In the middle of the climax of Hunter x Hunter’s
Chimera Ant arc, there is a moment of horrifying and conflicting quiet that occurs directly
in the eye of the storm, during which Neferpitou reflects with great happiness at the prospect
of her imminent death. Demise at the hands of this monstrous new
Gon would no doubt render him unable to use this power on her king, and so she is more
than willing to sacrifice all that she is if it means carrying out her life’s purpose. Now, comparing a snapshot of this Royal guard
in this state of embracing oblivion to her behaviour at the onset of Meruem’s birth
without context may lead one to believe that there was no great change in Pitou. Of course the gravity of the situation would
dictate that her peculiarities would fall by the wayside in the former situation, but
by and large - she lived solely for her king in the beginning, and she offered that life
for her king in the end. But it is through the wealth of subtle, tiny
changes that occur within and around this character in the elapsed time that the interpretation
of this final moment gets a wholly different and utterly profound meaning. The brief journey of Neferpitou is unbelievably
rich. On one hand it is a beautiful arc studying
an individual who grows to broaden her perspective and learn about the nuances of the world,
who stumbles into empathizing with others and finds a selfless love greater than one
can imagine. But simultaneously, it is a tragedy of someone
bound by that very same love, a love rooted in a duty that never allowed her to be free
enough to live for herself. Yet despite this, at the same time Pitou undoubtedly
found peace and purpose in the short life she had and the role she fulfilled, which
amplifies both the joyful and sad sides of her character. She is the epitome of contradiction in this
way, and today we’re going to dive into exactly what makes her so poignant. Pitou enters the story very much like a predatory
cat, appropriately. She acts instinctually - following her impulses
and the purposes and motives that seem to be built into her psyche. She is cruel, but it seems very much to me
that she does all of the things she does not out of any true ill will or malice towards
others, but as a result of a mixture of it being her duty and it being something she
views as beneath her, as a fun game. But most of all, this is her built-in instinct,
her programming. Upon birth, it’s just the way she was made
to think - that killing and serving the king is all that comprises her life, approached
with a cat’s nature. So of course she doesn’t stop to think of
ethics, nor does she really have intent of evil. It’s just who she is supposed to be as a
Royal Guard, so she embodies what feels right in the beginning and that unfortunately results
in direct antagonism for our characters, viewing the lives of most others as not being of much
consequence and looking at Kite as an entertaining diversion to test her strength on. In her early life, Pitou simply isn’t capable
of understanding the weight of her actions because she has no experience, knowledge or
context to draw from when it comes to what death even means. To her, killing and using others for her purposes
and playing with her prey is as natural as a feline killing a mouse, and she never thinks
about the moral ramifications of anything she does. Until she is given reason to. Human beings, a species that Pitou is undeniably
a part of, are very often incapable of truly understanding things until they themselves
experience them. You can feel sympathy for a friend who loses
a loved one, but only once you yourself lose a loved one can you really feel empathy and
sincerely relate to and understand them, which allows you to connect through your pain. Life knowledge, and in this case, experience
of suffering makes you all the more capable of kindness and perspective with regards to
others. And so with no information or experience of
personal emotional trauma, Pitou is incapable of exercising empathy, compassion, kindness
and perspective. Uninterested in bargaining, completely lacking
in light humanity, going off animal instinct and using human beings - and strong ones at
that - as tools and commodities to be disposed of after use. And this makes this monster looming ahead
of Gon, Killua and Kite so terrifying. Because every antagonist up until this point
has been imbued with some semblance of a layered or interesting viewpoint so that we could
more accurately understand them or find intrigue with them, which helps humanize them and make
them feel more multidimensional. Either that or they’re a loser like Genthru
who, despite being executed just fine, was someone we all just knew was never going to
be a genuine threat when all was said and done. None of these antagonists’ actions are shown
to be justifiable, but the majority of them are very understandable or intriguing, and
trying to better understand them can make their threat level seem like less of a factor
- at least for me. Pitou is entirely different though. She’s just an animal bound to her brutal
duty, and in the beginning, she is devoid of anything but that aforementioned instinct. Quirky personality aside, she’s a blank
slate, sadistically playful and focused on her goals pertaining to the King. And if you add the context of this portion
of the story and her enormous power to that, it makes her comfortably the most outwardly
threatening thing in the series that we’ve experienced up til now. It’s enough to cause such immense feelings
of powerlessness in both Gon and Killua, for different reasons, and the almost innocent
way she goes about this only goes to reinforce how little there is to her mentality at this
point. Pitou’s version of purity definitely hinges
on the dark. However, what else is a blank slate if not
a foundation for something to grow from? Because from the minute her king is born,
something begins blossoming inside Pitou - The beginnings of what I view as a platonic love. And it’s effects are not noticeable to her
or anyone else at first, but a seed of care and compassion sprouts when she first meets
the one she is to serve, just as the seeds of ego-less contradictory honour and maddening
delusional idealism were planted in Youpi and Pouf respectively. Nothing within her changes right away except
