#Meryl and Wolfwood's friendship in Stampede is really sweet I think

[itsmorrisworm]

A short lil trigun comic based off of this post about Wolfwood giving Meryl a taste of her own bad driving once he gets Angelina (post by @revenantghost).

[yuhi-san]

I’m a buys bee with commenting but here is also some shameless self-rec @trigunfanfic

Sand

Wordcount: 3,128

Rating: T/G

Characters: Vash the Stampede, Miss Melanie, Original Character

Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Acts of Kindness, Passive suicidal Ideation (Mild), Vash is having a rough time, Little Miss Melanie, hopeful ending, takes place some 40ish years before the main storyA short story about how sometimes things get to much to bear even for Vash but a little kindness from random strangers goes a long way. I literally wrote this because I couldn’t get the image of Vash so exhausted and disheartened he didn’t care about getting buried in a sandstorm. At the same time I wanted to also show a small moment of good people that give vash so much hope for rems dream. Also feat. little miss Melanie!

Cardiac Cycle

Wordcount: 11.415

Rating: E

Relationships: Vash the Stampede/ Nicholas D. Wolfwood

Characters: Vash the Stampede, Nicholas D. Wolfwood

Tags: First Time Together, Frottage, Dry humping, Coming Untouched, Squirting, Accidental edging, accidental orgasm denial/delay, hand job, thigh fucking, wet and messy, Vash the Stampede Crying During Sex, Trans Vash the Stampede, Acespec Vash the Stampede, Banter and Bickering, Wolfwood is easy, Dirty Talk, communication is important, the word vashussy is indeed used once and i am a little sorry about that, no pet names, Sweet and caring, Marchbloom24, Vashussy week

I’m really proud of that one. It’s my smut for vashussy week. They are having great sexy times, if not without hiccups because listen, some things need to be communicated with actual words and that is not their strong point. But it’s okay, they wing it. They bicker and they are being stupid but surprisingly it contains little drama and is actually quite sweet.

I think I am very clever for That One Joke, and the commenters so far agree (also I got to use the word vashussy unironically at one point and it makes sense)

Point of view

Wordcount: 16'039

Rating: T

Relationships: Vash the Stampede & Nicholad D. Wolfwood, Meryl Stryfe & Vash the Stampede, Meryl Stryfe & Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Vash the stampede/Nicholas D. Wolfwood

Characters: Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Meryl Stryfe, Vash the Stampede, Roberto de Niro, Brad, Luida Lutner, Minor ship three character

Tags: Pre-Relationship, post episode 7, Plants, ship three, Friendship, roberto is the only reasonable one and he has them all figured out, wolfwood is not having a good time here, conflicted feelings, hurt/little comfort, everyone is very protective of vash, the Wolfwood has complicated feelings, Angst, Introspection, Pining, not quite comfort but some reassurance, backstory

I wondered how the meeting of the seeds crew and vashs little group went down while he was out of commission and figured, if they both thought the others might have it out for vash when really, both groups are really, really protective of him. Heavily focusses on Wolfwood who is not having a good time with vash plantness and honestly, everything that goes on. Feat a very worried meryl and brad and luida. We need more brad and Wolfwood interactions, they could have such an interesting dynamic.

Observations and subjective perceptions

Ongoing and on hiatus until end of may since work wont let me focus on it enough to decide which way I want to wrap it up and how many of the initial ideas will go in it and how many will be for another story.

Rating: T

Relationships: Meryl Stryfe & Vash the Stampede, Vash the Stampede & Millions Knives, Meryl Stryfe & Millions Knives, Vash the Stampede & Nicholas D. Wolfwood, background relationships

Characters: Meryl Strife, Vash the Stampede, Millions Knives, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Milly Thompson

Tags: (re)building relationships, Self-Discovery, Friendship, facing uncomfortable truths, learning to compromize, Pre-Relationship, Vash's complicated relationship with food, Meryl's Hazardous driving, Angst and Humor, POV Third Person, POV Alternating, Somewhat Unreliable Narrator, as in Meryl and Knives interprt things very differently, minor characters cameo, lots of 98 easter eggs, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Character Study, Vash the Stampede has prosthetic legs, Introspection

Post tristamp version of knives needs to learn to live with people. Mostly told from meryl or knives point, later Wolfwood as the gang tries to navigate life with the new intern milly and the ex (?) homicidal maniac that has only agreed to a limited time deal for vash to show him humans aren’t so bad after all. They spend a lot of time trying not to get in trouble or commit violence against another member of the group. Its funny but also full of unresolved tensions and issues and knives isn’t making this easy on anyone. Focuses a lot on meryl with hints of vashwood. Part of why I wrote this was because I thought meryl and knives could have a hilarious relationship of “I hate you so much but unfortunately I agree with you that vash is kind of a walking desaster”

Good riddance

Wordcount: 599

Rating: G

Characters: Zazie the Beast, Legato Bluesummers, Livio the Double Fang, Millions Knives, Midvalley the Hornfreak, Elendira the Crimsonnail, William Conrad | Revnant Vasquez, Nicholas D. Wolfwood

Just a really short collection of zazie looking for people that enjoy their retelling of wolfwood being hit by a car.

