User blog:CiscoTheSoto/Pure Good Removal: Gon Freecss

This is a proposal to permanently remove Gon Freecs, the main character of Hunter x Hunter, from the Pure Good category. Even though someone already removed that category, I just want to make it official and conclude that he’s not qualified.

Who is he and what has he done?
Gon Freecs is a 12 year-old boy who lives with his aunt and great grandmother. His dream in life is to become a hunter and meet his father, Ging Freecs, who is also a hunter and left him on Whale Island in order to continue on his path as a Hunter. His entire drive has revolved around that, and on his journey to become a hunter and meet his father, he encounters several people and befriends quite a few of them. Throughout his travels, he has shown no general hostility towards others, even murderers. Interestingly, his best friend, Killua Zoldyck, is a son of an infamous assassin family called the Zoldyck family. He has killed many people, even though he is 12 years old, but despite this, Gon does not care and becomes Killua’s best friend. Furthermore, it’s been made obvious that he doesn’t have a real moral compass: instead of viewing things based on right or wrong, he acts based on his curiosity and how much others do for him. However, this view can change: Gon and Killua encounter the Phantom Troupe, a group of criminals who kill whoever they want and steal whatever they want for money. They’ve killed countless people, although this doesn’t bother Gon. What bothers Gon is when he learns they are capable of shedding tears for their fallen comrades: this upsets Gon because he can’t understand why the Phantom Troupe can’t cry for all the people they’ve killed. This is quite the interesting view and shows how complex Gon’s morality is.

Like Killua, Gon admires Hisoka Morrow, a psychopath who only lives to enjoy the thrill of fights and has absolutely no qualms about killing anyone, for his power and frequently works together with him. This is an interesting side of him that reflects his child-like nature and lack of maturity. Furthermore, during the Greed Island arc, Gon and Killua work together to fight Binolt, a psychopathic cannibal who attempts to kill both children, but in the end, he is defeated. Despite this and despite knowing Binolt’s nature, Gon actually thanks Binolt for helping him and Killua to become stronger. One could say this is an example of his pure heart, but it more specifically demonstrates how he judges people based on what they do for him instead of their general character and their actions.

Why he does not qualify
Now, even though Gon will generally help people and go out of his way to lend support to others, this is only done with his friends or when there is nothing for him to lose in the transaction. There have been some instances in which he prioritizes his own interests before the lives of others: a good example of this was during the Hunter Exam, an exam he took alongside Killua and Hisoka. During this test, he had to get the tag of Hisoka in order to pass to the final challenge, but in order to do this, Gon waited for the perfect opportunity. That opportunity came when Hisoka was about to cross paths with another test taker, Agon. Gon knew full-well that Hisoka was full of bloodlust, and this man would certainly be killed, but Gon chose not to warn him and allowed Hisoka to attack. The confrontation gave Gon the chance to take Hisoka’s tag, but Agon was killed by Hisoka. A truly good person would have warned Agon and saved his life, but in Gon’s mind, passing the Hunter Exam was more important than saving a life. This highlights his selfish nature and unwillingness to help others if they get in the way of his goals. Adding onto this, during the Hunter Exam, he doesn’t even bat an eye when people are killed by monsters or other obstacles. He just looks at their deaths while still smiling and thinks little of it. To me, this demonstrates how isn’t affected by the deaths of others as long as the people who died are not close to him.

