#friendship ended with wolfwood now milly is my best friend

[littleogreboii]

ok yeah I started watched the 98 anime, saw milly and wolfwood no longer exists in my brain.

[scoundrels-in-love]

"we’re roommates and you drunkenly passed out in my bed; move over I’m coming in" bed sharing thingy uhhhhh stryfewood or mashwood. will send vashmeryl one shortly

Hi hello my love, sorry for taking honestly forever to write this, but you know why.

Here's a little something as first part of Love like moon phases, from an unexpected Meryl POV and it also sets up the situation a little bit. :)

| Mashwood | Cohabitation | Bed sharing | AO3 |

---

It's a bad idea, her coworkers had said. She hadn't really meant to tell them that her two best friends are moving in her recently inherited house - Milly's enthusiasm for the idea and loud planning had exposed them to the fact. The tall brunette had been the only one excited, the rest insisted it would be weird to share the space with them and surely a way to ruin a friendship. Few had insinuations that Meryl didn't care for - even if there was something between the three of them, it was nothing for strangers to leer at like it was their free adult movie fantasy playing out on edge of their perception. 

Meryl hadn't budged on her decision, having turned the concept around in her head until it was smoothed like a pebble by the sea, long before she even floated it by the two men. 

Frankly, it had meant to be just a coincidence of circumstances, a temporary thing - Livio was moving out of his and Wolfwood's place to pursue his dreams and their lease was up with pending rent raise while Vash needed a place closer to his new job and also to escape the rent increase. And she… She had come in possession of a house far too large for one person, with rooms that sat quiet, dappled in sunlight of sporadic memories.

Between selling the place and offering her closest friends solutions to their problems, she'd chosen the latter. Even if Meryl's had had to convince the men it was actually not a bother. They'd been strangely resistant, despite often staying over a couple days at a time already. Nervous almost.

Thinking about that and her colleague's unsolicited opinions, it had sowed some worries - what if it did ruin their odd, wonderful friendship that had felt home in times when she had not had one? 

Now, a year later, she could tell every doubter they are full of shit and nothing else. And no one's brought up moving out even once.

Not that it was always easy; all of them came with their own quirks and habits that did not always mesh perfectly. Wolfwood would get worked up when they made a mess in a hurry or drank the milk and didn't bring new one back in the evening - worse yet if they put the almost empty carton back in. She'd get frustrated when they couldn't be quiet on weekend mornings when she wanted to sleep in and, sometimes, just because she wasn't used to sharing her space with anyone. Vash threw most pout-clad complaint fests of them all, but they carried the least weight and he'd be easily appeased.

Living so close also highlighted the cryptic habits of her housemates, the way Wolfwood would disappear for at least a night each month and she wasn't buying his excuse of wild night drinking for a second. The way electronics and plants and even animals behaved oddly around Vash, which she had written off as a one-off thing or tricks of the light and eye, before. Meryl was not a fool and they knew it, so she wished they would trust her with all the numbers in these equations, but she also understood why they had not yet, why they had had their hang ups over sharing the living space in the first place.

In the end, all of it felt inconsequential to the way their cohabitation actually is. Which was - home cooked meals shared around a table as they laugh and tease each other, or prepared and set aside to be heated up when one of them would come back too late, mornings with coffee waiting for her and them gathering to look over the to do lists that she dutifully maintained for the household and them individually, weekly movie nights if their schedules allowed where they piled together on a couch that is almost too small but no one really wanted more space, and so much more - like the impromptu karaoke and gaming nights, such as this one.

It's too much thoughts, really, for someone with so much alcohol, even if it's mostly beer, in their system,  so most of it manifests in this giddy, bubbly feeling in her chest, a truth-thought of I am so glad to have them (here), as she washes her hands and splashes her face with some water in the bathroom before making her way back to her room. 

She pauses in the doorway, huffing at the sight before her. The console is still on, playing the menu music, but the controllers are forgotten on the floor, among packets of snacks in varied states of empty that have been kicked off the bed to make space for the two bodies stretched out on it. It looks like Wolfwood went down first and then Vash laid down to watch him quietly, fondly as she's caught him to do often, before the tipsy drowsiness caught him as well.

There's an ache in her chest, but the good kind, she thinks. Like she's so happy, so content she doesn't know how to process it otherwise than this bubble expanding in her chest to point it presses into her organs, demanding more space. And maybe edged with just a touch of what ifs and all the scary, beautiful things they contain. Because these last few months, it feels like they're all starting to come closer to some kind of precipe, some kind of wanting, or realization it has been there the whole time.

