#hi nay pod

[goodpodcastvibes]

“Hi Nay ( @hinaypod ) is a truly unique and delightful horror podcast that I am so incredibly grateful for. The storytelling, acting, and sound design are all wonderful and make for an electrifying listen. I love these characters and can't wait for what I'm sure will be a heartwrenching, satisfying conclusion.”

[hinaypod]

But what if short hair Mari

[puppadumz]

Helping a friend move,

and my immediate thought was:

just like the blorbos in my shows (podcasts)!

[thatrandombystander]

Thinking about how we don't actually get to see Nai's reaction to Rem not getting into the escape pod with them.......

How does he feel about her rejecting the option to survive with them. Was he angry? Sad? Betrayed that she would choose the remainder of humanity over them her sons? Would he offer her his hand if he really truly wanted her dead?

Nai strikes me as a character that is fuelled by a deep fear and sadness, that he doesn't know how to process and just copes with it all by externalising it all as anger and hate. How much of his hatred towards Rem is because of unprocessed grief and a sense of betrayal at her death (and possibly also guilt at his own hand in her death?)

[triplesilverstar]

More of the past comes out in the wash

Rating: 18+ Minors DNI

Pairing: Vash X F!Reader

CW: Sharing a bed, death, experimentation, almost vomiting, nightmares,

Word count: 2K 

A/N: Chapter 4 of Donuts, donuts, and maybe some coffee:

Vash has a dream that's more like a memory gone sour. You get to learn a little more about his past and why he thinks he caused the fall as well as a sister you didn't know about.

Explosions rock the hallway as he runs, listening to the overhead system as it blares alarms as the three of them head toward the emergency escape vehicle. His heart beats like a drum in his chest as another blast in a nearby hallway rocks the area. 

A blink and he screams as he hears Rem’s goodbye through the hardened viewport “Rem!” Shoved into the second seat by Nai as the belts wrap around his waist to secure him against the molded seat as the G-force takes hold. 

It’s the last thing he remembers before waking up in the escape pod, following the sound of laughter that makes his chest hurt and his head spin. The sky is streaked with lights as the laughing grows louder, with Nai standing atop some of the rubble as he watches the flashes. Those flashes aren’t falling stars, it’s more of the ships breaking up in the atmosphere and burning as they crash into the planet's surface.

Something that should be exciting, his first few steps with real gravity not created by one of the plants on the ship. Not laced with fear and terror while sorrow takes hold with the burning wreckage all around him. The flickering flames illuminate some of the debris and his heart seizes in his chest. It’s some of the people from cold sleep, their faces serene but he knows the truth. They’ll never wake up. Not now. 

“You killed them!” The voice in his head whispers how he’s wrong. Nai didn’t kill them. 

He did. 

“You’re my accomplice!” 

More laughter before the words repeat again. “You’re my accomplice!” And again.

“You’re my accomplice!” And again. Ripping at the shards of his heart that keep growing smaller and smaller as it breaks more from the anguish washing through his soul and mind.

“You’re my accomplice!” 

The words don’t stop ringing around him as he runs, struggling through the sand as more pods with people break up the dunes. Gasping as a hand grabs his foot and tugs him down, screaming at the burnt man looking at him. “Why?” 

“Why?” 

The man changes to another face, one with fierce purple eyes and raven hair. “Why Vash?” Sobbing at the face of the only maternal figure he could hold a conversation with has blood dripping from the side of those raven locks.

“Why did you let me die?” Crying as he backs up against the sand and the image changes. He’s shuffling along a metal catwalk, trying to get away from the pile of mangled bodies. 

“Do we mean so little to you?” Luida is among the pile, her neck sliced open and he screams a wordless scream at the tone of her voice. A voice she shouldn’t have with those unseeing eyes in her head. 

“Vash” Flailing his arms as he tries to turn to run away. To stumble away from the horrors of the things he’s done.

Except one of his arms is gone. “Vash!” 

A black void spins just beside him, swallowing everything as the catwalk flakes and is sucked up into it as well. Time seems to slow as he notices flecks of red being absorbed into the swirling blackness. Blood. From him. Screaming as he’s dragged towards the center of the mass. 

“Vash!” Jumping in the bed as he screams his panic, with sweat pouring down his body in streams. He can feel his hair is soaked with some of the strands landing in his eyes making him blink faster while he pants, a hand over his battered chest. 

“You’re ok Vash, you’re ok. It was just a bad dream.” Still panting he turns to you, for a moment unknowing who you are before his memory comes back at the sight of the concern clear on your face as your hands slide along his skin. Rubbing the muscles along his back in what feels like a soothing motion trying to help calm to him. Pressing the heel of his hand into his eyes as he makes noises like a broken animal.

He can’t seem to get his breathing under control or get his heart rate to slow down. “Shit.” Swatting his hands at you as he struggles from under the covers to run for the bathroom, a hand over his mouth as his stomach feels like it’s going to rebel against him. Landing in front of the toilet but nothing comes back up, nothing except his own labored breathing as he leans against the surface seeing a blurry reflection of himself in the tainted waters. 

He looks like shit.  

With measured steps you follow behind him, grabbing a washcloth and getting it wet with cool water before placing it on the back of his neck. “I guess maybe a bit more than a bad dream.” Keeping your tone neutral as you watch for a few minutes before stepping away,to head back into the room to grab his canteen before rejoining him in the bathroom. “Still feel sick?”

“Just a little.” Rubbing at his face as Vash sat by the bowl, his breathing seemed to have slowed and you don’t see the pulsing of his heartbeat in his neck any longer that had been visible as he lunged from the bed. That’s a good sign. 

“Here.” Handing him his canteen as you remained standing. “Do you wanna stay up for a bit or get back in bed?” It’s an honest question, since the events on Home and your past coming out both of you have been having more bad dreams as of late. Dreams neither of you seem ready to fully admit are because of the past refusing to stay just that.

“I think getting in bed might be a good idea, not sure how much sleep I’ll be getting though.” Taking a few sips of water before standing with the cloth still on the back of his neck. Something in his voice tells you he’s still reeling from whatever was plaguing him in his dreams.

“We can stay up if you want?” Holding your hand out for him to take and intertwining your fingers as the two of you head back to the bed in the room. Vash just shakes his head before turning to lob the damp fabric into the sink, letting you crawl back under the covers before he slides in next to you.

“You don’t need to stay awake because I am.” Curling his arm around your side and tracing an invisible pattern along your ribs with his prosthetic fingers. A motion you find soothing but you know it’s as much to distract you as it is to him. 

“You’re right, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to.” Giving what you hope is a reassuring smile before placing a hand over his scared chest, your index finger trailing along the raised edges of the injury above his heart. “Do you wanna talk about the nightmare?” 

A sigh from Vash as he drops his head onto the pillow. “Not really.” Another sigh from him and you’re more than willing to accept that answer. A lick of his lips with a shudder along his shoulders before he speaks again. “I’ve been seeing the fall in my dreams.” 

“Vash” A pained longing in your voice as you say his name, you might not know what he went through but the ingrained belief that he was the cause of the fall eats at your heart. You can’t believe it, no matter what scenarios have played out in your head, and maybe now you’ll get an answer to the question as to why he thought it was because of him. 

“I just…” Trailing off and you can see the thoughts swimming in his eyes as he works to swallow, like everything is so much harder for him to try and voice or come to terms with. “I don’t understand why Nai changed the data for all the ships, what made him think he needed to do it.” 

“Vash, you probably never will. You can’t keep blaming yourself for that, you were a child and you didn’t make him do it.” 

“He needed Rem’s access code to do it, and I gave it to him.” A somber note in his voice as his eyes trail down to stare at the sheets between your bodies. 

“Did he tell you why he needed it?” A noise of confusion from Vash as you move your hand to toy with his hair. “Before you gave it to him? Did he say why?” 

