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[to-eat-laugh-love-in-peace]

#tristampparty day 3, episode 3: bright light, shine through the darkness

DAY 3 OF @tristampparty!! this episode was the one that hooked me lol, LET'S GOOOOO

the radio dj here is vash's jp seiyuu, masaya onosaka!! the voice of the humanoid typhoon talking about an approaching storm... but it's knives who's the storm...

also i LOVE how knives just saunters slowly towards the city. we barely know anything about him but it immediately sets him up as an imposing presence.

once again roberto is quick on the uptake. like he not only knows exactly who's responsible for all this but he's got him fuckin PROFILED. truly a senior reporter.

also is it just me or is eg the mine the most forgettable gung-ho gun. i keep calling him MC Bomber (<- that's an ace attorney reference)

he looks very good here

he just prepared this ahead of time i guess...? for dramatic effect i guess??? and it happened to be in the right spot, where everyone was watching??? this is what the ghg's budget goes to???

the plants are pretty goddamn resilient, aren't they? like obviously it would be a bad idea to contain them in glass that could easily break, but this poor plant has been through so much today, and there isn't so much as a crack.

i love how roberto puts his whole pussy into meryl's plan. he's always chiding her for her reckless behavior but he goes all in on this.

this scene reminds me of that one scene... yknow the one where the guy is like, "this guy killed my daughter" and vash is like, "don't kill him!" and... oh, it was the scene after vash sings his total slaughter song!! yeah!!

"whose side are you on?" count: 1

okay i'm obsessed with knives's introduction scene because

nobody noticed him enter the city. granted, they were distracted, but still.

he made a BEELINE for the piano?!?! WHY... THAT'S SO FUNNY OF HIM... he was really like "okay before i do ANYTHING else i have to find a piano and play my little tune" he's such a fucking drama queen

lost arm count: 2

wait this is in the diner?! i didnt even notice there was a piano in the diner. goddamn.

"whose side are you on?" count: 2

i'm just... putting a pin in this line for later.

i still don't fully understand what knives did to vash's gun...? honestly i also still don't really understand how gates work either...? orange probably has it all written out to the last detail in their lore bible...

also god i just. love how knives moves. he's so imposing. ouuuahahghghh

lost arm count: 3

i have some questions about why this is happening in this order. so mine scoped out the city beforehand and prepped all his bombs so he could have fun killing and steal the plant. then knives arrives afterwards which i don't think mine anticipated? like based on how he reacts, he seems surprised that knives is there? and then ninelives + conrad + elendira ii* (*she is not my elendira) show up and knives says:

did knives actually not know he was coming or is he being sarcastic LOL. also because he says "good timing" like did he not expect them to be there?! why did they all arrive at different times. are the ghg just that disorganized.

also i'm so concerned for rosa in these episodes LOL she's getting tossed around so much while pregnant... is the baby okay?!?!

lost arm count: 4

i love how we never actually get a proper look at knives's face this episode - this is the first "good" look we get, and it's only half.

"whose side are you on?" count: 3

his EXPRESSION here AAUAHGHGHGHGAHAOAHGHHG

i just wanted to point out vash fully reloading his gun because earlier in the episode when he shot at eg mine's vantage point he only put one bullet in his gun.

godddd when knives destroys the city. i can't do it justice with screenshots but it's such a gorgeous scene and it was the moment i became enthralled with this character LOL. that was over 6 months ago... actually wait. *checks* it was SEVEN months ago TO THE DATE. EXACTLY SEVEN MONTHS AGO. I'VE BEEN MICROWAVING KNIVES FOR SEVEN MONTHS. WATCHING HIM SPARK IN THERE.

oh also hey we see that gofsef is still alive actually. father nebraska did all that for nothing smh.

lost arm count: 5

rosa says this but honestly... knives would have stolen the plant regardless of vash's presence. like he didn't really engage vash that much in this episode. like he said what he wanted to say but it's clear his priority was the plant. which, considering what i said in my first post about the subs and dub script... yeah i think those were wrong.

and the fact she calls him humanoid typhoon, not by his name... oof

okay i can't focus on writing this post anymore cause i'm distracted by vtubers again so we'll end it here. WOLFWOOD INTRODUCTION NEXT EP LET'S GOOOOOO

[to-eat-laugh-love-in-peace]

#tristampparty day 2, episode 2: the running man

day 2 of @tristampparty!! i have less to say about this episode than the first one so hopefully this will be a shorter post than yesterday LOL

iirc this is 98 knives's seiyuu on the radio, right?!!! i am only about halfway through my jp 98 watch and can't recognize him by ear (yet) but i think it's very neat that the original seiyuus have cameos :')

also vash keeping the photo with him What If I Ate Rocks

he is such a kicked puppy of a man

why does roberto say revenge. what does he mean. what does he know. what has he figured out from knowing vash for maybe like a few hours. or is he just throwing that out there without realizing how close he is to the truth. partially, anyway. he didn't guess the savior complex part.

i'm not entirely sure what meryl means by honor...? but money is a pretty normal reason to want a plant, as we've seen and as we'll continue to see.

i like how meryl has a fear of bugs... i can relate lol. i think this character trait comes from the manga when she was kidnapped by zazie and was grossed out? i think here it also serves to reinforce her being sheltered, still unfamiliar with the world at large since worms are everywhere--WAIT HOLD ON.

PAUSE. ZOOM. ENHANCE.

RAI-DEI SPOTTED?!?!??!?! this rewatch is becoming an I Spy game with the wanted posters, jfc.

man i'm so glad i finally downloaded tristamp so i can appreciate the visuals without the crunchiness of streaming video... i can't do the animation justice with just screenshots but i love watching vash scamper around like a... i don't know. he scampers like a cockroach in 98, but this is giving a different vibe. like a... something. like a creature.

i also want to take a second to appreciate how gorgeous the backgrounds are, like,

i loooove the backgrounds, it looks like... maybe a mix of markers and colored pencil... i love the detail and the colors are so pleasing. this is such a gorgeous anime to look at, i don't know how anyone could possibly say it looks bad without them just blindly hating it because it's 3dcg. god i'm getting so distracted looking at the backgrounds that i'm missing the action AND the subtitles LOL

wasn't there a post somewhere that actually calculated how much a bullet is worth based on this information. i don't remember what conclusion it came to. but i'm thinking either food is expensive (tbh, likely) or bullets are inexpensive and vash is just poor (also likely). also it's funny that the dub changed this to donuts. ...where are the donuts at in tristamp anyway...

roberto lmao 😭😭😭😭😭 i guess that's one way to guarantee it doesn't spill

roberto up until this point has acted like meryl is dragging him along unwillingly, but here he's the one telling meryl to get in the car so they can get a move on, lol. yeah yeah we all already know he's actually a softie and that he really cares underneath his aloof demeanor.

which brings us to this scene... i don't want to say that he has vash "all figured out" because obviously he doesn't, but he's got SOME of vash figured out at least. definitely more than meryl atp. he knows vash is running from knives... i wonder how this conversation would have gone if they weren't interrupted.

yeah i don't really have that much to say about this ep, relatively speaking... i don't have any deep thoughts about the nebraskas, they're just comic relief villains anyway, i don't care about them that much, even though tristamp kind of tries to make us care a little bit by the end of this episode...

next episode is gonna be a doozy though. ohohohohohoho.

