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snoopy of the day

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VAMPYR ↳ achievement unlocked: 🦋 Unlife is strange

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Personally I'm a big fan of Brad going from horrible little bastard man who's 90% sure he's in Alien (1979) and Vash is the titular alien, to President of the Vash Protection Squad/Father Figure. At some point he just accepted that he's coparenting an angel with his best friend. Even revolutionized modern prosthetics for him. What a guy.

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There's an animated "Wyrd Sisters" miniseries for the Discworld books and Death's actually really catty. He reminds me a lot of Grim from "Billy and Mandy". I always read him as more deadpan, but I like this version more.

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How to introduce your knife

Knives' main introduction in episode 3 starts with two of the oldest tricks in the book - or one, really, depending if we're counting the use of a code and the trope/convention it builds one technique or two.

The film language is not subtle. Whilst elements such as the massive amounts of gore, unsettling sound design and deep blue fog make for striking imagery, the star of the show is undoubtedly the classic low-angle shot, slowwww-ly tracking in to the diner entrance.

And I do mean track and not zoom. The camera movement here isn't stable, there's a couple of bumps and jerks that serve to imitate how someone would hold it in their hands, and it gives this scene the feel of a POV shot despite being so close to the ground. Tracking in also serves to accentuate the impact of the low-angle shot, since the angle at which you're looking up at something naturally gets more harsh as you get closer to it.

Low angles in film are typically used as a way to give whatever they're filming agency and power, which here means adding a significant element of intimidation to whatever's behind that door. And with the help of such a long cut, it plays into another very basic yet very effective technique - the classic horror trope that states that you don't show the audience the monster. Fear of the unknown reigns supreme.

This trope actually continues with Knives himself, with his big cocoon-blanket-hoodie-thing obscuring his body from the viewer. If it wasn't for the light glinting off of him, you could easily miss the guy at first glance. (Technically you could read that light above Knives as halo or eye imagery but ehhhhhhhhhh it's a stretch) Indeed, the focus of this shot seems to be less on Knives and more on the meat-grinder-ing of E.G he's just done here. That and the lighting. It's overwhelmingly bright, and a good quarter or so of the screen is just pure white. Obviously light = divinity and at this level of saturation, the implied higher power is so removed from humanity that we can barely look at it without averting our gaze.

And when we avert our gaze, the next thing we are drawn to in this scene is Knives. Touched by divinity, still alien, but not so much that we can't look at him. Keep in mind that there is a deliberate choice here to have Knives not be the one emitting light - he and Vash are emissaries of a higher power, not directly part of it.

This also contextualizes Knives' statement immediately after. There are two ways I see you could read this - either Knives is positioning himself as a god, and mocking E.G's poor attempt to worship him, or he is asking Vash if Vash shares a desire of his to converse with the divine. When taken together with the coding of the prior scene, there's an unstated question to the audience as to where exactly the twins fall on the scale between human and divine.

There's obviously something off about Knives here though. Partly through his alien costuming, but also from the fact that he seemingly cut a guy's arms off with an unseen super weapon and the incident of someone's limbs being separated from their body is such an unnoteworthy occurrence that he can't even be bothered to turn around from whatever he's thinking about as he sits at the piano.

Vash is so obviously emphasized as the opposite of his brother here. Outside of the blood, he's the only colour in the entire room, the only one with his weapon out and the only one of the twins visibly open and expressive. And he's so, so obviously powerless in this scene. It's a full doubling up on him film language wise, with him both isolated via the frame-within-a-frame of the door and the dirty shot to make sure Vash never gets to stand here in full view whilst simultaneously making Knives look gargantuan in comparison.

These two shots are utterly evil in their composition, and how the mise en scene of the blood on the wall lines up in such a way that it looks like it came from Vash's gun. There's not much to say that I haven't touched on before - Vash is boxed in by the roof above when Knives is in the open, Vash's posing is dynamic and he speaks in a panicked manner where Knives' is calm and composed. Knives is bathed in light and now we also get the addition of Vash being bathed in shadow, away from the divine whilst Knives is positioned far closer to it.

When Knives claims ownership of the plant, he also claims it as his property first, then corrects himself to him and Vash. Knives first, Vash second, the townspeople a very distant third place. Any opinion the plants themselves have on this matter isn't brought up.

For once we actually get a shot where Vash is framed as larger, which perhaps acts as a way to emphasize his convinctions and validate them as something that gives him strength. This is also the first time we see Knives in front of the window and thus not only casting his own shadow but blocking the light out, as if to suggest he isn't as holy as he thinks he is.

(I think there might also be a continuity error in this shot. The piano seems to have shifted forwards a bit to place in front of the window)

Once Knives asks Vash "who's side are you on?", he goes back to dominating the conversation however, and the scene shifts aptly. Knives is once again framed as large, Vash as small, although he's not quite as stifling as last time. The perspective doesn't have him blocking out any part of Vash's body, and the frame-within-a-frame consisting on the diner entrance around Vash is less noticeable. Vash has gained a little bit of power in this conversation, albeit by not much.

Then, when Knives talks of Vash's loneliness, it cuts to a shot of Vash by himself to match. Vash being so audibly and visibly panicked drives this home, because who could find company in someone who makes you so angry and scared, even if they are your own brother?

I have yet to come to a conclusion on why Knives' feet are such a large motif in the story, other then the fact that the foley artist probably had a blast with the 'bare feet on blood' sfx. Perhaps it's to show Knives as someone who walks literally on top of blood, not caring to look down at the pain and suffering below him.

Hands are also major motif throughout the story, and they're typical paired either with the gain or loss of connections. Here however, whilst Knives may connect with Vash literally, it's not a positive or typical form of connection. Instead, Knives' touch brings disconcertion, fragility and isolation, cracking Vash's gun and shoving him alone into the state of a confused vulnerable child, in what reads to me like a shockingly acute depiction of a dissociative flashback. If you removed all the sci-fi language, you could tell me this was an artsy depiction of a PTSD episode and I would probably believe you.

TL;DR: Knives is a creature with divine connections who believes himself more holy then he is and is also fucking terrifying, especially to Vash.

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this too, is yuri

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And so another city was destroyed by the Humanoid Typhoon🦾…. Maybe…🤫 The fact that for this whole time he has a weapon on his hand (literally) really made me laugh😂 I hope he will use it like in the manga/OG anime!

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its him. the bullet biter

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My boy just can't catch a break 😭

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What happens when you leave the window open at night

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Today's Seal Is: Yummy Backpack I Eat It Maybe

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Firefly flirting

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Vash the Stampede

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He slipped and fell on your blog : -(

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I love them so much.

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I loved every moment I made this illustration, Vash forever