#vash has no right to be as hot as he is in that scene I said what I said | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pancake-breakfast · 11 months

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I'm INVESTED. I need to know what happens next. Especially since the last chapter ended on a cliffhanger.

Stream-of-consciousness thoughts for TriMax Vol. 5, Chapters 3-4 below.

Chapter 3: Loss

Well, that plus the title page art is ominous. He looks really peaceful for someone who's losing it enough to grow giant feathers out of their arm.

Is he really a traitor if he's still doing the job Knives sent him to do? Or are you just giving him shit because some part of you thinks whether he betrays Vash or betrays Knives, betrayal is betrayal and that's worthy of shame and punishment?

I feel like hiding a gun in your sax would muck up its sound a bit....

Looks like a few of his shots hit Midvalley.

Ok, I think I finally get it. For this fight, Nightow is actually using very particular visuals to represent Midvalley's attacks. I wish I'd figured this out sooner. Might have made some other scenes make more sense. (No, the sound effect doesn't help me much. I don't know what the Japanese onomatopoeia is for sax sounds.)

I hope Milly is ok through this. I don't think most people are as tough as Wolfwood.

Wolfwood's a force to be reckoned with, for sure.

Ok, I had to go back through the Wolfwood parts in the last two chapters of the last volume. I totally missed that he couldn't see. I thought his references to it being dark and all were more metaphorical than literal. My bad. But him being blinded this whole time and still managing to hunt down Midvalley just makes him all the more intimidating.

I still don't understand why Gauntlet and Midvalley are so determined to cover their tracks.

Oooh, Meryl's elevator-cell isn't doing so hot.

Feathers.

FEATHERS. (I love how Gauntlet's reaction here is just pure confusion.)

Ohhhh, that's an angel arm silhouette.

Going... down?

Dude, Gauntlet totally has a cross on his face in between his eyes. Because of course he does.

Aaaaand everybody's screaming. I think that's reasonable.

Needs moar feathers.

Knives flashback?

Knives flashback. Vash flashback, but with Knives. Gauntlet is seeing this?? Goshdarnit, Plants are weird.

LOL, from Knives' perspective, Vash is being rude. All Knives has done is try to look out for his brother. The fact that he's doing so in a horribly destructive and abusive way is lost on him, so all he sees is Vash pulling a gun on him for no particular reason. And he was so happy to see Vash, too. (Also, shout-out to Knives' weird drinking habit.)

Ah, it looks like Vash is communicating these memories directly via touch. I gotcha.

Uhhhhhhhhhh.... Is Knives having someone inject Vash with stuff?!?! That is NOT talking, sir!

Knives, holding the metaphorical sword over the doctor's head, daring him to just try and destroy them, since all that would do is prove Knives' cynicism right.

Poor Meryl is probably REALLY confused right now. Whatever she might have expected, I'm sure it wasn't fifty billion eldritch feathers coming through the ceiling.

Knives looks so proud of himself. He's waaaaay too calm and happy about his brother panicking. That's no way for an onii-san to behave.

Yeah, Knives, what you're saying isn't gonna make Vash want to resonate with it more....

I have thoughts on this panel and the rest of this scene between the two brothers.

You know... I made a post about exactly what Knives is saying about Vash's scars and how that appears in Stampede.

Ugh, he's getting Vash worked up. He's trying not to, but it's not like all those moments didn't still hurt.

Honestly, this is a bit of a brutal way to communicate this all to Gauntlet, but I don't know how else Vash could do it that would have Gauntlet understand and believe Vash, especially while they're plummeting down an elevator shaft. And Gauntlet is going to relate to it in a way other people might not, because from what little we've seen of his life before the Gung-Ho Guns, he was also hurt, betrayed, lied to, humiliated, treated like an animal, had his every word questioned, and been laughed at while people (whether figuratively or literally) dragged him through the mud. I could go into more detail, but it's either that or another chapter tonight....

Ugh, the quivering gun pointed at Knives....

Knives is blaming Rem, but... I think inasmuch as she is to blame, it's because she died before she could help Vash flesh out these ideals better. And that's not her fault, even if she was the one who chose to turn back to try and save everyone else. She wasn't the one who decided to crash the ships.

Uhhhh, what are these little face-thingies crawling through???

Vash is still trying to fight it, and when Knives sees he won't give up, he gets... pushy. Pushier. Injecting your brother with stuff to force change is already, to put it very mildly, pushy.

The focus specifically on people Vash interacted with and clearly cared about getting sucked into the gate is... a good touch. Painful as all hell, but that pain is important to the narrative. I don't think either of the anime adaptations quite managed to capture it so well.

And Gauntlet gets to feel the loss of the girl he cared for all over again.

Chapter 4: Villain

Maybe part of the reason people have historically had trouble recognizing Vash is because they're expecting someone a lot older than he is. Or maybe he's so much of a legend they don't quite believe he's the real deal.

Also, Gauntlet's gotta be, like... what? Late 60's at the least, yeah?

Well, if this isn't a poignant opener....

Is... Meryl getting a glimpse of all of Vash's pain here??

I'd say it's impressive that Gauntlet's screams have reached Midvalley, but we've already established Midvalley has superhuman hearing.

It appears Vash's pain is so much that Gauntlet would rather die than continue to experience it.

"They rigged this whole place to blow?" This is my surprised face ----> :|

And now it's Wolfwood's turn to point a gun at Milly. Fair's fair. But I think she would have actually tried to throw him down if he hadn't relented when she pulled her gun, and it's clear here that he pulled his solely as a scare tactic.

I'm not sure what this is, but it definitely feels like Vash's doing.

Gauntlet definitely expected to die in that attack.

Duuuude, Midvalley even found him! Lucky!

Haaaaahahahahahahaha, Wolfwood is STILL going after the Hornfreak.

Oh, that ball of light swallowed up the debris? That's another point in the "Vash did this" column.

Midvalley's calling Wolfwood out here, huh.

CREECHUR VASH IS WITHIN EASY HEARING DISTANCE AND CREECHUR VASH SAYS THIS CONVERSATION IS OVER!!!

Also, wings.

Ahhhh, I love how Nightow made Midvalley dedicated to calling Vash "it" here. It says so much about how Midvalley sees Vash/Knives, his place in comparison to them, and how he thinks everyone else should approach them.

Midvalley's approach is still fatalistic, I see. "No matter which of them wins, we all lose, caught in the crossfire."

LOL, even in creechur form, Vash doesn't appreciate Midvalley's sentiments.

Fuck. He was reacting to Legato. That's FAR worse.

Seriously, folks, I get antsy EVERY TIME Legato shows up. EVERY. FREAKING. TIME. I'm still traumatized from '98... and where I know he's gonna take things eventually here.

Oh, he just had to get himself his own ripoff Angelina. Thanks, I hate it.

"What's he doing here?!" Grinning like the madman he is, of course.

He's really happy about this whole "torture the hell out of Vash but don't kill him because Knives-sama asked for it" thing, isn't he? Freaking yandere....

"You may have your rest." Ummmm, is Legato gonna kill Gauntlet?

Wolfwood's still ready to throw hands in spite of being DEFINITELY outgunned right now.

Wait, is Midvalley trying to take down Legato?!

Whyyyy did Gauntlet shoot him??

FUCKING LEGATO, THAT'S WHY. Someone take this man and his iron maiden box and throw them in the bottom of the sea already. Please.

Ok, it's a nice touch to have this be the contrast to how the title is listed on the opening page. Why have one person highlighted as a potential villain when you could instead highlight two?

Archive

Trigun Volume 1: Covers + 1-3, 3 Detailed Thoughts, 4, 4 DT, 5-6, 5-6 + DT, 6 DT, 7-8, 9-10 || Volume 2: Covers + Extras, 1, 1 Supplemental Research, 2-4, 5-6, 7-8

TriMax Volume 1: Covers + 1-2, 2 DT, 3-4, 3 DT, 5-6 || Volume 2: Covers + 1, 2-4, 5, 6-7 || Volume 3: Covers + 1-3, 4-5, 6-7 || Volume 4: Covers + 1-2, 3-5, 6-7 || Volume 5: Covers + 1-2

#now if you'll excuse me #i'm going to be screaming about legato for the next however long (negative)#trigunbookclub #trigun maximum #volume 5 #pancake thoughts

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chibivesicle · 1 year

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Trigun Stampede - Episode 4 - Stampede’s direction is clear; this is an action packed sci fi series on a desert planet.

Any resemblance to an anime or manga with an old fashioned Western setting is not the the creative direction for this. Or as I’ve been thinking - Trigun Stampede is a sci fi series with the thin veneer of a western. The veneer is shown at the beginning of our episode 4 with western sounding music and three random dudes grilling worm meat over a fire discussing how fresh meat is the best, though one guy wants to be all trendy and try a plant based meat product. I think this is the writing team trying to be clever but it seems to fall flat. The more I watch this, more of a bone I have to pick with the writers; it keeps coming off as passable but it could be much better. This also goes into the story boarding, but we’ll get into that a little later on.

I’m also wondering how worms have muscles, but maybe we can go with alien worm biology hand waving explanation.

While enjoying their red worm meat, they spot a single individual walking alone in the desert carrying a cross, stating he’s well dressed for his own funeral and even has his own tombstone.

