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I have so many thoughts about Palm and yes a lot of them are that I want to smack her but she’s genuinely a fascinating inclusion to the story
she’s presented as a foil to killua, yet another manipulative, overly attached victim of abuse who has gone down the path of continuing the cycle. she’s a lot like illumi, actually.
if you like knov but not palm I ask you to seriously question that, given that he’s clearly shown to fully understand what’s happening the moment he comes back and sees her chasing the boys down. he knew leaving her with them was dangerous for the children on many levels.
she has no conception of healthy attachment, just like illumi, and doesn’t understand how deeply toxic and sick her perception of her relationship to Gon is. this is not an excuse at all, she’s still awful, but she’s shown to learn from those actions 
and then we see her crying over merumugi, still not understanding love in the way we the audience might grasp it. she finds their ending romantic (and it is), but that kind of ending is her dream: not a happy life, but a tragic, loving death
when knov says to her that her blood is only for him because it’s precious, she forgets about the boys again. she became obsessed with Gon because he’s the only person to ever show her kindness, because Gon treats everyone equally. she’s a deeply disturbed, toxic individual
she’s been objectified her whole life and her role in the plan is to be used as a sex object, as a looking glass, and as the most disposable member but Gon treats her like a person worth saving. He sees the tragic figure under the twisted predator. it’s fascinating.
Palm also says she has no control over her actions and that along with the radical appearance shifts leads me to believe that Palm might be possessed like something akin to nanika and frankly I think knov either did it on purpose or just uses it for his own gain
She gives killua the words he’s needed to hear for the entire series: he’s the one Gon needs the most. It’s a parallel and a reversal of the first time we meet illumi: assassins don’t need friends, you’ll only kill them.
She sacrifices herself for the team first. She has no self-worth at all. Ikalgo grows attached to the idea of her because he, too, wants to feel redeemable, wants to be part of this team that has chosen to forgive those who commit themselves to their goals
Palm fits in the chimera ant arc because it’s a story about becoming human and becoming inhuman, about morality and forgiveness, about breaking from mental torture. She is a crucial foil to Killua in her role as his own personal antagonist.
