#i directly address this exact thing in chapter 3 of ITNL

[orcelito]

thinking about.............. this. when vash calls wolfwood a coward vs his thoughts immediately post-legato.

trimax volume 2 chapter 4 VS volume 14 chapter 2 (pages from @trigun-manga-overhaul)

vash, caught up in his ideals, calls wolfwood a coward for resorting to killing for survival. these words are Cutting for wolfwood, & he spends the next several chapters thinking about them. he knows he can't live like vash does, not as a normal human, bc it would Kill Him. (and, of course, when he does try to follow vash's ideals, it Does end up killing him.)

fast forward to after wolfwood's death. vash is forced to kill legato, and... he has this thought. he thinks back to that time with the thought of, "Did it feel like this for you, too?" we see by his expressions throughout this scene that he feels Horrible for it, the very act of killing going against his staunch moral code...

but he couldn't bear to let wolfwood's sacrifice be in vain, so he killed someone.

and he now knows how wolfwood felt in that scene. he understands the fact that this has Never been easy for wolfwood. it's Never been a matter of cowardice. vash remembers the words he said to wolfwood, now with the knowledge of how much those words must have Hurt Him... and so vash cries.

the worst part is that he can never apologize for those words, because wolfwood is already dead.