But here comes the main argument. Later in the series, Gon and Killua come across a Hunter named Kite. Kite was a disciple of Ging and had actually encountered Gon once on Whale Island before. The three of them spend time together and investigate a growing problem: the Chimera Ants, a species of insects that are killing humans to feed their queen. The three of them go to the nest of the Chimera Ants, but when they arrive, they are greeted by an immensely powerful Chimera Ant, Neferpitou. They is one of the Royal Guards created to protect the king, a Chimera Ant the queen is attempting to give birth to. This ant attacks them and slices Kite’s arm off. Gon becomes enraged and attempts to attack, but Killua stops him, and the two retreat while Kite fights Pitou. In the end, Pitou kills Kite and severs his head; they later cut apart Kite’s body and reconstruct it as a play-thing. From this point on, Gon begins his downward spiral into loathing and self-loathing. Gon blames himself for being too weak to save Kite, and becomes determined to make Pitou fix Kite and kill them for what they did. This obsession fills him with hatred and rage, making him oblivious to anything else. Now, one could argue that it was somewhat justified, but a pure good character wouldn’t allow their rage to consume them so profusely like Gon did. It’s ironic that Gon wanted to help another friend, Kurapika, who was fueled by rage and vengeance against the Phantom Troupe, who attacked his clan and took their eyes. Gon told him not to risk his life and continue his path of vengeance, but he literally did the same thing later on, exposing his immaturity and lack of understanding of the world.

When Gon and Killua go with a strike force to eliminate the Chimera Ants, Gon and Killua encounter Pitou, but to their surprise, Pitou is actually healing Komugi, a blind girl who had begun to grow on the Chimera Ant King, Meruem. She was injured during the raid, and Meruem ordered Pitou to heal her. But this did not matter to Gon: all he cared about was exacting revenge and healing Kite. He yells at Killua when he urges Gon to be patient, asking why he would trust Pitou after everything they did. Then, Pitou breaks their arm in an attempt to calm Gon and show him he may do whatever he wishes after they heal Komugi. Alas, Gon is not convinced: he smashes the ground, feeling conflicted and crying, going so far as to say it wasn’t fair that Pitou was showing empathy towards someone else. To me, it shows that Gon didn’t care about any redeeming qualities Pitou may have had or protecting any other life, wanting to view Pitou as this purely evil character and seeing it as unfair Pitou could be anything else, only caring about his agenda. If it wasn’t for Killua, Gon likely would’ve gotten Komugi killed, and while Gon did allow Pitou to heal Komugi, he treated her more like a bargaining chip than a person. He only gave Pitou an hour to heal, and cut her time by ten minutes later on. When Komugi awakened and Pitou tried to explain what happened, Gon proclaimed that if they spoke out of line again, he would KILL Komugi, and with the deadly aura he had, that was no bluff. This exposes Gon’s hypocrisy: before, when he came across the leader of the Phantom Troupe, he asked him how he could kill people who didn’t have anything to do with him. But now, he was willing to kill a blind girl in order to force Pitou to cooperate. Quite frankly, that is vile. It shows the lengths he was willing to go and the people he was fine with killing to get what he wanted. He also had Komugi be held as hostage by Killua and the other extermination team members to ensure Pitou’s cooperation.

Later on, when Pitou revealed Kite was beyond saving and he was dead, Gon fell to the ground in tears, but then became more determined than ever to kill Pitou. With only bloodlust and hatred fueling him, he made a “vow”, a sort of condition on himself which would require a greater explanation, but the bottomline is that in exchange for having all the power he would ever have, he was willing to sacrifice his life and his ability to use Nen, the energy that all characters draw in the HxH series, in order to kill Pitou. Not considering the impact his death would have on those close to him or trying to see the sense of good in Pitou, he killed the Chimera Ant without hesitation, repeatedly slamming their head in fury.

Due to the insurmountable burden of his vow, he was on the verge of death and was narrowly saved, but upon being revived, he showed no signs of guilt or reflection over his actions. The only thing he DID apologize for was to Killua for insulting him by saying it was easy for him to remain calm and composed because Kite didn’t mean as much to Killua, although even that apology was relatively weak. Other than that, he felt no shame for threatening a blind, innocent girl’s life or reflecting on Pitou’s determination to save Komugi to consider whether or not what he did was the right thing, and just went on like nothing had happened.

The Final Verdict
This should be an easy cut. His lack of a moral compass shown sometimes throughout the series and the way he fueled his rage without concern for his actions, I say, even make him an anti-hero.