#a lot of people talked about this before - that the reason Vash killed Legato was because of Wolfwood

[vash-in-the-void]

Wolfwood as a Judas figure

(and what does the Couch have to do with it)

you know how there are some interpetations of Wolfwood as the Judas to Vash's Jesus

and as the betrayal people use the whole "brought Vash to Knives"

that never really did it for me

sure, that incident is a betrayal all right - he brought Vash to the slaughter - but thematically, or in its consequences it just doesn't fit The Judas Betrayal

Wolfwood regreted it almost instantly and turned around undo what he's done and to rescue Vash - I went into it a while ago but this to me a Peter type betrayal the "before the rooster cries three times you will deny me" type

Now here is the take I come in with

in some interpretations of Judas his betrayal was not an act of selfishness but an act of love - Judas knew he had to betray Jesus for his ressurection to come

he betrayed Jesus, the person, to propagate Jesus, the idea, and in the proces sacrificed himself along with his eternal life

now hear me out on this

Wolfwood betrayed Vash, the person, by putting down his life, for Vash's ideals of sparing a life of someone else

due to this betrayal a part of Vash died

but a part of him has also undergone a change to allow him to reach his goals

this chapter really marks a turning point in Vash's character - something that wouldn't happen be it not for Wolfwood's sacrifice

in the end of the day

Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss

[mediocreanomaly]

i'm so normal. can i request a part 2 to the knives/reader soulmate au? im just so curious how it'd go, hdjdjnd

Authors Note: Non-Normal Knives kisser spotted.

Kidding! yes of course I shall make you a pt.2 (guys am I the Trigun Soulmate guy now? I'm not complaining it's just a bit funny to me, let me infect you with Trigun soulmate au now...)

*Not NSFW but a slightly "spicy" scene at the end (jesus I'm old do people still say spicy unironically? guys I mean it ironically I swear-)*

Read Part 1 Here!

Knives X Reader Soulmate AU Pt.2

•It's a painstaking process, both literally and metaphorically, as Knives recovers

•You feel awful. Your body vaguely burns everywhere, Knives is incapacitated, and the fact it's Legato who sits like a hawk watching over the two of you not yet trusting of your intentions doesn't exactly ease any of your stress

•It's a bit tedious dodging the blue haired mans constant questioning not quite ready to say "hey you know the most feared man in all of Gunsmoke who hates the idea of soulmates is actually my soulmate?" yeah sounds awful.

•So you sit dutifully day and night rewrapping wounds and running your fingers through Knives's hair appreciating that he at least seems to heal much quicker than humans do so hopefully this aching burn will subside quickly

•When he finally wakes up it's, of course, the one time you leave the room to go get something to eat. You almost imagine the dammed plant planned this even though you know it's not the case

•You stand in the door way...saying nothing. The two of you had become close before, was close the right word? but now you felt awkward and out of place watching Knives' cold blue eyes stare a hole into you

"Legato says you haven't left my side" he says, it's more of a statement than a question but you'll bite

"Yes." You say simply, not making a move as if dealing with a wild animal that's ready to pounce

"Why?" He's searching you as if looking for something or...no he's watching you like he's waiting to catch you in a lie

"I think you already know" Is all you can manage. You stay still, waiting for sharpness of metal, you just hope it'll be quick. You weren't stupid, you knew Knives didn't want a soulmate, so there wasn't much to do than to accept the fate the universe had laid out for you. You close you eyes and wait....and wait....and- wasn't he going to kill you?

You peek your eyes open to see Knives watching you with a furrowed brow. You have to admit he looks oddly cute like this despite the fact your life is most certainly in danger.

He stares, as if perplexed by you then scoffs

"This is ridiculous. I'd never be bound to a human like you" he states, you just nod not sure what to do until he sits up straight in bed

"Come, inform me of what's happened while I was asleep"

You aren't stupid enough to try and push the matter or point out the fact he was a little worse off than "asleep" so you just sit on the side of the bed with him, giving him what little information you know.

•After that he begins to talk about his new plans. You listen intently, letting him ramble on about this new era he's planning to usher in

•and if he begins to stray from the topic, if he begins to go on about the Ja'lai incident, or about how he really thought Vash would understand...don't bring any attention to it, your slowly beginning to understand there's a reason he trust you with these things even if he won't say it out loud

•Speaking of which...he won't say anything about the "soulmate" matter out loud. Not now anyways, not yet. He's not sure why but...he can't bring himself to kill you and it scares him. He isn't used to sparing lives besides his brothers and even then his forms of punishment are a lot more severe than what he's willing to do to you

•Not that he didn't contemplate taking a limb or letting you see how sharp his knives can really be but there'd be no point really he'd only be hurting himself (at least that's what he tells himself)

•He's also...a bit protective of you now. Even though he still refuses to say to anyone, including you, that you're his soulmate he does make vague mentions of it when you try to leave and he says something along the lines of

"No you can't leave. If you were to get hurt it'd be inefficient for me"

•(aw he likes you!)

•He begrudgingly lets you begin working again because there was a reason he allowed you to stay with his team in the first place, although if his hovering around your work place was bad before it's 10x worse now

•You are met with the sight of his chest every time you turn around and you have to shyly look up to the piercing gaze that's trained on you like a predator

•eventually you get him to back up a little bit by telling him if you spill any chemicals on him it'll just burn the both of you although he still stands in the corner watching your every move

•In all...don't expect him to be all lovely dovey...yet. Although...

You stand absent mindedly as you look over your work. This formula was driving you nuts and the constant feeling of being watched wasn't exactly helping. You lean down placing your hands on the table scanning over the papers messily sprawled over your desk when you feel a strong pair of hands at your hips.

It takes everything in you not to yelp, only for that feeling to turn into you trying not to moan when teeth nip at the shell of your ear. Knives body is pressed against your back, strong and solid, god you were either touch starved or the soulmate connection was doing wonders because he'd barley even touched you and you felt like you were unraveling. He pushes you forwards slightly forcing you to hold your most your weigh with your arms as you shudder. He's trapping you against the table, mouth trailing down to harshly nip along your throat, right hand running up your side and his left hand is moving to-

he pulls away.

You're breathless. You glance up at him, and if the amused smirk on his face is anything to go by, you look like just as much of a mess as you feel.

"I fixed your formula for you"

you glance down and sure enough...the numbers you had been mulling over all day had been fixed in the matter of...minutes? Seconds?

You watch dumbfounded as Knives strolls away as if nothing happened, even thought the blush painting your face and the bruises beginning to blossom against your neck are more than enough proof

•That's the thing, the universe never prepares you for your soulmate being an asshole. That's okay though, two can play at that game.

[paiteyy]

Stampede and Maximum Spoilers!

Look this is kinda a negative (not totally but I wanna be polite and warn! ) look at Stampede and it's handling of the queer content in the source marital, if ur not in the mood for that, block me or scroll past plz 👌don't wanna be a downer for anyone so ye, thought I'd slap this uptop lol

Gonna be real, idk how I feel abt the last ep... Some of my fears are definitely coming true. The big one being that Wolfwood's role in the manga seems to be played by Meryl in Stampede.

The manga is so important to me because it lacks the typical anime/manga hetrosexual tropes.

