Is Hisoka really a bad guy?

[shionoro]

Now, moral in HxH is grey and not black and white, but there seems to be a consensus about Hisoka being a villain.
And personally, I really do not agree with that.

The world of HxH is insanely brutal to begin with, so in this framework, I would argue that Hisoka is one of the people with less negative impact on normal citizens.
Don't get me wrong, he is not a goody two shoes, but let's compare:

You can sum up the groups of people Hisoka killed rather quickly:

-Hunters in the hunter exam
-People who initiated a fight with him or stood in his way
-heaven's arena fights

The only time Hisoka ever laid a finger on people who didnt risk their life to begin with (arguably, most people in the hunter exam were ready to die and kill) was when he used bystanders in his fight against chrollo, and chrollo started with that (and also those guys could have left but decided to keep watching after the fight escalated).

It is true that Hisoka killed people he would not have needed to kill, but people who are considered good guys like Netero and Ging have lead to people's suffering in the same vein.
The one exam we saw was designed by Netero in a way that ensured that there would be bloodshed, and Killuah commented on GI being a game that encourages people killing each other (not to mention that many people would strand there without being able to go home).
Hunters generally do not seem to care a lot about people that are too weak and once someone decides to risk their life, everyone is fair game.
Hisoka is not an exception there. Once someone steps into the ring, hisoka feels justified in killing him if he sees fit.
But ONLY then.

Hisoka wouldnt do stuff like the spider did (killing innocent nonfighters at the auction). You can say he doesnt because it does not give him thrills, but that does not change a lot.
Hisoka generally lives normal 'civillians' alone, unlike the zoldyeks or spiders and he is also not interested in bullying weaker people.
The only time he did that was in the hunter exam, but that was him at his complete worst and in search of some 'fruits'.
But he is not a guy running arround and offing people in GI or heaven's left and right just because he can

 

[ShadowHeart]

Well I wouldn't like to be a average person when Hisoka in his bloodrage mode. But other than that Hisoka would just ignore you otherwise. But yes he's a bad person totally psychopath who gets off killing strong people.

 

[XXGenesis]

Hisoka is a bad man. He's a killer. & one of malice not necessity. He's actually a sociopath so he's able to charm & win us over to sometimes be this generous of sorts type of dude. But it's all for his must of the thrill of killing/fighting stronger opponents. He's a predator & a very good one.

 

[Demonspeed]

Hisoka likes killing strong people and can get unstable when too excited. That makes him a criminal but he's not exactly bad, the only reason he chose to become a Hunter is because he'd be able to kill with more freedom, it shows that unlike the Spiders or Zoldycks, he values his social life more IMO. He can interact normally with people to an extent, as he said to Gon, what he values might become worthless to him in a flash.

 

[Doffy]

Hisoka may he one of my favorite characters in the series but even I can't deny he is a horrible person. Anyone that gets a high off killing people is severely demented. His character is cool and it drive the plot forward but that doesn't change the fact that he is pretty horrible.

He sees people that are strong like toys in a toy box. Anyone not worthy enough to beling in that box will be discarded. He has even made removing heads an art. When somone is so good at removing heads that they can do it casually as if they where picking apples off the tree. Chances are they are either and doctor or a cery bad person

 

[shionoro]

But on the other hand tho:

Let us compare Hisoka to Son Goku in Dragon Ball Super (Dragon ball super spoilers ahead).

Spoiler

Son Goku is more of a nice guy who would help you out if your car crashed down, but arguably Son Goku leads to the extermination of several universes just to satisfy his lust for fighting and he seems really at ease with the idea.

Hisoka in the other hand is definitely someone you would not want to encounter like....at all?
He is a crazy person with anger issues and emotional instability.

But everyone he ever killed was only people who were ready to fight. Admittedly, they were oftentimes so much weaker than him (or nenless) that it was an unfair match, but Hisoka still never went after normal civillians.
Not even the badguy staple of killing some civillian just due to annoying him (like Meruem) or to get money (like the spiders or bombers).

Hisoka has a set of rules. he only fights people who step into the ring. If they do, they are fair game for him even if they try to run away, admittedly, but in the context of the insanely brutal HxH world, I really cannot see hisoka as a real badguy.
A fucked up guy, but not a bad guy.