Maybe the change is inevitable indeed, but they will be happier for it. She really wants to believe that. 

Meryl turns off the console and pads over to the bed - larger than needed for a single person because she likes to be comfortable and tosses around in her sleep, but nonetheless almost entirely taken up by her friends - and assesses the best angle from which to climb in. In the end, she unceremoniously clambers over Wolfwood's legs and settles on her knees in the middle, receiving only muted noise of complaint from the man as she shifts his limbs out of her way.

It's one of the reasons why she won't even bother trying to get them both awake and back to their respective beds. Too much effort for little result. Nicholas sleeps like the dead when he is like this and it feels unfair to shake him violently out of it. He looks so at peace right now, face smoothing out again, even the little wrinkle between his brows. Her fingers ache to brush an unruly strand out of his face, run down his cheek and jaw. Feel the stubble when she isn't just playfully pushing his face away as he's teasing her over something or other.

Vash shifts in his sleep and pulls her attention to him. He is laying on his right side, facing them both and his left arm is restless, trying to find a better position. But there isn't one good enough to relieve the pressure of the prosthetic where it connects and Meryl frowns with concern, before shuffling closer and gently shaking Vash by the shoulder.

He makes the soft little noise that goes straight to her heart as he opens his eyes and she could swear they almost glow in the low light before he blinks it away. 

"Meryl? Oh, I-" 

She shushes him, motioning with her head to sleeping Wolfwood.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep, sorry. We will be out in a second," he tries to reassure her, whispering now, but Meryl only shakes her head.

"It's fine, getting him to his room is more hassle than it's worth. Besides, not the first time we've all slept like this," she reminds him softly, before explaining why she disturbed his rest, "I woke you just so we can get your prosthetic off. You shouldn't sleep with that."

It's too dark to really see the emotions play across his features, but somehow, Meryl can picture them just fine. The surprise that melts into startled affection. Like every time someone shows any genuine concern for his well being. She has wanted to melt it away with consistent care for years now.

"C'mon," she pulls him into a sitting position and quietly, they work on removing the artificial limb. She's done it enough times to know the latches and screws by touch now and they work fast, though their fingers sometimes brush when they move onto the same bit next,

When it's off, briefly laid across their laps, she smoothes down some creases of his black turtleneck's shoulder, where it's sewn closed over the end of his stump. It's a pointless endeavor, really, but it has her touching him a moment more, so that makes it a necessary one in her tipsy brain.

He sways closer to her, as if there was much space between them in the first place, and his forehead brushes against hers. She leans to close the rest of the gap. "Are you sure it's okay?" Vash asks, barely audible even at this proximity. 

Part of her knows he doesn't just mean them staying in her bed tonight. 

All of her knows the answer is the same. Sober or drunk, by morning light or just the starlight swirling in his gaze. 

"Yes."

They stay like that for a second or minute or two, comfortable in this half spoken something and their closeness, when the world suddenly shifts and with a surprised squeak, she's on her side, pulled flush against Wolfwood who, despite everything, still seems to be deeply asleep. He nuzzles into her hair and sighs softly, hot breath tickling her neck and ear. She knows it's all instinct and sleep, but the way he reached for her like she was something his, something safe and needed catches in her throat

Vash laughs softly, before carefully setting his prosthetic down on the bedside table and laying back down. 

There isn't space for him to keep distance even if he tried to, but he shifts even closer. He can't put arm on or around them like this, but he seals her between his and Wolfwood's body nonetheless, chin resting on top of her head. She swears it almost feels like there's soft vibration trembling through him, soothing like a cat's purr.

There's no hope of getting a blanket over them at this rate, but she feels warm and comfortable all the same, to the point it doesn't even take her ten minutes of wiggling and shifting to settle down. Meryl rests one of her hands over Wolfwood's wrist holding her still and curls the other close to Vash's chest, eager to be near that subtle rumble, and lets their warmth, their closeness and the happiness gleaming within her lull her to sleep.

[chibivesicle]

I would love to see an in depth breakdown of Stampede’s reworkings of Trigun’s female characters and how they compare to their original counterparts. Because although I’m not normally one to cry “misogyny” but I can’t help but feel like whoever decided to turn multifaceted characters like Meryl, Luida and Elendira into cutesy waifus and reduced Rem to the classic ‘dead mother’ trope has some explaining to do. There’s also the matter of the plants in Stampede being forcefully impregnated via Knives violating Vash, complete with swollen pregnant stomachs, which to me is just straight up, well, cursed(although something similar happened in the manga).

I can’t help but feel like there’s a lot of unspoken misogyny here.

Hello!

Now that Trigun Stampede is over and the dust has settled, I can 100% say that I agree with you. The level of lazy misogynistic writing in Stampede was high. When I was doing the weekly videos, I kept thinking, "Well, it isn't that bad. Is it?" until looking at the entire show and realizing, that "Yeah. It was terrible."

I'm not even going to touch on the entire sexual/impregnation of the plants via Knives by violating Vash at all! I'm sure one could write an entire meta about it and how cringe it is but I'm not feeling that vibe.

I'll focus on the female cast and how they were shortchanged from the original work to this 're-imagining'. I will say that the Trigun manga, focuses less on the female characters. But they are all totally competent individuals who are not driven by the romantic need to marry some man. Overall, the '98 anime was even better by creating the quartet of Vash, Meryl, Milly and Wolfwood. I mentioned it from time to time in my reviews but the original anime passed the Bechdel test. Which on paper isn't a high bar for media to clear but soooo many things fail that test.

For overall female character significance and roles in the Trigun universe (multiverse?) the '98 anime is top. Meryl and Milly play a major role in how Vash and Wolfwood behave and also bear witness to their actions and support them. Yet, they are not weak but instead demonstrate how four people, will have four different ways to solve the exact same problem.

However, the manga has a greater cast of women and cannot be ignored. As you mentioned, Luida and Elendira appeared in Stampede from Trimax and both are great characters. Aaannnnddd, Stampede ruined them for me.

The best way to approach all of the key women of the series, we'll break it down by character.

Meryl Stryfe - insurance adjuster/reporter

Trigun manga - secondary character. Acts as human viewpoint watching Vash, reacting to the power of his angel arm, contemplating what it is like to kill someone with a firearm. Age at the start of manga 21. Age after time skip, 23. By the end of the series 24-25 ish?

Trigun '98 - main character. Acts as human viewpoint in observing Vash [again] but also feels compassion towards him as their friendship grows. Senior and experienced insurance adjuster both a friend and mentor for Milly. Competent on the job, hard worker, gets things done, leans for logic over emotions. Age not mentioned in anime, but likely similar to manga. Vocal, opinionated, and ready to take on any situation.

Stampede - main character. Newbie reporter for November news under Roberto. Older starting age of 23, yet acts like she's 16 or something. Her character is a disappointment in this version; with her being junior to Roberto there is no senior female in the cast and it shows. By no means is Meryl supposed to be a perfect person (this is Nightow after all) but he does not write cutesy female characters. No female character in his cast is like how she is in Stampede.

Milly Thompson - insurance adjuster/reporter/???TBD

Trigun manga - secondary character. Strong, emotional, a bit naive but still able to help Wolfwood out during a fight. Continues to be the junior to Meryl and follows her to their secondary career as journalists.

Trigun '98 - main character. Foil to both Meryl and Wolfwood. Besides Vash making Wolfwood change his viewpoints, she also pushes him to think about things differently. Most importantly, she doesn't judge him based on his actions and only shows that she cares. Emotionally intelligent, naive and honest to a fault.

Stampede - next season?

Enough said right there. Why was Milly replaced by lame ass old man info dump Roberto?

Rem Severem - Key team member of Project Seeds/Vash and Knives adopted mother

Trigun manga - Rem is the mother/moral guidepost for Vash in the manga. He tries to uphold her ideals and moral code to not kill anyone. She told him about the death of her significant other which left her feeling lost. However, a dream about her taking a train with a origin station but no destination created her philosophy that everyone's ticket to the future is blank.

She is an incredibly compassionate individual and even tries to stop Vash from committing suicide being injured herself in the events. It causes him to snap out of it as he put her in medical care. However, her philosophy is impossible to practice on the planet where the ships crashed. Yet for ~150 years Vash is able to not kill another person.

Trigun '98 - The exact same role as in the manga but with less backstory fleshed out. However, her quote of one's ticket to the future is blank is the same. Additionally, the anime adds in her love of a creation song which becomes a musical motif in the anime linking Vash to her and to the present day humans as they try to create a new world. Hence the creation myth song as Project Seeds was to allow for them to restart.

