#i still have to start trimax then i can say what that Wolfwood is

[ryanthel0ser]

*walks up to the podium*

1998 Wolfwood is a black lab while TriStamp Wolfwood is a black cat

*covers self in fear of tomatoes but opens one eye in case of validation*

[orcelito]

ok, i cant resist the urge to make a post about it after all, especially since it's related to a post i made prior

one of my favorite moments in trimax is By Far this part in chapter 35

[ID: Two pages from Trigun. The first starts with Wolfwood thinking, "Now that I think 'bout it, it may be one of the major differences between our species." That deep rooted dear I felt on the ship…" He thinks of Vash crying blood and, swearing, wonders, "Is he the one who can save humankind? That monster?" Wolfwood is briefly shown in resolution before someone calls, "Hey, Wolfwood!" and he looks up with surprise.

Vash sits with a smile at the edge of a rooftop, backed by the Fifth Moon and its prominent crater. Vash asks with a smile, "Just coming back now? You're a bit of a night owl, huh?" Wolfwood looks taken aback and wary. End ID]

Right Here. Vash is just sitting there, smiling like normal, but he's got the backdrop of the damage he caused on the moon set Perfectly behind him. it's a glaring reminder to Wolfwood of who exactly he's dealing with here, and that TERRIFIES him.

& the fact that Wolfwood still remembers that moment of crying blood as a moment of true fear. because for all the cheer Vash shows in the average moment, Wolfwood just recently saw him nearly lose control Again (at the Dragon's Nest). the second time he witnessed it, & the third time he would know about.

Vash is a walking atomic bomb with multiple charges. even with how cheerful & kind he is, he's shown Multiple Times that he does not have full control. he is decidedly something different, something Hazardous to humans, and Wolfwood knows this very very painfully.

for all that Wolfwood loves Vash, he is also terrified of him. and at this point in the story, that terror is potent enough to nearly eclipse his affection for Vash.

leading to some of the next most iconic pages:

[ID: The next page starts with Wolfwood standing behind the sitting Vash, his expression hard and the moon bright behind him. Vash seems sad and has one eye open. A close-up focuses on Wolfwood looking down.

Wolfwood thinks, "So easy to pull the trigger. So easy to remove half the problem." Another close-up with bright lighting obscures his face but for one eye. Then Vash turns around curiously and asks, "What's up?" Wolfwood sits behind him and says "Nothin'. Come on. Let's go." Vash seems surprised as Wolfwood scolds, "Don't get yerself tangled up in every little skirmish ya see. It'll be pointless if ya get yerself killed before ya meet him." End ID]

the manga frames it like Vash doesn't know Wolfwood was pointing the gun at him, but I think he did know. he's freakishly perceptive over and over again throughout the story. he HAS to be in order to survive like he has. he'd hear the movement of the gun & sense Wolfwood behind him...

he'd know. i really think he knew.

but he doesn't do anything about it. there is zero fear in his face. he turns to look at Wolfwood curiously, a bit confused, but not afraid. he never once thought that Wolfwood would shoot him. there's full faith and trust there in that moment.

Wolfwood pretends that nothing happened, & Vash lets him. they both move on, not talking about it, because they never talk about Anything of substance like this (not until much, Much later).

overall, it's just such a great example of their relationship's development. Wolfwood's fear & Vash's trust that he won't act on it... it's just. Man.

(EDIT: people have made some good points about how Vash's expression when Wolfwood points the gun at him shows that he probably did know and YEAH that's a good point! & probably why I was so certain he knew lol, I just hadn't realized it myself)

[threegunbrainrot]

i dont have any trigun mutuals so i'm just gonna ramble my thoughts into the infinite void of tumblr. and im sure others have touched on this same topic but

it almost seems like vash is getting softer with every new installment of trigun? like incredibly consistently and incredibly specifically.

let me explain.

i'll start with tristamp and work backwards; the tristamp vash we all know and love there is incredibly adverse to violence.

more often than not he ACTIVELY refuses to fight and just WON'T draw his gun. this post loosely counted the amount of bullets that he shot throughout all of season 1, and almost ALL of them (like to an insane degree) were dished out against knives, who vash knew was strong enough to take the hit.

the few times vash does draw his gun against a human in tristamp, it's as a blunt force weapon (against the badlads gang and livio, for example) or to disarm others/save someone with ricochet (like shooting the punisher before wolfwood can kill livio).

he just doesn't shoot people. at ALL.

then if we look at 98 trigun, things change drastically.

here, vash isn't afraid to hurt people a little if it means more will be saved in the end. of course he never kills, but he actually shoots people here. not only that...

he holds a casual, sarcastic conversation while pointing his weapon at people.

he constantly shoots at limbs to immobilize people, fires warning shots extremely close to peoples' vitals, and performs several very insane trick shots throughout the show to wound those with armor.

tristamp vash wouldn't even draw, but 98 struts around firing warning shots into the sky and singing about bloodshed for intimidation! i'm not sure there's a single episode where he doesn't shoot someone at least once.

...so what about trimax, then?

(PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD)

he is so. shockingly. violent.

of course he never kills. of course he's still trying to save people, but there's this anger in him that i was completely taken off-guard by reading for the first time.

tristamp vash is so soft he's painful to watch. 98 vash makes a heartbreaking effort to be as silly and nonthreatening as possible, constantly making himself out to be the fool. but trimax?

he's... literally grief-stricken and out for revenge. explicit revenge. he's angry and he's hurt and he lays his intentions out so clearly. he's making THREATS.

seriously:

hunting legato. HUNTING him.

it's not even a matter of drawing his weapon anymore. he does it constantly, and fires just as much. never to kill, but he doesn't joke around the way 98 vash does. the most he'll offer is a sunny smile to reassure others and nothing more.

i'm not that far into the manga, either. i'm sure there's countless more (and probably better) panels to convey this side of trimax vash, but i suppose it also says something that i've found so many panels depicting this so early on.

but the progression of vash's personality is fascinating regardless.

from a tortured, angry loner desperately trying to cling to his morals for rem's sake

to an equally devastated man who devotes himself so completely to acting the role of the fool

and finally to the sad, chronically depressed shell of a person in tristamp who refuses to so much as draw his weapon.

[altades]

Vashwood rant

I can't sleep so why not analyze vashwood in the middle of the night

Now, this analysis is mostly of the manga, with maybe small takes from 98 and tristamp

To start let's look at the boys from their respective beginnings

Vash is so cruelly mischaracterized as a child, and it might be a little bit of trismaps fault, even though i do love it, or maybe people are just putting characters into boxes without really thinking about it but Vash is so not soft-shy-nice little baby brother. The whole thing with him being younger is so insane to me, i get why if Nai was born like 10 minutes earlier he would make it his whole personality (very sibling thing to do) but it's just so stupid. No, they have 0 age difference and it doesn't affect their dynamic cuz the are literally twins for the love of god. And, really, when you look at the manga as kids Nai was the emotional one! And he still is!

Nai is plagued by fear and anger and resentment and those emotions are what drive his every decision. Vash, on the other hand, is much more in control of his feelings and doesn't show them as much. That is to say that pre-tesla nai is the one worried about their relationship with humans, about their future, he's the one crying after talking to Conrad (what a sweet child he was) while Vash seemes much less scared.