[to-eat-laugh-love-in-peace]

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

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

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

okay episode 1 let's gooooo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

>:T

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

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

the biggest wettest eyes you've ever seen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

we're just getting started. see you tomorrow.

[to-eat-laugh-love-in-peace]

So I have a theory that the next season of Trigun Stampede is going to tackle the Fifth Moon Incident seeing as one, there have been a few official merchandise that depicted one or more moons in the background such as a t-shirt depicting the phases of the moon right beside the series’ title and above Vash and Wolfwood who are standing back to back with their guns drawn,

a Vash figure that again has him with his gun drawn depicting not only three moons but also Jeneora Rock, which was where the Fifth Moon Incident took place in the manga, behind him,

and a poster from the Blu-ray Soundtrack CD Booklet depicting Vash releasing a grappling hook from his prosthetic arm towards the general direction of the largest of the three moons present in the background, with the friction from the grappling hook being released causing sparks to fly,

and two, in the end credits scene in episode 12 an unbroken shot of the crater-laden surface of a moon overlooking a red and brown planet that I think is supposed to be No Man’s Land is shown while two people can be heard talking to each other off-screen. This leads me to think that Chronica and the other members of Project Pieces of Earth are going to have something to do with the Fifth Moon Incident happening this time around as seen how one of the two voices belongs to an unidentified man, who says that Project Pieces of Earth is entering phase two now that the drain gate deployment has been completed and the experimental warp drive craft is just about to be released, only for the other voice belonging to a woman later identified as Special Ops Lieutenant Colonel Independent Chronica, to give him the order to suspend the countdown because she notices a fluctuation in the gate, that they’re receiving something via subspace, and so she gives the order to be given readings of the entire solar system from which they learn that the noise is coming from Project SEEDS, which leads to Zazie letting Meryl know that ships from Earth will arrive at No Man’s Land after crossing a bridge of light thanks to the twins casting a bridge across the void during their confrontation in July when they met up at the memorial, before they take off. Also, in Tristamp’s iteration of the July Incident, when Vash tries to keep the excess energy from his gate he had condensed into the cube he kept contained within his demon arm from killing every living being on the planet and even possibly destroying the entire planet itself once the cube came apart, he couldn’t just point his demon arm up at the sky from where he was standing like he did in Trimax and ‘98, he had to actually fly past the planet’s atmosphere in order to release the blast into space so he’s likely going to enter into another fight with Knives that takes place in space for the Fifth Moon Incident to take place so they might be bringing in the Ark.

And on top of that, I think that the series of events that lead up to the Fifth Moon Incident are going to be combined with the series of events that lead up to another incident in Trimax where Vash nearly caused another July Incident, the Dragon’s Nest Incident, seeing as the people present and had a role to play in the Dragon’s Nest Incident were Hoppered the Gauntlet, Midvalley the Hornfreak, Zazie the Beast, Legato Bluesummers, Elendira the Crimsonnail, Millions Knives, Vash the Stampede, Nicholas the Punisher, Meryl Stryfe, and Milly Thompson, and in Tristamp, and in Tristamp Hoppered is pretty much confirmed to show up since his entire character hinges on the destruction of July City, Midvalley was name dropped in a newspaper article Roberto was reading in episode 6 about how he was scheduled to perform in September City for his live tour, Milly was also name dropped and practically confirmed to appear in S2 as Meryl’s very own newbie, with Meryl literally heading back to HQ to pick her up, Vash, Meryl, and Wolfwood have traveled together and gotten to know each other for at least two months prior to Lost July, with episode 1 taking place at May 25 and episode 12 taking place at July 21, which they were personally there to witness, and even play a part in, with Meryl learning not only more about Vash but also Wolfwood thanks to Conrad after getting kidnapped by Zazie and held hostage at the EoM’s base of operations in July City on top of receiving her signature weapon that is her derringer from Roberto and solidifying her resolve to go after Vash and help him however way she can to stop Knives from killing off each and every human on the planet, and Legato and Elendira have already made an appearance, however brief they were, so the cast lines up.

Starting with Vash having to leave behind his life with Lina and Sheryl as Eriks, I think that bringing him back into the fray in S2 is going to be group effort among Meryl, Milly, and Wolfwood for reasons others have pointed here and here, and that S2 is going to take the scene of Meryl returning Vash’s belongings that had been confiscated by the Bernardelli Insurance Society now that it had gone out of business with everything that had been happening with Knives and the ark in Trimax, and have it be her returning Vash’s belongings that he didn’t bring with him to July and instead left on Ship 3, like his photo of him, Nai, and Rem, along with the other photos of them and maybe even that recorder thing that Rem used to film their first birthday that Brad had been able to bring back from the ruins of Ship 5 back then and also that notebook he was shown writing what were likely journal entries during the flashback to the first few years he spent living in Ship 3, among other things like small trinkets he’s kept during his travels around No Man’s Land in Tristamp, since he was kind of pressed for time what with Meryl and Roberto getting kidnapped by Zazie so he really only brought the bare necessities with him to July.

That is assuming Meryl was able to visit Ship 3 at some point after the July incident which I like to think that she was able to one way or another even if she did leave on short notice. I figured that with how well Meryl and Luida got along while she was on Ship 3, especially with how supportive Meryl was of Luida’s goal to terraform No Man’s Land into a green planet with the flora she’s been growing in Ship 3’s biodome in order to lessen the strain the plants, they would want to keep in touch with one another somehow from that point on. And then there’s also the fact that Zazie told her that ships from Earth were on their way to No Man’s Land so Meryl would want to talk to a first-generation Project SEEDS crew member about it which I wonder how it’ll go since it seems like in Tristamp no one not even the people on Ship 3 seems to hace any idea that there's still life of Earth seeing as Luida’s plan in Tristamp isn't to repeatedly send a message to Earth until their receive and respond to it like it was in Trimax but to terraform No Man’s Land into a green planet in order to lessen the amount of work that the Plants have to do in order to keep humanity alive. Also, I also have a theory that the new pairs of earrings that she’s shown wearing two years after the July Incident aren't just for show, that they were given to her by Ship 3 and they work kind of like how Vash's earring does in '98 and Trimax where it acts as a hidden communication device connected to a pen or just the other earring in her case since she owns a pair ever since I heard someone, somewhere, forgot where, point out that Meryl’s new earrings look not only like a combination of her signature dangle earrings and Vash's signature huggie earring in silver, but also like a Dependent Plant with their petals curled to form a bulb around their upper torsos, I haven’t stopped thinking about it ever since.

