#i know characters are not real people. but it is really obvious that wolfwood is designated Piece Of Meat by this fandom

[whatever-you-can-give-me]

Sorry to come to your inbox for this but I feel like you’d understand

As an Asian person living in the West, I’m aware of the different kinds of colorism in different cultures

I’m really tired of seeing people saying canon Wolfwoods are not dark enough for them. Yes there are variations in his coloring but in no iteration they made Wolfwood white (no, not even in BLR)

Not to mention other characters also have variations in their color design. Nightow’s Vash color pages are inconsistent too; sometimes he’s much darker

There’s a lot to unpack here that I don’t feel coherent enough to even begin

thank you for sending this, i really appreciate it. i'm not asian, so it really feels like not my lane to post about, but i notice all the time how reductive the conversation's become, and it really gets under my skin.

wolfwood is a japanese character, or at the very least designed that way. one of the big pieces of Trigun Trivia is that wolfwood was inspired by a japanese musician, tortoise matsumoto.

his skintone is inconsistent even within individual iterations but he's pretty much always drawn with monolid eyes. even in BLR and especially in stampede.

and that's just... not part of the conversation? somehow?

like. yes. colorism. but stampede wolfwood is immediately identifiable as an asian character, he still has a distinct nose bridge, the undertone of his skin is olive/yellow even when he looks pale. he's not white. he's asian.

and then in english-speaking fandom specifically, often explicitly with a dismissive sneer towards wolfwood's stampede design, wolfwood is very racialized in a way that distinctly does not depict him as asian, which i would bet money is because of western stereotypes about asian men. western wolfwoods are usually latino, or just... ambiguously brown.

(and of course there are asian wolfwoods among those, but his monolid eyes tend to be considered less important to preserve than his tits and his nose, along with stuff that was fully invented by fandom, like his body hair, and the exaggeration of his tits and nose, that rosary... weird how that happened.)

and... like.... there's nothing inherently wrong with character redesigns. or focusing on the parts of the character you find attractive when you draw or write them. i know a lot of specifically latino wolfwood came from latino fans. fanon wolfwood is a very handsome man. i see why so many people like him.

but it is. a bit fucking funny to have a whole host of people calling studio orange colorist and racist for wolfwood not being brown enough and then turning around and making wolfwood Fandom Papi Of The Year.

the vitriol towards stampede wolfwood feels just that much more disingenuous when the language is only surface-level about colorism, and the real complaint is that he's not attractive enough as a sex object.

thank you for the message <3 i'm very tired.

[imustbenuts]

nuts reading trigun in japanese 3 - "weirdo" and vash's pronoun switching

disclaimer: my jp reading posts are all for triangulation purposes and nothing else. scanlating mangas is tough work. @-@ i know this.

"Weirdo"

the word 'weirdo' in 2024 english carries connotations of neutral-bad or positive depending on the context of the speaker. depending on how one curates their internet space, weirdo often leans more positively with the same meaning as eccentric, but not always.

however, but in JP, "weird" is more specific and often negative. there's the well known, hentai 変態 (ie. deviant, pervert, freak, extremely negative in tone), and in this case, kimochi warui 気持ち悪い (gross, off-putting, bad vibes). eccentrics are more as 変人 henjin and carries a more neutral tone.

in this panel here papa nebreska uses 気持ち悪い in katakana キモチワルイ in reaction to vash busting his ass saving people and putting out of harms' way. vash's vibes are so off putting to this wanted man he's actually creeped out.

this is particularly interesting to me bc the english translation didn't end up portraying how utterly weird vash's mindset is fully. it wasnt until wolfwood points out how flawed vash's pacifist mindset do i get a proper frame of reference of norms in this world, but i might be having skill issues in english comprehension. ;w;

Pronoun switching

quick. 俺 Ore! 僕 Boku! 私 Watashi! they all mean "I", and there's 2 spectrum of expressions going on here thats commonly believed. 1st being Masculinity to Femininity. what's the 2nd?

the answer is... Rudeness/Assertiveness to Politeness. and gosh does vash switch a lot between Boku and Ore in the first 4 chapters of this manga lmao.