The anime links Rem to Meryl when Vash finds himself lost as she supports him before he heads off for his final showdown with Knives. It shows that a very similar philosophy still exists within humanity and that Vash can continue on with his personal moral compass.

Stampede - At first, we learn who Rem is, unlike the anime or manga. She shows us that she saved Vash and Nai and that she loved them. However, that was it. We never hear her personal philosophy. The flashback only focuses on how she tries to raise them as her own children but no deep moral discussions are had like in the manga or even the anime.

Again, this is a huge determent to her character in Stampede; the series very much went for tell not show. So to try to convey Rem's character through showing when the default was tell made it a disappointment. I waited, waited, waited for her to say at least some version of her quote about the ticket being blank. Nothing.

Rem barely spoke in the scheme of things. Nor did Vash have dream or one sided conversations with her in Stampede which also made it hard to understand why he wouldn't kill.

Elendira the Crimsonnail - 13th Gung-ho Gun/nail producing child-plant hybrid who doesn't age

Trigun manga - A trans woman and the strongest of the Gung-ho Guns. Truly a witty and fashionable individual with her briefcase that allows for her to pierce opponents with a rain of oversized nails. Elendira's character is quite nuanced, watching the fall of humanity on the planet while having complex conversations with Legato. The two of them are frequently at odds but both see their roles to assist Knives in his goals.

I found her character to be the most sane/rational viewpoint into Knives and his organization. She always has a witty remark or comment and seems to have chosen to work with Knives thinking that this would be the winning side.

After she's revealed to be trans, that's pretty much it. It isn't brought up time and time again, nor does it define her character - you know with the whole ending of humanity on the planet taking more precedence.

Her final battle against Livio is epic and overall, I liked her character. She was badass in the best way possible.

Stampede - Ugh, where do I even start. . . . Elendira appears to be a perma-prepubescent child being a human-plant hybrid. We see her with Grey the Ninelines when they steal a plant in episode 3 wearing a pink dress. So maybe a girl? Maybe a boy? No gender?

But then, when we get the Monev the Gale/Rollo flashback, she speaks to young Rollo calling herself an angel and appears the same age. Present events put her fight with Vash, Wolfwood, Meryl and Roberto 25 years later and she looks the same. Apparently, being a human-plant hybrid makes her inferior to Vash or Knives since she still has to plug herself into one of the glass aquariums to regulate her 'gate'. So, not a plant plant, but lacking the skills of an independent plant. Sort of a crappy outcome the more you think about it.

Despite her age being at least 35 (say she was 10 when she met Rollo) or even older than that - she acts like a child. Gets angry like a child and has not mentally matured at all. Again, didn't get the rapid aging bits of Vash so still mentally a child? Unless I am told otherwise, I'm gonna stick with she/her pronouns and based on the rest of writing for Stampede, they likely want us to see her as cis not trans.

You cannot even compare Trimax Elendira to Stampede. They are not the same character other than the name. They don't even use nails the same way! As far as I'm concerned, she's pointless in Stampede. A cutesy angry girl who will kill you with her gate manifested nails.

Luida - Leader of [un]crashed seeds ship/botanist

Trigun manga - leader of humans from the Project Seeds ship that had been in hiding with several generations of humans living on it above the barbaric planet below. As events worsen, becomes the de facto leader of all the humans resisting Knives and coordinates with the NML cavalry. Wise, straight shooting and in charge. Brad works for her after the death of the Sensei by the Leonoff the Puppet master situation.

She never really steals any scene but is critical to the success of their plan and acts as the link between the humans from Earth and the people on the planet's surface. Always framed in a strong position of leadership. A very androgynous appearance with spiked black hair, and simple clothing.

Stampede - Simplified to the second stand in mother figure for Vash. She also gets aged up with her first meeting Vash when he was a teenager and brought him into their home. Instead of being older than Brad, she is a peer with him and both of them are considerably older in the current time point. A plant biologist expert - something which is not even close to the role that she played in Trimax.

She also elicits the anti-mother anger from Knives in Stampede, meaning that Knives only wants Vash to himself. No women allowed to be mothers for them! Compared to the manga, she again like Elendira is a totally different character. We don't see a whole lot of that natural leadership and commanding presence from the manga.

Therefore, of this list of key female characters their fates are as such in Stampede:

Meryl - aged up but down in maturity and experience.