This is our introduction to Nicholas D. Wolfwood, the previously characterized wandering priest/clergyman who also works as a hired gun [anime] or religiously associated and trained assassin [manga].

The intro scene ends with a hot and sweaty looking Wolfwood. I will say, they worked hard to get a nice reflection in his sunglasses and he does sport a little of his trademark stubble, but he does look a lot cleaner.

After the OP, the action returns to Meryl and Roberto listening to the news as Vash sleeps in the back of their land rover like vehicle. Vash has been blamed for the destruction of Jeneora Rock and apparently hasn’t eaten since yesterday as Roberto offers his uneaten sandwich to Meryl.

Roberto gets to comment that only god knows why Vash is acting like Vash since young and inexperienced Meryl is expecting him both to eat more yet, struggle with sleeping due to his feelings of guilt that they are both aware of.

It really seems that Roberto is our info dump, make sure you understand our intent with our limited actions of what we decide to animate for our characters. Since the fact that Vash hasn’t eaten shows that he’s lost his motivation to live/ is feeling super depressed etc etc. has to be told to us by Roberto only with Meryl looking sadly at him.

Meryl then manages to almost drive right into Wolfwood and with Roberto’s help, she only nails him with the satellite trailer instead of hitting him head on. This scene is very slapstick and seems oddly out of place since Stampede has been taking itself very seriously the entire time unlike the original anime or manga.

Meryl rushes to the nearest gas er - recharge station to save the strange man she just almost killed. We see at least a nod to the original design of the plants with the light bulb station sign and a covered arch for parked vehicles.

As the group rushes in, they find the station owners shot and killed, likely looking like a station robbery. There is a noise that allows Vash to find a child hiding in a locker who looks shocked, unable to speak. At the same time, the injured man, seems to be quickly recovering able to add color commentary.

He takes the lead on some sort of ceremony for the remembrance of the dead, having taken a bottle of water from the station, sipping it before tossing some on the graves and attempting to do a poor ceremony.

It starts out passable but then quickly fails catching Meryl’s attention calling his possible job into question. She asks him if he is a priest using the term 牧師 bokushi. Interestingly, the original anime’s translation chose to use priest while the more literal translation is pastor/clergyman/reverend/minister. Though the bus driver does call him a preacher at one point.

In this version he clearly states he’s not a priest but an undertaker.

Stampede uses the term 葬儀屋, sougi-ya, which translates to funeral home or can also describe an undertaker = funeral director. Therefore, this is the second shift in a main character’s job in this version and will change aspects of his character by default, just like how it has changed Meryl’s in these first four episodes.

This is a good time to pause and compare Wolfwood’s introduction in Trigun and Trigun Maximum. It will help frame how the rest of this episode plays out.

In the anime, Wolfwood doesn’t appear until episode 9, Murder Machine after Vash’s battle against Brilliant Dynamite Neon on the sandsteamer. A glint of light catches Vash’s eye and they find a man collapsed and leaning against a cross in the desert.

After the bus driver pokes him commenting he’s a well put together dead man, he pops up and stutters that he’s been saved! Showing that he’s got a sort of silly side.

After leaning that it was neither Milly or Meryl who saved him and introducing himself as a priest, he thanks Vash after he’d drank all of his water. Vash is not pleased with this strange priest having consumed all of his water and this leads to the infamous giant introduction of Vash’s made up name which is blown by Milly blurting out he’s Vash the Stampede. Once Wolfwood’s shock calms down he offers his hand to Vash and introduces himself as Wolfwood, at his service.

Of course he also can’t help but mention that if he killed Vash he’d get the $$60 billion reward and Vash would prefer he not point this out in public.

The entire introduction of Wolfwood is playful, you get the feeling that he’s a sort of prankster and has a good sense of humor though it has a dark and sarcastic undertone.

The manga is quite similar as Wolfwood introduces himself almost immediately as well. Again, Wolfwood is shocked that this weird guy is the infamous criminal and is prevented from blurting it out to the entire bus. I love how blunt Wolfwood is with his comment that ‘everyone’s damn dumb’.

And he again introduces himself to Vash, also offering his services as well.

Either way, both of these introductions show how playful of a character Wolfwood can be at times and how he’s portrayed as a friendly guy and very approachable - which makes sense if you are a religious official (or traveling under the guise of one). Plus, the anime and manga both highlight that he was stranded in the desert due to his motorcycle breaking down forcing him to walk instead. This forced him to carry his cross which is both literal and metaphorical for his character arc.

In Stampede, Vash feels a bit awkward as Meryl and the unnamed undertaker argue while the putative orphaned child looks shell shocked. He walks over to the child and pops a lollipop in his mouth before offering another one to the kid. This allows for him to have a small inspirational monologue to the child.

He states outright that he’s an orphan and that - No matter how heavy the cross that you carry, you still deserve to eat. That you still deserve to laugh.

This sounds a bit like Wolfwood, a way of trying to connect with someone else. After the kid silently looks thoughtful, he returns to give his bill to Vash for $$20,000 which causes Meryl to have another meltdown about his rip off of services. Which with that abrupt change again makes me groan about the the awkward pacing and oddly placed slapstick style humor with his bill.

Roberto calls him out on not only his criminally high cost bill for services, but also notes that for being hit by a car he’s looking pretty good. His reply is that he’s tough. And that it’s his saving grace.

And with that suspicious look from Roberto, we hear a weird high pitched whine and the ground begins to rumble as the entire group is eaten by a giant sandworm, charging station and all! The next time we get a close up on Wolfwood he’s got a crumpled cigarette instead of the pink lollipop. This is a point were the story boarding continuity seems a bit off. We went from him having a sucker, to likely losing it as they slid down into the worm but then the link to the cigarette is missing. When did he pull it out? Why now? If they wanted to give the effect of him being level headed and cool, we would have seen him pull a cigarette out of his jacket pocket, place it in his mouth before casually lighting it. That’s how you establish a cool smoker look. Instead, he’s got a almost burnt down cigarette which does not look cool and collected. He just looks annoyed.

After their fall into the depths of the belly of the giant worm where the silent child continues to act odd. We see everyone sliding into the worm which is fine and we get to have Roberto info dump more about how worms are sort of collective organisms that have electrons to communicate with each other.

The little baby worm glows indicating that it associates with giant mama worm, hence all the little baby worms can hang out inside it unharmed. Silent child is excited by the glowing worm and dashes off!

Vash of course wants to save the child and with time being of the essence the nameless undertaker tells them to split up and called Vash とんがり tongari which is needle-noggin’ in the anime translation and spiky in the manga. I always thought the anime choice of needle-noggin’ was a clutch translation decision, really getting at the teasing intent of the nickname. With spiky hair and the fact that Vash is oblivious to things from time to time. It is pretty early for the tongari nickname to be dropped - that’s a sort of post 2 year time skip nickname.

He proceeds to assign nicknames to everyone else as well, Meryl is little missy and Roberto is uncle downer. Vash is surprised by the nickname - though I am too Vash! As he’s not as spiky with his more ruffled hair. Meryl is upset and just wants a man to call her by her name and Roberto doesn’t even argue with his. Meryl you are 100% valid, no one on the planet wants to respect you.

Though in the original he does always have nicknames for others but more of calling the insurance little sisters and variants of that instead which sort of works . . . but he isn’t particularly rude about it in the originals.

We finally see that Roberto is indeed armed with a small pistol that he loads before the split up. Keeping with Meryl’s book smarts slowly becoming more street smarts, she’s the one who points out this entire plan is a terrible idea and they should have stuck together for safety.

She’s absolutely right and finds the missing child but clearly is attacked by something. Eventually, the three men all end up meeting at the same location. Is it there they started? Or did they exit the four worm tunnels? It looks a little unclear with the vague background but I’m reading that they returned to the start where Wolfwood is chain smoking away. Likely, he never even went into the tunnel with all the cigarette butts around his feet.

Vash indicates that they can save both of them while the undertaker mocks him for his self-sacrifice and need to rescue them, calling him odd. He then grabs one of the glowing baby worms and bites into it, eating it almost whole spitting out only a small part of it. WTF is this supposed to mean? It just seems odd - I know the set up is that worms are a good source of protein, but did he need to eat one raw? What does this do for his character establishment? Will eat anyone to survive?

Due to him eating the worm, it causes Roberto to both tell Vash that this undertaker might be one of the people who can control worms to kill others. Roberto approaches him with his small derringer wanting to know what is the deal with the giant cross. He knows it isn’t what it appears and wants an answer from the suspicious man with them.

Of course the undertaker deflects this comment stating if he’d want to kill him, he wouldn’t be trapped there with them. The conversation also allows for Roberto to info dump that there are people who can control worms but his theory is off since it seems that the suspicious undertaker is trapped with them.

This doesn’t allow Roberto to relax and he is clear that the statement ‘could kill with smile’ but of course Vash denies this based on his eyes. We only get a vague line of ‘You really mess with me.’ which would have been a line intended for Milly in the anime; in this case for Vash and Vash uses this as his rationale that he won’t hurt them. Vash’s own behavior messes with the mystery man - he won’t hurt them!! There seems to be some sort of emotional ‘something’ to go along with the statement of Vash ‘really messing with him’ but it doesn’t linger for long because Roberto is now missing.