“No. I mean, he learned it when I unlocked secure files on the computer.” You almost want to slap your face at his admission. Of course, Vash didn’t just hand the information over. 

“Vash, that isn’t giving him the code.” 

“It is to me. We shared everything.” Biting his lip as if he’s unsure of something and you get ready to argue only for it to die in your throat. “We found Tesla after I used the code so maybe I just forgot about it.” Now it’s you feeling nauseous as a weight drops in your stomach, and you feel your heart lurch. 

“Who’s Tesla Vash?” Keeping your voice low and cautious as you aren’t fully sure you want the answer. Not with the glazed look in his eyes as he stares into nowhere and everywhere with those downcast blue orbs.

“She was an independent born fifty years before Nai and I. She was…” Trailing off again you feel him shudder, slamming his eyes shut, and a pained noise rises from his throat that reminds you more of a wounded animal ready to accept the worst. 

“If it hurts we can stop Vash, I shouldn’t have asked about the nightmare.” Sweeping your fingers along the side of his face, you always push, and it just brings more pain to both of you. Sometimes you hate that about yourself because it’s not fair to Vash or you. 

“I…” His arm tightens along your back, sliding you closer to his body. “I want you to know this.” His voice cracks, with almost no space between you now as Vash lands a hand on the back of your head and tucks your face into his neck. Like this, you can hear his shallow breathing and the low thump of his heart. “Nai and I, we were always curious. Always looking for more information about plants, humans, and us. Nai thought there was more to the story beyond what Rem told us, so one day Nai tried to get into the secure archives. When I helped him we found files on us.” Swallowing again, as the beating of his heart speeds up. 

You reach out as best as you can with so little space between your bodies to try and trail your fingers along his skin to reassure him. A shutter of his breath before he starts again, his voice even as he tries to keep his emotions under control. “Under the same section as me was another file with the name Tesla, and when Nai clicked it to read more.” An involuntary squeeze of your body more against his. “It opened something behind us, glass contains like the ones most plants are kept in now. She was inside.” A hitch in his voice as Vash starts to cry and sob against you. “They experimented on her, like she was just something with different parts of her in different tanks and she was still alive.” 

“Oh, Vash.” Your heart thunders in your chest as the bile in your stomach rises and you feel nothing but sorrow for him. You know he was over a year old when the fall happened. Which means at some point before then he found another being like him that humanity had torn apart to study. It makes you sick and a fire burns inside of you, it doesn’t seem to matter where you are. Humans always seem to show the worst of themselves and their curiosity stopping any form of sane thought regarding life. Inflicting pain like that on what was arguably a child all while she was still alive. 

A small voice whispers how you’ve seen other species do the same, but it doesn’t mean anything right now.

“That was a lot Vash, I wish you didn’t have to go through and see that.” Wiggling one of your hands free to smooth it along his shoulders and down his back. “It’s not right at all. I’m sorry people can be so cruel.” A small part of you wonders as Vash keeps sobbing if maybe finding how the people of the ship treated the first independent that was born played into Nai wanting to crash the ships. “Knowing it upsets you that much I wish I hadn’t of asked you about the nightmare.” 

“I wanted you to know.” A few more shakes and sobs from the man in your arms, a few gentle words back and forth and you hope that’s it for the night because while Vash was the one to relive the memory and you’d like to beat the shit out of people that are long dead from a crashed ship.

Back to Masterlist for the series

Am I setting something up? Maybe

[butcherlarry]

Weekly Fic Rec 37

Did a lot of reading this week! There is a good chance I'll get a lot of reading done next week, because I'll be on PTO! Yay me! Don't worry, there will still be a fic rec list next week ;)

On to the fics!

Reach Out and Touch Faith by 1863 - Superbat, complete. Bruce and Clark "work" through their issues, heehee.

Not Quite Almost Christmas Time by bavariansugarcookie - Superbat & Batfam, complete. Bruce Christmas shops for his kids. Shenanigans ensue.

Patroclus by widow_account - Superbat, wip. I'm pretty sure I've recced this fic before, but it's updated!! Yayyyyyy!!! Superman gets kidnapped and taken to Warworld, Bruce goes to save him :)

All Things Are Ready If Our Minds Be So by 1863 - Superbat, complete. Bruce gets hit with magic that makes him take on all of Clark's injuries.

All of Yesterday Dropped Away by 1863 - Superbat, complete. Touch-starved Bruce, me B E L O V E D.

Gotham's Marketplace by SolaceInSpace - Batfam, complete. Alfred and kid Bruce go out of buy groceries. Tiny Bruce is just Too Cute.

Zombie or nay? by SolaceInSpace - Batfam, complete. The family discusses whether or not Jason could be considered a zombie. Shenanigans ensue.

The Suffering of a Man Who the Internet Finds Hot series by SolaceInSpace - Batfam, stories complete, series wip. Hal telss a reporter that Batman (not Bruce) is the hottest league member. Bruce suffers, shenanigans ensue.

Batman? More like Babyman by SolaceInSpace - Batfam, complete. Bruce gets sick and is a big baby about it :)

A kindred bond by Nyszu - Superbat, wip. An update to this fic where Bruce is kidnapped by an evil Superman. Each time this fic update, my quality of life increases \o/

Patchwork Pod by Ktkat9 - Superbat, wip. More of the mer Bruce fic!!! :D

the universe can only ask so much (she keeps asking) by Trekkele- Batfam, complete. Bruce retires as Batman after Jason's death.

every citizen in need of a savior by weartheshadows (sczpruiosnejre) - Batfam, complete. Damian rescues all the animals :)

How to Date the Batman by solomonara - Superbat, complete. Someone gets a picture of Clark Kent kissing Batman. Shenanigans ensue.

Turnabout is Fair Play by solomonara - Superbat, complete. Sequel to "How to Date the Batman". Superman kisses Bruce Wayne in front of a crowd. Shenanigans ensue.

a sky of honey by The Resurrectionist - Superbat, wip. More of pregnant omega Bruce. I am slowing falling in love with sassy omega Lex, and hope he gets a himbo alpha boyfriend he can boss around :) This is another fic that improves my quality of life every time it updates (but you can say that about any of Res's fics).

in your arms, i dissolve by starshotplagues - Superbat, complete. A lovely fluffy fic where Bruce and Clark sleep together (literally, Bruce is tired).

i am an anchor by starshotplagues - Superbat, complete. Bruce and Clark get turned into adorable cats! Much cuddling ensues.

Happy reading!

[whirlwindimagines]

Hey! <3 it's me again, the anon who requested the scenary of Wolfwood sister x Vash. Thank you sooooo much for taking my request, it made my day! <3

I'm writing again to request you for another scenario if it's not too much trouble 👉🏻👈🏻 and instead of being something romantic, it would be more like a family reunion.

The scenario would be with Vash reuniting with his sister (that would mean that instead of just Vash and Knives, in this scenario it would be Vash, Knives and reader, that means, they're triplets) who he believed to be dead since the Big Fall. How would he react upon finding her and realizing that the little girl he protected and cared for when he was a child was now a full grown woman who knew how to fight and shoot and that all kind of stuff?

I also thought that this scenario would be set in chapter 9 when Vash wakes up on "Home".

I hope all of this makes enough sense 👉🏻👈🏻😔 again, thank you so much for taking my "Wolfwood sister x Vash" request! I loved it! Hope you day is going well! See ya! 💕✨

I’m glad you enjoyed your previous request! I had fun writing it, and I had fun writing this one as well lol this one got away from me, I just kept adding to it and adding to it. Might make a part two with Nai if anyone's interested :) Also spoilers I guess? Also, i'm sorry but the twins with a sister screams the song Hey Brother by Avicii

‘Oh if the sky comes falling down’ 

Vash x Sister!Reader 

You are pacing, you have been for a while now after all this time you thought you’d be a little braver. But it's like you’re that little girl again, scared and always crying and needing to run to your big brothers at the slightest inconvenience.

But it’s been decades now, and you haven’t had the privilege of doing that since before the fall. You remember it like it was yesterday, Rem, the escape pod, and then the desert. You were separated from Nai and Vash at that point. Waking up in the desert alone, everything on fire, you just ran unsure of what to do and where to go. 

You were more like Nai in the regard you didn’t need much to survive, so you wandered everywhere and anywhere with no real purpose, no goals only memories…

You were hiding, sometimes the ship seemed so cold. You didn’t want Nai and Vash to see you crying, it was pathetic! And not even for a good reason, wiping your eyes and sighing you feel all cried out. Someone calls your name, Vash you realize. Wiping your eyes harshly, you stand taking in deep breaths, before answering. 

Vash comes flying around the corner his face lighting up when he sees you, but then he frowns looking at your face. You try to smile but it’s a little watery. “Are you okay?” You nod not trusting your voice, Vash sighs and grabs you by the arm to pull you along.

You start to protest, but you close your mouth at the sound of a piano playing. Your face lights up as Vash pulls you into the room where Nai is playing, he was the best at piano out of the three of you. 

Pulling from Vash’s grip, you move forward to join Nai. He makes room for you on the bench but rolls his eyes at Vash as he pushes you into himself to make room for the three of you. You laugh then, content to sit between them and listen to them both play. 

Nai nudges you, and with some encouragement from Vash, you join in. The piano was not meant for three people to play at once, so it was more of a mess of notes as the three of you stumble over each other's hands. You feel much better now, and don’t notice the look Vash and Nai share over your head. 

You are pulled from the memory when a gentle hand rest on your shoulder, and turning to see Luidas smiling face. “He’s awake.” You thank her, watching her walk away, once she’s out of sight you sigh leaning against the wall and sliding down it to sit.

It was still surreal being here on this mostly operating SEED ship, staying here you could pretend the fall never happened, that you grew up here safe and happy. But you didn’t and you happened upon this ship by pure accident. 

Your luck it seemed had finally run out; you don’t know how many weeks you’d been going for at this point when you collapsed out in the dunes. When you came to you all you could feel was panic because there was no way you were on a SEED ship, you looked the same you were still grown you had all your things it just wasn’t possible. 

Luida knew what you were the instant she met you, it was odd and, in a way, comforting for someone to know your secret. She showed you then some old photographs, and well you simply couldn’t believe it, “That’s Vash.” You said voice slightly awed; she sat down next to you watching you with a soft smile. “Your y/n, he’s mentioned you before, well he thought you were…” she trails off, not having to say it because you thought the same of them. Nai isn’t in any of the photos, and you are simply not brave enough to ask. 

You stand now shaking your head, living in the past wasn’t an option right now. Vash was alive and here right on the other side of that door all you had to do was walk towards it. With a deep breath, you enter he’s sitting up on the bed messing with his arm. He doesn’t say anything, he probably thinks you are one of his friends that you came with. The group you’ve been avoiding for the most part. 

He looks different, older you’re sure you do too. You don’t know what to say, “Vash?” His name you cringe at your watery tone, not expecting to already be crying. He looks up surprised, your eyes meet and his jaw drops. You jump when he stands suddenly, he takes a step forward, stops, and says your name. 

You sob then, moving forward and throwing your arms around him, you’re just crying because you can’t believe it. He’s here, he’s alive and you don’t have to be alone anymore. Your big brother standing right before you, the tears just kept coming. You had made a vow to yourself that you'd no longer be weak and that you wouldn't cry all the time. But none of that mattered, besides you think this was a pretty good reason to cry.

Vash is too stunned to move because it’s you, his baby sister, alive you look different, your older that’s obvious but it’s in your face less alive, less joyful like you haven’t smiled in a long time. He doesn't understand how you are here, on this ship. Home. He wants to ask and needs to know what you’ve been doing all this time. Where have you been? How have you survived? You were the youngest, but you were in Nai's words closer to perfect than he was.

But Vash doesnt ask, he can't even speak, instead, he wraps his arms around you and cries. 

He pushes you back gently to look at your face, “your alive.” It’s the only thing he can say, “so are you.” You choke out, and you look away scared to ask but you have to know. “What about Nai?” You feel him tense, “it’s complicated.” He whispers, leading you over to the bed so the two of you can sit side by side.

You're confused, but let him continue. Vash begins to tell you what he’s been doing all this time, you doubt he’s telling you the whole truth and probably doesn’t want to share the gory details. You let out a ‘huff’ you’re sure no matter how long you’ve been alive he’ll always treat you like a baby sister. But you don’t interrupt, then he begins telling you about Nai. 

Eyes wide you simply can’t believe it, you are not naive you’ve heard strange rumors, hell you’ve seen some strange things as well. But all this death and destruction… was Nai really capable of that? You want to deny it, but you know Vash isn’t lying he would never lie to you. You sigh leaning your head on his shoulder, “well I’m here now, will figure it out together.” 

“Together?” Vash asks with a small voice, you smile “yeah, oh you’re not getting rid of me any time soon. We’re a family, and we have to stick together.” You say it’s a little childish, but you think you deserve to think a little childishly right now. You feel Vash begin to pull away, but you grab his arm not letting him get too far.

“It’s too dangerous, it’s best if you stay here.” You roll your eyes, and you give him a look. “Seriously? So, you think I’ve been holed up in a cave all these years? I’ve been out there surviving all these years by myself!” Your tone is bitter and he flinches, you soften. It’s not his fault, everything had been so chaotic after the fall, “please don’t treat me like a kid, I’m not that little girl anymore.” And you mean if you were not able to be her anymore, not since the fall. 

Vash looks at you really looks at you, and he knows your right. He sighs, “I don’t think I’d be able to stop you anyway.” He says with a laugh, you smile. Right now, everything was perfect, and while your family would never be complete not truly, it still hurt to think of Rem, and thinking of Nai was also painful. But for right, you’d hold on to this happiness and wouldn’t let go.

[ultraviolet-cello]

Day 8 of the tristamp analysis marathon and jesus christ i am!!! really excited to do these now because people have been adding onto/being nice abt my stuff and that's super cool. Thank you again to @tristampparty for running this! I didn't manage to join in on the book club last year so it's nice to have a fun little event all the same

[But as for next book club,,,, well. I'm extremely transgender about trimax and would love to join in]

As always, spoilers for trigun stampede and trigun maximum! Also some CWs for Vash-typical passive suicidal tendencies and discussion of his psyche

So! Episode 8! I have.... mixed feelings, on how Tristamp portrays Knives. On one hand, I definitely think that we're being lead to believe that Vash has always been a peace-loving kid and that Knives has always had those tendencies, which would set up for season 2 to break that down. I hope.

The one thing I couldn't figure out, ofc, is the Knives not needing to eat thing - My friend millions-dykes theorized a black hole/white star dynamic a little while ago [as seen in the screenshot. I'm Organ, they are Nagito Malmonella]

aaaaaaaaanyway, we still get these little instances of knives just being a kid, and it's the funniest thing in the world to me. Vash is also apparently in tune with him enough to pick up on that and it's such twin behaviour.

There's also just a lot of cases of Knives smiling or being giggly around Rem, which,,,, he's such a mama's boy like we know this but it's so nice to have it reinforced. This theory of Knives having always been cold/standoffish just doesn't track - the only time he usually seems uncomfortable is when Rem touches him or when he talks about Plant stuff - particularly when he's talking about being different to Vash. Knives, to me at least, is a tad autism-coded :]

OKAY TO THE SCENE[TM]

So obviously this has changed from when we first saw Vash tell the story. Vash's sequence of events runs as follows:

Vash walks up to the little hill that Knives is laughing maniacally on top of -> Knives says "I finally did it! It worked! -> Vash confronts him with "How could you do that?" -> Knives reassures him with "Don't worry, I left the Plant ship" -> Knives says "I even got Rem killed!" -> Knives points out that Vash is his accomplice, but does not elaborate why. "Don't get mad. You're already my accomplice, isn't that right Vash?"