I’ve theorized before in the tags of another post here that Brilliant Dynamites Neon and Meryl might have a confrontation with each other in S2 since although the two haven’t interacted much outside of her and Milly disguising themselves as members of the Bad Lads Gang to later back up Vash and Kaite when they’re cornered by the Bad Lads Gang during their heist on the sand steamer in the ‘98 and Trimax, in both iterations Neon took the time to ask Vash about what exactly happened in July that led to the city being destroyed, and in '98 its residents being left alive but homeless unemployed and impoverished leading them to fight and kill each other to survive in the fallout of the incident, and in Trimax its residents being swallowed by a black hole leading to no survivors or even any bodies left to be found which led Vash to ask him if he had folks who were in July at the time of the incident and then admit that he just didn't remember much about July when asked if he had anything to do with it which Neon was forced to accept before the two had a duel and then after Neon shot a rock about to crush Vash's head during their duel he was revealed to have been prepared to kill Vash for some time since July only for him to decide spare him for now not having let go of his reasons for wanting revenge post-July to stay true to the terms of their duel as was pointed out in this post.

Now in Tristamp Meryl was not only in July when the incident took place but was also there to witness firsthand what exactly happened for the city to have been completely demolished and more than half of its population to have been killed by a large explosion. Also, unlike Vash in '98, Trimax, and possibly Tristamp she didn't develop amnesia from the traumatic incident and still retains her memories of the incident. On top of that, she along with Roberto were announced on the radio to be suspected accomplices of Vash the Stampede who the military police were looking to bring in as persons of interest in episode 4, and she’s implied to have been spending the past two years since the July Incident defending Vash as was pointed out here. And then add in the fact that she's met the Bad Lads Gang when they took her and Roberto with them to the sandsteamer to take pictures of them during their heist to publish in the paper before Vash came in and knocked them out and all of this took place on July 20, the day before the July Incident took place, meaning that they could recognise her if they tried to find her. Also I wonder why Neon wasn't on the ship at the time like was he visiting his folks in July only to be pulled away when he heard that the heist was a bust because the ship was taken off course and its ion cannon was locked and loaded to fire at Hopeland? And if Neon had folks in July in Tristamp then what's their deal since it's been said to be the wealthiest city in NML with its citizens having to contribute to the city's development and pass a screening process to obtain citizenship according to additional lore provided in a tweet by Studio Orange.

I’ve also theorized in the tags of another post here whether or not Studio Orange will adapt the Little Arcadia arc considering what they've established with the flora in S2 which I think that they’ll likely adapt it because one, that’s when Marilyn Nebraska along with her mother and brothers make an appearance in Triamax and in Tristamp she’s been seen in wanted posters from time to time confirming her existence in this iteration, and two it puts a lot of focus on Meryl and Milly, like it provides some insight into their personal lives with their families and everything, as well as who they are as individuals and as partners, and with Milly being confirmed to show up in S2 as Meryl's very own newbie it's going to be crucial that they take some time for them to get to know each other and grow closer. Besides that if they ever do adapt the Little Arcadia arc I wonder how they would adapt Badwick and his family? With how Meryl reacted to the flora and by extension Geo Plants on Ship 3 are Geo-Plants just that rare even among Plants? Does no one else really try to use them to grow flora to the extent that Luida does? If so, what would that mean for Badwick's parents? Are they people who have no connection to Luida or Ship 3 and simply happen to share her dream to terraform NML into a green planet through the use of a Geo-Plant they have in their possession only for their dream to be threatened by their son planning to sell the land to someone who wouldn't really take care of it not to the extent that they have and certainly not with the dream that they hold? Or is something else going to go on with them?

Moving onto Legato, I think that when he does reappear in S2 he’s already going to be in a body cast like his Trimax counterpart was in since I think that the reason why he wasn’t in the S1 finale was because Knives crippled him prior to Vash’s arrival as punishment for acting on his own when he had taken the sandsteamer off of its original course to July through the use of his telekinetic ability to have it collide with Hopeland instead, leading Vash to take even longer to get to July after he had exhausted himself from communicating with the ship’s Plant to slow the ship to a stop, on top of redirecting the ship’s ion cannon which he had also telekinetically manipulated to power up to keep it from firing at Hopeland, fighting with Livio who he had sent after him, and fighting off the Bad Lads Gang who’d taken over the ship and held Meryl and Roberto hostage, and so had to be taken to Ship 3 to rest and recuperate for more than half of the day he was supposed to have already arrived in July, when he was just supposed to take the ship’s Plant once it arrived to July and further raise the stakes by stranding the ship’s passengers, leaving them with no other choice than to seek refuge in the city.

Either leading him to focus either solely on Vash after possibly both out of anger for being responsible for Knives’ state after July, nevermind the fact that Knives wouldn’t have been in that state had he not continued to put himself in Vash’s demon arm’s line of fire to reach for the cube despite Vash yelling at him to stop, to get out of the way, that he’s going to burn himself alive if keeps this up, and shame because his actions had led him to be put in a position where he couldn’t assist Knives when he surely would have needed it most, or direct his attention to Vash along with Wolfwood and Meryl because all three of them, in his eyes, had a part in Knives’ being severely injured, if not nearly dead after July. Or at least in Wolfwood’s case, he was the reason why Meryl had gotten out of July before the incident took place which I’m sure he wouldn’t be very happy about.

For a moment I thought that the idea of him meeting Vash for the first time since July in a full metal body cast like the coffin-shaped one that was either carried around by a lackey, attached to a motorcycle he would drive around, or attached to a sort of arm piece that would prop him up or push him forward his Trimax counterpart was in when he introduces him to the game he’s set up wouldn’t be likely since it would be a bit too conspicuous for him to go out in public in but then I remembered that his Trimax counterpart had also used his ability to make himself invisible to everyone but Vash in their first meeting, which was why Meryl and Milly expressed confusion when Vash warned Wolfwood about him on the bus ride to Jeneora Rock, so he could also just do that in Tristamp. And the thought of Vash being the only one who is able to see him in this utterly ridiculous contraption while everyone else just goes about their day like nothing’s wrong is such a funny mental image to me.

Since Monev is dead in Tristamp, I think that the one who Vash is going get into a fight with first after Legato introduces him to the game that he’s set up for him is Dominique the Cyclops because when he fights her in Trimax, he’s down one arm after he had his prosthetic arm blown off during his fight with Monev, and in Tristamp he’s also down one arm after he had sacrificed his prosthetic arm along with his gun to form his demon arm during his fight with Knives in July so the circumstances he’s in in Tristamp kind of line up with the circumstances he was in in Trimax. Also, Studio Orange could could easily give Dominique a backstory in Tristamp similar to Monev’s in Trimax with just a few changes to act as a parallel to Legato’s backstory, considering how they revamped Monev’s backstory to act as a parallel to Wolfwood’s backtory in Tristamp, again with just a few changes made for it to also act as a cautionary tale for both Wolfwood and Vash.

Seeing as what we do know about her is that she talks about the deaths of half of the Roderick Slavers as a simple matter of taking out the trash that profits off of the suffering of others, even calls it spring cleaning, and expresses happiness and relief over the surviving slavers having left town and no longer lining their pockets at the expense of the townspeople and expects Vash to feel the same, she has the ability to induce sensory paralysis in her foes, momentarily stunning them and making her movements appear immediate, when she lifts her eyepatch, which reveals a reptilian eye that I like to think is simply from a mutation rather than a product of experimentation, and locks eyes with her foes, regardless of the distance between them, and she commits suicide after she loses to Vash, saying that if she couldn’t be of use to Legato, then there was only one way this could turn out, which already kind of mirrors how Legato acts when it comes to Knives.

So she could made to be another slave girl who Legato freed for whatever reason, maybe not even with the intention to free her, like how he violently killed over a dozen people with his powers in front of those slave girls in Trimax, not because he intended to free them but because the slavers picked a fight with him first, though he did spare the girls, none of them were physically harmed at all despite the carnage, and he did offer them the closest thing he had to reassurances before he left, when he could have just ignored them, which he also could have done when he freed Dominique, the difference being that instead of being left to process what exactly went down in front of her like those girls did, Dominique expressed an interest to learn from him, work for him, if he’d let her, which Legato did allow her to do, though not without warning her that she would die a slow and painful death if she ever failed or disobeyed him, maybe after learning about her left eye’s ability and figuring that it could prove useful to further Knives’ cause much like his own ability.

Since Grey the Ninelives had also made an appearance, both as the mech suit in episode 3 and as the nine people who control it in episode 10, the attack on Ship 3 is all but guaranteed to take place, and I’ve also theorized in the tags of another post here that Meryl and Milly are going to play a much larger role to take them down probably alongside Wolfwood unlike in Trimax when they really showed up at the end of the fight as comic relief like they literally just happened to land on top of the surviving pilots right when they were just about to try and attack Wolfwood again since in Tristamp Meryl got to learn more about them when Conrad took her and Roberto in a tour around the Eye of Michael’s base of operations in July after she and Roberto had gotten kidnapped but not kept locked up by Zazie so she could be how Wolfwood finds out that this big guy is just a mech suited being piloted by nine people and in Trimax there’s this line that the guy who gave Meryl her first derringer says in a flashback something along the lines of how even small gun like that could even the odds between the biggest guy and her which really gives off a lot of David and Goliath vibes that they could and I kind of want them to reference during the fight. Though I’ve briefly considered that Milly is going to be the one who gets kidnapped instead of Meryl since she’s already gotten kidnapped before by Zazie in episode 9 during which she learned more about not only Vash but also Wolfwood thanks to Conrad in episode 10 and even had gone through quite a bit character development in an elevator lift thanks to Roberto later on, I think that Meryl is still the one who's going to get kidnapped, probably to keep Vash from reaching Knives before he’s fully recovered from his injuries this time around, seeing as Wolfwood did tell her he got her out of July in a mad dash that they were likely going to be hunted down by the Eye of Michael since they’ll never allow those who pose a threat to them to survive so maybe they’re eventually going to catch up to her and then take her away when she finds herself in a vulnerable position, maybe when she’s in the middle of looking out for Milly during a fight.

Which would automatically give Milly a personal stake to get Meryl back alongside Vash and Wolfwood since not only was she there when Meryl was taken away but also she was the reason why Meryl had been taken away despite how vigilant she’d been since she was aware of what was going on. And could lead to Wolfwood and Milly having an argument over whether or not she should come with them to get Meryl back.

Wolfwood could also have a conversation with Meryl after her kidnapping about what Vash and Knives are and what they can do as well as how Meryl should maybe back out and take Milly with her like he did in Trimax, which would be a stark contrast to how he planned to leave her and Roberto behind to be digested by a grand worm to separate them from Vash so he could get he alone would bring him to July as was pointed here and here. This could be something Meryl might seriously consider doing especially when she keeps in mind the fact that they’re fighting actual supervillains and she’s nowhere near on par with Vash and Wolfwood physically, so how is she supposed to protect an intern, who is bigger and stronger than her, as the situations become more and more dangerous, and on top of all that she’s still dealing with her grief and guilt over Roberto death so she wouldn’t want to risk repeating history with Milly.

Since Zazie appears to no longer side with Knives after what he had pulled in July nearly put them and their planet in danger of being wiped out, with how Wolfwood pointed out that he had never seen them so flustered when the two met up just outside of July, and how Zazie expressed confusion and borderline disappointment towards how the general public made Vash out to be the villain behind the July Incident when they and Meryl met up at the memorial, it’s unlikely that they’re going to be ones to kidnap Meryl this time around, with that role either falling to Midvalley or someone else. I think that it's going to be Midvalley since he was the one who commented on Zazie being the one to come up with the idea to kidnap Meryl and hold her hostage to draw Vash out in Trimax so why not just have him be the one to come up with the idea instead in Tristamp, seeing as there’s also this scene during his and Hoppered’s fight with Vash and Wolfwood where he manipulates the sound waves in the area in such a way that Vash can’t hear Hoppered lunging right at him so that could be how he catches Meryl off guard.

I didn’t even bother considering Hoppered to be the one to kidnap her since I think he’s much more likely to try to kill her the first chance he gets when you keep in mind that in Tristamp not only does Meryl know more about what's going on in than her ‘98 and Trimax counterparts have at this point of the series as was pointed out here but also she’s been implied to have spent the past two years since the July incident defending Vash’s name seeing as the first scene we see of her two years after the July incident was her ripping off Vash’s new wanted poster of the wall of the rest stop she stopped by at and then she later gets scolded and even threatened to be transferred to the insurance society by her coworker if she kept acting on her own after she told him she was at the crater so Hoppered definitely wouldn’t think killing her right then and there would be meaningless like he did in Trimax.

Lastly, seeing as Elendira was first introduced in Dragon’s Nest in Trimax, in Tristamp it could be where she could make a reappearance and have that rematch with Wolfwood Kenji Muto mentioned in a post on his twitter that depicted an older Elendira dressed and posed just like her Trimax counterpart, even holding that suitcase from where she would fire her nails in Trimax so I'm guessing that it’s somehow supposed to help her generate larger nails from her gate, did in the only flashback we ever see of her where she follows behind Knives from Legato’s perspective so she likely won’t show up just to keep Vash from firing his angel arm, or I guess demon arm in Tristamp, and retrieve Legato on Knives’ orders.