The duo proceed to wander around lost and Vash maintains hope while his downer companion tries everything to get him to give up, they were already eaten and digested, they are lost, they should save themselves. They proceed to be sneezed out of the worm (these sandworms apparently have animal based biology with nostrils) which has another slapstick moment of them being flung back out into the desert. Vash tells Wolfwood to run who argues that they should both run, but both get re-eaten. Since Vash doesn’t run and neither does Wolfwood.

They find the child who runs to Vash and hugs them as he reassures them it will be okay. But he’s called out for being careless and let someone out of his sight all the time. Of course Vash replies that he hasn’t been shot by the morbid man. Yeah, that’s a great rationale there Vash for trusting a man who still hasn’t told you his name!

The kid then runs away and Vash figures out that they are the one controlling the worms with a high pitched sound leading us to the reveal of our next Gung-ho Gun. The inside of the worm then becomes digestive/active with saliva/liquid and Vash just yells for Meryl and Roberto to be given back. Dude! You have a gun. We know you are a pacifist but you can still use your gun! Where is your brain? Is it on vacation? Did you leave it in Jeneora Rock? In Vash’s moment of whatever, he begins to get sucked into the stomach of the worm and just stands there.

It takes Wolfwood doing the big reveal of his large Punisher in what I’d say is an overly long, drawn out sequence to reveal it - is a giant gun! Wow. Even if you’d never seen Trigun before, you could guess it is some sort of giant weapon. Was that really necessary Studio Orange? No, but you think it looks cool. You gotta animate it in all the angles.

He’s able to shoot around Vash’s feet allowing him to move and then blows a hole in the side of the worm. Our worm whisperer escapes out the side of the worm and wishes them good luck on surviving.

Now, I’ve already made it clear that I liked the slow style storytelling of the original anime and even in the manga - Wolfwood will not show what his Punisher can do - until Trigun Maximum after the 2 year time skip. Even though he’s revealed to be a Gung-ho Gun early on, he doesn’t show what his Punisher is capable of - just uses it as a blunt object. We also learn that Wolfwood’s actions are those of a trapped man and not his choice, but something he can’t get out of. The Punisher is how he’s recognized as ‘Chapel’ by Legato though Wolfwood never verbally confirms this at the Jeneora Rock Church. But with Stampede, we don’t need any of that delay - we are going to show you how badass his Punisher is now, which can apparently create a laser beam cannon that literally slices the entire worm open and blood? haemolynth? explodes out into the desert. Wolfwood clearly has leveled up in his weapons.

We jump to a scene of the three random dudes along a campfire with them eating some of the fresh worm meat. Wolfwood teases Meryl trying to get her to eat the worm meat while Roberto points out that a man with a giant cross machine gun is pretty damn suspicious and Vash is like ‘he’s fine, he hasn’t hurt us, he helped us.’

When Vash approaches, Meryl and Wolfwood are still arguing with each other about the worm meat.

Finally, around the campfire, Vash sits down and eats some worm meat, quoting Wolfwood that he still has a right to survive and eat. Wow, deep - and Meryl is excited that sad boi is eating - he’s not going to be depressed all the time! This is also finally when Nicholas D. Wolfwood introduces himself to Vash the Stampede and they shake hands. It took the entire episode for him to introduce himself!

Wolfwood then invites himself into their crew telling them that they should get going - to where exactly sir undertaker? He continues to tease Meryl and get do get a good side profile and finally one of his cheesy smiles.

Then they all go to sleep, with Vash on top of the car to show Wolfwood chain smoking on the roof of the charging station. It then reveals that he was working with Zazie the Beast who tells him that killing his ‘friends’ is his skill and that he couldn’t care less about human lives.

He only glances slightly oddly for a moment before replying he does the job that he has to do. So, even though we have a fast reveal of Wolfwood as a Gung-ho Gun like in the manga, we don’t get his additional monologue that none of this is by choice.

The last scene returns to the place where Knives is collecting the plants and the Doctor is mentioning how Vash is the most human individual, which is why he can’t reach his full gate potential and this is why he’s not able to do whatever Knives wants him to.

Grey the Ninelines is still in the background along with the small blonde girl - not Zazie. Is the small girl also a plant? Tessla? Are they on Knives’ ark ship?

Thus the episode ends with a sort of plot from Knives to push Vash into an extreme corner.

Main points and themes from this episode

1.) Story boarding and flow are still weak. It is still difficult to follow things at this point. Actions and transitions aren’t quite fluid and transitions are choppy. I already highlighted how Wolfwood goes from a lollipop, to falling and then having a cigarette already in his mouth but we never see it happen. There are too many blink and you miss it moments and orientation is perhaps supposed to be frantic. Based on the current pacing if we are to get more of the Gung-ho Guns including Livio, are we looking at a 12-13 episode complete series? Maybe - it would explain the action non-stop pacing.

Along with this point is the writing continuing to be average at best. This is a sci fi story where all the characters are checking particular boxes. I was almost expecting Wolfwood to ask Vash ‘Whose side are you on?’ but we didn’t get that, just him being a morbid, rude, jerk. I think the male character default in Stampede is unless you are Vash, you are a jerk. Roberto is now slightly less of jerk, so Wolfwood is the new jerk.

Does the CGI look pretty? Yes, yes, it does. As my meta nerd friend Merdopseudo put it:

In fact, "Trigun Stampede", more than an adaptation of a manga in anime, it is a demo to promote Studio Orange and its 3D.

And thus spoke the Merdo! Is this a snazzy series with generic character to get as many eyeballs as possible? Looks like it. Is it really sourcing the original material - eh, not the characterization, nor the original themes. We like to invent all sorts of terms and we’ve decided that this is an example of ‘mainstreamification’ taking a series that was modestly successful in Japan and more of a cult hit outside due to its quirky nature. Meryl is now your cute little waifu instead of being an experience insurance adjuster with her junior partner Milly.

This then leads into our characters . . .

2.) Current status of the main cast, now fully assembled per the promotional poster!

i.) Vash - Was pretty lame in this episode, his sad boi trend continues as he is so depressed from Knives most recent actions he won’t eat a sandwich and tries to sleep in the back of the car. He is considerate of Zazie when he thinks she’s a victim of a robbery while Meryl and Wolfwood argue, but puts a lot of faith and trust in a man who is suspicious as all hell based on what he sees in his eyes - through his sunglasses? Which just like Vash, Wolfwood wears his glasses all the time.

Additionally, Vash is rather useless the entire episode, again chooses to plead with Zazie to release his friends, get sucked into the stomach of the worm, unable to move and all this stuff happens and he never even thinks to draw his gun? Look, he may be a technical pacifist, but Vash knows if he shoots the worm with a bullet or two release his feet, the worm is not gonna die. Yet, he never uses his gun at all.

Are we to interpret this as Vash being ‘frozen’ and unable to act? Is this why he needs Wolfwood to do all the work for him? Where is his creative brain coming up with solutions? Why is he so helpless? Does this mean that Wolfwood inspired him to regain his confidence that he lost in episode 3 when he quotes Wolfwood’s words to Zazie? By eating?

Crisis averted - Vash has decided to live by Wolfwood’s deep words (which I’ll get to in a bit). ii.) Meryl - or Can I just get some respect on this planet? Meryl continues to struggle in a male dominated group and has bickered with Roberto, then Vash and now, Wolfwood throughout the episode. She still has to be assisted/rescued etc but at least realized that Wolfwood’s plan was reckless and dangerous - but told no one but herself crawling through the wormtube. She’s intelligent but lacks agency and authority.

She also gets a lot of scenes bickering with Wolfwood and he gets a bit friendly with her trying to force feed her the worm steak? flank? She doesn’t look thrilled and they continue to argue until Vash sits down and eats and she is happy that Vash isn’t refusing to eat.

Without Milly Thompson as a potential romantic interest like in the original anime, are we to see Meryl x Wolfwood as a possibility? It would explain why they keep getting into each other’s faces.

If this is the case, I’m not so keen on it, though Wolfwood in this episode is rather rude and morbid making him not very friendly or attractive. Please don’t go this direction Studio Orange if you are thinking about it.

iii.) Roberto - Our old man info dump. Yep, now with a derringer to match the promotional poster. You need to know more information about this planet and organizations - he’s got it. You need to know how to read a scene or interpret something? He’ll tell you.

I’m sorry Roberto but you are not Milly and we shouldn’t hold that against you. But really, you don’t add much to the plot. At least you didn’t take a single drink all episode, but still haven’t fixed your shirt these past few days.

He doesn’t trust anyone, or organization but he’s just chillin’. Why? What’s your deal man? Or are you just there to have four people in the main cast?

iv.) Wolfwood - Studio Orange what have you done to my man? I gotta be dramatic when it comes to Wolfwood. This is a case where a very nuanced character has been simplified to a rude guy who has no friends and will do his ‘job’.

I don’t even want to dwell too much on his now generic Tokyo hipster design, they shrank his nose and made him have a fair skin tone. Also, why does he also have an untucked dress shirt?

I have more of an issue with who and what he does based on this episode. First, is the change in his occupation when he is traveling around meeting others. In Stampede, Meryl asks him if he’s a priest and he says he’s an undertaker. This is a change from the anime and manga where he originally said boukushi = priest/clergyman but always translated as priest in both; while he’s now, a sougiya or undertaker/funeral director. Hahaha, so funny Studio Orange, a hired gun is an undertaker because he makes people dead. lols. The change from priest makes a huge shift in how he acts. In this episode alone, Wolfwood gives Vash shit for being ‘self-sacrificing’ and mocks him about it while they are in the worm trying to rescue others.