Now the sequence of events in this version is provably more accurate (the same audio is used in the black box recording discovered later), and goes as follows:

Vash wakes up from the escape pod and goes "Nai, where are you?" -> He spends some time following Knives' footsteps where he sees the crashed pods and fire and Knives laughing on the hill -> Knives says "I finally did it! It worked!" -> Vash says "I can't believe you killed Rem!" -> Knives says "Don't get mad. You're already my accomplice, it was you who told me the passcode - Am I right, Vash?"

So there are several inconsistencies in these two versions of events, most notably for me is that Vash is the one to bring up Rem. If the 1st telling was correct, it would imply that Knives wanted to kill Rem, but that part is conspicuously absent, because Vash is the one that brings her up.

Vash's retelling also omits the fact that he was the one to give Knives the passcode, shifting more blame onto Knives. It's very very interesting to me. Finally, Knives mostly has his back to Vash when he dissolves into laughter again. Which is a technique often used to hide if you've been crying or are having a hard time keeping some emotional responses down.

And I'm not even done with this flashback! The scene where Vash just lies down and wants to give up is,,, Well, in Trimax, ever since Tesla, Vash has struggled with suicidal ideation - he's the one that asks for Rem to just kill him, and that's heartbreaking, but we also see a bit of that leaking through here again, where he just wants to lie down and give up. It also gives me hope we're gonna see that Tesla aftermath scene in the next season, because that'll be breaking Vash down into his more complicated, messy parts.

Okay so I do think that the subtitles Aniwave uses are... a little bit Wack, I'm pretty sure that they're unofficial and probably a bit wonky, and I'm only slightly conversational in Japanese so I have 0 idea about this, but hey I think someone should inform Wolfwood, for no particular reas- [I am dragged away by security]

[I did check the dub, which referred to Plants giving birth which I think is much more likely to be accurate. But it'd still be funny for Wolfwood to have to sit through Plant sex ed so neither of them get pregnant]

Rem really was very, very young,,,,,

There are four photos here, but only one is given to Vash. I wonder why,,,, Possibly to gauge his recognition of Knives being in the photo, or keeping the other three to learn what they can about Knives.

The night/day progression cycle here doesn't really match up with Vash's little tally, so I don't think it's counting days. Given that he apparently went to say hello to everyone in cold sleep while on the ship, I think it's a little more likely that the tally marks are for them....

Do we ever actually get to hear Rem say the blank ticket thing in a flashback? I don't recall it, but it is said to Vash after the whole Stabbing Incident in Trimax, so that's possibly why they've kept it from us.

Theeee markings under this Plant's eyes match Elendira's, which. Obviously Elendira in tristamp is part plant there's just so many little details that lend themselves to it,,,

The HAIR COLOUR CHANGE AAAA

I like the little wall of Vash baby pics in the background here, but he still didn't get any of his 3 other ship pics back :(

Finally, Vash's line of "an Independent will make up for what an Independent has done" is interesting because his guilt complex really does spiral, huh. The reason Knives telling him "Oh, you just feel guilty for the Big Fall, huh?" in a later ep fucks him up so much is because like. That is kinda true to an extent. Vash is his own kind of self-deluding, but that only really starts spiraling at about this point in time.

Alright, setting up for a Day of analysis tomorrow, because I have many thoughts and feelings surrounding Knives (I love him very dearly and I hate him a lot (affectionate)) and we Will spend some time talking about Trimax Flavour Knives because my understanding of him is fundamental to my understanding of Tristamp Flavour Knives.

Thank y'all for the fun comments and theory addons!!! I'm having a lot of fun and we're really getting into how [normal] I am about Trigun!

[hikennosabo]

#tristampparty day 1, episode 1: noman's land

normally i draw stuff for fandom events... but i don't really feel like it so instead i'm going to rewatch tristamp for @tristampparty :D it's been a few months since my last rewatch, so i'm excited~ (this will be my fourth time watching it...) subs this time, since i've watched the dub the last 2 times i watched. AND also my first time watching it start to finish after completing the manga. i've been wanting to do this for a while so now's as good a time as any!

i don't know how much i'll have in the way of coherent thoughts or analysis so i guess i'll just... do it like i did my bookclub posts? and write my random thoughts/observations as i go :'3 if i'm lucky it will turn into coherency and analysis LOL

okay episode 1 let's gooooo

i don't think this was shown in the manga so this caught my eye immediately - that there are robots helping maintain the people in cryosleep. the fact that there were only five other crew members besides rem, and that only one person is awake at a time barring emergencies, was brought up and questioned by multiple people in bookclub. maintenance robots make a lot of sense, one person can only do so much, even a small crew wouldn't be enough for such a huge ship.

iirc we don't see the other scientists on the ship at any point in tristamp, so i guess they were all integrated into conrad's character...? which means this rem was more alone than ever. and also had less people to fight against re: the experimentation on tesla...? or... hmmm. one minute into the episode and i'm already saying so much lol help

nai being cast in shadow... that's cinematography babes!!!! and the two blooming geraniums...

UGH!!!! this always gets me!!!! the fact that NAI is the one who invites rem onto the escape pod... knives's love for rem compounding his guilt over her death makes me want to eat rocks. i think that combination of love and guilt is definitely present in the original but it's not blatantly shown as it is here. i've said this a lot and i'll keep saying it but one of the things i really like about tristamp is how it puts a microscope over knives's emotions.

"i thought i'd spare her" he says!!! and with his face covered in shadow... this is from volume 2, so it's in part to keep him ~mysterious~ as the antagonist at this point in the story, but the shadow also serves to show us he's not being fully truthful here. obviously!! but at this point in the manga we don't know much about knives at all, and he's very much framed as sinister and menacing. tristamp does things a bit the other way around, showing us that nai cares about rem and then having him do his evil speech-laugh at vash later in the episode... but we're not up to that just yet. anyway.

we don't really get a clear look at nai's face after the pod launches but because i'm unwell i went frame by frame

he definitely looks angry here i think, or frustrated... of course he is...

so as vash cries here i can't help but think he's emoting for both himself and his brother. in stamp and in the manga both. like the lyrics of tombi.

...less than 5 minutes and i've already written so much. okay. enough about knives. let's all look at meryl's face.

>:T

it's been discussed how tristamp frontloads a lot of information, and this specifically has been pointed out already, but the reveal of the planet's name being NML doesn't happen until... the penultimate chapter of the manga. not like keeping the planet's name a secret really matters in the grand scheme of things, but in the manga the reveal was an emotional beat following the final battle, reinforcing the resilience of the people living there. here it's framed the opposite, almost - as the fact that this place SUCKS. also roberto is purposefully talking down to meryl in this scene but it still comes across as a bit clumsy in that it's obviously exposition for the sake of the audience.

i think this rewatch i want to pay more attention to roberto. i just kind of forget he exists most of the time since he's not in the manga, and not someone i ever really got attached to seeing as how he's clearly telegraphed as the Dead Mentor character, there to push meryl's character to the point where she needs to be by the end of the season. i wasn't around to see this happen but when tristamp started airing i'm pretty sure he got shit on a lot for Not Being Milly. but i do think he fulfills milly's role in one specific way; he's a very observant person. i don't know if i want to dive deep into a roberto-milly comparison though... i kinda feel like that would do a disservice to him lol. but i like the contrast of what kind of relationship each of them has with meryl.

the biggest wettest eyes you've ever seen

i just like the level of detail here with meryl and roberto being reflected in vash's glasses. very neat!