Tags: humor, ficlet

Another vashwood week is coming up soon! I have already written one entry and started another one. a tristamp version where Wolfwood gets to avert the couch and A hanahaki one… where he still might end up on the couch. Sorry bout that.

[hjemne]

Ilsa, I’ve seen you posting a lot of Trigun and well I’m intrigued by it, to say the least. But just for giggles, would you try to convince me why should I watch it? 😆🤚🏻

AHHHHH!

I didn't think Trigun was going to worm its way into my brain so much but here we are. There is so much to love about it and I adore so many of the characters for a billion different ways. The character type of someone who is made into a killing machine and then is slowly convinced to accept love and forgiveness is my favourite and is all over trigun. So many characters see themselves as monstrous but choose to do what they see as right for the sake of / with the help of their friends. There are moments of silliness and of tragedy, all with an incredibly interesting setting which slowly gets revealed.

Because of the recent release of Trigun Stampede, the community is really active rn (esp on Tumblr!) and it's really cool to see so many incredible fanarts, comics, fanfics and discussions being made. It's very fun to be part of a very active fandom, but also one that is 25 years old and has fanworks that are older than I am.

I really love it, and I would recommend it, but unfortunately I also have some caveats which I gotta mention.

What you gotta know before getting into Trigun is that there are 4 different canon versions and each one has its problems. I wish I could recommend X version as the definitive and best, but that just doesn't exist which is very annoying.

1) Trigun Maximum: the manga

Good: incredible nuances to characters like Wolfwood, Knives, Livio/Razlo. Vashwood subtext is off the charts and their dynamic is incredibly fascinating and central. This is the most detailed and complex story of Trigun and has lots of themes, characters and plot points that don't exist in other versions. Has elements of sexism and sexual violence, but (imo) to show how shitty the world is, rather than to revel in the misogyny. The tone is tragic, with equal mix of hope and pain.

Bad: the female characters of Meryl and Milly get massively sidelined in comparison to their depictions elsewhere. It's a very long manga and has (imo) pacing issues that limit the impact of emotional moments. The art style is beautiful, but notoriously difficult to follow, especially in the many long fight scenes (particularly bad in volume 5). There's lots of disagreement about 'correct' translations and it can be hard to tell which character is doing/saying/thinking what at points which can make it confusing and frustrating to read at times.

Overall: 7/10, I would recommend but maybe not as your first bit of exposure to Trugun

2) 1998 anime Trigun

Good: the silliest of Triguns with some great voice acting. The friendships between Vash, Milly, Meryl and Wolfwood are very sweet and engaging (although it would have been nice to see more of the four of them together). It's a fun overview of the Trigun story and has a very entertaining mix of comedy and serious emotional moments. Lots of hijinks and lots of fights. Milly and Meryl are core characters and get time to shine (it is impossible not to love Milly). This is personal preference but the animation style is kinda goofy in the way it changes styles to exaggerate characters' feelings which I love. The first 12 ISH episodes are very Saturday morning cartoon vibes without being too inane and childish.

Bad: because it only had the first couple of volumes of the manga to adapt from, the mid-season tone shift and later fights feel rushed, a little confusing and ultimately lead to a less satisfying conclusion than in trimax. The misogyny is noticeable, especially in the first couple of episodes, though is limited to a couple of comments in some episodes and doesn't (I think) make it unwatchable. The antagonists are rushed through and it's hard to work out who the 'main' villain is. Tone change is quite abrupt. Wolfwood is a less developed character with a less intense (back)story, Livio/Razlo doesn't exist at all etc

Overall: 7/10, this is what I'd recommend you start with. It has pacing issues and uncomfortable sexist comments, but I think they're outweighed by the strengths of the main casts relationships and the pure entertainment value of it. Not the most satisfying ending, but they were constrained so :/

3) Badlands Rumble (film)

Good: animation is SO crisp. Wolfwood is at maximum chest exposure and actually his character is pretty interesting here. Milly and Meryl are back, but in limited roles. Some interesting world building and Vash and Wolfwood go thru their divorce arc TM which is dumb and funny and angsty.