I really cannot see hisoka as any worse than the examiners in the first phase of the hunter exam.
Hisoka did the dirty work himself and offed some guys, but satotz knew very well that many people would die in the swamp too and didnt seem to think twice about the screams he heard.
The exam was set up so many people would die.
Why did they not have the cooking phase first? The hunters who cannot beat the pigs would be gone before the swamp phase, decreasing casualties a lot.
But that did not happen, because the organization does not care about weaklings in the slightest.
They are no different from Hisoka here, but not seen as villains. They too have the mindset: Once a guy steps into the ring, he has to know himself whether he is up for it or not.

Similar things can be said about Ging and GI.
Ging even explains that mindset to gon about Kite being at fault himself for misjudging the situation and thus dying.

Arguably, the guys who were dying to hisoka would not have made it through the forest anyway.
We saw that with the example of the karateka who died after running from hisoka.
However, without Hisoka, it is questionable whether Leorio would have survived the swamp, he even carried him to the cooking area.

Another thing that lets you hardly see hisoka as antagonist is that in most of his appearances he helps the protagonists and is often vital for their success.

Without Hisoka, Gon would not have passed the hunter's exam (also it is questionable whether leorio and kurapika would have passed without his help)
Without Hisoka, Gon and Kill woulda been crushed at heaven's arena before they knew nen.
Without Hisoka, Kurapika would not have information about the spider and would probably not have been able to capture and seal chrollo.
Without Hisoka, Gon would not have won the dodgeball match.
Without Hisoka, Killuah might have been caught by Illumi (Hisoka distracted Illumi on purpose).

hisoka was only an obstacle in the first appearance he had (blocking leorio's and kurapika's way), after that, he was always helpful and never an obstacle for any of our protags (he was not an obstacle at heaven's arena, gon personally wanted to fight him and was thrilled about it, Gon was not forced in any way to do it).

 

[XXGenesis]

I feel quite a few a mixing up HxH World views/ideologies vs Real World Views/ideologies.....They aren't that different especially in identifying Good vs Evil...I would say many "bad guys" of the manga or morally grey..Hisoka I don't find to be morally grey but a dark shade of black....

Organizations like the Spiders aren't entirely evil, they are criminals who have committed horrible acts..but as individuals, they seem to be morally grey people....

HXH is not evil or bad....Its understood that to pass the Hunter Exam, immense Strentgh is needed. You are willingly putting your life at risk, other participants may kill you also if the rules don't forbid it. But that's honestly the Hunter Exam giving individuals a taste of what hunters have to deal with.

Evil in my eyes is someone that commits criminals acts that are heinous or horrible against humanity or nature. Or their personality/intent towards others....

Killing in a fight doesn't make you a bad guy. But choosing to kill all your opponenets doesn't make you a good guy either; combine that with a lack of empathy, sociopathic behavior, a lust for killing, & your on the dark side of the force sorry...

While others such as Beyond Netero, obviously he isn't a bad guy. He just wants to challenege the DC whether that means humanity is stricken with a calamity, he dies, or he has to politically force the Hunter Ass. To join him yet keep him restrained.......There's no malice here...but if Netero beyond wanted to kill anybody that stood in his way regardless of their background just to accomplish his own personal goals, that would make the man evil.

So basically Good & Evil don't change just because is a fictional manga where, killing seems to be ok..

 

[Brandish μ]

Hisoka can go either way just depends on what his 'prey' is. Right now his game is Chrollo. He would become strictly an antagonist when Gon becomes his prey (or Kil for that matter).

He is wicked at heart.

 

[uberfayt]

This is a very interesting and deep question : Is Hisoka good or bad ? I have indeed given it a lot of thought some time ago, and my answer would be :

Hisoka is an unstable person and in a dangerous way, therefore he's bad.

Of course he can be nice sometimes, but only to a few select people and if it suits his plans. As a character he's quite endearing and cool for his bold and unpredictable behavior, but he's definitely someone you should avoid. Another argument to add in favor that he is "bad" and "dangerous" is his aura : remember that Killua compared Pitou's aura (which is one of the foulest in existence) with Hisoka's and Illumi's, meaning the both of the latter's auras are quite nasty and give off the most ominous of feelings, which tells you how bad and dangerous they really are.