Stampede Wolfwood is not a nice person nor willing to help others because it is the right thing to do.

In contrast both the manga and anime have Wolfwood introduce himself as a priest and later we see him trying to strike a deal with the bus driver as he’s short the full bus fare. He states if he gives up any more money, he’ll starve and the man allows for him to ride for $$80 instead of $$100 (which to be fair, he picked him up midway). This then gives Vash a reason to ask him how he makes money as a priest and why he needs money to help support orphans associated with his church. All of this makes sense, most people who take religious vows/occupations are not flush with cash and Wolfwood is no exception. But what happens next is how Wolfwood demonstrates self-sacrifice towards others.

In the manga young children beg him for assistance and he of course gives all he can dividing it between himself and the children equally, even though he’s an adult. We know he’s not lying, we just saw him haggling with the bus driver.

In the anime, we have a similar scene where he offers two of his three meal blocks to hungry children as well.

Their mother thanks him and the children understand the importance of their gifts even stating they will not waste a crumb. They respect his sacrifice for them. These two scenes show us that Wolfwood very much cares for humanity and innocents who need help from adults. Does he also understand that there is evil in the world? Yes, but it doesn’t make him isolate himself from others and helps in anyway he can.

Afterwards, he walks back to see Vash beaming with a soft genuine smile, which prompts him to state that he was worried that Vash couldn’t smile - you know really smile - not fake cover the empty pain sort of smile. These scenes alone make sense why Wolfwood makes sense to be traveling as a priest/hired gun as in the anime or a religious assassin in the manga. In both cases, we know that despite his failings, he has the underpinnings of religious beliefs and actions. His faith guides his morals and drives the conflict inside himself which eats at him even though he eventually finds peace and acceptance in both versions.

In the anime episode 9-11 allows for ample Wolfwood character development with the rest of the group as he reveals his precision shooting skills to Vash despite lying in Murder Machine - but Vash also states that Wolfwood’s prayer worked and God saved them. Episode 10 Quick Draw has him twisting Vash’s arm into a contest to help out a woman and her son but also gets into the mix, revealing that he’s got multiple guns in addition to his fine marksmanship. Lastly, 11 Escape from Pain has him getting into a philosophical argument with Julius, Milly, and Vash before departing the group. The scene where pulls out his pistol and holds it to his temple to test Julius and Moore.

Murder Machine was an episode where an unarmed Wolfwood jumped into action with Vash to save a single child! This is a man who understands self-sacrifice. We also get his entire uncool dodging of laser beams here:

If we turn back to episode 4 of Stampede - Hungry we can’t even take his interaction with Zazie seriously nor compare it to what he offered previously unknown children. He eats a lollipop for himself and offers the other to Zazie because she might be hungry? We know he gave Vash and Meryl a crazy invoice but nothing says he’s on a budget, nor is giving up a single piece of candy self-sacrificing. Did you get the point Studio Orange? No, because you decided that he’s not that type of character anymore.

Who is this character in Stampede? Not one I recognize from the anime or manga that’s for certain. He’s rude, has his gun Punisher which is now vastly more powerful than previously and is not friendly at all! We know he’s got a job to do for Knives but he’s not really selling himself as a great traveling companion or friend for Vash.

I think that Wolfwood is such a popular character due to his humanity that he displayed in the original series; how he has an internal conflict struggling to navigate life on a shit planet either as a gun for hire in the anime or trained assassin in the manga. He drinks, gambles, smokes and is willing to kill others if they will hurt innocents. Yet, he strives to do his best as indicated by his inner thoughts while playing chess against the random guy in episode 11. He realized it was dumb to bet his entire fare on this chess game and thinks about head butting the man and making a run for it - only to correct himself by reminding him to think of his profession as a priest.

He is also a jackpot character for fans - he’s a priest and a gunman who has principles yet also sins - what’s not to love about that set up? As Merdo put it, even as an atheist, you can’t help but love a character like him. Why Studio Orange passed on this aspect of his character and the leverage of such a trope baffles both of us.

Come on, you missed this golden line when the bus driver and two other guys toss his ‘luggage’ down to him. The bus driver remarks that the damn thing is heavy and to what Wolfwood replies:

Which is the best clever joke that it is full of mercy, if you ever met it, you will have a swift and merciful death.

Or lastly, his words of blessing when he departs from the group which is totally in line with him being religiously affiliated.

3.) Themes for this week. I really don’t have anything obvious. Eat to live? Life sucks sometimes but if you don’t eat you die? Not very motivational all in all. With Wolfwood no longer a priest (or under the guise of being one), the line of a heavy cross to bear rings hollow. BTW, Knives is still really evil.

#trigun stampede #trigun anime #trigun maximum #trigun manga #vash the stampede #nicholas d. wolfwood #meryl stryfe #roberto deniro #zazie the beast #anime meta

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lost-technology · 1 year

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Vash - Asexual Icon?

Okay, controversial hot-take ahoy! This is NOT a anti-shipping post. I freakin’ love shipping. It’s awesome! I used to be big into Vash x Meryl back in my old OG fandom days. However, I read something on here (because this is tumblr, of course) about Vash being a queer icon, as in some notation on how in Trigun Stampede the director was cited as saying that he made Vash kind of like “both the female lead as well as the male lead” - as in, male, but having some traditionally feminine traits, hence why he looks more “bishounen” than he did in other iterations. He has some “ship-fodder” moments with various other members of the cast - commenting on Wolfwood’s “kind eyes” and, of course, my VashMeryl heart soared at a certain scene in Episode 11 - those who’ve seen it know the one. So far, in this version, there’s no clear canonical shipping with Vash. In the other iterations, there was never any canonical shipping with him (the only canon ship is the OG anime having Wolfwood and Milly “eat sandwiches” together). He never “ends up” with anyone. Some fans think that he’s heterosexual (well-argued in the OG anime due to his flirtatious behavior toward some female characters - the old late 1990s trope of “let’s make the hero a bit perverted for humor” that was popular at the time). I’ve met yaoi fans who were convinced that he’s one-hundred percent gay (despite the pervy toward attractive women behavior). Bisexuality can be very well-argued for him, especially in Stampede as noted above, also the “every character in every fandom is bisexual or pansexual in fandom” rule that people seem to have unless a character as a specifically stated sexuality. But has anyone besides me ever thought of Vash as an...asexual? (In this essay I will...) Consider Vash’s general character through the franchise when it comes to romance and / or sex: Stampede incarnation: Has a few moments that can be interpreted as flirty or budding feelings toward both Wolfwood and Meryl, however, nothing clear. His most significant relationship is familial - his grief-filled relationship with his toxic brother. This seems to be what this anime is about. Trigun Maximum incarnation: Never has any clear shipping with anyone, although there are interpretable moments, same as above. I remember that moment of pretending to be unconscious to avoid the attentions of prostitutes and being ashamed of his scars in the manga, same as in the OG anime. Nothing else of note. Classic Trigun Anime: Vash plays the flirt with pretty women. He goes into that common Late ‘90s Flirty Shounen Hero trope for anime heroes of the time. This seems more or less tossed in by the anime writers and director. As the anime becomes more serious, this is generally forgotten in a “Vash has too much on his plate for the romance-stuff” and it’s an action anime, not a romance anime... And the same shame of his scars... the same scene with the sex workers as noted above. (The context for the scene is that a town is celebrating because Vash saved them all and some of the men in the town set up with the local brothel ladies to show Vash a good time as a reward. Vash pretends to have drank too much and passed out, couldn’t be roused - to the disappointment of the brothel workers. He gets up as soon as they leave and wonders “could I be regretting it? Maybe just a little)? The scene is generally interpreted as him not wanting to take advantage of the women in the situation. (Although, honestly they were eager)... Well... it seems to me that Vash might not be as interested in the old bang-bang as some fans would like him to be (and are perfectly within their rights to fanart and fanfic to their hearts’ content). Even the “flirty” Vash of the OG anime seems to be doing it as part of the fake-stupid / silly behavior that he does to throw people off-guard. And where it seems to be genuine behavior, well... I still think asexuality is a valid interpretation because, speaking as an asexual, myself, many of us “do things that we think we are supposed to do” because society tells us that people are supposed to do certain things. Some of us never learned what asexuality even was until fairly late in life and went through various “supposed to” behavior even when we weren’t really feeling it before we discovered ourselves. This is common throughout the queer community - the gay person raised in a community that is hostile who will try to date the opposite sex, someone thinking they are straight until they discover that they really are bi, and etc. This happens to asexuals, too. I had a boy-band member crush when I was 12, just like all “normal girls” did. It took a while for me to figure myself out - that I wasn’t really “normal” and that it was okay. Therefore, I see even the “Let’s make him pervy for comedy” written with clearly heterosexuality in mind of the OG anime as compatable with an asexual interpreation of Vash. He was just doing the “I am a normal human” act! Do keep in mind that I am arguing for “an asexual interpretation for the sake of fanwork / fan-fun” for Vash NOT based on his artificial human nature / his status as a plant, but just, individually, as a person.