her capacity for change, but that is enough, and that is what makes all the difference. Meruem is this individual who is quite literally
Pitou’s entire purpose for existence in the same way he is for Youpi and Pouf, but
added to that is a huge and true amount of affection, which amplifies this connection
to the nth degree. Of course, she cares for him and has his best
interests in mind, and so do the other two. But they diverge in the manner in which that
care manifests. Pouf begins to break down internally as the
image of the King he is supposed to serve becomes incongruent with the real King and
does whatever he can to preserve Meruem’s original purpose out of pure duty. Youpi empties himself and seeks only to be
Meruem’s shield - unthinking, immovable and humble, an empty vessel from which a conflicting
chivalrous code later rose into prominence. And Pitou.. begins to wish for Meruem’s
best interests. She begins to want for Meruem what he wants
for himself, and not what she has been programmed to want for him. And one of the first instances of this is
her response to Meruem’s musings about what his name should be - a scene I’ve talked
about quite a lot in the past for how masterfully it divulges the contrasting mindsets of the
three Royal Guards. Somewhere down the line, Pitou’s unbending
Royal Guard allegiance morphed into something resembling a real love for Meruem, a desire
for him to be happy even if that happiness usurps his original purpose. Pouf defaults to the title of king and Youpi
feels incapable and unworthy of answering such a question, but Pitou’s answer is the
only one that consists of any true understanding of why Meruem was asking in the first place. Pitou is the only Royal Guard to really see
Meruem as a person. She is the only one to look at his evolution
and not be averse to it, and she is the only one to not care about him fulfilling his cold
destiny as long as he himself is happy. While I’ve gone to great lengths in the
past to describe why Pouf is an exceptional character who is paradoxically unsurpassed
in his loyalty, Pitou is far and away the only one who managed to understand who Meruem
was without having to be literally connected to his mind, and that’s because the human
trait that took root in her was a mix of true care and empathy. She is willing to have Meruem’s best interests
at heart because she cares for him as an individual, and she’s able to understand those interests
because she has the perspective to see through his eyes and intuitively comprehend how he
must feel. And this just grows over time as she unquestioningly
obeys Meruem’s orders about accommodating Komugi and ultimately becomes to one he defaults
to when it comes to carrying out his wishes, the only one with no qualms about caring for
the girl. When it comes to priorities, his protection
is of utmost importance, but for Pitou right up there with it is his desire. More than anything, what this all comes down
to is the fact that Pitou just wants to see him happy and healthy. She wants to do anything she can to contribute
to that. And this idea is the precursor to what I view
as one of the most powerful scenes in the entire series. A moment stopped in time, five people in a
room - one unconscious, four standing perfectly still for differing reasons. Then time begins to move again, and Meruem
implores, pleads with Pitou about his one desperate wish. Pitou being so overwhelmed that she is moved
to tears at this request has always been a curious and complex moment to me. There are several factors at play here - the
sheer stakes of the moment, the unbelievable amount of darkness emanating from Meruem,
the extent to which it was clear that he cared for such a frail human, perhaps a hint of
the idea that Pitou felt saddened by the fact that he seemed to show this girl more care
than he ever spared for her.. but more than anything, I think she weeps here out of sheer
conflicting fulfillment because of Meruem completely, wholeheartedly depending on her
for the happiness she so wishes for him. Everything rides on her. If she can heal Komugi, her master will be
joyous. If she cannot, he will be despaired. This is essentially the apex of her life as
this new empathetic Royal Guard, with her king relying so much on her and in such a
heartfelt way, and so this moment is the peak of her existence in a way similar to how Pouf
and Youpi felt through reviving Meruem.. though their reactions were obviously quite different. (Insert moans). But it’s very key here that while their
moments of peak existence resulted from rescuing the king’s life and physical body, Pitou’s
came from a much more abstract situation - saving his emotional soul rather than his mortal
one. I’m sure that she would have been fulfilled
beyond belief to have sacrificed her body for the protection of her King as the other
two did, and she actually was when encountering the conceptually similar situation I discussed
later on - but I’m even more sure that neither Youpi nor Pouf would have realized the sheer
weight and profundity of Meruem’s request here to the extent that Pitou did. Because they could never understand him the
way Pitou does. Healing Komugi had no bearing whatsoever on
Meruem surviving and becoming the ideal Chimera Ant King. In fact, her dying would have make that ideal
outcome more likely. And yet, Pitou goes against that for the sake
of what Meruem wants and doesn’t hesitate to do it for a moment. Killua’s comparison of her defense of this
weak and wounded girl to that of a mother protecting a cub is incredibly apt - not just
because of Pitou’s animalistic origins, but because of the base foundation for this
protection being borne of strong love. The dialogue here and the way that Pitou articulates
and conceptualizes this whole situation is brilliant. As someone completely foreign to these feelings,
Pitou spells things out in such a literal way. This helps make the situation clear for her
own benefit of course, but I also just think that that was her way of describing the internal
situation that must have been confusing to her in barebones terms. No mentions of love or care, only ones of
“importance.” But we get the message. The idea that she has indirectly grown to
care for Komugi’s safety still does not compute, so she can only describe it in terms
that she understands. But in spite of the description, that care