Milly - missing.

Rem - dead mother trope. Never said anything to convey why Vash is the way he is.

Elendira - infantilazation to a perma-child.

Luida - kind older lady/second mother.

Therefore, two female characters have been relegated to mother figures; Rem and Luida. Meryl was made less mature to be the junior to an old asshole. Elendira is as far as we know a perma-child.

All mature women with years of experience have been removed from the story. Yeah, I enjoyed the previous versions of Trigun for their killer girls, uwu-waifus, and doting mothers. Really connect with these sorts of characters. . . .

I'm sure you can tell I'm being sarcastic. Thus, I will rewatch the '98 anime, or reread the manga and turn my attention to Kekkai Sensen. Where there are more excellent female characters - shocking! K.K., Chain Sumeragi, Luciana Estavez, Aligura, Michella Watch (a blind woman in a wheelchair took out a Beyondian mad doctor remember?) and in the anime, White.

If Stampede wanted to do scary cute well, they only needed to look at Aligura. One of the 13 kings and a gothic lolita. It takes ovaries to liquefy your boyfriend and inject him into your crush. But hey, it works. 'Cause based on her dismissal of Leo thinking that he was important to her, she's not one to cry like a perma-child like Elendira in Stampede. When one's monster truck, car eating vehicle of destruction causes thousands of casualties, you are pretty badass.

[funshinebf]

oops i ended up rambling a lot so im putting this under a cut, basically its my trigun modern au thoughts for the main 4 (plus kuroneko) so yea. hi

modern au to me vash and meryl have been besties since middle school. when they first met meryl had a crush on him but then she got to know him more and was like he's kind of pathetic actually. and after her crush went away they developed more of a siblingy friendship vibe, always bickering and annoying eachother but still ready to throw down for the other at the drop of a hat. and milly and wolfwood dated in highschool and were eachother's first like everythings. and then they both realized they were gay and broke up amicably and stayed really good friends.

milly and meryl meet when they work at the same place ofcourse. coworkers to friends to lovers moment. at first meryl is kind of astonished at milly's... everything, and like she wants to not be endeared by her but like. its milly. everyone is endeared by her! meryl was doomed from the start to fall in love. and milly is equally head over heels but shes soooo much better at being casual about it than meryl is. meryl is chill most of the time but she very frequently gets flustered as fuck around milly and becomes kind of a mess. meanwhile milly just acts as sweet and silly as she always does, so meryl gets all in her head about it like ohh she probably doesnt feel the same way since shes always so calm. but in reality milly is like haha i would do anything for this small and loud pretty woman and she daydreams about their wedding all the time. and milly flirts with her all the time but meryl is always like "oh surely she didnt mean it that way! lots of things milly says come out the wrong way, she just doesnt realize how it sounded!" but milly was doing it on purpose and is getting increasingly distressed over how else she could make it obvious to meryl. eventually she just straight up tells her like meryl i have romantic feelings for you and have had them for a while now! ive been flirting with you for ages but you always brush me off! and meryl is like THAT WAS ALL ON PURPOSE? milly OF COURSE IT WAS ON PURPOSE! and the misunderstanding is resolved and they start dating. at this point in my head the main four already all live together so i think eventually millymeryl would just. silently combine their rooms. they dont tell vash and wolfwood when they do though because they dont want either of them to try and claim the now extra room, nor make it a shared space. they LIKE having two rooms thank you very much. they get caught at some point and vash gets all pouty about it but wolfwood is like thats fucking hilarious. i would do the same. great job girls. and the girls get to keep their extra room of course.

as for vashwood i think they meet by chance and have like. the opposite of a meetcute. at first theyre like oh this guys an asshole! and think thats it. but then milly and meryl start hanging out more and they introduce their respective besties, which oops surprise they already know eachother! because they were both dicks to eachother in public one time! and its awkward as fuck at first but they end up accidentally bonding over like. well knowing them they probably do something nice for some random kid and thats how they start to be like "hmm maybe i didnt give this guy enough credit, he does seem like a nice dude. ill be easier on him now i guess" and like they still love to annoy eachother. but they have found like a mutual comraderie over it. its all good natured bickering and ribbing. and they both find it entertaining to team up and annoy meryl as much as possible. i think at some point they would both just realized like, oh shit hes one of my best friends and also i think im in love with him? well we dont have time to unpack all that! and they both try to pretend theyre normal. and fail. i think they would end up hooking up after a party or something similar and freak out but then agree on like a fwb situation. and they still are refusing to confess to eachother or believe that their feelings could be reciprocated. meryl wants to hurt them but milly is like ohh meryl theyll figure it out, they just need time! so meryl tries her best to stay out of it and not kill them in their sleep. shes being so brave and strong and were all so proud of her. and idk what would end up making vashwood confess but i think it would be like, some kind of frightening event where theyre afraid of losing eachother. so they finally just go for it cause they dont wanna risk never telling the other how they feel and losing the chance to. and so they FINALLY get their shit together and kiss or whatever. all is well for them.

