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polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup · 3 months ago

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Everything about the battle at yokohama was Amazing, I love all of your thoughts and world building in pez dispenser. If you have time (and feel like it), could you explain ‘this entire sub-analysis on Idaten’s internal culture and how it intersects with broader heroics standards’. (i was ENRAPTURED by your hero economic analysis)

ps. when i saw in the tags about how the class just. broke down. and asked for their parents, it was like sucker punch to the face, i couldn’t imagine how the actual heroes felt when they saw them. if the public saw that side of class 2a, would they lay off? probably not, but damn. your world building and ideas are just. so good

So my decision about Idaten and its subculture actually hinges on one question about canon: Why did Stain go after Tensei?

Stain was all about attacking people who had committed some kind of perceived failing of heroics. But Tensei seems to be legitimately above the board. He didn’t seem to engage too heavily in the consumerist culture around heroics. He did good work. He was a good hero. So what about him made Stain decide to go after him?

I didn’t want it to be an “IDK he thinks all heroes but all might is fake” thing because 1) that cheapens the character and 2) it doesn’t match what canon shows. Don’t get me wrong, he was a lunatic who thought he needed to kill a fucking kid over his extremist ideals, but he let Izuku go the second Izuku established he conformed to his moral system.

Stain kills when he perceives a reason to. That doesn’t mean he’s always right. But he needs an excuse first.

I decided that there was one detail about Idaten that would be his most likely motive: the number of sidekicks he had.

Tensei is canonically taking up his parents’ mantle. This is a family business he’s heavily suited to and excels at. He has working beneath him a much higher than average number of sidekicks. And we know from canon that he’s not the type to take advantage of his team. Fuck, he seems to emphasize taking care of his team and working together above all else.

But we know that from canon. Stain doesn’t. What he sees, from the outside, is a young hero who took over his parents’ agency and is bolstering his own career on the backs of his sidekicks, which is what so many heroes were doing at that time.

Because stain is an extremist. He doesn’t once consider that maybe Tensei is the exception to the rule. He didn’t think to ask the sidekicks who he was, in a way, taking action on behalf of what they thought of Tensei.

Which is consistent with his character. It took him less than five minutes to decide “yeah I need to put down this grief stricken fifteen year old boy” do you????

Iida becomes the kind of hero that meets his ideals. Stain would have killed him the first time Iida gave him a reason. He’s shown to not always be right or do due diligence to determine if someone is even consistent with his crazy fucking moral system. He was just wrong when he went after Tensei.

And a big reason why he was wrong is because Idaten, as a culture, is far from the typical agency experience. It’s just that no one knows this, because Idaten is shown to be all about maintain a strong and confident facade. It’s not releasing its fucking employment contracts. The public only gets the calm, in control demeanor of the team. It doesn’t see how the sausage is made.

Do you know that millionaire ceo who realized his employees lives sucked and voluntarily took a huge pay cut so that way he could raise all of their salaries to a huge degree and the company as a whole got much, much better because the workers cared about it now and they made more profits and his salary eventually increased too as the company improved and all of his employees loved him? And he published the results thinking maybe other ceos would follow them after it was proven to make their companies more successful? And literally not one single one of them did?

Yeah that’s Idaten.

We talked in the earlier post about how heroics culture, for the most part, is abusive and built on the backs of sidekicks who are being widely taken advantage of. Idaten just… isn’t. Their compensation is incredibly fair and above board. People get credited for busts based on who was in charge of that particular bust or went above and beyond. They genuinely take care of their team, which is consistent with how Tensei seems to treat his team in canon.

For the most part, the sidekicks don’t want to even leave Idaten and become big name heroes themselves. They are all so genuinely happy and fulfilled that most of them happily spend their whole career as a sidekick.

But that’s the exception, and not the rule. And from the outside, Stain saw another sidekick farm propping up a pretend hero.

Which is one of the reasons why all of the Idaten sidekicks got together to hunt him down like a sick dog when he escaped. Tensei was babygirl to them and Stain hurt babygirl. He besmirched babygirl’s name over something he didn’t even do. Tensei didn’t even coordinate that mission the sidekicks made a group chat without him and went out to kick that fucking guy’s ass.

Idaten is a model of what heroics could be if it wasn’t focused on self profit and promotion. It made sacrifices to be this way. But it resulted in a team of excellent heroes who are all able to focus on protecting society without going home and feeling like they got fucked.

Stain has this mental image of heroes who should be helpful and good and save everyone without any personal incentive. But when you’re breaking your fucking back and going home to a shit apartment while your boss does 3 hours of work per day and has five houses, you start to ask yourself why you have to fucked for society to be safe. The sidekicks’ “greed” took the blame for the meltdown with Tartarus, but really, people should have been pointing fingers at every single agency head who refused to treat them fairly.

Idaten is this sparkling model of a business that is incredibly successful because the company heads are actually fair and good. They are the exception. And they are operating within a system where many of the other agencies are treating their talent like disposable cogs in a machine. The system needs to be regulated to force everyone else to act like Idaten—Idaten’s independent success is not a sign that the system works on its own.

As to your second question—no. The world saw little snapshots of Class 2A melting down in the aftermath and it got traded around like every other moment. Someone took a picture of the moment I talked about with Iida just sitting on the curb and crying when his brother’s men came to relieve him of command, and it was just another famous picture of many on the internet do that incident.

It was just��a horrifically public event. All of the kids had to be hospitalized in the aftermath. The world knew that. Izuku took a hit during his big fight with Mirio against the major villain team. He got stabbed, and it was poisoned. He knew from the villain’s history that the poison they produced was slow acting, though, so he quietly took Todoroki aside, had him cauterize the wound, and kept fighting until more heroes came. There’s a fuck ton of photos of him lying down on the sidewalk with his head in Todoroki’s lap in terrible shape waiting for the ambulance to come get him. And the world took that as a “Look At How Strong He Is, All Might Reborn, He Fought All Night With That Terrible Wound And He Still Prevailed” not “wow, that actual child had to fight for hours through the night not knowing if he’d live long enough to make it to a hospital.” Which is like. What happened. Izuku didn’t tell anyone but Todoroki that he took the hit. They both knew that if he didn’t get the antidote in time, he was dead. And they also both knew that there was no way he was going to be able to have even a shot at a hospital until morning, so they just had to keep going.

The world also took that as fuel for the ongoing ship war around Izuku and Todoroki, that they are only marginally aware of. Which like. Would not be comforting, that that’s what they took from a picture where both of them were legitimately afraid that Izuku was going to die.

The world knew they were young. They knew they were a bunch of amazing kids who had done something spectacular. To a lesser extent, they knew that those kids struggled in the aftermath. But that was never going to save them from the media machine. The fact that this fell to kids who visibly struggled in the aftermath was picked apart and used as a bat to hit opponents with in the debates that followed.

The picture of Iida crying on the curb with his brother’s sidekicks around him is considered one of the seminal photos documenting modern Japan’s heroics. It is the kind of thing that is probably going to end up in a textbook down the line.

