#trigun stampede character analysis

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

I’m having too many thoughts about about Trigun Stampede and it’s probably nothing, but here we go (beware some very heavy handed religious comparisons/symbolism)

This is somewhere between actual meta/character analysis and fanfic, but whatever:

Nai

You are a child and to the best of your knowledge you are one of the only two beings like you in existence. You are a child and you are told that your creation was miraculous, that you are perfect and the future itself. You are neither Human nor Alien, you are simply Other. You are better than either. Unflawed. You are a child and you see the species from which you were created, a species that was artificially created as a means to an end, live out their entire lives in captivity, in servitude. You are taught they are non-sapient, perhaps even non-sentient, and without free will. You exist to serve too, but you resent this. You resent that you are meant to be like the humans, to pretend that you are one of them. You find humanity contemptible and resent their endless wars and conquest and enslavements and pain (you have had a relatively painless childhood). And you read their scriptures and feel confident in your knowledge of humanity’s failures and inherent depravity. Their religious histories are teeming with injustice, with pain, and war and famine. You are a child, but you are intelligent. If this is what they believe in, what can you do? What Good can they really do? You begin to Doubt.

You discover another of your kind, a third, and she has been taken apart and studied by these humans. You are being raised to love them. You don’t. They love you like a dog loves a bone. You can only destroy them before they destroy you. You are intelligent and full of what can only be righteous fury, and you make them Fall. Your brother resents you, resents the deaths, is terrified and hurt and you have to Save Both of You.

Some of the humans survive. You twist them into their own downfall. You take their scriptures and turn words to weapons. It is an honor to serve you, you are an angel, a god, salvation and creation at your fingertips. Death, too. You are owed this for the depravity you and your kind have been subjected to. (You don’t realize, or maybe you no longer care, what you are subjecting them to.) If your brother will not join you on your mission he will die for it. For the greater good. (Who will survive your greater good?)

Wolfwood

You are a child and you aren’t raised to be nice, but you try to be kind. You protect your little brother. You are smart and strong and independent and you care too much. You are raised to believe in a very present god. No one tells you if he is a loving god or not. His angels and priests take you away and it is an honor to be chosen, to be god’s child of blessing. (It is a relief to be taken so no one else will be.)

You go through hell, you live in purgatory. Maybe it is still hell, your skin no longer feels like your own and your hands are bloodstained and fit only around the grip of a gun. You are not allowed to die. You find out your little brother isn’t either. He’s in hell too, but not with you. The god you serve is not a loving god, nor are his angels kind. You are god’s righteous man and you bear a cross and all of the weight of the blood spilled on it, by it.

You are a weapon and any morals you might have grown into are collateral damage. You would do anything for your family. You have done Everything for your family. They don’t mourn or look for you, the blessed chosen one.

You have free will. There is also a gun to your and everyone you’ve ever loved’s heads.

You aren’t sure if you’re a person anymore. (What greater good requires monsters like you? What god would create demons?)

You follow orders. You don’t believe in anything. You could fill oceans with the blood you have spilled. You are told if you follow this last order you will be free and your family will be safe. You aren’t even supposed to kill him, just lead him to his death. You’ve done so many horrible things, this pales in comparison. And you’re already in hell.

You find him. He’s the kindest person you’ve ever met and he doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He takes on as much hurt as he can, sometimes more. He saves your family without even knowing, and he saves them again when you sell him out. He doesn’t hold it against you.

The first thing you do as a free man is try to save someone. You have decided you care enough to try, just this once. The world still ends. And you still aren’t allowed to die. Better people have already died for you. For your sins.

Vash

You are a child and you love your family very much. You aren’t as special as your brother, as useful, but you love learning and exploring and people. You see the good in everyone. You are terrified when you discover another being like you and your brother, terrified by how she has been treated, by her being a secret, by what else the person you see as a parent might be hiding from you. But you trust her and love her and inevitably mourn her. You are taught to love and serve humans and it is your life’s work.

Your brother makes your world end and says you helped. Everyone you’ve ever cared about except him is dead. You are terrified and you spend the next century atoning for not knowing better. For loving, to continue loving. You are not loved in return.