They put these tropes back in when they made the 98 anime, and it feels like they're putting them back into Stampede.

Wolfwood is the one who saves Vash in the manga, he is Vash's reason to fight. I know Stampede is pretty much an AU of the manga, but they're hitting the major plot points in their own unique way. Not everything is in order, and it's different, which I don't mind.

What I do mind is the fact that they've cut out all the queer parts of Maximum.

From changing Elendira, the cannon trans woman (who wasn't perfect rep, but goddamn it a cannon transwoman who wasnt a joke at that time?! I fucking love her), to a lab grown loli (before you come at me, I know this is a prequel and that she'll age, but that's not the point, because it doesn't negate the fact that she is no longer trans. They could have updated her rep from the manga, but no.) To subbing in Meryl for Wolfwood in narrative moments he occupied in the manga, like saving Vash from Knives.

Narrative moments that would have been occupied by a female love interest in most manga were occupied by Wolfwood in TriMax, and intentional or not, TriMax is queer coded as shit. By switching him with Meryl in Stampede, that is gone.

This is what happens in the manga, in the Stampede Vash is saved by, and saves, Meryl instead. (Also black coat Vash is a reference to Vash from this fight in Maximum. It is the result of him fighting Legato and killing him to preserve Wolfwood's memory, ((he is taking on Wolfwood's color pallet in this fight, the layers in Maximum are insane)):

This isn't a ship post, not really, it's about stripping the queer aspects from TriMax, which are an integral part of TriMax's narrative, a major part what makes the work unique, especially for it's time, and straight-washing it in Stampede (which is taking a lot from Trimax... just not the queer stuff, hum). However, I'll entertain some ship talk.

People have been calling Vashwood the "yaoi flavor of the season" and in all honesty, to me, that's what Stampede Vashwood feels like. I KNOW it's the first season and this could change, but damn it, I feel like I'm allowed to be a little frustrated and worried about the direction they're going.

Vashwood in the manga is a queer relationship supported by COUNTLESS examples in the text, read as romantic or not,(personally, I think it should be read as romantic based on manga framing ((Wolfwood playing the role narratively reserved for the female love interest in most manga)) and textually (("I wanted to spend my tomorrows with him," just one of many examples of Vash's feeling about Wolfwood)) it is undeniable that they are integral to each other in a bone deep way. To the point where the only person as, or more, important as Wolfwood to Vash is Rem, his mother and guiding light.

This is absent in Stampede.

I'm trying not to be uncharitable, but I have a sinking suspicion that Meryl is going to be the one to find Vash after the timeskip, a role given to Wolfwood in TriMax. I wanna be proven wrong tho!

I DO like how Meryl and Wolfwood are getting more interactions in Stampede! They didn't get many in the manga and I love their dynamic. Honestly him grabbing her like a sack of potatoes and booking it outta there was the best part for me lol, I'm glad Milly is coming back too! Vash getting his spikes back also was rad af!!

I feel like I should also say, this isn't a ship hate post or anything. This isn't a Meryl hate post either, I don't kin characters myself but she's as close as they come for me, so I love the little lady. Plus, I've really been enjoying her Stampede design and character development, it's one of the best parts of the show imo!!

It's just the fact that the queer content from the original didn't make it in, while so many other things from TriMax did, that rubs me the wrong way.

I think I'm mostly just frustrated, I'm enjoying Stampede for what it is, but I'm a queer woman, and I can't help but feel cheated out of the faithful Maximum adaptation I've always dreamed of. How come every other manga gets a one for one adaptation, but Maximum, with all it's queer text, doesn't?! I'm frustrated. They always try to make Trigun more appealing, mass marketable, but damnit that's not why I love it. Idk, I just feel sad. With this new adaptation, idk if I'll ever see a faithful Maximum adaptation, which is a depressing thought for me.

Anyway, this became a vent post, sorry. I'm a longtime TriMax shill and I was really (and to be fair, still am to a degree) enjoying Stampede up until these last few eps. In some ways it feels like I'm watching watered down, more marketable Maximum and that just frustrates me.

I'm still holding out hope for season 2 though, I can't help it, even with the things I'm not personally into in Stampedes it's still Trigun, and if I'm not going to bat for Trigun, am I even me?

[nihonium-art]

Hope "Rapier Millions" Saverem

Sorry guys. Made a trigun oc again. One day I woke up thinking "What if I gave knives a plant child would that be fucked up or what" and I haven't known true peace since.

TLDR : Hope is an independent plant who was born in some small town on gunsmoke around a year or so before Trigun's start. During the 2 years time skip after the fifth moon incident, she gets taken by knives and is raised by him, and she had to rename herself so she chose the name "Rapier" ( which is what I'll use to refer to her older version ). She starts of as an excitable, cheerful, passionate young girl who loves worms and running around in the desert— but under Knives' care she developed a much tougher and "mature" Facade, but she is still just an emotional kid inside.

Expanded Ramble Under The Cut Baby ( Will contain some Trimax Spoilers )

SO. After the fifth moon incident and being brought back, Knives wanders for a bit, ending up in a small town— he sees the plant there is dying and seeing the Engineers doing nothing to help he gets enraged and kill them. Except he failed to see that there was a plant kid around who watched it all ( I like to think independents have some sort of sense for detecting other independents ). He takes her bc one— she's one of his kind and has nothing to do with humans and two— she could definitely be a good asset.

From this point on, Hope spends her time w/ Knives and his closest Entourage, Being mostly Legato, Elendira, Zazie and Dr. Conrad. Hope is deadly scared of Knives and Legato for. Obvious reasons. But she also doesn't like Conrad, so at first she only warms up to Elendira and Zazie. I need to emphasize that none of these people knows how to take care of a child and while Elendira IS close to hope she in no way wants to be a mother to her. We good? We good. Anyways. Being raised under Knives comes with everything you'd expect, and while Knives was never physically violent towards her, Rapier still grew to fear him. He's like. Fucked up mother core.

Rapier hates it. She's stuck with the man her father figure hates yet she can't do much due to her wounds. However, the more she talks to Vash, the more she grows to see he isn't really what knives made him out to be. This is also emphasized by the fact Vash and ww treated her like her age, and seemed to genuinely show care for her. She's slowly re-learning how to be a kid again :^)

Some point between the begining of Vash traveling again and him and Knives confronting, Rapier goes out to confront Vash, to both prouve to Knives she's capable of fighting someone like Vash and also to try and pull Vash back to them. Because, surely, since she saw Knives' way too, Vash would listen to her. She's a plant afterall, just like him.

Rapier, while powerful for her age, is still wildly inexperienced— she's sloppy, and while determined, doesn't really hold up to Vash and Wolfwood. She gets injured and Vash doesn't feel like leaving a child to die in the desert, especially when she starts fearing what knives will think of her defeat.

There's like. A bunch more but you get the idea LMAO i think she gets back the name hope post-ark and post trimax talks w/ Vash a lot about his childhood and decide to take the name of Saverem :^).

[pancake-breakfast]

These last volumes have so many chapters. But they're relatively short.

It's hard to think there's only two weeks left.

Stream-of-consciousness thoughts for TriMax Vol. 13, Chapters 1-3 below.