*squints* i just wanted to post BDN's wanted poster to lament the fact that he doesn't actually appear in tristamp, and perhaps laugh at nightow's poster again, but the guy on the left... that's the guy from 98 episode 1, right? and i think the guy in the middle is the guy who lina kicked in the face. there's a poster for the nebraska daughter later in the scene, too. the attention to detail is insane, man.

oh. he's referring to knives here. i think.

see, here's the thing. i only just now realized that he might be referring to knives because the subs i was watching previously (the ones uploaded to aniwave) translate this line differently. it's a lot more vague, about how things will just get worse if they don't do something. the dub line is similarly vague. this line is a lot more clear. but i don't know, man. the reason why i've mostly stuck to the dub is because i could tell the subs on aniwave were of dubious quality, but my japanese isn't good enough to tell which subs are the ""most"" correct, this included. it makes a lot of sense that he's referring to knives here, so that's the interpretation i think i'll stick with. and at least these subs are like... better grammar-wise than the ones on aniwave, lol.

Thinking About This Again. okay i don't remember where this was confirmed by staff or if it was just a theory but this was a bounty put out by knives, right? as "this is what humans think of you, as an object you can put a price on, not as a person." it's all been said already by people who aren't me. but i'm just thinking about knives's hypocrisy again. he doesn't exactly view vash as a person either.

...as i watch this i'm realizing i have a lot less to say about the second half of the episode than the first half.

i've seen people say that vash not having any bullets for the duel was on purpose. and that's probably true. i've also seen people say that running around screaming and crying was on purpose, like, it was part of his act. i... don't know about that. he does scream and cry and throw up to present himself as a harmless idiot, but contrast that with the bullet dodging and the disarming of the cluster bomb... he's kinda... showing his hand? especially because he tries to laugh it off as luck immediately after. NONE of that was part of the plan.

OKAY AM I JUST MAKING THIS UP OR ARE THOSE TEARS IN HIS EYES. THIS ISN'T JUST ME RIGHT. he could just be crying from laughing too hard UNLESS...?! also, why am i reminded of vash saying to rem "when you cry, you look like you're laughing." so the other way around would be...?! we know how much nai is hurting here, how much he didn't want to kill rem... and he's laughing... but with tears in his eyes... is this anything. am i overcooking. it's getting late and my brain isn't working at full capacity anymore.

GOD just. he's so young. in the flashbacks in volume 2, the twins look a bit older, i think, and especially since knives's face is completely blacked out in shadow, it doesn't fully register just how young he was at the time... but man. he was just a kid.

ugh, and the first thing we see of adult knives is him playing the piano, knives's piano being a cry of loneliness from his heart... as we know... i'm going to combust. and his... piano room(?) is so haunting with the dead plants all around.

here's a detail that i like in tristamp - the worms are ever-present from the beginning. for the first couple of episodes they just seem like window-dressing, simply part of the environment to give the setting more character, nothing more. we don't learn about the worm hivemind or zazie until episode 4. but it's obvious upon revisiting that this is how knives is getting information about vash's location and also where any dying plants are.

which i also want to point out because!!! in this scene knives says, in japanese: 「見つけたか」 which in the subs is translated as, "so you've found him." it's translated similarly in the dub, referring to him, as in vash. but in the subs i initially watched, the line was translated as, "did you find it? [...] i'm taking it back." if you know anything about how japanese grammar works, it's that japanese doesn't have pronouns the same way english does, so exactly what or who knives is referring to when he says 「見つけたか」 is not actually specified. so we have a potential double meaning that gets lost in translation - knives could be talking about both vash and the dying plant.

...and that ends episode 1. i... did not expect to write this much. also post this before the date turns over challenge failed. i'm tired and i need to go to bed lol.

we're just getting started. see you tomorrow.

[approxtwelveangrybees]

Another idea! Vashwood Anastasia au.

The crash was an accident. Rem and the twins all survive

Vash pushes her into an escape pod first and clambers into another one right behind. It’s the difference of a few seconds, but it’s enough that rem and nai maintain original trajectory while vash spins away

He wakes up with no memory and starts wandering, so he finds ship 3 all the same

Rem and Nai find a different ship but there’s no long distance communication available and no desert transportation infrastructure or engineering yet

So the 6 mill and later 60 mill “bounty” is actually nai and rem trying to find him because nai insists he’s alive and rem believes him

Rem is in and out of cyro sleep a lot

“Vash” meanwhile is going about life! Except he goes by the name Eriks. He can’t explain why but he’s very good with plants and makes a decent enough living—except there’s also ALWAYS chaos following behind him and so heeee is running out of friendly towns

He needs double dollars to get to another city’s jurisdiction

He’s told to speak to Wolfwood, whoever that is

WW just wants the money so he can pay off his contracts to Conrad, go back to hopeland, and forget about the past

When “Eriks” shows up, ww gets excited because shit, he might be able to pull this off

Unfortunately for him two reporters also see the resemblance

Meryl and molly are writing a story about the infamous bounty (I think to keep themselves hidden rem has infiltrated a few city councils by now). It’s sorta an urban legend thus the reporters, think buzzfeed unsolved almost

Off they go to July, where vash thinks they’ll be able to get on a ship for November after meeting some people who may or may not be able to tell him about his pst and ww, who is trying not to feel guilty about using some poor idiot in his get rich quick scheme (meryl and milly might be trying to get a story to hold off getting sent to insurance so they’re a bit sus here too)

Kuroneko is pooka

Nai and Rem have given up, but when they’re deliberating after the second time vash shows up (some ballet scene equivalent!) vash finds nais piano and starts subconsciously playing the twins duet. That’s when they know it’s him

I think Conrad is still probably an antagonist on account of the you know. Child experimentation. But I think it’s less dressed up in religious talk and more the promises of food and shelter? Idk. I want wolfwood to still be wolfwood and I’m a stamp watcher

Nai still gets to knife imposters when rems asleep

[trigun-floopers]

S1 Ep 1

Escaping the ship:

Nai reaches for Rem to join them in the escape pod. She lets out a soft gasp and musters all her emotion to tell them she loves them both, tears welling.

The doors start to close but they jam.

"Son of a bi-scuit!" she yells, catching her swear in front of the boys.

Nai just keeps his hand dramatically outstretched and Vash falls back into the cockpit seat laughing.

"Someone bring me the picture of my dead cat again!"

[hinaypod]

Can you believe to learn (it's a meme don't @ me) that we have a website now?

 Better late than never! It's simple right now, but we'll be adding some links, such as the transcript resource, in the future!

~CHECK IT OUT HERE~

[motziedapul]

Hi Nay won't release in 2023 if we don't hit $4550

So help us get there!

Right now we're about to break $1000, and it'll be a HUGE help if you spread this around to everyone you know to support the pod.

