yuliasolsystem

[yuliasolsystem]

got any fic recs?

I'm not actively reading millionsummers at the moment, but here are a couple of fics I have added to my bookmarks.

[yuliasolsystem]

how did you feel about trigun maximum's ending? do you feel like knives and legato's endings were satisfying? sometimes i wish knives would have won (maybe not in eradicating all the humans, but at least getting vash to understand where he is coming from) but i also wish legato would have won knive's recognition. however, since legato was convinced he needed to kill vash in order to prove himself to knives i wonder if it was ever possible for both knives and legato to succeed in the ways they wanted to...

If Vash and Knives had come to an understanding, this would have been the best ending without a doubt. Genocide is certainly not the answer, but it's not that Knives is completely wrong about humanity. In the last chapter we see that Earthlings are not the most peaceful people, bandits haven't gone anywhere and even got more technologically advanced cybernetic devices, so I doubt anyone honors their agreements with the Plants in that kind of environment. There is no exact information about the situation of the Plants (xcept that they are now being held under a big dome), but most likely they are still used by humans, as we haven't seen any other sources of energy.

Really, the problem with both Vash and Knives was their unwillingness to compromise their ideologies. With Legato being the living example of the exception to the rule for both of them.

Knives actually had a chance to turn things around when Legato asked him if he would be angry if he killed Vash. In fact, Knives' answer finally convinced Legato that the only way he could "prove his loyalty" was to kill Vash in a fight. But what Knives said at the time contradicted his actions (he said Legato's loyalty was indifferent to him and yet he relied on it, he said Legato was no match for Vash, but again he relied on Legato's ability to hold Vash back)

But either way, both Knives and Legato are too traumatized for their relationship to develop into something healthy even with the most favorable outcome. I think Knives was counting on Legato surviving in the end, but I'm not sure he knew what to do with him afterward...

[yuliasolsystem]

hey, i've seen your manga translation corrections for maximum and i was wondering which translation do you think is the most accurate? ive actually been putting off reading maximum because all the translations seem to have some mistranslations but idk i trust you

In terms of quality, the worst is the old fan translation, which I definitely don't recommend. The problem with the new fan translation is that there are sometimes fragments from the old one, but it usually doesn't affect anything too much. The exception is the scene in chapter 46 where the ideologies of Vash and Knives are revealed, and the fan translations don't match the original text and give the wrong idea of the characters.

So I think the official version will be preferable, there I met the least amount of serious misrepresentations of the meaning.

[yuliasolsystem]

not to sound parasocial but i miss you and your big brained millionsummers metas 😔

Hi! To be honest, it's a nice surprise to get a message like this lol I've been busy lately, so if I started to write something, I didn't finish it and just left it in drafts. And when I had free time, I just spent 24 hours a day gaming lol But since someone is still interested in my meta, I should at least finish something from my drafts.

[yuliasolsystem]

It is interesting that in the manga, Legato's power is shown several times to be good for healing and life support. He repaired his body during the battle with Vash at the end and kept the severed head alive in the flashback. So his power can be used for good purposes as well, but he deliberately trained himself to use it for mass murder.

isn't it kinda. ironic that regarding legato's background story, his ability is to manipulate people is him being able to make people do things without their own volition. i don't know what this says about it but i believe it's connected with the cycle of abuse, the abused one becoming the abuser...something SOMETHING LIKE THAT. this is like a running theme in trigun. sigh.

[yuliasolsystem]

Domina was successfully absorbed, so those implants didn't prevent the absorption. Judging by the context they prevented the fusion that Knives went through. In other words, they prevent independents from merging with dependents, while retaining their minds. And also Chronica requested the removal of the restraints to use the weapon attached to her arm, so most likely the restraints are preventing her from being able to use the gate.

I'm back today not to whine about Legato or Knives and how the fandom sees them differently than I do, but about the Plants. And how the fandom sees them differently than I do.

It really upsets me that people don't realize how terrible the situation of the Plants in the manga is.

Their position is worse than slavery, they are literally livestock to be consumed. Everyone thinks that on Earth and the other colonies the burden on the Plants must be less because people there aren't fighting for survival. But that's the problem with humanity, we take more than we need to survive, and humanity in TriMax is quite realistic in that sense. Even on No Man's Land, there are rich people who enjoy luxuries simply because they can, not because they will die without them. And where life is better, there are only more such people. Also technologically advanced civilizations consume more energy, so no, it's unlikely that on Earth the load on the Plants is less, it's just that there's an option to replace those who died with new ones.

