#plz dont take this to mean i am a stampede hater i like stampede

[collieii]

thinking abt how stampede handles wolfwoods introduction compared to other versions, and to me it kind of fails in a way. one of the big things about wolfwood's character is that he's kind right? he's a good person who was forced to be cruel. they show his soft side by having him interact with kids. it plays out a little differently depending on version, but essentially he sees some kids having a rough time and sacrifices smth (money or food) so they can be more comfortable. its esp poignant in trimax where they were literally stealing from him so it would be understandable if he got mad, but he isn't at all. and this follows the scene of him haggling with the driver, so we know for a fact that wolfwood is not in a good place.

meanwhile in stampede, the the kid wolfwood interacts with is zazie? and at the end of the ep its revealed that they know each other, that wolfwood is working with knives, etc. so it just makes that earlier scene look like a setup, at least thats how it seemed to me the first time i watched the ep.

it also feels a little less genuine than the moment wolfwood had with the kids in the other versions, i'm not sure why. maybe it's because the scene goes by too fast. or because of how different wolfwood is in stampede (he’s so much meaner than his past versions!) so the kindness we see here is just. obscured by how bitchy he is in half of his other scenes. if i'm to believe wolfwood is a good guy, i need to see him be good sometimes idk?

vash's comment about him being good in ep 4 is so jarring to me because it feels like he has zero reason to say that. ik it's maybe not supposed to be 'reasonable' since he doesn't even give an actual reason aside from the ~his eyes~ thing which is not logical at all lmao, just based on vibes. and i do sort of trust that vash has good instincts and can tell when a person is trustworthy or not based on vibes. but when i watched it as someone unfamiliar with the original trigun, unaware who wolfwood was, i was confused as to why exactly vash decided to trust wolfwood aside from maybe his general faith in humanity. the nicest thing wolfwood does is give the kid a lollipop which is sweet but in this context it doesn't have the same effect as giving him his money or smth (and as i said the effect is kinda retroactively belied by the fact that its zazie, not some rando he has no connection too). 

to be fair, his intro scene serves other purposes in stampede. we learn about wolfwood's past in the orphanage, which is important to introduce because his arc with livio is addressed later in the season. it also ties into vash's new internal conflict in stampede about eating and self flagellation and stuff. but that ends up being kinda detrimental to the scene too? instead of saying something normal to the kid that makes us go ‘aww hes good with kids!’ it literally just feels like he’s talking to vash, which he would not be because wolfwood has known vash for 5 minutes atp. obviously im not expecting stampede to copy the scene from the manga or 98, but the fact that they included an analogue of it means to me that they're obviously aware of how important it is to wolfwood's character. still, they managed to execute it in a way that sort of fails to communicate something i personally consider fundamental to his character in any version.