I received a message asking me to elaborate on Meteor City and what kind of place it is. Which, first off, thank you for that, kind Tumblr user! I love an excuse to type away about Hunter X Hunter (///ω///)♪
Originally I planned to just message them back but because I am a professional yapper my reply got so long that I figured I should just make it into a post to avoid spamming them (and because it might be of some use/interest to others as well? Hopefully? lol)
Also, I may have accidentally neglected to mention a number of things in this post, which I apologize for beforehand. Feel free to add any of those things, if you want to! I was writing most of this off the top of my head while waiting for my boat so I'm likely even more knuckleheaded than usual jhkmtl
Anyway here's my post about why Meteor City sucks and why you wouldn’t want to live (or God forbid grow up) there
Now, we don't get a ton of detailed information about MC. Mostly snippets and clues. But I think the pieces are enough to put together a less than pretty puzzle, to put it mildly.
Not even the city's beginnings were pleasant. It was set up over a millennia ago as an internment camp by some unnamed dictator. Somewhere along the way it became the world's disposal site, and has been for 1,500 years. Other countries toss whatever they want to get rid of there (bodies and babies included) – to the point that it literally is a big garbage dump more than a place to live at this point.
Whenever Togashi draws MC, the literal mountains of trash are what's most prominent.
That being the case, it's easy to imagine the dirty and unsanitary living conditions this entails. Citizens are sometimes seen wading through the stinking trash in full protective gear, likely to protect themselves from the fumes. But those are select adults. The kids are exposed to this stinking and harmful filthy air daily. Perhaps they get used to it, but it's telling just how foul the stink must be when Phinks' first thought upon entering the Black Whale's waste disposal room is that it reminds him of the smell back home. So the smell of feces from hundreds of thousands = the fragrance of Meteor City, basically. Yikes.
While we're still on the topic of living conditions, one thing you'll notice is that we don't (at least in the flashback) see actual houses. Only haphazardly put together huts (amidst the ocean of garbage). Living in those would be tough in any circumstances, but just picture the winters or stormy seasons. I honestly would not be surprised if people froze to death there during particularly hard times (I don't for a second imagine those shabby little huts having radiators etc). The sole exception to this is the elders' surroundings, which are shockingly lavish and opulent in contrast. Whatever comforts or money/material gains the city receives seemingly go straight to the elders.
Another visual detail that sticks out to me is that many of the PT members we see in the flashback have torn shoes/sandals. It seems they only have the one pair. Another contrast to the elders fine clothes.
Then we are also told (during Chrollo and his friends' first performance) that basically everything in Meteor City breaks down. "All we get is junk". And that is literal. That's why Chrollo's dubbing shows made such a massive impact on not only his future comrades, but everyone else. This – a simple dubbing act – was the best thing that ever happened to these kids.
The main thing we learn early on about Meteor City (and the most crucial) is that it's citizens do not exist in the official sense. They have no registered names, birth records, nothing.
The children that end up there are usually dumped there as babies or toddlers (Phinks and Feitan for instance don't have data on their birth dates or bloodtypes). This lack of identity would probably fuck with anyone's head a bit (I hypothesize that this laid the groundwork for Chrollo's identity crisis). But worse than that, outsiders use their lack of documentation as a way to dehumanize them in the worst of ways. MC residents (mostly kids) were trafficked and/or killed in the hundreds every year while the PT were growing up. New little graves popping up outside of the church was tragically common, and something Chrollo remarks upon.
And none of these atrocities was against the law. Because legally MC citizens don't exist. That's why the place was a hotspot for killers, pedos, traffickers.
Basically the PT grew up being taught they had no worth in the eyes of the rest of the world (laying the groundwork for their "us vs them" mentality, their tribalism if you will. Chrollo and Shalnark we know don't even see themselves as belonging to the same species as non-MC humans. This is likely true for the other PT members as well). And this lack of humanity was directly and conclusively demonstrated to them in the way Sarasa was disposed of – strung up in a literal garbage bag to hammer home what her killers saw her as. The message couldn't have been clearer to Chrollo and his friends. The little sister figure they loved and valued was no more than disposable trash to outsiders. (And, again, Sarasa was one of likely thousands of kids being brutalized like that atp. She was the final straw for the PT though, because of what she meant to them).
These factors (and also the likely numerous snuff videos the PT watched as teenagers to find Sarasa's killers), to my mind, likely cemented the PT's attitude (that being hatred or utter apathy) toward outsiders. The world either hunted, tortured and killed them for sport, or turned a blind eye to their suffering. So in return, the PT don't care about the world (apart from themselves and their home).
But it's not just garbage or poverty or outsiders that made MC a horrible environment for the young PT. The adults around them did nothing to protect or nurture them. On the contrary the ones we see are either neglectful or seem to have done active harm.
Let's look at the elders for the latter example. I already talked about how they appear to selfishly hoard whatever wealth and comfort that come in their way. Additionally it seems little was done to actively shield children from being kidnapped (on the contrary they have – or used to until the PT wrecked that in Yorknew – a deal with the mafia where they traffic their own citizens to them in exchange for money and weapons). But not only that, the way they spoke of Chrollo in chapter 395 is highly concerning. They want an 11 year old child to solve Meteor City's problems, and I believe they've made Chrollo aware of that. That's why he is so quick to take on responsibility for things like Sarasa's disappearance and murder. Something that was in no way shape or form his fault. What the elders did to Chrollo as a child is a form of grooming.
It says more than enough about what sort of individuals they are imo.
Then there is the lack of parental figures. We only hear of wet nurses, but only in Sarasa's (the youngest's) case. It's telling though that neither they nor the elders appear to actively help search for Sarasa when she disappears, instead leaving it to the kids. Hell, Sarasa's wet nurses didn't even clock that she was missing until the following day when Chrollo and Sheila came looking for her. Like wtf? It's almost as if they don't care that there is a child abduction spree going on...
It's also pretty telling I think that Chrollo (who clearly loved and was close to Sarasa, enough so that her murder changed the whole trajectory of his life and traumatized him forever) had never once met Sarasa's wet nurses prior to her disappearance. Nor do said wet nurses show up for her funeral.
From this we can conclude that MC kids are mostly left to fend for themselves in an objectively dangerous environment.
Really the only "good" thing to come out of growing up in Meteor City is the bond between its citizens. "Thinner than water, thicker than blood". There is very clearly real and fierce love between the PT members, and they've dedicated their lives to avenging Sarasa and to protecting Meteor City (because let's be real no one else did while they grew up). Needless to say the Troupe went way overboard, lost their way, and are now arguably as bad as the people who killed their friend.
But even this bond between citizens is at times extremely harmful. Let's look at this example from chapter 102.
This tells you everything about just how extreme and how destructive their mentality is. Suicide bombings and revenge killings (for the most minor of offences) are applauded in Meteor City.
So in summary, Meteor City is a hellhole. An objectively damaging place to grow up in.
Now, does this excuse the PT's numerous atrocities? No. Not at all. Nothing ever can. But their background and "upbringing" does help to explain how and why they came to be who they are.