Volume 13 Covers

Ugh, Vash is in too much shadows here. But look at Livio! He looks happy! Is it because he's losing part of his shirt again? I don't think this boy likes shirts.

Aaand everyone's plans have bee thwarted by a friendly octopus. He has that many arms so he can give more hugs!

Shout out to pirate Livio's new and improved fish gun.

Everyone on the back cover's got weird eyes for some reason.

I like how only Elendira gets to keep her shape on the back cover. She's ready to be a dashing pirate.

Why is one of the chapters called "Black"? WHY IS ONE OF THE CHAPTERS CALLED BLACK?!?!

Chapter 1: False Mirror

Oooh, fancy Legato vs. Vash page. I like it.

Ey, it's naked, long-haired Knives again. Been a while since we've seen him.

Definitely Legato thoughts. I guess that day made a bit of an impression on him. Can't imagine why.

Man, this is why Legato wears them big-ass shoulder pads. If I had his history, I'd obscure my actual figure, too.

It sure is in character for Knives not to realize the value of the humans around him.

Gods, Vash looks both desperate and exhausted.

Aaaand Legato's fucking with him.

Holy crap, Legato actually asked Knives about killing Vash to his face??

Gods, Knives is absolutely yawning here for show. He's putting work into trying to make Legato feel like he means nothing to him.

Oh, Legato... baby boy.... You were never going to win Knives' affection by proving you could beat Vash in a fight.

Oof, he sees himself in Vash. I don't even think he's wrong. Vash feels like he's lost everything, that even what still remains, he's doomed to lose if only by the slow march of time.

I make a lot of comments about Legato's unhinged smiles, but I really like his pensive looks, too. I think he's one of the more expressive characters in the series.

I mean, if you want to get technical, he didn't kill so many of them so much as he happened to be more or less present at their death.

I'm curious how this coin holder is tied to a "prize" or a "gift" of some sort.

So... this isn't really a game to Legato. It's not even a test for Vash. It's a test for himself. He just can't shake the idea that if he can utterly crush Vash, he'll take Vash's spot before Knives. Gods, this little yandere.... The world doesn't work like that. Knives doesn't work like that.

All the Gung-Ho Guns he went through, and again, we have the mask side of Livio and a suspicious lack of Wolfwood. Even Chapel doesn't appear this time.

Chapter 2: Double Duel

I'm not quite sure what Vash is getting worked up about here. Perhaps he thinks Legato is making too much light of all the deaths of the Gung-Ho Guns?

Legato is not impressed by Vash's threat. He wants him to follow through or not bother.

I'm continually impressed by people's ability to apparently clearly talk around having the barrel of a gun in their mouth.

I'm honestly not sure what all is happening here. How did Vash get on the ground? What's happening with Legato's right arm? What's up with the pole on a chain? I guess Legato is moving the pole on a chain? It's too big to be reflected by the box he gave Vash, so maybe that's where he's putting his effort?

Well, he spat out the gun. Now he has pole.

Ah I thought I remembered it being attached to the weird boobed spiky ball thing. There's a name for this kind of weapon but I have a headache so I'm not looking it up right now. Generally, it doesn't have a humanoid attachment. It's just a spiky ball on a chain.

Heh, this is them getting their own back-to-back.

Yeah, Livio is hard to kill, thankfully.

Clearly, that's not gonna stop her from trying.

Ahhhhh!! It's good to see Livio comfortable with himself. It's easy to mistake him for a brute, but he has enough talent that, while Chapel didn't expect him to win, he did expect L/R to give Wolfwood a hard time.

Ahahahahaha, he's so cute here.

Chapter 3: Corpse Fire

It's ok, these people don't really have a concept of interstellar travel, so it's not like they have a formalized system for space ships landing.

I think Chronica's a bit desperate. And hurt. She definitely didn't take the loss of Domina lightly.

Legato, my boy, now you're just being dramatic. I mean, I know that's how you are... but Vash has never been keen on theatrics in the name of violence.

DON'T LICK THAT IT'S ON THE GROUND IT'S DIRTY EWW

I don't think Vash believes in things like "dying in a blaze of glory." I think he sees death as death, and that's kinda it.

LEGATO!!! This is NOT about who is "best!" KNIVES. DOES NOT. CARE.

Oh, honey. If it weren't for Vash, humanity probably wouldn't have lasted long enough for you to be born. I realize you probably wouldn't see that as a bad thing, so let me further note that if you had, he wouldn't have accepted you any more. He might have discarded you already because he wouldn't need your help wearing Vash down.

What the eff is this thing?! Now it's full of machine guns?!?

Hahahaha, Livio's trying to call a time out in the middle of the fight.

Ok, that's some impressive dodging.

I like how Livio is more annoyed at Elendira than he is mad that she's still shooting at him after he called for a time out.

Livio <3 Love how annoyed Elendira looks that she's been had, too.

Archive

Trigun Vol. 1: Covers + 1-3, 4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10 || Vol. 2: Covers + Extras, 1, 2-4, 5-6, 7-8

TriMax Vol. 1: Covers + 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 || Vol. 2: Covers + 1, 2-4, 5, 6-7 || Vol. 3: Covers + 1-3, 4-5, 6-7 || Vol. 4: Covers + 1-2, 3-5, 6-7 || Vol. 5: Covers + 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 || Vol. 6: Covers + 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 || Vol. 7: Covers + 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 || Vol. 8: Covers + 1-2, 3-4, 5 + Bonus || Vol. 9: Covers + 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 || Vol. 10: Covers + 1-3, 4-5, 6-8 || Vol. 11: Covers + 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 || Vol. 12: Covers + 1-3, 4-6, 7-9

Extra Credit: Trigun Vol. 1: Nebraska vs. Vash's Motivations, Vash's Loneliness, Vash's Depression (pt. 2 of post), Soupy Brains || Vol. 2: Coin Factoids || TriMax Vol. 1: Lina, Vash, and a Haircut || Meryl, Vash, and the Pursuit of Happiness || Vol. 5: Knives, Vash, and Hatred for Humanity || Vol. 6: Coping Series: Wolfwood, Meryl, Vash || Vol. 8: The Uncoordinated Counterattack || Vol. 9: Justice, Punishment, and Mercy, The Tolling of an Iron Bell || Vol. 10: Crucifixion Symbology (pt. 2 of post), Merging of Families, Being Childlike (And Why God Hates Chapel) || Vol. 11: New Hair, New Outlook

[screechthemighty]

Okay, part two of my Second Read of Trigun notes! We'll see if I get to the TriMax notes tonight, lol, but they are coming next. Those notes will be a lot more incoherent since that was a first readthrough and I had Many Thoughts.

Trigun Notes: Volume 2

Trigun #2.1: Blood and Thunder

Weirdly enough, NML has normal-looking pigeons in the manga

BLUESUMMERS YOU BITCH

Bluesummers aware that Vash’s pacifism is related to Rem’s sacrifice, throws that in his face and says it holds him back–not inaccurate, but RUDE. [Note: does he know this from Knives whining about her? Interesting thought that Knives has complained about his mom to his codependent right hand man]

So Vash is just hanging out and Bluesummers shows up, makes a ton of threats, leaves a severed head and waltzes off…what an intro.