Iida hates that photo. He hates that he had one moment of vulnerability in the aftermath when he managed to keep it together the entire rest of the event, and people still pass it around like a trading card. He had worked so, so hard not to lose it, and right when he thought it was safe to, it got posted on the internet.

When Iida sat on the curb and started crying, he was barely standing. He was injured himself. Momo had a tremendous fight that left her in terrible shape, and everyone was afraid that she was not going to make it. Izuku had just revealed, by the way, guys, This Happened, and now everyone was afraid he wasn’t going to make it. Bakugou was like two days out of the medically induced coma Uraraka put him in when this happened and apparently the doctor’s warnings that he could only be on light work was a hard requirement because he was completely non responsive for the since the fighting stopped and now everyone was afraid he wasn’t going to make it. The entire class was concussed, exhausted, and wanted their parents.

And he just really, really wanted his brother. He wanted his big brother to come in as the hero he had always admired, sit down with him, and tell him it was over. That he did good, and he could rest now. His brother’s sidekicks were the closest second available to him.

That picture made Iida feel like he had failed. He hadn’t held it together, and he hadn’t had the same strong facade as his brother always did. His anguish became another thing for the world to chew on. And that was true for all of those kids at that fight.

#pez dispenser debris #the medias never going to be easy on them #they will be righteously angry on their behalf don’t get me wrong #but the media is not going to get together and say ‘you know what? let’s respect these kids privacy. we won’t post these photos’ which is #what they wanted #like it was just bad #Mina had a breakdown in the hospital because she couldn’t get the blood out of her fur #Yagi had to hold her while she cried #kirishima called his moms sobbing because he was GAY and had a BOYFRIEND and what if they had to put his boyfriend BACK IN THE MEDICALLY #INDUCED COMA. Uraraka really struggled because she called her parents trying not to cry and was wondering if maybe she could go visit or #they could come visit her but she’s fine if they can’t she knows it’s expensive and things are tight right now. Tensei sent out an Idaten #assistant to personally arrange and pay for their travel and set them all up in a rented house for a few days so Uraraka could be close to #her friends but have her parents and he never said a word about it. Iida’s friends had taken such good care of his brother that Tensei did #what he could to take care of them.#but the kids struggled. they had a huge amount of guilt and self doubt over the calls they made in the field because maybe they could have #been better heroes. but they had been the best heroes they could have possibly been expected to be #shinsou DIDNT ask for his parents in the aftermath and just sort of sat silently in his hospital bed staring at the wall and it’s what made #Aizawa realize he couldn’t go back to the foster home again. UA took custody Shinsou still hasn’t told his classmates because he’s worried #they’d ask questions. shouto also didn’t ask for his parents and it made Aizawa Stress over why and how it fit in with his other concerns.

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dethroned-by-ghosts · 2 months ago

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The Women of Trigun 98

People need to understand how ahead of its time trigun 98 is in regards to women and their portrayal. You can't keep looking at modern media and comparing it. It's the 90s. It was a different feminist movement back then. Back then women wanted to be seen. Wanted to be taken seriously and handle jobs previously titled for men only.

Below is a review of every single episode (all 26) of trigun 98 and how women are depicted in each one. I also added a summary on Wolfwood and Vash.

I'm gonna add the conclusion here too, as a tldr:

In the end, I think I’m just happy that the 98 anime was written and done the way that it was. I’m glad that I wasn’t disappointed by it. I’m genuinely so happy that it has all of these 90s elements without having the uncomfortableness that comes from watching an old anime with outdated thoughts and views on women and society. I think people need to look at it more critically and see how much it gives to the women in the series, in some instances it’s even more than the manga just because they had the time and space to stretch out and expand more. I hate seeing it discredited, or seeing people characterize 98 Vash and Wolfwood as “weird”. My feeling is that this is a collective reflection of people’s view on 90s anime, and not an actual analysis or conclusion from the 98 anime itself. I want people to be able to appreciate what 98 actually gave us. It’s not cheap, it’s not superficial, it’s a deconstruction on many levels, and a good interpretation of the manga and story of trigun.

Everyone is of course entitled to their opinions and thoughts, I’m not out here asking anyone to love 98, I’m just asking that people stop throwing it under the bus for no reason other than a time-era bias that doesn’t even hold true when you actually analyze the content of the anime.

Warning that this is 10k long all together, sectioned into the episodes:

Episode 1. Look at Meryl and Milly, out in the wild, two women on their own, no man around them, tasked with tracking down and containing the one legendary and terrifying gunman, the Humanoid Typhoon, the man who single handedly destroyed one of the biggest cities on the planet. They alone are tasked with this. Not only this, the 98 introduction for them is the "classic" bar scene joke. The men pointedly state "for this gag to work, you gotta-" they are literally breaking down and defying this misogynistic gag in episode one and showing you how strong and scary Milly is. How cool and collected Meryl is. Attributes associated with male lead characters. We also get introduced to how much power they have on their own. It’s something else to have a shounen show open with their two main female support leads being fearless from a bar full of men and then scaring the men trying to demean them. The show literally opens and tells you this isn’t your regular show. Meryl and Milly are powerful. Milly carries a giant heavy stun gun. Meryl carries 50(?) guns on her cape, she carries that daily on her back, she walks around like that weight on her back is nothing, it drapes to her shins! These weapons aren’t just for show, they know how to use them. But what I like is they’re not just badass, they have such a vibrant personality!! They keep approaching “Vash” despite rumors, despite how unsure they are, they have that courage and perseverance to them, and they’re going to do a good job no matter what.

Episode 2, Marianne. Posing as an innocent sheltered girl. She's not. She's a cop. She's on a covert mission. She is fighting for everyone's rights here. She's a good cop. She never needed Vash's help. She never even needed to be in any of the random romance situations. This also isn’t the first or the last time we see women showcased in the 98 anime as fully capable fighters who stand on their own. Vash being all love struck was also just his way to get closer and address her wound, inquire about what was going on. Was he disrespecting women? Did he cross any boundaries he shouldn't? no. The ‘peeping tom’ gag is in this episode, yes, but the intentions were for the injury, and the animators didn’t give the watchers anything either, there’s no reward for the gag (instead you get Milly being very perspective and lovely). Did Marianne express being uncomfortable and he pushed ahead ignoring her comforts? no. A full episode for one random woman not mentioned in the manga, they just dedicated it to her to build on the tone of the manga and Vash's values. (I need to rewatch it to address meryl and milly here, i'm sorry)

Episode 3, we have a lady being THE bartender and master of that space. Is she being mistreated and demeaned? no, she kicks you out immediately. She takes no slander and no drunkards. She is the master of her space. She dictates what happens there. She also clearly tells Frank that she's upset with him, but also never calls him out as Frank in front of others, because she and the rest of the town still hold up their pride of housing him in their midst.

Episode 4, we have a daughter learn about the atrocities her father has done. She is a spoiled girl. She lives in luxury. She gambles (gasp, shock, booing, omg you don't like women being lazy and as bad as men? wow, where did your equal rights go). She learns that she has been living off of money stolen from the lives of others. She doesn't look away from that reality. She's a gambler, remember. She doesn't escape out of it. She looks that truth head on and vows to do something about it, to fix what was done. She also doesn't forsake her father, (and to my memory, her dad also didn't forsake her? either way not the primary point). She stands on her own and makes her own decision regardless of her father.

Episode 5, and I'll admit that my memory of this is primarily from the manga, but Rosa and her lady friends are the ones that hold down Vash and corner him. It’s primarily a group of young women. It’s a mom that gives the speech about capturing Vash for the money needed to help the plant survive, so that her sick son can get better. It was a young girl who delivered the message of capturing Vash to the mayor. This is all being done by the women for the town, for each other.. You have to understand the subtle details that are uplifting women here. It’s a 90s show, it will be subtle about this. That’s how the culture was, women were still laying down the groundwork here. It was brief, but they actually had nearly forced Vash to make a stand and do something, had they not been interrupted. That's a whole town failing and 4-5 women winning, had the mayor not released the Nebraska family.

Episode 6, oh my freakin gosh episode 6. Elizabeth, a gorgeous woman. She is not touted around for her beauty, but her intellect and her own hard work that placed her as a plant engineer, though she uses that aspect of herself (beauty and looks) for her ends and goals, and that is feminism too, idk what to tell you. Femme fatale, whatever you wanna call it. I don't care. 98 made the effort to go out of their way to tell you a story from a survivor of the most atrocious event humanity witnessed in its brief history on that planet. If I may be so bold, this is one of the best additions to all the trigun media currently out. We don’t just see a survivor trying to take revenge, we get a full in-depth dive into who she is. They took the time to show you the grief and loss witnessed by one small girl. She’s very complex in that regard, especially for a one-episode story character. All she went through to find the culprit and avenge her parents, her life. She is taking the path of vengeance, yes, but she is also here because of her hard work and efforts to survive. Did she nearly forsake an entire town herself? yes!!! Women's wrongs!!!! OMG!!!! But here’s the thing, though, they go as far as showing how she recognized Vash as the same person who comforted her, however briefly, in the ruins of July. It’s the complexity of meeting your hero or source of hope/good in a bleaker memory, and realizing they were also the cause of the suffering. She knows this man helped her. She knows she wants to, but can’t harm him. She knows that what she was about to go through was the same as what had happened to her, but here she gets, at least, some sort of resolution. That her whole life, one way or the other, she’d gotten stronger and smarter and navigated life with a goal in mind, but now she gets to move on from it, we never know. It’s implied. Vash doesn’t absolve her from anything either, he acknowledges her pain, acknowledges the hurt he has caused her, one way or the other, despite not knowing or remembering anything of the truth. She has to take his truth and believe what she must to move on.

Episode 7, not too much to say, except the resourcefulness of Meryl and Milly despite not being properly funded by their jobs sndkfjvbsdkfhd not the greatest moment, but they are so resourceful i love them

Episode 8, Hallelujah, the girls are there to save Vash. He'd be a piece of toast with bullet holes if not for them stopping BDN. They also help Vash while he's injured. Also we get introduced to Rem. Is she the motherly saintly figure? yeah yeah sure, but who is following her every principle and guidance and outlook on life? a man and the main character of the show. Vash. Her philosophy of pacifism, something so often associated to women and their ‘aversion of violence’, their ‘nature’ to care and nurture… he’s the one taking it up, he’s the one who is looking at the world through her eyes, her outlook on life, and tries to show others how it can be seen as well. The show isn’t conceited, it genuinely is taking so many ideas and concepts that are generally subconsciously associated with women or ingrained misogyny and deconstructing it to show the viewers why these women are amazing.

Episode 9, a single mom with two kids. not much here, but it's rep and we love rep. Oh! Oh I completely forgot that Meryl and Milly come to the boys’ rescue twice here!! Milly’s quick thinking to fire her stun gun helps hold off the robotic sentinels (or the murder machines that the episode is named after). When Vash and Wolfwood get stuck in the underground piece of lost tech, it’s Meryl and Milly who blast through the ceiling to get them out. The voice of the ‘murder machine’ is also feminine, and that’s also a small nod to women being in a role of fierce protectors, vs gentle nurturing, etc etc.

Episode 10, also a single mom with a self employed job, and the guys doing what they can to help her. What is misogynistic about that???? Meryl and Milly celebrating with the guys at the end is great imo. Is there a gag or two through the episode? yes? And? It’s a filler episode, a little bit more so than the previous ones, and I think it’s good at showcasing the group’s values when they are functioning together for the most part. Vash tries to flirt, and literally fails with his face in the ground. It was so out of nowhere, like they wanted to show him being casually able to dissuade any attention from coming his way by being an absolute annoyance. Kudos to having none of the women fawn over him, heck none of the women seemed to quite fawn over anyone in the tournament where guys competed by showing off their gun skills. Milly gets drunk during the episode, but we aren’t shown anything, and the implication is neither did Vash or Wolfwood, they don’t take advantage of Milly, they didn’t take advantage of the single mom. Wolfwood was found helping her, and yeah, he roped Vash in for a few reasons not directly in the sake of helping, but he justifies it by emphasizing that this would help the single mom, and in the coded language that is vash and wolfwood’s ‘read between the lines’ they basically agreed to be taken for fools knowingly by each other if it meant helping out. Afterall, Vash and Wolfwood are both good, respectful people when it’s in relation to single moms. Perhaps I have a bias in that interpretation, that’s fine. (I know we don’t see Wolfwood growing up with a motherly figure, but he has his own orphanage, I think he knows the value.)

Episode 11, ANOTHER 98 win imo. The independence needed from a young lady and a young man trying to defy human trafficking going on for too long, the complexities of found family vs blood family and what you owe to your parents when they are in the wrong and using you ulteriorly despite loving you. Also freakin hell a full episode for Milly???? For showing off how strong she is? How selfless she is? How powerfully righteous she is? How she takes scalding water that will 100% scar her for the sake of these two strangers? Is this building too much on your 'misogynistic' narrative of women being sacrificial for the next gen and caring and kind and good spirited? Need I remind you that both Milly and Meryl get so mad in this episode? How Meryl points a gun at Vash? How Milly outright throws him to the ground with a punch, unfiltered rage? Are you going to tell me that Milly and Rem are written as weak women because of how they self-sacrifice to protect the future of others in their own way? Vash does that too, and you like him for it. Are you going to tell me Vash is a better character because he has these qualities but is a man instead? I can go ON for hours on how amazing this episode is and how everyone seems to dislike it. Another thing to note is how Wolfwood in particular takes a good portion of the episode admiring Milly, her intelligence, her perceptiveness, her kindness, her anger, her earnestness, her strength of character and physical strength, her conviction, her beliefs, her determination to do what’s right, her unwillingness to compromise on anything she might regret in the future, her self assuredness with herself and her actions. People sleep on Milly, and you have Wolfwood here telling you how amazing she is. He looks up to her. He looks up to Vash. But while Vash is an oddity, Milly is an oddity that everyone admires for similar qualities. Vash and Milly are written to parallel each other in many ways. This episode, Wolfwood highlights it further. Milly and Vash’s good will and personality that doesn’t allow for compromises in morals, that they snap into action and do what is right regardless of the situation and circumstances, they will choose to do good no matter what, because that’s who they are. He tells Vash as much, and Vash agrees about how good Milly is. There’s also another layer here where Milly and Vash get directly compared, and it’s treated as an honour to be compared to Milly to begin with. Wolfwood admires and wants to be like her, like Vash. (this rant will also somehow convince at least somebody of how amazing polygun is, they all love each other). Ahem, I also want to point out that Milly’s anger that had her go all the way to punch Vash as hard as she could, that Meryl threatening Vash at gunpoint and her disappointment in him, both of their disappointments in him stem from how earnest they are, how good they are, and how they’ve come to trust Vash to be the same. I love the distinction, too, where Meryl is upset but feels bound to her job and sets her personal feelings aside, while Milly doesn’t care and makes sure Vash takes the full brunt of what her disappointment (and some of her anger) looks like. It was a breach of trust, what Vash did, but ultimately revealed as a facade he had to keep to make the entire thing believable. I just think it’s absolutely amazing that this show kept the integrity of its two main female characters and showcased them in contrast to the main male characters. Wolfwood also stood aside despite wanting to help, because he knows there are rules that govern the world they live in. He’s similar to Meryl here, where he struggles to follow in his own emotions and follows ‘the way of the world’ in defeated acceptance, but like Meryl, is trying to find inspiration and a way out.

Episode 12, Diablo, Meryl spearheading the defense for Vash. Milly capturing so much of Vash's mask. Showcasing Meryl's strength and intellect in navigating law and the world of men, showcasing how intelligent and perceptive Milly is. Meryl going in to defend Vash. Milly being protective of Meryl, but of Vash too. Both of them being so protective of each other and of him. Vash never belittles them. I could talk about this episode forever, and I do actually talk about it again, a bit more in depth, near the end of this, so stay tuned.Episode 13, a full reflection of Meryl (and Milly) on Vash, their journey, their own opinions that 98 highlights is what colours our view of the show and main character so far. We are guided through them. They are giving us the narrative. We also never see Vash demean them, he treats them with the utmost respect. He never encroaches on their comfort, he never makes them uncomfortable, he never flirts with them, he's kind to them, he cares for them. He knew from episode 1 that they were approaching him professionally, and he might make their life a little difficult, but he'd never cross a boundary with them that may jeopardize their career, or their assignment which they need to keep being employed. Contrasting with many anime, Vash never pursues either of them, or gets the trope of being torn between his mission and the love he found along the way. No, he is genuinely there to love Meryl and Milly as people and as their own persons. He also tries to protect them, maybe brutishly at times by pushing them away, but they take none of it, and they don’t allow for even a small crack of doubt in their capabilities. I’ll just add here what I say later on, which is that after this episode, Vash doesn’t pretend around Meryl and Milly as much anymore. They’ve seen him as he is. He lets them into his life, and promptly wants them out of it for their safety. He cares about them, and has never once encroached on their jobs or on them as people until he feels it’s become too dangerous, and he knows and acknowledges how capable they are.

Episode 14, Little Arcadia, an episode dedicated to Meryl and Milly, and their view on family, on life, on what they want to do, on what the future looks like. It's important. It's not domestic. They are actively fighting to protect this family, and trying to figure out their own lives. They have a story. They have a life outside of what the show gives us. It is important to who they are. Would it be nice to look into that? Absolutely, but that's not the story theme we are here for. We are here for humanity, and the 98 team did their damndest to show us how rounded all these characters are. Let’s not forget that this episode we get Badwick’s lovely mom, how supportive and strong she is, how she doesn’t back down from anything, and she treats her son as her son, and that is, she’s not about to have him go making bad choices or badmouthing anyone, because she and her husband are doing all of this for him, regardless if he understood or not. We also get Milly’s strong outburst to finding out that Badwick was outright harming his parents to appease a stronger power. It’s important to me that we constantly see the women fighting back on what they see as being stupid logic, and they do so by fighting sdfkhvbshdf Also, hello??? Nebraska family women side???? Marilyn is adorable??? unapologetically herself, happy to dress how she likes, happy with herself and her family. Also the mom (Patricia) being super powerful and amazing, this is a point to Nightow for not constricting women to specific body types and shapes and power levels. Btw if you skip this episode, you're being a misogynist :D teehee

Episode 15, Dominique my beloved, but before we get there, we have the three women Legato saves. We are shown misogyny in this world. The women we have seen thus far are free women. Facing hardships, surviving, but none of them had a man beating them down or telling them they can't work, they can't be [insert anything], but here? Here we see cruelty, and yet even our token villain doesn't stay silent about it and doesn’t let it pass. We know why from the manga, but that's not the point here. As far as 98 goes, this was voluntary good will from Legato to respect women. Back to Dominique, she is powerful. She goes toe to toe with Vash the Stampede. If he hadn't figured out how she was doing what she was doing, he'd be dead. He survived because she was toying with him, what a queen. Is the unbuttoning of her shirt misogynistic? Yes, fine, you can see it that way, I won't rob you of that. Hear me out though. She takes out Vash's buttons, he just returns the gesture in kind, it's a show of equal power. I am not encouraging this, I'm not a fan of this trope as it is, but I'm saying it doesn't decrease from her power and influence and neither does she seem all too bothered by it. Again, not my favourite thing in the world, but I'll leave it there. We also get tensions between Vash and Meryl & Milly. They scold Vash for mistreating Dominique, and Meryl questions him on his evasive behavior. Which, if I may add, wouldn't be happening if the writers were misogynist and wrote Meryl and Milly or one of them as a love interest.��

Episode 16, Fifth Moon, 98 style. The ladies make their own decision to follow Vash, knowing all the risks. They witness the second act of god on this human colonized planet. They are not terrified by it, though they also are. It's not 'love sickness' that has Meryl wanting to stay and reach Vash, it's her own will, her own curiosity, her own emotions. Milly grabs and runs with Meryl for her own safety out of her own will. Because what do people keep forgetting? Milly is a protector. A strong one. As bullheaded about it as Meryl is. As Vash is. Wow. Women getting to make different, individual decisions based on their moral and ethical code separate from the wants of any male in the cast. Wow. As much as this episode was Vash facing off against Legato and the GHG, it starts and ends with Meryl and Milly's agency and their own persons as individuals who have their own life, thoughts, and choices.