btw as previously stated all four of them would be roommates in my mind. and kuroneko is their shared cat that adopted them by force one day. milly is the best with kuro, shes very affectionate and sweet and spoils her, and kuro knows it and loves it. meryl sometimes gets frustrated with kuro and doesnt think kuro likes her that much, but they get along pretty well and dont have any issues. vash LOVES kuro and wants to pet her all the time but kuro is so cold to him and it breaks his heart so bad. every now and then she will show him a tiny spot of affection and it keeps him going for months. wolfwood would be like "dads with the cat they didnt want" he would act all annoyed by her and deny liking her but that is his baby and hes carrying her on his shoulders and cooking her fresh chicken to eat because its good for her health and it would be rude to cook chicken for everyone else's dinner and not include her. he buys her collars with cute bows and patterns but if any of the others asked him he would say someone else in the house is responsible. he isnt fooling anyone.

anyways thats my goofy lighthearted 3 am modern au ideas. millymeryl and vashwood 4ever in my mind palace

[sebastiano-merlino]

I've just published a new post on https://mylittleblackbird.com/2017/10/16/trigun-my-review-of-the-anime/

Trigun - my review of the Anime

This is going to be an article full of feels… so many feels!

Trigun is one of my favorite animes. This is the result of a combination of factors that can be summarized up into:

Awesome setting

Compelling theme

Incredibly well-designed characters

Great ability to inflict emotions on the audience.

I’d like to talk about them in order and, don’t worry, as usual, I will mark the sections containing spoilers.

Before we get into the meaty part, I am going to refer to the 1998 Anime series, not the Manga (that I read way too many years ago) nor the “Trigun: Badlands Rumble”, the movie from 2010 that I’ve yet to watch.

Trigun is an adaptation by the director Satoshi Nishimura (studio Madhouse) of the homonymous manga written by Yasuhiro Nightow. It is a Space Western story and follows the adventures of Vash the Stampede for a brief amount of time while trying to show us his philosophy and how this is impacting his and other’s lives. As the story progresses, more is discovered about Vash’s mysterious past and origins.

The setting

The story takes place on Gunsmoke (No Man’s Land) a desert planet in a far away galaxy. The human race has left planet earth because of unknown reasons and now finds itself on this deserted planet. Here humanity struggles to survive to the lack of natural resources. This caused a de-evolution into a society similar to that of the first explorers of the American’s west. Gunmen battles on the streets while sheriffs struggle to avoid the violence to spread.

One of the main resources of energy (and even water and food) are Plants. These mysterious systems are heavily relied on by humanity that builds cities surrounding them.

The theme of Trigun

I guess the simplest way to explain the theme of this series is to show you a short clip that summarizes it.

Simply put: can we save everybody? Can we subvert the idea and perhaps the natural order of “kill or be killed”?

This short video is a haunting one. I find this scene incredible from a writing standpoint – Rem (the woman) and her reaction when she sees Knives killing the spider (0:17) and the single shot of the two brothers (1:14), so similar and yet so different. So close and distant at the same time.

This theme is the main focal point of the entire series. The thing that hurts the most is that I am not even sure Vash is right here. We see him struggling for the whole duration of the story not to kill anyone. Protecting the good without harming the evil.

At first sight, this looks like the author wanted to create a perfect hero. I think there is a better read though. Vash keeps fighting without even knowing if there is a meaning in it. He doesn’t know if there will be an end. We watch him struggling to do the right thing without even believing it is actually the right thing. Is he just being a hypocrite? Will he not just make the spider die anyhow by continuously saving the butterfly?

I don’t know. The author doesn’t seem to know either and the anime doesn’t claim to give you an answer. It just leaves you with the pain of the question.

This draws quite an imperfect hero who is probably just lying to himself while trying to do what he thinks is the right thing and being punished for it.

