#thought about bringing up the page where Knives talks about Vash's scars because what were YOU doing at the devil's sacrament sir

[buccellato]

We're far enough along in the week that I think this won't disrupt the rest of the book club discussion, but just to be safe I'm putting it under a cut since it deals with the themes of sexual assault

I've seen some people touch about the themes of body autonomy and SA undertones from the fifth moon incident, and as someone who is on my like, 3rd reread over the years I definitely concur with it

and I wanted to add some more support to the conversation (if, uh, there is one here), because I notice people tend to focus on Vash's reaction and the immediate incident (which is fair, because he's one of the characters the audience will be empathizing with most at this point), and I wanted to go over the other things surrounding the incident that made this event go from "villain hurts the protagonist event" to something worse™️

(screencaps courtesy of the Overhaul project btw)

First up we have Vash's freeze-up event, which is very common in traumatic events but not for Vash, who has learned to be reactive for survival. Some deeply traumatic memory is freezing his body, one that he can't even fully remember, and he just stands there and dissociates in his memories for a solid minute as his naked-ass brother closes the good distance between them on foot after declaring he was gonna show him how to use his angel arm (which is just bad vibes city after the following pages, because Knives is just so casual with how he treats Vash's body, like it's something that belongs to him). I truly believe this wouldn't happen if he wasn't under extreme duress, because we know Vash is inhumanly fast and we know that he definitely wants to get back at his brother. This isn't a Dominique situation where he's trapped by other means, this is one where he's trapped by his trauma imo.

Next page is the one I like to call the "you need to back the fuck up dude" page because of how creepy Knives is here. He leans on Vash's arm in a weirdly casual and tender way, but Vash is pulling away in shock and fear. And then to follow it up, Knives slams his hand into Vash's face to take control of him. Throughout it all Vash is visibly spooked, but Knives looks so goddamn pleased with himself. After this there's a few pages of Vash's body be changed against his will to activate the angel arm, followed up by this

Where the gung-ho guns are all watching on, stunned, while Conrad yells at them to evacuate (you know, the usual things to say when you accidentally slip the screwdriver from the demon core). Knives, meanwhile, has slithered up behind Vash and is getting more handsy with him for better control. Throughout it all he is completely at ease, asking Vash "how it feels," to activate his arm while forcing him to remember the events of Lost July. All of his language here kind of implies that he doesn't have much respect for Vash's individuality, going on about how "this is our true power" while forcing him to remember one of the worst events of his life. Knives here is drawn extra menacing with wide-eyed glee while Vash is just straight-up bawling.

The following page is Knives trying to force his brother to fire, which others have touched on, but I just actually really wanted focus on these 2 panels because Vash is just in complete anguish. Tears are literally pouring down his face, he is miserable and possibly in pain as his body gets changed in ways he cannot fully control anymore, but his brother is telling him to "let his power flow," as the core in the angel arm reaches criticality.

Vash eventually rips his arm out of the frame of the angel arm to shoot himself (and his brother) in the legs so that he can change his angle to at least aim up into space (and into the moon), because he can't stop the gun from firing. Vash and Knives are injured, Vash wishes he didn't exist, and almost everyone else who witnessed the event from a distance blames him for his participation. The SA vibes are very easy to read imo (to the point where I picked them up when I first read it years ago), and there's certain events from later in the manga that just sort of pile on to it (but we're not there yet so 🙃).

Now, I'm not entirely certain Nightow intended it to be read as SA at this point, but the way it sort of builds up later (and the way it gets reused more explicitly in tristamp) kinda gives me the vibe that he eventually picked up on it himself later on. Granted, we were already introduced to organ farming, slavery, and rape by this point in the narrative (and almost directly before this, too), so maybe it was intended 🤔🤔?

Anyways, in conclusion

Me, the reader, to Knives: