The Morality of Gon Freecss - An Addendum

hey guys just a few things i'd like to mention here firstly i recorded this video more than a year ago so if any view counts video titles or mentions of time seem off that would be why the audio will sound somewhat different as well so sorry about that secondly there are a few common examples in this story that i don't mention that are integrated with the original video so here i'd like to bring up gon's rather chilling words to meleoron upon first meeting him or his willingness to use a hunter as bait to get close to hisoka during the exam and also the way that both biski and zapyal reflect upon the double-edged nature of his purity as i'll mention in the video none of these are indictments of gone and none of these prove that he's bad or wrong they're all just proof of his nuance and they're contributory to my point so i wanted to mention them next i want to sort of criticize myself here in the original video i kind of frame things as a set of rules that gon follows in high stakes situations however while i could bend over backwards to try and state that these rules apply in every situation there are a couple of instances where they can be contradicted in the story i'd rather frame them as general patterns that gone adheres to instead of strict rules since i think contextualizing them in that way is kind of dismissive of the human richness of the character i do spend time in this video stating how those rules can apply to some examples that people asked about but just know that i don't think that they apply all the time and they should instead be viewed as dynamic thought processes that sometimes don't pan out i think that's more reasonable and lastly while i do essentially change up my hypothesis as you'll see this is just one interpretation of how to view gone and it sure as hell isn't the only valid one there are definitely other ways to view him as long as they can be backed up and i don't claim that mine is the optimal way as i'll state in the video while this can be a darker or harsher way to view gone i still absolutely love the kid and i think he's a wonderful person because i think that he can be selfish and hypocritical in instances people sometimes view my video as slander but i assure you that that isn't the case anyways with all that said i hope the video is somewhat valuable to you [Music] more than two years have passed since i released one of my most popular and controversial videos ever the morality of gone freaks at the time that it was released it caused quite a stir and a tiny bit of a shift in the critical reception and feelings towards him it caused some people to find reasons behind why they disliked gone it caused others to realize new things about him and it provided some fans with a greater appreciation for his character his actions during the chimera ant arc why kite's death affected him the way it did and for the series as a whole i am quite proud of the video and consider it to be good but there are a number of things about it that i feel i must clarify there are problems elaborations and further evidence for my interpretive analysis that i feel must be considered when looking at my final point that aren't present in the video and as such i decided to make this as a sort of addendum and accompaniment for that video i am far from perfect and just like everyone else i do tend to miss some things or make mistakes hopefully this video will clear up any misinterpretations or confusion [Music] firstly and very importantly the video was not meant to be a moral judgment of gone it was simply meant to point out his unique sense of morality some have gotten quite upset at the things i said about him and for some reason assumed that i have some sort of agenda against gone as a character and dislike him now to start i would not write and edit a 25 minute analysis on a character i didn't like and secondly i never meant to chastise him god's morality is entirely necessary in a setting like this which demands the beings within it to be cynical and pragmatic to survive it is not a bad thing that he ignored the deaths of so many during the hunter exam i was simply pointing it out to lead up to my points about his hypocrisy and mentality and it is not a terrible thing that he's a hypocrite either i'm sure we all are to a certain extent none of my video was ever a moral judgment simply because i don't believe that any productive discussion could be had from personally judging right from wrong in these sort of situations but rather exploring the characters the themes associated with them and how they contribute to their respective stories tends to be much more useful in my opinion also over the last two years people have tended to comment things like he's just a kid stop expecting him to be a saint he's just a flawed human like the rest of us not only do i never say within the video that i expected him to be a saint but additionally the idea that gone is just a flawed human like the rest of us is literally one of the main points of the video due to these reasons i just outright ignore or dismiss most of these comments because the people who write them either didn't listen or didn't watch the full video anyways next i need to emphasize this point gone does not have inconsistent morals i did say that it seemed like gons behavior was inconsistent in the beginning of the video but i only meant to use that as a frame of mind that i actually contradicted by the end to prove my point admittedly this is not clear in the video and i should have worded that better my fault he actually has a very consistent sense of morality and my video details how and why but my communication was poor and may have confused some people additionally there are a couple of sections of the video that i need to comment on here the first being the ponzu point i spent a couple of minutes talking about how dangerous it was for gon to leave ponzu stranded on the island and how