Episode 17. Rem. Boy is she flawed in 98 and girl do I love her for it. She is the epitome of your 'misogynist-written' caring motherly peaceful woman to a fault who has a dead lover and condones any and all violence so much that she overlooks it. Hit pause for a moment. Let's rehash that for a second, shall we? Not any single person is made to be a mother. No one is made to be a mother. Nobody has that stuff figured out, so don't you dare reduce motherly traits to the female character most likely to exude it. She herself admits she barely knows what she's doing. She's just playing with the kids and pointing out lessons as she goes. Emotional maturity and/or intelligence is something thrust on all women by society, whether they're good at it or not. She has a flawed sense of what peace should look like, so much so that she never properly addresses the physical abuse the twins are going through. At 'best' she never notices, or at 'worst' she ignores it entirely and brushes it aside as something they have to work on to get people to accept them. Does this sound motherly? Not really? Good, you're catching up to the breakdown of the 'perfect womanly image' you thought Rem was embodying but is secretly a deconstruction of. Let's continue. She also never addresses or makes any comment about Steve's unwelcome groping of Mary, it's like she doesn't see it happening in front of her. She's in her own dreamy world. Let me quickly point out that having a dreamy world is fully valid, she is the positive spirit of the crew and their source of optimism, but she is actively not equipped to address things she doesn't agree with despite what she puts out in ideology. She even wants a fair hearing from Steve, fully ready to ignore Mary's claims. Women are always dismissed when they claim rape or SA, and sometimes other women, because of how society raised them, can actually work against the rights other women should receive. I am not saying Rem isn't right, that a fair trial needs everyone to be heard properly, but she's not being the best here either.

Mary, now, Mary is a lovely complex woman, because by her own admission as she complains to herself, she finds it fun or interesting how Rowan and Steve fight over her, but she is clearly not enjoying whatever Steve is doing to her, and she's not comfortable about it. She easily agrees to accuse Steve and has no remorse about it had it not been Rowan who went too far and tampered with Steve's cryopod.

Rowan and Steve are both Misogynists. Steve walks around seeing Mary’s body before anything else and doesn't care for any slap on the wrist he gets or discomfort Mary shows. Rowan feels he is owed Mary's unconditional love and at the first sign of rejection he kills her, because her value to him was only in her existence as a woman and nothing else. If she rejected him, then she didn't even need to exist at all. He had no qualms pointing that gun at Rem. I do think he would have fired, he wasn't mentally there for that exchange, and reactions from a twitchy shaking finger are more than enough to cause irreparable damage. Here, though, I do commend Rem and how she shows compassion for someone who is very clearly in a nervous breakdown and not mentally stable, and she approaches him with calm stability that he cannot deny or argue with. She also takes charge here, defending the twins and trying to get everyone into a safer, calmer state. I do think that the 98 writers weren't quite fully settled on how she conducts herself, but the latter half of the episode showcases so much of her strong determination, her personality, and her capacity for leadership and taking control of a situation. She did, after all, save all of humanity with those qualities of hers.

Words by my dear friend, legendofthesevenstars: The fact that they depicted these characters in such a realistic way is what makes it so effective. They aren't caricatures of evil villains. These could be real men who exist in the real world. THAT'S good writing of character flaws and an excellently painful depiction of misogyny. We as the viewers are uncomfortable not because the writers are disrespecting women, but because they've so effectively shown the pain and discomfort that these women are put through by these two men. Not what you'd expect from a shonen, huh?

Ultimately, Mary isn't quite written to be her own person, not fully, but rather as a show of contrast and to show how misogyny looks in a workplace setting, in a domestic setting, on an interpersonal level. Rem was shown to us as playing everything by ear, for the most part, when it comes to motherly qualities. She never addresses a lot of things, including Vash and Knives' fight and disagreement. She just tells Knives he shouldn't have done that, no explanation or reason given. She placed him on the bad side, and he retaliated by going there fully. IQ be damned, he's 1 years old. I have more to say, but I said a lot already and you get the gist. Maybe I will quickly add that 98’s version of Rem and having the SEEDs ship be a skeleton crew instead of her alone with the twins, and having the group dynamic be this? I think they knew what they were doing with Nightow’s spark notes. I think they did a very good job at adapting this episode to convey the core of the themes that 98 deals with conceptually, and framed it in a way that viewers can easily see the flaws.

Episode 18. Bless Sheryl and Lina. Bless them in particular. Before you go and tell me 'but it was an elderly woman and a little girl finding this old man in the alley and caring for him, taking up stereotypical caretaker roles thrust onto women and young girls’. Hold that thought for a second. Sheryl is a single grandmother with a rifle. She is respected in her small town, and seemingly known for her capacity to do what she threatens to. Lina is a young pre-teen who has either lost or is estranged from her parents. She's not your typical young girl in this sense, and that makes her choice to bring back Vash to her grandmother and ask to save him somewhat self serving and reflective to her character and to Sheryl's. Maybe you could imagine 'I couldn't help my parents', 'I don't know what happened to my parents', 'Maybe a stranger was this kind to my parents if they were found like this'. Look, ignore my thoughts. Stick with this: what 12 year old would find an old man in a back alleyway barely standing or speaking or looking coherent and thinks 'I gotta take this man home and take care of him because I want to be a good woman'. No one. The answer is no one. The answer is someone who has had their share of traumatic or semi-traumatic thoughts and wonderings about missing parents and living alone with their grandmother. Maybe I'm speaking from a place where I can see myself in Lina here. I'm not commenting about that in public. Now, yes, Lina and Sheryl take care of Vash as Eriks and get him back on his feet. Please pay attention to the fact that neither Sheryl nor Lina treat Vash with 'traditionally feminine care'. Sheryl is strict and harsh and straightforward/blunt, and verbally gets him moving. Lina physically gets him moving by dragging him around, kicking him about. They both treat him like a normal capable human being and not coddle him which is what a misogynist narrative would do. I also think it’s nice that their treatment of him isn’t ableist either (i’m not very confident saying this publicly).

Episode 19, the Fris & Polo feud. I can't say much remarkable here, except that we get to see Meryl and Milly happily back in pursuit. Aside from that, we have two men fighting to avenge a murdered daughter. Not the strongest feminist rep this episode, but we're here to broaden the narrative from other aspects and cast light on how we now see the parallels between Vash and Rem, now that we know, and how it's detrimental and not practical or functional or even remotely just. It's just the principle to keep people alive and able to speak for themselves and make choices for their own paths. A bad person can't make amends or be a better person if you choose to damn them and silence their soul forever, etc. etc. Oh, I'm not 100% sure, but is this also the episode where we see Meryl and Milly in the office for the first time? We see them not being treated or respected to their fullest potential due to small tidbits about their personalities that they don't give up or forsake for others in the workplace, and I freakin love that. Let them be themselves unapologetically. Additionally, this is where we get the mini lecture from the side character Karen, about “womanly happiness” where Karen doesn’t seem to understand how Meryl would have felt fulfilled or happy chasing around an outlaw, being out in the wilds. This happens in the manga, too. The implication is that what Meryl is doing could never possibly make a ‘normal woman’ happy. I think it’s effective that we see this office scenario after having gotten to know Meryl and Milly to the extent that we have because we see how restricted they are within that space. We know their full potential, and we see others dismiss their strengths, and it’s upsetting, but realistic and reflective of their choices in going back after Vash. In a way, they’d found their freedom through the course of this story, and it’s shown to us in the sense of ‘you don’t know what you had until it’s gone’ type of thing. Meryl doesn’t stand for it when she finds Milly being ‘punished’ with menial cleaning tasks when she knows how strong, smart, and powerful she is.

