#trigun manga spoilers

[revenantghost]

I can't handle this

[mayfly-stampede]

so, in the manga…

did Vash really have a romantic interest in Meryl?

spoiler alert: Trigun manga, Trigun Maximum

In the case of Meryl, there are several signs she has developed feelings for him. She accepts it and lets Vash be himself.

Mmm with Vash it’s hard to answer…

We see they’re good friends…she can be a bit tough with him but Vash always smiles to her.

I think that’s really sweet and he acts like that with everyone…

BUT

When Zasie kidnapped Meryl, Vash goes to rescue her and yes, that is something he could do for anyone who needs his help…but in Trigun Maximum chapter 28 when Vash suffers remembering all July’s tragedy…he thinks about Meryl in danger and keeps going.

And when he finally finds her in chapter 29, the worry and fear in his face is undeniable.

Then, there’s something really interesting FOR HIM happening after that.

Meryl witnesses July’s tragedy in a memory…and then she begins to be afraid every time she sees Vash in his angel form.

After seeing her so frightened, Vash says he feels like crying…

That could have separate them…

BUT

Vash receives a revolver from Meryl, being really surprised that she still wants to look after him, and smiles…relieved.

Meryl continues by his side, even after seeing his scariest power…and cares about him no matter the circumstances.

If we look for a romantic relationship…I think this is more complicated than that.

Oxford Languages defines romance as a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.

We can’t say Vash is excited or nervous about Meryl…All we see is Vash nervous about Meryl crying most likely because he doesn’t know what to do, but that’s all (and that’s really cute).

Instead of that, Vash could be more oriented to “love” instead of “romance”.

But for someone like him, who is 150 years old, full of sorrows and regrets…what does “love” mean?

Cambridge Dictionary says:

Love is used to describe all strong feelings of closeness and care between two people.

After all they have been though together, they developed really strong feelings for each other, especially closeness and care.

And there is this moment, one of the most precious to me in this relationship.

Almost at the end, Vash is going to confront Knives but he makes a promise to Meryl before he leaves.

(Yes, we know he was a bit late but remember he was really injured, he had to heal at human speed at that time…but he was already on his way when he was found again).

He could have made promises many other times in his life but here he doesn’t only says he will return. He, who never asks nothing from anyone, asks her to wait for him.

Ok yes, he may be capable of love all humans…but he has always been a lonely wolf. He has friends, but he always travels alone.

It is until he meets Wolfwood and Meryl that he wants to stay with someone.

And Meryl is the one Vash wants to wait for his return.

[animeisforanimation]

Please, hear me out: creepy bird creatures

bonus: something harrowing is happening/about to happen. but the birdy person is unbearably dorky and cute

and two less bird like but most badass shots

[harpidiem]

colorless expression

(lines under cut bc I liked those as well)

[hashtagcaneven]

[huginsmemory]

Saw that a tragic narratives + vashwood post hasn't been done yet ;)

Edit (mar.4): made an actual meta analysis on Wolfwood being a tragic character if peeps wanna check that out

Edit 2 (mar 24): version of this post with a description for the images, kindly done by @princess-of-purple-prose

[needlesknives]

Really enjoy the image of creature vash looking like a scared possum

[sapphvash]

🦋 Zazie ...2

[am-ber-arts]

A page full of Trimax doodles

[harpuiaa]

[revenantghost]

Major Trimax Spoilers Ahoy:

Man. Man.

You ever think about how Vash just wanted something so badly. He wanted to be with Wolfwood so badly. Even though hunting down his brother has been his sole, major motivation to get going most of the manga, he found Wolfwood in that church. Vash came just for him.

He fell into step beside Wolfwood, so close that they don’t need words. He admitted, if only to himself, that he wanted to spend all the tomorrows he could get from Wolfwood. He wanted. He wanted.

He wanted so much that, as they sat on that damned couch, Vash prayed. For the very first and last time, he chose to pray to a god he wished for, but didn’t have faith in. A god that his priest inspired in him. Anything and anyone who would help him, help them. Just one more tomorrow, even. Anything. Please.

And, you know, here we are again, aren’t we? In another universe but with the same men, and with the same gods. And we all know what’s coming. It’s consumed them every single other time, a fixed point that we can’t escape. But the gods of this universe are still there. They’ve seen Vash beg, they’ve seen Vash plead, they’ve seen Vash mourn.

Do they care enough to listen? Do they care enough to spare them? Do they care enough to let them have their tomorrows?

[mayfly-stampede]

“why?”