[honey-everythingisonfire]

don’t think about a tristamp vashwood reincarnation au where vash can’t remember his last lives, only but getting flashes of deja vu and pangs of emotions he can’t understand

don’t think about a baby vash, waking up one night on the ship, screaming and crying hysterically, so unconsolable that even when nai fetches rem for help, she is helpless, only able to hold her son as he wails into chest, one tiny hand gripping the back of her shirt, nai’s pant leg balled up in the other

don’t think about rem asking vash what’s wrong when he finally stops crying, and all he can get out is a ragged, “I have to save him,” before a fresh round of tears well up, and he’s back to sobbing, now with renewed mumbling of, “I can’t save him, I have to, I have to,” with his mother and brother resigning themselves to a night of no sleep, never knowing who he was talking about

don’t think about vash and nai finding tesla, and vash already begging nai not to hate the humans, he can’t do it again, not again, please not this life, let them be happy in this life, let him be happy in this life, Vash can’t lose him again, but he knows his brother won’t listen, he never does, and Vash knows he’s lost the strange man from his dreams again

don’t think about vash and nai in that escape pod, nai reaching his hand out to rem, to his mother, please come with us, but vash already knows she won’t, she’s never done it before, she has to stay to save the man with the smokes, but this time he’s able to choke out a goodbye before the pod closes again

don’t think about vash, dreaming, over the years, of old memories with the black haired man with a face of shadow, carrying a tombstone of metal wrapped in cloth and leather, unknowing of who he is, but understanding that he has to find him, to save him, and slowly, slowly, falling in love with his only other constant over the course of 150 years

now

don’t think about wolfwood, knowing two things for certain throughout his life, one being that he would be the sacrificial lamb to save his family, two being that he loved the strange blond man in his memories, with his silly red coat and yellow sunglasses

don’t think about wolfwood, once forced into the eye of michael and trained ruthlessly, desperately clinging to whatever shreds of sanity he has left, only able to power through because he needs to save his family, he needs to save Livio, he needs to save the love of his life, and wolfwood grows up a little more hopeful

don’t think about wolfwood, brought before knives, face impassive, but mind racing, because this is definitely not his needle noggin, as he taken to calling him over the years, but his new boss looks astoundingly like him, and when he learns of his newest job, nico’s heart nearly rips itself from his chest

don’t think about vash and wolfwood, searching for each other through the desert, vash for a century and a half, wolfwood for a fraction of that, but still knowing they’ll be together soon

don’t think about soon being vash asleep in the back of a car, wolfwood half-dead trudging through the desert

don’t think about vash waking up when meryl hits someone with the trailer, looking out the window, and seeing that cross that haunts his dreams

don’t think about vash leaping from the car before meryl can even process what she did, sprinting towards the man in the sand like a man possessed

don’t think about vash gently cradling the head of the love of his life, unminding of roberto and meryl’s questioning looks

don’t think about vash softly brushing the man’s hair from his face, hand trailing his face

don’t think about vash pressing his forehead against wolfwood’s

don’t think about vash making a promise the others can’t hear

don’t think about wolfwood half-aware of being held

don’t think about wolfwood seeing nothing but red and yellow

don’t think about wolfwood relaxing for the first time in two decades

don’t think about vash promising wolfwood his love

don’t think about wolfwood swearing vash his life

don’t think about them

[chibivesicle]

Trigun Stampede - Episode 8 - Our Home; time for a flashback since Vash passed out.

With all of the paradoxical pacing of the series, we were due for a flashback to give us more Vash information since we got Wolfwood with a side of Livio, last week.  This is sort of taking various elements and hits of flashbacks from the original anime and manga and with our breakneck pace, compressing them down.

We get the birthday celebration with Vash and Nai.  It seems this version is in line with the manga where only Rem is awake at the time on their ship as opposed to the anime with several crew members manning the vessel.

We are not surprised that Vash is elated at the party and Nai is being grumpy.  It also points out early on that despite being twins, Vash does not appear to have any plant abilities; thus, he needs to eat, sleep etc while apparently Nai does not.  Thus, the brothers aren’t parallel in their abilities at this moment in the Stampede narrative.

In the artificial park, Rem is being a doting mother on the two of them, happy that they have come into her world.  We haven’t learned yet that her long term significant other had passed away yet, spurring her to take the current job as a Seeds team member.  There is also the subtextual fact that it is clear she’d been thinking of having a family with that man. 

Of course things take a turn for the worse and it jumps to the point where their escape pod has crashed it Nai’s monologue is more complete including the line that Vash gave him a passcode that allowed him to hack into the system and change things.  Thus, this makes his previous statement of being an accomplice to the events makes more sense now.  However, instead of being forced to travel with Nai after the catastrophe and sticking with his brother out of guilt and not understanding Rem’s last message to him, in Stampede Vash flees from the start. There is a horror scene of dying people reaching out to him and Vash runs off screaming and apologizing before collapsing in the desert near a group of survivors.

He wakes up on a ship with a woman confirming that he’s an independent plant.  The apparently are on ship three which did not crash and are trying to survive what happened.  Wow, love how simple it is for Luida to confirm that Vash is a plant with a simple flashlight!  It was better in the original that it was not all that obvious that he was a plant.

We also learn that the woman with dark hair is Luida from the original uncrashed ship and the man is a much more mature version of Brad.  The Doctor with the hat appears to not exist in this story line at all - or at least is not a senior member of the leadership team at this point.  The ship is surrounded in a sandstorm that conceals it from the outside with bursts of lighting soooo . . .

yeah, the sandstorm at the end of episode seven is clearly and indication that they caught up to Vash.  And Vash is currently passed out having the flashback like he did on the Sandsteamer in the original anime and manga dreaming about Rem.

It is also cannon that the uncrashed ship is protected by the harsh winds around it.  The difference is in the anime, Wolfwood is the one who points out that they can’t avoid reality of the surface while in the manga, they are working much more covertly to assist on the surface.  As they can still send out a distress call to humans elsewhere which becomes important later on in the manga with the return of humanity and more independent plants.

Anyhoo, as the flashback continues Luida tries to be compassionate to Vash while Brad is a dick.  The writing for this entire flashback is meh at best.  We get it, they don’t trust him because he’s a plant and Vash at the moment isn’t very interested in living.

We learn that they tried to recover the black box from ship five and any of Rem’s possessions which appear to be a journal and some photos.

Brad is trying to recover the data from the black box and the flashback follows a tried and true plot point.  They don’t trust Vash, keep him locked up and he’s not too motivated to eat. This is much more subtle than the manga where Vash actively did try to commit suicide and was saved by Rem upon learning about Tessla’s fate.

Finally, to give Vash a plant ability, he learn that he can talk to the plants.  So, when a plant starts to malfunction he comes in to save the day.

Of course for dramatic plot purposes, this happens right when Brad was able to recover Rem’s last message to Vash and we get to hear her line that the ticket to one’s future is blank.

With Vash saving the day and helping the group survive, he gets upgraded from questionable plant independent to normal person with a room!  Luida also notes that Brad helped convince the rest of the crew and things progress as we would expect.  He slowly integrates into ‘normal’ life and starts to interact with people like a human.

Time passes and he continues to grow and we see a change in him.  He’s lost the weird plant markings on his body which marked him as youth and no longer appear on his teenage body as he travels around with Brad assisting in plant mental health counseling.  What does he do?  Chat with them, make them feel better and it fixes the problem?  If only it were that easy and additionally, it is skirting around the manga issues of plants having lifespans and the horrible abuse and suffering that dying plants are subjected to.  Maybe we will learn this later?

His hair has become messier and the darker undercut is now visible.  Honestly, having Vash be a plant whisperer is cute and all buuuut . . . if you look at his personality in the original manga and anime, him being friendly with the plants is expected of his personality, since he was.  Of course he’ll talk to all the plants and help them calm down or assist.  We get this early on in the anime as he consoles a tired and exhausted plant with a bottle of Wild Turkey as a tribute.

This also is the key plot point that ultimately is how Vash is able to defeat Knives.  Knives could also communicate with the plants but convinced them to work with him out of any anger or resentment towards humans or consumed them by sheer force and willpower.  Which he then mentally cut them off from him to keep his independence and force them to his will.  It was the fact that Vash knew each individual plant from his 150 years of wandering that he was able to convince them to turn on Knives - no group of individuals are a monolith or united in a single goal.

I yawned as the episode progressed since it went as expected.  Vash gets a thank you from the rest of the group for being a plant whisperer and saving people etc etc.

I do think the scene was exceptionally well animated.  Though the backgrounds are rather lacking and sterile despite Vash’s photo wall, which looks just like White’s various photo walls in her UK childhood home or in the HL hospital where she’s trapped.

Vash is thankful for his gift of new clothing and the scene where he hugs it while thinking of Rem is touching.  We get the link to red geraniums and Rem’s love of them as well as how that determination will manifest through Vash’s own actions as he gets older.

