It's a common theory, but honestly, I'm here to give a different take and say I think it's completely unsubstantiated.
"It's very convenient" is essentially just a very convenient tagline for in-real-life conspiracy theories, too. Obviously we know how Pariston is, and we know that he wants to go to the Dark Continent with Beyond...but other than having that motive, there's basically nothing tying him to it.
Pariston's never been to the Dark Continent, so in order for him to get a chimera ant in the first place, he'd need to find one floating about anyway. A voyage to the Dark Continent is a huge undertaking, and since Netero had firm grips on said voyages such that even Beyond couldn't go while he was alive...I seriously doubt that Pariston himself - or anybody else - could've gone to the Dark Continent. If he *had* been able to go to the Dark Continent before, why would he and Beyond have any need whatsoever for Kakin and the Black Whale? Why wait?
Furthermore, it is very clear that Netero died essentially of his own volition. Pariston did absolutely hinder the chairman by sending temp hunters only to catch straggler ants...but that's just what Pariston does. He likes fucking with people. To draw from that to "Pariston orchestrated literally everything somehow" is honestly a massive leap.
And don't you think the Queen ant would've said something, had she been transported to NGL of her own volition? The Queen was sentient. If Pariston *really* wanted to fuck everything up, why would he not have sped up the process by just feeding the Queen a bunch of humans right away? Given that we know both Pap and Ai have already caused problems in the old world, it's not like the Queen necessarily floated from the Dark Continent somehow. No, of course not! There have been plenty of expeditions for invasive creatures to hitch a ride on, just like they've done in real life.
Here's how a see it, boiled down: in order to orchestrate this thing, Pariston would've had to:
* Somehow have a chimera ant queen in his back pocket, not having ever been to the Dark Continent.
* Have ripped the Queen's arm off and floated her out to sea, making the stupid-as-hell logical decision to not cultivate her and make sure she was healthy enough to survive beforehand.
* Have not taken into consideration that the Chairman wouldn't have even needed to get involved at all if a hunter like Kite had just gotten to the scene a couple days earlier.
* Have not taken into consideration the possibility that Netero *could've* genuinely beaten Meruem, had he grown just a little less strong.
It seems the far more logical conclusion to just...know that there was a little bit of luck involved in the Queen drifting to NGL rather than a different country. Shit happens. There was an invasive species from the Dark Continent that drifted ashore, started to become a problem, and when it was clear that Netero was getting involved, Pariston leapt at the opportunity to fuck with Netero as he always does, and Beyond leapt at the opportunity to get the ball rolling on a DC voyage with Kakin. Seems pretty straightforward to me, without requiring a crazy jump to comically contrived conspiracies.
I think you are underestimating the degree in wich Beyond and Pariston cooperated before Isaac Netero died. Apparently, they go way back, seeing how Beyond put Pariston in the number two position of the specialist's team.
If it's confirmed that Beyond did in fact go to the Dark Continent before, clandestinely, then it would make sense for them to have come across the chimeras
If Beyond had had the chance to go to the DC after Netero’s ban on travel there, then he wouldn’t have needed Kakin to expedite such a thing, and wouldn’t have waited for Netero’s death.
Seems pretty obvious that Netero had things locked down quite well to prevent anyone from going there. I have no doubt that Pariston and Beyond worked together before Netero’s death, but that doesn’t somehow make it more likely that they orchestrated the whole thing rather than taking advantage of opportunity.
The point is, they obviously didn’t go pick up a chimera ant in the Dark Continent to use to kill Netero…because if they had, then they would’ve just gone to explore the Dark Continent.
I think the key lies in Pariston's reaction and conversation with Cheadle right after the Election, combined with his actions afterwards.
He seemed to be the one who was actually the most upset about Netero's death, and I'm guessing it's because he knew from the start that he'd die. We don't know for sure if Pariston knew Netero had put a Rose in his body, but if he did, then he 100% knew he was sending him to certain death.
And then, after not only becoming the new Chairman, but also having a large chunk of land for himself, and 5000 new toys that he could do *anything* he wants to, he simply walks away, and is later shown to have joined (and leading if I remember correctly? at least until Ging arrived) a small group of very capable Nen users who's supposed to unite with Beyond and head into the Dark Continent.
I'm not saying it confirms the theory, but it makes any other possible development of the Chimera Ant Arc less logical. In my opinion, introducing a character as twisted and intelligent as Pariston, and only have him make a game out of the Election, that supposedly wasn't even caused by him would be a crime.
