I hate him because I loved almost everything about his character.
I loved the way he had a moral code of his own, which wasn’t even moral at all, but it was still not influenced by society. I loved the fact he was presented as a magician: it was intriguing, and, I mean, a magician, there’s not much that needs to be said, come on. I loved how unusual his nen is: I love people that can turn an apparently weird power that nobody would normally define ‘strong’ into something incredible with a lot of useful possibilities. I loved his clothes choice, for no particular reason, but I loved it. I loved his link with cards: I love cards and games anyway, so all the more reasons to love him, right? I loved how he spoke with cards seeds in his baloons in the manga, and how his voice sounded in the anime, in general. Not to mention his song. I loved his song. I loved that pierrot-like tear on his cheek. I didn’t mind the star either, but damn, I just love pierrot-like tears. I loved his hair when it was blue, and I loved it even more when I discovered it was actually supposed to be red. I loved his eyes for being freaking yellow: I mean, yellow! I loved how he built castles with cards. I was intrigued by the fact he destroyed them too. I was intrigued by his mindset. And I loved how he played with Gon and Killua in the Greed Island arc. I loved him for being damn smart and scarily so. And I loved him for being on no one’s side but his own.
And all of these are the reasons why I felt so damn betrayed when he killed Shalnark, who I loved so much too. Because it wasn’t even a fight, Shal couldn’t use his nen. And because he attacked Kortopi while he was in the freaking toilet and that’s damn low. Because he had no real reason to attack them.
I could have accepted a death in a fight, probably. I’d be terribly sad anyway, but I wouldn’t have hated him for killing them. But this? No.
And so I felt betrayed. Very.