#vash the stampede #trigun #trigun maximum #trigun stampede #vash #asexuality #asexual #asexual vash #variable character interpreations #a real asexual having asexual thoughts on fandom

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rainbow-pop-arts · 1 year

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HOUUUUUUGH, time for part 2 of my Trigun Maximum vol 2 thoughts for @trigunbookclub !!

Some thoughts on TriMax chap 10-11 under the cut!

You…you did what??? Damn, what happened to you that you would go THAT far to give away your humanity??

BRO CAN’T ADMIT DEFEAT, HOLY SHI- I mean, HOLY CRAP!

Aaaaaaand Wolfwood shot him…

Vash hit Wolfwood!

Wolfwood hit Vash back!

Oh no, Vash and Wolfwood are fighting!! (;° ロ°)

I showed this to my friend who watched Banana Fish because this somehow reminded me of that scene where Ash didn’t hesitate to shoot himself for Eiji’s safety (My friend even said VashWood is like AshEiji, I guess it kinda is in a way)

(Anya from Spy x Family) I wanna analyze stuff like this like others in the book club but I can’t analyze for crap but I’ll try. Uhm, let’s see here…Wolfwood was mad that Vash wouldn’t even a kill anyone even if they wanna kill him, so I think Wolfwood was a bit jealous or worried? Like Wolfwood has killed a lot that he sees himself as the devil unlike Vash? Did I analyzed right?

THE GIRLS ARE BACK!! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Y’all….a POC character who wasn’t drawn stereotypically??? (◎O◎)

Anyways, a small ship crashed nearby and there’s a girl who said Vash’s name

Aw, Wolfwood with kids and y’all….that smile (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄)

Wolfwood goes YEET

Vash ABSOLUTELY can not drive

So because of Vash’s INABILITY to drive, he got injured. But luckily, Wolfwood found help

Man, Wolfwood is so complicated ╮(╯∀╰)╭ (so are the other characters, dumbass)

Oh my, Vash doesn’t look so hot

Anyways, Vash’s helping to save this guy’s parents even when he’s in a condition to not do so (such determination, Rem would be proud! (*꒦ິ꒳꒦ີ))

It was at this moment that Vash knew, he screwed up

B O O M

Welp, all’s well that ends we-

Oh you gotta be kidding me

NEVERMIND, HERE’S WOLFWOOD WITH HIS BADASSERY! (ᗒᗨᗕ)

Wow, Wolfwood cares for Vash lots! ٩(＾▽＾)۶

Well….that’s the end of that chapter

That’s all for part 2! ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ✩‧˚

Bonus: I was looking at the Trigun Book Club schedule again and noticed it would run until September, I'll already be in 11th grade by then.

(GIF from Oshi no Ko) And on top of that I'll lose most of my free time on Saturdays cuz I have a math tutor in the morning and I'll be joining an art cram school on August that'll be in the afternoon until evening. I'll also have one grade left before college. I'll just imagine Vash, Wolfwood, Meryl and Milly (probably Roberto and Knives too) cheering me on...

#trigunbookclub #trigun brainrot #trigun maximum #trimax #trigun #trigun 98 #trigun thoughts #trigun manga #vash the stampede #nicholas d. wolfwood #meryl stryfe #milly thompson #trigun vash #trigun wolfwood #trigun meryl #trigun milly

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rithmeres · 1 year

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Hello Bryn so I started following you for your Trigun art (love love love ‘em) but your spring rolls pic just gave me so much personal and Trigun feels… sorry I’m about to ramble.

So my good friend is Viet and we lived together during Covid lockdown. We made and ate SO MUCH Viet food. It really is a whole event. A participatory art. I live alone now and I miss eating as a communal ritual.

Which reminds me of that Stampede scene where Vash finally started eating again “I deserve to eat, right?” They were eating together too—all of them, including the three random dudes that were on the sideline. There’s just something so natural and comforting about sharing meals; it’s making me kind of sad because Vash often had to eat alone (ex. when he first came to ship 3 and when he roamed around the desert). Vash was hungry for a family/community and now I can see that being one of the points of episode 4.

Happy eating together!!!

i feel the same way 😭😭 sharing food isn’t just about food, it’s healing. to be welcomed in, to be looked after, to participate together in the creation and consumption of what makes us so human

my roommate of four years was viet (i can’t even call her a roommate, we were so much more than that, she’s family) and she helped teach me how to cook and for us food wasn’t just what we ate, it was what we did. it was how we loved.

i’ve never seen someone eat so much in my life, countless shared meals, whether it was just the two of us or we were cooking for thirty other people, howl’s-moving-castle-breakfasts on weekends, hurried dinner leftovers scarfed down in the car while i drove the 55, hours-long hot pot feasts until we’re sweating and stuffed, wicked cold ice cream eaten on the curb downtown as midnight approaches, entire rainy mondays spent making phở, sandwiches with too much maggi seasoning packed in paper bags for hikes, inviting the boys over to gorge on wafer-thin bánh xèo, she’d chop tomatoes for my bruschetta because the smell of them made me sick and i would juice lemons for her when her hands were chapped and bleeding. and i’ve never had an easy relationship with food but something about lyss made eating feel so simple and right.

since she moved away and i eventually moved too i don’t have that same community anymore and i’ve struggled to eat well since losing it. i didn’t know what i had until it was gone. she never forced me to eat or chided me for not eating, she would just make really good food and share it with me. and i would eat it. i could eat it. eating was easier when she was around. so making dinner tonight was like a ritual, putting on the apron she gave me and making spring rolls for the first time in months and accidentally pouring out too much fish sauce just like she would do; and even though i don’t get to share spring rolls with her anymore, the time and the food that we shared together has changed me. and it’s okay. it’s easier to let myself eat and laugh when i can be the one to provide a meal for the people that i am with now, even if they’re not the people who make it easy, so for now i will do just that and maybe someday again i will be able to cook and eat with someone who makes it unburdensome.

#the tristamp food conversation dealt me 1 d20 damage it really could not have come at a worse (or better) time #local tumblr user repeatedly knocked flat by carefully handled themes of shared meals and disordered eating in anime #i have. an entire video about this thing exactly #personal #lyss tag

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simping-i-guess · 3 years

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Vash x Reader; Careless Choice

Do as little harm as possible, never take a life. A philosophy that you had always held close. Even when faced with horrid individuals- murderers, bandits, kidnappers, your will to bring everyone out of any situation alive and unharmed held true in your heart. Maybe it's why you and the Humanoid Typhoon got along so well. In this world, not many people held the same ideology as the two of you.

However, we all must crack sometime.

With broken skin, your knuckles weeped blood as you beat a particularly horrid foe to the ground. The unspeakable actions this person committed with no justification available- something about it broke you. You hated him. You wanted him gone. It didn't matter if he hadn't harmed you personally- you wanted him off of this planet. You wanted to save everyone from this vile individual's crimes.

Your fists wouldn't stop their torrent. Even as the man lost consciousness below you, your anger propelled you to continue. Again and again, your fists bruised the man's already scarred flesh, opening fresh wounds that mingled your blood with his. How long have I been at this? I should stop before... Your inner voice was drowned out by the distinct sound of blood pounding within your ears, and the crackled yells that tore from your tired throat with every last punch you inflicted.

But suddenly, you remembered Vash's smile. You remembered they joy he displayed when you told him that you shared his feelings on murder, on inflicting harm- on everything. You two were so alike, and that made you so very happy... except for in this moment, perhaps.

"I just think it's best if everyone stays alive. No one has the right to take another's life." Vash's words played through your head again and again, and your fists finally stopped their assault. Your eyes took in the sight of the man's face, wet with blood dripping from his nose and bubbling up through his mouth. You then looked to your own bloodied hands, turning them over slowly as they shook. You inhaled deeply, opening your hands and flexing your fingers, hoping to regain feeling in them.

What have I done to cause these bloodied hands? You wondered how it had gotten this far. How you could have possibly done this. So unlike me... so very unlike me... It was as if you'd been possessed with the blind rage of the angered victims of this individual. You didn't fully understand why this had happened, nor did you have time to dwell on it right now.

Despite the fact that your hands would not still, you were able to firmly press two fingers to the man's neck. After a single reposition of your fingers, you were able to find a slow pulse. Good, he was alive. Maybe you could fix this...

Swiftly you stood, though your legs wobbled and swayed in protest. Your adrenaline was fading, and the pain from all your sustained injuries and the exertion was becoming swiftly apparent. But it didn't matter, you had to get this person to a doctor.

Kneeling behind the man's head, you carefully lifted his upper body, slipping your hands under his arms to get leverage. You shut your eyes, trying to remember which way the town's medical center was. You were in the very outskirts of the small town, where the roads were loose and sand fluttered freely with every breeze that passed. Going out alone was a bad idea you thought to yourself. After a brief survey of your surroundings, you began the slow, painful trek back to the inhabited part of town, dragging the unconscious and bleeding man along with you. Let's hope I make it in time.

...

As the loose sand became more compact, you realized you were approaching one of the main roadways into the town's center. With a heavy sigh, you hurried your steps, hoping someone would notice you and offer help. This man wasn't light, and you had practically no feeling in your arms anymore, other than the dull throb of exertion. Unfortunately, the last person you wanted to see happened to stumble upon you.