Monev in that basement for 20+ years, corresponds roughly to the Stampede timeline of 20 from his return home to his confrontation with Vash @ the Windmill

Trigun #2.2: Diablo

“You could say that we’re caretakers of these seeds” - another element to Vash being so protective of humanity

“If [Alex] were alive today, I’m sure he’d do the same.” Rem haunted by Alex’s death like Vash will be haunted by hers

Interesting that we never clearly see Knives’ face in the flashbacks and he’s not even visible until he gloats about killing Rem

“Humans are ridiculous. They waste their lives on foolish feelings.” Hi, pot, meet kettle

Vash goes from angry and brooding to smiling (still sad, but smiling) the second Milly enters, but she again catches a glimpse of what’s underneath. Straight up decides she doesn’t want to touch that, though (can’t blame her!) [Note: still obsessed with how observant she is!!!]

Trigun #2.3: Fragile

Content Warnings: Just barely covered anime nudity

“Be still and listen when people are speaking to you” Knives: condescending in every timeline

“No. I’m the one who’s dangerous…hurry up…come and get me!” My dude is in pain and still has the guts to think that…love him

“If I shoot him now, then she’ll die” which stage of grief is this

So he was 100% about to shoot Monev before he remembered Rem…this bad boy can fit so much rage in him

Trigun #2.4: Scars

“Why does so much trouble follow this man? What kind of fate is he carrying?” His identical twin brother sucks, next question

Tiddy grill some kind of protective measure, maybe?

Meryl asks why Vash doesn’t just put away his guns and hide; Vash cites his inability to save Rem and the fact that he hasn’t settled the score with Knives as the reason why he can’t. [Future note: oooooggggh trimax made this worse too]

“I have only two choices: to die or let others die?! Rem didn’t sacrifice herself for that!” he is SO not just talking about himself here.

“From now on, I’m hunting you!” Run, bitch!!!!

Trigun #2.5: Slaughter Cafe

Content Warnings: Mention of rape and sex slavery, onscreen gore

Okay, I don’t condone murder but these dudes were SO asking for it

Irony  of the guy formerly denied all autonomy turning that back on those who hurt him? [Note: I feel like there’s a lot to unpack here actually]

Legato blaming Vash for him losing his patience…buddy you can say you have trauma and a grudge, that’s justifiable! [Note: Honestly, this moment strikes me as interesting in light of him condemning those who “let” him be violated as the same as those who hurt him…or does he figure that it doesn’t matter if he kills them now because they’ll die later, so him intervening in the moment is just a lapse of judgment? Again lot to unpack here]

Trigun #2.6: Gathering of the Devils

“[Legato’s] eyes were bottomless. I couldn’t read any truth in there.” -Vash

WOLFWOOD!!!

“That’s one well-prepared dead guy” Nightow sir…Don’t

“I’m a priest” Everyone: X to doubt

“Let me guess, your life’s full of nothing but trouble” Yeah, WW, you could say that

Wolfwood: It’s not exactly like that Me: Oh, I know

I also get SUPER nervous about the Eye having confessionals like. What in the blackmail material [Note: They never do end up doing anything with this outside of it being a signifier of Christianity–a smokescreen on Wolfwood’s part, maybe? To seem like a regular priest? Though with the EoM being a more widespread cult in Stampede timeline, I feel like you could still do something with that]

Vash indicating that the orphans shouldn’t steal because WW has no money himself–wouldn’t have snitched if he had?

“I see you hurtin’ and grinnin’ just to bear it.” HHHHHH…calling him out within seconds! Seeing the true nature of another! Flipping that cross timelines!!!

Trigun #2.7: Eye of Invisibility

Honestly obsessed with the design of manga!Jeneora Rock

Can’t tell if that’s supposed to be blood or cremation smoke…both options bad

Update, it’s probably blood

How did I only just now notice he never fixed his arm…he’s LITERALLY about to beat her one-handed

Trigun #2.8: Fifth Moon

Content Warnings: Suicide by fall, gore, anime nudity (Knives has no visible dick), suicidal thoughts

Screams internally

LBR Vash wasn’t just using the pain in his finger

So WW is already dissatisfied with the work he’s doing and having second thoughts, but also convinced he can’t get out–”If I run, I’ll be devoured” [Future note: You give up so easily, Wolfwood]

Meryl smacking the shit out of Vash when he tries to get her to run…gutsy play LMAO

Crazy-eyed, long-haired Knives is 100% on my s2 wishlist NGL

Took a second read to see but uhh yeah “shattered” is a good way to describe that spine

Insert that tumblr post about this somehow still meaning Legato is his favorite here

WW watching all this like “what the actual hell did I walk into” is the only comedy I get

“You’ve hurt so many more than you’ve killed, and compare that to all the destruction you’ve caused…so shouldn’t you point that thing somewhere else?” SHUT up you weird gaslighting man!!!

I MISSED ON A FIRST READ THAT HE SHOT HIS OWN LEGS TO CHANGE THE ANGLE, AY YO??

“Maybe we–I–should have never been born” OOF

“Is this from the Hand of God? Answer me, Vash the Stampede!” Buddy he doesn’t have an answer to that

Trigun: Day In, Day Out

“Mr. John P. Smith (Alias)” Vash…

“He made it through another day with no casualties! Well done!” Lmaoo

Also the fact that he plays with the neighborhood kids…Baby

Trigun: Pilot

Vash encouraging her to keep looking–”I don’t think you’re stupid enough to ignore those on whom your life was built?”--bit of projecting? Especially WRT his feelings on Rem as the foundation of this world?

“How’s it feel, Sheriff? Being at the mercy of a stray mutt?” (Vash) Absolute BANGER

“Vash the STampede. A man whose name means ‘reckless.’” Sure does, damn

[tiggymalvern]

