Fans have been asking what Benjamin’s Guardian Spirit Beast actually does for weeks, and chapter 417 finally answers it. The reveal lands right as the First Prince’s endgame comes into focus, and it recontextualizes everything he has done since declaring Special Martial Law.
Benjamin has spent the Succession Contest positioning himself as Kakin’s protector while secretly carrying the very weapon he claimed to be defending the Black Whale from.
He declared Special Martial Law over a supposed chemical weapons plot from his brothers, Halkenburg and Tserriednich, when in reality Benjamin himself possessed the TSK-17 virus the whole time. That kind of long-game manipulation is exactly why fans wanted to know what his Guardian Spirit Beast could do once the mask came off.
What Does Bohemian Rhapsody Actually Do?
The ability takes its katakana name from the Queen song of the same title, but the mechanic itself is far more sinister than a music reference. After Benjamin dies, the Guardian Spirit Beast merges with his Nen, then selects one of his blood relatives to inherit it as their own Guardian Spirit Beast.
That single detail rewrites Benjamin’s entire strategy. Because his death allows Bohemian Rhapsody to transfer through his bloodline, his current killing spree is not a desperate bid for survival. It is Benjamin arranging the board correctly before he dies. He does not need to win the throne himself. He just needs the right person left standing when he goes.
Why Benjamin No Longer Needs to Survive
Kakin has an emergency law that activates if every royal heir dies or faces inevitable death, allowing King Nasubi to name new successors on the spot. Benjamin is trying to manufacture that exact scenario. Once every rival prince faces death, he expects his own child to be named the next heir apparent, letting his Guardian Spirit Beast protect that bloodline long after his body is gone.
That is why Hunter x Hunter chapter 417 shows him moving so aggressively. He already believes he has killed Tserriednich, crushing the Fourth Prince’s head after shooting him, and he has TSK-17 doses stashed away specifically to infect the princes he cannot kill outright.
Related: How Does Tserriednich Fake His Own Death? Hunter x Hunter’s Parallel Future Explained
Of the princes hunted so far, only Fifth Prince Tubeppa and Sixth Prince Tyson have actually been captured and infected, while others like Zhang Lei and Luzurus have already slipped away using their own family connections.
The scarier wrinkle is that Benjamin’s plan assumes his rivals cannot counter TSK-17. But other Guardian Spirit Beasts in the Contest may be capable of neutralizing his toxin, which means the ability that looks unstoppable on paper could still be beaten in practice.
Bohemian Rhapsody essentially turns Benjamin into a threat that survives its own user, which is a genuinely unnerving twist for a series built on Nen powers vanishing the moment their owner dies. It also puts a countdown on everyone left in the Black Whale. If Benjamin succeeds, the ability does not just disappear with him. It picks a successor and keeps going.
With Kurapika, Salkov, and the surviving princes now racing to figure out how to stop an ability that outlives its creator, the next chapter should reveal whether anyone in the Black Whale can actually shut Bohemian Rhapsody down before Benjamin’s bloodline plan locks into place.