Read on Twitter
thread on why I dislike chrollo:
This is not a critique on togashis writing. This is about chrollo as a character. I beleive him to have a raging god complex and that he cares for himself more than anything in the world. his actions aren’t from a sense of finding himself but selfishness.
The spider: The spider is chrollos version of affection & love he didn’t get as a child. It’s toxic & has little regard for those who are apart of it. This is due to the fact he doesn’t think of them as individuals with feelings but ppl living for him through the spider.
He doesn’t love them as individual people but as a part of him that he needs to move and function. To compensate for his lack of understanding for himself he seeks self worth from the spiders actions. A common rebuttale to this claim is his tear for uvogin on his date with neon.
He’s not crying because he’s grieving for a family member. He’s crying bc he truly believes he’s been personally attacked by the universe because of someone else’s death. Chrollo sees the universe as something that is against him that works to hurt him.
Chrollo and mindset: he grew up believing people are puppets and the universe is an unpredictable, destruction causing force that doesn’t care about humans. His lack of self stems from this and the fact he thinks people have no free will.
His upbringing causes him to think of ppl as cattle to control or lifeless puppets to murder. Thinking of people as meaningless is fine unless you don’t choose to view yourself that way and chrollo doesn’t view himself like this at all.
Why does the spider steal if they don’t care about material things? Chrollo needs to be reassured he can puppeteer the universe in the same way he believes It does to humans. He’s reassuring himself he can be a pebble in the water and effect the world and be in control.
Ex: chrollo said Judas was not a traitor to Jesus as any action he took was out of his control. Chrollos mindset wasn’t created to find himself but excuse his actions. He can use this mindset to do things like killing and stealing while maintaining a sense of “purpose”.
Nen: We see his selfishness in his power aswell. he steals others abilities as he can’t decide on an identity & thinks ppl exist for him to take from. He latches onto things from the outside as he craves feeling like he has control over people as the universe does.
Neons power: chrollo believes in pre destiny and fate to unhealthy lengths but he doesn’t see them applying to him. We know this when he goes to great lengths to secure neons power to see the fortunes of the spider in which he responds these are “only possible fates”.
He views himself as extempt from the fate of the universe. He tries to transcend insignificance in anyway as he has a fear of being insignificant, being a nobody and not mattering to the world.
being forgiving to hisoka: His god complex is heavily displayed w hisoka. he’s leniant on hisokas actions and lets him do as he wants as he believes it to be out of hisokas control that he acts the way he acts. again he views humans as something to control like he’s above them.
during the fight chrollo asks hisoka if he wishes to continue the fight even if he will not win. When he responds with yes Chrollo says “humans are truly very fascinating” implying he views himself as something above humans who are all being puppeteered while he moves freely.
selfishness: I do not mind characters being selfish. I enjoy ging and gon as characters and it could be said they are just as selfish as chrollo. Though, they never have claimed to be anything but what they are. They do not hide behind alternative motives.
Gon is hard headed and straight forward. Ging is honest with his feelings & his selfishness. Chrollo is not & it’s makes him very unlikeable. He hides behind facades such as finding himself. He says he believes the universe to be out of humans control but doesn’t include himself.
The backstory argument: I don’t mind chrollo has no backstory. it’s redundant to make a backstory to sympathize with when togashi doesn’t want sympathy to be given. Chrollo is not in service of the narative. Most ppl think villains need extensive backstory to be understood.
He exists as his own entity in the show not a vescle for some bigger narrative, message or looming threat on the protagonist. It wouldn’t make sense if he was any other way. Chrollos getting what he wants which is to be an unexplainable uncontrollable puppeteer in the universe.
conclusion: chrollo doesn’t care about his troupe members and uses them as pieces in his game. He excuses his actions with his “lost sense of self” when in actuality he has a god complex and thinks he’s above being controlled by the universe. He’s hot, yes. But at what cost.
final note: pls don’t use this as pro chrollo propoganda by saying this is proof he’s not boring togashi is just too big brained he simply can’t miss.