Rambling Trigun meta ongoing

For the sake of my followers, all but maybe two of whom don't want to have to keep scrolling past all this stuff, I'm going to take some discussions from this post and start a new post that doesn't contain everything that came before. If only this was a DW-like format and we could have this conversation in a thread without keep pushing it up in everyone else's face! Maybe he (Vash) thought that weird limbs and emitting huge amounts of energy were a bulb plant thing? Even when he was a kid he saw himself as more similar to humans than bulb plants…Without direct evidence, he probably had no reason to assume he had the same powers as bulb plants. But Vash also had no reason to assume he didn't? He's NOT human, and there were definitely people on the SEEDS ship who wanted to make sure he knew he wasn't human. That's a hell of a lot to airbrush out, to try and deny the things that you have in common with your own species. And if that's what Vash did, then wow... Rem did a lot of damage. Certainly without intending to, but if being raised by a human that way made Vash want to associate only with humans and ignore everything that made him a Plant, in a sort of internalised racism directed at himself, then that's doubly tragic. Both for Vash himself and for everyone else, given the consequences of it. He spends the whole time trying to get Vash to join him (the angel arm thing) and agree with him (sending the Gung Ho Guns to make him miserable). Also, iirc, up until the final battle, Knives doesn’t attack Vash and seems genuinely surprised when Vash shoots at him. That sounds like someone who cares very much, but is unwilling to compromise. He wants his brother to agree with him, so he approaches it by torturing his brother. How likely is that to work? There are only two explanations for that - either Knives is the most seriously fucked up individual on the face of the planet or Knives doesn't actually care about his brother at all. Those two aren't mutually exclusive, of course - Knives can be just that fucked up that he thinks he cares about his brother while simultaneously being able to justify making his life hell. But that's not actually caring. That's being fucked up and obsessive. That's an abuser's way of 'caring' and it needs a very different word. I wonder if his motivations changed over time. It’s been over 100 years. You’d think if he doesn’t repeatedly have interactions where humans treat him badly during that time, the pain and resentment would eventually fade This is exactly what I think Knives didn't do. You're right - if he'd spent more time mixing with people, his opinions might have changed as he matured into an adult and became more capable of seeing nuance. But Knives hated humans. He wanted and wants nothing more than to erase them from the face of the universe. Why would he spend time among those despicable ants? Vash hung out with the humans. Knives probably sat way out in the desert and watched the humans spread across the planet and fumed. The only humans we have any evidence that Knives spent time with are the ones he found and exploited - the outcasts, who had no more reason to look kindly upon humanity in general than Knives did. I don't think associating with Legato was going to give Knives many human-positive vibes, unfortunately.... Considering that they were at least somewhat telepathically connected and spent almost every moment of their early lives together, it would be incredibly painful to separate. Which is partly why Vash spent so long following Knives around even when they irreparably disagreed about everything. It’s weird that Knives seems so torn up about it and Vash doesn’t seem to care much. The best explanation I can give is that when they were kids, when it came to the central people in their lives, Vash had Rem, and Knives had Vash). Absolutely. Vash clung to Knives immediately after planetfall, even while he hated what Knives had done, because he had nobody else. But then Vash grew and matured as a peron. He found other people and made friends. He learned to live without his brother and get on with his own life, which is something Knives never did. Knives instead became the abuser, believing that only he deserved his brother, because they're the same, and the human scum didn't deserve Vash. He treats his brother more like property than someone valued - he believes Vash's choices and opinions hold no value, and acts like Vash is a straying dog that needs to be beaten until he's too scared to run away again. Oh, and ignore the bit about twin telepathy. I think that was only in the manga. I think it's valid in either canon. It's only explicit in the manga, but the anime covers that Vash can sense the feelings of the bulb plants, so I think it's likely something of the kind was true with Knives. When do you think Wolfwood would have first seen the scars? It was probably before Augusta, because he doesn’t seem very surprised or horrified about them when Eriks is humiliating himself. I feel like it would be a long time before Vash would trust anyone enough to show them. Also, Wolfwood would probably make exactly the argument you just did and would be more disputatious in general afterwards, I think. So it would’ve been after Episode 11, but when? You mentioned before that a fair bit of time must have passed between episodes that we didn't see, and this is definitely something we didn't see. Honestly, I don't think Wolfwood would have a dramatic reaction to it, though, not like Meryl. Wolfwood's seen a lot - he's seen some of the other Gung Ho Guns with their massive body modifications. I think Wolfwood would have been sad, but not surprised. and the sad part would have been well hidden. It could have happened at pretty much any point, to be honest, but I agree before Augusta. By the time Wolfwood tracks down Vash as Ericks, their relationship is fully established and they both seem to understand pretty much everything. Wow, that’s dedication, translating the manga yourself! Wish I had the language skills for that Trust me, I don't have the language skills :-( I got a couple of self-teaching courses and learned the basics of Japanese grammar and how to use a kanji dictionary and then went through it extremely slowly and laboriously. Don't expect me to hold a conversation in Japanese! Though if I did, I'd hold up better if we were talking about guns and blood and killing people rather than where to catch a train...

[severalspoons]

Liveblog: Rewatching Trigun, Episode 16 (Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for tragedy)

The more serious and the deeper the episodes get, the harder it becomes to write about them. I feel like I can’t just shitpost any more, I have to say something profound.

-- Yep, there’s Legato eating something soft and sweet again. Pudding this time? ::Ooh, imagine an AU where Vash adopts baby!Legato and Legato and Milly eat pudding together::

-- There’s Midvalley with two groupies. Yep, I knew he was the playboy of the Gung Ho Guns. 

-- “It’s a simple formula. The greater the tragedy, the greater the emotional effect.”  Legato fancies himself a...playwright? Director? 

-- “Walk your own path. Yes, I’ll make it my mission to follow someone else’s path to the end of the earth!” 0.0

-- Poor little guy.

He dances into the bar in the same way Vash danced into that hostage situation in an earlier episode. Except that as far as I know, this guy isn’t pretending. Who knows how he’s survived so long in Gunsmoke.  

-- Vash, there’s a whole desert you could talk to yourself in, you know. You don’t have to talk to yourself in front of an entire barfull of people you don’t even fully see.

-- Legato’s eyes are the part you’re worried about?

-- “That nihilistic jerk” fits Legato well, ngl.

-- You know Vash is preoccupied when he has no idea where he is or who’s around. Thinking back to last episode where he was so perfectly focused, this is concerning. 

Or, maybe it’s not that he has perfect control over his consciousness in every situation, but only when he’s narrowing his attention to a tiny point. Last episode it was pain, this time it’s worrying about fighting Legato. 

Or maybe I’m overthinking a goofy scene that probably only exists in the anime.

-- “It’s time for my daily massacre!” Yessss.

-- Vash is apparently vain about his hair. Well, he had to have some faults other than “too good, too pure for this world” and accidentally blowing up July.*

-- Nothing says “terrifying murderer on a killing spree” like holding up your arm bent at a weird angle, amirite?

-- Poor Dominique. She deserved better.

-- I’m kind of surprised this is the first time anyone’s been killed for failing to defeat Vash. Or maybe this is just the first time he’s been forced to acknowledge it, and had to fight on those terms.

-- I don’t really get E.G. Mine’s powers, and what those round carapace-looking devices sticking out the sides of his armor are supposed to do. I almost wish we had more of a chance to see him in action. Almost, because he doesn’t seem very interesting. 

Honestly if I were their leader,I wouldn’t have hired most of the Gung Ho Guns, but that’s just me.

-- There’s Rai-Dei, bringing a sword to a gunfight. I wish I knew more about bushido, and the Art of War, and what sorts of states of mind actual warriors look for in battle. Because from what little knowledge I have, Rai-Dei takes all of that, mixes it with bloodlust, and perverts it. 

-- I know Legato thought seeing the two Gung Ho Guns squabbling would be entertaining, but honestly, it’s an uneven fight and not a very interesting one. Normally, I like seeing bad guys fighting each other, but I’ll make an exception for this scene.

-- Rai-Dei talks like a Sith trying to recruit someone to the dark side, encouraging Vash to get angry.

-- Rai-Dei creeps me out. He seems to almost get off on Vash’s anger and be way, way too curious what he sees at what appears to be the moment before death. 

-- It’s kind of disappointing that this creep is the one who corners Vash so much he needs his angel arm to escape. Honestly, I didn’t even see him do anything special that should give Vash difficulty. I think his lethality lay less in his actual fighting, and more in the fact that he would be condemned to die if Vash won. Vash had to slow down the fight and look for an alternative way to end it, which put him at a disadvantage.

