#Arguably Meryl got hit by the Generic Prettification beam too

[chuthulhu-reads]

[ID: Several panels from Trigun Maximum. The first shows a mixed group of colonists, all looking sad or scared, and one saying, "170 out of the 480 people in the colony were lost. The panic is fading... but..." The second panel is a close-up of Vash's face, his teeth gritted and expression pained as he says, "...I'm sorry." The next panel is a wider image of Vash, who's sitting up in his hospital bed but hunched over with both hands fisted in the sheets as he says, "It's all my fault..." Someone off-panel interjects, "H-hey, what are you talking about, Vash?!"

The next panels are from a couple of pages later. The first shows Luida, an androgynous middle-aged woman with a calm, sharp face saying, "Now please... no more depressing talk, okay?" The next panel is of Vash's expression, calm now as he looks up at her, as she continues, "You are part of your family. Right?" The last panel shows Luida turning and waving to the other colonists, calling, "Alright, everyone! Back to the waiting room! We've got a lot of work to do!" The colonists are all hyper-simplified but have wide-open mouths and dismayed expressions as they yell "Whaaaaaa?" End ID.]

First, I love this scene. I love that what Knives was likely hoping for was--well, he was probably hoping for everyone to die, but if not that, then the outcome from the '98 anime, where the survivors hate Vash for what happened. But the manga's established the colony differently, as a family that Vash has been fully integrated in and loved by for generations, and so they don't hate or blame him. They, quite rightly, go "No, this didn't happen because of you, I think perhaps this happened because of the fucked up puppet guy and the weird flesh puppet guy, you know, the ones who did all of the murders. And also your genocidal brother that we all know about". They love him and they will NOT let him take misplaced blame, and for that, I love them.

Secondly, I think one of Stampede's greatest crimes is hitting both Rem and Luida with the Generic Prettification beam, because manga Luida is such a CHAD. Some panels show her with a hint of crow's feet and other slight wrinkles that mean you could tell me that she's any age between 35 and 70 and I would believe you. She wears a CAPE. She has no time for gender presentation she's got a colony of hundreds to run and the human race to save with the satellite project. I love her and I was interested in Stampede Luida when I thought she was going to be the ancestor of the Luida we already know, but NO. She was probably created after the '98 anime was made so I hold no malice for that but we were ROBBED of seeing Chad Luida animated and I am MAD about it