(to be clear, while i am aware of trans hc thats very popular in the fandom, im not at all diminishing or talking about gender expression specifically. im talking about what vash is presenting himself as in context.)

so to perhaps oversimplify this, in JP the idea of politeness and hierarchy is so super duper important, its very built into the language itself. and Japanese is a very high context language. if someone of a higher or equal standing uses "Ore", its totally fine. but if someone of a lower standing uses "Ore", they've committed a social faux pas.

as an obvious example, if a fresh new employee approaches his Boss with "Ore", he's potentially getting dressing down in the company. maybe in front of his coworkers. if this employee forgoes polite speech (keigo) and uses a too Assertive and Casual speech, they've Really Fucked Up and are one foot out the door.

this is also tied up in gender to some extent, hence why girls using Ore is incredibly uncommon, but guys would use Watashi in certain contexts such as talking to their Boss. (woo woo the forces of hierarchy/patriarchy... or something.)

so. vash switches his pronouns for the same effect. when he uses Ore, he's making himself sound more assertive and confident. when he uses Boku, he's often making himself sound less threatening, smaller, open, and trying to avoid conflict.

sound familiar?

bc if you translated all of that into a character design instead of relying on just jp pronouns, we'd get TriStamp Vash.

slight spoilers, but this is even true in one of the tensest moments between vash and wolfwood, where the latter provokes vash and tears into his pacifism ideology. vash sticks with boku in this scene as he says his piece.

if he ever uses watashi, it's bc he wants to be polite straight out of the gate with an air of formality. (this is japanese manners and the proper approach to talking to strangers. mainly to get a feel for each others standing without offense until context changes.)

i also wanna point out maybe something obvious here but.

real life pronoun switching in japanese is a COMMON thing. no one ever really sticks to 1 pronoun bc of Good Manners and the aforementioned hierarchical systems in place. it is only mostly in anime/manga and video games where characters overly prefer 1 due to this being a good shorthand for characterization. this being how rude or polite they are, and in some cases, Gender.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Trimax Thoughts Vol. 6 Pt. 1

Ahhhh I have fallen behind... D,:

Anyways. My usual stream of consciousness stuff for my first read! Here we go! I'm sure things can only get better from here.

[All images in this post are from Trigun Maximum Volume 6.]

Meryl... :( She's not even in the bed, she's just sitting in a chair, as if she knows she won't be able to sleep well... or more likely that she can't fall asleep and she's been awake so long she dozed off in the chair... my poor girl somebody at her job give her compensation or like. Extended vacation days or something. Please. (Also how long do you think Meryl had to reassure Milly that she was fine before Milly lay down and got some sleep? Idk seems like something she'd do; try to stay up with Meryl.)

The entire conversation between Wolfwood and Meryl is really interesting to me. Firstly, Wolfwood trying to dig for why Meryl hasn't asked any of the obvious questions (because it doesn't seem like Meryl has told anyone what she saw) and just coming across as incredibly annoying for no reason ahdjfhjdbfv. But what's intriguing is even with the lack of real communication here, I feel this is a conversation of equals, despite Wolfwood's objective being to get Meryl to leave. Meryl's fear has little to do with Vash's transformation itself, but rather the implications of what he is and the very visceral and traumatic experiences that she is now privy to through the perspective of the person who suffered them. Thing is, even with Wolfwood lacking this info, he still notes something about Meryl's character without saying it outright that is 100% spot on - Meryl won't leave for herself. But she might leave for Milly. She has a strong sense of responsibility to her, and Wolfwood pulls on that, likely because it's something of a commonality they share. (However, I think Wolfwood does not fully see that Vash is included, as well as Milly, in Meryl's list of people she would do pretty much anything for... but that might involve Wolfwood having to like. Actually admit that Vash occupies a similar position for him in a personal and not just occupational way...)

[ID: Vash's hand holds Marlon's gun loosely. His index finger has released its hold on the trigger and is dripping blood. End ID.]

...oh yeah. He's doing well.

Vash: *on the tail end of a severely traumatic flashback and incident*

Also Vash:

[ID: Three images of Vash making a variety of silly faces. End ID.]

(Also I adore his snark so much. Vash's inner monologue has got to be so much snarkier than anything he says out loud. That whole "I won't say anything because I am polite but know that I am thinking very loudly about how much of a dick you are".)

[ID: A panel of Brandon Marlon in a cartoony style, mockingly throwing his hands in the air and saying "Ohhh, look at me! I fired a gun! Woow!" then switching to scowling and waving dismissively, saying "You can die and be reborn a thousand times and I still won't make a gun for a moron like you!" End ID.]