There's also the argument that "Plants want to be energy sources themselves". But I don't think that's true. They are artificially produced, they have no choice what to do with their life. Yes, the Plants feel sorry for humans, because Plants are kind beings capable of empathy, but that doesn't mean they accept their situation. The Plants of No Man's Land went with Knives of their own free will, and from what the Earthlings are saying, the Plants on Earth and in other colonies are also starting rebellions here and there.

Yes, at the end of the manga the humans agreed to "coexist" with the Plants, but what exactly was supposed to change? In the last chapter, we see that they built a large Plant dome in Octovern. Also, that there are now televisions on No Man's Land, which most likely run on the same energy from the Plants, because no other energy sources were shown and we've seen that the Earthlings' ships are powered by the Plants, so it's unlikely that there's any other energy source at all. So all that's changed is the container that holds the Plants. But even if humans sincerely wanted to do Plants justice, what could they give them? In fact, the Plants don't even need light bulbs or a dome. As mentioned in the manga, the dependent Plants have a sort of collective intelligence, so merging is no danger to them, and once merged they can function without human support. They only came back because humans would die without them, not the other way around.

Ideally, production of dependent Plants should be stopped and independent Plants should be allowed to negotiate the terms of their coexistence with humans, since they are able to communicate with both sides, but as I mentioned above, dependent Plants are still a source of energy for Earthlings at least, independent Plants on Earth are controlled by the government (according to the Chronica they all have some kind of neuro-blocking), and Vash is hunted by soldiers and bounty hunters.

What I want to say is that the only possible kind of coexistence between Plants and humans is as a source of energy/food and a consumer, i.e. either livestock and owner or parasite and host.

[yuliasolsystem]

Knives literally kneels down in front of dependent Plants, says he's repenting of his sins and asks for help, and then the sisters themselves release the feelers that make the fusion happen and extend them to him.

Knives didn't absorb them, he merged with some himself, but most were gathered onto the ark, where they eventually merged into a huge creature.

The dependent Plants have a collective mind, according to Chronica, so the fusion is harmless to them, but they had absorbed Domina and could absorb Knives himself, so he kept himself separate from the largest fused being, which is what the humans attached the cables to.

I'm back today not to whine about Legato or Knives and how the fandom sees them differently than I do, but about the Plants. And how the fandom sees them differently than I do.

It really upsets me that people don't realize how terrible the situation of the Plants in the manga is.

Their position is worse than slavery, they are literally livestock to be consumed. Everyone thinks that on Earth and the other colonies the burden on the Plants must be less because people there aren't fighting for survival. But that's the problem with humanity, we take more than we need to survive, and humanity in TriMax is quite realistic in that sense. Even on No Man's Land, there are rich people who enjoy luxuries simply because they can, not because they will die without them. And where life is better, there are only more such people. Also technologically advanced civilizations consume more energy, so no, it's unlikely that on Earth the load on the Plants is less, it's just that there's an option to replace those who died with new ones.

There's also the argument that "Plants want to be energy sources themselves". But I don't think that's true. They are artificially produced, they have no choice what to do with their life. Yes, the Plants feel sorry for humans, because Plants are kind beings capable of empathy, but that doesn't mean they accept their situation. The Plants of No Man's Land went with Knives of their own free will, and from what the Earthlings are saying, the Plants on Earth and in other colonies are also starting rebellions here and there.

Yes, at the end of the manga the humans agreed to "coexist" with the Plants, but what exactly was supposed to change? In the last chapter, we see that they built a large Plant dome in Octovern. Also, that there are now televisions on No Man's Land, which most likely run on the same energy from the Plants, because no other energy sources were shown and we've seen that the Earthlings' ships are powered by the Plants, so it's unlikely that there's any other energy source at all. So all that's changed is the container that holds the Plants. But even if humans sincerely wanted to do Plants justice, what could they give them? In fact, the Plants don't even need light bulbs or a dome. As mentioned in the manga, the dependent Plants have a sort of collective intelligence, so merging is no danger to them, and once merged they can function without human support. They only came back because humans would die without them, not the other way around.

Ideally, production of dependent Plants should be stopped and independent Plants should be allowed to negotiate the terms of their coexistence with humans, since they are able to communicate with both sides, but as I mentioned above, dependent Plants are still a source of energy for Earthlings at least, independent Plants on Earth are controlled by the government (according to the Chronica they all have some kind of neuro-blocking), and Vash is hunted by soldiers and bounty hunters.