@shionoro Funny that you should mention Goku from dragon ball super (not to be mistaken with Goku from the normal dragon ball)

Spoiler

that Goku is one of the worst characters in manga history. Hisoka looks like mother theresa in comparison with him...And no he would not help you if your car crashed cause he's too retarded to tell...If the writers' purpose was to make Goku a hated and villainous piece of sh*t, then they have succeeded imo

 

[shionoro]

This is a very interesting and deep question : Is Hisoka good or bad ? I have indeed given it a lot of thought some time ago, and my answer would be :

Hisoka is an unstable person and in a dangerous way, therefore he's bad.

Of course he can be nice sometimes, but only to a few select people and if it suits his plans. As a character he's quite endearing and cool for his bold and unpredictable behavior, but he's definitely someone you should avoid. Another argument to add in favor that he is "bad" and "dangerous" is his aura : remember that Killua compared Pitou's aura (which is one of the foulest in existence) with Hisoka's and Illumi's, meaning the both of the latter's auras are quite nasty and give off the most ominous of feelings, which tells you how bad and dangerous they really are.

@shionoro Funny that you should mention Goku from dragon ball super (not to be mistaken with Goku from the normal dragon ball)

Spoiler

that Goku is one of the worst characters in manga history. Hisoka looks like mother theresa in comparison with him...And no he would not help you if your car crashed cause he's too retarded to tell...If the writers' purpose was to make Goku a hated and villainous piece of sh*t, then they have succeeded imo

I have to admit that the new goku is one of my favourite characters of all time, i love what they did with him, but that might be the matter of another thread (maybe hangout^^).

In any case: Yes, that guy does some shit that Hisoka would just not do.
I think Hisoka does understand very well when something is actually REALLY dangerous.
Alluka is really dangerous, and he understands that he should not mess with it. It didnt even dawn to him that he could use alluka to wish for a match with chrollo or to wish for a really strong opponent.
He knew that this thing is actually not about a simple fight but a real threat.

I also think that Hisoka wouldnt do crazy shit like building up an army of ants like Pariston did, not even to use them as sparring partners.

I would also argue that hisoka, while he is undoubtedly, as you said, unstable, would ever touch a civilian.
If you pass Hisoka by on street, he is not going to harm you. Even if he is deprived and in his killer mood, i dont think he'd do it.
At least he never did it over the course of the manga.
Killuah however killed two contestants in the hunter's exam just because he was in a bad mood (they didnt even provoke him first, he bumped into them and they just complained about that ,then he killed them both).

So really, i do not think Hisoka poses a threat to normal persons when they do not provoke him.
Hisoka has a mindset like 'I am a beast and i want to eat other beasts'.
That leads to cruel results, but i don't think it is crueler than a lot of the shit that characters which are usually considered 'good' pull in HxH or other manga.

At least inside the manga, no civillian ever had something to fear from hisoka.
I think if togashi wanted to establish him has that kind of guy, we woulda seen hisoka offing the old lady in the hunter exam, we woulda seen him kill bidders at the yorkshin auction or stuff like that.
But exspecially at the auction, hisoka was noticably absent from that.

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 5, 2017, Original Post Date: Mar 5, 2017 ---

Hisoka can go either way just depends on what his 'prey' is. Right now his game is Chrollo. He would become strictly an antagonist when Gon becomes his prey (or Kil for that matter).

He is wicked at heart.

I do believe that if Hisoka told gon: Yo gon, i will help you out, but after you met your father (back then) and got the power to fight me, we fight to the death, then gon would agree to that deal

That still would make Hisoka a better father figure than ging <:

 

[uberfayt]

In any case: Yes, that guy does some shit that Hisoka would just not do.
I think Hisoka does understand very well when something is actually REALLY dangerous.
Alluka is really dangerous, and he understands that he should not mess with it. It didnt even dawn to him that he could use alluka to wish for a match with chrollo or to wish for a really strong opponent.
He knew that this thing is actually not about a simple fight but a real threat.

I also think that Hisoka wouldnt do crazy shit like building up an army of ants like Pariston did, not even to use them as sparring partners.

I would also argue that hisoka, while he is undoubtedly, as you said, unstable, would ever touch a civilian.
If you pass Hisoka by on street, he is not going to harm you. Even if he is deprived and in his killer mood, i dont think he'd do it.
At least he never did it over the course of the manga.
Killuah however killed two contestants in the hunter's exam just because he was in a bad mood (they didnt even provoke him first, he bumped into them and they just complained about that ,then he killed them both).