Oh my god. Someone who actually understands the responsibility that comes with distributing weapons. Brandon Marlon you are my new favourite minor character. Also you're so funny about it.

Meryl... she is so worried about him... :(

"His determination is stronger than the regret he carries." Augh...

Wolfwood having nightmares... Meryl having nightmares... it would surprise me if Vash and Milly weren't also having nightmares... there is only one solution. Group cuddle session under nice big blanket.

[ID: Vash sits, perched on the edge of a roof with a friendly smile. Behind him, the full moon with the crater is in full view against the darkness of the night sky. End ID.]

Oh. Hm. This is a choice. Very much echoes what Wolfwood was saying to Meryl earlier, that they both know "what kind of guy he is" (friendly, compassionate, etc.), but that he's also very dangerous... a "time-bomb"... :(

AUGH

Oh man. More of the "I know" "I know you know" FUCK. No way Vash didn't realize Wolfwood was pointing his gun at him.

God. Nothing Wolfwood does matters. It looks like he killed someone to save the kids, but they're not safe and it just guaranteed he couldn't go back to see them. He tried to kill Knives but was too freaked to follow through and ended up trapped obeying him. Knives is going to destroy the orphanage anyways no matter what he does, so all he's doing is stalling for time. Caring about Vash doesn't change anything - he's still doing exactly what he's been told to do. He's stuck. He's trapped. Somebody help him out please.

Vash has now canonically been referred to as "pretty boy". I mean we all knew but it's still funny.

[ID: Vash, aiming his gun, has his back turned to Wolfwood, who is crouched low and shielding him with the Punisher. The remnants of a wooden table are shattered across the scene. End ID.]

OHHHH this fight scene is GOOD. Back to back fighting! They automatically switched who they were facing off against AHHH

They both, without even a word, showed their backs and trusted the other to defend them. I. Ok. Ok. I'm cool.

Never mind apparently Milly is sleeping like a log shgjdfhbvjdfhb

The Legato and Elendira interaction is so funny. Knives' duo of worsties who hate each other and want to kill each other but settle for petty insults and whipping beverages in the other's face.

DOUBLE FANG??? OHHH???

Why is this boy Bane. He has Bane powers. What.

...Legato. Wtf happened to your tongue. Like I'd heard people talk about the tongue but I thought it's probably not that bad. Never mind. Eugh.

[ID: A set of panels showing street market vendors and their owners, selling their goods. Snippets of dialogue are heard: "Right here! Fresh meat! Just in today! Chicken! Beef! Pork! You want it, we've got it!" "It's always a concern. That's why I suggest this powder..." "We use ingredients as close to the original as possible." "Well? Doesn't that smell good? That's the very freshest tea." "It's really fantastic, madam." "My, that is good. You don't skimp on the sugar." "It's flammable, so be careful. Nah, just handle it the same way you would gasoline." Amid the conversation, a close-up of Knives' face reveals his eye, narrowed, bitter and distant. End ID.]

Ok. This set of panels gets me. There's so much ambiguity here. Knives is listening to the people enjoy the fruits of the labours of his sisters that humanity have been exploiting. The thing is... these things, a lot of them aren't exactly necessities. They're specifically engineering things to be close to what they had, which, while understandable (humans need enjoyment to survive. like that's real), it also begs the question of whether this kind of differentiation increases demand on the Plants beyond what is necessary for humans to take. Or maybe it doesn't. Maybe the differentiation is no more effort on the part of the Plants than the raw amount needed to live comfortably. It's hard to say, since we're seeing this through the filter of Knives' view, for whom any amount the humans take from Plants is too much. Anyways. It's interesting. ...I also think he looks painfully young in this panel, but maybe that's just me.

[ID: Knives stands before a headstone engraved with his name. He is just an eerily grinning silhouette, with his weapons curled and hooked over his head like a set of bladed wings. End ID.]

He is proud of his artwork. (Sorry lol)

"This Plant is going to be retired." <- uh. yikes. Way to avoid saying she's going to die.

"Deliberately go out of control" so wait. I'm confused. The Plant is going to go out of control at the end of her life cycle and they're harvesting what was going to happen anyways, or they deliberately push her to that point so that she goes out of control? What's happening here.

Hm. An angel arm type thing formed from what looks like her stomach... or maybe womb? I don't know but that's... hm. It's like it's their core or something. Like a reactor core. If that's the case then it being forced out of Vash like that is even more disturbing.

Her hair turned black. No. No hold on. Oh no.

