#like that one vash image. you know the one. i have never watched either trigun series

[g1ngerbeer]

motivational images

[pinkanonwrites]

this isnt me requesting a fic or drabble or anything, and i do NOT mean to sound critical/mean in any way of how youve written Vash, but i think you have an interesting oppurtunity to have Reader find out >> call out Vash on sleeping with his prosthetic on

admittingly, ive never watched any form of Trigun (i only know some things via Pop Culture Osmosis). i just like your romance writing; you are very good at polishing your craftsmanship, it's, again, very good. so ill read whatever (so long as i.. vaguely recognize the property at least). so i dont know if Vash cannonically sleeps with his prosthetic on-- but as a disabled person who has friends with missing limbs, even if the creator of Trigun hypothetically says it's fine that Vash sleeps with it: no, it's not. not in real life. it can cause injuries to the limb and the stump needs to de-stress. that's how real life prosthetics work (and, off-topic, is a detail i really like about Full-Metal Alchemist! they talk about this and show it! a lot! (maybe Trigun does too, idk, again, i havent seen it))

but yeah! idk if sleeping with prosthetics is something canonical to Trigun or if it is something you accidentally assumed (no hard feelings there either way, lots of disabled media accidentally protrays this. Hiccup in How To Train Your Dragon and Finn in Adventure Time are both widely beloved disabled representations and also their creators fuck up sometimes and have them sleep with their prosthetics on. it happens. you live and you learn). if youd like to learn more, there's a youtube channel called Oakwyrm where disabled representation is the main point of discussion (fun fact: they even have a video analyzing the disabled representation in a Barbie fairy movie, that's fun lmao). i would link you the specific videoes id recommend you watch, but tumblr doesnt like anons sending links, so i just recommend checking out their channel (again: they have videos on Hiccup of How To Train Your Dragon, Finn of Adventure Time, and Edward of Full-Metal Alchemist. so there are a variety of resources on their channel about how prosthetics are handled in media. all three of these videos are typically pretty short and fairly succinct. i recommend watching all three and any other video topic of Oakwyrm's that catches your fancy, but im not gonna push you to watch something you dont wanna watch lmao) just wanted to give you that as a good opening point for resource about disability

i do think you having written the Reader seeing Vash sleep with his prosthetic on gives you a unique opportunity tho! (again, this isnt a Request. i know those are closed. its more of an "i dont want you to feel bad and i also dont want you to panic and take down those fics or anything, here's a helpful reminder that theres Other Options and you can use this as a jumping off point for future fic ideas or you can ignore this idea and just Write Prosthetics Differently In The Future", i dunno, its your blog, your writing, im not in charge lmao) you now have a history of the Reader knowing he sleeps with it on and can now potentially write a fic about why him doing that would make sense from a character stand-point. like why isnt he taking care of himself? why is he risking ruining that prosthetic or hurting his stump? does he not typically feel safe enough to be that vulnerable or is it a self-image thing or, or, or...? like, there is oppurtunity there. and it does make sense in some of your fics why he wouldnt-- the sick-fic you wrote recently is one of my favorite of yours ever, and it makes complete sense that Vash wouldn't go the extra step of taking off his prosthetic if there was a chance he'd need to use that arm to help take care of the Reader or if it's over-use is part of the reason why maybe his body runs as warm as it does. its just some spaghetti to throw at the wall, y'know, see if it sticks, scrap it and cook something else up if it doesn't. i dont want you to think im entitled or anything, again, this isnt a request at all. just some proverbial spaghetti to throw, you can feel free to respond via scrapping my pitch and doing your own thing reactive to this correction on how living with prosthetics works. maybe Reader is a techie who Vash visits to fix his prosthetic. i dunno if that's a role already taken in the canon of the show/manga. but hey, whatever you wanna do now that you know one shouldnt sleep with their prosthetic on and have a starting point with research, im sure ill be all for ♡ do whatever you want, its your blog ♡♡♡

but yEAH, ive encountered enough Squirrelly Writers who panic at any sign of innacuracy or problematic aspects in their hard-work where i think me being on the back-foot and going "you do NOT have to delete everything you wrote that is inaccurate to real experiences with prosthetics" makes sense. so i do want to reiterate that: you do NOT have to do that (and, ngl to you, fam, i would feel really bad if you did; i really like your work with Vash, like i said, the sick-fic specifically is one of my favorite fics by anybody that ive read in a while, that shit will be sticking around my noggin). i just wanted to reiterate that. i dont think you are a bad person or that this is immoral or anything. i think its a common mistake and, ill admit, i know squat about that other cgi show you watch with another prosthetic-user, but i noticed this was recurring with Vash, so i thought id gently mention it since i know it is a common mistake people make without, y'know, realizing its a mistake. and if Trigun shows Vash cannonically sleeping with his prosthetic, shame on them, that really sucks, they should do better by him and their disabled audience. but you?? you're just one person writing romance for fun. youre not a corporation with editors who should know to research this stuff before publishing. (or, who knows, maybe Trigun does show Vash taking his prosthetic off before sleeping, i dunno, im a casual fan of YOUR work, i dont know anything about Trigun beyond what i vaguely absorbed via Pop Culture Osmosis due to having been in the anime and sci-fo community in the past. i have no idea if they do or dont do their research. they should. but i certainly dont know if they do or not)

so yeah. just wanted to put that out there so Now You Know and the ball is now in your court as towards what to do with that information now that you have it. im sure ill love whatever you do with it, again, big fan of what you make as is already ♡ lots of love to you and yours, have a good day!!

(scooping up your proverbial spaghetti into a pot for later use in fanfic inspiration)

Thank you so much for all of your kind words! As for Trigun, as much as I love it, it's not the most realistic when it comes to the actual drawbacks and difficulties of having a prosthetic limb. It could be because it's a futuristic sci-fi piece, or the writers just don't want to get into it, or they just didn't know much about actual prosthetic management, but Vash doesn't really make a point to remove his prosthetic intentionally all that often. They've shown him sleeping in it before, and as far as I can remember in the OG anime the only time he didn't have it was when he was switching to a new model of arm.

There could be canonical reasons for that! It could be because of his vague inhuman-ness, or because he's self punishing, or any number of reasons we could interpolate from the OG mediums that they don't succinctly spell out for us. But reasons aside, the realities of using/wearing a prosthetic limb would make very interesting fic writing details, and I'd definitely like to dig into it a bit more in the future.

This ask actually comes at the perfect time, because as I've been working on my Twitch Streamer Trigun AU I've been doing some research on the realities of being a competitive (or even casual) video game player while being physically disabled. I've been doing a lot of thinking and researching on how people with only one arm actually play video games and custom controllers and set-ups and stuff, so while I may or may not go into it in super serious detail in the future I'm definitely going to at least touch on it more than once!

And last but not least, thank you for being so kind and respectful about commenting! I'm more than willing to admit that if I'm broaching a subject I'm not the most versed in I may make a mistake or two, and I'm alright with that! A long time ago I wrote a Stardew Valley fic and mistranslated some sign language, and like you I had a very kind and friendly reader point out my goof-up in a way that didn't mock me or make me feel stupid. I don't mind being corrected at all, as long as people are being nice about it. I'm only human too, afterall.

Anyway, TLDR; Thanks for being so nice, I'd love to write more about Vash's prosthetic in the future <3

[humanoidtyphoons]

trigun omnibus vol 2:

-oh no kidding, vash is much more angry in the manga. like his rage towards knives is just. jeez, you have to take a minute to let sink in how much he hates knives! (despite everything, in 98 & tristamp, i don't think vash hates knives, he's disappointed and afraid but also... doesn't know what to do with him either when they meet, so he runs, and kinda hopes the meeting never comes, imo?) 98!vash is... to me, he's primarily true self is sad, and he's a lil glass eyed and cheery; i'm not quite decided on tristamp!vash, tbh. but vash -- no, i think monev is right in the manga: the real vash is angry beyond belief -- he's looking for knives to kill him bc he killed rem but simultaneously doesn't know where he is since july, those 20 years ago. but i also really like how he tries to use his image of rem as a morality point, when he despairs, when he is about to kill, he relies on her image to hold himself back.