Episode 20 & 21, I love that we just get an actual typhoon and put Meryl and Milly in its path to witness and feel it. There is something about showing them face disasters together and alone and come out just fine being very satisfying to me. Moving on, we have Jessica. I love Jessica. Any Jessica slander in my house will get you kicked out. She is more than what she is shown or acts to be. She is that hopelessly romantic dreamer, yet another trope deconstruction (have you noticed how many we've had so far???) She gets taken hostage, another trope, except her face is also used as a puppet and weapon against Vash. This episode we also get more Plant rep, and while we don't get much, I count that as worthy of mentioning, because plants, despite being a full enigma in the 98 anime, are still shown to have a will of their own and capable of their own choices despite the situations they are placed in (see episode 6 as well). Back to Jessica, she is not a one note love-struck young woman, she outright blames Vash for Brad's death and casts him out and away from anything to do with her or the Seeds colony that fell 'because of him'. It was also the puppet with her face that shot Brad, the shot being meant for Vash. If Jessica was written by a 'misogynist team' she'd mourn Brad while being held in Vash's arms. Not here, folks! Here we have a woman full of anger, anguish, devastation, she lost her home, her life as she knows it, the one person who was always there next to her despite her fantasizing about another man, and she's directing all of that at Vash. Again, I'm here to support women's wrongs, justified as they are!

Episode 22, a moment of peace and caring. Recuperation. Before anyone says anything, the guys do their fair share in taking care of the place and being parental towards the kids. The work isn't left to Meryl and Milly, they just chose to do the jobs they are most comfortable with. People forget that feminism is supposed to allow all women to choose whatever they wish equally, including being presented as caring for children and/or cooking. It is a choice. Either way, the episode's intent is to reflect a peaceful domestic life. Take that as you will, I can't stop anyone that wants to see this as either misogynist or regressive to Meryl and Milly's characters. In my view, they are exhibiting things we'd never see from them early on in the story, and that's because they're more comfortable with themselves, perhaps, but also, there's kids in need of adults here. They're not gonna play super modern a la 2024/25 style and deliberately have the ladies look down on cooking simply because they are 'educated independent women who are above such roles and tasks'. Before anyone says anything further, Wolfwood is immediately introduced to us as helping out being a chef in episode 10, and Vash isn't bad at it either. Neither of them see themselves as 'too manly' to do tasks that need to be done and need help with. Wolfwood spends the episode admiring Meryl and Milly and all the work they do, he’s even jokingly jealous of how Milly gets the kids to smile. Both Vash and him are smiling and admiring the girls, not as love interests, not in any uncomfortable way. The line “women are a marvel” is really genuinely admiring women as amazing people, admiring women and all that they do, all that they handle in a society, how much they have to shoulder, how powerful they are. Wolfwood and Vash both respect women so much. If one more person tells me Wolfwood or Vash are misogynists.... well I wouldn't do anything, I'd roll my eyes and ignore them, but it's annoying to see so much lack of comprehension.

Episode 23, possibly a controversial one on the topic of women, but again, hear me out. The whole group is mentally in shambles. They are desperate for any form of normalcy, and they also can't stomach pretending to be normal after what had happened. They end up finding a place to take a break in, but ultimately everyone is taking a break from each other and trying to reflect and organize themselves after the traumas. Milly reaches out to Wolfwood, she is sympathetic enough to hear him out, and not afraid or withholding her judgement in telling him how what he did was wrong, even if it was the right thing to do at the time. She listens to him, she hears him, she offers him a shoulder to cry on. Things go further, yes, they're both in grief and seeking an escape. Milly isn't one to just let others take advantage of her. She chose this, too. Meryl also cares about Wolfwood. Wolfwood cares a lot about the ladies and Vash. They're there in his paradise, his paradise isn't complete without them, and they, in turn, have lost their chance at paradise with him there.

Episode 24 continues with the emotional devastation on the team, compounding it onto Meryl and Milly being given the truth and reality of what they're dealing with and the consequences of being close to Vash. Remember that Meryl has a huge arc for her character in opening up to others, being more emotionally honest with herself, and not repressing her wants and needs. Aided and guided by Milly, not by any romantic rush of emotions, she makes the choice that would have her be kinder to her future and past self, and that is to pursue her own wishes regardless of what others tell her to do, and that is to reach out for Vash with Milly alongside her. Milly, herself, is also grieving and hurting, but she is shown as strong and emotionally mature to not wail about the loss, but to move forward and find what she can do for the people she cares about who are still with her. Both are such strong, strong women.

Be that as it may, we do get them captured as hostages and their autonomy and safety threatened by Legato. Effectively, they are used against Vash to force his hand, not by virtue of them being women needing to be saved, but because they are Meryl and Milly. They aren't just anybody. They are the people left to Vash and the only people alive where he would pull the trigger on someone else's life for the sake of saving them. I think it also shows a lot that when Vash is trying to stop his angel arm, he thinks of all the women in his life (plus Wolfwood). He thinks of Meryl, Milly, Wolfwood, and Lina (that’s his little sister!!). It's so important here that, after having Rem mocked to his face, he makes the decision that these are two women, two people, he'd rather lose Rem's spirit than lose them forever. Rem already gave up her life to save him, his brother, and humanity. He can keep her alive in his memory for as long as he lives, but Meryl and Milly are here and alive now. and this is the culmination of all the deconstruction we have been carefully going through across the entire anime. I've said this before, but 98's scene for this is more powerful to me than trimax in the sense that Vash isn't thinking of owing someone or being tied to an obligation (don't get me wrong, i love livio & razlo and trimax and how it contextualizes this decision, but 98 is a masterpiece especially when you remember they were going off of spark notes and nothing else). Vash actively makes the decision to let go of Rem and her spirit and all he has lived by just to make sure he doesn't lose anyone else after so much loss, but especially these two individuals who have stuck by him through every single thing and never tired of him, instead they welcomed him into their hearts despite everything. This is also after Vash told Meryl everything and left, hoping they’d never go after him again. It is so much deeper than just having the heroines needing the main lead to save them. It is so, so, so much more and part of me thinks the only reason people might dismiss 98 for this is because trimax gives more bl angst fodder.

For me 98 is stronger for framing the decision as Vash fully weighing Meryl and Milly as more important to him than keeping Rem's spirit alive. vs trimax framing it as Vash finally making a choice being due to honouring Wolfwood's sacrifice and trying to meet him half-way in their back and forths. Don't get me wrong here, both versions of this scene are extremely powerful, and let it be known that I have an LR bias (the characters, not to be confused with the 98 town of LR). I just have a preference for how Vash broke his vow in 98 because it also was purely and simply a choice. No battle. No distractions or exertions. A choice. To take one life by his own choice to spare two, or keep his hands clean and doom two lives.

Side note: I saw someone lately say that people cheered when Legato was killed in the manga. I don't know about the majority of people, but I didn't. I didn't in the manga, and I didn’t in the 98 anime. Legato dying isn't something to be celebrated, and the 98 anime and the manga very explicitly tell you it shouldn't be celebrated so idk what that was about. Both scenarios showcase how traumatic that was for literally everyone involved.