[to-eat-laugh-love-in-peace]

Personal Posts List

Since I'm going to be more active in this blog again, here's a list of all of the posts I've made so as to not have to go through the hassle of finding them amidst the sea of reblogs and other posts I'm probably going to make later on. Overall thoughts on what could go down in Trigun Stampede S2

The possibility of the existence of worm-worshiping cults in Trigun Stampede Thoughts on what could be the deal with Tonis in Trigun Stampede S2 Prospect of Legato showing up in that ridiculous casket/full-body cast looking contraption he wore in Trigun Maximum in Trigun Stampede S2 The possibility of Meryl and Milly getting to fight alongside Wolfwood against Gray the Ninelives in Trigun Stampede S2 Theory on why Luida and Brad decided to by five Vash only one out of four of Rem’s photos they found in Ship 5 The existence of multiple accounts of someone or something surviving the Big Fall in various forms in Trigun Stampede The contrast between Brad’s initial and eventual view and treatment of, and relationship with Vash in Trigun Stampede and the crew of Ship 5’s view and treatment of, and relationship with Tesla in Trigun Maximum The probability of Vash having known Roberto was going to die in the elevator before he had met up with Knives Thoughts on the general public’s perception and treatment towards Meryl after Lost July and on the possible confrontation between her and Brilliant Dynamites Neon in Trigun Stampede S2

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With how Tristamp sets up major plot points in advance with the characters that they name drop or have appear and interact with and learn more about other characters throughout the series no matter how short their screen time was or how small their role to play at the time was, I think that Meryl along with Milly might be a bit more involved in the fight against Gray the Ninelives who really only fought against Wolfwood in Trimax.

Like yeah the girls show up but it's really only at the end and as comedic relief they literally just fall on top of them and knock them out, signalling that the fight's really over now. But like just look at how hyped they looked to fight, guns out and all.

But in Tristamp not only has Meryl gotten to meet and get to know some of Ship 3’s residents, becoming especially invested in Luida’s project in growing enough flora to terraform No Man’s Land into a green planet to lessen the burden on the Plants and ensure the survival of both species, making her more than willing and ready to fight for them given the chance,

but also she’s seen Gray as the both the mech suit in Ep3,

and as the nine people who control it in Ep10,

with her having seen and gotten to know more about them thanks to Conrad possibly setting up that she might actually be the way Wolfwood figures out that Gray is just a giant mech suit being piloted by nine people. And then they could work together to take them down.

Which would be pretty cool to see, maybe they could take three each, given that there aren’t a lot of instances that I can recall at least where Wolfwood fights alongside the girls, plus it’d make for good team building with Milly having just joined the gang. Also, after rewatching episode 4, specifically where right before Roberto’s taken by Zazie Wolfwood makes fun of Roberto’s derringer, it just ignited a want, a need really to see Wolfwood have his ass saved at least once by said derringer.

Speaking of which, there have also been multiple instances where allusions to David and Goliath were made in relation to Meryl in Trimax, notably in the few panels that show bits and pieces of her backstory that show how she got her first derringer, which Studio Orange expanded upon with Roberto, that lead me to believe this to be the case even more.

On top of that, I think that she might be reason for why they're simply going to have them locked up and not killed (wonder if seven of them are still going to be killed during the fight in S2) even after the damage they've dealt and the deaths they've caused seeing as she reacted with horror and pity when she learned about them from Conrad,

a sentiment Roberto himself doubled down on,

which while it might have enraged Elendira and sent her to come after them with her nails, leading to Roberto's death, and possibly souring Meryl's feelings about her, the same can't be said for Gray. @tristampparty

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I wouldn’t be surprised if there were at least a few people who didn’t believe the general consensus that Vash the Stampede was the villain behind the July’s destruction and the deaths of 90% of its population just because he’s Vash the Stampede, the Humanoid Typhoon, the man who will slaughter the innocent, who does the most evil of evil deeds for the price of 60 billion double dollars on head, because in Tristamp, even before Lost July took place, there were a couple of details about Vash that didn’t seem to add up like how the stolen Plants were being brought to July City when it was the same city that put a bounty on Vash’s head for supposedly running around stealing Plants from all over the planet in the first place as seen in the city’s symbol stamped on the corner of his old wanted poster.

I do wonder though not only how much Meryl decided to or was able to include in her article following Lost July assuming she was even able to get her article published but also how she’s seen and treated by the general populace in Tristamp because not only is she a reporter in this iteration but also its one thing for her to defend Vash after he blew a large crater in the fifth moon. It's another thing for her to defend Vash after he blew a large crater where the wealthiest and largest city in No Man’s Land used to be. I mean in the dub the radio host even outright says that if they were the demon who turned the city into a crater overnight, they’d hide their face too because they doubt that the mob of mourners who had gathered to pay their respects to the friends and families they’ve lost for the two-year anniversary of the incident would be so quick to forgive while she's in the truck on her way to the memorial she put up for Roberto.

And in Trimax and even 98’ Vash had people actively going after him because of what happened in July like that fancily dressed Plant engineer who sent an assassin after him and then later locked him in a room with a soon to be exploding Plant to kill him even if it meant endangering an entire city, the old lady had hired an assassin to kill Vash in volume 6 chapter 5 because her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchild had been one of the many who died in July, and Brilliant Dynamites Neon had revealed to have been prepared to kill Vash for some time since July during their duel on the sand steamer in volume 1 chapter 8 with Vash even outright asking him if he had folks who lived in July when the incident took place after he asked him why there weren’t any corpses to be found in the ruins of July City.

So I wonder if Meryl has had even a fraction of the ire those who’d lost friends, family, loved ones in July had towards Vash directed towards her during the two years Vash spent in hiding with Lina and Sheryl as Eriks because not only did she likely go around No Man’s Land literally being the devil’s advocate during that time, as she'd said so herself that its her duty as a member of the press to clear his name if proves himself innocent, but she had also been announced on the radio in episode four to be a possible accomplice of Vash’s who the military police were looking to bring in as a person of interest alongside Roberto, with Roberto mentioning how if word of this got out to HQ then they’d be sacked.

Speaking of Brilliant Dynamites Neon, I think that he and Meryl could be set up to have a confrontation in S2 for this very reason. Which would be very cool to see since these two haven’t interacted much outside of her and Milly disguising themselves as members of the Bad Lads Gang to later back up Vash and Kaite when they’re cornered and then identifying Vash as the Vash the Stampede during the Bad Lads Gang's heist on the sand steamer in the ‘98 and Trimax

and leading to, in both iterations, Neon taking the time to ask Vash about what exactly happened in July that led to the city being destroyed and, in '98 its residents being left alive but homeless unemployed and impoverished leading them to fight and kill each other to survive in the fallout of the incident, and in Trimax being swallowed by a black hole leading to no survivors or even any corpses left to be found, which led Vash to ask him if he too had folks who were in July at the time of the incident and then admit that he just didn't remember much about July when asked if he had anything to do with it which Neon was forced to accept before the two had a duel

and then after Neon shot a rock about to crush Vash's head during their duel he was revealed to have been prepared to kill Vash for some time since July

only for him to decide spare him, for now at least, not having let go of his reasons for wanting revenge post-July to stay true to the terms of their duel.

