#non binary Vash tbh

[b0tsbby]

DEATH RACING TRIGUN AU YIPPEE

Emphasis on death-racing and high stakes!

First up is Racer Number 53. The man (debatable), the myth, the legend…and also the racer with a 60 million $$ target on his back…Vash the Stampede! (Rumoured to be the Humanoid Typhoon). May God have mercy on his soul!

(Eh who should I post/design next🧍‍♂️)

Car inspo under the cut because I’m tizzy about cars apparently now.

I plan on designing cars myself and such with reference but thought I should share the humble racer Vash is.

Since I’m taking inspo from Redline, Mad Max and like, Trigger’s entire brand I’m excited to come up with a lot of weird ass alien looking cars. Exception to that I think would be Vash with the 1969 Trans Am BOSS 302 Ford Mustang. It’s the most beautiful car I’ve seen in a minute

Not gonna spoil much but TLDR, Im going for a car that’s recognisable and somewhat nostalgic both being somewhat a representation for humanity and Vash’s inability to let go Rem.

Just wanted to say…in case I forget.

[eliasdrid]

amazing that bio recommended me Trigun Stampede (2023), I liked what they have going so much I'm watching Trigun (1998) and also reading the mangas, because it literally has SO many concepts that I love, and I didn't really know about Trigun until recently??

and anyway this is all to say that one of my personal thoughts on this specific piece of media is that Vash is one of those LGBT+ all at once protagonists because you could say he's a he/him lesbian and tbh that makes sense to me but yeah he could also be a bi guy! or he could be gay! and non binary or trans, literally contains multitudes

[nanomooselet]

Most wanted man on the planet, yep. Those eyelashes are criminal.

Lemme think.

I'll state up front one of the reasons it can be "more" than TriMax is because I believe Nightow has stated outright he's uncomfortable eroticising women's designs/characters and tends not to. Which is cool of him! It's refreshing to see in seinen and shounen, which is aimed at straight men and boys and tends to adopt that gaze very aggressively.

Studio Orange do not share Nightow's qualms, so that gives them more avenues to explore. I was exaggerating a little, TBH, it's just I hardly see this kind of stuff and it gets me excited.

That said, the sexy stuff is all very... ugh, like I said, I'm having trouble shaping my thoughts on this, because I know what I'm talking about, but only because I'm an insufferable nerd. It's drawing from the English printed literature tradition, so it's all about implication and unspoken desire and reading between lines, not overt. (Point of interest, most of the fairy tales I named above were Hans Christian Anderson, on historical record as a tragic bisexual.) One of the things that makes it queer is that it isn't said aloud - the love that dare not speak its name and all that.

I'll say it with vampires. Sexy monsters, popular with the queers, the ladies, and the queer ladies, theorised to be because of how they do their thing: they don't use the usual parts. It's mouths, teeth, tongues and hands, and they both take in and penetrate regardless of who's on the other end. And generally speaking, everyone involved is probably going to feel good, even if it's just before dying. That was the horror lady vampires were meant to invoke by biting men - they were messing with the binary, and taking pleasure in doing it! How deviant!

They're sexualised, but in a non-standard way. A queer way, you could say. That was all you could get away with, though it was still radical enough to see authors censored and persecuted. That is the vein Studio Orange is tapping, if you'll forgive the pun.

So with that in mind, there's a certain amount of camera interest in Vash's slender, dexterous fingers as he performs various tasks with extreme competence. Also, he has sharp teeth and is a known biter (RIP Knives). All I can say is that imagination paints an interesting picture of where else those things might come in handy, and everyone who spends any time in Vash's company knows it.

I might expand on these ideas some day but the Australian time zone strikes again and I should be asleep.

I'm still a firm believer Orange made a mistake by changing the sci-fi esthetic of trimax. They lost so much man. Like the raw mix between flesh and metal. The Biopunk disturbance of it all. It mattered.

And It's still there don't get me wrong (you could not fully remove it if you tried) but it's not as.. disturbing, as deviant ? Even though, it's supposed to be! It's the core of the story isn't it?

Living beings used as machines and treated even worst!

[several-spoons]

Notes for a post I intend to write some day on the way Vash redefines masculinity and transcends the gender binary

From a conversation on Discord that started as discussing each other’s drabbles:

lostjune: Yeah, the every cut worth a life is meant to refer to Vash's scars. But less about his guilt for the Fall, but his determination to sacrifice his own body to save another life. Like... it's hard to explain.. like, every time he takes the abuse and defends Rem’s beliefs he is proving Steve’s POV wrong? Trying to be not like him, abusive and aggressively dominant. But at the same time he has integrated a lot of his lesson, before his defenses were up. hurting himself, seldom opening up to others, being all self-sufficient and hiding his true emotions.

Me: Saving people is a way to be...powerful and in control, I guess...without being cruel like Steve. He's defining and proving an alternate view of strength, and perhaps masculinity, and that's cool af!

This is one of the things I love about Vash, too! Brilliant. Honestly, I wish more men were like him IRL.

lostjune:  YES YES YES!!!! That's one of the main points why I fell in love with Trigun again, because for ONCE we have in a gun-action-anime not only a great story, but a hero that is not a blueprint of toxic masculinity but defines it way differently. Like the scene when he strips to so solve the conflict non-violently? Totally unashamed und full of dignity. 

Branch #1: Implications for Slash

Me: It's also one of the things that pisses me off in most doujinshis and some fanfic and fanart, where Vash is a wibbly, blushy, shy uke stereotype. That whole seme-uke dynamic is a total misunderstanding of Vash's unique and amazing expression of gender, tbh.

Branch #2: How Vash treats women

lostjune: That's one reason his creepy behaviour towards women in the anime makes me so sad.  I mean, look at his role models. But yeah, the "omg-embarrassed-moment" was like played for laughs and diversion. I mean, they continue to chat while he was sorta shirtless?

Me: perhaps that's one reason I choose to see the creepy behavior as a fake used deliberately to keep women away, because unlike those caught in toxic masculinity, he knows women hate it.

lostjune:  Yeah, good point. but it's still creepy and harmful. But well, no one is perfect. and to grow up with Steve and later on macho-Gunsmoke, it's a small miracle that he is as cool as he is

Me:  tbh, he doesn't have a lot of role models for the sort of person he wants to be. It seems like he's synthesized a lot of different images, combined them with his own personality...but how does he refresh it and remind himself when he's constantly surrounded by toxic macho bullshit and everyone is as convinced that that's necessary to survive as they're sure the suns will come up tomorrow?

lostjune:  Honestly, I think he's just a good observer. There are not only machos on Gunsmoke, they are also the kind people of July, Lina and her grandmother, other women for example, men that are not shitty. People helping each other out and the sky people taking him in. 

I feel because he is so kind, he is able to see kindness.

^ That’s an interesting point in itself that probably needs its own post to unpack.