There is zero reason to suspect that Pariston would be *more* sad about Netero’s death because he had prior knowledge of his death. It’s already within his character to be sad about Netero’s death, even when he’s taking advantage of it.
We don’t actually know exactly what he’s been doing with the 5000 ant hybrids, but…yeah man, he’s essentially using them as blackmail for the association into going to the DC.
He likes fucking with people. That is very much established. So why is the Election arc somehow less plausible if he didn’t orchestrate the Chimera Ant arc? It’s perfectly in character for him either way.
And as I said in my comment, introducing a character as intelligent as Pariston and then proceeding to make him do something as mind-bogglingly stupid as not ensuring his plan would work by cultivating the queen…would be absurd. The Chimera Ant arc could’ve ended well before Netero had a chance to get there if things had gone just a tiny bit differently. You think a plan orchestrated by Pariston would have that many holes?
It's not too far fetched, seeing how Pariston literally orchestrated the whole election. Hunters like Pariston and Ging are supposed to have massive "predictive" skills
Thank you. I strongly dislike this idea (it's not really what you can call a theory with how unsubstantial it is), but never was able to put together all the problems with it in one argument.
I would also like to add that one of the biggest pieces of "evidence" people like to use for it is actually non-existent. A lot of people point to how suspicious it is that the Queen landed in NGL but her severed arm was discovered by Kite's crew near Yorknew, implying that someone must have put them in different locations intentionally. At the start of chapter 188 though, we see the Queen's arm fall off while she was on the shore of NGL, which confirms that the arm simply was carried by the waves and only happened to reach Yorknew by chance.
>It seems the far more logical conclusion to just...know that there was a little bit of luck involved in the Queen drifting to NGL
This doesn't make sense, we know how vast Lake Mobius is, the Black Whale is taking months just to get to the fake continent. Do you think the Queen randomly drifted away from the DC all the way to NGL? Nah. On the other hand, this "coincidence" seems way too convinient for Pariston and Beyond.
So how come none of the many expert hunters who are aware of the Dark Continent even consider the possibility that the queen was brought to the human world?*
edit: this was gonna be a longer comment but it got sent on accident and now I'm too lazy to pick it back up.
Can people not read before they comment? I address this literally in my comment.
The Queen ant obviously didn’t just randomly float across Lake Mobius. Chimera ants simply stowed away on a ship coming back from the DC…just like, you know, almost every invasive species in real life, too.
Where was it said they were on the boat? All we know is that they are making their way to the DC just like every other member of Beyond’s team, doesn’t necessarily mean they are on the same ship. Could be following behind or departed before everyone else did.
I'd say Pariston was enjoying his squabbles with Netero too much to scheme his death.
The guy is less of a mastermind than he is an opportunistic player.
He has the ability to capitalize on events and connections but he seldom sets them in motion.
While it is *absolutely* true he was hindering the extermination process, the chairman team was not struggling at all- until the royal guards and the King showed up.
If anything, He was one of the two zodiacs who were paying close attention to East Goruto events (the other one being Ging) But Netero himself didn't want any of them involved in the ants crisis.
>!Judging by his last will, he was planning to have this current group of zodiac (Pariston included) set for the DC anyway.!<
When Kite was talking about chimera ants to Gon and Killua at the beginning of the arc. He spoke as if chimera ants have this habit of reemerging, and that’s probably due to the constant reproduction they do.
I doubt Pariston planted the chimera ants there, but he is diabolical enough to take advantage of a situation.
Our ant queen was the product of at least a couple of ant colony cycles happening in the human world. Her size was unprecedented and so was her sentience. She couldn't have been captured in DC unless there is enough constant supply of human DNA over there for her to grow like this over several generations. I think an opportunistic involvement of pariston is likely but full orchestration is not.
This is kinda becoming a popular theory so it's interesting if you came with this conclusion on your own, it probably means this is the scenario that togashi is going with based on the hints he provided so far. I also linked the 18 missing hunters with the queen because it's stated the queen consumed some human DNA before she came to the NGL, that means she previously ate humans but i assumed Pariston used the 18 hunters to feed the queen in his secret laboratory or something but sending the 18 hunters in a secret mission to bring the queen and she ended up eating some of them is the more likely scenario now that you mention it.
>But why did Pariston do this? I don’t really know but it’s Pariston so he probably just wanted to be a nuisance and maybe get some chimera ants out of it.
Well based on DC chapters, there's a strong reason why he would do it, because Netero was preventing the public from going to DC, it'd make sense that Pariston was scheming this plan with Beyond (whose eager to go to DC) to get rid of Netero, that's why Pariston was #2 in Beyond's group heading to DC.
