(no subject)

[sigmaleph]

This has bugged me since approximately forever but hey, hxh reread is as good an excuse as any to publicly complain about it: It's pretty weird that Killua didn't know about nen before the Heaven's Arena arc.

Both in the sense of "why haven't they taught him this, he's clearly capable of learning and it's important for the career they want for him" and in the sense it makes later plot points less sensical if he didn't.

like, he can immediately recognise Zeno's Dragon Dive even though he hasn't spent any time with his grandfather since becoming able to see it. He knows at least some of the limitations on Illumi's ability to control people with needles. The latter could be via simple observation without knowing what nen is, but it should still be suspicious, right? He has to know some kinda magic thingy allowing mind control exists...

then again Alluka can grant wishes so y'know maybe he just figured "oh yeah people can do magic, it's a thing" without figuring out the details

and then further, Kalluto has a fairly well-developed ability as of the Chimaera Ant arc (and likely earlier) while Killua, generally acknowledged as a prodigy and the most talented of the younger Zoldyck generation, is still refining the details of his own ability. Kalluto is younger than Killua (and Alluka)

you can probably find explanations for any individual problem but it still feels like there's "killua's early nen instruction"-shaped hole in the plot