Whereas in Tristamp Meryl was not only in July when the incident took place but also was there to witness firsthand what exactly happened that led to the city getting completely demolished and more than half of its population to have been killed by a large explosion. On top of that Meryl unlike Vash in '98 in Trimax and possibly in Tristamp didn't develop partial or complete amnesia following the traumatic incident and then there's also the fact that she's met the Bad Lads Gang when they took her and Roberto with them to the sandsteamer to take pictures of them during their heist to publish in the paper and this was a day before July 21st, meaning that those Bad Lads Gang members who were clearly shown fleeing by the time the ion cannon was being powered could identify her if they came across her again or even tried to find her two years later.

Like I imagine in S2, when Vash is brought back to the scene and he finds himself in another situation at a sand steamer where the Bad Lads Gang are involved, only Brilliant Dynamites Neon himself has made an appearance this time around (I’m not even going to begin to imagine just what details Studio Orange is going to keep or change about their first meeting, they’ve already changed a lot about how and when the Bad Lads Gang were introduced-) at some point a scene similar to the original where Meryl with Milly come to back Vash up while he goes up against Neon and his gang, and one of his goons recognizes Meryl as that woman who they got to take pictures of them during their heist on the sandsteamer a day before Lost July, who's been going around vouching for Vash the Stampede for the past two years after the incident, Neon connects the dots, asks about what happened in July, Vash doesn’t remember so he can’t answer, but Meryl does so she can.

Which would make it the first time Neon has ever gotten an answer to his question, whether or not he believes her is anyone’s guess since it just seems so impossible doesn’t matter. The fact that there isn’t a scene in either 98’ or Trimax where Neon and Vash meet up again to talk about July after Vash recovers his memories of the incident makes this a big deal as is. I do think that Vash met up with Neon off-screen to talk to him about it and that Neon might have gotten some form of closure from that, or maybe he hadn't and he still wanted Vash’s head on a silver platter, who knows, I certainly don’t, which is exactly why I think it’d be really cool to see in S2.

Also I do wonder why Neon wasn't on the ship at the time like he was visiting his folks in July only to be pulled away when he heard that the heist was a bust because the ship was taken off course and its ion cannon was locked and loaded to fire at Hopeland. And if Neon did have folks in July in Tristamp then what's their deal since while July seems like the perfect city for someone like Brilliant Dynamites Neon to have folks in, seeing as it’s big, it’s bright, it's opulent, able to afford all the bullets it wants thanks to having a monopoly on Hydro-Plants, as was described by Wolfwood, additional background info on the seven major cities posted on Studio Orange’s twitter having said that its citizens have to contribute to the city's development and pass a screening process in order to obtain citizenship, which is what keeps the city’s Plants from overworking themselves to a Last Run. @tristampparty

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Shout out to how Brad being initially hostile and wary towards Vash upon learning that he could speak and understand human speech in Tristamp, with him raising his wrench in a defensive position, something that Luida rightfully admonishes him for,

only to come to put in the effort and the time to acknowledge when he’s treated him unfairly, even cruelly at times,

to reflect on the choices he’s made and the actions he’s taken and how it led to things going down the way they did,

to apologize for what he’s said and done, and to continue to support and be there for Vash however way he can

such as through providing him with the best prosthetic he could give him after he came back to Ship 3 with Luida missing an arm and continuing to repair it every time he comes back home with it damaged,

heading out to the outskirts of Hopeland where the sandsteamer was after Vash damaged his prosthetic arm from lifting the ion cannon and passed out from exhaustion from working together with the ship’s Plant to slow the ship down and keep it from crashing into Hopeland,

defending him when Wolfwood doubted Vash for his goal to save everyone, telling him he’s strong enough to find a way to make his dream happen when he himself would have doubted his words too long ago,

and helping him achieve his dream by assisting Luida with her terraforming project using flora in place of Plants nicely contrasts how the people on Ship 5 who were experimenting on Tesla in Trimax reacted with joy and excitement upon learning that she could speak and understand human speech and what this could mean for the development between mankind and the Plants

only for them to pointedly ignore what she actually says, refuse to see her as an actual living being who they’re committing a number of ethics violations on, and regard her with a very detached, very clinical assessment of her physical, emotional, and psychological state, all the way up until her body fell apart. @tristampparty

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Saw more people talking about Tonis and what his deal could be in S2 based on what’s already established about him during the first few episodes he was introduced in and that concept art of an older version of him Kenji Muto posted on his twitter a while back which, one, I’m so freaking happy about, this and the other concepts artworks he posted aren’t talked about nearly enough, and two, I have more thoughts to add on to it so let’s get into them.

With how useful the Wams are, besides the fact that they have strength in numbers and size and can either fly across the sky or travel underneath the sand, their abilities are especially useful in information gathering and sabotage, as they are able to mimic other lifeforms from birds (I like to think that the vulture-like bugs that hung around Vash in episode 1 weren’t a thing to begin with since the only other birds we’ve seen so far are Tomas which were confirmed to be biologically engineered by humans) to humans (seeing as Zazie looks so convincingly like a human kid that they were able to fool Meryl and the only thing that physically set them apart from humans when they assumed a human form was a buzzing noise that humans aren’t even able to pick up in the first place) and relay images (as seen with how Zazie summoned a swarm or bacteria-sized Wams that formed the image of the planet Earth and its wildlife during their talk with Meryl in July), they are able to telepathically connect and communicate to each other, and are able to administer poison as implied by the stingers that some of them have been shown to have that I think is what Wolfwood spat out after he plucked a Wam out of midair and ate it raw and the fact that they’ve been confirmed to be what’s in those cigarettes Wolfwood and Roberto have been smoking in place of tobacco meaning that it contains either nicotine or a toxic, addictive drug with both stimulant and depressant effects like it

(Kenji Muto actually talked about in this post depicting this piece of concept art of Zazie that their scarf is actually another kind of Wam whose stinger is very poisonous, making it good for both a means of attack and defense),

Knives and the EoM would surely find an alternative way to keep the Wams under their thumb now that Zazie’s (and the Wams as a whole) alliance with Knives is seemingly implied to have dissolved following what had gone down in July, what with them clearly panicking about the roots, vines, and flowers from Vash’s gate that were gradually covering the entire city and even just about the rest of the planet, so much so that Wolfwood commented on it,

and them saying how they didn’t understand the fact that humanity made Vash out to be the villain behind Lost July,

and one way that they could do that is include the Wams as another species besides Plants they experiment on in for their eugenics research.

(Sidenote, I also like to think that Zazie made it clear to the EoM they were no longer on their side and would no longer do any favors for them when they were asked to locate Vash, which of course the EoM would do, seeing as it wouldn’t be all that difficult for them to do, what with them even having gone so far as to refer to themselves as the planet itself, only for them to refuse to do so, maybe in part as a sort of thanks to Vash for saving the planet and almost everyone on it back in July by letting him rest and relax and recover as much as he could for as long as he could with Lina after everything he’s gone though and in part as a sort of precaution seeing as since he’s seems to have lost his memories and is in no condition to leave Lina’s hometown and live on his own, much less get himself into trouble, then that means he’s out of the way for the time being.

