A man’s legacy can long outlast him. That is certainly true for [Don Freecss], one of the most mysterious figures in the entire Hunter x Hunter universe. His life is so secret, no one’s sure if he’s died! But his actions have shaped the world, and once our crew reaches the Dark Continent, he’s only going to become that much more relevant. We’re going to break down the secret history of Gon’s greatest ancestor. Let’s get to it. [The Legendary Hunter, Lost To The World] Don Freecss is only mentioned in one conversation, by his presumed descendent: Ging. The Hunter was talking about the Dark Continent to Beyond’s team and had to explain how humanity has any knowledge of this faraway, dangerous place. The V5, a coalition of the mightiest nations in the known world, have launched a series of expeditions to.

The dark continent. They were hunting for precious resources, electricity generating rocks, amazing medical herbs, and ‘nitro rice’. These people were well informed. And yet every expedition has ended in massive losses: out of [7,500] “official” explorers, a measly [28] made it back. And most of those were compromised by the Five Threats: a set of extremely dangerous magical organisms that infect and twist those exposed to them. That term directly translates from Japanese as the [Five Great Calamities] and we’ve seen what’s left of their victims. They live up to that name. Therefore, out of all those explorers, only [3] people have truly “survived the dark continent.” That gives us a success rate of [0.04%]: it’s no wonder that knowledge about the foreign land is limited. So few people make it back to talk about what they found,.

How has any information gotten back? Well, there have been some real efforts to document the Dark Continent, as Ging reveals. Those expeditions did make it back and were able to report on their adventures. The most notable source of knowledge about the New World, however, comes from 300 years ago. Don Freecss, the explorer in question, wrote a book titled [Journey to the New World]. Ging notes that Don had attempted to map the entirety of the Lake Moebius Coastline. That’s an almost ridiculous feat. Alone and unaided, this absolute madman of a Freecss attempted to circle the entire known world on a continent that exists to kill you. And he made enough progress that one of his books did make it back to civilization. He survived, at least for a time. That’s all we really know about Don. His life.

As this mysterious explorer began 300 years prior to the present day. Even Gin doesn’t know if he’s alive or dead at this point. The dark continent contains multiple ways of prolonging your life, as he points out to Beyond’s team. The copy of Journey to the New World that has been sent back to the V5 was marked [East Edition]. That strongly implies the existence of a follow up. A [Journey to the West] if you will. Don was planning to do the whole thing. But that second book never made it to the Old World. What could’ve happened? Well, that’s what we’re here to look into. But before we get started, make sure you’re subscribed to the channel, have rung the notification bell, and hit the like button for your daily dose of plot armor. Now onward to the Dark Continent! [Legacy of the Freecss] There is much more to Don Freecss than you.

Might tell at a glance. Yes, that brief mention by Ging is all we know about him definitively, but there are several secrets you can find with some careful observation. Hell, the very first image we see of Don Freecss may itself be a secret. On the surface, it looks like a placid scene of water: depicting the ocean near the dark continent. Some fans, however, have reported being able to see a face within the confines of the image. This is a potentially ingenious optical trick, using lines and shading to suggest a person without truly revealing them. And it’s only the first trick our master explorer has up his sleeve. Don Freecss may well be the one who inspired the great powers of the world to take an interest in the New World. He began his investigation of the Dark Continent 300 years ago. According to the timeline, the V5 first.

Signed the [Inviolability Treaty], restricting access to the Dark Continent ‘over’ 200 years ago. We don’t have an exact date for when Don’s book first made it back to the Six Continents, but it can’t have been quick. Given how difficult exploring the Dark Continent has always been shown to be, it must’ve taken him a while to compile the manuscript and find a way to return it home. Add on the time it took to publish, and for people to start taking it seriously, and things begin to line up. While the book was dismissed as fiction by the general public, the V5 has realized its potential for a while. They assigned it as mandatory reading for all employees, and it formed the basis for every expedition the member nations launched into the Dark Continent. The IPA is a major branch of the V5, with seemingly unlimited resources. The great.

Nations have clearly invested a lot of money in trying to get a handle on the majestic treasures of the New World. But they’ve also ruled out casual exploration of the Dark Continent, making it illegal and cracking down on unauthorized trips as much as possible. The V5 have acted to bring humanity’s interaction with the New World under tight control. Was that Don’s plan? It’s hard to tell what result the ancient Freecss may have intended by sharing his knowledge with the world he left behind. Journey to the New World outlined the treasures of the Dark Continent, but it took time to explain the dangers too. We’ve seen the remains of humans targeted by threats from the Dark Continent. It’s not a pretty picture. And while those expeditions, both via countries and private groups, came much later: Don knew all about these [Five.

Calamities]. They’re all outlined in Journey To The New World. Was he trying to warn humanity against venturing into the unknown? Was he hoping to tempt them outward with promises of treasure? Even if we can’t be sure, there’s some additional evidence hidden in what we know of Don’s life. And it tells us everything. What his goal was on the Dark Continent, what his adventures have been like, the works. And it gives us a crazy possibility. [Is Don A God Now?] This sounds pretty out there, but… hear me out. Don Freecss’ book, Journey to the New World, is our strongest hint about what happened to him on the Dark Continent. The fact that the version Ging and the V5 are familiar with was marked as the East Edition is strangely specific. If Don’s plan was to map out the entire coastline,.