You do your best to help everyone you can regardless of species. You are special too, it turns out, and bring hope and peace to your people and to the humans, at least for a little while. And you try not to be dangerous. You want to be harmless and you never quite pull it off. You don’t tell anyone the whole truth, but the secrets aren’t enough to keep you safe forever.

You make friends and you don’t have long together. You think you must be bad luck, and you forgive your friend for leading you to your biggest fear. You have to confront it anyways, it’s not his fault. He’s cares about you, but it’s not his job to protect you.

You confront your brother. He destroys everything again and he uses you to hurt people. Again. Your people, humans, what could survive his greater good? You fight back, you win. Kind of. Maybe. A Pyrrhic victory. You are alone and the world hates you for the destruction you tried to prevent. They always do. Why are you the devil when you just want to help?

[pancake-breakfast]

I think chapter 2 of TriMax Volume 6 might just be my favorite thus far. Everything in it hinges on this one iconic scene.

This isn't the first time Wolfwood has pointed a gun at Vash's head. Maybe it won't even be the last. But it holds a bit more weight here because just a few pages ago, we saw a flashback where Wolfwood pointed his gun at someone else's head.

His hand shakes as he aims at Knives. His breath is heavy, and the memory of the Fifth Moon incident is fresh in his mind. He knows if he can just pull the trigger, he can end it here. This being of destruction will be gone, and maybe this time his fancy scientists won't be able to bring him back.

But then Knives does Plant things, and under the weight of it Wolfwood finds he just can't follow through. He fears his own death too much, and Knives will surely kill him.

When he points his gun at Vash, it's different. His hand is steady, his breath calm. The memory of everything that happened at the Dragon's Nest is fresh in his mind; just this morning he warned Meryl that she and Milly should remember that, despite his ideals, Vash is still a loose cannon that they'd do well to avoid. He thinks to himself that if he can just pull the trigger, if he can just take out the less intimidating of the brothers, then one of these monstrous twins and half of the problem will be gone.

This time, there's no crushing sensation of oppression. There's no air of fear and malice. There are no threats or memories of twisted promises. There's only a look, wary and concerned...

...but even by the time this happens, Wolfwood has already lowered his gun. He's decided not to pull the trigger, not because of an immediate threat on his life, but because... well, it's Vash.

Wolfwood surely knows that if he pulls that trigger, he catastrophically fails his mission, and whatever consequences might await him on the far side of such a failure aren't going to be anywhere near pleasant. But it doesn't seem like it's fear of Knives that makes him lower his gun. At the very, very least, Wolfwood knows no one stands a better chance at taking down Knives, but he also knows Vash. He's seen Vash's fake smiles and knows his real ones. He understands Vash's ideals despite very much not wanting to and not knowing how he could possibly accept them for himself. He's fought side by side with Vash, and been standing at his back since day 1.

And before this night is out, only a few minutes after pulling a gun on Vash, Wolfwood's right back there again, moving in tandem with Vash, being a human shield so they can accomplish Vash's goals together.

It's only when the fight comes to a close that Wolfwood realizes that's what he's been doing. He didn't put any thought into falling in step behind Vash, didn't dwell on the fact that Vash trusted and moved with him during the fight. It's only afterwards, when they stop to catch their breath, that he realizes Vash hasn't looked his way through the whole battle. That Vash didn't need to look his way through the whole battle.

Not only did Vash trust Wolfwood at his back, but he knows Wolfwood well enough to move intuitively around him, not hesitating and always understanding what Wolfwood's about to do. And at that moment, Wolfwood realizes two things:

First, that there's no way Vash didn't notice when Wolfwood pointed a gun at him. If Knives could figure it out while half dead and barely knowing Wolfwood, then Vash, who's awake, alert, and has spent plenty of time with Wolfwood, can surely figure it out.

And second, that when he's fighting back to back with Vash, nothing else really matters. All his (quite legitimate) fears about what Vash is and how dangerous he can be, about Knives, about finishing his job, about what he himself has become... they all melt away. He's where he needs to be, where he should be, and that's all there is to it.