Also, that just makes me think that they may have a part in Vash being found and brought out of hiding since with the incoming arrival of Chronica and Project Pieces of Earth fleets and possibly rumors of Knives being brought back from the grave might force them to reveal Vash’s location since he was the one who put a stop to the shit another Independent Plant pulled two years ago so he might be the only one who can put a stop to whatever either of these two plan to pull this time around two years later.)

Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Conrad has tried or will try to do something like that since Wams are the natives species of No Man’s Land, at least the only ones we know of so far, so they’re more than capable of withstanding the harsh environment of the planet without the help of Plants. Actually, I kind of wouldn’t be surprised if Zazie was kind of interested in that kind of thing, since they’ve shown a genuine interest in seeing why and how they can coexist alongside Plants or humans, and agreed to allocate a couple of Wams to him for this reason.

Now onto Tonis, now that I think about it more I could see him getting roped into the EoM, seeing as Jeneora Rock has not only lost its’ Plants but also was cut to pieces by Knives, leaving him and his mother and the rest of the townspeople not only heavily injured from the collapse of his hometown, with him being down to one arm, but also homeless with little to none of the basic necessities they need to survive left, and then there’s also how, assuming his mother hadn’t suffered from a miscarraige during or after what went down in Jeneora Rock, his mother would not only have to take care of and provide for him and herself, but also his soon to be born younger sibling. That’s a lot to deal with to say the very least.

Baby supplies are expensive and babies themselves are a lot to deal with as is, but buying baby supplies and raising a baby when they both lost their home, lost people, were suffering from PTSD, and were suffering from major injuries ON NO MAN’S LAND my god, that’s just-that’s SO MUCH. And it sounds like the perfect set up for him to fall right into the hands of the EoM, I mean, didn’t Wolfwood in Trimax go with the EoM thinking that he’d be building churches for them in exchange for being able to provide for himself and the orphanage, so Tonis could be led to follow the same thought process.

Besides that he just looks so much older in the concept art compared to his first appearance in S1 that I saw some people wondering just how long the timeskip would be, but there doesn’t need to be a long timeskip for him to look that old, he just needs to be subjected to the same or at least similar experiments Rollo, Livio, and Nico had been subjected to and he’ll end up looking like that in around six months and then with the EoM having access to lost tech they could hook him up with a prosthetic arm similar to Vash’s which could be why they share a similar silhouette.

Also, Zazie’s 98 counterpart was a normal human kid who happened to have a device that allowed him to hijack worms to do whatever he ordered them to do, and their Trimax counterpart was a human who happened to have their body hijacked by worms and did whatever they wanted them to do, so maybe Tristamp could pull something similar with Tonis.

And and, there are a couple of spots on the GHG so to speak with EG the Mine and Monev the Gale out of the picture, now they could have just done that to allow for more room to focus on the remaining GHG that haven’t appeared yet like Midvalley, Hoppered, Dominique, Leonof, and to an extent Livio, Legato, and Elendira, but they could also have done that to come up with new members to fill those empty slots, they did it in 98 with Caine, then again they didn’t bring in Livio and Elendira but still.

Not to mention, someone on twitter here pointed out how Tonis is repeatedly shown time and time again with something that has to do with catching Wams in his hands, like the cage filled with Wams he shows off to Vash and then to Gosef in Rosa’s bar, and the net he’s seen holding whenever he’s on his own like when he encounters Meryl and Roberto in the cliffside, which while it could just be something to show how much he’s into Wams, and maybe to foreshadow how Wams make for a really good alternative resource in place of Plants as addressed in episode 4, it could also be foreshadowing a potential confrontation between him and Zazie.

I still like my previous theory about Tonis where he got his prosthetic arm from Father Nebraska as thanks for pulling Gosef out of the rubble and sparing the both of them some medical supplies as seen in a quick shot of them being one of the injured near the end of episode 3 since it looks like Vash’s prosthetic arm if it was made out of scrap metal instead of lost tech by a No Man’s Land resident than a first generation SEEDS crew member, Father Nebraska was even seated right across from Vash in the table which I’m sure would be able to afford him a good view of his arm, not to mention, he could have also seen him showing off his cage full of Wams to Gosef in the background, and Gosef’s arm was mentioned to be designed to catch Wams so he’d put two and two together and figured it’d be fitting especially since Tonis wasn’t as squirmy with Wams like Gosef was and Zazie possibly taking him under his wing for whatever reason but I’ll admit I’m quickly growing attached to this new theory and when it comes down to it I’m just really excited to see what going to go down in S2 when its finally released. @tristampparty

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So Vash does wave Meryl goodbye with a smile since he knows full well what he's soon going to find himself in, he might not have known the exact details that entailed, he still knew that he was likely was not going to get out of it unscathed at the very least but I also think that he does this because he notices Roberto's gotten injured by the time he makes it into the elevator with Meryl.

He might not have been able to see the nail sticking out or the blood that will soon seep into his shirt but he could have seen him clutching onto the side of his torso which already isn't a good sign since that's where a couple major organs are located, and knowing that he and Meryl had just run from a barrage of nails Elendira generated out of thin air right as he and Wolfwood got there, he could have put two and two together and figured out that Roberto hadn't managed to make it out unharmed like Meryl did.

He could have thought that they would be able to get it treated at a nearest hospital in the city in time, but he also could have thought that they wouldn't be able to get it treated in time or at all with the size of Elendira's nails and just where one of them had gotten lodged in

and that's part of the reason why his smile looked so forced in this scene because by the time he got to Meryl and Roberto it was already too late Roberto was going to die soon from blood loss and Meryl was going to be devastated when she finally turned around and found out. @tristampparty

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You know what drives me absolutely insane about Tristamp, something that is specifically emphasized in ep 8, it’s the existence of different accounts about someone or something surviving even in the wake of the most devastating of disasters, this being the Big Fall, as seen with Brad having brought back to Ship 3 the black box, and Rem’s belongings, which include a few photos of her, Vash, and Nai, and A JOURNAL, something I desperately wish that we get to see the contents of in S2, maybe in a flashback by Luida and/or Brad, or maybe in present day by Meryl, like I wonder if she wrote in code or in a different language to make it a little harder to decipher if anyone else got their hands on it, if the accounts in her journal start before she joined the SEEDS Projects and boarded Ship 5, like when her boyfriend Alex was still alive, or if they start after she boarded Ship 5 to chronicle her journey alongside what remains of humanity across the stars in search of a new planet to inhabit, or maybe if they even started when she discovered Tesla and Conrad and the rest of his group of Plant specialists began to tear her body apart in the name of science not long after that, since she was one of, or maybe the only one in Tristamp, the few who protested against the group’s treatment of Tesla only for her to be ignored, so it could have been a way for her to express and process her thoughts, feelings, and experiences throughout the whole ordeal.