[sword-dad-fukuzawa]

Gimme a second, I need to talk about Knives Millions and “fifth moon.” CW: frank analysis of sexual assault and rape ahead as well as incestuous themes and pregnancy of the deeply fucked up variety, with manga screencaps. There are spoilers for the Trigun manga. Read at your own discretion.

Because, okay, I consider myself fairly high tolerance for explicit content (gore, cruelty, sexual assault, graphic violence) with only a few things that absolutely squick me out (parasitism specifically)—so it’s been a long time since a villain made me feel genuinely uncomfortable and uneasy. But Knives? Knives motherfucking Millions? That guy has something deeply wrong with him.

The first time I read this, I was very confused. Why are there two sets of legs? What’s happening? And then I swapped to the Overhaul TL and it was clarified that they’re resurrecting Knives here by “syncing him up with another plant.” I thought originally this meant draining a plant’s energy; I was wrong.

This is is a monstrous birth. This is Knives bloodily ripping his way through a creature he refers to as his “sister,” as all of the plants are considered siblings, in a horrifying parody of pregnancy.

(Where did the silly space western go!!)

And a brief summary of the following scene: Knives grabs Vash and forcibly activates Vash’s “Angel Arm,” a manifestation of his plant abilities. Note that Vash describes that feeling as “something horrifyingly sick.”

Then, this iconic spread:

Let’s note the position they’re in—Knives, with Vash locked into his arms. A sudden eruption of the gun—provoked but unwanted. Please also note that the way Knives describes the feeling of shooting the Angel Arm in a way horrifyingly similar to orgasm.

I remember putting this chapter down and thinking, Jesus Christ. Knives just raped him. “Fifth Moon” is a rape scene in everything but name.

Of course, rape is defined in real life in terms of penetration and a lack of consent to sex acts, but in fiction, it’s often used as a narrative tool and expanded to be fundamentally about gross violations of consent and bodily autonomy. This is what Knives does to his brother in “fifth moon”—violates his body and his will in a scene so evocative of sexual assault that it had to be on purpose.

And he’s done this shit multiple times! Fifth Moon is the second incident after he makes Vash shoot the Arm in July. It’s horrifying and it’s scary and it’s deeply uncomfortable. I can’t even begin to list all the things in this chapter that violate the boundaries of “acceptable to do in society” in perverse ways.

Really, it all just makes Trigun a damn good read if you’re willing to be made a little uncomfortable for the sake of the story. It’s all astonishingly well done.

(Sidenote: this is why I can’t take people seriously when they get angry at people pointing out Trigun’s incestuous themes. They’ve been there since the 90s, man, I don’t know what to tell you. Knives is the villain of the piece for several reasons, and this is definitely one of them.)

[harpidiem]

🎶 I try to keep an eye open and I realize, I haven’t closed my eyes in a long time 🎶

[flowercitti]

Anime Knives’s Childhood vs Manga Knives’s Childhood

I couldn’t stop thinking about this, so now I have to make a long post talking about how Knives is almost an entirely different character in the manga than he is in the anime. Especially since I’ve been seeing anime-onlys already attempt to talk about Knives’s characterization in Stampede compared to og Trigun. And now I’m here to tell you why you should absolutely not try to use og anime Knives as reference, bc I should hope Stampede Knives isn’t like him bc that’s not even really him.

I’m starting off with the pretty drastic changes in Knives’s childhood.

!Spoilers for Trigun Maximum ahead!

Knives in the anime comes off as significantly more shallow in his motivation to kill all humans. As in, his motivation does not spark anywhere near as much understanding and sympathy as he does in the manga. Sure, he didn’t have a good relationship with the humans on the ship outside of Rem, but Knives having a bad experience with a human is not his main motivation in the manga. It almost felt like Knives was the “evil” twin from the start, with little reason to become who he had.

In the manga Knives is like this as a child:

Knives wants to be accepted by humans. He talks to Vash about how he hopes to become friends with them and that when they wake up, Plants can be accepted as people too. He hopes that all humans will treat him the same way that Rem has, like a person. It’s Knives who seems to care about what the humans think more than Vash does.

And when Knives does have the chance to meet another human:

He’s so happy to be accepted by someone else that he cries. He’s significantly more affected than Vash, has wanted it so bad that he’s overwhelmed. He’s shaking before he gets his answer because he wants to be loved and accepted so much, hopes so, so much that he’s seen as a person.

He’s been given hope that, even outside of Rem, he has a place with humans. There’s hope that they can exist alongside each other.

Until Vash and Knives find Tessla.

Cont. here

[beremy-from-trigun]

:’]