"(Y/N)!!" Vash quickly approached you, his hands hovering uselessly as he took in the scene before him. "What happened?"

"Get a doctor for him." Your voice came out flat and detached, and you were sure your expression matched it well. "He's alive, but his pulse isn't very strong."

Vash was quick to take the burden from you, using his strength to easily lift the man out of your arms. "What about you? You should-"

"I'm fine, Vash." You responded shortly, refusing to look at his face. "I'm just going to wash up."

Despite the ache within your legs, they continued to carry you, and you mindlessly walked back to the small inn you and Vash were staying in together. You were thankful that the room you two were staying in had a bathtub, and the first thing you did was strip from your blood stained clothes and slowly submerge yourself into scorching hot water. You tried to clean yourself, using one of the offered cloth rags to wipe away some of the dried blood from your face, but you didn't get very far. Even in the warm, soothing water, your muscles ached so badly that lifting your arms was a chore.

So, you sat in solitude. You knew Vash would return, but you didn't know what you'd say. How could you explain that you almost killed a man when you had told him so many times you thought taking life was wrong? You didn't know. You were afraid of what he would think of you after this.

"(Y/N)?" Eventually, you heard Vash's voice calling for you. You didn't have it in you to respond. You instead waited in silence until Vash finally opened the door, peering into the small washroom. He put on a small smile for you as he entered the room. "I was looking for you-" Vash paused as he again assessed you, his eyes focusing on the cloth held in your limp hand. His face fell at the sight.

It's not as if the criminal hadn't fought back. Hell, he attacked you initially- the whole thing started as you defending yourself. You were sure your arms would be black and blue by the next morning, and your back would likely be similarly injured.

Crouching beside the tub, Vash took the cloth from your hand, beginning to wipe the blood from your face carefully. He started with the droplets of blood that had dried up on your cheeks, then moved to the blood that had come from your nostrils and dripped down onto your lips.

As he dabbed the blood away from the left corner of your lower lip, you cringed. Vash noticed, pulling the cloth away to look more closely. "Ooh, your lip is gonna be a bit swollen for a while." Vash commented, returning to cleaning it, albeit more gently this time. You huffed out through your nose.

"I'll probably have shiners coming in too, soon enough." You commented, your voice coming out weakly. Considering the strain shouting put on your poor throat, you'd likely have a very weak tone for the next few days.

"Yeah, it looks like it was a pretty bad scuffle." Vash said, no judgment present within his voice. You unconsciously held your breath, again feeling guilty about your contribution to the fight.

After Vash finished thoroughly cleaning off your face, he gave you a small smile. "Now," He began as he dipped the cloth back into the water, wringing it out to clean some of the blood out of it. "Do you wanna tell me what happened?"

You shrunk at Vash's question. He still didn't sound like he was judging you- but he must have seen the condition of the man he took to the medical center. Your eyes locked on your bloody and bruised knuckles as you steeled your resolve, only taking a moment to search for your words. After clearing your throat, you gave a simple, honest answer.

"I lost control. I almost killed him. I wanted to kill him."

Vash seemed momentarily surprised at your admission, but otherwise he carried on with his task. He took one of your hands, holding it gently as he dabbed the cloth against your knuckles. "But you didn't." Vash pointed out.

"That doesn't mean I didn't get close. He had relented long before I stopped myself." You sucked in a breath through your teeth, your knuckles beginning to sting as Vash revealed just how raw your knuckles were under all of the blood. "I shouldn't have allowed myself to lose control like that."

Again, Vash didn't seem to respond harshly. He just hummed in acknowledgment and continued cleaning off your knuckles, though he was clearly in thought. "Did you intend to kill him when the fight started?" Vash asked. You would have shook your head, but your muscles still ached.

"No... It was only in the heat of the moment that I considered it." Again you answered honestly, and still received no hostility from Vash. You watched his expression intently, trying to read something- anything from it. Was he angry with you? Was he hurt by your actions? You just wanted to know.

As he wiped the final bits of blood away from your hand, he finally focused his gaze on your face. He gave you a sympathetic smile, offering your hand a very soft squeeze, as to not hurt you any further. "We can all get lost in the heat of our anger. What's important is being able to pull yourself out of that anger so you can look at the bigger picture and make the best decisions possible."

"That doesn't make what I did any less... horrible." You retorted.

"No, but you didn't get to the point of no return. The man is alive, and according to the doctor, will be fine. He will however, spend the rest of his life confined for his crimes." Vash informed you, and moved to take your second hand to clean. "I understand your anger, even if I think you went a little far." At that, you let out a short, humorless laugh.

"A 'little' too far?" You asked rhetorically.

"Okay, maybe a lot too far." Vash again began the process of dabbing your wounds, wiping the blood away to reveal the cuts that lay beneath. "But... You didn't follow through. You had some self control. It's a learning experience."

You couldn't help it. You sniffled. Right there, as Vash cleaned your wounds, you were going to begin crying. Not from the physical pain- but the relief. Vash didn't look down on you for this. He didn't even really seem angry- just... understanding. You tried to blink away the sting in your eyes, but your attempt was fruitless. Tears still formed, and slid down your cheeks, dampening them further. At the second sniffle from you, Vash noticed.

"Hey- am I hurting you?" Vash asked, pulling the cloth away from you. "Why are you crying?"

You didn't verbally answer. You didn't have any words right now. With a slow, painful shift of your body, you extended your upper body over the side of the tub just enough to embrace Vash. It was a loose embrace, your muscles simply wouldn't allow for anything more. It didn't matter though. You wanted to be close to him.

Slowly, and ever so carefully, Vash returned your embrace. His hands came to rest against your back, smoothly stroking up and down your bruised skin. His touch was delicate, soothing the aches and pains just a bit. You let out a choked sob, pressing your face against Vash's neck.

"O-ow." You complained shortly, the sob making your sore muscles flex painfully. "C-Crying hurts..."

"Then let's try and save the tears for after you're a bit more healed." Vash spoke with a slight chuckle. You tried not to laugh, but you couldn't help it. A giggle turned into another groan of pain, and Vash would chastise you. "No laughing either, hold it in! No, don't laugh harder!!"

By the time Vash had finally got you cleaned up and tucked into your shared bed, you didn't feel quite as horrible. You still felt guilt over your actions, but your promised yourself something. You'd learn. You'd grow. You'd continue on. It would be okay.

Though, your body still felt as if it was about to fall apart. There was no way for you to be comfortable, you just ached so badly. Vash could tell, and was obviously sympathetic to your plight.

"Here- where does it hurt most?" Vash asked, having left momentarily to retrieve a washcloth from the bathroom, which was clearly damp and very hot.

"My back." You croaked out, having to clear your throat to continue speaking at all. "Should I turn over?"

"If you can manage that without hurting yourself.”

With a heave of effort, you were able to flip to lay on your stomach. You kept your arms down by your sides, knowing if you tried to rest your head against them it would ultimately just hurt.

You felt the mattress lower slightly to your left as Vash sat himself down beside you. He rolled the back of your shirt up, exposing your back. Vash audibly winced, and you felt his fingers softly stroke down your spine.

“The bruises are coming in.” Vash commented, his hand stopping at your tailbone. For a moment there was a loss of contact, but it soon returned as the hot washcloth was presses against your upper back, soothing the muscles considerably. You let out a long sigh, turning your head just enough to look up at Vash.

“Feels good... thank you.” You breathed out, talking just barley above a whisper. “You’re too good to me.”

“It’s not a big deal...” Vash downplayed, a blush tinting his cheeks.

“It is to me, Vash.” With a wince and a slight shift of your left arm, you placed a hand against Vash’s knee. “It is to me.”

“Well, uhm...” Vash cleared his throat, beginning to busy himself by massaging his fingers into your back. “...I’m glad to help.”

You hummed happily, allowing your eyes to fall closed. Sleep would soon overtake you, but not before you felt the distinct sensation of a few kisses on your cheek. You were glad you were just awake enough to feel that, at least.

#violence tw #trigun #vash the stampede x reader #vash the stampede #reader insert

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severalspoons · 4 years

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Liveblog: Rewatching Trigun, The Rest of Episode 18

Because there’s more to Episode 18 than a single sentence.

We open with a flashback.

Knives cuts off Vash’s arm in a single shot. But when Vash turns on him he actually sounds shocked: “Are you actually pointing at me? Are you actually shooting at me again?!”

Knives makes Vash’s angel arm appear by snapping his fingers. How and why does that work?

There’s a moment of silence after Fake Vash the Stampede (or as I prefer to think of him, Pig Man) blows up the saloon where Wolfwood’s hanging out at the bar and Lina and Ericks are taking refuge. That awful, “Who’s going to do something?” silence. And because no one else steps forward, and Ericks can’t not help, Ericks does.

But he’s the one with the most to lose. He can’t act too competent, which means he’s gonna get hurt.

Why doesn’t Wolfwood do anything? There’s even a child involved. And I’m pretty sure he recognizes “Ericks,” if not by appearance than by voice.

More than that, does Ericks notice Wolfwood at the bar, and if so, why does he know Wolfwood won’t step up, and do it himself instead?

Wolfwood is suddenly at the window comforting Lina. For some reason she doesn’t freak out about some random stranger putting a hand on her head? Especially after that ordeal with pedo Pig Man outside? It’s not your fault, he has his reasons. :’-(

Poor Vash. I can’t look. OK, maybe I can look at that shot of his back. ;)

It occurs to me, there are more reaction shots of Wolfwood listening to Vash sing that stupid song than during this scene. As far as we know, he hasn’t seen Vash’s scars. Wolfwood’s seen some shit, so he wouldn’t freak out in the same way Meryl and Milly did, but it would matter to him. I feel like if the insurance girls had been present instead, we would have seen more of their reactions. But who knows. Maybe the animators just took pity on us and spared us from more secondhand embarrassment.

Weird moment I didn’t remember. Pig Man looks like he’s about to cause more trouble. Wolfwood looks out the window over his sunglasses, which sparkle, in a dangerous way. Pig Man actually backs off and leaves. Does Pig Man recognize Wolfwood? Why didn’t Pig Man see him earlier? Why didn’t Wolfwood show himself earlier, if Pig Man would run away?

It’s a weird culture where “your pride or your life?” is hard to answer. I’m 100% with Wolfwood when he bangs their heads together and reminds them that they’d be dead if not for “Ericks.”

Sheryl is tough as knives and protective, even more than Lina. Love her. I can see why Ericks is so at home with them.

Sheryl and Lina reminiscing about the many times Ericks has previously been in the hospital. One of them, not surprisingly, involved protecting someone. The previous one involved falling off a Thomas. Some things never change. (Geez, you’d think after all this time he would have learned to ride some sort of transportation).

I’m not sure if no one notices Wolfwood because he’s actually a good assassin, or because they’re just oblivious.

Vash, are you... sparkling? I’m sure there’s a perfectly heterosexual explanation for this.

What sane doctor would let someone who just slapped a patient in the face be alone with said patient?

Vash at probably the most open and vulnerable we’ve ever seen him. A little self pitying, but he’s earned it.

Now he sounds like Fred Marlon: “Whenever I do anything people die.” So he’s refusing to do anything at all. Speaking of Fred Marlon, he repaired Vash’s gun for free. For talking him out of that exact same attitude toward life. Kind of funny, isn’t it.

“If you want this pathetic little existence so bad you’d give up everything else...” Wolfwood has seen enough to know why the existence is meaningful to Vash and not exactly pathetic. But this is Wolfwood, who has experienced very little kindness in his life. Who expresses kindness with a slap to the face. He’s in tough love mode. And it seems like there’s only so much he can be kind without being a dick.

6 months? Wow, it’s been a long time.

Hmm... not the top item of concern right now, but how does Wolfwood know about Knives, or Vash’s commitment to stopping him? 0.0 :3

It’s crucial that Wolfwood leave the room and let Vash freely decide what to do. It’s crucial that he hook Vash in by telling him about Knives. And it’s crucial that he expects Vash to make the right choice and waits patiently outside.

Vash admits how much he really wanted to stay. Wolfwood actually sounds sympathetic when he says, “sorry, them’s the breaks.”

That moment when they get serious and go save Lena (”showtime”) is amazingly hot. Vash in competent mode is amazing enough. I’m swooning.

“100 each? That’s not fair to them.” Love it.

Wow, as soon as they figure out Ericks is Vash, they want to run him out of town?! Did they seriously just forget Ericks saving so many of them on multiple occasions? Did they forget that just as Ericks was really Vash the Stampede, Vash was really also Ericks? Fuck these people.

“You could end up alone with no one there to help. That’s what worries us the most.” Very wise, Sheryl. Fortunately, he’s not going to be leaving alone.

Sheryl telling Wolfwood to take care of Vash and basically saying “unlike you, he’s a good, pure person.” Not quite true, but damn.

Ah, the symbolic haircut. Vash just isn’t himself without that spiky hairdo. As usual, someone else does it, even though if baby!Knives did a creditable job, Vash could surely manage.

Vash and Lena saying goodbye is so touching.

Vash basically just hugs Lena’s head. This is relevant to any discussions about Vash’s sense of boundaries.

Adorable photos of the three of them together.

Lina says (and I think Sheryl feels) like she wants to help him, but in the end, he ends up helping her. She feels a little guilty for that. But it’s exactly what Vash needed.

A lot of my earlier posts have focused on how lonely Vash’s life has been. I’m elated that he found a family who love and support him.

Even though he has to leave and change his identity in order to keep them safe, I hope he really feels that he has a place to return.

***

This is one of my favorite episodes. There is so much unconditional love, from Sheryl, Lina, and Wolfwood. And for once, Vash is receiving it, not just giving it.

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pancake-breakfast · 1 year

Text

Time to finish up volume 1 of TriMax!

Archive

Trigun Volume 1: Covers + 1-3, 3 Detailed Thoughts, 4, 4 DT, 5-6, 5-6 + DT, 6 DT, 7-8, 9-10

Trigun Volume 2: Covers + Extras, 1, 1 Supplemental Research, 2-4, 5-6, 7-8

TriMax Volume 1: 1-2, 2 DT, 3-4, 3 DT

Stream-of-consciousness thoughts for TriMax Vol. 1, Chapters 5-6 below.

Chapter 5: Dancing Revolver

Gods, Vash always has to do that little hip jut, doesn't he?

Eyyy, geranium scene!

It's funny because geraniums are seen as almost plain here. They get used a lot in, like, planters for strip malls and such because they're hardy, drought-resistant beasts that need very little care and grow nicely from cuttings so they're cheap AF to reproduce and spread around. (BTW, if you ever want to add some pretty geraniums you see out in public to your yard/patio/whatever, you can just "borrow" a nice stem from that plant, take it home, and probably grow it for yourself.)

Vash is a growing boy. Of course he's thinking with his stomach.

As someone who has tended to them, I can confidently say that geraniums are definitely determined....

I'm sure he's trying to look somewhat fierce here, but mostly he just looks annoyed.

Uh oh. Vash might have the attention of someone who will try to do some damage.

Yeah... don't go pointing guns at people (purposely or no) if you're all tensed up. You might make a regrettable move.

Oh, no. I remember this guy from the anime. Please send him back where he came from.

LOL, this Elena girl is abandoning her duties to check out Vash the Stampede.

HAHAHAHAHAHA, it's the Vash slaughter song!

"Won't leave a single man alive." Vash, you're so full of shit right now, it's hilarious.

Sorry, Wolfwood. Now you have to deal with Vash being dramatic and calling attention to himself.

The funniest thing about this page to me is how Vash goes from screaming, "AAAAAAAA!!!" in Japanese to screaming, "AAAAAAAAA!!!" in English.

Pretty sure he just turned into a windmill of legs and coattails.

Yeah, from what I gather, bullet-proof vests don't keep you from getting nasty bruises and broken ribs. They just keep the hot lead from entering your body and doing the kind of damage that's harder to recover from.

He's remembering this morning's training session, I see.

Hey, Vash warned them....

Did he miss, though? Did he??

LOL, yeah, he did not.

This is, like, a Vash catchphrase at this point.

Well, if he didn't have Vash's attention before, he has it now.

Chapter 6: Sin

This doesn't have anything to do with the manga; I just want to note the number of times I've tried to navigate these pages by pushing left instead of right on my keyboard ('cause that's the way you read manga) is really, really high.

The contrast between the doctor's optimism and Brad's pessimism. Also, doc's viewing glass.

Wolfwood is having WAY too much fun spectating here. He looks like he's genuinely enjoying the chaos of it all.

Even scum can beg for its life when the tables are turned. Is the regret true and will it stick, or will being allowed mercy only open the door to further atrocities down the line? Do we have the right to decide?

Vash is making a choice, and it's not a choice to do nothing.

Hehhhh, people saying, "What do you know about my pain?" to Vash. Yes, this kind of pain is unique and individual, and Vash hasn't been through anything quite like losing a daughter in such a horrific fashion (that we know of; he is quite old), but he does understand both horrific loss and unimaginable betrayal, as well as the grief, self-blame, and feelings of utter helplessness that can come in its aftermath.

Poor Vash. He looks like hell after that fight. Probably feels like it, too.

Vash gave the father time to not become a murderer, and that's the sort of thing that would be of infinite value to Vash.

This panel, though. Important character notes here. In fact, one might say the only person Vash might not see as family on this planet is his very own twin.

The doctor sure has some trust in Vash getting out of things. And... he probably knows Vash well enough to know Vash would regret if his situation caused trouble for the doc and the rest of the people on that steamer.

LOL, Wolfwood, making a dramatic entrance, ready to bust through everything with hot lead and his beloved bike. He looks like an antihero arriving to save his kidnapped woman.

Hahahahahahaha, he pretty much buried Vash in rubble with that entrance. Mmmmmaybe didn't think it all the way through....

This panel has the same energy as Wolfwood telling Vash that kicking a rocket out of the air was "fucking stupid."

Awww, Wolfie, your heart of gold is showing....

We're just gonna ignore these panels where WW warns Vash that one of these days, pushing his luck won't work and he'll have to choose. I'm sure there's no foreshadowing in that whatsoever. Nope, none at all.