this was a big indicator of his morality i acted as if he was putting her at severe risk by doing this but to be completely fair this was a mistake and a misinterpretation on my part he had fulfilled his end of the bargain with her by rescuing her from the cave there was no evidence of any vicious wildlife on the island even though it could have been a factor the hunters on the island were just stealing tags and would probably not try to hurt an unconscious ponzu unless she gave them reason to and overall it's just not as drastic of an act as i made it out to be sure he prioritizes leorio's tag over hers and he doesn't totally accommodate her needs which does contribute to my main point it definitely doesn't contradict my overall argument so it's not totally out of place but admittedly it is a reach and it leaves quite a bit to be desired in terms of solid evidence and there are a bunch of other instances from the story that i could have used as stronger proof instead some of which i'll mention in a bit it should also be noted that while i made a statement in the video about how gone is written in comparison in contrast to other shonen protagonists i said that from a position of false authority at the time of the video i had not seen as much shonen as i implied by that statement so i'd welcome you to dismiss those statements from this video because they were based on assumptions rather than genuine experience at the time as i've stated in the past certain elements of him are deconstructive but i made it seem like he stood apart from all other shonen protagonists as a whole which was a poor thing to say on my part built from a lack of evidence and a misunderstanding of some of togashi's intent i discussed this topic in my comparison between the 1999 and 2011 anime adaptations so check that video out if you'd like next there's a comparison that i made between benalt and nobunaga and how gon's attitude towards them differs due to how he views their quote-unquote use to him and his friends my point was that these two are both mass murderers who had done terrible things but one has hurt gon and his close friends and one ends up helping him unintentionally or otherwise and he views the one who helps him as something close to a friend without caring much for his past acts while he despises the other a few have gotten surprisingly upset at this comparison because one they say that the phantom troupe are without doubt substantially worse people than binolt and two they say that benolt had remorse so that's why gone acted favorably towards him firstly the question of whether or not the troop members are worse people than benott when weighing everything they've done is completely irrelevant to my point gone does not know the nuances of benult's past and how his misdeeds differ from the spiders and my point was all about gon's perception in gon's eyes there are two mass murderers one helps him one hurts him he accepts and smiles at the one that helps and ignores his crimes and he hates the one that debilitates him now of course there are a bunch of other variables here such as the atmosphere of the situations and gone's mental state in the moment but i don't think there is anything present that renders this comparison invalid and as such i consider it a succinct demonstration of his morality secondly as i alluded to gon had no knowledge of benalt's growing feelings for remorse and there was no outward indication of such at all from the outside it simply looked as if he had given up or tired out he did not voice his remorse to gon biski and kilua before gon's kind demeanor towards him but even still gon told him in a very friendly manner that he helped kilauea and him he treats benolt as if he was a very nice person primarily because he helped them and he literally says this which is again a great point for my interpretation some have said that gone simply sensed that benolt was planning to turn his life around through his intuition and while this is possible i personally find this interpretation to be quite flimsy those are just my thoughts on it though and like i said i'm not ruling it out there is also a tiny little part of the video that again annoyed a couple of people and i really don't think it should have i mention offhandedly that gon doesn't really feel any remorse or negative feelings about his first kill when you may have expected something from him something i should have clarified is that this is his first human or humanoid kill as he has definitely killed wildlife on whale island prior to then and his kill in the cave doesn't count because kite finished the job and if he didn't view the chimera ant armadillo thing as humanoid because of its heinous acts well that's as contributory to my point as anything else but some huge disproportionate deals about this part of the video specifically were made as if i had said that this was definitive proof that gom was a psychopath or something some sarcastically asked if gon was supposed to break down crying because of his first kill and questioned if that would have satisfied me as if i was criticizing the story or the character personally for this and this was bewildering to me especially as i stated how minor of a point this was in the first place if you watched the video back then you'd see that i almost dismissed the points but say that i thought i'd mention it anyway it's just a mere minor observation gone was unfazed and cold after killing a humanoid creature for the first time it's a fact it's not a judgment and once again it is what he definitely should have done lastly here a general theme among the watchers who didn't like my video is that it left them with a bit of a bitter taste in their mouths because while i do mention multiple times that gone is positive good-natured and kind the video is largely focused on gone selfishness naivete and hypocrisy now i have a few things to say about this point i do agree that as a holistic representation