits in combination with his dialogue and elusive nature end up creating a real-time puzzle that, if enough effort is put in, can be deciphered by the reader. The more we decipher, the more we get behind his aspirations

This is even more intriguing and pronounced if we consider how little we know about him. We have no idea about his childhood or the path he has traversed before the story thus far. Even his last name was revealed in chapter 351, a whole 18 years and 5 days after his introduction

And yet, despite being shrouded in such mystery and not sharing information, he ends up one of the characters we can most confidently define - the character who is most discernable in conduct and mannerisms. In a sense, we know more about him than those we have a backstory about

Now to get to the biggest reason why I say he actively shapes fate - his relationship with death. Death is the only destination everyone is guaranteed to arrive at, and having active control over death intrinsically results in actively controlling people's fate

Hisoka is often associated with the number 4, which as broadly known is considered an unlucky number in various countries, and the number can also be read as 'death' in japanese. Hisoka is Troupe member number 4, his Hunter Exam badge number was 44 and the list goes on

Add to that he has grim reaper imagery, and it pretty much is self evident that he has a strong connection to death. Also the fact that he kills the Troupe members and that act being a direct translation of fate transpiring adds to it as well

Then there's the fact that he is a complete antithesis to Chrollo. Where Hisoka has among the strongest self of sense, Chrollo completely denounces his identity. Where Hisoka could never be part of a larger framework and only needs himself, Chrollo defines himself through a group

They are polar opposites, and it is particularly why Hisoka is so invested in tickling Chrollo's soft spots and getting him to tip over the edge. Whereas he thrives within closed rooms (limitations), Hisoka thrives within out in the open (freedom/agency)

This even bleeds through in their banter and general dialogue. Whereas Chrollo is more concerned with aesthetic as he leaves everything up to fate, Hisoka is more concerned with the outcome. Simple lines, but very telling of their dispositions

Death is a destination, and control over said destination leads to control over the future. This is one of the many layers this particular page contains. In all honestly it's one of the most layered pages I've seen

I plan to write a thread further elaborating on this, but for now I will share that left and right carry a significant symbolic connotation within Hunter x Hunter - Togashi is ridiculously consistent with it and almost obsessively integrates it into a myriad of aspects

Hisoka not only willingly losing but covering his RIGHT arm in cloth represents him being free or corruption, as right in HxH is associated with the opposite of what it is in real life - whereas traditionally and religiously right is the 'good', in HxH it is switched with left

Him saying he can predict the future is not a lie, it is a realisation he has made (note the use of diamonds suit which represents growth and realisation/milestones). Also, coincidentally Castro has scarred Hisoka's face in a way that erases the tear make-up he usually has

Funnily enough, the line in the prior panel also foreshadows (or rather, predicts) the way he loses to Chrollo in the very same arena he says it in - he squandered his memory capacity and lost track of the ability Chrollo was cycling through. Again, as if he controls the future

And in that same fight he loses, Chrollo does something similar to Castro - he blows up Hisoka's LEFT hand, in-series associated with positive connotations like agency, control, well judged. This represents Chrollo challenging Hisoka's status in the series symbolically

But as we know, an agent of fate cannot succumb to it - and thus, Hisoka escapes death, in the process becoming a whole different beast than before due to the surge of power Post-Mortem Nen gives a person

And in an ironic, microcosmic way, he heals himself and even fixes up the damaged left hand, as if to reaffirm his role and position within the narrative. Chrollo did not damage him in this sense, and as revenge Hisoka immediately goes to enact fate upon Shalnark and Kortopi

In relation to the cards, another important aspect that tells us about Hisoka are the numbers on the cards. The general meaning I could gather is as follows

Now let's run through a few occasions and see if this adds up. Here, Hisoka kills a contestant of the Exam using three cards - 4, 8 and 10. This is coherent with the associated satisfaction, power and success - aspects that are channeled whenever Hisoka kills somebody

The dead guy on the ground here was killed by the number 7 which represents victory. Again it is coherent

Then, during the Castro fight he pulls out an Ace of Spades from his right arm after a hilarious magic performance. Funnily enough it's a special edition that depicts a skeleton, the most basic symbol of death.

I can't understate the importance of this. I think one of the overarching points Hunter x Hunter as a series makes, is that even if determinism is a fact of the universe, the factors ultimately leading to it are defined by DESIRE - as stated earlier, it is what makes us human

The Ace is the symbol representing desire, the Spade + the Skeleton are symbols representing death (or rather fate). Thus, him pulling the card out of his right arm represents his desire to oversee/enact death and fate. A ridiculously casual microcosm of his whole character

Here he threatens Killua with the 2 of Spades - Spades representing his serious and task-oriented side, and 2 representing the Union he is actively upholding by threatening Killua in order to appear loyal to the Phantom Troupe

When he fakes his fortune, misleading the Troupe and agitating Nobunaga, he draws the 4 of Diamonds to ready for battle. The Diamond representing him being working towards a goal, and the 4 representative of the Satisfaction he got from his misdirection bearing fruit

Also funny once you realize inbetween the time of Killua/Gon being captured and the fortunes being told, he switched the shirt he was wearing. Just goes to show how deliberately Hisoka himself picks and chooses how to present himself depending on context and intention

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