is real for what it means to Meruem. And note the contrast between her and Pouf
- she must preserve Komugi because if not, the King will cease being who he is. Far from trying to change him into what he
should be, Pitou loves Meruem for who Meruem is so much that him changing from who he is
is heartwrenching to her. And so she is willing to beg, crawl, tear
her own limbs off and submit herself to achieve the one thing that she feels her life has
lead to. If she can achieve it, Meruem can be fulfilled. If she fails, her life is forfeit and she
is nothing. Above all, at this point Meruem’s mission
for her is currently incomplete, and she simply cannot accept failure. Not just because it would invalidate her existence,
but because it would send the one who is important to her into darkness. And so now her purity hinges on the light. However, throughout the conflict she is constantly
looking for a way to kill Gon out of fear that he would go after the king, and through
getting to know his personal motives, further rapid evolution and realization occurs within
her. She has experienced fear for her king’s
safety, fear for his emotional well-being and overall now knows the pain of fear of
loss in general. And so, having suffered this herself, she’s
able to apply this to Gon’s suffering and see that Kite is to Gon what Meruem is to
her. She is able to see the beauty and tragedy
of connection. And in relating, she is able to deeply, honestly
apologize. She knows how much he is hurting, and she
can’t help but feel sad about the fact that she caused such pain. She still has to kill Gon in order to protect
her king, but that does not make her apology any less sincere. Here there is absolutely none of the playful,
cat-like malevolence that she embodied early on. Just raw sorrow that things had to turn out
this way. Because now that she understands people, she
realizes that there is nothing to be happy or flippant about in this situation. Yet along with her ability to empathize with
others and feel true care, her rapid evolution leads to one more very important change - the
nature of her acts of duty. And this is what can lead us along the train
of thought that makes her one of the most emotional characters in the story. Before she would offer herself wholly to the
king because that was the duty that defined her being. But now, she does the same thing simply out
of pure care for him. A selflessness born from obligation transforms
into a selflessness born from love. To heal Komugi at all costs despite there
not being any benefit to her personally, to keep Gon away from Meruem no matter what. In a period of time where Meruem was so very
alone and conflicted, Komugi was undoubtedly his shining light and salvation. But Pitou played just as big a factor through
seeing him with no misconceptions and saving his soul. To be clear, Pitou did extremely bad things
and none of the reasoning behind them that I’ve explained and none of her later progression
makes that okay. But her trajectory is more than enough for
me to feel extremely emotionally connected to her as a character, and very sad that she
had to meet such a fate after turning such a corner but before being able to use that
experience to change her life. For me, the tragedy of Neferpitou is not at
all based in the fact that she died whilst being so loyal. I think the saddest part about Pitou’s death
is that in this early portion of what could have been a long life, she was never able
to live and think about her own well being. About herself. She was fulfilled through Meruem’s fulfillment
and his desires were her desires, but when did she ever spare a thought for what she
wanted to do in life? Who she wanted to be? Of course, the possibility exists that even
after a ton of experience and reflection, she would have hypothetically landed at the
same place she had been already. Maybe her purpose for living was for her loved
ones, maybe expressing her care altruistically was the basis of her true identity and maybe
her behaviour during the Palace Invasion was her version of living for herself. It’s definitely a distinct possibility that
wouldn’t feel out of place for Pitou’s characterization. But what I mean here is that life is a series
of detours from which we grow in innumerable ways, and Pitou was simply not given the opportunity
to learn about herself and find out what she wanted. She only ever knew her duty and so she could
only ever apply her human traits to that duty. She was forced into a role and embraced that
role, but after learning that there was more to life she wasn’t able to choose for herself
after having grown from these complex situations. Yet, you cannot say that it isn’t fitting
and poetic writing given that she herself cut short so many similarly unfulfilled lives
prior to this. Having grown to understand the weight of death,
maybe she’d say that she really doesn’t have anything to complain about. Out of the three Royal guards, I think Pitou
was comfortably the one most capable of forging a relatively normal life for herself outside
of her duty. I don’t know if it would have happened for
sure, but I think we get just enough evidence by the end to show us that it was very possible. It may have taken him being literally spiritually
bound to Meruem to understand his true love for Komugi and his true identity, but in the
end Pouf was able to understand a perspective outside of his own. Youpi’s fight with Knuckle, Shoot, Morel
and Meleoron shows us that he was more than capable of forging bounds with others in a
way that contradicted his original purpose. And while Pitou’s empathetic nature functioned
almost exclusively for her King, that core of emotional intelligence had the potential
to give rise to seeing the perspectives of others as well - and we see the beginnings
of that through her very real and genuine apology to Gon for not being able to revive
his lost mentor. I think that if things continued to progress,
she would have been able to live a very fulfilling life for both herself and those she cared
for. But Fate was not that kind, and instead she
died. Happy, but not daring to wish for anything
more, before any of those questions could be answered. A gratifying self-sacrifice for an individual
happy to have devoted herself to the true wishes of the one she loved. Many thanks for watching.