Episode 25: I have mixed feelings about this episode, but I'll get to that in a bit. From the standpoint of Meryl and Milly, I find it actually quite interesting in how they are both portrayed in this episode, and there are different ways to interpret it when you consider the horror and trauma of what they'd just survived in the last episode, and the loss of Wolfwood still weighing on them. Now they are faced with possibly losing Vash.

To give the premise, the insurance ladies find a town to stay at and take care of Vash while he was a) unconscious for a number of days from the shock and trauma, and while he is b) recovering from said shock and trauma. The town itself is possibly the same town that the men Legato was controlling came from, because I can't think of who else would have untied Meryl and Milly and helped them out. That in itself adds a ton of levels of messiness here, and the ladies were left vulnerable to danger even after Legato’s control faded, plus the situation they're in semi forces them to be as kind and pleasing to this town as possible to stay safe. Maybe I'm assuming too many negative things about the townspeople.

Edit: I just checked the episode summary and it says “a small town well away from LR”, so apparently they managed to get out of that situation, somehow, and get well away from there…. That kind of seems logistically not reasonable with Vash unconscious for 10 days.

I'll start with the interesting depictions here that I kind of liked. Milly gets to help and is working hard alongside all the men, showcasing how strong and powerful she is. She’s capable, she’s seen throughout the series as almost being a jack of all trades vs how her boss treats her at the office simply because she ‘arrived late’, which is such a stupid offense, and he put her on cleaning duty. What I’m trying to say is, I love that she gets to be on the same playing field as the men, I love that she seems to be happy, busy, trusted to work, depended on to work in a setting outside of her duo with Meryl. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We know Meryl (and Vash and Wolfwood) are the ones that truly see her potential and trust her. When we are shown the office boss’ attitude towards her we get the sense that she is not being treated fairly nor put up to show her full potential in a setting that standardizes expectations and what a ‘good worker’ means. In contrast, here we see her almost thriving. She’s still mourning, she’s still there with Meryl, she’s still worried about Vash, but she is able to help by being her unabashed self.

Meryl. I will admit I wasn’t too big of a fan of what was done. I’ll be the first to say that. In contrast to Milly, she’s struggling to fit in, she’s surrounded by leery men while working as a barista, she’s placed into the ‘caretaker’ role. Hear me out for a minute here, though. I’m not happy with that setting for her either, but hear me out. This isn’t the first time we see her (or Milly) working in a job of service. We know how capable and sharp both Meryl and Milly are, the show doesn’t shy away from showing us that, either, and emphasizing it. We also get to see her have that time and space to think for herself, to contemplate what they, what she went through, and what it is she wants to do. She is trying to find her path, just as much as Milly and Vash are.

Here’s the thing. This episode is subtly telling us that the ladies are done (forever or temporarily, or not at all, you can interpret it as you like, but here’s my short take) they’re done with the insurance job. They’re done with following around the stampede. They’re in this town of their own choice, of their own will, and they’re taking care of each other, they’re taking care of Vash, they’re trying to find their space in this world. The events before were, understandably, similar to a wakeup call. Any normal person would have dropped everything and walked off. They didn’t. Not entirely. They stuck together.

They're there for their friend, who just sacrificed something they know he had worked hard to keep in a world that threw every opportunity at trying to take it away from him. There is guilt, yes, because he chose to drop his lifelong ideals for them. There is so much more love. The way Meryl hurts and doesn't know how to comfort him, period, when he breaks down remembering what he'd done. And I like that. I like that she has no clue how to comfort and support him. She can feed him. She can make sure he goes through the mechanics. She doesn't force herself to talk. She doesn't force herself to be traditionally nurturing. Meryl’s character arc is learning how to be emotionally vulnerable with herself first and foremost, and meeting others halfway afterwards. She never got to meet wolfwood halfway. She nearly just died. Vash may never be the same again or recover. She wants to meet him halfway. Milly keeps telling her as much, that she should, that she shouldn't keep frozen and watch the world and life pass her by. This is important because a misogynistic writing of a main female lead would have her be miss perfect, full knowledge and control of emotional control and softness, full fledged ability to care for the wounded, endless empathy and sympathy and ability to adapt to others' needs. That's not Meryl. That's not even Milly. They are both unique, individual women, with their own personality, their own person, they have their own misgivings and failings, and their own strengths and confidence. In this episode, Meryl gets to finally connect her emotions to herself, she gets to be empathic, she gets to see others and put herself in their shoes more than before, and most importantly is she is finally able to communicate and be understood by others. She gets to finally reach others. She understands what the cycle of hate and fear can do. She wants to break it. She does. She succeeds. She successfully talks down a situation. No flashy guns. No power moves. No sweet talking. She communicates, she emotes, she gets through, and she also saves Vash in the process by giving him hope for the future, in humanity, and in himself. He wouldn't have been able to go on and face his brother without that.

I also don't think that Meryl and Milly were used for giving Vash “man pain”. Vash was devastated for having killed another living being. This is the same Vash who begged wolfwood not to shoot a giant worm about to eat them.

Episode 26: Rem. She’s the focal point here, to me, and this ties my arguments to the past two to three episodes. Rem haunts the narrative. Rem is a person. She influences Vash in every episode. His actions, in turn, influence others around him. They influence Meryl so much that Vash could see Rem’s spirit reflected in her actions of that moment. She literally is the embodiment of the song of humanity, she sings her Sound [of] Life and cascades it down to the world. Rem is not a fridged female character.

What is a fridged female character? I’m gonna be very broad here. Literally speaking, think of Mister Freeze’s wife, Nora, from the Batman series. Think of Singed’s daughter, Orianna, from Arcane/League of Legends. What do we know about these two ladies? Nothing? Next to nothing? They are literally female characters that are frozen within the narrative. They do not get shown to have a personality, they are not shown to be their own person. Their will, their mentality, they don’t affect the respective male character or others who are related to them. They exist as a motivation for those male characters’ actions.

All this to say, Rem is not a frozen female character. Rem is very much there, very much shaping the world we are seeing through Vash, his hopes, his actions. From episode 1. We may not know she was there, but we see how she has shaped Vash, how he makes his decisions based on her values, how he sometimes needs to take a moment to properly remember her before taking action again. She haunts the narrative. We first see her in episode 4, where we see how far Vash goes to save a life, where we see Vash seeing her in others who are also finding their way, and turning to see that life can offer them a different path. She is a guiding light not just for Vash, but for all of humanity in a metaphorical, symbolic way. She’s the power of choice, the power of freedom, the power of choosing to be kind and choosing to not stand for what is wrong. She’s also a powerful motivator for survival of the community with how her essence and message spurs on that trait in others. Humanity doesn’t need to know that Rem existed, because she is an essence that is present in all of humanity that we get to recognize and see alongside Vash and how it encourages him in a world where violence and life-loss seem to be so common.