[ID: A close up of Knives' face. His eyes have gone blank and lines from his Plant abilities are etched on his cheeks. End ID.]

Ohhh... remember how the blank eyes seem to show severe distress...? :(

Noooo oh my god. It's so much worse. Knives has been inadvertently killing Vash every time he activates his powers. AUGH

Local man just wanted to enjoy his noodles. Unfortunately his buddy is a trouble magnet and he keeps getting interrupted. Will he ever have the chance to finish his noodles in peace? hdjvbhdfvhjb

So Vash has been sneaking off to day drink apparently. Holy crap that panel is disturbing. Also it hurts me. My poor boy... :(

"Needle-noggin-isms" I'm screaming

Oh god he's so off in this fight. He's... he's actually drunk, isn't he...?

!!! Holy shit Vash's Plant abilities saved him automatically.

Oh fuck off with these people.

AUGH MERYLLLLL

I am in so much pain. Haha. Ha.

Ok ok but - does anyone other than Meryl know that she saw everything? Because Vash was totally out of it in that scene - it's not like he meant to transmit those flashbacks. I don't think anyone knows the full extent of what Meryl saw. So, when she has a panic attack and flinches away from him... he completely misunderstands. He thinks it's because she sees him as a monster; that she's scared of him. But that's not true! Meryl has done nothing but be concerned for him! And yes, it was terrifying, and yes, she's scared, but she cares about him! As a person! But I think Vash perceived this as a rejection. And all he can do is apologize. (Augh and the parallel to Hoppered and the woman with the blinded eyes who panicked when being touched...) STOP THIS NOW THIS HURTS

The little kid defending Vash... not old enough yet for fear to overtake reason... :')

I feel like Elendira is just here to see how things go down. She's here for a good time, not a long time.

TESLA MENTION.

Rem is so silly. <3

Baby Knives wants so badly to be liked and accepted... augh.

The contrast between "Do you think we can become friends with them?" and "Yeah... it might take a lot of effort though." Ooh. Many thoughts.

[firethekitty]

for the ask game (u don't have to answer all of these if you don't want to) 2, 9, 10, 13, 22

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

oh wrong person to ask i’m a staunch verse enjoyer 💪 preferences exist of course but honestly i’ve never understood being like. Strict top/bottom and/or dom/sub. in fiction and real life. like that kind of thing genuinely just depends on the day and my mood, personally? it just doesn’t really make sense to me, so i don’t feel qualified to answer this one

that being said. bottom wolfwood supremacy

9. worst part of canon

i hate you so much tristamp elendira. and tristamp vash & knives’ childhood. and tristamp rem. and tri98 vash being a lech. and most of all i Fucking hate *********

10. worst part of fanon

i’ll be honest i could write an essay about the trigun fandom. as with all fandoms, there are bound to be Freaks. and man oh man are there freaks in this one. the obvious answer to this would be the people who ship You Know What. but the yaoification of vashwood is particularly painful to me bc they have such a genuinely beautiful and tragic relationship with extraordinary writing and everyone turns them into like. hunky sexfreak dom wolfwood with rippling abs and skinny twink sub vash who’s a foot shorter than wolfwood and they have a healthy bdsm relationship and they communicate their feelings without issue. and that drives me absolutely fucking crazy bc literally NONE of that has ANY basis on their actual characters

13. worst blorbofication

definitely vash. while wolfwood is a victim of just blatant racism a lot of the time i feel like the term “blorbofication” more refers to a character being turned into a harmless uwu soft boy and vash gets that treatment to like a comical degree. this seems to go hand-in-hand with the trans headcanon, and it’s really fucking lame to me. like woooow you made vash into a skinny muscleless twink with smooth skin? AND he’s ditzy and super outgoing and everyone loves him so much and has tons of friends? but he’s also kinda dumb and doesn’t know how to handle anything? wait who is this supposed to be again i think we lost Vash the Stampede on like layer 5

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

I REALLY WISH YOU GUYS PAID MORE ATTENTION TO THE OTHER PLANTS………. they’re so cool and sweet and i love vash’s relationship with them, i wish we saw more of them interacting in general!!

[severalspoons]

Liveblog: Rewatching Trigun, Episode 10

-- I'm singing along with the intro music...

-- Who is Vash talking/narrating to? Not that I'm complaining. Tell me everything!

-- Bedhead Vash = adorbs!

