#keeping secrets from him about plants' powers evetually draining and what their hair turning black means

[posletsvet]

Given all the alternatives and original-divergent takes presented throughout Trigun's different versions, sometimes trying to wrap my mind around its complicated timeline gets my thoughts tied into a tangled knot of confusion. But I also appreciate the freedom it gives to reshape the order of pivotal events and stick to the telling which you find to your personal liking -- since they all are equally canon. However, there's one instance where I prefer to stray from each version, and that is the circumstances under which Knives crosses paths with William Conrad again.

As Trimax has it, Knives goes on his search for Conrad after he and Vash fall apart in that village where Knives cuts his brother's arm off. But for such a climactic episode in both of the twins' stories, it's always seemed to me a bit underwhelming. And why would Knives team up with a human after cutting ties even with Vash, anyways? So I found myself gravitating towards how this scene is written in Tristamp as it raises the stakes significantly, with Vash opening his gate for the first time and Knives hurting him in an attempt to stop the chaos it causes from spreading. One other difference from Trimax this scene presents is that at this point in the Tristamp's narrative Knives has already met and joined forces with Conrad.

I like to intertwine both versions in my mind, creating a single sequence of events, and that's how I personally see it. Vash and Knives separate under the circumstances described in Trimax. For decades after the Great Fall they only have each other, building no connections with humanity; not falling apart, but not growing any closer to each other, either. It ends with Vash straightforwardly sacrificing his well-being for the sake of the people he doesn't even know -- the choice that gets him chained to a metal pole as a hostage. Knives without any hesitation massacres the whole village and forces a gun into Vash's hands so that he can defend himself. But instead of much-expected gratitude he faces Vash's shock and disbelief and sees that very gun pointed at him. In the heat of it Vash accidentally opens the gate. Knives slices his left arm off. They separate. And only after that Knives proceeds to search for Conrad, seeking answers for what was that power he witnessed. He knows Conrad was among those at least partly involved in a research that Tesla was a subject for, and therefore Conrad might have some insight into independents' abilities. He might have something that Knives himself doesn't. Knowledge.

When the twins meet again years after that, Knives already displays full understanding of how his gate works, and he uses that knowledge to forcibly activate what power lies dormant in Vash, causing Lost July.

Of course, it's just a personal interpretation and I'm very well aware that in some ways it fails to align with what's canonically confirmed, but I guess it's just the reading that paints the most meaningful picture for me.