And when they find out about Tesla Nai is the one who faints - he’s the more reactive one, the emotional one. And that small difference is what sets their paths so differently. Because Vash actually gets a chance to talk to Rem and figure things out.And that talk is so very important because it makes Rem, who already was everything to Vash, even more important. 

Now, I want us all to think about how terrified Vash was after seeing Tesla cuz he probably thought his own mother was going to dissect him and his brother. But then she saves him when he tries to end his own life, proving that no she’s not gonna kill him, because she, as every human, has the capability to learn from her mistakes and make better choices. (too bad Nai didn’t get that lesson lol)

And then we get to the big bad things. (it’s genocide) But the important part from that whole ordeal is Rem’s sacrifice. Because, listen, I love stories where humanity is shown to be capable of change and forgiveness is a virtue and love and pussy and all that but oh man can it be so so unrealistic and a little bit insane to watch (su im looking at u (i love su but oh boy that is not how the world works unfortunately)) but Trimax manages to make it work so well. I believe that’s cuz Vash is a very kind and loving man but is also completely out of his mind and has horrendous mommy issues. At least half the reason he doesn’t kill people is because Rem has died to save them, and killing them would make it all be for nothing. If he kills these people or if he lets them die would that mean that Rem died for nothing? Did she sacrifice her life to save these people only for her own son to end their lives? AND you know I’m right cuz he literally says it in the manga but also BECAUSE HE DOES THE SAME FOR WOLFWOOD (also he did kill Nai when he had the chance but we don’t have time to unpack that)

All of that is A LOT and very complicated (i love Vash he’s so well written he’s my perfect little meow meow) now let's talk about Wolfwoooooooooood /twirls hair/

WW is much easier to understand and analyze cuz he is, just a guy,, WW is just a normal person who gets insanely unlucky and gets in THE WORST possible situations (If he ever played DND he would roll straight 1s). That is to say that his story is sort of a way to show how much life in the badlands sucks, but also that there are good things even in the worst places (the orphanage) And WW reacts to situations in the most rational way possible way - he kills to survive. he doesn’t want to but he doesn’t get a say in it. If he could chose he would just live with his family and friend and do whatever. And that, him being so normal in such a violent and bloody world is what makes him suffer all the time. His inner moral compass is screaming at him what a terrible person he is and he promptly ignores it.

That is until that moral compass manifests itself in the form of a tall, blond and handsome stranger that he’s supposed to lead to his death. The stranger who turns out to be the most compassionate and kind man WW’s has ever seen. Who he’s supposed to kill. It’s like finding an oasis in the desert and being forced to burn it to the ground. And WW doesn’t want to do that, and he refuses to believe that the oasis is not a mirage so he tries to get Vash to kill someone, even if it’s WW himself. (It doesn’t work.)

As we all know WW changes his mind because of Vash’s influence. And he dies for it. Because even though Vash’s beliefs are born of human virtues, no man is made to walk his path, for he is not human and any mortal who tries to follow an angel to the skies is doomed to crash. WHAT YOU DON’T EXPECT IS THAT THAT MAN WILL BRING THE ANGEL DOWN WITH HIM

There is this line I wrote for an art i’m planning to make and if you’ve read this far you deserve a lil spoiler - “have you found absolution in bringing an angel to his knees?” and it captures perfectly what i'm thinking. And also Vash spends so much time trying to be closer to people but I think him killing Legato might’ve been the most human thing he’s ever done. Cuz it’s is so beautiful in the way he does it for the memory of the person he loved and yet so ugly in it’s cruelty.

I’ve said this before but most of the time when there is a human/ some immortal powerful creature relationship I don’t think the human is that special but WW HE SO IS. Maybe it’s the way that he’s just as deep in the nuclear bombs with personality business as Vash is, being one of said nuclear bombs, but still remains a normal person with relatively good morals that he can anchor Vash to a sort of normality that he doesn’t get often. Like what other guy would get hunted by all sorts of freaks with you, get in trouble all the time, get shot and etc and etc and then go for a drink with you like it’s a normal wednesday? Wolfwood. Or maybe it's that WW learns of every worst part of Vash, he sees him be on the brink of losing himself, he knows Vash has actually caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and ALMOST did it again after Julai, and still stays with him? He sees Vash become something that is not human at all and still stay? Idk MAYBE IT’S ALL OF THAT but WW is just so important and so down bad but we all know that already so i’m not gonna add to that

Anyways, I got this all out of my system gn

[ruporas]

apologies if you've already been asked this but do you have any favorite trigun fics? i absolutely adore your art btw!

thank you!!! and i've answered this on insta, but i don't think i've ever shared on tumblr... i'm not good at reading fics, esp long ones, because my attention span is pretty bad, but from the ones i have bookmarked, i'll share some that i like in no particular order

hills like white elephants (meet me halfway) - adlvnam

pairing: vashwood word count: 1.1k, sfw, vague post v.10 spoilers ‘I read a story once,’ Vash says, unsure. ‘I’m kind of thinking about it right now.’

i like a lot of adlvnam's fics, i find them very unique and creative in their execution, and their writing is wonderful! this was the first fic i've read from them and it's stuck with me ever since. others that i like from them are in manus tuas (no spoilers) and vox dei (warning for post vol.10 spoilers).

stay - Anonymous

pairing: vashwood word count: 2.3k, sfw, no spoilers “Hold up,” Vash groans. He presses his free hand to Wolfwood’s mouth and shushes him. He’s probably going for a stern look, though between his poor attempts to stop grinning like the biggest idiot this side of the planet and the way he’s patting him, it’s hard to take him seriously. “Stop laughin’. Where’s the keys?” “What keys?” Wolfwood tries to ask, muffled by Vash’s hand, and his tongue is a little thick and slow in his mouth so… something comes out, but it’s probably not very wordy. Word-like. Not a sentence, probably. (or, wolfwood and vash get drunk, bicker, and then share a bed together.)

i enjoyed the mundanity and silliness of this fic and i think about it from time to time... i think fics where one of them or both drink together are pleasant to read.

Last Summer - varilien

pairing: vashwood word count: 741, sfw, no spoilers You are what you love.

tags on this one are "sunrises, morning routines, coffee, sentimental" which caught my attention. very sweet and beautiful.

Rain - Kokohamstar

pairing: none, wolfwood centric word count: 768, sfw, major spoilers - post v.10 Ever since he was a little kid listening to Bible stories, he dreamed of the day the world would be washed clean and wondered what the rain would feel like on his face.

as most wolfwood centric fics, it was a gutpunch and melancholic, but still soooo.. augh.... the last paragraph really does it for me.

water bucket blues - fathomfive

pairing: vashwood word count: 3.7k, sfw, major spoilers, post trimax Vash the Stampede goes on the record about a friend he once had. Also about card games, cats, family, and some other things. "Start with a piece of the whole, Meryl said. It doesn’t have to be the first piece. Start with a specific. That’s what they mean when they throw around the words human interest. I know the pieces. Believing they make a whole is another thing. But she’s a broadcast professional and I trust her advice. Maybe if I can figure out how to tell one piece—like the story of Wolfwood as I knew him—I can learn how to tell the others."

i love vash pov fics and i love it when it's first person and this one in particular hits because it's his pov and he speaks, honestly, openly, telling a tale that he can't really flub because it's about the people he loved. i love how grounded this fic is in the present of max, i love how vash grows within the 3.7k words, i love how he moves forward with the world he's living in. this fic makes me teary if i think too much about it... it's really wonderful.

it’s a summer day, and I want to be wanted more than anything else in the world - goldenglitz

pairing: vashwood word count: 3.9k, nsfw, no spoilers Vash has the lung capacity of a man who’s cried for 150 years. It isn't like Wolfwood takes more than he gives — but like with most things, he barely keeps up with Vash. He works his body to the limit, even as his lungs burn and his legs and arms give out under him. They fuck like they’re on borrowed time. All of this makes it so easy — so much easier than just talking. Wolfwood would sometimes rather pull new and interesting noises from Vash with just his mouth than do anything else with it. Their own dialect: moans, groans, and four words. “Yes” — “Please” — “Vash” — “Wolfwood.”

i love all of their vashwood fics, they only have 3 but they're all lovely and has a sort of characterization to both vash and wolfwood i don't see often. definitely one of my faves, especially when it comes to explicit vw fics.

i think these are all the ones i'll share for now!!