What I want to say is that the only possible kind of coexistence between Plants and humans is as a source of energy/food and a consumer, i.e. either livestock and owner or parasite and host.

[yuliasolsystem]

The Plants are just very kind and don't want the destruction of humanity as a species, so they tried to show Knives that there are some humans grateful for their labor (in any case, a smile is not a proportional payment for using someone's life force). I remind you that Knives didn't forcibly kidnap them like in the new anime, but asked for their help in their own liberation, if they were all happy with their own fate as a living resource, Knives wouldn't have been able to gather almost all of them.

I'm back today not to whine about Legato or Knives and how the fandom sees them differently than I do, but about the Plants. And how the fandom sees them differently than I do.

It really upsets me that people don't realize how terrible the situation of the Plants in the manga is.

Their position is worse than slavery, they are literally livestock to be consumed. Everyone thinks that on Earth and the other colonies the burden on the Plants must be less because people there aren't fighting for survival. But that's the problem with humanity, we take more than we need to survive, and humanity in TriMax is quite realistic in that sense. Even on No Man's Land, there are rich people who enjoy luxuries simply because they can, not because they will die without them. And where life is better, there are only more such people. Also technologically advanced civilizations consume more energy, so no, it's unlikely that on Earth the load on the Plants is less, it's just that there's an option to replace those who died with new ones.

There's also the argument that "Plants want to be energy sources themselves". But I don't think that's true. They are artificially produced, they have no choice what to do with their life. Yes, the Plants feel sorry for humans, because Plants are kind beings capable of empathy, but that doesn't mean they accept their situation. The Plants of No Man's Land went with Knives of their own free will, and from what the Earthlings are saying, the Plants on Earth and in other colonies are also starting rebellions here and there.

Yes, at the end of the manga the humans agreed to "coexist" with the Plants, but what exactly was supposed to change? In the last chapter, we see that they built a large Plant dome in Octovern. Also, that there are now televisions on No Man's Land, which most likely run on the same energy from the Plants, because no other energy sources were shown and we've seen that the Earthlings' ships are powered by the Plants, so it's unlikely that there's any other energy source at all. So all that's changed is the container that holds the Plants. But even if humans sincerely wanted to do Plants justice, what could they give them? In fact, the Plants don't even need light bulbs or a dome. As mentioned in the manga, the dependent Plants have a sort of collective intelligence, so merging is no danger to them, and once merged they can function without human support. They only came back because humans would die without them, not the other way around.

Ideally, production of dependent Plants should be stopped and independent Plants should be allowed to negotiate the terms of their coexistence with humans, since they are able to communicate with both sides, but as I mentioned above, dependent Plants are still a source of energy for Earthlings at least, independent Plants on Earth are controlled by the government (according to the Chronica they all have some kind of neuro-blocking), and Vash is hunted by soldiers and bounty hunters.

What I want to say is that the only possible kind of coexistence between Plants and humans is as a source of energy/food and a consumer, i.e. either livestock and owner or parasite and host.

[yuliasolsystem]

It was implied in the manga that Chronica was involved in suppressing revolutions like the one Knives organized. Chronica also said that her generation of independents has some sort of blocking system built into their brains (that blocks their Plant powers most likely) that the NML Plants don't have. Later, she contacts the command on Earth to have this blockage removed for a certain amount of time.

I'm back today not to whine about Legato or Knives and how the fandom sees them differently than I do, but about the Plants. And how the fandom sees them differently than I do.

It really upsets me that people don't realize how terrible the situation of the Plants in the manga is.

Their position is worse than slavery, they are literally livestock to be consumed. Everyone thinks that on Earth and the other colonies the burden on the Plants must be less because people there aren't fighting for survival. But that's the problem with humanity, we take more than we need to survive, and humanity in TriMax is quite realistic in that sense. Even on No Man's Land, there are rich people who enjoy luxuries simply because they can, not because they will die without them. And where life is better, there are only more such people. Also technologically advanced civilizations consume more energy, so no, it's unlikely that on Earth the load on the Plants is less, it's just that there's an option to replace those who died with new ones.

There's also the argument that "Plants want to be energy sources themselves". But I don't think that's true. They are artificially produced, they have no choice what to do with their life. Yes, the Plants feel sorry for humans, because Plants are kind beings capable of empathy, but that doesn't mean they accept their situation. The Plants of No Man's Land went with Knives of their own free will, and from what the Earthlings are saying, the Plants on Earth and in other colonies are also starting rebellions here and there.

Yes, at the end of the manga the humans agreed to "coexist" with the Plants, but what exactly was supposed to change? In the last chapter, we see that they built a large Plant dome in Octovern. Also, that there are now televisions on No Man's Land, which most likely run on the same energy from the Plants, because no other energy sources were shown and we've seen that the Earthlings' ships are powered by the Plants, so it's unlikely that there's any other energy source at all. So all that's changed is the container that holds the Plants. But even if humans sincerely wanted to do Plants justice, what could they give them? In fact, the Plants don't even need light bulbs or a dome. As mentioned in the manga, the dependent Plants have a sort of collective intelligence, so merging is no danger to them, and once merged they can function without human support. They only came back because humans would die without them, not the other way around.

Ideally, production of dependent Plants should be stopped and independent Plants should be allowed to negotiate the terms of their coexistence with humans, since they are able to communicate with both sides, but as I mentioned above, dependent Plants are still a source of energy for Earthlings at least, independent Plants on Earth are controlled by the government (according to the Chronica they all have some kind of neuro-blocking), and Vash is hunted by soldiers and bounty hunters.

What I want to say is that the only possible kind of coexistence between Plants and humans is as a source of energy/food and a consumer, i.e. either livestock and owner or parasite and host.

[yuliasolsystem]

I'm back today not to whine about Legato or Knives and how the fandom sees them differently than I do, but about the Plants. And how the fandom sees them differently than I do.

It really upsets me that people don't realize how terrible the situation of the Plants in the manga is.

Their position is worse than slavery, they are literally livestock to be consumed. Everyone thinks that on Earth and the other colonies the burden on the Plants must be less because people there aren't fighting for survival. But that's the problem with humanity, we take more than we need to survive, and humanity in TriMax is quite realistic in that sense. Even on No Man's Land, there are rich people who enjoy luxuries simply because they can, not because they will die without them. And where life is better, there are only more such people. Also technologically advanced civilizations consume more energy, so no, it's unlikely that on Earth the load on the Plants is less, it's just that there's an option to replace those who died with new ones.

There's also the argument that "Plants want to be energy sources themselves". But I don't think that's true. They are artificially produced, they have no choice what to do with their life. Yes, the Plants feel sorry for humans, because Plants are kind beings capable of empathy, but that doesn't mean they accept their situation. The Plants of No Man's Land went with Knives of their own free will, and from what the Earthlings are saying, the Plants on Earth and in other colonies are also starting rebellions here and there.

Yes, at the end of the manga the humans agreed to "coexist" with the Plants, but what exactly was supposed to change? In the last chapter, we see that they built a large Plant dome in Octovern. Also, that there are now televisions on No Man's Land, which most likely run on the same energy from the Plants, because no other energy sources were shown and we've seen that the Earthlings' ships are powered by the Plants, so it's unlikely that there's any other energy source at all. So all that's changed is the container that holds the Plants. But even if humans sincerely wanted to do Plants justice, what could they give them? In fact, the Plants don't even need light bulbs or a dome. As mentioned in the manga, the dependent Plants have a sort of collective intelligence, so merging is no danger to them, and once merged they can function without human support. They only came back because humans would die without them, not the other way around.

Ideally, production of dependent Plants should be stopped and independent Plants should be allowed to negotiate the terms of their coexistence with humans, since they are able to communicate with both sides, but as I mentioned above, dependent Plants are still a source of energy for Earthlings at least, independent Plants on Earth are controlled by the government (according to the Chronica they all have some kind of neuro-blocking), and Vash is hunted by soldiers and bounty hunters.

What I want to say is that the only possible kind of coexistence between Plants and humans is as a source of energy/food and a consumer, i.e. either livestock and owner or parasite and host.

[yuliasolsystem]

I don't understand at all how people can fail to see the problem in using sentient beings as a resource. Everyone wants Knives to be literally like Vash, sitting around waiting for all the humans in the universe to turn into Rem Saverem, even though the manga doesn't even try to idealize humanity as a whole.

This could have saved Millions Knives, that could have saved Millions Knives-- You people don't even know what saving him would look like.

[yuliasolsystem]

A continuation of the previous post about Legato having his own interests and goals in the manga and not just following Knives' wishes.