-- Sorry, I’m going to complain about the art again. And give some spoilers for the manga.

I don’t like how the angel arm looks in the anime. It was distracting. Where were the feathers??? I want to feel uncomfortable because Vash is struggling to contain the thing and could potentially destroy the city, not because of the way the thing looks and moves.

-- Least realistic convincing mushroom-cloud-like blast ever. What was up with the slow motion, jerky stop-and-start animation they did here?

-- Legato is having way too much fun right now. He just acted like a cat licking its paw, like “mmm, delicious destruction and guilt.”  

I think Legato might be the only character who is not in the least unnerved by Vash suddenly unleashing a blast of energy big enough to blow up the moon.

-- Well, OK, Wolfwood doesn’t seem unnerved. Just disappointed. Well, I’m disappointed that he thinks Vash would deliberately choose this “path.” Come on, surely he knows Vash better than that. 

-- Seeing all of the people Vash has helped listening to the rumors about Augusta and struggling to reconcile them with the kind, gentle person they knew...what a gut punch. And somehow it’s worse seeing their first moment of bewilderment, but not how they ultimately make sense of it all. 

-- There’s a lot to unpack here about moral responsibility for actions you commit, but can’t control. The show and Vash himself clearly state that he’s responsible.  It agree. While he doesn’t seem able to control the angel arm once it’s emerged, he still has the choice to find a way to prevent it from emerging, or bring it under control. And however involuntary it may have been, he still blew up the city, and everyone still has to live with the consequences. His intentions are irrelevant to the people left homeless. And he still has to live with the chance that it could happen again.

Yet I’m aware that holding yourself responsible for things you can’t control is an unhealthy behavior that therapists try to stop you from doing. And for good reason--it’s a sure way to develop depression and irrational excessive self-hatred (and is a symptom of OCPD, I believe?). And I think Vash holds himself responsible for a lot. I mean, his mission is to make people more loving and peaceful--yet other people’s feelings and actions aren’t under his control. Is he holding himself too responsible?

Is Vash right to blame himself for blowing up July and Augusta? Am I right to hold him responsible? I’m not sure.

 -- One last observation: this major turning point in the story, and the biggest low so far, happens exactly halfway through the story. Just where it’s “supposed” to be.

*Looks like a cinnamon roll, is sometimes a cinnamon roll, could still actually kill you.

[swipestream]

SUPERVERISVE: “Trigun” is indeed probably the most Christian anime ever

I really didn’t know what to expect with “Trigun”.

Everybody had been recommending it to me for awhile, but I had tried the first couple of episodes already. They weren’t bad, but the show never really clicked for me. I was left there scratching my head wondering what was supposedly so special about it. I got why somebody might enjoy it in a “It’s not that great but it’s amusing” sort of way, but no more than that.

And then to be told that at its heart it was a Catholic story philosophically, thematically, and morally?

It should have been right up my alley, but I didn’t see the path from point A to point B. Still, so many people were praising it, and it had been recommended to me so many times, that I felt obligated to finish the series out. It’s not as if it was painfully bad or anything, and there must be SOMETHING to all the talk, right?

So I kept watching.

And man am I glad I did.

“Trigun” is an excellent show.

“Trigun” is the story of Vash the Stampede as told by insurance girls Meryl and Millie. Vash is a mysterious yet highly destructive drifter from the western-style planet of Gunsmoke, and Meryl and Millie have been tasked with following him around because every time he shows his face it costs their company enormous amounts of money. Vash has a 60 billion double dollar bounty on his head, but there’s something strange about him:

He’s a really, really great guy. Funny, fun, great with children, defender of the weak and helpless, and abhorrent of all killing of any kind.

So what’s with the bounty? And what’s with Vash?

And there’s your story.

“Trigun” starts off as light as a feather, even goofy, and then gets…dark. Really, really dark. Bloody deaths of beloved characters type dark.

“Trigun” is a show that is great at little, bad at some (the animation is rather weak, though I find much criticism of the dub to be unwarranted), but good at almost everything, and by the time it all ends the whole feels much greater than the sum of its parts. One thing the show is particularly good at is making you empathize with everyone, even the bit characters – nobody is acting like a jerk just to act like a jerk. If you have a giant wall up guarded by gunmen to keep out outsiders, you probably have a good reason for it and don’t just hate orphans. And if you want to kill Vash the Stampede, well, join the club.

“Trigun” is also uncompromisingly brutal when it comes to exploring its themes. Vash has taken the philosophy of “Thou shalt not kill” to the extreme, refusing to do so even in self-defense or defense of others, at least at the point of the series’ start. And we love Vash for it!

But it’s not so black and white. How many lives would Vash have saved if he’d just killed Knives? Hundreds? Thousands? And what if it really does come to protecting innocents, in that moment? Should you STILL not kill? Why not? And what does it mean for you if you do?

“Trigun” asks these questions without flinching, putting the matter before you as starkly as possible. And we never really get straight answers.

“Trigun’s” characters are rather unmemorable as a whole, with a few notable exceptions. Legato is one of the most chillingly horrifying villains I’ve ever seen, Vash himself gets a lot of rich character development, and, of course, preacher man Nicholas D. Wolfwood, the man with the most badass Cross on the planet, is the most awesome character in the whole damn show.

The man. The myth. The legend. Nicholas D. Wolfwood

Let’s talk a little more about Wolfwood, who is a fascinating character. It is interesting that Vash, “The humanoid typhoon” who doesn’t really talk about God or religion all that much, is the absolute pacifist of the group, while Wolfwood, the Priest, provides the counterargument. Wolfwood believes in a rougher world than Vash and in some ways comes from a rougher world than Vash, so he finds Vash’s no-kill policy naive, frustrating, and insulting, implying that men like him who kill to protect themselves or others are just as bad as cold-blooded murderers. It’s a legitimate grief, and the show portrays it that way. Like the best fiction neither side is shown as being exactly “right” or “wrong”. Instead, the idea is explored and examined in an intelligent and even-handed way.

There’s so much more to say about Wolfwood, who is truly a fantastic and fantastically written character, but to go deeply into what makes him so great would be to get into some really annoying spoilers, so instead I’ll leave this fantastic article out there for all of you to read when you finish the series.

The final episode – at least the second half, when the useless clip section of the episode is over – features one of the most outstanding gunfights I’ve ever seen on screen, almost completely dialogue free and brilliantly filmed. And the ending?

Well…

When I first saw it I’ll just say I was REALLY, REALLY ANGRY, though my brother pointed out some small details about the scene that helped me look at it in a new light. Still, it’s fair to say that it makes you think and stays with you a long time after it’s over.

Worth noting: “Trigun” features one of the most beautifully shot and filmed death scenes I have ever seen, and one of the saddest. I won’t say who it is who dies, but the scene is so well-done I feel that it is worth calling out specifically as being perhaps the best scene of the entire show. I don’t think I’ll need to link it – you’ll all know what I mean.