[mumbledramblings]

i had a vision from god the other night

anyway i love how some of wolfwood's first character-establishing scenes in both animes is him trying to scam people

[anachronistic-falsehood]

Vash and Femininity: Trigun Stampede and its Themes of Bodily Autonomy, Exploitation, and Vague Gender Fuckery

alright sit the fuck down. we're gonna talk about THEMES

I was on Twitter- terrible idea usually, but a couple people I follow made some tweets that got me thinking about Trigun's overall themes, and here we are. So let's talk about some themes in Tristamp! And I'll take a couple looks at Trimax as well, just for fun :3

Let's look at how the showrunners utilize gender roles and exploitation of feminine characters to show how unhealthy Knives' obsession with his ideal of Vash is, and how horrific his exploitation of Vash and the Plants is.

Vash, from the beginning of Tristamp, is someone who cares about people's choices. When people kill others in front of him, he reiterates that whether someone lives or dies is not another person's choice to make. This is something he learned from Rem (a prominent female figure in his life). He refuses to kill people because that is not his choice to make. To kill someone is the ultimate removal of their bodily autonomy. They can no longer make any choices at all; they're dead.

Vash is also someone who has almost no choice in what path his life takes. He's constantly dragged around by outside forces, namely situations that are caused by Knives (which we'll get into later). Vash doesn't make things happen, things happen to Vash. The majority of events that occur are not his fault. He's pushed and pulled in a thousand different directions. His entire life is completely out of his control.

This can be seen as early on in his life as the Fall, something he had no control over and had no idea he even had a part in. Even later, in the ship with Luida and Brad, after he's been rescued from the desert, he's kept in handcuffs right up until he's shown to be of use to them and the Plant on their ship. After that, he could theoretically say "no, I don't want to go to other ships and heal their plants," but he doesn't. He's Vash. He's helpful and nurturing at his core, and these people have done so much for him just by letting him stay, so he'll do whatever they ask, no question.

This carries over into his adulthood. At Jeneora Rock, he goes to look at their Plant at one simple request, doesn't protest when he's dragged into a duel-- he doesn't take initiative unless someone's life is immediately at stake. He lets people tell him what to do and lets himself get dragged around by the wrist. He doesn't even pretend to have control over his life like Trimax Vash does, which I mean. Fair. Why pretend to have a grip on your existence when it's impossible to do anything without a gun pointed at your head?

Vash is a very passive character. He's nurturing, kind, gentle- he's a guy that fits a lot of very typical feminine character stereotypes. If you wrote this same story but made him a woman, I wouldn't bat an eye (but I would definitely be looking at it a lot more critically, what with the amount of stereotypically nurturing/motherly female characters in media already.)

This contrasts directly with Knives. He makes a decision and carries through no matter what stands in his way. He takes initiative. If Vash is a passive character, Knives is an active character. Wherever he goes, he leaves a lasting imprint. He makes shit happen! If outside forces make things happen to him, he'll go out of his way to make sure that particular force doesn't affect him again.

These two tweets I saw are what got me thinking about this originally. I just feel like here's a good place to put them as a segue into talking about episode 11.

Episode 11 is where a lot of this feminine imagery really just. Explodes in your face. IT'S RIGHT THERE. You can't dance around it if you try. And it kind of reaches a peak when the connection reaches 100%, the gate opens, and. well. THIS happens to the Plants.

Plants, in both Trimax and Tristamp, are almost always typically feminine-looking. Knives and Vash are the only two who are male or even masculine at all. Knives, as the most masculine out of all of them, is the one trying to take charge, and mould the world as he sees fit, to a degree that is detrimental to both him and everyone else. And Vash-- passive, feminine, kind and nurturing, whose Angel Arm in the manga always sprouts decidedly feminine-looking Plant parts-- is the one being exploited for Knives' plans. It's no mistake that they made the giant plant formation at the end of ep 11 look like a giant woman that almost resembles Rem.