[somepinkthing]

Trismax!vash was almost a fully developed character when we meet him. Sure there were some things he grew into (and a huge guilt complex he grew out of) but for the most part he appeared to us as a character whose morals and ideology were already set in stone. It's interesting to see tristamp!vash as a character who is still floundering. He's not sure of what his moral code is entirely and he doesn't have an ideology strong enough to oppose his brother with—all he knows is that he loves so much that it hurts and he doesn't want the world he loves to be destroyed. He doesn't know what he wants to do about the plants or the humans, he just wants them all to live and he's willing to give up life and limb to make it happen... but he doesn't know what he wants from the world in return quite yet.

The best example is the scene where he tells knives that he would run from the humans and return at a later time. Trimax!vash declared it. He presented it as his resolve to make peace, no matter how long it took. That the solutions to these issues couldn't be solved with one quick act of violence like knives was hoping. That vash was willing to try again and again no matter what the cost. Compare that to tristamp!vash who said it with tears in his eyes, trying desperately to change the course of the shot and save what he can. He was saying that he didn't know what the right answer was, even after all this time, all he knew was that he didn't want this. He didn't want to destroy the world or shape it anew but didn't know exactly what he wanted to do yet either. For trimax!vash it was a conclusion, for tristamp!vash it's a start.

I'm ngl I'm excited to see the baby grow into his own. I loved trimax but I love to see a character flounder and come into his own. Trimax's internal character development actually largely centered around wolfwood imo. It'll be great to see vash go through internal turmoil that he hasn't built up the resolve to shake off in one chapter yet.

[needle-noggins]

My book club reading this morning started with me goofing on Legato and etc., but then I got hit with the cafe scene. Let's talk about it, because I've been ready to bring up the body autonomy/exploitation/rape stuff for a while. This is going to get heavy, so fair warning.

Spoilers for Trigun Stampede, which I'll compare this to, in case anyone here is coming into the book club completely blind to Trigun (I assume most fans at this point have seen Stampede).

So. Damn. This is where the very heavy theme of bodily autonomy and exploitation really comes into the story. Obviously we have the conflict between the slavers and Legato. These girls are going to be sold for organ harvesting, but first... yeah, those slavers are fucking awful. Legato kills them by forcing them to kill themselves/each other, and Legato frees the girls. I think this is the first time we see what Legato's powers are - he makes people's bodies to move against their will. He later muses on this scene, wondering why he felt sympathy for the girls and spared them. If you've read Trigun Maximum before, you know why.

I want to compare this to Stampede, because it's the easiest way for me to talk about this theme without spoiling more of Trimax. When I watched Stampede for the first time, I remember being floored by the tank scene with Vash and Knives. Vash floating helplessly, paralyzed by Knives, his roots extending to the plants in the tank, and the reveal of those plants being pregnant. Knives boasting about making new Independents. It was so heavy that I had to pause the show and walk around for a bit. I still can't totally watch it.

Then, when I read Trimax, I saw just how much of a recurring theme this is in the story on a whole. OK, Nightow, that's fucking painful and kind of triggering for a lot of folks - so why does the story have to include this?

Well. It highlights just how horrible Knives, Legato, and other people can be, but more importantly, it's central to the entire plot and its resolution. We have to look at the other side of the conflict and zoom out a bit. In all versions of Trigun, there is exploitation - of the plants, of innocent people, of Vash's power. And, in all versions of Trigun, there's the struggle to find freedom and autonomy against it, specifically. Knives struggles to give the plants freedom (or his version of it). Vash struggles to free humanity from Knives (who not only kills indiscriminately, but also exploits people to kill for him. Hello, Wolfwood). Vash also struggles to find freedom from Knives, who uses Vash's powers against his will. That's a really boiled-down version of the central conflict.

So, what happens in this conflict?

Vash heals plants who have been damaged by humans' exploits. Vash helps people in any way he can, no matter who they are - because he wants what's best for humanity - all of it. And, at least in Tristamp, who saves Vash when Knives is using him? Fucking Meryl. Meryl, who jumps head-first into danger to save Vash. I could write an essay on Tristamp Meryl's character development in alone, but I won't (yet).

There's exploitation and rape and terrible abuse, but there's help. There's healing facilitated by others, sometimes others who have experienced something similar. I'm sure someone else can say this much more eloquently than me, but I wanted to get the conversation started.

[anxiety-elemental-kay]

TriMax Volume 10: Haunting The Narrative That Doomed You by Nicholas D. Wolfwood

Still catching up on those meta posts before the end of October CAN THEY DO IT???

I've seen various of interpretations and arguments about the exact cause of Wolfwood's death. (Aside from heart failure/drug overdose.) Was it adhering to strictly to Vash's ideals? Was Chapel right in saying Wolfwood was foolish to try to live up to the morality of an immortal being?

Here's the question I would ask: If Wolfwood didn't want to adopt Vash's ideals, if he was willing to kill LR, what would have changed? Why was it important that Wolfwood tried to change before he died?

Wolfwood tries several times to disable Livio in that fight, up to and including shooting him directly in the heart, and even blowing up Razlo with a magazine (what's the word for that??) of machine gun bullets to reduce him to gooey chunks. After a while it's impossible to tell that Wolfwood was ever trying to save LR.

Absolutely none of the things Wolfwood tries kills them. Considering that LR goes on to get impaled by Elendira several times (and not the fun kind boo) it's difficult to imagine what Wolfwood could have done to actually kill Livio. So what would have been different?

Livio might not have stopped Razlo from killing Wolfwood if Livio thought his brother didn't value his life, didn't want to save him. Would Livio think to stop Razlo otherwise? Why would he? Even if Chapel still died, what would've happened to LR, when they had nowhere else to go?

This fight was always going to happen. Knives was never going to spare the orphanage, so Wolfwood would always go and try to save it. Chapel was out for Wolfwood's blood and was determined to use his brother to get his revenge.

Unless Wolfwood brought Vash with him from the start, I don't think that fight could've ended any other way. That's Wolfwood's fatal flaw, he still tried to do everything on his own even though there were people who loved and cared for him. It wasn't trying to break away from his violent past that killed him, his self-isolation did.

That's where the tragedy of his death lies. It didn't need to be this way. It was always going to be this way.