“Trigun” isn’t a masterpiece on the level of “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood”, “Cowboy Bebop”, or the first half of “Death Note”. It never reaches the insanely high heights of any of those shows. Yet it’s never truly bad, even during its slow start, and it evolves into something that feels unique despite the fact that the sci-fi western is essentially its own sub-genre, with shows as brilliant as “Cowboy Bebop”, “Firefly”, and “Outlaw Star” (so I’ve been told, anyway) all fitting into that niche. Its uncompromising and unflinching nature gives it a fresh perspective on a lot of well-worn themes, and its take on Christianity feels both sympathetic yet somehow alien – like it’s being investigated by an outsider and all of its potential weaknesses are being shaken out and examined. When everything in the show’s DNA all clicks together the result is excellent comedy and compelling, and sometimes devastating, drama. While I don’t think it’s up with the top tier of shows, if somebody were to tell me it was their favorite I could definitely understand that.

Is it superversive?: Yes, fascinatingly so

Overall score: 8 of 10. Well worth your time.

(A note – after googling around while writing this article I’ve found that there is a TON of excellent “Trigun” analysis out there to read – it really is a much deeper series than you might give it credit for at first glance. Many of these essays are fascinating, and it might be worth your time just to google something like “Trigun Christianity” and look at some of them if you’re that type of guy!)

SUPERVERISVE: “Trigun” is indeed probably the most Christian anime ever published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[recentanimenews]

The 5 Most Loved and Hated Psychics in Anime

Whether mental freaks or gifted mediums, psychics in anime have it surprisingly rough. Reading the thoughts of everyone around you or the power to control minds may make it difficult to build meaningful friendships or a shady government entity might be looking to gather you up for a lifetime of experiments. Safe to say it's hard to live a normal life. Your powers may be convenient, but at what point is there no going back?

Love them or hate them… they can MAKE you love them. Our friends over at Anime-Planet spend day and night cataloguing these unique features and leaving it to the fans to vote on the best and worst characters with psychic powers in all of anime. A note before we begin, these are the result of popular votes that I can and will disagree with. Only your democratic will can determine who makes it on this list. With that out of the way, below are the 5 most loved and most hated psychics in anime!

Loved

5. Staz Charlie Blood - Blood Lad

Coming into this I guess I assumed the list would all be psychics rather than people with psychic powers resulting from weird stuff. I’m not sure if Staz’s abilities really count because they’re due to him being a vampire (vampowers?) but I guess I can work with this. I don’t really have much to say about Staz, but I feel sorry for Fuyumi getting stuck with him, which probably means I don’t like him. Sorry.

4. Accelerator - A Certain Magical Index

Are brooding, misunderstood malcontents obsessed with sex and violence (maybe at the same time?) gonna dominate this list? What’s the association? Have I made a terrible mistake? I guess I can understand the appeal. Everybody loves a good blood knight and Accelerator sure knows how to enjoy himself. It just occurred to me he laughs a lot like Zack in Angel of Death. Oh dang, they’re both Nobuhiko Okamoto. Ok, he’s cool.

3. Hiyori Iki - Noragami

Another one I’m not quite sure is exactly psychic but I’m gonna give this to you because you actually PUT NORAGAMI ON A LIST. You people are alright. Even better, you picked Hiyori! I have a soft spot for girls who are secretly martial arts otaku (you can guess who my favorite Prison School character is). I’m probably never gonna stop laughing about how she got her power either.

2. Yin - Darker Than Black

I’m actually so genuinely happy to see Yin on here. Darker Than Black had its day, but discovering a personal fave I believed to be obscure actually has a considerable fandom is a good feeling. Yin’s cool aesthetic and supercool ability using water as a medium for clairvoyance made her one of my favorite characters and I was super happy to see her get some character development later on rather than the series keeping her an emotionless doll. Yin’s cool. Watch Darker Than Black.

1. Mikoto Misaka - A Certain Magical Index

Where Accelerator’s vector abilities require some mental hoops to fully appreciate, Misaka’s are simple and satisfying. It’s not often you get to see electricity powers used to their fullest by taking advantage of electromagnetism so her fighting style is viscerally satisfying to my inner nerd. If you literally don’t care about stuff like that, she’s also a kind-hearted, awkward kid who does her best and would give you the clothes off her back or her precious DNA to cure muscular dystrophy.

Hated

5. Accelerator - A Certain Magical Index

For real though yeah this guy sucks. I’ve never been in love with “attaining ultimate power” as a reason for villainy. I don’t really buy his spiritual rehabilitation about him only wanting to reach Level 6 so no one would hurt themselves fighting him again since he killed over 10,000 people to achieve it. Even if you don’t consider clones people, that’s pretty messed up. There are plenty of bad guys who have switched sides already.

4. Tornado of Terror - One-Punch Man

This is just poor taste This is IN poor taste. How could you hate this sassy lost child? Tornado is one of the coolest of the A rank heroes and I’m honestly not sure what could even draw any ire toward her given the way some of her peers act. She's also likely the single most powerful psychic on this list, so maybe you shouldn't be putting in bad votes, if you know what I mean? Lotta Genos fans didn’t like her turning him into a wall ornament, I guess.

3. Kuroko Shurai - A Certain Magical Index

Nobody likes a third wheel, I guess. Kuroko’s goofy and her teleportation powers are cool so I’m assuming she’s here because she has a habit of getting “in the way”. Nevermind that most of the most epic non-combat scenes in the series are all starring hers truly. Pretty surprised, to be honest. Figured more people would be into her, uh, type...

2. Legato Bluesummers - Trigun

I feel this so powerfully. How can anyone love a nihilist whose only purpose in life is to robotically carrying out his task of emotionally scarring Vash for the temerity of having basic human compassion? I wish we’d gotten more time with the Gung-ho Guns. They had great aesthetics and abilities but you never really got to learn about why they were working for a punkass who called himself Knives and maybe possibly wanted to kill all humans because something about spiders and butterflies.

1. Chiaotzu - Dragon Ball

Don’t talk to me or my precious pasty unicorn son ever again.

What a sour note to leave off on. Gotta say, I have a new respect for the Index fandom. My only other takeaways are that I’m surprised that some names I was SURE were gonna make it on this list didn’t appear anywhere. Lucy from Elfen Lied, Mob from Mob Psycho, Hitomi from Escaflowne? Where are all the psychic icons? Oh well. Anyway...

Didn’t see your favorite psychic on the list? Are you sure you actually loved them or were they just making you think that? Want to know where they appear among the most loved and hated mismatched irises of anime? Head over to Anime-Planet’s list of characters with psychic powers to see where they rank, or comment below with your favorite! Tune in next week, where we will be exploring the most loved and hated characters with freckles!

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Peter Fobian is an Associate Features Editor for Crunchyroll, author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight, writer for Anime Academy, and contributor at Anime Feminist. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[severalspoons]

Liveblog: Rewatching Trigun, Episode 17 part 2

Ugh, I just want to talk about Episode 18 already.

We pick up with Rem and the Captain talking. 

-- Rem has a very breathy voice.

-- Rem: “Because they’re angels...maybe we should pay attention to them...they may even guide us through our dream.” If only it turned out that way. I wonder how literally she believes that?

-- This scene with Vash and Knives in the zero-gravity room is so touching. 

Knives sounds genuinely concerned about Vash.

“Are you crying again?” Apparently Vash cries a lot. Color me not surprised. Knives cares anyway.