-- Wow, Vash talks to birds! Just like a Disney princess! 

He's not very good at it, though. They just fly away.

-- It's appropriate he calls it the mayfly of love because mayflies are delicate and don't last long...and probably hard to catch... (Ok, obvious metaphor is obvious; I probably didn't even need to say anything...)

-- Ah, there's that meditation line that's been bothering me so much.

Life and love in 3 seconds. Those are topics you can devote your whole life to, and every lovingkindness meditation I'm familiar with takes longer than 3 seconds, just saying.

-- Dead girlfriend named Eileen? Clearly he was making things up, but how much was based on truth?

-- Vash missed his chance to sing Michelle Ma Belle.

-- Talking about a dead girlfriend and introducing yourself as the Humanoid Typhoon...yeah, that's not gonna get you a date.

Ouch. Shut down.

-- "A lecture! You've got to be pretty lame to take that kind of abuse." Ouch.

-- Aaaaand cock-blocked by Wolfwood, lol. Isn't knocking the table over a bit extra, though?

-- "It's a long story, even though it's kind of a short one." A Wolfwood classic

-- lol, Wolfwood imitating the voice and even the facial expressions of the criminal. I want to hear him tell more stories.

-- Wolfwood certainly likes getting all up in Vash's personal space. Trying to make him uncomfortable so he'll give in faster, or what?

-- Why is Vash acting so reluctant to help? I mean, it fits because he seemingly gets dragged into dangerous situations a lot. But this is exactly the sort of thing he’s been volunteering to do. Is he enjoying Wolfwood laying it on thick and guilt tripping him?

-- "Will you treat me to something?" "I'll have to think about it." Yep, there's Millie trying to scrounge and Vash not liking to say no.

-- "You haven't got a single clue, have you?" What does Millie mean?

-- That guy has the best trenchcoat. Too bad he’s just a bit character in this one episode.

-- Who is that man behind the curtain? Is he going to appear in a future episode?

-- Apparently Vash has blood type O. I know blood type is symbolic in Japanese culture...what does that say about him?

-- If Vash didn't want to be part of the competition, and is concerned about his reputation causing problems, why enter as himself? Why not make up a pseudonym/alias?

-- Can’t explain further, I just love this dialogue: "Aw, come on, you planned it from the start." "But I apologized."

-- "There you go smiling again. Looks good on you." That's so sweet I'm even grinning and blushing now.

#they’re at their best together #and when they smile I smile and melt like a squishy marshmallow

-- Wolfwood catching the girls eavesdropping, lol. Vash is usually the one to notice things. Guess he didn't want to make things awkward. Wolfwood doesn't gaf.

-- Oh Meryl, you've got to learn to express your feelings. What if Milly isn't there to act as your mouthpiece?

-- Oh, Milly, the life of the party. Just how much did she take off?

So far we have Wolfwood as the storyteller of the group and Milly as the wild one. Meryl is probably the Mom friend. Vash is the one who leads them into trouble adventures and has to get them back out.

-- "How come you're good?" Milly has a way with words. (And a good point).

-- Did Vash drink too much deliberately in order to lower his own acuity so his shooting skills would stand out less? Then blame Wolfwood for getting him "plastered?"

Notice that he suddenly stops wobbling around blurry-eyed and just goes for it once everyone can see how good a shot he is. The camouflage is no longer necessary.

-- "You really are the humanoid typhoon." I'm onto you Wolfwood, this is just an excuse to put your hand on his shoulder and get up in his personal space again.

-- I love how Vash turns the tables on Wolfwood and signs him up, too. 

-- Vash threw that stone before the gun even went off. He knew where the bullet would go before the gun even fired.

-- I love how Vash interferes with all the other fights. And Wolfwood knows, lol. They almost look like conspirators.

See what I mean?

-- How did they both do the Tabasco sauce trick at the same time without coordinating it? Did they plan this beforehand or are they just that good?

-- Vash's “wut” face when Wolfwood does the thing. Amazing.

-- Really? Now Vash objects to injuring people? He's been doing it the entire show so far in order to disarm them. What else are he and Wolfwood supposed to do to people trying to kill them? I think the real problem is that Wolfwood seemed like he was out of control and enjoying it.

-- I keep waiting for Wolfwood to argue with Vash about their different philosophies, but so far, the most he's done is grumble a little bit about not killing people. Maybe manga!Wolfwood is blending together with anime!Wolfwood in my head?