Here I'd like to say something about the last battle between Legato and Vash, because it wasn't part of Knives' plans, it was purely Legato's decision and it even conflicted with Knives' interests. When Legato joins Knives in the final battle, at first he's just holding Vash back. This is what Knives wants - for Vash to stay out of his way while he fights the Earthlings. Knives was probably counting on Vash and Legato to stay alive, and he'll decide what to do with them later. But Legato has completely different plans: he wants to compete with Vash to prove to himself and Knives that he is better than Vash. How does Knives feels about it doesn't really count for much.

Ironically, Knives was clearly glad that Legato joined him in this battle, his expression and demeanor had changed, his self-confidence had clearly increased, and he was clearly counting on Legato. So in a way, he had already recognized him. But as I said, Legato needed to prove to himself that he was stronger than Plant, and specifically Vash, and since he wasn't, there was no reason for him to continue to exist.

If it was important to him to help Knives with his plans, he would have done the same thing he did when he first met Vash: threatened to destroy every person in the area in two seconds if Vash doesn't sit still while Knives deals with humans, and considering Legato said his threads are everywhere, Vash would have to risk the entire surviving population of No Man's Land.

So here's the point I'm trying to make, Legato is loyal to Knives, but that loyalty isn't slavish obedience. Legato loves Knives, but in the manga, that love is rather possessive. This is especially noticeable when comparing his reasons for dying by Vash's hand in the old anime and in the manga. In the anime, he recognizes that as a human he is an inferior form of existence to the Plants

so Vash should be with Knives, and he forces Vash to go against his ideals because those ideals are harmful to Vash. That's exactly what Knives thinks. In the manga, however, Legato believes that he is everything that Knives needs, and Vash is the obstacle that has come between them.

Knives' doubts that Legato, a human, is capable of defeating Vash, a Plant, didn't so much make Legato "realize his place" as provoke his desire to defeat Vash while also limiting his own powers and not resorting to any hostage tricks. Therefore, Legato perceived Vash's refusal to kill him as a mockery, and forcing Vash to shoot him was a punishment for this "mockery".

Yeah, and despite the fact that for Legato, Vash was the obstacle between him and Knives, Legato liked the rivalry with him.

I think ideally Legato would like to not just get Knives for himself, but "win" him.

[yuliasolsystem]

It's me again because someone somewhere is interpreting Legato's character differently than I see him, yeah....

So, a lot of people are convinced that Legato has no personality, motives or beliefs of his own, all imposed by Knives, but that's not true at all. Legato acts in his own interests even since when we first meet him in the manga. The coin box "game" and sending Gung Ho Guns after Vash were his own initiative.

Knives just let him continue, reasoning that this way Vash would see what evil humans were capable of.

Legato also kills slave traders in the cafe on his own whim, because he has a grudge against such people. And through this incident at the café, we can see that Legato's views have undergone some changes from what we see in the flashback of his first meeting with Knives. Legato had a gang of several people shoot each other in a crowded place, but somehow no civilians were hurt. Legato, as we see him in the flashback, would have killed everyone.

Furthermore, Legato tells the rescued girls to "make good use" of the time they have left.

While he's still fine with Knives "returning this suffocating world to nothing," Legato now at least puts those who directly do evil and bystanders in different categories, and also believes that even a few years of life can carry value. It's unlikely he learned this from Knives, which means his personality is perfectly capable of developing independently of Knives.

[yuliasolsystem]

One of the most interesting aspects of Legato as a character is that he's the only one who makes both Vash and Knives act against their principles at some points.

Everyone already knows that Legato was the first human that Vash killed willingly and while fully conscious, but just before that Vash was able to break free of Legato's control by "throwing off the shackles of the no-kill rule".

Somewhere I already made a post trying to translate this part more accurately, but I'm too lazy to look for it. A rough translation is "Vash the Stampede's body. And the pointed wings that emerged from it. No supernatural force could hold it all down. But that's why, up until this very moment, these two [forces] have been in perfect opposition. They [Legato and Vash] didn't realize it themselves yet..."

"...but one thing has changed. It was the time Vash Stampede threw off the shackles of his no-kill rule that he'd bound himself with for decades."

I interpret it as follows: Vash subconsciously restrained his Plant powers by not wanting to kill Legato, thus helping Legato without even realizing it. In other words, in this scene Vash not only lets his "dark" side come out by starting to fight to kill, but also accepts his Plant nature. In other words, Legato succeeded in doing what Knives failed to do: earlier, even Knives couldn't force Vash to fight like Plant.

That's the case with Vash, but as I wrote Knives also occasionally behaves contrary to his own words and beliefs with Legato. I've written about this many times before, though. For example, in the post at the link below, I mentioned three instances where Knives left Legato alive even though he had no particular reason to do so.