Wolfwood goes on to haunt the narrative that doomed him. Even though he died, the choices he made outlive him, and become his legacy.

Livio breaks away from Chapel, and follows Vash. Livio gains support from not just Vash but the colonists who knew Wolfwood. He's able to grow into his own person and make his own choices, things denied to him since he was a child taken in by the Eye of Michael.

If Wolfwood hadn't tried to spare Livio, could Vash have later brought himself to kill Legato? Could Vash bring himself to kill if Wolfwood never tried not to? If not Legato wouldn't have stopped at Livio, his determination to break Vash and prove his loyalty to Knives was too great. How many others might have died, if Vash hadn't broken his vow to Rem, to uphold his vow to Wolfwood?

I don't quite know how to conclude this post, aside from this: there are a lot of ways to kill of a major character, many of them Very Bad. I'll spare you the rant of a bitter ex-WoW player (rip Vol'jin you deserved better), but I'm sure everyone here can think of an example of a character killed off for cheap shock, because the writers didn't know what to do with them, or some other bullshit. That's not what happened with Wolfwood.

If you're going to kill a character in your story, this one of the ways you make it work: you give them a legacy, you let them haunt those that outlive them, you bring their story to an end, even if it's a tragic one. If there is an afterlife in Trigun, I know for sure Wolfwood is at peace.

[ultraviolet-cello]

Alright since the @tristampparty is Well under way now I'm gonna do a little day by day analysis or details I like about the episode of the day, along with my usual art hustle :3!

Because this is going to end up being Super long we'll put this under a cut! [Spoiler warning for All of Trigun, primarily Tristamp and Trimax]

Tl;dr? I'm normal about how Knives is in Tristamp

So I'll be going point by point in chronological notes that I kept while writing abt this episode :] thank u to Mal for putting up with my rambles hehehe.

So the Seeds ships specifically are reminiscent, to me at least, of the Angel Arm (probably moreso the tristamp version which, can you believe, is incredibly difficult to get a screenshot of lmao)

That's interesting to me because it could be just a design choice but if it is an in-universe thing, it does,... imply some things about Plants. Granted, Independents probably weren't known abt when the Seeds ships launched, but is there another aspect of Plants that takes that form? And is that impactful enough for a human fleet to design their ships after that? Much to think about for something that's probably just symbolic lmao

Now for Knives! So a little bit of context that I will elaborate on as we watch, but I think the narrative is heavily biased against Knives when he was a child, and that we will get some recontextualization next season that's more in line with how we know him in Trimax.

In particular, I think the beginning flashback is possibly theeee most unbiased depiction of events because all the rest are specifically memories being told to others by Vash or Knives, or the whole memory thing in July. Granted it's still very Vash-focused but it gives us two major things.

Knives seemingly wanting to take Rem along with him. In Trimax, it's semi-implied that Knives would have initially wanted Rem to live and spirals very hard into telling Vash he hates Rem as a coping mechanism (which I will elaborate on if anyone's interested in my reading of those scenes), and it seems to be even more overt here.

He doesn't stop reaching out either until Rem shuts the escape pod/pulls the lever (Unclear on when that is)

2. From that scene, the only time we see Knives' face/expression again is when the escape pod is being like. Slung out of the ship. The rest of it always blocks his face and expression in favour of seeing Vash's far louder and emotional reactions.

and we just straight up do not see knives again until his big maniacal speech thing and that's,,, well we just don't know how long it's been since they crashed. could be minutes. could be hours. could be enough for knives to have had a breakdown and start laughing at the sky because he just doesn't know what else to do

i think (hope) season 2 might end up having a lot of the same flashbacks from knives' pov/an unbiased pov :]

Moving on with the episode: Roberto! I love Roberto a lot actually, he definitely grows on you. Something I did notice is that throughout this ep he says that Meryl and Vash would not last long on this planet which. That's interesting, considering he doesn't say that to Wolfwood, and yet Wolfwood and Roberto are the ones doomed by the (sometimes meta) narrative.

So when Vash is found he's been strung up by the Bad Lads gang (who have far more presence in episode one than I originally thought lmao), and he looks... a little dehydrated maybe, but overall fine.

The guys next to him, though? not doing remotely as well. Now while there is the possibility that he just got tied up later there's also the possibility that. While he does need to eat he doesn't need to eat as much as the average human. Which. is a lovely thought for the two dead guys. [Also a possibility that if Vash does need to consume less than a human, it could be another justification to himself for his eating issues]

The bounty! So it's technically Knives' bounty but whatever. [Sidenote: the idea that Vash and Knives look very similar is hilarious to me because they do not and never have to me] The particular notes are that Knives definitely had a hand in this - Vash is the only person specified alive, the bounty is obscenely high (compared to the other wanted posters), and it's specifically stamped with July Military, which. Well Knives and Conrad operate in July, and Conrad (by extension Knives) very clearly has a Lot of power in that City because he has the tower, that massive lab, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if they were the ones who initially created the bounty/wanted poster.

This Thomas carrying co... coffins? Are they coffins??

Background wanted posters for B.D.N, Marilyn Nebraska, Rai-Dei, and some other characters from trimax/98. And also for Nightow. for 30 $$ you can bring in Nightow the Comix Artist dead or alive! Wanted for Couch Crimes

Roberto kinda fascinates me as a character, especially when he sticks up for Vash and suggests a duel. My friend Mal describes him as a tsundere for friendship and. yeah okay that works lmao. for all his,,, roberto-isms, roberto has a a bit of a moral streak (he gets maddddd when he learns that children have been experimented on, hesitates in defending himself against Elendira, and lies to the police to get information out of them). He's just a Lot jaded, and we're already primed to like Meryl because, well she's Meryl, but he tends to be right when it comes to Meryl's inexperience. i like him. It's also, come to think of it, possibly because Vash fascinates Roberto a little bit. Roberto really saw Vash and went "I gotta study this guy" lmao

Vash having absolutely Perfect trigger discipline lmao

OKAY SO THIS PART IS MY FAVOURITE. For reference I am a black belt in a couple different martial arts, and working to become a sensei in Goju Ryu Karate, so this sequence is delightful! Let's break it down :] The initial block is one we use to open up a person's body - if that arm is clear out of the way you can keep control of the gun arm in this case by just pushing outwards (And with Vash's additional strength in his prosthetic that's Pretty Dang Effective, especially because in gun situations you want to keep the gun barrel away from you, so you're taught to use two arms - Vash doesn't need to do that)

From there, he goes and grabs the guy's shoulder to pull him forward unexpectedly - this throws him off balance and shifts his weight onto Vash's, so Vash is taking all that bodyweight. From there, all Vash has to do is maintain his grip on the gun arm's wrist (keeping the gun away from both parties in case he accidentally fires or there's a misfire), then turn sharply and let the body follow through!

From there he keeps the grip on the wrist and twists, which sends the gun out of the guy's grip and out of danger. At the same time, he spins his own gun's grip and hits the back of the head with the barrel - Notably he lets go of the wrist, which, if he'd kept holding it, would break the arm. I'm not entirely sure which martial arts were referenced for Vash's style, but this is exactly the type of thing I teach! [For anyone interested, I practice Goju Ryu karate, aiki jiu jitsu, iado (sword), self defense, and general okinawan kobudo (weapons like the bo staff, sais, and nunchaku)]

okay i blacked out and am no longer in teaching mode. Vash's arm, when he picks up that rock, glows very very green

what does that mean? I have 0 idea, it could be that it's overstrained, or using more power than usual. I mean, he did rip a rock out of the ground.

