Re: Hunter x Hunter Hangout Thread
If you really think about it, he has left it wide open to reveal characters stronger than the King, and it would not seem forced or too far fetched. There are tons of unrevealed characters ranging from 2 star - 3 star hunters, to the Heaven's Arena floor masters.
I think about it and I think anyone stronger than the King would be far fetched. Netero may not be the top 5 of the world but he did represent one of the strongest Nen users at the time, and he could not deal any serious damage to the King even at the cost of depleting all of his Nen. Granted, Netero was old and all, but put any other Nen user, seen or not yet revealed, against Netero, I just can't see anybody who can deal with Netero the way King did.
In the chapter when the King illuminated his En to catch Knuckle and the chameleon, the narration in the back had indicated that the King's sheer power in Nen had shattered both Pufu and Yupi's beliefs that "Nen battles are not decided solely by user's nen power." This should be clear enough that the King's power is so great that even if combinations or variations of Nen skills were to employed, it would still not work against him.
And just how strong Pufu and Yupi are already? Yupi had stated that the overall strength of each of the hunter team (Knuckle, Killua, Morau, etc.) is not even at 1/10 of himself. (although he had a hard time killing each one of them), yet the King's aura was so strong that it shook both of the royal guard's beliefs about the concept of Nen.
Gon, being the extremely talented Nen user and the protagonist of this story, was able to crush Pitou at the cost of sacrificing all of his talents, judging from his strength at his "forced grown" state, I'd say he's NEAR King's level, or at best - the same level as the King, but all of this was achieved with a devastating cost, only to be just about as strong as the King in King's normal state -- the King hadn't even tried to show all his power or push his limit yet.
Personally, I think it's lame if any Nen user shows up to be stronger than King, it'd be like Dragon Ball revisited, not that DBZ was bad, but it just doesn't go with the logic of HxH. I know people like Gin or the Zoeldycks are probably a lot stronger than any other Nen users we've seen so far, but I don't think they are as strong as the King, or to even think they are stronger than the King.