So really, i do not think Hisoka poses a threat to normal persons when they do not provoke him.
Hisoka has a mindset like 'I am a beast and i want to eat other beasts'.
That leads to cruel results, but i don't think it is crueler than a lot of the shit that characters which are usually considered 'good' pull in HxH or other manga.

At least inside the manga, no civillian ever had something to fear from hisoka.
I think if togashi wanted to establish him has that kind of guy, we woulda seen hisoka offing the old lady in the hunter exam, we woulda seen him kill bidders at the yorkshin auction or stuff like that.

Yes I agree more or less with what you're saying. However, your arguments only prove that Hisoka is not the "grabs his machine gun and shoots random people on the street" kind of guy (like Izumi from Gantz, if you're familiar with that manga), and that is true. Moreover that doesn't apply only on Hisoka, all the other "human villains" adhere to the laws of society and blend over with normal people without harming them : The Zoldieks only kill their targets, the spiders only kill those who get in their way while on a mission, gyro uses drugs to mess up people etc...only the ants directly attacked humans, but those were monsters from "outside".

Also, let's more or less fix what do we (I) intend by a bad person in hxh :

A bad person would be someone who is very selfish and (almost) totally inconsiderate to others, he would never think how his actions would affect his surroundings and doesn't care if he does hurt people. I may have forgotten other traits, but these are the main ones of someone I would consider as "bad". Thus, Hisoka (and many others) is a bad person.

But, I fully share your opinion when you say that Hisoka is not totally an antagonist.

 

[shionoro]

It is interesting to talk about what is 'bad' in the context of HxH, because i would probably define it in another way than you do.
In the HxH verse, basically anyone who is in any way important is very selfish (at least almost every hunter and the spiders).
Some notable exceptions include characters like cheadle, who can get over herself to fullfill her perceived duties.

But guys like even gon would accept negative consequences for other people to fullfill their goals, at least when pushed.
Or they at least completely condone killing other people when it suits them.

The reason gon helps other people is usually because he wants to and likes them, it is not out of a general attitude that he should help people.
Gon has no issue with Killuah being a killer, he also has no issue with letting a guy like Binolt run free.
Gon does not like to kill, admittedly, but it is more of a preference than an ethical stance.

But i do agree that most people, unlike Hisoka, try to not get other ppl killed without a good reason for it.
in the hunter exam, most ppl tried to prevent kills, like pockle leading his victim to a water source, or gon draggon ponzu out of the snake chamber.

However, in your definition, i would DEFINITELY include Ging and Netero.
Those guys similarly put pleasure and personal goals far far far over other people.
They help people they like, sure, but the ones that are nobodys to them can suffer.

 

[uberfayt]

It is interesting to talk about what is 'bad' in the context of HxH, because i would probably define it in another way than you do.
In the HxH verse, basically anyone who is in any way important is very selfish (at least almost every hunter and the spiders).
Some notable exceptions include characters like cheadle, who can get over herself to fullfill her perceived duties.

In the definition I chose, I just basically put together the noticeable negative traits that are recurrent in most characters, so for a person in hxh to be bad (at least according to my definition), they need to satisfy all the mentioned conditions at once. So if we take Gon for instance, even though he can be quite selfish and is very gray, he is still considerate to other people, because first he values fairness and second he harbors no malice towards normal people and always apologizes when he crosses the border or thinks that he could've hurt somebody. So yes, he is considerate to people and thus the definition from above doesn't apply to him.

However I do agree with you that the definition doesn't exclude people like Ging or Netero (and it was intentional ^^), because to the eyes of normal society some of their decisions definitely put them in the "bad" category, but still not as "bad" as Hisoka or Pariston. In fact, if we want a definition which excludes people like Ging, then we should add :
"...and doesn't value other beings' lives (humans in particular)".

Then we can clearly differentiate between people like Ging and People like Chrollo or Hisoka.

I also think that we can avoid all these assumptions and definitions and just look at these folk's overall reputation from characters in the manga : You'll find that everybody harbors animosity towards Hisoka and portray him as a dangerous fellow

 

[shionoro]

In the definition I chose, I just basically put together the noticeable negative traits that are recurrent in most characters, so for a person in hxh to be bad (at least according to my definition), they need to satisfy all the mentioned conditions at once. So if we take Gon for instance, even though he can be quite selfish and is very gray, he is still considerate to other people, because first he values fairness and second he harbors no malice towards normal people and always apologizes when he crosses the border or thinks that he could've hurt somebody. So yes, he is considerate to people and thus the definition from above doesn't apply to him.