Note that each of those decisions to let Legato live resulted in Legato saving Knives' life later. And it wasn't a "return favor" on Legato's part, nor was it a calculation on Knives' part (Knives is really overconfident and each time doesn't even realize he's in trouble). It's purely a narrative device to show how much Knives really needs Legato and that he's invincible as long as Legato is the exception to the "all humans are bad and must die" rule for him.

In fact, if Knives had gone a little farther and accepted Legato as someone important to him (or at least clearly defined their relationship), then probably even Vash wouldn't have stopped Legato. I mean, if Legato hadn't decided to play "who's better, you or me?" with Vash, and instead used his own powers in the most effective way possible, he would have simply taken the entire city hostage and Vash wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

[yuliasolsystem]

I think the anime decided to simplify the moral, to make it more black and white, where humanity is good because other media have accustomed us to see humanity in fiction as sort of ultimate damsel in distress, and Knives is bad because he is against humanity. In the manga, everything is not so clear-cut and there are many parallels between the actions and motivations of humans and Knives.

And that's why Knives' real final battle isn't with Vash, who fought Legato, but with the military from Earth, who saw violence as the most effective way to solve the problem and were even willing to sacrifice the very people they'd come to protect.

what is it with trigun anime adaptations and having to dehumanise knives in order for him to be evil ,,

in tri98 hes just sorta not given much reason to be evil - yes he was verbally and at points physically abused by one member of the crew but not enough of that is shown for the big fall to feel justifiable . he just sorta went off the rails with very little reason to imo , although i cant really blame the show for this as the Tragic Childhood vol of trimax wasnt out yet so they had quite little material to work from

HOWEVER in tristamp they decided on this weird plot of him physically being ‘less human’ like he doesnt need to eat to survive , and personality wise seems very unconcerned with humans . a lot of the tristamp interpretations of the characters differ significantly from their maximum counterparts but this way of portraying knives as well as how his arrogance and superiority beliefs are portrayed … kinda makes my skin crawl . i just really dont know why they did this - a character doesnt have to be ‘not human’ to be evil , and i felt like it ruined knives’ character quite a lot because trimax knives is so different

trigun maximum shows that knives as a child was extremely nervous about being accepted by humans and even shows him crying from relief and happiness after he meets a human other than rem for the first time and he almost instantly accepts him . knives’ character is so interesting in trimax because he was SO caring as a child and that changed drastically because of the trauma he was put through , you definitely feel more of the impact of the tesla incident in maximum

and although knives IS non human , he takes a very human perspective on things , he feels very human emotions . hatred is an inherently human thing . evil is an inherently human thing . a character doesnt need to have inhuman emotions to hate humanity and this is where the anime adaptations miss the mark on knives’ character because they reinforce the idea that he needs to be MORE alien in order to hate

[yuliasolsystem]

I think if any of those girls Legato rescued from the slave traders survived, they would remember him as their savior.

Also I don't think Vash is going to talk about Knives. Vash is very secretive, in fact half of the problems in TriMax could have been avoided if Vash had talked openly about himself, Knives and the Plants, at least to Luida and her people.

Fucks me up to think about how Legato's legacy in-universe after his death in Trimax (and presumably Tristamp) is probably gonna be how much he sucked and nothing else....

Like, nobody will like Knives but Vash will be long-lived enough to be able to eventually talk about his good qualities from when he was a child and his quasi-redemption in his last days. But who remembers Legato? Livio and Vash are the only living people with any extended memory of him and neither of them would have anything nice to say (and rightfully so). Neither of them probably knew he was a slave, either—as far as Vash can tell this dude showed up one day and hated his guts, for all he knows he's just another survivor from July! Outside of Knives, Elendira, Legato, and maybe Conrad, I don't think any other character knows his actual life story.

And to add on to that, there's no way of looking up that past either—he had no name or personhood before he was effectively rescued, so who could investigators or reporters or archivists track down for information? The human being that was Legato only existed for as long as he knew Knives, before that he was something to be kept and abused as an object. There's presumably no surviving family they can reliably contact, nobody to really say "yes I knew him, here's what his life was like, here's how we can prevent something like this from happening again".

His entire existence will be reduced down to "a human weapon that was freakishly loyal to public enemy #1" without any reflection on the mechanisms that made him the way he was because there's just no actual knowledge of his life.

[yuliasolsystem]

Finally new fanart. Young Legato.