-oh so knives does have a mole under his eye in the manga! i couldn't really see it in vol 1, but vol 2? def. visible!!!! long haired knives is a look, ngl!!

-wolfwood, wolfwood, wolfwood! my darling boy!!!! okay so one of my favourite things about characters is that -- they make a nice likeable impression, and then a lil bit later, that character turns up again and it's like oh shit, they're more integral to the plot than i thought!! they're potentially more sinister than i first assumed! i'm in trouble! an excellent example of that is meeting blackbeard for the first time in one piece, bc you don't know his name until the end of his first appearance and then he reveals it and then oh shit, yk??? and so him and vash meeting on the bus, vash spotting him in the desert, and wolfwood mentioning his motorbike, and then they just... vibe, it's... sweet, yk? that vash begins the chapter by saying 'i can see the true heart of people, what they're like', and then wolfwood says 'finally, a real smile on your face... the other one is so forced it's heartbreaking', and. just. ugh. ugh. ugh.

-anyway then, when they split ways, and wolfwood goes to the church, and meets legato, where he's called chapel... i just love it. their pathways happened to have crossed, bc they were going the same direction, not knowing (i think) that they were destined to be against each other.

-the whole knives vs vash fight. it's so different to the 98 anime, where i think legato causes it to happen, and wolfwood is outside augusta, and arrives too late, and kills raidei. but in the manga? something about all of the remaining gung ho guns watching in the shadows like observers, and wolfwood is just. freaking out. bc vash shot the moon. it's so good. it's SO good. and god!!!!! i need a third anime that's more faithful bc it's cinematic to me.

-the angelic imagery. the feathers. it's so... it's breathtaking and i'm so glad it continues in trimax bc the body horror of it all... it's gorgeous.

-something soooo interesting about pairing monev the gale fight vs vash, with flashbacks of bb vash&knives, even tho knives is unseen, he's there. i think maybe 98 did better by removing the flashback and giving its own separate episode after augusta gets destroyed tbh, but then. it's so intriguing to juxtapose them here, bc monev is the first one to go after vash, tho legato gives a 'friendly' heads' up, and it's just. mm, no wonder vash is furious.

-fuck, the two years later thing happens here in the manga. ooh tristar, i am excited!!! eriks eriks eriks!!!

-ngl i kinda dig milly/vash a smidge more in the manga? like her perception... while not always 100%, i do like that she's the one who is always a bit. aware of the changes in vash's expressions, she notices, so he has to put his glasses on so he becomes harder to read.

-it's so interesting that vash doesn't have much of a relationship/friendship with milly and meryl in the manga. like i love 98 for meryl (esp.) coming to terms with vash, and from being kinda annoyed by him, to slowly caring and worrying about him. and while you do have that in the manga, it's not... quite as gradual? meryl is shocked that vash actually calls them by their names for the first time, and it's been like 14 chapters since they met, and vash is about to fight monev. but it also feels harder to call them friends? bc the pacing is kinda choppy and frenetic, whereas 98 got to meander for a bit before things felt serious and vash wanted to cut ties with them much later.

-pilot chapter is so cute! vash you freaking weirdo dancing into a ransom situation!!! you're so cute!!! you're so cute!!! vash doing his morning routine and going by a different name is also v. cute, and i like how the anime included them.

-knives hitting legato and saying who said you could kill vash? while i don't think it's as... extreme? as the tristamp version, i do dig his possessiveness. but there's a monstrousness in tristamp knives love that i adore, his selfish fierce protection of vash, that he wants to kill humanity to that extent, to keep vash safe, to not let tesla repeat ever again, regardless if that's what vash wants. (it isn't what vash wants at all.) it's not quite that in trimax, tbh, but it's still. still compels me.

okay curious to know where the true divergence happens, bc trimax must have started already, bc the 98 anime continues to include aspects of it, and makes it its own, even tho there's a lot that changes too.