Bad: Wolfwood is far too pale. The first half an hour is made almost unwatchable by the decision to make sexism and sexual harrassement a way to pad out the runtime. Vash is such a creep it just makes for uncomfortable watching.

4/10 don't watch if you're not already invested, and honestly do yourself a favour by watching the opening scene, then skipping to the 30 min ish mark and watch knowing that Vash has some very tough dried meat in his front coat pocket.

4) Trigun Stampede anime

Good: really cool 3D animation and music. Has Wolfwood's manga backstory and some manga characters like Livio and Crimsonnail, but with very different characterisations. I really liked the episode looking at the childhood of two orphans and how their love for each other was manipulated against them both. Much bigger focus on Knives than the original and more elaboration of his motivations and plans. Zazie is SO much better here than in the original anime. No uncomfortable sexism yay!

Bad: I... don't like tristamp very much. The characters are watered down from their manga versions and Knives is just kinda evil because he was en evil child, rather than the much more nuanced version in trimax. Milly doesn't exist (yet) and they added in a new character Roberto whose role in the story is (or at least was to me) obvious if you know the basics of the hero's journey structure. Everyone has been twinkified and Wolfwood doesn't even have his tits out smh. Vash just comes across as having less agency and his motivations feel weak. I really just dont like a lot of the character decision here BUT to be fair, that's because I'm comparing them to the manga. But also, a main plot point is someone taking over his brother's body so that his sisters can get pregnant and it definitely still feels weird in context. The focus on the two brothers makes other dynamics a little weaker, and has led to a lot of incest-y fandom things which is ehh.

5.5/10 there are some things it does very well and it's very popular for a reason but I personally think the characterisations are disappointing. It's trying to strike a weird balance between being its own, new thing and also nostalgia for original elements, leading to some questionable pacing and plot choices. It doesn't even have Midvalley the Hornfreak.

I would love to be able to talk about Trigun with you and be passionate about the elements of it I love, but also I don't want to recommend it without giving you a fair picture of the parts I'm more critical about. I genuinely love the world building and characters, which are expressed best in the less accessible form of the manga but are also found in the animes. What I'd recommend is watching the original anime first, but also you might need to give it the benefit of the doubt for the first couple episodes which is where the dodgy 90s sexism is most obvious. I'd be super interested in hearing your thoughts and reactions to it if you did watch it, and also please bear in mind that my complaints about tristamp are personal and there are many who love that version so don't take my negativity as fact.

[feder-costumes]

I went to MMC - which is now in may to all confusion...? But it's really nice...? It's tiny and has the flair of 2005 but now it's not rainy and cold and freezing. I like it.

After spening the morning triing on like 4 short, black wigs I had at home to find one that might fit for Meryl and ending up chopping the fringe of my Wiccan wig, I really liked myself as Meryl?? Like... this is the most basic bitch beige outfit I've ever wore in my life but I like it??

And then I had a very fun and sweet day with my friends and a bunch other Trigun cosplayers, who were all very sweet and I bothered Krone into takeing silly pictured of us. :') (what do you call a grouping of Vashs? - a Stampede :D)

Also bonus picture of 'Nervel giving the best Kuroneko impression while I had a lot of sappy feelings about a funky space western manga that defined a point in my life.

Me, being sappy storytime under the cut

My very first convention ever was MMC 2001 and there I made my very first convention friendship bc the other person was cosplaying Wolfwood and I was one of the few people who reconized said cosplay and we became basicly instant friends bc we were both obsessed with Trigun and finally had someone to talk. We exchanged contacts and later telephone numbers and we talked _so much_ for hours and send each other ripped animes on burned CDs via postal services every time one of us got something new, sleepovers full of way to grindy JRPGs - like... for years. And looking back, I'm so thankfull for this expirience and friendship I found back then bc now I very much aware that this was incredible luck that the first person I ever meet on a convention was this wonderful sweet person, that made my first convention magicial and sparked so much joy for this whole cosplay-fandom-convention-thing and I came back again and again. Like... I could have meet just the wrong person while being way to young and just someone who was just shitty. My first convention could have been gone wrong so easily. But it didn't. I meet my friend. And now, coming back 22 years later, wearing the Meryl cosplay I couldn't do back then bc I didn't know how to make anything and you couldn't buy anything (and again, meeting very sweet people bc of this stupid (affectionate) space western manga that has a new renaissance) makes me feel that something came full circle. And I'm very goey inside about it. I lost contact with my friend a decade ago but Sari, I hope you are doing amazing and still spark joy in peoples life, like you did in mine, whereever you are now. I still think about you.

:')