@Outerspec:
Since when did world establishment take precedent over the main characters as the true focus of Hunter X Hunter? All this time the story hasn't revolved around Gon and his friends and their adventures but rather these other hunters who we were just introduced to last arc and world exposition?
I'm not understanding this whole hasn't "established themselves in the world yet" so the story doesn't revolve around them thing… Besides the fact that Gon helped save the world by wiping out the king of the Chimera Ants he's still the main character. In One Piece when did the story start to revolve around Luffy and his crew? Only when they established themselves in the world? Or do you believe the story (developmental wise) revolves around One Piece which we know little to nothing about and Luffy & co. are just along for the ride?
Focusing on the main cast =/= "completely" abandoning the character development of the newly introduced characters. That is an overstatement. For your statement to be true we will have to never have any significant interaction with these new characters ever again when the story attempts to focus on Gon again.
To focus an entire arc on newly introduced characters and shoving the main characters to the sidelines or putting them on "hiatus" is indeed poor storytelling. Sure, everyone is interested in the bigwigs and strongest of the strongest fighters in Hunter X Hunter but we're invested in Gon's growth because we've been there with him since Chapter 1. If you want Gon eventually strong enough to enter the DC but you also want to see the 'movers and shakers' do their thing then you can either wait for Gon to go through a couple of arcs to get strong enough and meet them in the DC, take a timeskip so Gon can meet up with them there quickly in our time, or force Gon into the DC unprepared but protected by his stronger peers.
If the manga is coming out on a week to week basis though and we only get snippets of updates about the main cast compared to these "professional hunters" running around the DC I'd be pretty pissed. I don't see a timeskip happening right now anyway but it is a possibility. Another route Togashi can take is splitting the focus between the main cast in the regular world and the professionals in the DC. Kind of like what Toriko has been doing.
I meant in the HunterxHunter world it does not revolve around Gon, meaning that you can't just place Gon in the middle of the action so forcefully with a red carpet and expect him to have contribution to major things happening in the World.
Plus, you can't just pause the big things happening just because Gon is not ready. To just cop out and make a time-skip would devalue everything else that happened and feel cheap.
@Wagomu:
I said why should we care about their day to day? That's what it means to be the protagonists for the arc. The consequences of their in the Dark Continent could probably be described in paragraphs and almost certainly will on the wikis when it's all over. Following them, though, means checking in on them regularly, giving them character arcs, showcasing their interactions and all sorts of little that are irrelevant to the overall plot and how it connects to the real protagonists. Worldbuilding can be done without giving all of the details immediately as they happen. That's a waste of time that loosens the focus.
I didn't understand what you're trying to say here.
Imagine if Hamlet started out with an act dedicated the assassination of Hamlet Senior. That's an important and central thing to the plot, but the details are irrelevant to the story. Claudius and Hamlet Sr. don't need to be established and examined so rigorously just because they play a big part in the central conflict. The focus is on Hamlet.
It's been so long since I've read Shakespeare but I think you're implying that everything else that happens without connection to Gon is irrelevant to the storyline of HxH. I disagree with this opinion wholeheartedly. It may have worked in favor of Hamlet, but HxH is entirely different.
Yeah, Kite is the only pro we've seen in action. You know, besides Kurapica's team, Morel, Knov, Knuckle, Shoot, Illumi, Netero and every single person on Greed Island.
Whether you dispute their validity as 'pros in he field' or not, though, Togashi has made it clear on many many many many many many occasions that the definition of a hunter and their quality are all very loosely defined. According the the Hunter commandments, the only things that qualify a hunter are that they're strong, have a license and are hunting something. So or all intents and purposes Gon has been a professional hunter doing his job ever since the end of the first arc.
I meant as in we've never seen a true professional hunter working in their respective fields. Knuckes, Shoot, Morel, Knovs, and Netero were given the task of exterminating the King. It was a basic assassination hit job that didn't really show anything. Kurapika's team were a bunch of rag-doll hunters who were death fodders. Greed Island speaks for itself. They couldn't even defeat Bomber, who was defeated by a 13 year old. They are a pathetic excuse for hunters.
And through Gon we've seen a lot of the trials hunters face. That's what the whole lead-up to Greed Island was. We got to see Gon, gathering information, developing and using connections, training his abilities and even learning friggin auctioning skills just to potentially get information on his dad.
It was mostly Killua who was doing all the dirty work.
And if you want to talk about the Hunter Association doing amazing things, we can talk about that one time that a group consisting of Gon and nine other people saved the human race.
It was only Netero who really saved the entire human race.
That's only if the author is a bad writer. A good writer can focus on the protagonists and still flesh out other characters. That's just conventionally good writing.
But that's the purpose of a time skip. Or a training arc. Or maybe they just have to confront their weakness again, like Outerspec suggested. What it isn't is an excuse to stop focusing on the character we want to develop.
The purpose of a time-skip is just a quick way to make the main characters strong enough to be apart of the big arc, which is cheap and unoriginal in the creative side.