Vash wants people to make their own choices and keep their autonomy when it comes to their bodies and lives. Knives is the exact opposite. He wants all Plants to become independent and he uses Vash to achieve that goal, without asking what Vash wants or even knowing what the Plants themselves would prefer. He exploits Vash for the soul purpose of trying to make these Plants have Independent Plant babies. He's completely incapable of seeing that his choices are not for the greater good! He thinks he's saving them, but none of his actions are for the good of anyone but himself. He’s just violating them for his own gain.

They're really leaning into gender roles for these guys, but in a way that screams "HEY, LOOK AT THIS! ISN'T IT FUCKED UP? LOOK AT HOW FUCKED UP THAT IS. LOOK AT THIS, AND BE UNCOMFORTABLE, AND KNOW THAT IT IS FUCKED UP."

Because it is! It's so extremely fucked up. They're using this imagery and these roles, something that makes most of us intrinsically uncomfortable, to drive home how unhealthy Knives relationship with his ideal of Vash is. That's the point. We're supposed to be uncomfortable with this.

Now of course there's some nuance to it. Like, you could see Knives as somewhat of a feminine and/or queer-coded figure as well, ESPECIALLY if you look at some of his panels in the manga, which could in turn lead to themes about infighting and control within marginalized communities, but that might be something for another post. :3

And there's definitely different ways you could take this! Vash, with all this feminine imagery, could be either transfem or transmasc coded, depending on what way you'd rather see it, which could lead into themes of how people outside the norm constantly face a lack of bodily autonomy and are exploited for purposes outside their boundaries. We could also look at Wolfwood and his lack of choice over joining the Eye of Michael and becoming the Punisher, and how masculine men (particularly men of colour) are often forced into violent roles against their will. If we look at Trimax, the exact same could be said for Livio/Razlo and people with disorders such as DID/OSDD.

There are many different ways you could spin these themes, some of which I don't feel personally qualified to discuss. If anyone who is qualified to talk about Wolfwood or Livio/Razlo or even other characters related to these themes, then god PLEASE add onto this post or make a post and tag me or something. I would love to read it!

Anyway, in conclusion: Vash is a feminine figure constantly taken advantage of and exploited and and he's so incredibly trans/nonbinary-coded that it drives me insane. Thank you

[stillmevalz]

I have absolutely no problem with ooc fanon content existing. I enjoy it too from time to time. What's bothersome is that some people forget what's fanon and what's not.

Example:

Fanon: Vash is submissive, helpless, and naive.

Canon: Vash is perceptive, a fighter & calculating.

Note that calculating in this context means he's all about precision and accuracy.

A great example in canon that showcases this beautifully is the Vash vs Knives fight in episode 12. While Vash is calculating and precise with his movements, Knives is erratic and impulsive.

[supernova351]

C/W for SA and spoilers for Trigun Maximum

I finally can verbalize my thoughts on why the Angel arm situation is so fucked up even if you don’t look at it through a lens of it being sexual assault. Knives completely disregards the autonomy of anyone hes In contact with. Even the dependent plants, who he sees as his sisters. But Vash-his own fucking brother who he claims to love- is not afforded any autonomy. Because when it comes down to it knives doesn’t care. The Angel arm incident is to directly show how powerless Vash is. That Vash isn’t even allowed control over his own powers, but Knives is. Knives violates Vash’s bodily autonomy and makes him go against his principles (which at the time are the only things he’s living for!!) as a show of power. A “look at this, your ideals mean nothing because you’re too weak to uphold them.”

I think this along with the very obvious metaphors for SA is what makes this scene so gut wrenching. It’s Vash trying to hang on to his personhood, and this is one of the very few times we see him do it. Vash barely ever actively fights to protect himself, he mainly just dodges and runs. Except for his fights with Knives and a couple of the Gung-ho-Guns. Vash is actively fighting and being overpowered and that’s why it’s so disturbing

[your-punk-mom]

Knives Millions has this weird habit...

Lots of folks have noticed that Knives has this Thing™️ about taking people's arms off, especially in Stampede. He did it to 4 people, cutting 5 arms off, in E3 alone. That's just his first apperance.

So today, it hit me: it's just like the classic example of early psychopathic behavior in boys - pulling the wings off of flies.