Steve has been telling Vash he’s not human, and probably that he’s a monster who shouldn’t even be here. What if everyone else feels that way about him and Knives, too? he worries. Worst of all, what if Rem feels that way?

I don’t know if Steve deliberately mistreated them differently, but they certainly reacted differently. He hit Vash where it hurt by telling him he didn’t belong. He beat up on Knives, which Knives could tolerate better. I think putting up with Steve’s abuse is the sort of “small sacrifice” Knives is talking about. :(

-- It fascinates me that Vash is the one who’s afraid and suspicious of humans, even though he desperately wants to belong. Knives is the one encouraging him that it will be possible to get along with people. He even empathizes with their perspective: “to these people we’re just uninvited guests. We only need to be patient a while.”

-- Vash asks whether Rem feels the same way as Steve. Baby, nothing could be further from the truth. You’re Rem’s favorite. Can’t you feel how much she loves you? 

-- Knives starts a conversation about the tree they’re lying under, but not really. He’s speaking in metaphors. I do this myself when I want to get across a complicated set of ideas and emotions quickly. It’s a great way to compact your message and add sensory examples so the listener can feel what you’re saying. And it’s perfect for bridging the gap between his train of thought and Vash’s feelings. Knives does the same thing in the more famous conversation about spiders and butterflies. 

“Rem said it’s because they’re strong...they concentrate all their energy on growing.” 

This is dreamy, mythological, fairy tale thinking. Rem, instead of giving them information about the world, is describing it poetically and helping them see it with wonder. I think Vash will return to this perspective on days when he wonders why he’s bothering trying to save people. (The way I go to Pinterest and look at photos of nature and the sky and people doing kind things until I feel like it’s worth living again). 

-- “Rem said...according to Rem...” I bet this conversation is frustrating for Knives. Knives is asking Vash what he thinks, and all he gets is secondhand Rem.

-- “Plants are strong, but we eat their fruit.” “We need to in order to live.” Does Vash know what sort of plant Knives is really talking about?

-- “Do you think I’ll be eaten some day?” ::heart breaks: 

Will they be drained for power the way the bulb plants are? Or experimented on? It’s a reasonable question.

It’s interesting. Although Vash is the one being told he’s not human, Knives is the one aligning his identity with plants. Or at least, trying it out during this conversation.

-- “So then, why am I here?” 

Knives is having a huge (and perfectly understandable) existential crisis. And no one seems to have good answers for him. Even Vash doesn’t seem to get it.

I don’t think telling him he’s an angel sent to Earth to help the crew would help him much. Either it’ll sound like more fluffy poetic nonsense to him, or it will feel like a huge burden. I mean, just listen to former “Indigo children,” whose parents may have legitimately believed their kids were sent to save the world. Instead, they became a hot mess.

-- They had umbilical cords? Don’t plants reproduce by budding? Weren’t Vash and Knives found after they dropped off and fell to the ground? IDK, plant biology is confusing to begin with and the anime certainly doesn’t help.

-- Cut to a bunch of scary looking men with laser guns. Rem throws herself between them and the babies and you see the lasers all over her torso. They could have shot her. She could have died trying to save the plant babies. Holy ****. (And she wasn’t even feeling guilty about Tessla in the anime. She was just a good person). 

-- That fucking apple. I’m sorry, but I hate this kind of symbolism. It never says much, it feels like an exercise or a treasure hunt, and it reminds me of high school English class.

Smooth transition to the other side of the tree where Rem is giving Vash a haircut. Of course Vash goes first. Rem gives Vash his iconic sticking-up haircut for the first time. 

-- Um, it’s kind of weird to give your kid the same haircut as a man you loved. (What sort of relationship did they have in the anime, anyway?) 

Also, you never noticed he was handsome before because he’s a kid. He looks like the equivalent of an 8 or 9 year old here. 

-- “He was my emotional support. Thanks to him, I was able to face my mistakes without judgment. I learned to make them right again. Then I lost him and realized I would have to do it alone. But I wasn’t afraid to make mistakes any more. I believed I could point myself in the right direction without looking back.”

I just got run over by a truck of feels. Because Vash takes the same journey. 

And I’m pretty sure Wolfwood does for Vash what Alex did for Rem. 

It all begins next episode.

-- Knives’ haircut looks curved like butterfly wings. (And he’s way better at cutting hair than a kid with no experience should be).

-- Knives’ voice sounds villainous. “Just a little change of heart, that’s all.”

-- There already was individuality, even without the haircut. I guess Knives has just accepted it. “A philosopher and a mama’s boy.” That about sums it up, unfortunately.

-- Love how Knives tells Steve off, even though he makes a supervillain face immediately after.

-- Static. There’s that sound you hear every time Legato appears. The static of evil.

-- The famous spider & butterfly scene. Vash has both hands up, probably considering removing both of spider and butterfly from the web and moving them to separate places. Not sure what he’s waiting for.

They first have the argument they keep playing out for the next 150 years.

“Unless the spider caught the butterfly, it would die of starvation anyway.” Knives is right -- about butterflies and spiders. About the natural order. (That’s one reason I, personally, have an existential crisis every time I watch a nature documentary. For some reason, there’s always organisms eating other organisms alive on those channels. ::shudders::) The best argument I can give is that the metaphor doesn’t apply to people and plants, or doesn’t have to. The only reason a situation even resembling that happens on Gunsmoke is because Knives crashes all the ships onto a planet without resources.

Rem: “it’s not right to make that choice so easily.” Honestly? I think that’s a less convincing argument. Especially to someone who’s agnostic or atheist. Because who should choose? Or are you just leaving it up to random chance?

-- “What would you rather have us do, just stand there and think about it?”

Vash attacks Knives for the first time. 

Rem finally realizes there’s something wrong. She looks troubled.

-- WTF happened to Rowan’s mind? What’s broken? Is Knives controlling his mind or body somehow?

-- Rem models self-sacrifice. I still don’t understand why, but she seemed to truly believe that Rowan, who was willing to kill a crew member he actually loved, wouldn’t do the same to her. The Captain models the sensible choice given the information he had, and throws Rowan out the airlock. Well, maybe not so sensible, because Rem could have been flung out into space to die, too.

Wonder how Rem would feel if she knew that Vash spent his life doing the same thing, getting increasingly scarred in the process?

-- “Vash, take care of Knives.” 

This breaks my heart because so far ... he hasn’t.  First he follows Knives around. Then abandons him. Then attacks him.

 Doesn’t that bother him, given how faithfully he follows Rem in everything else?

I think Rem says nothing to Knives, because she has nothing good to say to him then.

-- It still bothers me that Knives got so flat out cruel down to the maniacal laugh so quickly and offscreen. It’s still a big jump from the last time we saw him talk. Seriously, look at this:

Everything he does in the anime would have made sense if they had just added a little bit more from the manga.

-- So Knives, is Rem’s self sacrifice still stupid if she corrected the course of all the ships and saved so many lives? After all, she took action quickly, and did the greatest good for the greatest number--the rational thing. You should have understood what she was doing.

-- No, Vash, Rem didn’t mean “take care of him” as in “Kill him.” You know that.

...You know I’m getting way too invested in a series when I start talking to the characters as if they can hear me. It’s about as sensible as yelling at the horror movie character not to go into that dark room alone.