But we gotta stick with the writing on easy mode and generate an unnecessary conflict between Vash and the ship three crew which is only there to force him to run away.  Brad eventually is able to discover that Vash lied about what happened.  Knives is alive and we can be certain, tricked Vash into giving him the access codes to cause the disaster.  Brad spouts of xenophobic nonsense making a very snap judgement as Vash flees out into the desert night.

The two of them search his room and Luida finds his hand written note that he needs to atone for the sins of his brother.  Ah, yes, here we get a glimpse of the massive amount of guilt that Vash is always carrying in the originals masked by his silly behaviors.

Of course, Brad feels bad and Luida declares that they need to rescue him.  The flashback then briefly returns to the present timeline.  Vash wakes up in a room, similar to the one he had on ship three.  For the first time we see him without his sunglasses!  Took you long enough Studio Orange.

He bolts up from his dream/flashback and orients himself in the moment and we see a picture is on display on the table facing him.

The picture reveals the team from his wall when he was a teen as a plant whisperer.

And we know Studio Orange isn’t subtle, so Vash asks aloud if ‘they’ saved him.

Of course they did Vash!  I said last week that was what the sandstorm was that approached and picked up our four person team.  He then looks forlorn and glances down at his robotic arm.

The episode then shifts back to end on the flashback where Vash met up with Knives five years after he’d been rescued by ship three.  The man in the white coat has to be Conrad along with two generic copy paste goons with a mirror tool applied.

They are on an abandoned ship with red and implied to be dead plants.  With that they then zip to the ending credits!

Overall, this episode was a bland back fill.  The only positive was that, for once, they took a few seconds to breathe and slow down the all action all the time pace.  However, this would have served the narrative a lot better around episode four or five.  The pacing not the actual story reveal.

It sounds weird, but getting the motivation to watch episode eight was real as the series is losing my interest an attention.  Part of it is just a ‘me’ thing.  Reflecting on my initial reaction to the series, I realized that I came into Trigun Stampede with unrealistic expectations for this new version of it.  And now that the artistic directions are super clear, it doesn’t have much overlap with the original anime and manga.

And as I’ve stated many times previously, even with the vast differences with the ‘98 anime and Trigun Maximum both stories get at the same moral questions and dilemmas.  Is Stampede going to get there? Right now, no.  It isn’t going in that direction.

One element of Vash’s flashbacks that I have missed is the song he associated with Rem.  In the manga, it is simply sung indicated by musical notes and makes him reflect on her and the ‘98 anime was storytelling gold with a creation song being implied on humans re-creating civilization out of the ‘wild’.

Rem’s song - Sound Life was brilliant in the original anime.

It is things like this which really added to the vibe of the series and set a theme. But, I am biased to the original OST and really think it was totally on point for the anime.

Overall points from this episode:

1.) Characters that again, have changed - Luida and Brad.  In the original manga, neither of them are older than Vash.  This already implies a compressed timeline.  The entire point is that they are younger humans who grew up always knowing Vash from being children to adults.  We have lost their unique perspective which was crucial to understanding how others viewed Vash. Brad is even more simple minded than in the originals which is a disappointment but we know the writing is threadbare.  Luida again is stripped of her strong female leadership qualities and becomes Rem 2.0 for Vash.  They are shadows of their former characterizations.  Boo.

2.) Female characters continue to be stripped of their character and qualities from the originals.  We’ve already lost Milly Thompson.  Meryl Stryfe was uwu-ized and made junior to Roberto.  Now, Luida has become Mom 2.0 to replace Rem.  Can there be a single female character who has the original independence and not being pigeon-holed into an extremely outdated gender norms/behavior?  It is 2023 in a sci fi anime.  If the ‘98 version was less obsessed with gender roles and the manga wasn’t obsessed with gender roles - why does Stampede want to go down this path?

3.) Reactions to the series in general.  I wish there was an easier way to get data about the reactions to the series.  I want a Gallup Poll for all the data on the viewers of this show!  However, I can’t help wonder if there is a clear divide in the reaction to Stampede based on viewer demographics.  My gut is that likely women and the strong LGBTQ fanbase of the originals are not as impressed by this lackluster effort at Trigun.  The Golden Kamuy fandom had a lot of women and queer readers and I can see how the same group would like the original Trigun and Trigun Maximum.  It seems counter-intuitive at first, but the more you think about it, they easily would have a similar type of readership besides the typical seinen demographics.

Most of the youtubers who have made comments appear to be men, and they are like - oh its fine, sure, I miss Milly but its alright that I have found.  I wonder if they don’t realize that by removing a key female character from the cast is a disappointment.  Yet, I’m not going out of my way to determine who has the loudest voices on the internet either singing praises of Stampede or hating on it hardcore.

I partially disagree and agree with a recent review that dropped today.  I agree with that review that it is an entirely different series, that there is nothing wrong with the CGI and that the loss of Milly was a bad idea. However, I disagree with that review feeling that it is still Trigun and the review is overly optimistic about Stampede thinking the Gung-ho Guns will be better (? some are already dead or likely eliminated due to not fitting the vibe) and Wolfwood will get the chara development which he deserves.  And mainly that the review says that Stampede is more in line with the manga and I’m guessing this follows with the assumption that the manga is always better than the anime with the terms of ‘filler’ and ‘too slapstick’.  I’ll have to wait until that reviewer speaks more about the manga, but I am not of the mindset that manga = better than anime but reading the manga helped me to understand aspects of the anime and also appreciate the differences between both forms of media.    I don’t want to fall into the diversity/representation rabbit hole, but those were things that the original content got.  If you stop and look at Kekkai Sensen/Blood Blockade Battlefront, Yasuhiro Nightow continued on to create another diverse cast of characters.  He cleverly shifted human racism to be xenophobia towards Beyondians in the world of Hellsalem’s Lot.  Leonardo Watch is accepting of all species and friends with them as well as the entire rest of the Libra main cast.  The fact that a part of Manhattan excludes Beyondians with armed guards speaks volumes to the author’s critiques of modern day society.

The homogenization of Stampede makes it seem sterile, unrealistic, and out of sync with the sci fi element.  Thank back to the original Macross and you have a more diverse cast than in Stampede.  Macross has a lot of other issues like the horrible sexism that is of the 80s, but hey, at least a future society is global and represents the visual diversity of humanity. I’m a bit scatter-brained today, but what I’ve gotten from Yasuhiro Nightow’s works whether it be Trigun or Blood Blockade Battlefront is that he has comments on diversity and acceptance along with morality of a society and of individuals.  Coming from a much more homogeneous society that still struggles to deal with its own indigenous peoples that have been relegated to second class status for over four hundred years and all dressing that come along with that form of governmental and cultural oppression.  Golden Kamuy did a good job of this up until the final arc which fell flat (see my previous metas on the topic) and even a series like Samurai Champloo brings in those groups  focusing on Christians, Ryukyuans and Ainu characters either as main charas like Mugen or having an impact on others.  Fuu’s father being a Christian who had to abandon her and her mother and the Ainu character they cross paths with, on the run from the Edo government in its early days of the ‘civilization’ of the north which gets the spotlight in Golden Kamuy’s late Meiji era focus.

Nightow’s stories thrive on having a larger society in which his main casts exist in and work to protect.  This was highlighted by the comment I got about the loss of all the normal people on the planet - which existed in the ‘98 anime and manga.  This also explains why B3 works so well in NYC turned into HL.  People are working to allow others to have normal lives and protect what is important to them.  It brings a realistic humanity to the stories which is what Stampede is missing.  These series never shy away from all the terrible things humanity may do, but that it is always balanced out by those who strive to follow a higher calling/moral code etc.

Anyways, I’ve blathered on far enough with this week’s episode which didn’t really give me all that much to chew on.  It was necessary Vash backstory.  We have a different timeline of events.  We have all the characters who are both older and younger at the same time.  It was predictable and boring.

