Hunter x Hunter (2011) Episode 126 Discussion

one_eyed_dragon said:

Now on topic - actually this fight played out extremely well.
It´s a similiar story to Whitebeard in One Piece. Whitebeard was called the strongest pirate alive and he proved to be worth the title. But he said it himself - that title refered to his younger self.
If he were in his prime, he would´ve wiped the floor with the marine HQ.
Now to Netero, he as well stated that he received that title a long time ago. Age has gotten the best of him and seeing as Meruem got cornered by him really showed us that if Netero were in his prime age, he would´ve probably beaten him.

Now on to the main point of my post - this fight was a battle of humans vs. a new species/animals.
Compared to humans, animals are superior in a lot of areas. They can swim better, run faster, fly, have much better senses, are stronger, etc.
The only thing we have going for us and that saved our existence in the first place is our intelligence.
It´s the ability to create things to make up for our own shortcomings.
If you pit a human against a lion, bear, shark, whatever without any technology or weapon whatsoever, he´d lose.
By using guns, knives and poison we are able to keep them at bay or kill them.
We are not born with the weapons to defend ourselves against predators like that, we have to get dirty and nasty to survive.
Now, in HxH, humans have the ability called Nen. Nen is the art of controlling ones life force and giving it a form. So in fact, next to it´s weapons, humans have a natural power that let´s them compete with beasts and animals.
Now, there is a new species that not only combines the natural abilities of animals and beasts, which are already far superior to our measly bodily abilities, with our human intelligence which enabled us to survive that long against the odds of nature as well as the ability to use the life force in the form of Nen.

Now with all that in mind, pit the supposedly strongest human/hunter at his life span's end against the fresh born strongest collection of animals, beasts and humans of a superior race that absorbs the life force of anything he eats and you can compare it to a fight of an old hunter with a knive vs. a young grizzly bear.
Sure the old hunter has his experience and training to fight against opponents like that, but vitality is at his enemies side. His experience can´t overcome the burden of age, thus letting him lose in terms of agility, strength and stamina.
So how can the old hunter bring down the grizzly bear? How can Netero defeat Meruem?
By relying on something that I already mentioned before - humanities iron will to survive, using any means possible.
Atomic weapons, Biological weapons, Chemical weapons, pick your favourite.
If it was an old hunter against a grizzly bear using a grenade as his last means, it´d be "well, he only had a knive, he fought against a bear, if that was the only way to kill it, why not?"
It´s the same for Netero. Just that the survival of the human race depended on it and his enemy was the ultimate life form.
And to put it into Netero´s own words:
"King of the ants, Meruem. You don´t understand a thing about the limitless malice of mankind!"
If some race gets too large, we burn it.
If something annoys us, we poison it.
If something threatens us, we exterminate it.

So this fight shouldn´t piss you off, but should actually impress you, as it really is above other fights, especially in the shounen genre.
It´s not willpower, friendship, life force or magical artifacts that saves humanity. It´s technology, it´s the unbelievable malice and viciousness to use any means possible to stand atop the food chain and defend it´s title of evolution`s finest.
It´s technology, with the sole goal of killing everything it touches, originally designed to kill it´s creators, namely humans.

This fight showed us that in a world of Nen and other supernatural abilitites and beings, no matter how strong a human is, he can´t overpower human´s enemies: Time and nature.
And to overcome them, we rely on every means necessary. Be it poison, chemicals or something else.
Even the ultimate life form can´t compete with the wicked creations of mass destruction that humanity created. Nature lost to the inventiveness of human´s desire to kill.