Board Thread:Manga Discussion/@comment-151.67.74.159-20180222143921/@comment-151.67.74.159-20180222224221

The way I see it, you're saying there's no basis Emperor Time has any biological grounds, right?

I'd have to disagree. All aging IS biological. Chronological aging is a human construct which wraps up the more complex underlying biology in a number. It's easier to use because you can quantify it, abstract it, and compare it. But it has no further meaning beyond life tables, social secury, and Nen conditions.

I'll give you an example. Saying that Netero has more years in him than an average person, for example, is not technically wrong; but that's an aftereffect of the fact that Ten is slowing down his cells' life cycles. What matters here de facto isn't how many calendars Netero has seen, but the rate of his body aging -- in other words, his long age exemplifies how little he's spread his life over each single year.

My hypothesis is, if Togashi got his theory right and didn't use "lifespan" as an immaterial whatever, that means Kurapika has to spread more of his life over less years whenever he uses Emperor's Time. In other words, he burns through his lifespan faster. This isn't far from how he actually worded it; "Each second in ET shortens my lifespan by 1 hr".

It makes sense to me that, if ET's restrictions shorten Kurapika's lifespan and thus hasten a natural dying point (as it seems to me), Kurapika has to have burnt through 5 yrs of his lifespan, and thus be currently 24 yrs old. I agree there's one weakpoint to my theory: Especially since he's burnt through so many years at once, why didn't the effects instantly show up?

I'm guessing Togashi hasn't planned for an immediate role for this restriction in Succession War Arc, and instantly updating Kurapika's look to a grown-up (Kurapika already looks like a grown-up) would slightly change the dynamics of how the enemies interpret his abilitites. I guess this is a strong point in your favor, though, since I can't think of a reason for Togashi not attributing a role to it besides "this is meant to be a sacrifice, not a power-up, so you'll just lose abstract years rather than physically grow". It would've been interesting, however -- Kurapika burning through his lifespan, growing into an even-stronger 24 yr old, and Bhavimania strategizing on how to burn his lifespan even more.

In the end, I don't think Togashi has fleshed out this concept well enough for us to decide whether to update Kurapika's age entry.