Clearly, the next episode will continue the flashback and Knives is gonna cut of Vash’s arm like in the manga, Luida and Brad will help him and we should see Wolfwood, Meryl and Roberto as well.

[veliseraptor]

that unknown orchard | Trigun: Stampede

1595 words, pre-canon nai pov, uhh some vivisection related body horror but the show did it first, new fandom ma i'm scared

thanks to @portraitoftheoddity for being a terrible influence and also giving this a quick beta read

--

Vash is…

Nai doesn’t have the right word for it, exactly. Rem says kind, Rem says sensitive, but Nai thinks maybe a better description is vulnerable. He’s so exposed, so raw, his heart on his sleeve. Right now it’s just them and Rem and a few other people they don’t see very much, but when everybody else wakes up Nai isn’t sure that’s a good thing. He’s not sure everybody should see Vash like that. There’s no guarantee that they’d treat him as gently as they should.

He’s not sure he wants anybody to see Vash like that. Sometimes Nai thinks it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if the other humans never woke up and it was just him and Vash and Rem. Vash is excited about it, excited to meet all the humans sleeping in pods, but Nai’s not sure it’s actually something to be excited about.

Maybe Vash hasn’t noticed, but Nai hears it in Rem’s instructions: be careful. It’s not safe. Why would she tell them to pretend to be humans if there wasn’t some sort of danger because they’re not? He doesn’t know what the danger is but it’s there, Nai can feel it. Vash doesn’t.

So that’s what worries him about Vash. It’s what he thinks about while watching him sleep, the bond between them a warm and thrumming pulse more reassuring than his own heartbeat. Nai tried to talk to him about it once – do you ever wonder why Rem says we have to pretend? – but Vash brushed him off. Either he actually doesn’t see it or just doesn’t want to and Nai doesn’t know how to change that.

Maybe it’s fine for now. If Vash can’t or won’t protect himself then Nai will just have to do it for him. If Vash is fragile then Nai has to be strong, like walls around a city, or ribs around a heart. When the rest of the humans wake up he’ll do what he has to so that Vash will be safe. Whatever that means.

Whatever it takes.

**

Vash flutters nervously (are you sure we should be here, we’re going to get in trouble) but he doesn’t leave, because he’s just as curious as Nai is, and he knows, same as Nai does, that there’s something here to find. There’s something Rem is keeping from them and that means it’s either bad or interesting; either way Nai wants to know. 

Nai’s struggling to get through the security when Vash puts in the access code. Nai would kind of like to know where he learned it but isn’t going to ask right now, not when he doesn’t know how much time they have left. He does make a note of it though, just in case he needs it sometime later and Vash isn’t there. 

Everything after that happens very fast.

At first he doesn’t understand. Or, he does understand but it doesn’t make sense, won’t make sense; how can the picture of the girl – the Plant – have anything to do with these bits and pieces floating in tubes? 

He can feel it coming in that brief moment like the worst most terrifying monster of any story he’s ever heard and there’s nothing he can do to stop it, nothing he can do to unknow what he’s about to understand. But as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die.

That’s her. There, that’s what’s left of her. There was another Plant like you and this is what they did to her.

Nai’s not sure who starts screaming first, if it’s him or Vash or both of them at the same time, only that the room’s full of it and it’s like he can hear her screaming, too, with them, he’s hot and cold at the same time and the only thing he can think is get away, we have to get away, we have to go, but he can’t leave without Vash and his body won’t move right, helpless, frozen, he wants to look away but he can’t look away, keeps going back to the eye, her eye, green rather than blue, their sister he never got to know because they took her away, why, why–

The door slides open and for a terrifying moment Nai is certain they’re going to die. It’s only Rem and that should make it safe but when she scoops them into her arms Nai tenses.

She pulls their heads to her shoulders like that will wipe away what they saw. Vash is bawling; Nai is still paralyzed. Floating, suspended, like one of the other normal Plants. Like their sister here. 

Rem is saying something. Nai thinks it’s meant to be reassuring, you weren’t supposed to see this or this isn’t going to happen to you, but it sounds like gibberish. He’s still seeing it, seeing her, every time he blinks, so he tries not to blink. He’s sick and woozy, his ears ringing like somebody’s still screaming. He can hear Vash saying his name but he sounds very far away and what’s closer is the voice in his head that says that could be him. That could be you.

He wants to be somewhere else but there’s nowhere else to go. Just this ship and the vastness of space outside.

**

When he can think again, he’s in the room he shares with Vash. He doesn’t really remember getting there and isn’t sure how long it's been. He still feels weird, weak, tired. Scared.

“Nai?” 

He turns to look at Vash and the relief on his brother’s face cracks some of the ice that’s formed around him. “You’re back!”

“I didn’t go anywhere,” Nai says. He feels like someone else than he was. A clear sharp line between before and after, something fundamentally changed, and it seems strange that everything else looks the same. 

“You weren’t answering me or Rem,” Vash says.

“Oh,” Nai says. 

“It’s going to be okay,” Vash says, like he has any way of knowing that. “Rem said…she says she’s sorry, she said it was a mistake, and she would never let anything like – like that happen to us.”

What Nai thinks immediately is and you believe her? Rem has always been good to them. Maybe he should believe her too. 

Nobody ever said there’d been another one like them. 

Nai wonders if there were others, too. And where they are now.

*

Vash is quick to accept Rem’s reassurances but Nai wonders why she says she’s sorry if she didn’t have something to do with it. She obviously knew. She knew all along; every time she told them she loved them she knew what was in that room and said nothing. 

Nai can’t stop thinking about her, the other one like them. Tesla. He wonders what she was like, what her Gate was, whether she would resonate with him the way that Vash did. 

What her Gate is? Alive, her file said. Nai can’t stop thinking about that, either. Alive. What does it feel like to live in pieces? Does it still hurt? Is she scared? 

Why did the humans do that to her?

Are they going to do it to us?

He wakes up from a nightmare where he’s looking at Vash’s eye in a tank where its swiveling around wildly, and Nai knows that Vash is looking for him (what’s left of Vash because they took him apart like a machine to be disassembled), and three things occur to him with the cold clarity of truth.

One: humans use Plants for what they can provide. What they can do for them, make, produce. That’s what Plants are for, he knows. That’s why all the other Plants are here on the ship, because humans take what they give and Plants don’t ask for anything back. Plants don’t need food or water or rest.  

Two: Vash isn’t like Nai. Vash needs to eat and drink and sleep and he hasn’t shown his Gate yet. Vash consumes resources. Vash isn’t useful.

Three: Vash’s file wasn’t in the same place as Nai’s. It was with Tesla’s. 

Nai doesn’t usually feel cold but he feels cold now. Shivery and sick. He thinks of the dream, Vash’s eye searching for him. Nai is supposed to keep him safe. 

There are two of them, and so many humans all around.

Nai doesn’t know how to keep Vash safe.

Right now – right now maybe he can do it, if he’s vigilant, if he’s careful. But when the others wake up, when all those people these ships are carrying around wake up, then what? They’ll be outnumbered and if they come for Vash, Nai can’t fight them all. 

They’ll take Vash and they’ll cut him up into pieces. They won’t kill his brother. It’ll be worse. He won’t be able to stop it. And who’s to say they’ll stop there, maybe they’ll come for Nai, too, maybe they’ll decide he’s more useful when he can’t ask questions or argue or say no. 

He can’t. He can’t he can’t he can’t. It’s not going to happen. He’s not going to let it happen. 

Drawing his knees to his chest, Nai tries to think of how he can stop it. The beginnings of an idea are already starting to take shape in his mind. 

Vash – kind, sensitive, vulnerable Vash – won’t like it. But he doesn’t have to. 

Someone needs to do the hard things. Nai can, and Nai will.

Whatever it takes.