This is really good characterization, because it tells you exactly how little he thinks of humanity. They are like insects to him. It also foreshadows what is confirmed in E5, which is that he is playing god.

[plan-3-tmars]

this is my favourite thing studio orange did with trigun

cuz like. YEAH! THEY ARE RLLY FUCKING SIMILAR!

Wolfwood's a kid who grew up too fast. he tries to hide behind the identity of "the punisher", a title that makes him sound like a horrible killing machine. the title screen disagrees with him though, knows deep down that kid is still inside there trying to look after his brothers and sisters. Wolfwood takes on "the punisher" in order for the eye of michael to leave the orphanage alone, so they don't have to go through what he did.

Nai is also a kid who grew up too fast. he doesn't hide behind an identity though, he embraces it. He believes that 'nai' is weak, 'millions knives' is strong and will be able to save his brother and sisters. The title screen agrees with him because it's shown how intent he is on following this path of mass destruction as he attacks and kills the workers just moments before. Knives IS Knives because of how the humans treat his siblings, because of witnessing the Last Run and Tesla. He doesn't want his brother and sisters to go through what they did.

[marte-14]

It would have been so nice to meet Milly's family, to see where such a positive person was raised.

It would had offered so many good plot points because I like to think that while Vash and Wolfwood are the two opposite extremes on the moral spectrum of "total pacifist" and "cruel reality", the girls are more in the middle.

Thinking mostly about the 1998 anime (still have to read the manga): Meryl is more on Wolfwood side, she is more realistic and even if she isn't ready to kill as the priest, she still has guns with real bullets, making her more violence prone; while Milly is more on Vash side, even if again she is less extreme because she is ready to make herself be respected, her gun is big but it uses traps not bullets (even if they have an absurd force), she isn't deathly.

By meeting Milly family both Vash and Wolfwood could have had a growth experience.

Wolfwood could learn to be more hopeful and see kindness on the planet, since I image Milly parents to be very positive and smart people if they raised someone like her, they may had hard times since they have 10 children in a place where it's hard to drink water, also Wolfwood never had a family, he only has the orphanage so it would also be nice to see him in such context and how he thinks of the orphanage as his family.

Vash could learn more about "normal families" and siblings love.

Rem was his mother so he could unpack some of his feelings and traumas about her it would be nice.

And he could receive some advice on the unconditional love that there is between siblings and what to do when they are doing something wrong and you want to help them, Milly could give him some very good advice.

There could be a plot about Milly brother/sister worried for her, since she is running around with very strange and dangerous people (aka Vash), so they would fight and after that they see that Milly can take care of herself, that Vash is a good person and that she will be fine, Vash will learn something about the bond between brothers and learn the answer to the the question "Do you think that Knives still loves you? " and "Do you love your brother? "

[collieii]

i'm sure it's been said but i do love how trimax handles wolfwoods death. i've seen so many stories that have characters die and they just go away after. i'm really used to stories where the other characters aren't allowed to grieve, the story keeps going and it feels like the other characters aren't really affected or get over it really easily. but in trimax wolfwoods death is so important. we see other characters grieving him. vash protecting the orphanage, expanding his power when he really shouldn't, because it was wolfwood's home, even though wolfwood is already gone. he gets an actual burial. vash and livio eating their way through the grief, which is more comedic but still shows us how important he was to the two of them, sets up how in many ways they're fighting in his memory.

even after he's gone he's still present in the story in such a strong way. we can see how he's affected the other characters, even when they don't explicitly mention him it's obvious that they're thinking about him. what he did when he was alive, and his death itself, are so important to the story even after he's not there. not just in a really abstract "this is someone we lost" way (though there are a lot of times his death and sacrifice motivate vash and livio to fight harder!) he's present in the finale in a material way to livio, who uses his serums to help fight against elendira, which ofc also ties into the way wolfwoods choice to ally with vash and fight against knives gave livio strength to do the same. wolfwood showed him that there are things worth fighting for, things worth protecting. that your body is a weapon, but you can choose what to do with it, use it for something meaningful.