Why limit himself to compass points? Why send back an incomplete account at all? And if you know your accounts are incomplete, why not call it “Volume 1” or something like that? Further, Ging implies that the volume they have covers more than just due East. He doesn’t expect Don to have written a North or South edition: just one more book. It has to have been fairly comprehensive if he managed to cover half the New World’s coastline. So, run that back. They’re missing one book, from a guy on a journey, and it’s the book covering his adventures in the West. This seems like such a specific, precise detail to have taken the time to establish that it may very well be a classical literature reference. The name itself is almost screaming the point: it’s supposed to be Don’s account of his adventures on the Dark Continent, not how he got there. .

For those unaware, [Journey To The West] is an epic Chinese novel that’s pretty commonly referenced in anime, manga, video games, and a bunch of other stuff. It chronicles the adventures of [Tang Sanzang], Trepitaka in some translations, who must travel to Gādhrakūta to retrieve Buddhist holy texts and bring enlightenment to his homeland. He’s aided in this by three mighty disciples. The most legendary is of course being the mischievous yet mighty Monkey King, [Sun Wukong]. The other two are less well known, but still prominent in the story. We have [Zhu Bajie], the literally and figuratively pig headed spirit monk continually referred to as dāizi [呆子] or ‘idiot’ by both characters and the narrator. And rounding out our trio is [Sha Wujing], the monk of the sands. This is the guy who killed the last group of nine Buddhist monks who tried to make.

This journey! He made a necklace of their skulls! But he’s a Buddhist now and is largely a good guy: even if he gets a bit snarky now and then. It’s easy to see this as a potential source of inspiration for Don’s own adventures in a strange and dangerous land. People have been drawing on Journey To The West for anime ideas for years. Son Goku is a pretty direct take on the legendary Monkey King, though his idiocy and good natured muscle guy routine is a departure from the original trickster deity who drove the Jade Emperor mad with his antics. DC Comics even has an ongoing series focused on his exploits. Wukong is a DC hero, and Bajie is hanging out with Robin now. Perhaps Don Freecss has also made some friends among the locals, who are accompanying him on his journey. There’s a ton of odd locations and characters that.

We might see reinterpreted for the Dark Continent. Sanzang’s party met demons who wanted to kill him basically every week. They freed a kingdom of Buddhists from the tyranny of three fake Taoist immortals. There are demonic flaming clouds, powerful shape changing warriors, and all sorts of monsters. What dark, twisted version of the Pregnancy River might we see in this timeline? It also suggests a potential new layer to Don’s life. Journey to the West, as much as people focus on the action and adventure, was a religious story at its core. If Don Freecss was seeking enlightenment on the Dark Continent, he could very well have found it. We’ve seen what this meant for Issac Netero. Could Don have become some Bodhisattva of Nen? But let’s backpedal a bit. There’s a contradiction here if we’re looking to parallel Hunter x Hunter.

And Journey to the West. Ging told us Don Freecss explored the Dark Continent alone. If Don had a group with him, that would almost certainly have been mentioned in “Journey to the New World.” This is a major discrepancy between the two: Journey to the West is very much the story of a party of explorers. It’s very well known for that fact, given that Wukong ends up being more famous than the “main character.” If Don’s journey is a parallel, how does this fit? Perhaps there’s some part of the bargain Don made with the Gatekeepers that required him to say nothing about his companions. The Gatekeepers would have insisted he take a Guide with him: they fit as an analogy to Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva charged with finding Sanzang and his three disciples. Or maybe the parallel is not that exact; just drawing a few things from the original.

Novel. The principle of exploring a distant land, the many demons and terrors it holds. However, there’s another option here. Let’s go a little deeper. [A Lie Conceals A Deeper Truth] Did you know that Journey To The West is based on a true story? That would be the [Great Tang Records on the Western Regions], composed by the monk Xuanzang. They chronicle his nineteen years spent traveling around southwest China and the borderlands of India. The book was finished in 646, just one year after Xuanzang returned home. It’s so accurate that modern day archeologists have used it as a guide when excavating several major sites in India. The Nalanda Monastery; Rajgir, “The City of Kings”; the monument caves at Ajanta: the list goes on. Xuanzang chronicled.

Their locations and inhabitants in great detail. This isn’t what you’d think of when it comes to anime inspiration. It’s a purely historical account, more like a geographic survey describing what Xuanzang found on his travels rather than some epic adventure story. Journey is very loosely based on the original. All the fantastical elements, like demons and dragons and everything Sun Wukong ever did got added in to make things more exciting and engaging. Even the geography of the region is warped: with a large number of great mountains and valleys that have little basis in reality. Consider Journey a sort of ‘pre-anime anime adaptation’. It even has an episodic structure and a ton of filler monster of the week stories! Someone needs to make a Journey to the West Kai already. And it’s.