Zaziecam birdworm heading to July from Jeneora Rock! Probably how Knives got word of where Vash was

This fucking scene. man y'all this scene HAUNTS me.

It's so. unreliable at best. this scene goes adult vash saying he has a brother into this flashback. knives says, in order, that "he finally did it", not to worry because the plants are fine, he got rem killed, and tells vash not to get mad because he's already his accomplice, and nothing else. now we Know that that's not the case because Knives directly adds in information in future renditions of this flashback (That Vash gave him the launch codes). Which. What else don't we know about this scene. Clearly it's been a little while, the fire is burning, and Knives had all this time to climb the tower while Vash was (unconscious?). I want to see it from Knives' pov.

Knives keeping a bunch of last run plant corpses as statues to.. remind himself of his goal I guess. I read Tristamp Knives as Trimax Knives taken to the extreme (will elaborate in one of the flashback episodes), so I think he's a touch uh. Extremely unhealthy.

And that's it for episode one! I hope if you read this you had fun and it wasn't too much of a slog to read lmao i'm just rambling. I hope you had fun if you made it this far :]

[nottodaylogic]

Okay sowhat is Trigun actually ABOUT. Like the characters look fun but what is the plot. The genre. The vibe.

(In case this wasn't clear, this is me asking you to basically pitch Trigun to me because you seem to enjoy it)

HIIIIIIII you are correct i do in fact enjoy trigun. you could even say i like it. love it, even.

ok trigun is about this guy, vash the stampede, with a huge bounty on his head (sixty billion type huge) who wanders the space-desert trying to help out as many people as he can. following along with him are milly & meryl, insurance agents attempting to keep him from damaging literally everything (he can't help it! people keep SHOOTING at him! he's GONNA run!!!), and this random priest guy with a giant cross-shaped machine gun/bazooka/portable armory/laser blaster sometimes.

so there are three Main Trigun Things:

THE MANGA: https://www.tumblr.com/trigun-manga-overhaul/701392615591034880/trigun-ultimate-overhaul-masterpost-heres-all-the?source=share <- the best place to read. often referred to as trimax

THE 98 ANIME: the original anime. soooo funny to me. i like it a lot, you can watch on hulu or crunchyroll, i recommend the dub because eng wolfwood was the reason i started watching. i'm biased.

THE REBOOT, TRIGUN STAMPEDE: 3d reboot. it does in fact slay, but kind of assumes you've already seen one of the other two 'cause it spoils some MAJOR plot twists like. immediately. i recommend trying 98 first, then doing stampede & trimax last (the best & longest).

(there also are some differences in tristamp, like my best friend milly being ABSENT, and my favorite character in trimax was done SOOO DIRTY in tristamp so)

the genre is space western, with very silly vibes to hook you in before hitting you over the head with Characters and Emotions, but still very funny. tristamp has some heavy sci-fi vibes going on (an emphasis on SPACE western).

there are. so many themes. and i do need to tell you, as a jewish fan of trigun, that i'm having my friend von @garnetdaydreams do cultural mediation for me to understand the christian/catholic elements beyond "oh he has a cross. slay." but even if you know nothing about christianity (like me) you WILL enjoy. this is a threat.

PLEASE let me know if u get into trigun. i have a family. they only eat other peopole's reactions to things i enjoy.

[vashsscoreboardofpain]

WELCOME BACK SPORTS FANS ;D

Thank you dear audience for coming once again for the beautiful sport that is suffering. The stakes have been set, new people have been introduced. Boy oh boy what moves will happen today. Maybe today trimax vash will dethrone 98 vash?

Stay and watch the performance that volume 6 will be to find out!

Chap 1:

-1 "action" point for pushing himself even though he's injured and his hand hurts.

-1 "bad event" point for getting punched out of nowhere cuz the contestant cant go too long without his signature move

Chap 2:

-1 "bad event" point thanks to the mvp wolfwood pointing his gun at him???? wild move by the mvp. also the suffering division has cleared up that it is pretty sure that the contestant knows about the gun, but chooses to not react to it

-1 "action" point for almost letting it happen.

-1 "bad event" point for almost getting yeeted with the car

Chap 3:

the contestant did not appear this chapter but boy oh boy a lot of new enemies did

Chap 4:

-1 "bad event" point thanks to the cruel and sad reveal of vash's hair. Because it has turned black it means he is closer to death

Chap 5:

-1 "bad event" point for getting tackled by a child, you know, the usual

-oh and it seems like its starting, 1 "action" point for believing he cant be forgiving by anyone, not even god

-1 "yikes statement" point for the "I can't even forgive myself"

-1 "bad event" point because god damn, he cant have a moment of peace before getting ambushed by people who want to kill him

-1 "bad event" point for having a gun behind his head

-1 "action" point for the other sad reveal of the volume: vash day drinks

-1 "action" point for almost giving in and just letting this bandit end him, but only stopping because knives is getting closer

-1 "bad event" point thanks to his feathers coming out without him wanting to. now everyone around is scared of him and calling him a monster

-1 "bad event" point thanks to the people throwing rocks at him

-1 "yikes statement" point for the classic and almost iconic "What I am supposed to do. I don't know anymore" after millie asks him why does he keep smiling

-1 "bad event" for not being able to say good bye to meryl properly. he cant blame her for being scared but it still hurts

Chap 6:

-1 "bad event" point for having....vision? the suffering division isnt sure but he seems distraught

-FLASHBACK TIME ONCE AGAIN, 1 "bad event" point because it seems like a lot of things are wrong with the ship

AND that's it for today folks! maybe not a lot of points (except for chapter 5) have been gained today but a lot of important reveals happened and new people have been introduced! Now, it's time to check the points.

Today the contestant got 19 points, the new average is settling in. This means the new total is 226 points! How exciting!

We have entered the volume full of flashbacks. Please follow along to see how many points trimax vash can get in his childhood!

[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.

[orcelito]

with some ppl following me here bc of my analysis posts, i figured i'd do a lil pinned post for my fics so you guys know what all this analysis is even for in the First place, SO!

my current main focus:

In the Next Life

a trimax vashwood time travel longfic where late trimax vash (aka as late as chapter 94) travels back in time to try to fix things. he's determined to change things, hopes to have a happy ending in this time, but still can't let go of his grief for what he lost in the time before (cough Wolfwood cough). currently a WIP, this is gonna be a Long One, so if ur into longfic this could be for u. just mind the spoilers lol

& i guess i can mention my other Trigun fic that ppl seem to like:

Sentido

it's complete! started as just a drabble piece to give myself practice with writing these characters. it's a 5 chapter character study for Vash, exploring the ways his inhumanity manifests in each of his senses. it is also very much an autism metaphor done by Yours Truly (someone who clearly has the 'tism) bc i just think autistic Vash is very good. set in tristamp events bc i wrote this before i finished trimax, but has a lot of trimax influence (especially in the last chapter). i'd say it's a tristamp/trimax fusion.

Also!

I have a vashwood discord server, good for chatting about vashwood or even just trigun in general. It's 18+ so please don't join if you're a minor, & there's also a no plantcest rule (bc we wanted a place where we wouldn't have to see it lol). If that sounds good to you, then feel free to dm me for an invite link!