and the way vash kills legato in order to save livio? vash outright says that he did it to protect what wolfwood fought for, sacrificed his life for. it's tied to the ongoing arc between vash and wolfwood, their conflict over the necessity of killing others. wolfwood pushed vash into having an understanding of his views when he was alive, demonstrating the necessity of that violence. simultaneously, vash inspired wolfwood to follow his path, a kinder one. vash remembers what wolfwood said to him, and his death gives those words added poignancy. wolfwood well and truly sacrificed everything to protect what he loved and fight for what he believed in. how can vash let that go to waste? he sacrifices something just as meaningful to himself, and he pulls the trigger. it brings him closer to wolfwood in a way he never was before. he understands now, fundamentally, what motivates people, motivated wolfwood, to act as he did when he took lives. there are so many other ways wolfwood is present in the story after his death i can't talk about all of them but it makes me so crazy

[plantboy-typhoon]

I have so many goddamn feelings about Vash that I find hard to articulate. What a horrendously beautiful and complex character. Oh the tragedy of it all.. oh the malevolent horrors beyond comprehension that Vash has suffered. Oh the pain and disaster that follows him tirelessly without fail. Oh the finding strength in softness and a reason to keep going. Ohhh I just can’t handle it

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

Ignore this it wasn’t showing up in tags so I redid it but I don’t want to delete the original lol

I’m having too many thoughts about about Trigun Stampede and it’s probably nothing, but here we go (beware some very heavy handed religious comparisons/symbolism)

This is somewhere between actual meta/character analysis and fanfic, but whatever:

Nai

You are a child and to the best of your knowledge you are one of the only two beings like you in existence. You are a child and you are told that your creation was miraculous, that you are perfect and the future itself. You are neither Human nor Alien, you are simply Other. You are better than either. Unflawed. You are a child and you see the species from which you were created, a species that was artificially created as a means to an end, live out their entire lives in captivity, in servitude. You are taught they are non-sapient, perhaps even non-sentient, and without free will. You exist to serve too, but you resent this. You resent that you are meant to be like the humans, to pretend that you are one of them. You find humanity contemptible and resent their endless wars and conquest and enslavements and pain (you have had a relatively painless childhood). And you read their scriptures and feel confident in your knowledge of humanity’s failures and inherent depravity. Their religious histories are teeming with injustice, with pain, and war and famine. You are a child, but you are intelligent. If this is what they believe in, what can you do? What Good can they really do? You begin to Doubt.

You discover another of your kind, a third, and she has been taken apart and studied by these humans. You are being raised to love them. You don’t. They love you like a dog loves a bone. You can only destroy them before they destroy you. You are intelligent and full of what can only be righteous fury, and you make them Fall. Your brother resents you, resents the deaths, is terrified and hurt and you have to Save Both of You.

Some of the humans survive. You twist them into their own downfall. You take their scriptures and turn words to weapons. It is an honor to serve you, you are an angel, a god, salvation and creation at your fingertips. Death, too. You are owed this for the depravity you and your kind have been subjected to. (You don’t realize, or maybe you no longer care, what you are subjecting them to.) If your brother will not join you on your mission he will die for it. For the greater good. (Who will survive your greater good?)

Wolfwood

You are a child and you aren’t not raised to be nice, but you try to be kind. You protect your little brother. You are smart and strong and independent and you care too much. You are raised to believe in a very present god. No one tells you if he is a loving god or not. His angels and priests take you away and it is an honor to be chosen, to be god’s child of blessing. (It is a relief to be taken so no one else will be.)

You go through hell, you live in purgatory. Maybe it is still hell, your skin no longer feels like your own and your hands are bloodstained and fit only around the grip of a gun. You are not allowed to die. You find out your little brother isn’t either. He’s in hell too, but not with you. The god you serve is not a loving god, nor are his angels kind. You are god’s righteous man and you bear a cross and all of the weight of the blood spilled on it, by it.

You are a weapon and any morals you might have grown into are collateral damage. You would do anything for your family. You have done Everything for your family. They don’t mourn or look for you, the blessed chosen one.

You have free will. There is also a gun to your and everyone you’ve ever loved’s heads.

You aren’t sure if you’re a person anymore. (What greater good requires monsters like you? What god would create demons?)