Ok, I tried to ignore it, but I also want to note I think Stampede did an excellent job capturing this running theme of how Vash is walking a precarious path trying not to choose. I don't remember that theme at all in '98. (Not saying it wasn't there; just saying it doesn't stand out in my memory.) Meanwhile, it's not just core to Vash's story in Stampede, but it's core to Meryl's and Wolfwood's stories in Stampede, too, even if in theirs, it's not mentioned so explicitly by the narrative.

Goshdarn it. That stupid Hitler-moustached, too-tall bowler hat guy is still here. Yes, yes, I know he wasn't dealt with so he can't just leave. But I want him to leave because it's better than him being in the narrative.

SEE?!!? GOOD PEOPLE DON'T HAVE PEOPLE PUPPETS LIKE THAT. SEND BOWLER HAT GUY BACK!!!

Uuuuhhhhh.... Look, I get that Legato (like a good percentage of the major characters in this story) likes fetish gear, but wearing a freaking iron maiden is taking it to a whole 'nother level.

Also, is he really big, or is this new creature person very small, or is the panel just framed weird for weird perspective? Questions....

Author Bonus Chapter: Gun Love Island

SALUTATIONS!!!

If this panel is meant to be the inside of Nightow's brain, it's a... very busy place. I do have a special appreciation for the dragon dissolving into a single sexy fishnet leg.

Oh, so the '98 anime had already started by the time this collection came out.

"First half of the story." LOL, half. Lies. But this might be a bit of a translation error. I've seen it elsewhere. Seems like (and I could be wrong here since I'm not a Japanese language expert by any means) the Japanese terms for parts of things don't necessarily mean equal parts like they do in English. To clarify, in English, if we say "a third," we mean 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 = 1, but the Japanese term that usually gets translated into 1/3 (三分; literally "three parts") can also mean 1/3 + 1/2 + 1/6 = 1. It's still referring to one part of three out of the whole, but that part is not necessarily equal to the other parts. Then again, the characters usually used for "half" are 半分 rather than 二分, and to the best of my knowledge, 半 does indeed mean equal halves, so maybe I'm wrong in this instance. I don't know, I'm not reading this in Japanese and I've only studied the language for like 3 years, which is nothing for Japanese.

Hahahahaha, sounds like Trigun is a bit of a case of the story running away with the author. It happens sometimes.

I'm also happy that people like Nightow's characters. Thank you very much.

#thank you all the manga readers who've come before me for keeping this manga going long enough to reach its conclusion #and eventually make its way back to me #trigun maximum #volume 1 #trigunbookclub #pancake thoughts

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pancake-breakfast · 1 year

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I could sleep. I could play video games. Or I could Trigun Bookclub.

Trigun Bookclub it is.

Stream-of-consciousness thoughts for Trigun Vol. 1, Chapters 9-10 below. (More detailed thoughts will be their own posts.)

Chapter 9: Between Wasteland and Sky...

I love that the girls actually comment on how hot and uncomfortable those suits were.

Meryl is right; this is very non-standard for an insurance agent. It's even pushing it for a reporter.

Howwwww does Prada even exist out here?? How did they manage to transfer name brands this far away?? Did Mr. Prada (I know almost nothing about Prada) buy himself a cryogenic stasis chamber on one of the ships??? Where are they getting the materials? Why are they getting the materials?? Are they just... made out of Thomas leather??? I HAVE QUESTIONS.

Please apply the previous point to Gucci, and Fendi....

I don't have anything in particular to say about it, but I do like the title page spread.

Ok, what's going on with the proportions on this page. First, Katie only comes up to Vash's waist, and then she's a little below shoulder height when he's only barely slouching? Dude.

I think she asks a legitimate question about the functioning of his pain receptors.

Letting a plant overload is bad. Letting a Plant overload is worse.

My dude Mr. Hat Guy. You recognize the blueprints are valuable. Do NOT step on them! Rude.

Honestly, this shows a lot of maturity from Katie. Even if one is working to make things right, there are still consequences one must accept. And Vash... he seems to accept her decisions in this. Or maybe empathize with them, but I'm getting ahead of things.

I like this guy peeking around the text bubble.

Plant reveal! Though I feel like Vash's line might be misinterpreted to be referring to Katie instead of our new bubble lady friend.

I wonder if Plants are really ever in control. They're already century-old tech that (almost) no one understands, and so they're not really controlled so much as maintained.

Yep, hitting the angel imagery HARD in the manga.

Oooh, she's getting sparkly.

Vash is trying to help, but the fact that he just jumped into things and is like, "You guys do stuff while I take care of something that no one else knows how to take care of," is just creating confusion.

Plant lady is NOT happy....

Oh, these pages are beautiful. I love how calm yet determined Vash is as he approaches her. I love his wings showing, clearly for the reader's sake and not as something anyone around them can see. I love their hands mirroring each other on the glass. I love the way her expression changes from this...

...to this:

Putting the "dead" in "deadline" here, aren't we?

TBH, I LOVE that they gave taking care of the heat valve to Wolfwood in Stampede. I mean, I know he hasn't even shown up yet here in the manga, but having him show up sooner and then push his way through the people to handle it on his own really drives home both how much he's changed from being a "normal" human and how much he's willing to go through for a chance at protecting the orphanage. The... uh... the orphanage that isn't in this scene, either. Because different timelines.

Ok, I can't tell what the heck happened with the steamer. I'm glad I've seen the anime.

Aww, they're both all beat up. But now that Katie is awake, Vash's expression goes from serious to smiling.

Ohhhh, there's what happened with the steamer.

I like that Neon may not like Vash, but now, at least, he respects him.

I love this wide shot. Like, it may be nothing but barren wasteland, but Katie's pose is determined, and the sun has risen over the horizon. There's a lot of hope in it.

Can't not have music be part of the world in Trigun. It's very important. For real. Goes hand in hand with hope.

Hahahaha, Katie getting all defensive. Don't worry. Vash likes the tune, too.

He looks so flustered....

I love the arc coming full circle here with him once again thinking about Rem and why people keep living in spite of everything.

Of course that would make him tear up. And... of course Katie would misinterpret it an take offense. And Vash probably won't explain, because it's complicated and a permanent raw spot in his heart.

It may have arrived two days late, but it ARRIVED.

Chapter 10: Little Arcadia

Huh, I'd heard that this was originally three volumes instead of two. This must be the original volume break.

Ah, Milly and her giant family. Of which she's the youngest. Of course.

Staying up all night writing? No, I can't relate to that at all, why do you ask...

Awww, I love that her family adores her letters.

Good hell. That packet of letters she has is a BRICK.

LOL, Meryl not knowing what to write aside from, "It's dry." Girl. Your life is CRAZY. Tell them about that. Or just tell them about the mundane things, if you don't want them to worry. You can do it. I believe in you.

Oop, Vash's fangs are showing. Why ya gotta get him all flustered like that?

No wonder he's stressed. I'd be stressed if people were using me as a human shield while hurling insults at a gunman, too.

Don't put your finger on the trigger unless you're gonna shoot. That's Guns 101, Mr. Emo Gunman.

Bwa?! Sudden Insurance Girl Attack! x2!

This guy...

I love how Meryl is shouting technically true stuff about how dangerous Vash is while Vash himself is looking pathetic AF. I'm sure he's LOVING everything she's saying about how dangerous he is, too....

Yes, indeed, Old People. Meryl and Milly are definitely... different.

Poor Vash just hiding and gibbering in the bottom of the panel...

Vash may have soup brain, but Milly has ice cream brain. Which I guess is still a kind of soup if you put enough toppings in it and then let it melt for a bit.

"It's nothing really." Yep. Nothing. It just increases their frequency of getting into life-or-death situations and has them constantly having to do their best to mitigate both their charge (who is VERY good at both trouble and sneaking) and other people who aren't positively inclined toward their charge (understandable, but also it's a misunderstanding). NBD.

I like how, for once, Milly and Meryl are being propositioned for bodyguard work instead of Vash.

Aaaand now they're asking Vash.

That risk prevention policy sounds handy. I bet you can slide a lot of usually-unauthorized behavior under there.

Uhhhh... I feel like I should be extra-concerned about something if Vash is concerned about it.

Trees!

I do hope they find a way to weave this story into Stampede...

Plants (lower-case) belong to the people. PLANTS BELONG TO THE PEOPLE!!! Naturally.

Vash probably is genuinely impressed by all this.

That's it. That's the point of the story. That's what Vash is constantly trying to do. And biblically, something something mustard seed growing from being tiny-tiny to something huge and bountiful.

Ooh, rejecting people looking at the picture of his family. There's a story there. Especially considering that this chapter started with Milly writing letters to her own family.

Oh, gods. More Nebraskas....

#just because i know these stories from '98 doesn't mean i can't throw myself whole-heartedly into my first read of the full manga #trigunbookclub #trigun manga #volume 1 #pancake thoughts

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severalspoons · 4 years

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Liveblog: Rewatching Trigun, Episode 17 part 2

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

We pick up with Rem and the Captain talking.

-- Rem has a very breathy voice.

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

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

Knives sounds genuinely concerned about Vash.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- “So then, why am I here?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It all begins next episode.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vash attacks Knives for the first time.

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

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

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

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

-- “Vash, take care of Knives.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#liveblog #liveblogging #trigun #trigun anime #knives millions #millions knives #vash the stampede #rem saverem #character analysis #philosophy #symbolism #anime vs. manga #nicholas d. wolfwood #feels #i'm not crying you're crying

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