[alena-reblobs]

Trigun Bookclub Trimax Vol10 Part 4

Vol01: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3  | Vol02: Part 1 | Part 2

Trimax: Vol01 Part 1Vol01 Part 2 | Vol02 Part 1Vol02 Part 2 | Vol 03 Part 1 | Vol03 Part2 | Vol04 Part1 | Vol04 Part2 | Vol05 | Vol06 | Vol07 | Vol08 Part1 | Vol08 Part2 | Vol09 Part1 | Vol09 Part2 | Vol10 Part1 | Vol10 Part2 | Vol10 Part3 | Vol10 Part4

God why is this volume so long and full of so many epic pictures

Commentary for chapter 6 and 7 of Vol10, will do the last one in another post!

While I'm doing this, reading each chapter and after that, doing my commentary, I notice the effect of the volume lessening...damn! I should read it in one go first and THEN write my thougths but I'm afraid I'll forget what I want to say. Vol9 and Vol10 are in a way really meant to be read in one go for the full effect.

Chapter 6:

Yes! Wolfwood trying to end this fight not with his weapon, but with his bare hands is so important! He's not fighting to kill, he's not EoM's puppet, he's trying to bring back a friend...I can't say why but also the fact that this obviously pains Razlo more than bullets also feels right. That's how it should be. And then...there's Vash.

Oh god and then there's Vash.

This is...one of the most cruel images of Vash yet. To me it is THE most emotional in the whole series. Pure desperation. Sadness for things lost. Vash allowing himself to break down while we only hear the punches of Wolfwood beating down on Razlo. Looking at this image makes me sad. Damn it Nightow for making Vash have to grief before they even had the chance to start their future together.

But again, props to Nightow for the storytelling.

Vash promised Wolfwood to leave Razlo to him BUT NOBODY DARE INTERFERE.

LIVIOOOOOOO

And just when we fought we had gotten rid of him and he couldn't piss us off any more he's coming back round to hurt our boy

THANK YOU RAZLO. There can never be enough bullet holes in this dead man's body.

I really really like that Livio is not treating Razlo like the bad guy here, but acknowledges that Razlo is also a victim in a way. A victim of having to live through the fucked up shit that Livio could not cope with, of having to deal with that. (I hope I worded that all right, since I don't really know anything about the medical condition of which Razlo is the result?)

You did it, man. You saved Livio. And now you're even a person he looks up to you. Of the feels.

CRYBABY LIVIO IS BACK BITCHES oooh you earned that cigarette, Wolfie

Chapter 7:

I just love the kids and Melanie and how lively it seems. Surely it was hard and filled with loss as everybody had lost their parents, but it must also have been a childhood filled with love.

Baby Wolfwood oh my sweet boy... Sometimes I have wondered how little Vash and Wolfie would have gotten along. Or well, I'm sure they would've gotten along. I just would love to see them interact as kids. Out there, little Wolfwood, a long time ago, was once a boy drifting in space who would later be your most trusted friend. And who would, not in every way, but in an important way, save you.

Ah, just below is the panel where it says "six years have passed since that day" that always confuses me?? Still now because 6 years is not possible? I will wait for any explanation that you, my fellow bookclub readers, will come up with.

Don't scream at him!!!

Vash wanting to explain it to them is killing me. And Wolfwood's expression here is so...unclouded. Completely honest. Vulnerable. No my sweet boy you are no monster, did that not get into your head??

With the little time left...maybe he's right, maybe he can not explain to the children what he is, all the complex stuff.

You know, Vash, Wolfwood is tired. This moment, he just wants to spend it with you, and isn't that enough?

Wolfwood saying this...and then Vash begging to GOD, praying to not lose that man.

I never really got the grip on what Vash means with "stupid things". There's been this theory that Vash denies Wolfwood telling Vash his true feelings, but I don't think so. I think they both at this point know how they feel about each other. I think Vash just...can't stand to hear the emotional talk now because it's simply too much. Maybe it would be nice if they could talk out their innermost feelins at last. But maybe, they don't need that. Have their actions not proven enough already by now?

Throw that confetti guys

If some of you are on twitter and have followed the trigun fandom there you might have stumbled upon the marriage tweet my friend made when she read this scene the first time. I have nothing to add apart from that it rips my heart and soul in two. Now, there's one more chapter to this volume but this arc kinda already concludes with this here...and so I just want to say: I have NEVER before read something that felt so deeply emotional and tragic like this whole...Wolfwoof dying scene. Or, I might have and I might not remember, but in my mind this is the most tragic thing I can recall. Because...it takes its time. It already starts in Vol08, with Wolfwood's inner thoughts, and then it goes on for the whole next Volume where the stakes are getting higher and higher, until Vash appears to save them and save Wolfwood but it STILL is not enough. And Vash is shocked, is in denial, is in anger and is griefing and then we get a short moment of breathing, before it hits us again. We're living this all through Vash, and...and he can't bring himself to smile in the end. He can't. He only stares blankly until he then slumps down. Oh, and I read in the Trigun Wiki I think that this scene here is the only scene where we see Wolfwood cry. Which....gives it also so much more impact.

And, all in all, I think this is not the worst ending for Wolfwood. Of course I am devastated. Reading so much fanfiction, seeing so much fanart, makes it pretty easy to forget that there is no future for these two in canon...not together. (which is WHY I read the fanfiction because good lord did I need something to cope) And when I think about how they never get the chance to live the life together as they both may have wanted...then the feeling of loss hits the hardest. But then, on the other hand: First, killing off one of your main characters while giving them a metaphorical wedding scene is a sick move. An evil, sick move. And second: it fits the series. Because Trigun feels so real, and in real life, things don't always turn out the good way. And Wolfwood, with his life, never really had any future...but the thing is also, he died while knowing that he was able to achieve what he always wanted: the orphanage is safe and he brought Livio back. It is all he ever wanted to do, and it is thanks to Vash that he was able to do it. Would it have been dope if he lived on and if he and Vash could build their own orphanage and be caretaker dads together? Oh hell yeah. But, within the story of the series...it was always unrealistic. Wolfwood died smiling- whatever we think about it, he was content with what he achieved. (I think so at least! The panels where he cries out, they always strike me as a defiance, not wanting to die, but that might be reading to much into it. The whole thing for him is so emotional, the confetti, which tells him they welcome him back, despite knowing who he is...it would be a wonder if he didn't cry. So it might just be the emotionality of the whole scene.

PHEW I'm sure I could say more if I thought a bit about it but I'm gonna shut up here now. Time to do the last chapter, though I'll make another post, this one is far too long already.

[deludedfantasy]

Trimax Vol 7 Ch 4-6

My suffering continues in the second half of this volume. Things have been getting steadily worse and worse for a while, but something about this one really just got me. I know it's gonna get worse though lol. Until then, my thoughts on the last three chapters.

Ch 4

Wolfwood, my guy, what are you even doing? “He looks like he’s been to a funeral, and another one and another one after that.” I mean, yeah, Vash has been having a real shit time of it lately. That’s actually a great way to describe it.

In all seriousness, this is actually weirdly sweet to me. I think Wolfwood’s trying really hard to cheer him up, except he has no idea how to do it, so he’s just being so awkward instead. He gets like the tiniest little smile out of him. But it’s so sad because you can’t see Vash’s eyes anymore, he’s hiding all that pain beyond his brand-new goggles that function almost like blinders.

Despite how terrible Vash feels, he still helps those people out. His reputation precedes him though and it’s gotten worse. Now the story about his powers is out and the people avoid him, treat him like a devil. 

But the guys he saved are being really nice to him! Actually treating him like a person! We love to see it. 

Vash looks like he’s having fun drinking but after the last volume, I’m a little worried. He’s having a nice time, but I also feel like he’s using it to bury all the hurt he’s feeling. 

“Oh well. This may be his last chance to enjoy himself.” I can’t begin to explain the dread this line puts in me, especially since I know where this is all going. So does Wolfwood, of course. But he seems so calm about it, like he’s accepted the inevitability of it all. 

“I’m the angel of mercy handing out booze to these poor souls.” This is a banger of a line to come from some random barkeeping granny.  

That is a bleak, bleak view of Vash’s possible future that this guy gives him. That he’ll always be alone, time the only thing that will wipe away his regrets, nothing but that for as long as he’s alive. He’s probably speaking from experience though and that’s what makes it even sadder.

Oh no. OH NO. Vash’s power reacted to something and I don’t like it. It’s Knives, it’s him merging with the Plants and things are about to go down. 

The way Vash says, “Wolfwood, you really are my guide, right?” HE KNOWS. I’m convinced now that he knows that Wolfwood is Knives’s agent and has been from the beginning. I hesitate to say he doesn’t care, but he certainly doesn’t blame Wolfwood for it. But it also makes this all so tragic. In a way, they’ve both accepted their fates at this point and just, ugh, nooooo. 

Knives’s big plan is starting…with an attack of galactic proportions. He’s bringing down all the satellites, destroying the planetary communications network. A great way to sow fear and chaos across the land.

When we do see Vash’s eyes, they’re so empty. He has given up. The way he’s talking, it’s like he’s walking to his death. He knows whatever he’s walking into, he’s not coming back from it. His language, thanking everyone for one last drink, one last good night, it very much reads like a suicide note. I’m gonna go curl up in a ball and cry now.

Ch 5

The chapter titles in this volume…they fuck me up. “Late Arrival to the End of the World.” On the one hand, oof, yes, how evocative. On the other hand though…I’m scared.

So Wolfwood and Vash arrive at Knives’s murder castle/ship. Vash runs right on in because there’s no hiding now. Knives’s power is at full blast. Not only can his brother sense him, but Vash’s own power is reacting to it and he’s shifting. For the first time, he looks calm about it. But it’s not because he’s okay with his power. It’s because he’s accepted his fate. He’s locked in and nothing will stop him now, because he has nothing left to lose.

Oh my god???? What was that horrifying vision Wolfwood had? He doesn’t seem to think it was Knives and Vash didn’t even notice. FREAKY. There’s someone in the murder castle that’s after him too. 

But also, “I don’t want to be a burden on him.” God, Wolfwood. Just…you care about him so much, but it wouldn’t be a burden to him. But he knows that, which is why he won’t do it. He won’t put something else on Vash’s shoulders, he won’t make him even more worried, or harder than it already is. 

Elendira is just like, “Hi there! Let me lead you to your murderous brother for your final showdown. Right this way!”

Ah, so Vash did pick up on something from Wolfwood’s vision. As always, Vash remains more perceptive than Wolfwood is willing to give him credit for. 

IT’S REVEALED. Wolfwood isn’t Chapel! Also, can we talk about the badass wheelchair of death the actual Chapel is using? 

I love that Elendira basically scolds them into not pointing their guns at each other.

You know, it occurs to me that Wolfwood manages to betray a lot of people all at once. There’s something really sad about that because I just know it makes him feel so much worse about himself as a person.

Always funny to me when Wolfwood calls other people faithless. Like, dude, so are you! That’s just the pot calling the kettle black. 

Knives’s aura is so powerful, it cracks Vash’s glasses and blows them off his face. He can’t hide his feelings anymore and he also can’t hide from his brother anymore. He has to look the world full in the face now. There’s no turning back or running away anymore. 

Also, this last panel of Knives emerging from the pavilion is terrifying. Especially the way the giant hands don’t match up with where the rest of his body is positioned. 

Ch 6

It kills me that Knives’s plan to make Vash suffer and break him down succeeded. He wanted to see his brother brought low, to have all of his ideals smashed and proven wrong, before they faced each other again. It’s so cruel, especially after seeing how kind and loving he was as a child. 

But Knives still frames what he’s doing as saving Vash! Now it’s because of the black hair, because he’s closer to death than Knives is. Does Knives feel guilty though? Because as far as I can tell, every time Vash has used his powers and his hair has turned black up to this point has been directly due to Knives forcing or manipulating him into it. 

This has been haunting me since the first half of this volume, but Knives bringing up Tesla again reminded me. Would she want this? Would she want the kind of destruction Knives wants to rain down on the world? Would she want that kind of large scale revenge against all of humanity? She might have been a child, but Independent Plants, as we’ve seen, are incredibly intelligent, even as children. If we assume she was a vengeful ghost who wanted to show them the truth about humanity, then maybe. There’s this tiny part of me though that wonders if she’d be horrified instead to see so much suffering done in her name. Would she really want to see anyone, Plant or human, harmed just because she did too? Would she want others to experience the same pain she did? And that’s the thing. We don’t know. We’ll never know what this little girl wanted. She never had any agency, not when she lived or died, not even in her legacy. She became a martyr for a cause she didn’t even know existed. 

Oh hey, it’s the argument Vash and Knives have in the Tristamp finale! I didn’t catch this on my first read. The context here is very different though. Vash is a lot more broken down here and we know he has so many doubts. So to hear him say something like this, that he’ll run away and try again, is so weirdly hopeful and optimistic. Knives is just as enraged though. 

I’ve been wondering what those tubes on Vash’s jacket were for ages! It looks like ammo to reload his arm gun (and maybe his revolver too). Clever design for a gunslinger’s jacket, honestly. 

Is—is Legato hopping up the stairs in his weird little metal coffin thing? Like he’s in a sack race? That is such a ridiculous image in the middle of this battle. 

Ough, Vash. This page…Why must you hurt me like this? He might still have some hope left for humanity, but he doesn’t have any left for himself. In that sense, Knives failed. He wanted him to suffer and see humanity’s failings, but Vash only ever saw his own. 

Knives really went, “If I can’t save you from yourself, I’ll make you part of me and take away your entire autonomy.” He’s always been like this, but this time he’s just said it out loud. All those posts about Knives seeing Vash an extension of himself become very, very literal here.

Oh? Vash was actually able to overpower him when he tried to meld with him? 

I can’t believe Knives actually listened to Legato. He hasn’t been listening to anyone recently. And Legato’s deranged, excited expression when he does and then asks him to restrain Knives…he’s really enjoying himself, for once.

Oh no, oh this is bad. Vash is captured, Knives is planning the destruction of the planet, there’s apparently a massive airship. Everything looks very, very bad. This is so much worse because I know where this is going. 