(I STILL like to think that this recording pad she used to film Vash and Nai's first birthday somehow survived the Big Fall even if it wasn't shown along with the rest of her belongings that Brad recovered from Ship 5, if only because there's quite a bit of emphasis put into it with the framing of the scene and all, though who knows maybe it was just a way for Studio Orange to make a smooth and believable transition between a flashback and present day but I still have hope.) And then there’s Vash who’s also shown writing on a journal of his own, another thing that I also desperately wish to see the contents of in S2, in his room prior to Luida coming in to give him his red coat. With Luida going off to bring Vash back to Ship 3, leaving Brad to do some much needed self-reflection on the choices he’s made and the actions he’s taken, I wonder if, since he was looking through his things in hopes of finding some sort of clue he left behind about the other Independent, he actually took a look at it, and on the off chance that Vash hadn’t written his accounts in code or in another language, maybe he would have been able to read Vash’s own thoughts, feelings, and experiences throughout his time on Ship 3, the Big Fall, his time with Rem and Nai on Ship 5, maybe even his discovery of Tesla, and everything that had gone down with Rem right after that.

Back on the topic Ship 5’s black box Brad had recovered from the ruins, and repaired 5 years after the Big Fall, I noticed that when he and Luida were listening to the audio recording, HE MUTES THE RECORDING RIGHT AFTER NAI SAYS THAT VASH WAS HIS ACCOMPLICE SINCE HE WAS THE ONE WHO GAVE HIM THE ACCESS CODES. With how people have pointed out how Studio Orange likes to play with unreliable narrators like Vash omitting the fact that he was the one who gave Nai the access code which made Nai’s claim that he was his accomplice in the Big Fall in episode 1 more plausible for example, this has to imply that there was more to be said in that audio recording and if Brad hadn’t muted it to fixate on the fact that Vash lied to them about the other Independent being alive and come to the conclusion that he had been lying to them this entire time, that he was never on the side of humanity to begin with, then things might have gone as badly as they did, maybe Vash wouldn’t have ran away from Ship 3 to find Nai on his own, maybe he wouldn’t have had to lose his arm to keep him and the everyone else in the scene from being swallowed by his gate. @tristampparty

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Not to speak something so horrible into existence but does anyone else think that the reason why Brad and Luida only gave one of the pictures of him, Nai, and Rem after Brad brought back some of Rem's belongings he had recovered from Ship 5 was so that those who were part of the search party could identify Nai in the event that they did come across him because they had a photo of him on hand since he didn't and never did come to believe Vash when he told him that he probably died in the Big Fall. @tristampparty

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So I’ve seen people point out how the tips of the sandsteamer’s Plant’s hands darkened after her and Vash worked together to slow the Sandsteamer down before it could crash onto Hopeland before but I haven’t seen anyone so far point it out in relation to Legato and Zazie’s short convo in the truck in a previous scene where Zazie reminds him that they still need to bring the Plant back to July when Legato telekinetically takes the Sandsteamer off its course to head to Hopeland instead of July, to which Legato responds that there’s no need to worry, they’ll bring it back without a scratch. If that doesn't sound like famous last words uttered moments before disaster then I don’t know what does.

Now I’ve theorized in a previous post here that when Legato meets Vash after the two-year timeskip, he’s going to be in that ridiculous casket/full-body cast looking contraption. And I gave a couple of reasons for how that could be the case such as Legato probably only being sent to intercept the Sandsteamer just to retrieve its Plant to bring back to July, to Knives, and to possibly tire Vash out a bit so he'd be in a lot more vulnerable state when he finally confronted Knives, but then it ended up with him risking Wolfwood’s contract to be made null in the even that he actually succeeded in getting him to kill Livio and destroying Hopeland using the Sandsteamer or getting him to destroy the Sandsteamer and kill everyone onboard to save Hopeland and Vash’s scheduled arrival in July being delayed by like half a day because he ended up passing out at the end of the episode.

But after doing another rewatch I realized that the Plant having burned themselves out a bit to help Vash slow the Sandsteamer down to the point their fingertips darkened already made for a pretty good reason alone for my theory that Legato was bodily torn apart by Knives after he returned to July off-screen which would lead him to be put in a ridiculous casket/full-body cast looking contraption. Because like, no wonder Knives views or treats his own subordinates, his own worshippers, just like he would any human if someone like Legato who’s been shown to be so devoted to him pulls shit like this that leads to one of his sisters burning themselves out to put a stop to it.

Anyways hope this theory comes true one way or another and he shows up in S2 in that ridiculous casket/full-body cast looking contraption if only for the absolutely hilarious picture it would make. Like it’s one thing for Legato to use his powers to conceal his normal looking self while he talks to Vash in the middle of a very crowded plaza but it’s another thing for Legato to conceal himself using his power while he’s wearing any variation of that thing he dons for a good portion of Trimax, each iteration being more ridiculous that the last, while he talks to Vash in the middle of a very crowded plaza like. Just IMAGINE. @tristampparty

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GOD that comment about people, humans, who control Wams, the way thar could easily mean Zazie changes up their appearance often enough and/or long enough for people to see them as different people throughout the years, as it could mean there are people who Zazie grants or have gotten through other means the ability to connect, communicate with, and even outright control Wams (looks at 98' Zazie), or a secret third thing that I haven't accounted for, it sure is something to think about. This really, REALLY makes me want to see how other religions in Tristamp are like since Roberto's already implied when he talks about the EoM when him and Meryl hear their sermon on the radio that they aren’t the only religious cults that exist in No Man’s Land, they might not be the only Plant-worshipping cults in NML (will have to double check that on my next rewatch-), and I want to know what similarities they share, what differences that they have, and how and when they came to be, like if they’re based off of religions carried over from Earth like how Christianity was clearly the basis of the EoM’s dogma, or if they were formed a little while after the Big Fall like when they were settling into NML, kind of like how some people naturally came to worship Plants since they’re something from Spacefaring Age that they no longer have the means to or even know how to make more of that are what have kept them alive for as long as they have. Something that could include the Worms, or rather Wams, and Zazie by extension, since they're the native species of NML who they know just as much as they do NML, which is not a lot, I think, and they've been made out to be a pretty big deal in Tristamp compared to Trimax or ‘98, with them explicitly said to be what people who don’t have access to Plants rely on in order to survive in NML, I can see that being the case. Also I can kind of see Zazie at one point having their own group of worshippers after seeing the EoM and wondering if there are any benefits that they could reap from having their own cult.

WAIT

HUMANS? PLURAL???

HELLO??????

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some merm vash warmups for mermay! Can he offer you a fish in these trying times? 🥺

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today's warm ups are from @dingusttmax 's wolf's rain AU fic 😭💖

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fixed up an old sketch and coloured it!