Meruem

From Multiversal Omnipedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Meruem is a male anime and manga villain who features in Hunter x Hunter.

Contents

Biography

Meruem (Japanese: メルエム, Hepburn: Meruemu) was a male member of the race of insectoid creatures known as Chimera Ants that had evolved into more evolved forms. This began when a large Chimera Ant Queen emerged onto the main land where she began consuming large number of native animals and humans. After establishing a nest, she began to birth more humanoid Ants that capture more humans for her to consume. This led to the eventual establishment of a castle where she commanded to be fed hundreds of humans so that she could birth a strong Chimera Ant King as part of her species life cycle. The Chimera Ant King later formed in her womb whilst her Ants established themselves in the NGL Autonomous Region. The Hunters Association after learning of the Chimera Ant threat intended to eliminate the Queen before she could birth the King. However, the King forced his birth early with this fatally wounding the Queen. After emerging, he showed little concern for her nor did he care about the demands for food from the assembled Squadron Leaders. He even killed Peggy when he attempted to tend to the Queen and ordered Colt to clean his blood spattered tail. Meruem later wanted food where he was shown those stored in the hive but he found it to be distasteful. Instead, he expressed an interest for 'rare' food which was live and even devoured the corpses of Peggy and Turtles. He would then depart the nest with the Royal Guard who had sworn loyalty to him. They decided to escort the King to the nearby fields where Meruem killed humans and marvelled at their lack of resistance. After eating their flesh, he found that this did not satisfy him with Neferpitou claiming that the brain was the most delicious part of a human. Looking to test this theory, he killed a crying child with his tail and proceed to eat her brain which he found tasted better but it was still nothing compared to the 'rares'. It was then that Neferpitou suggested using Gyo to spot humans with large amounts of aura from their body. The King though found this explanation to be disrespectful and instead hit the Royal Guard with their tail to discipline them. Meruem then explained that he enjoyed not knowing how delicious his prey was as it excited during his hunts. He also commended Neferpitou for their strength as they survive despite the King's attempt to kill the Royal Guard.

Chairman Netero battles Meruem.
The Chimera Ant King dies in Komugi's arms.

With his En, he stretched his essence across the palace and managed to find Palm in one of the buildings. Meruem then approached her asking to be shown where Komugi was situated. The King stated that he held no further interest in conquering the world and that mankind had won. Instead, he desired to spend his last moments with Komugi as he was aware that he was dying from the radiation poisoning from the miniature rose weapon. To show his sincerity, he was even bowing to Palm who stopped the Chimera Ant King as her part-Ant nature knew how big such a gesture was to their people. As a result, she showed him where in the underground warehouse Komugi was situated with the King freeing her. He smiled after seeing her asleep and speaking out moves for Gungi. When she awakened, he continued playing Gungi against her and told her his name. Meruem revealed to her that he was dying and that if she stayed near him she would die as well from the exposure. However, she decided to continue playing Gungi with him until he grew too weak and tired to play. He later passed away in the arms of Komugi who shortly died afterwards.

Overview

Personality and attributes

The King.

In appearance, Meruem was a humanoid being with insectoid origins where he had a green skinned form and a tail with a stinger on it. Upon his birth, he was known simply as the Chimera Ant King and his name Meruem had been given by the Queen but he had departed before she could give him the name.

Initially, he believed in strength and despised the weak with him having a brutal outlook. He believed that only strength determined rule and was disgusted after seeing a human dictator managing his kingdom with the individual being incredibly weak. Afterwards, a group of humans begged the King to spare them to which he gleefully responded by saying that mankind showed no mercy to the animals that they slaughtered to eat. Despite his aggressive attitude, Meruem was shown to respect those that showed strength. This was shown when he was angry at Neferpitou for stating something he knew and struck the Royal Guard in the face in a blow where he was not holding back. The fact that Neferpitou survived such a strike led to the King respecting her.

Meruem did not tolerate repeating himself and struck others for making him doing so.

As with other Ants, he was a carnivore and consumed the flesh of other living beings. However, when eating ordinary human flesh or brains he felt that it tasted disgusting. In fact, he consumed a Squadron Leaders leg after he had killed the Chimera Ant. He stated that when he was in the womb that he tasted food unlike any other that was delicious to him with these being from the bodies of Nen users. As a result, he initially developed a hunger for Nen users with him being overjoyed after finding and eating a person with this power.

Meruem showed no compassion initially as he forced his early birth from the Chimera Ant Queen even though he knew that this would fatally injure her. When she attempted to slow the birth, the King replied to her from within the womb to be silent as he was born. He then departed the nest without any concern over the Queen as he believed she had served her purpose.

The King later became interested in the various forms of games that he mastered in a short span of time. He sought to determine his foes rhythm of their moves and ultimate goal. Upon discovering that, he would move to disrupt that rhythm in order to bring about his victory. By predicting their rhythm, the King could determine the McGee course of action of his opponent. This involved a look into their biases and beliefs in order to find a weakness in their strategy.

The King later stated that he was born to rule and whilst initially he saw humans as livestock this began to change after his interactions with Komugi. He began to believe that certain humans were worth keeping alive and needed to be protected. Thus, he began to shift his stance from killing humans to protecting them as he noted that he could bring order to the world. Meruem noted the inequality in the world where some suffered whilst others profited from that suffering. The King felt that he would bring about a new world where everyone was truly treated as equal but stated that to accomplish this he would need to bring terror first to mankind. According to Netero, Meruem was divided between his human and ant sides with them being incompatible with one another.

Powers and abilities

Strongest of the Chimera Ants.

The Chimera Ant King was different from the other members of his kind as he was born after the Queen had consumed many humans. Despite his insectoid nature, he was born with a humanoid form with green skin and a tail with a stinger at the end. Such was his strength that he could kill others by destroying their heads with but a swipe of his tail.

Similar to the other evolved Chimera Ants, he was able to sense the aura of Nen users. According to Neferpitou, Meruem's strength lay in the fact that he consumed the power of Nen users allowing him to take their strength and adding it to his own.

Through absorbing Shaiapouf and Menthuthuyoupi, he was able to gain wings that gave him the power of flight where he could travel at such speeds that he could cover a distance that Menthuthuyoupi and Shaiapouf thought would take 15 minutes in a mere 5 minutes. Another power he acquired was the ability to fire explosive blasts of aura from his arm with a single shot able to severely damage a large rock formation. Meruem could combine his En with that of the inherited ability from Shaiapouf to create his own version of Spiritual Message. It consisted in turning his aura into microscopic particles akin to photons and either deploy them with his En in a flash or detach the photons from his body and spread them into the surrounding air.

Notes

  • Meruem was created by Yoshihiro Togashi where he featured in the setting of Hunter x Hunter.

In other media

Television

  • In Hunter x Hunter, Meruem appeared in the setting of the 2011 anime series where he was voiced by Japanese actor Kōki Uchiyama.

Video games

  • In Jump Force, Meruem appeared as a playable character through DLC in the fighting video game where he was voiced again by Japanese actor Kōki Uchiyama.

Appearances

  • Hunter x Hunter:

External Links

This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.

Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Actions
Navigation
Toolbox