#poor livio. honestly this has GOT to be hard on him.

[orcelito]

oh,,,,

Brad referred to Wolfwood as Vash's "partner"

Oh.

[deludedfantasy]

Trimax Vol 10 Ch 5-8

All I can say is that it's somehow worse the second time around and I have lots of feelings about it.

Ch 5

It’s a final battle in more ways than one, if you think about it. Which I’m trying not to, but failing very hard at. 

Something about Wolfwood using the Punisher as a shield just gets me. Using a weapon meant to harm and kill to protect instead. It’s a metaphor for who he is. 

Whoa! Wolfwood’s trick with the magazine is just so clever and out there. He’s such a smart and calculated fighter when he has a goal and isn’t just mindlessly fulfilling his mission. 

As we watch Wolfwood fight Razlo, we get a glimpse of Vash watching. We’re reminded that he’s been told to stand back and let Wolfwood handle this alone. And we also see how he’s raging at it. 

It honestly reminds me of how much earlier Zazie called Vash a bystander to humanity’s destruction. And here he is, doing that again, on a much more personal level. But it’s not because he refuses to interfere. It’s because he’s respecting his friend’s choice to do something important alone, and he’s raging at it. Vash doesn’t actually like being the bystander, being on the outside, he wants to be part of it and he wants to help. 

Wolfwood is pulling out all the stops for this fight. He’s sword fighting with the Punisher, using his ammo as a weapon, and apparently getting faster and faster. He’s decided he’s going to die, but if he is, he’s gonna do it in a blaze of glory. 

There is definitely some symbolism in Razlo’s mask being blown off. There’s no more hiding between one personality or another, because they’re the same.

Oh wow, that’s really gory. I’m actually wondering if that thing I saw go flying earlier wasn’t a mask but literally part of his face.

Ch 6

It’s telling that in the end, Wolfwood throws aside the Punisher. He finishes off Razlo with his own fists rather than with a weapon of punishment. Because he might be hurting him, but he’s not trying to destroy him. He’s trying to save his brother and he’ll do that with his own hands.

In between, we get these glimpses again of Vash watching and at first, he’s blank-faced, we can’t read his expression. 

But then we see him scream, tears running down his face. He’s suffering, watching Wolfwood do this alone and knowing he’s dying all the while. And there’s nothing he can do to stop it. He wants to save his friend, but he can’t, and it breaks something in him. It’s heart-wrenching.

Oh…right after Vash cries out Wolfwood starts coughing up a fountain of blood. Someone mentioned that with Vash’s superhuman abilities he could probably feel and hear as Wolfwood’s body shut down. He’s screaming because he can literally feel Wolfwood getting closer and closer to death.

The only time Vash interferes is to stop Razlo’s goons from attacking Wolfwood. That’s all he can do. Allow Wolfwood to save his brother himself and let nothing stop him from doing that. He takes to that mission whole-heartedly. And oh, is he angry while he does it. I can hear the gravel in his voice when he says, “Don’t interfere.” He’s got his guns pressed to their throats. Would he fire if they moved? We don’t know, but with the rage in his eyes, I say maybe. Vash has finally found what he’s willing to kill for. 

Livio comes back for a moment! He stops Razlo from killing Wolfwood because he still cares about his brother. This isn’t someone Razlo has to protect him from and he’s finally fighting back.

HOW. HOW IS CHAPEL NOT DEAD? 

Razlo finally sees Chapel for what he is. Not the caring mentor, but the obsessive, conniving old man he is. He would shoot one of his own disciples if they were getting the way of what he wanted. Poor Razlo, alone for so long and having given all of his twisted love and devotion to his man, suddenly realizes Chapel didn’t care about him as anything other than a tool and extension of himself. And as always, Razlo’s volatility and impulsivity come into play. That is finally what gets Chapel permanently killed. I think there’s something poetic about that. 

Livio is giving me a lot of feelings I can barely articulate right now. But I’m going to try anyway. 

He’s been trapped inside Razlo for this whole fight, watching him destroy his brother, the one person who had ever cared about him and showed him kindness. Livio watches how Wolfwood fights back against Chapel and everything he’s been taught to be a better man, a protector, the person he’s always wanted to be. We know Livio has been lost for a long time, and that once he wanted to be a protector, because he thought it was the only way he could be loved. Watching Wolfwood fight for him again reminds him of that, and when he sees that now he might kill that man, he finds the strength to stop Razlo. 

Not only that, he apologizes to Razlo! Livio used him to escape his abuse and put Razlo through living hell, to the point that he didn’t know anything else. He’s acknowledging that neither of them deserved that. But still, it’s time for Livio to take responsibility for his actions and find a new path forward. He wants to be like Wolfwood. He wants to try, he wants to change. 

How would it make Vash feel knowing that Wolfwood caused that kind of massive shift in someone else? I think, once he gets past the anger of what Livio did to Wolfwood, he’d be really proud of him. 

Wolfwood will take any opportunity to smoke, huh? He’s nearly dead, but he’s celebrating his success.

Ch 7

Oh my god, not little Wolfwood again. And on the day he leaves the orphanage. My heart can’t take this.

The orphanage was his home, the only place he ever knew happiness, and for all the years that Wolfwood was in the Eye, he kept it in his heart as the place where he was loved. They never managed to rip that away from him, even if he believed they’d destroyed his humanity. He was once part of something beautiful, and he would protect it with everything he had, even if he was no good anymore. Because he still wanted to be welcomed home.

Listen, Nightow, your timelines are so wonky because if it’d only been six years, Wolfwood is max nineteen. I get his body has been aged past his years but in no way is that man a teenager. In my head, I’m just pretending that says, “Its been many years since then.” 

Oh no, not the kids screaming when they see him. It just reaffirms his beliefs about himself, that all he is is a monster. And Vash tries to explain things, but Wolfwood won’t let him! 

He hates himself so much, but God, his face here. Many others have pointed it out but when Wolfwood tells Vash to leave it, he looks so soft, young, and vulnerable. For the first time since we’ve met him. He doesn’t want to be a monster, he just wants to be loved and recognized by his old family, but he hates himself too much to even take the risk of letting them know him as both Nico and the man he is now. 

Wolfwood has already made his decision. Vash might’ve once said that Wolfwood isn’t lost, but he’s decided that it’s going to end here. He tells Melanie to not tell the kids the truth about him and he tells Vash that he’s not getting on the shuttle. But worst of all, he pulls out those coins and tells him that’s who he really is. He’s Vash’s friend, he’s a killer, one of the Gung Ho Guns. He doesn’t deserve to go back to his family. He doesn’t deserve the chance, the hope, of living. 

Vash even says to him, “You’re running out of time.” He means it in more ways than one. The shuttle is leaving soon, but also, Wolfwood’s life is running out. Does Vash hope that if Wolfwood gets on the shuttle, they’ll be able to save him? There’s no way to know that, but there’s hope, and Vash has always had hope. 

And then they bicker like everything’s fine and it’s just like old times. Because what else can you do in the worst of times but fall back on what’s comfortable and familiar? 

There’s that drink Wolfwood promised him for surviving the fight…

Even in his last moments, Wolfwood is trying to soften the blow of his own death. Telling Vash to smile, that he looks good when he does, that he was wrong to ever tell him that he looks sad when he does it. He just wants to see his friend smile and know he’ll be okay.

Despite all the things Vash would do for him, this one thing he can’t. Because then that smile would be fake and he can’t do that to either of them. 

And Vash, who has never relied on anyone but himself, to whom a higher power is likely a bit of a joke because for so long, he was the highest power—he begs God to let his friend live. 

The grief here is so palpable, I’m crying as I write this. 

The confetti…they all still love him, even as he is. They are welcoming him home in his last moments. 

This page brings me to tears. We’ve never, not once, seen Wolfwood cry, not now, not until he’s dying. Is this scream a final defiant cry against the universe? Is it him realizing he doesn’t want to die because he’s finally realized that he’s loved, that he was always loved? I don’t know. We’ll never know. That’s why it hits so hard.

The past few pages have been so atmospheric that I can hear all of it in my head. The bell finally tolls, the one Wolfwood has been ignoring this whole time. The sound the bottle makes as it falls from his fingers. Each one distinct in the silence surrounding his death. 

Vash is left alone. The man he realized he wanted to live for is gone. We can’t see his eyes, just the reflection of his glasses and he’s clutching at the sleeve of his jacket.

Ch 8

These panels did something to me the first time I read them. Vash’s words have been echoing in my head for months. They’re so blunt. “He’s dead. I buried him.” Have we ever known him to be so harsh and direct? Is he angry at Livio for indirectly causing Wolfwood’s death? Because Wolfwood died saving him when he could have killed him? But he’s also deathly calm. His eyes are blank. He’s locked everything down rather than feel it. 

You know what else haunts me? We never see Vash bury him. Their final moments together. How he dug the hole, how he picked up Wolfwood and placed him in his grave, arranged his body, and filled it back in, dragging the tombstone over the top. Was he this calm when he did that? Was he raging? Was he screaming and crying? We don’t know and I don’t think Vash is ever going to tell. It’s possible he’s blocked it out entirely because it’s too much to handle. 

I personally think all of his feelings came out while he was burying him. Now, he’s pushed them away in favor of the mission he has to accomplish. Because he can’t let Wolfwood’s sacrifice go to waste. 

When Vash answers Livio’s question, he’s pretty harsh too. “You of all people should know why.” He’s definitely angry and as much as he has the rest of his feelings tightly under control, that isn’t. On some level, he does blame Livio and he can’t hold himself back from letting it be known. 

The moment when Vash uses his powers is so interesting. So far, we’ve seen him use the Angel Arm to protect himself and Wolfwood. But in this instance, we can argue that he used it to attack. Sure, Knives was going to destroy the orphanage while Vash and Livio were still in there and Vash protected against it. He did more than that though. He attacked. The way I read this is he blasted that power back with his own attached to it, and he cuts Knives. This is the first time we’ve seen him actually hurt him, despite how often Vash claims he’s out to kill him. This was a deliberate use of his power to hurt and destroy, and it’s the first time we see his philosophy shift, just a little. 

Now though, he’s eating his feelings. Which is interesting, because the last time Vash experienced a traumatic monumental event like this, he couldn’t eat. But as we see, both Livio’s and Vash’s best memories of Wolfwood are tied up with food. They’re eating to get their strength back, but also to honor his memory. He was always trying to take care of them and now they’re taking care of themselves. 

It sucks that the only things they have left of Wolfwood are his weapons. He was a protector, but what he has left behind are implements of death and destruction. Especially the Punisher. The only thing Vash has left of his friend is his burden. It’s bittersweet that he uses it as his gravemarker, specifically as a cross rather than a weapon. Wolfwood may have been made into a weapon, but he’ll be remembered for his mercy.

Also, I'm taking recommendations for fix-it fics where Wolfwood lives, is resurrected, reincarnated, etc. My heart could use some healing, pls and thank you.

[fisicol92]

F1 Bahrain GP - Press Conference

DRIVERS

1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Congratulations Sebastian, obviously you got ahead of Lewis at the start. Tell us a bit about that and also the final stint, just judging the pace as he was coming through like a rocket, having come into the pits after you, how you measured that pace and measured your gap to him?

SV: The start, obviously it was crucial for us to get between, to not allow them to get in their rhythm, pull away, do their thing. So, upset them a bit. I think we all had more or less the same start. Mine initially was maybe a tiny bit better than Lewis, which put me just about side-by-side – but their car is really long so it’s a long way to get side-by-side – but then I think I benefitted from the act I had a clear track ahead, Lewis was a bit stuck with Valtteri and it’s a bit of a tricky one to judge, so I could just take lots of risk under braking and get the move done. Then, the final stint, obviously we had quite a decent gap plus the safety margin of Lewis’ penalty – which I wasn’t sure why but it didn’t matter at that point – and I just tried to control the gap to Valtteri, maybe pulling away a little bit and at that point just controlling the gap. He was very fast when he came out. I was expecting him to be quick on a new set of supersoft tyres but probably not that quick and he was closing in. When I faced the traffic I lost a lot of time but then obviously he had to face traffic as well. In the end it was safe enough. At the beginning of the stint I really didn’t push at all, just took it easy and responded to what those two guys were doing, which obviously helped me at the end because I had a lot of tyres left.

Lewis, coming to you, as Sebastian said, you had a tremendous amount of pace today but perhaps there were one or two too many setbacks to give you the chance to win: the start, obviously the penalty as well and the tyre choice for the final stint which you questioned on the radio. Maybe you could just drill down into those three for us.