You follow orders. You don’t believe in anything. You could fill oceans with the blood you have spilled. You are told if you follow this last order you will be free and your family will be safe. You aren’t even supposed to kill him, just lead him to his death. You’ve done so many horrible things, this pales in comparison. And you’re already in hell.

You find him. He’s the kindest person you’ve ever met and he doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He takes on as much hurt as he can, sometimes more. He saves your family without even knowing, and he saves them again when you sell him out. He doesn’t hold it against you.

The first thing you do as a free man is try to save someone. You have decided you care enough to try, just this once. The world still ends. And you still aren’t allowed to die. Better people have already died for you. For your sins.

Vash

You are a child and you love your family very much. You aren’t as special as your brother, as useful, but you love learning and exploring and people. You see the good in everyone. You are terrified when you discover another being like you and your brother, terrified by how she has been treated, by her being a secret, by what else the person you see as a parent might be hiding from you. But you trust her and love her and inevitably mourn her. You are taught to love and serve humans and it is your life’s work.

Your brother makes your world end and says you helped. Everyone you’ve ever cared about except him is dead. You are terrified and you spend the next century atoning for not knowing better. For loving, to continue loving. You are not loved in return.

You do your best to help everyone you can regardless of species. You are special too, it turns out, and bring hope and peace to your people and to the humans, at least for a little while. And you try not to be dangerous. You want to be harmless and you never quite pull it off. You don’t tell anyone the whole truth, but the secrets aren’t enough to keep you safe forever.

You make friends and you don’t have long together. You think you must be bad luck, and you forgive your friend for leading you to your biggest fear. You have to confront it anyways, it’s not his fault. He cares about you, but it’s not his job to protect you.

You confront your brother. He destroys everything again and he uses you to hurt people. Again. Your people, humans, what could survive his greater good? You fight back, you win. Kind of. Maybe. A Pyrrhic victory. You are alone and the world hates you for the destruction you tried to prevent. They always do. Why are you the devil when you just want to help?

[pancake-breakfast]

One thing I'm realizing while writing fanfiction from Vash's POV is how easily he lies.

Which is strange, because at first glance, you wouldn't expect someone so prone to wearing their emotions on their sleeve to be good at lying. But he's had to. Over the years, lying has kept him safe, and it's kept those around him safe. So while it may or may not have become second nature over time, it's definitely something he's been able to practice and perfect to the point he can do it with ease.

Which is very sad, because he shouldn't have to lie so much to stay safe. But it's also very relatable to a great number of people who grew up in environments where we, too, had to learn to lie to keep ourselves, and maybe even those around us, safe.

[hopey-thinks]

Knives and ASPD (antisocial personality disorder) (spoilers in post)

To preface this, I’d like to say I am not trying to demonize people who have antisocial personality disorder (sometimes also referred to as sociopathy). I am not saying that people with ASPD would do the things Knives does or are automatically bad people, nor am I saying that Knives is possibly a sociopath only because of the atrocities he commits. I am simply trying to get a better understanding of Knives’s psychology as a character.

With that out of the way, I’ve been learning a lot about personality disorders in my psychology class, and I’ve done quite a significant amount of research in and outside of class about personality disorders (including reading about it them in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders fifth edition text revision).

This comes to my current predicament. My teacher wanted us to think of examples in media of characters that exhibit certain personality disorders. I was particularly fascinated with the nature of ASPD, so I zeroed in my research on that disorder in particular. The first characters that came to mind for me were The Joker and Ren Yamai from Komi Can’t Communicate, but in my trigun brainrot I realized that Knives would actually be a very interesting character to consider.

While he meets most of the diagnostic criteria according to the DSM-5-TR, there are some things that are making me wonder if he actually has antisocial personality disorder. Mainly his motives.

I’ve seen a lot of discourse about his motivations. And the two most common interpretations I’ve seen are the following:

he genuinely believes that he’s helping the plants and doing what he’s doing selflessly for them and the benefit of them. He also genuinely cares about Vash and the Plants and is doing what he’s doing for “the greater good.” He is only hurting humans because they are destructive towards plants, and only hates them because they are cruel. If this is the case, he likely isn’t someone with antisocial personality disorder because his entire philosophy is based off of pro social, albeit extremely immoral and flawed motivations and ideas since he doesn’t consider humans a part of his social group.