However I do agree with you that the definition doesn't exclude people like Ging or Netero (and it was intentional ^^), because to the eyes of normal society some of their decisions definitely put them in the "bad" category, but still not as "bad" as Hisoka or Pariston. In fact, if we want a definition which excludes people like Ging, then we should add :
"...and doesn't value other beings' lives (humans in particular)".

Then we can clearly differentiate between people like Ging and People like Chrollo or Hisoka.

I also think that we can avoid all these assumptions and definitions and just look at these folk's overall reputation from characters in the manga : You'll find that everybody harbors animosity towards Hisoka and portray him as a dangerous fellow

Hmm, I do think that Hisoka, in his way, values other persons lifes.
He just values less lifes than netero does (or does he even?).
I do think that netero is responsible for more deaths in the exams than Hisoka is in his life, and Netero then values the ones who have become hunters.
Hisoka values the people he sees potential in, much like Netero does.

It is interesting that Pariston of all people took note of that.
Pariston said that the Zodiac lost their sense for weaklings, while pariston didnt.
I don't think that was only his usual trolling, it is true.
The hunters are completely fine (at least under netero) to let all the weaklings die in their exam and they do not really do charity work either, except if that is the thing of an individual.
But as oganization, they don't care for stuff like crimefighting unless it upsets mighty people who employ them.
But we do not see the hunters build up a police force (that would, let's face it, be HIGHLY necessary in the hunter world).

Pariston is definitely not a good guy, but he does, to some extent, respect weaklings as long as they follow him (or at least make them feel respected).
And Pariston has a great reputation among hunters too

I think we can differentiate 3 types of people:

1) Definitively ethically good: Does not harm other innocent people and puts back personal goals to not harm innocent people.
The closest we have seen in that regard would probably be leorio. He is a hothead who has no qualms to attack even an old lady, but in essence, leorio
would disregard his goals to help other people and we never saw him considering to harm someone who didnt (at least in his opinion) deserve it.
Compare that to Kurapika who thought about killing Melody if she had ratted out on him to his employer (something that certainly does not warrant killing).
Another person who is at least near that ideal is Gon. Even in the CA arc, he, in the end, let Pitou save Komugi (but he certainly considered not doing it).
A character that might also do that is cheadle or Mizaistom, but we do not know enough about them yet.


2) Would harm other people to aquire his goals: Most HxH characters would do that. Kurapika was already mentioned here, then obviously Hisoka, Netero
and Ging (is passively, but still).
This kind of characters puts their goals above everything else most of the time. There are exceptions (Kurapika didnt let gon and kill die for his goal), but
these are just that: Exceptions to a rule.

3) Characters who go out of their way to be cruel even when they don't need to : There is a big difference to me in a character doing everythign to reach his
goal (like Hisoka stalking strong fighters to kill them or Kurapika considering to kill melody) and characters whojust screw people over for the heck of it.
The Bombers are a good example here. They didnt need to kill all those guys on GI. Yes it did somewhat benefit them (less guys who hate them is a
good thing), but on the other hand: By that time, everyone knew about the bombs and those guys were weaklings that were too weak to even team up on
Genthru, so no big threat.
Another example would certainly be the spiders, as a group or individually: They didnt need to kill everyone at the auction, they didnt need to kill that poor
Guy whose house they used and so on. But they did and they enjoyed it.
And Hisoka, imo, is balancing on that line. Yes, he does kill people he does not really need to kill in the exam, but on the other hand, it is part of his hunt
to search for guys with potential, something he did exactly by attacking the contestants (he found Gon and Leo and Kurapika that way).
So while, yes, his hunting goal is insane and twisted, the means he employs to reach it are not more devastating than those of other hunters with a more
understandable goal (to normal persons).

 

[Brandish μ]

I do believe that if Hisoka told gon: Yo gon, i will help you out, but after you met your father (back then) and got the power to fight me, we fight to the death, then gon would agree to that deal

Yea. Gon gets the thrill too. Their fight is the main one I'm looking forward to all series. Honestly a deal would fit well.

That still would make Hisoka a better father figure than ging <:

 

[XXGenesis]

Netero & Ging can be morally Gray at times. But there are no references or incidents, where people suffered or where in great danger due to their actions....Also these individuals are said by others to be a bit corky, meaning they don't possess your run of the mill attitude.