LH: Yeah, a challenging weekend. The start was OK but Sebastian was in my blind spot so I didn’t know whereabouts he was. I didn’t know where anyone was behind me. Valtteri got a good start and it was really just about covering him. I obviously lost position to Sebastian there. It was really hard to follow but we’re generally all similar kind of pace, and then yeah, completely my fault with the Safety Car. Supposed to have a five-second gap and I think I had a four-second gap. Just a misjudgement from myself. Valtteri was great to… obviously I had very good pace, particularly the second and last stint and I honestly believed I would be able to catch Sebastian up but obviously with a five-second penalty that made it twice as hard as it was already going to be. As I said, apologies to the team but I tried the best I could to recover it and we still got good points for the team today with a second and third but we still have this great fight and Sebastian did a great job and he had fantastic pace.

And just on the tyre choice. You have a four-lap fresher only set of softs compared to Sebastian rather than a new set of supersofts. The team’s saying it was based on, presumably, Valtteri’s middle stint.

LH: The tyre felt great so I believe it was the right choice. The team have generally been making really great choices this year. I thought it was going to be a supersoft but honestly I think the tyre was the best one, particularly for 16 laps pushing at the pace I was going was a long way to go. I don’t know if the supersoft would have lasted that long.

Part of what informed that decision was, I guess, your supersoft stint Valtteri. Not the easiest but before that, Toto Wolff has said you had a problem with the generator on the grid that meant your tyres were over-inflated or had too high tyre pressure in the opening stint. Tell us about that.

VB: Yeah, so I don’t know the exact issue but I was just told there was a problem with the tyre pressures, which I could really feel in the first stint since lap two. I was just sliding around with the rear end, struggling to get on power out of the corners, so the pace wasn’t good and Sebastian was really putting pressure and they could undercut us as well and trying to extend the first stint, I just couldn’t keep up with the pace. The tyres were just dropping. Then on the second stint it was a bit better initially. I think the second stint was not that far off. Still struggling with oversteer but much less than in the first one, and then the last stint, again, used the tools I had to adjust the car balance but still couldn’t get the rear end to work. Really strange race for me and the pace was disappointingly poor for me. Yeah, not a good day for me.QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Question to Lewis and Valtteri. If you compare this race with Melbourne, is the softest compound a weakness for Mercedes? You seemed to have the same problem like in Melbourne that the rear tyres were going away.

LH: I don’t really remember what the issue was in Melbourne. I think it was more front tyres – but I’m sure it was the rears as well. Here was maybe more rears, I would say – but yeah, I would say it’s similar.

VB: At least for me personally yes. The softer compound has been more of a struggle with the tyres and also the hotter it is, more of a struggle. So something definitely for us to understand.

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Valtteri and Sebastian, can you tell us how difficult was the battle between the two of you?

SV: For about the first stint. I passed you in the pit stop, didn’t I?

VB: No, we were side-by-side at some point.

SV: Ah,  the safety car, after the safety car. Yeah, that was hairy. I thought I did reasonably well on the restart. It was a bit tricky because we only got the message very late: ‘the safety car’s coming in’ and then, you can’t just be stupid and break the field down, do a stop-and-go but I tried to use a little bit of momentum. I thought I had a decent gap leaving the last corner and then... I don’t know, it felt like I had more headwind than in the whole race on that particular lap. I was fairly confident halfway down the straight, just looked in the mirror to check and he was coming. I saw sparks behind me everywhere and then I obviously had to defend. Yeah, then I wasn’t quite sure where he was under braking but I guess we were side-by-side so it was a lot closer than I expected, leaving the last corner. But fortunately, I stayed ahead.

VB: Yeah, obviously it was getting close and I tried to make a move into turn four.

SV: I was just thinking, then there was another one, exactly, because I had a bad exit and it was quite close tight. I think you locked a little bit and then I locked a little bit into turn four.

VB: I was obviously outside so then it’s always tricky. There was some good racing but that was a short moment unfortunately.

SV: I forgot about that...

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To Bottas and Lewis: when the safety car came in, Sebastian had stopped on lap ten and the safety car came out on lap 13 and you entered the pits on the 13th lap, with the safety car. It looked like it would help a lot but for some reason it didn’t, maybe the opposite. Without the safety car, maybe Bottas could get out from the pits in front of Vettel. Do you have the same feeling? Did you have a slow stop?

VB: Yes. Under safety car on the first stop, there was a problem with the pit stop. We lost a lot of time and maybe it would have been very very close. Maybe I would have been just in front but the team is still investigating what was the issue there. I think there was also some traffic as well because the stop was slow. One of the Red Bulls came into the pit lane and we couldn’t exit immediately so double the time.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Without the safety car?

VB: I don’t know, to be honest.