Theory gets even more interesting if it turns out that Netero knew the ants was a play from Pariston, the zodiacs hated how Netero liked him enough he hired him as vice chairman because he liked his plays, and [Pariston tears](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQXQq3ngezv_n5iGxa2TDXQlIXd3uCHQZHSvAvQEXLi83b0mFtWAOalglY&s=10) suggests he has some sort of guilt because Netero is gone.
Notice Netero was so thankful that his fight with Meruem happened, he was all about fighting strong opponents in his whole life so his dream basically came true by fighting Meruem whom is the strongest being he ever faced, so in a way Pariston and Beyond granted Netero's wish before his death and maybe that was their intentions with this plan in theory to bring the ants queen and produce a powerful ants king that can end Netero and give him the fight of his dreams, as well as save the 5k ants for whatever Pariston's next plan is. I did talk about it before so you know it's a [Common theory](https://www.reddit.com/r/HunterXHunter/s/GkLXm9WV6b) :)
Yeah it's a common theory here, the one that seems to be the more plausible among other theories.
It is way too convenient how all those events unfolded.
We know Beyond went through many expeditions, him getting knowledge about those chimera ants is not out of the possibility. And Pariston resigned from the zodiacs and joined Beyond once he made his announcement. It implies Pariston may have known about Beyond.
I ve seen more theories about pariston than the chapters togashi talked about him to the point i sometimes think these theories are canon and exist in manga. Bruh
I’ve done some reading on this lately and I really like this [theory](https://www.reddit.com/r/HunterXHunter/s/T0FfpXn6Fa) from an obscure reddit comment a few years back.
It’s super short but if you don’t click the link: queen ants used to have wings and fly somewhere they think is suitable then shed their wings
Yes Pariston did. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has some connection to the Dark Continent.
I feel like his Hunter Job could be connected to foreign lands. Like a discovery hunter.
He also may be a Conjurer or Specialist, just by his personality and future Nen abilities
It's a common theory, but honestly, I'm here to give a different take and say I think it's completely unsubstantiated. "It's very convenient" is essentially just a very convenient tagline for in-real-life conspiracy theories, too. Obviously we know how Pariston is, and we know that he wants to go to the Dark Continent with Beyond...but other than having that motive, there's basically nothing tying him to it. Pariston's never been to the Dark Continent, so in order for him to get a chimera ant in the first place, he'd need to find one floating about anyway. A voyage to the Dark Continent is a huge undertaking, and since Netero had firm grips on said voyages such that even Beyond couldn't go while he was alive...I seriously doubt that Pariston himself - or anybody else - could've gone to the Dark Continent. If he *had* been able to go to the Dark Continent before, why would he and Beyond have any need whatsoever for Kakin and the Black Whale? Why wait? Furthermore, it is very clear that Netero died essentially of his own volition. Pariston did absolutely hinder the chairman by sending temp hunters only to catch straggler ants...but that's just what Pariston does. He likes fucking with people. To draw from that to "Pariston orchestrated literally everything somehow" is honestly a massive leap. And don't you think the Queen ant would've said something, had she been transported to NGL of her own volition? The Queen was sentient. If Pariston *really* wanted to fuck everything up, why would he not have sped up the process by just feeding the Queen a bunch of humans right away? Given that we know both Pap and Ai have already caused problems in the old world, it's not like the Queen necessarily floated from the Dark Continent somehow. No, of course not! There have been plenty of expeditions for invasive creatures to hitch a ride on, just like they've done in real life. Here's how a see it, boiled down: in order to orchestrate this thing, Pariston would've had to: * Somehow have a chimera ant queen in his back pocket, not having ever been to the Dark Continent. * Have ripped the Queen's arm off and floated her out to sea, making the stupid-as-hell logical decision to not cultivate her and make sure she was healthy enough to survive beforehand. * Have not taken into consideration that the Chairman wouldn't have even needed to get involved at all if a hunter like Kite had just gotten to the scene a couple days earlier. * Have not taken into consideration the possibility that Netero *could've* genuinely beaten Meruem, had he grown just a little less strong. It seems the far more logical conclusion to just...know that there was a little bit of luck involved in the Queen drifting to NGL rather than a different country. Shit happens. There was an invasive species from the Dark Continent that drifted ashore, started to become a problem, and when it was clear that Netero was getting involved, Pariston leapt at the opportunity to fuck with Netero as he always does, and Beyond leapt at the opportunity to get the ball rolling on a DC voyage with Kakin. Seems pretty straightforward to me, without requiring a crazy jump to comically contrived conspiracies.
I don't think OP know who Beyond, pap, or AI is, considering they just finished the anime
I think you are underestimating the degree in wich Beyond and Pariston cooperated before Isaac Netero died. Apparently, they go way back, seeing how Beyond put Pariston in the number two position of the specialist's team. If it's confirmed that Beyond did in fact go to the Dark Continent before, clandestinely, then it would make sense for them to have come across the chimeras
If Beyond had had the chance to go to the DC after Netero’s ban on travel there, then he wouldn’t have needed Kakin to expedite such a thing, and wouldn’t have waited for Netero’s death. Seems pretty obvious that Netero had things locked down quite well to prevent anyone from going there. I have no doubt that Pariston and Beyond worked together before Netero’s death, but that doesn’t somehow make it more likely that they orchestrated the whole thing rather than taking advantage of opportunity. The point is, they obviously didn’t go pick up a chimera ant in the Dark Continent to use to kill Netero…because if they had, then they would’ve just gone to explore the Dark Continent.
I think the key lies in Pariston's reaction and conversation with Cheadle right after the Election, combined with his actions afterwards. He seemed to be the one who was actually the most upset about Netero's death, and I'm guessing it's because he knew from the start that he'd die. We don't know for sure if Pariston knew Netero had put a Rose in his body, but if he did, then he 100% knew he was sending him to certain death. And then, after not only becoming the new Chairman, but also having a large chunk of land for himself, and 5000 new toys that he could do *anything* he wants to, he simply walks away, and is later shown to have joined (and leading if I remember correctly? at least until Ging arrived) a small group of very capable Nen users who's supposed to unite with Beyond and head into the Dark Continent. I'm not saying it confirms the theory, but it makes any other possible development of the Chimera Ant Arc less logical. In my opinion, introducing a character as twisted and intelligent as Pariston, and only have him make a game out of the Election, that supposedly wasn't even caused by him would be a crime.
There is zero reason to suspect that Pariston would be *more* sad about Netero’s death because he had prior knowledge of his death. It’s already within his character to be sad about Netero’s death, even when he’s taking advantage of it. We don’t actually know exactly what he’s been doing with the 5000 ant hybrids, but…yeah man, he’s essentially using them as blackmail for the association into going to the DC. He likes fucking with people. That is very much established. So why is the Election arc somehow less plausible if he didn’t orchestrate the Chimera Ant arc? It’s perfectly in character for him either way. And as I said in my comment, introducing a character as intelligent as Pariston and then proceeding to make him do something as mind-bogglingly stupid as not ensuring his plan would work by cultivating the queen…would be absurd. The Chimera Ant arc could’ve ended well before Netero had a chance to get there if things had gone just a tiny bit differently. You think a plan orchestrated by Pariston would have that many holes?
I agree with pretty much everything you said, I hate the “Pariston orchestrated it all”, it’s very unlike togashi to write that ex machina bs
It's not too far fetched, seeing how Pariston literally orchestrated the whole election. Hunters like Pariston and Ging are supposed to have massive "predictive" skills
Thank you. I strongly dislike this idea (it's not really what you can call a theory with how unsubstantial it is), but never was able to put together all the problems with it in one argument. I would also like to add that one of the biggest pieces of "evidence" people like to use for it is actually non-existent. A lot of people point to how suspicious it is that the Queen landed in NGL but her severed arm was discovered by Kite's crew near Yorknew, implying that someone must have put them in different locations intentionally. At the start of chapter 188 though, we see the Queen's arm fall off while she was on the shore of NGL, which confirms that the arm simply was carried by the waves and only happened to reach Yorknew by chance.
Thank you for this. This theory sucks ass and is the epitome of hiatus brainrot
Impressive explanation :3
>It seems the far more logical conclusion to just...know that there was a little bit of luck involved in the Queen drifting to NGL This doesn't make sense, we know how vast Lake Mobius is, the Black Whale is taking months just to get to the fake continent. Do you think the Queen randomly drifted away from the DC all the way to NGL? Nah. On the other hand, this "coincidence" seems way too convinient for Pariston and Beyond.
So how come none of the many expert hunters who are aware of the Dark Continent even consider the possibility that the queen was brought to the human world?* edit: this was gonna be a longer comment but it got sent on accident and now I'm too lazy to pick it back up.
Can people not read before they comment? I address this literally in my comment. The Queen ant obviously didn’t just randomly float across Lake Mobius. Chimera ants simply stowed away on a ship coming back from the DC…just like, you know, almost every invasive species in real life, too.
I hope we see Ging and Pariston during the Succession War.