The characters

Trigun displays an incredible cast of characters. Protagonists and antagonists are compelling and because of this, the series received overall praise during the past twenty years.

The main protagonist is Vash the Stampede. He is a mysterious man, arguably the best marksman on the planet. He has a massive bounty on his head for having destroyed an entire city on his own. Because of this hunters are always behind his back. For the same reason, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, two Bernardelli Insurance Society employees, follow him to prevent him and who want to kill him from causing excessive damage.

Vash the Stampede

Vash is a pacifist. He has the goal to protect everyone he meets without harming anyone. Not even the evilest of villains. Because of this, he suffers incredible pain and losses. Many times while watching I struggled because of the emotional pain inflicted to the character. As discussed in the previous chapter, Vash has a naive and simple view of life. He keeps himself in sync with it by thinking of his mentor Rem Saverem (the woman in the video above). She taught Vash while still young and acted as a mother to him and his brother Knives. During this period, she explains a philosophy of peace and non-violence that remains with Vash forever.

Another important character is Nicholas Wolfwood. A priest and yet another mysterious gunman. He has a bleaker and more practical view of life and how to deal with evil. It is hard to talk about Wolfwood without making any spoiler, but he is what Vash would have probably ended-up being if not for Rem. They become closer and closer during the series and it makes it for an important subplot of the series to watch the growth of both characters as they influence each other.

The big bad of the series is Millions Knives. He is Vash’s brother. Knives’ philosophy is completely opposite to Vash’s. He looks at life in a more black and white way. Evil exists and must be eradicated. We must protect innocents and destroy who harms them. Sad to say, but in his view, humanity is the evil to eliminate.

The perpetrator of most of Knives’ actions is Legato Bluesummers, an emotionless nihilist. He continuously puts Vash in “kill or be killed” situations through the use of a group of outlaws, the Gun-oh-guns.

Trigun and the ability to convey emotions (Contains Spoilers)

Despite having often a humoristic tone, Trigun seems to have made a mission of making you cry. This especially in the last few episodes.

We see an example of this ability when Wolfwood dies. This happens on two fronts: the death itself and the way the others cope with it. We are used to seeing heroic characters dying in a stoic manner. Maybe even happy to have achieved their goals. This is not the case for Wolfwood. He has just saved Vash and saved the lives of the people he loves. Despite this, he cries while dying and re-affirms he doesn’t want to die. He finds it unjust and even blames God for having created an unfair world in which he has to die immediately after having found love and friendship.

This also continues after. Milly, Wolfwood’s lover at this point in the series, has to deal with his death. It is excruciating to see the scene in which she cries and laugh at the same time while claiming she is fine. Similarly, we follow Vash, while he separates from the girls and travels to another village. He is apparently joyful while buying some donuts (his favorite food). He sits down and starts eating them just to break into tears one moment after, consumed by the guilt of having convinced Wolfwood not to kill. Because of this, the man has paid with his own life.

A second example is when Legato forces Vash to kill him. The scene itself is powerful.

I consider this one of the greatest defeats for a hero I have ever seen in almost any media. Vash has lost. He has killed someone and, even worse, this happens to him after his best friend has been killed for following his ideas.

The aftermath is again devastating. Vash goes through the crisis. Unable to cope with what he has done, he thinks of himself as a killer. We hear him screaming in pain behind closed doors while Meryl and Milly are unable to do anything that can help him.

Does Trigun have any defect? (Contains Spoilers)

Well… nothing is perfect, right?

I am not here to talk about the relatively poor animation and generally flat drawing, but I can see some problems in the story too.

The Anime doesn’t really help us understand some of the things that happen. One example is Legato and his strong motivation. He almost appears surreally insane. Why such a devotion to Knives’ cause? (I know, the manga explains it but, we are not talking about that here).

Similarly, the story never goes deep on what Plants really are. We understand that Vash and Knives are Plants – this is why they hold such power. We never understand where Plants come from and why only the two brothers, amongst all the Plants we see, have human form.

There is also some waste of time. Whereas the first few episodes might be useful to establish the setting and Vash’s famous “fake smile”, this section of the Anime goes on for a bit too long. I would have preferred a shorter intro to the anime and I think it represents a risk of abandonment for the story to have such a long and undertoned introduction.

  This is my review of one of my favorite animes. Let me know what you think in the comments and if you like my work here feel free to subscribe to my mailing list.