of the type of character gone is the video just isn't fair in that regard however what i must emphasize is that the video was not intending to be a summary of the type of person gone is overall it was intending to shed some light on his darker characteristics it may be difficult to imagine in the present but in early 2017 at the time that i was making this video not many people really talked too too much about the darker aspects of gone at least not in the areas that i frequented on the internet so my intent with the video was to bring a different perspective to light for the sake of debate and discourse was it a bit incendiary and exaggerated sure but that was the point to push discussion in a certain direction you need a bit of a nudge now yes i talked more about gon's darkness than his light in that video but again that was the point and i've talked a ton about why gone is such a wholesome and empathetic character in other videos since then including my kilo overview and my video on the theme of passing the torch of kindness so it's not that i don't acknowledge that gone is a good kid in that video like i said i mention his good nature within it it's just that that wasn't the intent of that specific analysis simply put gone as a pure boy and purity manifests in both positive and negative ways that video talks about a lot of the negative ways and my other videos discuss the more positive ways now my overall hypothesis on gon's morality and the steps i included to understanding his behavior are mostly unchanged but i do have some caveats and layers to add to them to expand and deepen this a bit some of this is stuff that i thought was assumed knowledge but should have clarified some are things that i thought of after the fact some i forgot to include and some is stuff that was brought to my attention from others after i posted the video something that i bring up to a great extent in my parallel gone hisoka video that i thought was assumed knowledge in this one was the fact that gone's learned sense of morality is a result of his upbringing specifically being brought up on an island where he very likely witnessed survival of the fittest in nature firsthand i should have mentioned this in the video because although i assumed this was obvious failing to mention it at all was a mistake as it is very important as i state numerous times across so many of my videos togashi very often focuses on environmental factors in shaping his characters so it's not surprising that gon thinks this way given that he grew up on an untamed wild island it's a huge part of why he tends to only care about people issues or things that are interesting or somehow beneficial to him and his group of friends i've since started referring to gone sense of morality with regards to those close to him versus those opposing him as animal pak mentality also there are many other situations throughout the story that i did not mention in the video that have been brought up as an example for my rule that gone only cares about what will benefit himself and his friends when the stakes are high and that he judges a person by whether or not they benefit or interested him before deciding if he likes them and once he decides that someone is a friend of his he is willing to do nearly anything for them because he has a good heart anyways a good example of this is when gon first finds out that kilauea is an assassin he doesn't judge him or react with fear and he takes it all in stride kilauea makes note of this and appreciates it as well he sees kilowatt as the type of person he is not as his title or occupation of assassin kilo was nice and friendly and interesting when the others react in fear and shock to killua's killing of jonas gone is absolutely unmoved because he accepts who he is and he is a constant friend to him regardless of his tendencies and background that isn't to say that leoria and krapika don't accept kilauea but gon never holds any reservations at all and that is what's unique about him for another instance to prove my point after greed island gone decides to save and heal genthru and his friends after defeating them even after all of the horrible things they did why because at this point they had ceased to be an obstacle and all was well so gone held no ill will anymore to reference a different occasion some have asked why gon risked his life right in the beginning of the show to save the boy who fell overboard during the storm and the answer is quite simple if we recall and as i just mentioned i made a big point about perceived stakes in the video gone only acts radically selfish when he perceives the stakes to be high such as in life or death situations or when it involves passing or failing the exam as a boy who has grown up alongside nature and harsh elements gone simply did not view the stakes as high nor did he see the situation as life-threatening for himself a storm and some waves are nothing to him so he was able to act altruistically here even if it was a rash move that required help from leorio and kurapika however in addition to all of that there is a layer to add to gohan's mentality that i don't mention in the original video i've come to learn through some comments since the video that gone has a fixation on his perception of an individual's nature this was an idea proposed by brandy giles in the comments of the original video so all credit for it goes to them while i don't entirely agree with every point made in the comment overall it's a great theory and i've since come to integrate some of it into my previous theory my integrative explanation for this taking that theory into account is the following gone often gets very upset when someone acts in a way that contradicts what he believes their nature to be this works in seamless conjunction with my assertion of how he chooses to associate with people if he initially finds someone to be interesting or beneficial he almost immediately becomes close with them