[greetingfromthedead]

To find you in the endless chaos of this planet, of this universe, was nothing short of a miracle. Two souls intertwined to thoroughly, no force could untangle that bond. Nothing could erase you from his being. In your eyes he sees the poems Rem used to read, in your embrace he feels at home, in your voice he hears a thousand unsung lullabies. You're a million dawns all at once, painting his world in vivid colors. You have been, every day, even in the darkest, most hopeless of days, nestled in his heart.

I've seen a lot of people rant about the different versions of the character of Trigun and what is and isn't canon and how every iteration "ruins" something. And I've seen this slander the most when it comes to Tristamp Vash or just Vash in general. But here's the thing, I think they are all valid versions of him and they are all canon, they are simply different stages of him.

Welcome to my Ted talk on why I think every version of Vash makes perfect sense!

In my head the different versions of him evolve like this:

Pre-canon Vash before starting to lose his marbles

Tristamp Vash

Trigun '98 Vash (+ Badlands Rumble I guess)

Trimax Vash

And I think (hope) we will see this evolution through the later seasons of Trigun Stampede so I put the following into the context of if Tristamp explores the change in Vash.

Let's start with Tristamp Vash:

From the very first scene we see him in, it is clear that this man does not have all his ducks in a row. He has started to lose his mind and my guess is that most of it comes from the fact that he has realized that Kni has set his plans into motion, he has to act or everything he has tried to protect so far will go up in flames. But this takes a huge toll on him and shakes his very ideals, he is simply in denial about it. He puts on a mask and pretends everything is great, but he is shaken and he is angry.

People say that Tristamp Vash isn't angry, but how could you say that if so often when he has his gun pulled at someone truly evil and dangerous, he looks like he will fucking shoot them (EG Mine is probably the easiest example of that). I feel like the idea of "for the greater good" is sneaking into his head, but killing anyone is so opposite to what he believes in that it again tears at him.

He goes on this journey with Wolfwood and he knows that Wolfwood is there to babysit him, yet their ideals rub off on one another. They start very radical, especially WW, they both think they know when to pull the trigger. By the end Wolfwood gets softer in his views and Vash starts to see WW's POV too, enforcing the "sacrifice for the greater good" idea. The motif of WW and Vash changing each other is a core theme in every iteration of Trigun, but I put it here since it makes the most sense.

By the end of Tristamp S1 we have the July incident, it's something we haven't seen first hand in any other iteration of Trigun, it has always already happened so ofc this version of Vash is different, he only now goes through the incredible trauma of that event and he has his brain scrambled by Knives as a bonus.

This brings me to Trigun '98 Vash:

This man barely has any ducks left and they are scattered to the wind. The placement or Eriks is a bit difficult considering where it happens for the other versions, but I believe that when we get to Tristamp S2 we will pick up with Eriks who has lost most of his memories due to Knives meddling in them and also his brain trying to protect him from the trauma of July.

The Vash that comes after Eriks is goofy and childlike, I believe he has gone quite mad, but still forces a mask onto himself, in conflict not only with his fragmented mind, but also his moralities. If S1 Vash says he can't help himself, his body reacts before he can to protect others, then '98 Vash does it knowingly. He takes the full abuse of gunfire knowing full well what he is getting himself into.

I think he finds freedom and relief in letting the craziness out a bit, the way he plays with children and interacts with the bad guys, he embraces the madness, but not enough to show his true self because he doesn't even fully know what that is.

Trimax Vash is quite similar to '98 Vash, but goes through another big development (Warning: some spoilers for Tirimax, duh):

It is very gradual the change from one version to another here, but the biggest difference happens when he regains the knowledge of what happened in July and Kni's return. It will probably be a Creature Vash moment where his Plant powers go berserk again, unlocking even more of his latent abilities he is not aware of and doesn't know how to control. So far he has been very human, since the beginning he has had this idea of himself being useless as a Plant, he has been under the impression that he doesn't have any powers and that he only has human needs (food, water, sleep). But his gunmanship alone won't be enough to stop Kni, he has to embrace his Plant side, he has to learn to control it. And once he starts getting the hang of it, he is able to save even more people than he would have before.

Trimax Vash, especially towards the end is a lot more confident, he has a better understanding of his morality and he has added tools to fulfill it. He still is a pacifist, he actively chooses to be good, he always has, but the motivation and doubt surrounding it has shifted a bit over time

The version of Vash that we have at the very end of Trimax in a way circles back to the Vash before July and Wolfwood, an earlier, slightly more sincere version of Vash without loosing the lessons learned from the past. The mask he has worn for so long falls away and he can feel genuine happiness because he is no longer driven by guilt, he has atoned in his mind.

Pre-canon Vash:

We know very little about Vash's past. Sure, we see a little bit of his childhood on the ship with Rem and Kni, we see glimpses of him with the crew on Home and we saw the incident where he activated his Angel Arm for the first time and lost his left arm due to it. But after that it's a whole lot of nothing. He is a very tragic character since basically day one, from a very young age he has been thought to pretend to be human in front of those who don't know his nature. A mask has been forced onto that 1 year old child. Not to mention the Great Fall and the guilt from that's pushing him forward and remaining his central force for the next 150 years.

I think after he became a drifter he learned to be even more human, he perfected his mask and lived as a human because leaving out the interactions with the Plants who needed his help, he only knew the human ways, his sisters were in a tank, their true nature locked away in a higher dimension anyway, the only other being like him on the whole planet is Kni and he hasn't seen him since he declared that in 100 years he will eradicate humanity, the very thing Vash loved so much.

Drifter Vash is probably the sanest version of him, confined to a routine of constantly moving on. But I also think that's the most naive and innocent version of him. In July WW comments that Vash freezes up as soon as a human is put in front of him and I think that's quite a defining characteristic of him in this period. A very stubborn outlook to life where he feels the need to save everybody and he would sacrifice himself for that rather than pick up arms to even get himself out of a sticky situation. He only shoots to save others, but not himself because he thinks he is expendable.

He lives in denial for the next 100 or so years following losing his arm with the same mindset of feeling like he needs to save everybody he can, even making promises he can't keep (like in the case of Rollo). When the Plant robberies start and probably even before that Vash realizes that Kni's plan has been set into motion and it will probably only make his guilt worse, knowing that he will have to go after Kni and save him too, otherwise his beloved humanity will pay the price for his inaction. And that's the start of his mental downfall leading into Tristamp S1. And perhaps there are other attributing factors...

This concludes my speech on the topic. I love this character and the intricacies of it and while everybody has a right to their own opinion, this is my understanding of it and I do truly hope that Trigun Stampede will continue exploring Vash's character and how trauma changes a person.

Feel free to expand on these ideas! I'm happy to discuss all of this in the notes or in my inbox :)

My fic Tempest Wind takes place before the events of Tristamp and this long, yet brief character analysis might help people understand the character arc of Vash in my story.

Tempest Wind is a 18+ Vash x F!Reader fic with some spice, some gore, a bit of action and a lot of fluff, for added flavor there's a sprinkle of angst too ofc.

Until I have finished the whole story, feel free to indulge in the published DEMO chapters:

Perfect Morning - domestic fluff, intimacy, mild smuttiness, shy Vash

Festivities - delusional bliss on an unfamiliar planet with weird traditions, ice skating and sweet Vash

Burn - basically smuttiness with little actual plot

Keep an eye out for a new demo chapter coming withing the next two weeks. It's gonna be Vash trying to seduce the reader before they get together!