Here, in the original account, that we really start to see some parallels with Don’s situation. Like our ancient Freecss, Xuanzang’s journey focused on the borders of a new land: not going too deep into India’s interior. It was also of questionable legality: if nothing else, Xuanzang was not approved by the imperial court prior to heading off. Interestingly, it was also far less of a mandated trip. There was no heavenly vision or order from a higher authority. Xuanzang was interested in Buddhism and truly sought out ancient sutras with the intent of translating them into Chinese, but the trip was very much his own choice. The most important thing, however, is that his travels are noted for another great success. His skill at [diplomacy]. The expansion of the Göktürk Khaganate put pressure on local powers.

To start working together militarily. Xuanzang met with many kings during his trip and brokered one of the first major alliances between China and India; convincing Emperor Harshavardhana, whom he met at a grand Buddhist assembly at Kannauj, to send an emissary to the court of Emperor Taizong of Tang. That success saved him from some serious legal repercussions. Xuanzang returned to a hero's welcome, bearing over 650 texts to translate. But he only managed this after the diplomatic success won him a great deal of cachet with the Imperial Court. Could he have returned home without it? No. And neither could Don Freecss. [Trapped By His Choices] Like Xuanzang before him, Don likely sailed for the Dark Continent in search of its many treasures. If Ging takes after him,.

However, these were less likely “things of material worth” (or the spiritual texts Xuanzang was after). Instead, he was probably looking for more unique and memorable experiences. Remember the moment he shared with Gon atop the World Tree? It’s clear Ging admires Don and is ready to follow in his footsteps towards the Dark Continent. The older Freecs likely set out for similar reasons to those that drove Ging and Gon to climb the tree. Don would’ve had a whole continent to explore: he’d have been the first human to see all these mysterious and majestic sights. But things have a tendency to get complicated. In this case, that’s likely a result of Don’s encounter with the mysterious . We still know next to nothing about this mysterious magical beast clan, but they are clearly powerful. Their assistance is needed for humanity to reach.

The Dark Continent, and they’ve deliberately sent threats back to “teach a lesson.” It seems clear that the Gatekeepers want to limit exploration of the Dark Continent as much as possible. They ensure that humanity isn’t able to see much of the New World. It’s hard to see the ancestor of Ging and Gon agreeing with that mindset. The one thing that seems to run in the Freecss bloodline is an appreciation for cool, wonderous things. If Don found mysterious, amazing treasures on the Dark Continent, he’d want to share them with the world. But he can’t go back without exposing humanity to one of these calamities. Don’s just one man, and not powerful enough to fight off the Gatekeepers, evidentially. However, the Gatekeepers’ control isn’t absolute. Unauthorized expeditions did still happen,.

Like the one Chairman Netero took part in. This explains why Don chose to write a book: it’s a way to get his knowledge back home without exposing people to any additional threats. His own focus, however, has remained on the Dark Continent and the West specifically. Perhaps he has a plan to beat the Gatekeepers from his side. What if, like Xuanzang, Don was trying to turn his hand to diplomacy? There have to be powers on the Dark Continent beyond the Gatekeepers. It’s a massive patch of land, and we know it can support life. We know that the Gatekeepers are hostile towards the idea of colonization: the V5 confirmed as much. With this magical beast clan barring the path between the old world and the new, there is no easy way for the people within Lake Moebius to form an alliance with the folk of the Dark Continent. .

You’d need an emissary. Someone from the Old World who wants to build a bridge between it and the new. Someone like Don Freecss. [A Promise To The Future] One member of the IPA likened the Dark Continent to [Pandora’s Box]. According to the old myth, the vessel was filled with all the evils of the world. That squares with the Dark Continent holding threat after threat and the Old World being exposed to them due to opening up this “box.” You can see why the old man made that comparison. But many accounts claim that there is something better waiting at the bottom of the box. Hope. That’s a second side to this analogy, one that should be relevant. The Hunter Association has been charged with bringing back Hope from the Dark Continent. There’s something more.

In the new world, hidden behind the treasures and monsters. Something that Netero caught a glimpse of and that Don has spent three hundred years looking for. Whatever mystery drives the two men is something truly new. Perhaps it’s a thriving civilization of magical beasts he wants to establish proper diplomatic relations with, as we theorized. Maybe it’s something like the World Tree, some kind of grand natural wonder he’s spent all this time looking for. Or perhaps all this time, Don’s been a food hunter obsessed with tracking down the perfect meal. We don’t have enough to be truly certain yet. No matter what, there’s one thing that can’t be argued with. Don Freecss has been venturing through the lands of the Dark Continent for three hundred years at this point. Whatever goal he has.

Or had, he pursued it to the end. Alive or dead, the man embodied what it means to be a Hunter. But what do you think he’s looking for? Could he actually have died? Share your thoughts on Don in the comments below! Thanks for watching, I’ve been Anthony Phan. Have an awesome day!