if we're talking characters that were specifically introduced that arc, it would have to be komugi and meruem <3 for both them as individuals but also their relationship, and its ability to both parallel and contrast killua and gon's... everything. "gon you are my light" + meruem meaning "the light that illuminates all".... it speaks for itself. episode 135 never fails to reduce me to an absolute mess. first time i watched it i was crying to hard i couldn't breathe. sidenote : i've seen plenty of other shonen try to do the sympathetic villain and/or villain redemption arc...but honestly they rarely hit for me. IMO, a great deal of the reason Meruem works so well is togashi's commitment to portraying the moral ambiguity of the so-called 'good guys' (i'll be a netero-hater till the day i die), without leaning into tell-don't-show territory that becomes the pitfall of so many of these stories. it's like, sometimes a villain will corner the hero and be all "you're just like me! you're just one step away from becoming evil!" which is (often) demonstrably false, or the story alludes to the systemic inequality that created the conditions for this villain to exist, but fails to meaningful portray and address them. meruem is compelling for a great number of reasons--watching his growing sense of empathy warring with doctrine and biology, seeing how far he's come once he's able to find beauty in that which he once deemed weak, the ways in which his greater understanding of the world leads to a greater understanding of himself, and visa versa. but what really helps stick the landing for me is that the narrative is brave enough to MEANINGFULLY cast doubt on its heroes and the institution they serve. a lot of people reduce meruem's arc to "he becomes more human" which i think is missing some of the point. he embraces the beauty of humanity, yes, but is also forced to bear witness to its evils--and is eventually killed by the greatest symbol of human evil, the poor man's rose. but he dies happy, choosing beauty over violence, and our heroes victory is purposefully hollow, because THEY (netero, the hunter association, the institution) failed to make that same choice. virtue is not a granted fact of biology, it a choice we make. and so meruem's story is less of a redemption arc than a complete deconstruction of the status quo. and i LOVE it. i'm having a mess trying to articulate my point (ive never been concise a day in my life), but smarter people than me have already written great analyses of the chimera ant arc, i don't need to restate all that, you get the point. meruem, komugi, awesome 🫶
in regards to the supporting characters: i really do love the palace strike team-- morel, knuckle, and meleoron in particular. i also love colt and reina! (another tearjerker scene that always gets me is reina's reunion with her mother; in my heart there is an extended cut where colt reunites with his sister and mother as well.) oh, and shoutout kite! hope he comes back eventually i wanna see her shake ging by the shoulders and demand child support payments.