What I love about this episode? This ending piece to this show? He honours Rem by giving her a place to rest. He is symbolically communicating that the world, humanity, the people she gave herself to save, himself and knives, whom she sacrificed everything to protect, it’s all okay now. We see, and Rem symbolically sees, though Vash, that the world understands the importance of breaking out of the cycle of hate and violence, that they understand the world needs love and acceptance to be at peace. Vash, who has been struggling for a century and almost a half with his emotions towards his brother, how many times he’d tried to convince himself that violence was the only answer, that he had to hurt him, that he had to kill, but he couldn’t. When he realizes that there is another option even for Knives, that’s when he understands. When he accepts and understands and forgives that his brother was also the cause for Rem’s death, for her last living relative’s death, for the indirect destruction of July, for the indirect scar on the moon, Augusta, for the indirect deaths of many people…. When he finds in himself and understands on his own how Rem would have forgiven him, only then he finds it in him to let her go and find his own path. He returns to Meryl and Milly. He doesn’t leave them alone. We see him happy after so much anguish and loss we go through with him in the past series of episodes. I don’t think the female characters in this episode were done badly at all.

Vash the stampede as a flirt. My friends, trigun 98 is a shounen anime from the 90s. Scratch that. It’s a shounen. You’re telling me none of you dropped My Hero Academia because that one underage character who constantly hits on women and girls and peeps and flirts and justifies his actions. For comparison, MHA ran from 2014 to 2024 and the anime is still going. Anime and manga alike under the shounen tag still run this gag. Yes, I despise it too. I despise it so much that I dropped MHA like a hot potato. I nearly dropped naruto when i was younger, if it wasn’t for the fact that the gag wasn’t used often (full transparency, I barely watched naruto, i vaguely watched shippuden, and my only media interaction with it was the manga and video games). Bleach didn’t run the gag much in the manga either, but the anime bombarded it through Kon for a while, and kept bringing him back just to remind you that it’s a shounen. I’m bringing those examples because I can’t remember other popular or recent shounen that I’ve watched. I’ve actually not interacted with any of these fandoms, just the media itself and not with any dedication or intensity.

My point was, most manga don’t focus on the gag, but most anime do. I’m also saying I can’t stand the gag, and generally drop the show if it makes me uncomfortable. Trigun is no exception to using the gag, it’s a shounen, but the difference here is it never gave me the ick that every walking woman is treated as an object to be ogled, a damsel to be saved, or a prize to be won. Let me quickly re-dive into this here. Marianne seemed like an oggle piece. She was a cop in disguise, about to crack a case and take down a monopoly. Stefany seemed like a damsel. She learned the truth, she made her choice, she sided with what she saw was right and didn’t give up on that despite familial relations, despite that she was kidnapped. Elizabeth seemed like a prize. She was/is actually a super well established engineer who also had a near catastrophic plan to enact her revenge and justice. The manga itself never uses the gag except in the pilot chapter, which frankly was done very practically in order to get the idea approved. You go up to a shounen comic and you have one shot to get them to agree to let you write your messed up and/or deep story, what do you do? Guarantee an in, and show them what they want to see. Beyond that? Vash doesn’t disrespect a single woman in the manga. He also doesn’t disrespect any woman in the show either, by the way. Yes, he flirts. Yes, he asks random ladies out knowing full well he’d get rejected. I know the fandom excuses his behaviour as a bit. It is a bit. Vash literally only does it when he’s trying to worm himself into or out of situations by getting others to physically kick him out or not care about his presence at all, he’s not stupid. We see him switch from silly and stupid to serious and calculative in milliseconds, multiple times. The show is telling you it’s a bit. Vash never disrespects Meryl or Milly. He takes them both very seriously. What I love about the 98 early filler episodes is that they very clearly establish who Meryl and Milly are, and who Vash The Stampede really is. Vash also learns from episode 1 that Meryl and Milly are assigned by their job to follow him around. He knows it’s a business task for them. He doesn’t flirt with them, he doesn’t distract them, he tries to run away and keep away as much as possible, he never flirts with them, he never makes any unsavoury comments towards them. He even stops doing the bit. His ‘I'm dumb silly ignore me’ bit, after Monev’s attack. He was so worried about them, and saw what lengths they went to in order to protect him, and he stopped pretending around them to be someone he’s not. He doesn’t want to see them hurt, he keeps telling them to stay away. He cares and he wants them as far away from him as possible.

Wolfwood. I read a long post of someone's review of 98 after they'd finished it, and they didn't want to articulate anything about Wolfwood, lumping him in with Vash as misogynistic beyond compare, or something to that effect, and I was so, so boggled by that. What?? Is it because he got paired with Milly? Is it because they did the bit where she pretended to be pregnant and he her husband? Is it the one night stand? All situations in which Milly was an active decision maker and decision driver??? You know Wolfwood wanted no involvement in helping the young adult kids escape. You know he would have never taken advantage of Milly, even if he was being vulnerable and a bit out of it. I'm not defending him on that point, I'm just saying I don't think Milly would let herself be taken advantage of. She doesn't hold her punches. The only transgression I can really think of is how in the bus on their first meeting he cozies up to Milly and sleeps on her shoulder. If it were me, I would have kicked him off, idk who that is. Milly could easily punch him through the bus roof. She didn't. It's also Milly, her general outlook on things and what she allows vs doesn't allow aren't exactly the norm in this world, or ours, even, but we love her. Wolfwood loves her too. Wolfwood also loves and respects Meryl. They don't get much interaction, but wolfwood never encroaches on her space or bothers her. He reads her demeanour and acts accordingly. When wolfwood thinks of his perfect paradise, his Eden, Meryl and Milly are front and center right along with Vash. Wolfwood is also a character who keeps people at arm's length, and the fact he warmed up and loved these two so much speaks volumes for his character with how standoffish he is Conclusion: In the end, I think I’m just happy that the 98 anime was written and done the way that it was. I’m glad that I wasn’t disappointed by it. I’m genuinely so happy that it has all of these 90s nostalgia without having the uncomfortableness that comes from watching an old anime with outdated thoughts and views on women and society. I think people need to look at it more critically and see how much it gives to the women in the series, in some instances it’s even more than the manga just because they had the time and space to stretch out and expand more. I hate seeing it discredited, or seeing people characterize 98 Vash and Wolfwood as “weird”. My feeling is that this is a collective reflection of people’s view on 90s anime, and not an actual analysis or conclusion from the 98 anime itself. I want people to be able to appreciate what 98 actually gave us. It’s not cheap, it’s not superficial, it’s a deconstruction on many levels, and a good interpretation of the manga and story of trigun. Everyone is of course entitled to their opinions and thoughts, I’m not out here asking anyone to love 98, I’m just asking that people stop throwing it under the bus for no reason other than that a time-era bias that doesn’t even hold true when you actually analyze the content of the anime.

#trigun #trigun 98 #trigun 1998 #this is strictly about 98 and not tackling anything about the manga or tri.stamp #which I also love a lot and what they do #also. no I did not grow up with 98 #I watched 98 right at 2023 to get an idea what stamp.ede was about #sorry I'm censoring so I don't flood the tag there just in case #So I really ended up consuming all the trigun media together in the span of a few months and I loved all of them #but seeing the fandom treat 98 like it's horrible...#I fully respect if it's just not your thing #that is extremely valid and I will never argue with someone about that #but when people accuse 98 of being misogynist and horrible I just... I couldn't sit silent about it anymore

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