Knives has convinced himself that he is fighting for the greater good of the plants to rationalize his cognitive dissonance, but that’s not what he’s actually trying to do deep down. His true motivation (which he is not something he is consciously aware of) is simply because he wants to hurt and kill humans out of his own fear of them and because of their inferiority. Essentially, he’s actually doing it all for himself and to quell his own fears and not because he actually cares about the safety or autonomy of other plants. In this case, he would be more likely to have antisocial personality disorder because his true motives aren’t in service of anyone else’s rights or benefits, and he exhibits antisocial behaviors towards the beings he does consider a part of his social group (plants). He also doesn’t actually care about Vash as his family, but only as a means to achieve his goals and be part of his plan.

There’s a lot more nuance to it than that of course, but in my personal interpretation I’d say Knives seems to align more with the second description. Here’s why: He consistently shows disregard for the autonomy, rights, and wants of other plants, especially Vash, and will exploit them just as awfully as the humans he hates have if it means achieving what he wants for his vision. This creates cognitive dissonance because he simaltaneously believes he’s a good person who is improving the world by doing that, but the humans who do that are bad and destroying the world by doing the exact same thing. So he rationalizes it by thinking he’s different because “it’s for the greater good of all plants and those who oppose me are preventing that” which then created more cognitive dissonance because he can’t exploit and abuse the plants without a second thought while also fighting for their rights and caring for them. The rights and safety of other plants don’t matter to him if they conflict with what he wants to do. Which would make the true motivation in this case, wanting to hurt humans out of his own fear and hatred (which developed because of his trauma), make sense.

When you think about Knives’s actions, you come to find that he cares more about hurting and destroying humanity than helping plants. He is fine with hurting the plants to hurt humanity, rather than hurting humanity simply for the good of the plants. He prioritizes “cleansing” the world of humanity over the actual lives of plants.

Here’s why I made this post. I think Knives is a very complex and fascinating character, and would like to hear other people’s perspectives and interpretations of him, especially in relation to his psychology and possible disorders he may have. So if you’d like to join me in psychoanalyzing him, I would appreciate hearing your opinion in a respectful discussion under this post. I’m especially curious about what any psychologists here might think, and I hope I can learn something new and also be corrected and get a better understanding if I’m wrong.

Ik this seems really strange that I’m writing and thinking so much about the psychology of someone who isn’t even real, but I just really like character analysis and think it’s interesting to see psychological concepts in media.

[alice42d]

To the residents of Gunsmoke, Trigun is a Western/ Eldritch Horror.

From the first read of Trigun, The person who is most scared of Vash is always going to be Vash himself. It is he who understands the enormity of his own actions, in part because he lives long enough to see their long-term effect.

I keep coming back to this a poimt of interest for a few reasons: one of which is a post that joked about Wolfwood being the main character in an eldritch horror story. But here's the thing: YES. Yes, every other character is 100% perceiving Trigun as a post-apocalyptic horror scenarii! They were crash-landed on their way to a Utopia by a monster, and now that monster's brother is decimating towns one by one, an unstoppable, unkillable act of god! He's a man-made beast from the formation of humanity, who pretnds to be human. That is terrifying!

The destruction with only Vash left standing is only funny to the reader, who knows about how the immortality of cartoon characters is what makes that kind of slapstick funny in the first place! Vash messing with humanity is only funny from his perspective because only he knows that they won't be hurt as long as he's in control.

[stillmevalz]

Vash is such a physical touch guy. I dont know if Im wording that correctly, but Vash likes to touch, be touched, hug, be hugged, etc. There are many instances in Trimax that show us this. I want to make a compilation. I already have 3 moments compiled. If you remember more moments, please let me know! One is when Jessica hugged him he put his hand behind her head (!!!!!!!). Another was when he was leading Wolfwood into the satellite room, he put his arm around him (cute!). The other one was when he was comforting Meryl while she was crying.