Netero values life & is considerate, ex.Sparring Gon from breaking his skull on his stomache; his reaction to Komugi's injury during raid......Beyond.N however is too reckless as he's jeopardizing many civilian lives with a possible calamity befallen humanity;

Ging, is more socially grey than having iffy morals. Aside from being an deadbeat father, he's not a bad guy.

 

[shionoro]

Netero & Ging can be morally Gray at times. But there are no references or incidents, where people suffered or where in great danger due to their actions....Also these individuals are said by others to be a bit corky, meaning they don't possess your run of the mill attitude.

Netero values life & is considerate, ex.Sparring Gon from breaking his skull on his stomache; his reaction to Komugi's injury during raid......Beyond.N however is too reckless as he's jeopardizing many civilian lives with a possible calamity befallen humanity;

Ging, is more socially grey than having iffy morals. Aside from being an deadbeat father, he's not a bad guy.

Well, if we count greed island and the hunter exams as danger, then they most certainly did bring people in danger of death (and people actually died often enough).

That this behaviour is morally gray is more due to HxH being a pretty dark world.

 

[XXGenesis]

Hunter Exam is neccassarily life threatening. The job title of Hunter requires a decent level of martial arts capability. Also real hunters are Nen users. Nen is strictly secret art, so those who practice have teachers/masters; who guide them in training; So certain Nen related things are off limits until one becomes knowledgable enough..

G.I is Nen game Ging & friends designed..you can't join the game w/o being a hunter or Nen practitioner; Which we know is a learnt so, to enter G.I as a total novice/noob is idiotic & your master or teacher wouldn't allow it...another note to mention the game was designed to train Gon in a lot of aspects. The game system itself is hard to die from, because monsters aren't that strong, task aren't too difficult etc etc...Now players like Bomber is the real threat of G.I...They are player hunters, & will kill to finish the game...This Game we know of just secluded to an island...It goes to mention again the world of Nen isn't kind nor is their a reason as to why it should be kind, given natural human nature.

So HXH world's morality & laws aren't parallel with ours; But close, in the sense some believe Cops should shoot to kill for certain criminal scenarios while others believe the heinous criminal needs to face our toughest laws; Hunters have different philosophies, some may kill a criminal on the spot while others may jail him. But does that make the executioner style Hunter gray yea...does it make him a bad guy no not really; until maybe he crosses some morality lines such as suffering, torture etc

 

[shionoro]

Hunter Exam is neccassarily life threatening. The job title of Hunter requires a decent level of martial arts capability. Also real hunters are Nen users. Nen is strictly secret art, so those who practice have teachers/masters; who guide them in training; So certain Nen related things are off limits until one becomes knowledgable enough..

G.I is Nen game Ging & friends designed..you can't join the game w/o being a hunter or Nen practitioner; Which we know is a learnt so, to enter G.I as a total novice/noob is idiotic & your master or teacher wouldn't allow it...another note to mention the game was designed to train Gon in a lot of aspects. The game system itself is hard to die from, because monsters aren't that strong, task aren't too difficult etc etc...Now players like Bomber is the real threat of G.I...They are player hunters, & will kill to finish the game...This Game we know of just secluded to an island...It goes to mention again the world of Nen isn't kind nor is their a reason as to why it should be kind, given natural human nature.

So HXH world's morality & laws aren't parallel with ours; But close, in the sense some believe Cops should shoot to kill for certain criminal scenarios while others believe the heinous criminal needs to face our toughest laws; Hunters have different philosophies, some may kill a criminal on the spot while others may jail him. But does that make the executioner style Hunter gray yea...does it make him a bad guy no not really; until maybe he crosses some morality lines such as suffering, torture etc

The hunter exam does not have to be life threatening.
After all, they could easily have done the gourmet test before the swamptest.

That would have meant the people who were too weak to kill the pigs would not have had to die in the swamp.

Compare it to razor's test on greed island. before people could go to the dodgeball match, they had to win in single competitions which were not life threatening but efforted a certain level of skill.

Both in the hunter exam and greed island you could have some baseline tests first before people can enter, but the preconditions to enter both are too lax for the things that are to come.

 

[XXGenesis]

Well you've seen to sum up the reading as to why it's so challeneging in your last paragraph. Even though in our word yea more would probably be done to eliminate the weak more kindly.

I don't recall if the misty swamp ppl actually died, but I do remember proctors at the test said they'll be going back for those who failed at the end anyway.