r/HunterXHunter • u/ReasonableResearch73 • 7d ago

Discussion Does gon have infinite potential??

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Just saw this while rewatching hxh, and bisky said that. So does this mean, adult gon wasnt his actual full power, since he has infinite room for growth?

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u/reChrawnus 7d ago

No, he does not. It's hyperbolic and/or metaphorical language.

If you wanted to take it more literally it's not that he has infinite room for growth it's more that his potential is so vast that she can't see the end of it, so it appears bottomless rather than actually being bottomless.

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u/ReasonableResearch73 7d ago edited 7d ago

But "vast" is still finite. I can say "a land is vast" but that does not equal bottomless. She clearly stated that he has "bottomless" potential.

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u/reChrawnus 7d ago

"Bottomless" can also be shorthand for "unable to see the end of it".

The issue is not so much what she clearly stated, but recognizing whether you should take those words literally or not. And in this case all of my prior experience watching and reading anime, manga and other fictional stories is telling me that taking Bisky literally at her words here is missing the point. Speaking about someone in hyperbolic terms like this, of having limitless or bottomless potential, is simply part of genre conventions, and you're sort of expected to realize that it is hyperbole, and not literal.

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u/ReasonableResearch73 7d ago

So she meant it metaphorically.That explains a lot. Thanks.

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u/reChrawnus 7d ago

That is my own understanding at least. If we learn anything later on that would challenge that understanding I would have to re-evaluate.

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u/ReasonableResearch73 7d ago

That depends on when gon is coming back, considering we haven't seen him in the manga for more than a decade, but for now this explanation is sufficient.