and becomes loyal to them if he decides that they are not or is in a situation where he just can't realistically adhere himself to people he passively and apathetically dismisses them in a sense like the randoms at the hunter exam or ponzu again this is completely understandable and if we didn't decide to be indifferent towards people at times we would just never have the time for our own needs now in addition to this and as said by that comment i referred to if gone decides that those in question have gone against what he believes to be their nature he loses it because he simply can't conceptualize or relate to that sort of situation it shows itself in situations with nobunaga or pito and tells quite a lot about gon in addition to showing his hypocrisy he believed that the spider killed because it was their nature but seeing compassion grief and caring from them makes him lose it because that means that it likely wasn't and that they made active choices to do terrible things independent from what he believes the inherent nature of someone capable of care to be which is a situation that he is not familiar with and at odds against he initially assumed that caring for others made one a good person but then why are the spider doing terrible things because they then took the effort to commit a heinous act even if violence may not have been ingrained in them in the first place it makes gong question his whole idea of what a good person is while also making him angry because them making active decisions to murder is much worse than them following their instincts to murder in his opinion but unfortunately for him gone's ideals don't develop after this and he stays in stasis he assumes that pito killed kite because it was in her nature which is actually true but when her motivations change he cannot handle that either because of this supposed contradiction it is a layer of complexity and moral grayness in people that gon has trouble comprehending now this additive point contributes more razer focus to gone psychology and provides a more layered picture than shown in the video so many thanks to those who have pointed this out to me particularly brandy giles who laid it out most succinctly now given some of the conclusions that i make about gone some viewers who watched my video seemed to find interest in speculating about gon having some sort of psychological disorder some have called him a psychopath or sociopath both of which are categorized under anti-social personality disorder in the most updated version of the dsm the diagnostic tool in the world of psychology and neuroscience while i actually find it to be a pretty reductive conversation to try and diagnose fictional characters due to how vague criteria is currently and simply because i think in most cases it doesn't say a lot about the character unless it's really obvious despite that i'd like to put my opinion out there and add my two cents as i said in the video the traits he shows in the chimera ant arc and especially towards pito and komugi are indeed very extreme but what i think is so genius about them is that they are radical personality extensions of the way a common kid in his situation would act a kid who was face to face with the one responsible for killing a loved one one who was now asking for something in return and showing compassion now that it mattered to them a kid who was unable to let go full of guilt and grief and gifted with insane power and potential one of the most horrifying things about gon's breakdown is how close it hits to home due to this and how much it contributes to the ark's musing about the darkness of humanity i am very sure that gone is not a psychopath he does indeed have a few sociopathic traits a bunch of which i mentioned in the video but that is nothing out of the ordinary as a lot of us tend to have sociopathic traits as well and that doesn't automatically make us all sociopaths i'd just like to stress that framing gone as something other than a pretty normal albeit selfish genuinely good-hearted young boy plagued by hypocrisy and innocence undercuts a lot of what togashi is trying to say with his breakdown and dark transformation his progression in chimera ant is surprising in many ways but he really is a genuinely good-hearted kid and pretty stereotypically shown in fashion and as i state in my 2011 versus 1999 comparison that is a big part of the philosophy of the story in the end i really hope that this clears up and clarifies that video as well as providing some extra points to the interpretation gone is a character that requires a lot of nuance to fully understand and admittedly my original video missed out on some of the nuance that i've since come to comprehend and appreciate and of course that is thanks to some of you as well my hope is that these two videos become two parts of a whole to correct a few of my mistakes and add some depth to the main thesis obviously i wouldn't dream of stating that i know all there is to know about gon or that my opinion is the objectively correct one or the only way to view him i'm sure that i haven't captured everything about the character and will undoubtedly come to realize new things about him in the future but this is what i've got for now many thanks for watching and i'll see you all next time you

Channel: Aleczandxr

Views: 138,774

Rating: 4.9565268 out of 5

Keywords: hxh, hxh 2011, 1999, shonen, hunter, shounen, arc, greed island, exam, gon, morality, ging, killua, kurapika, meruem, arena, zoldyck, illumi, chrollo, yorknew, troupe, spider, leorio, netero, chimera, ant, pitou, youpi, pouf, election, pariston, continent, manga, chapter, hiatus, succession, analysis, review, reaction, scene, hisoka, fight, episode, best, moments, scenes, top 10, top 5, aleczandxr, character, animation, anime, madhouse, togashi, knuckle, morel, shoot, kite, nen, power

Id: Nz1byLF5Dqc

Length: 23min 46sec (1426 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 21 2020