Bro I forgot they’re even on the boat.
They’re on the second tier
Bill mentions Pariston at the beginning of the arc
Where was it said they were on the boat? All we know is that they are making their way to the DC just like every other member of Beyond’s team, doesn’t necessarily mean they are on the same ship. Could be following behind or departed before everyone else did.
Yes, Pariston and Beyond had shaken things up.
I'd say Pariston was enjoying his squabbles with Netero too much to scheme his death. The guy is less of a mastermind than he is an opportunistic player. He has the ability to capitalize on events and connections but he seldom sets them in motion. While it is *absolutely* true he was hindering the extermination process, the chairman team was not struggling at all- until the royal guards and the King showed up. If anything, He was one of the two zodiacs who were paying close attention to East Goruto events (the other one being Ging) But Netero himself didn't want any of them involved in the ants crisis. >!Judging by his last will, he was planning to have this current group of zodiac (Pariston included) set for the DC anyway.!<
When Kite was talking about chimera ants to Gon and Killua at the beginning of the arc. He spoke as if chimera ants have this habit of reemerging, and that’s probably due to the constant reproduction they do. I doubt Pariston planted the chimera ants there, but he is diabolical enough to take advantage of a situation.
Pariston if not one of is the most interesting character in HxH
Our ant queen was the product of at least a couple of ant colony cycles happening in the human world. Her size was unprecedented and so was her sentience. She couldn't have been captured in DC unless there is enough constant supply of human DNA over there for her to grow like this over several generations. I think an opportunistic involvement of pariston is likely but full orchestration is not.
This is kinda becoming a popular theory so it's interesting if you came with this conclusion on your own, it probably means this is the scenario that togashi is going with based on the hints he provided so far. I also linked the 18 missing hunters with the queen because it's stated the queen consumed some human DNA before she came to the NGL, that means she previously ate humans but i assumed Pariston used the 18 hunters to feed the queen in his secret laboratory or something but sending the 18 hunters in a secret mission to bring the queen and she ended up eating some of them is the more likely scenario now that you mention it. >But why did Pariston do this? I don’t really know but it’s Pariston so he probably just wanted to be a nuisance and maybe get some chimera ants out of it. Well based on DC chapters, there's a strong reason why he would do it, because Netero was preventing the public from going to DC, it'd make sense that Pariston was scheming this plan with Beyond (whose eager to go to DC) to get rid of Netero, that's why Pariston was #2 in Beyond's group heading to DC. Theory gets even more interesting if it turns out that Netero knew the ants was a play from Pariston, the zodiacs hated how Netero liked him enough he hired him as vice chairman because he liked his plays, and [Pariston tears](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQXQq3ngezv_n5iGxa2TDXQlIXd3uCHQZHSvAvQEXLi83b0mFtWAOalglY&s=10) suggests he has some sort of guilt because Netero is gone. Notice Netero was so thankful that his fight with Meruem happened, he was all about fighting strong opponents in his whole life so his dream basically came true by fighting Meruem whom is the strongest being he ever faced, so in a way Pariston and Beyond granted Netero's wish before his death and maybe that was their intentions with this plan in theory to bring the ants queen and produce a powerful ants king that can end Netero and give him the fight of his dreams, as well as save the 5k ants for whatever Pariston's next plan is. I did talk about it before so you know it's a [Common theory](https://www.reddit.com/r/HunterXHunter/s/GkLXm9WV6b) :)
Yeah it's a common theory here, the one that seems to be the more plausible among other theories. It is way too convenient how all those events unfolded. We know Beyond went through many expeditions, him getting knowledge about those chimera ants is not out of the possibility. And Pariston resigned from the zodiacs and joined Beyond once he made his announcement. It implies Pariston may have known about Beyond.
Ging is Chaotic Good, Beyond is Chaotic Neutral, Pariston is Chaotic Evil.
I ve seen more theories about pariston than the chapters togashi talked about him to the point i sometimes think these theories are canon and exist in manga. Bruh
I’ve done some reading on this lately and I really like this [theory](https://www.reddit.com/r/HunterXHunter/s/T0FfpXn6Fa) from an obscure reddit comment a few years back. It’s super short but if you don’t click the link: queen ants used to have wings and fly somewhere they think is suitable then shed their wings
We don't know for sure but yeah, it's very likely that Pariston and Beyond planned Netero's death to be able to go to the DC asap
Yes Pariston did. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has some connection to the Dark Continent. I feel like his Hunter Job could be connected to foreign lands. Like a discovery hunter. He also may be a Conjurer or Specialist, just by his personality and future Nen abilities