Q: And Lewis, I think you had... one of the front tyres was a bit slow coming off or going back on again or slight delay?

LH: I couldn’t tell what the issue was but there was a bit of a delay. There was a domino effect, you know. If I had had a five second gap Valtteri would have pulled in, the Red Bull would have pulled in. I would have pulled in before the Red Bull, I would have got out before the Red Bull. It cascaded for me in the domino too early.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, Kimi last year was many times in front of you. What have you done that nowadays he’s always behind you?

SV: Well, I guess for a start, compared to last year, I’ve started the race. That helped. I had my - so far the only – and I hope it stays that way – DNS last year here so not even starting was quite a disappointment. And then, I don’t now, he was behind the Red Bull in the opening of the lap and so obviously we’ve seen that it’s quite tricky to pass. I was a bit faster in the opening stint than Valtteri but I couldn’t really get close enough and I guess he probably lost a bit of time and then I just saw the final result. I don’t know what happened to his race but I think he came back to fourth, not finishing too far behind Valtteri so I think for both of us the car probably worked really well today and yeah, I think it depends on... from my own experience, how the opening lap goes and so on, but this has usually been a very very good hunting ground for Kimi, so maybe the time loss on Friday for him with the issue he had in the car didn’t help but yeah, you do your own race and then I’m sure we will talk about it afterwards.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Sebastian, in the race simulation on Friday you didn’t look like you had a very good performance from the car and also qualifying seemed to confirm it. We had this impression, looking at the long runs. And suddenly, in the race, the performance was there. Did you change the car dramatically or did the conditions on the day change and help you?

SV: No, from yesterday to today, you can’t change anything. Friday to Saturday we did a bit but yeah, it’s not that sudden. If we could go faster in qualifying we would because qualifying higher up is always advantageous. But yeah, I had a good feeling yesterday so I was a bit surprised by how big the gap was because the car felt really good and for today, I had a good feeling because Friday was a bit mixed, I wasn’t so happy with the car. We improved it for Saturday and I thought OK, if it stays like that then today can be a good race and after a couple of laps I felt everything was making sense and yeah, obviously I was in Valtteri’s gearbox for all of the first stint and not falling back too much so that was obviously good for us, a good start with the opening lap, getting between them and then yeah, the pace was certainly key today to win.

Q: (Sef Harding – Xero Xone News) For Sebastian, it looks like the Prancing Horse has really come alive and it looks like you’re going to have a hero’s welcome back in Maranello. What has this done for the team and the morale of the team heading into Sochi?

SV: Yeah, I think at this stage Sochi is quite far away so I’m not willing and I don’t think the team is really looking to Sochi right now. I think we enjoy the moment. Yeah, obviously we did a massive stint over the winter. I think last year was a very good year for us. It wasn’t good in terms of results, don’t get me wrong, but I think for the team, getting together, a lot of things that had changed now seem to start clicking. Obviously it helps when straight from the box, in testing, we had a good feeling. We looked reasonably competitive. Australia obviously was a massive boost for all the team and yeah, you can see when they are singing down there, and the whole factory has really come alive so that’s great and we need to just make sure we keep it going and yeah, keep enjoying that way, but for now, I think the team has obviously done a really really great job, a lot of hard work, commitment and as I said, things start to click and hopefully that sort of success now in the first couple of races helps us to build up some sort of momentum that maybe these guys had in the past and the last couple of years, so they will be the ones to beat. It’s a long season, but for now, as I said, looking forward to tonight.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, Sochi has suited you very well so far. Do you expect to have your best weekend because of that?

VB: Well, for sure that’s the goal. I still haven’t definitely got... there’s no race results as I’ve been hoping for so it’s always the next one. Anyway, it would be the target to have a strong weekend but Sochi has normally been pretty good for me. I really like the track layout and I have always been comfortable there so we will see. It’s a completely different type of track again, completely different kind of temperatures, different asphalt so many different things. We’ll see.

Q: (Ralph Woodall – L’Equipe) Valtteri, how did you feel when you were ordered by the team to let Lewis pass you?

VB: Well, I think honestly as a racing driver it’s maybe the worst thing you want to hear. That’s how it is. For sure I did it because there was potential. Lewis could challenge Sebastian. In the end it didn’t happen but the team tried which I completely understand but personally it is tough but that’s life. I didn’t have enough pace today and we need to find the reasons why that was.

from fia.com