-tbh... i still think vash masks less in the manga than the anime? i think it's easier for 98 vash to mask, bc there's a lot of filler episodes so he can have that front more evident when comparing to later episodes, so he gets to be more silly thanks to the situations made up for him, but i also think the vocal performance helps immensely, bc of how his voice changes based on the situation. like he's still does mask in the manga, dgmw, bc meryl and milly see his scarred torso, and are shocked at the sight, the price he has to pay, bc of his ideals, whereas he often acts as if... he's fine, his injuries don't affect him. (but they do. they don't regenerate. i thought maybe he might heal faster, but he's never getting his arm back, he's never going to be unscarred either i don't think, but maybe he recovers fasher than a normal human being would.)

anyway, onto trimax vol 1!

[severalspoons]

Liveblogging: Rewatching Trigun (Ep. 1-3)

I just started rewatching Trigun after 4 or 5 years away, and have SO many thoughts and feels. Obviously, I must share them with you all.

Unfortunately, I watched the first 2 episodes before I started this blog, so this probably won't get interesting until episode 3.

I'm gonna try to avoid spoilers. Sorry if I accidentally reveal something.

Episodes 1-2

-- Intro: That plant bulb behind the 2 guns is perfect

-- I forgot what the intro music was like. It's pretty good. Not Cowboy Bebop level, but catchy, and it gets the gunslinging feel across.

-- Literally LOL'ing at Vash watching the gunmen, each thinking the other is him.

-- Literally LOL'ing at Vash running alongside the thomas gobbling donuts while Meryl tries to snatch them back. Their faces, OMG.

-- Meryl speaks in aphorisms? Haven't seen it in fic before, but this is my new headcanon.

Outro:

1) The lyrics sound like they were written from Vash's POV. He's talking about how much he loves drifting around, enjoying the wind and the sun and the grass under his feet and sleeping contentedly. The background shows him eating and sleeping in a hammock.

2) This must be how he keeps up his hope and happiness instead of falling into despair. Enjoying all these small moments of beauty and peace.

3) Wait, this is the guy who can only meditate for 3 seconds? Or was it 3 minutes? Either way, the idea seemed to be that he's too restless to sit still with his eyes closed...but he's also the *king* of being in the moment and disciplining his mind. Guess he doesn't know any activity can be a meditation? Sorry, this has been bothering me. A lot.

4) It's so clever how they only show his left arm in every picture, but it looks so natural I didn't even notice the first time I watched.

Episode 3: Peacekeeper

UPDATE: I found an analysis of this episode much funnier than mine. It’s full of images with snarky commentary and Youtube links. Go check it out.

1) Vash collides with Frank Marlon...and of course falls in the Thomas trough, lol. I expected him not to blame Frank or get angry, but I also expected him to apologize. He doesn't get angry but he also doesn't apologize. So, for once, he doesn't take the blame, which is only fair because Frank actually fell into him. But he's weirdly resistant to buying the guy a drink? Why is he freaking out so much?

2) Or maybe he just likes wrestling?

3) Meryl speaking in wise quotations again. "People only drown themselves in alcohol because there's something they want to forget. It's an escape from reality." How does she know?

4) BRB speculating on Meryl's childhood and family life.

5) Is Vash really too drunk to realize the disgusted bartender just threw his gun at his head?

6) Frank Marlon's philosophy: I help one person, I hurt someone else... "so I decided to do nothing." He's not so different from Vash underneath, is he?

(Vash is never proactive, he just finds where trouble is already happening and stops it. If he had his way, there'd be no plot at all).

7) "Why worry about other people's money?" Fair question. It's not like he cares about propety damage. Of course it's not about the $$$, he just doesn't want to see people bullied.

8) LOVE seeing the whole town step up. But...everyone in "this peaceful town" just happens to be carrying a weapon??? Even that little kid is walking around with a police baton???

9) Did Vash just throw up at will because he didn't want to give his name?

10) How drunk does Vash get, actually? He went from sounding perfectly clear and coherent while talking to Frank Marlon to suddenly throwing up.

I see conflicting ideas about Vash's alcohol tolerance relative to the average human. My headcanon is that he's much less sensitive than the average person. He's acting drunk less because of the alcohol and more by letting go of his usual self-control and feeding off the energy of the people he's drinking with...but that's a longer post for another day.