#trigun 1998 spoilers

[threegunbrainrot]

i dont have any trigun mutuals so i'm just gonna ramble my thoughts into the infinite void of tumblr. and im sure others have touched on this same topic but

it almost seems like vash is getting softer with every new installment of trigun? like incredibly consistently and incredibly specifically.

let me explain.

i'll start with tristamp and work backwards; the tristamp vash we all know and love there is incredibly adverse to violence.

more often than not he ACTIVELY refuses to fight and just WON'T draw his gun. this post loosely counted the amount of bullets that he shot throughout all of season 1, and almost ALL of them (like to an insane degree) were dished out against knives, who vash knew was strong enough to take the hit.

the few times vash does draw his gun against a human in tristamp, it's as a blunt force weapon (against the badlads gang and livio, for example) or to disarm others/save someone with ricochet (like shooting the punisher before wolfwood can kill livio).

he just doesn't shoot people. at ALL.

then if we look at 98 trigun, things change drastically.

here, vash isn't afraid to hurt people a little if it means more will be saved in the end. of course he never kills, but he actually shoots people here. not only that...

he holds a casual, sarcastic conversation while pointing his weapon at people.

he constantly shoots at limbs to immobilize people, fires warning shots extremely close to peoples' vitals, and performs several very insane trick shots throughout the show to wound those with armor.

tristamp vash wouldn't even draw, but 98 struts around firing warning shots into the sky and singing about bloodshed for intimidation! i'm not sure there's a single episode where he doesn't shoot someone at least once.

...so what about trimax, then?

(PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD)

he is so. shockingly. violent.

of course he never kills. of course he's still trying to save people, but there's this anger in him that i was completely taken off-guard by reading for the first time.

tristamp vash is so soft he's painful to watch. 98 vash makes a heartbreaking effort to be as silly and nonthreatening as possible, constantly making himself out to be the fool. but trimax?

he's... literally grief-stricken and out for revenge. explicit revenge. he's angry and he's hurt and he lays his intentions out so clearly. he's making THREATS.

seriously:

hunting legato. HUNTING him.

it's not even a matter of drawing his weapon anymore. he does it constantly, and fires just as much. never to kill, but he doesn't joke around the way 98 vash does. the most he'll offer is a sunny smile to reassure others and nothing more.

i'm not that far into the manga, either. i'm sure there's countless more (and probably better) panels to convey this side of trimax vash, but i suppose it also says something that i've found so many panels depicting this so early on.

but the progression of vash's personality is fascinating regardless.

from a tortured, angry loner desperately trying to cling to his morals for rem's sake

to an equally devastated man who devotes himself so completely to acting the role of the fool

and finally to the sad, chronically depressed shell of a person in tristamp who refuses to so much as draw his weapon.

[denydestiny-doodles]

he who champions love and peace

[pixpirs]

What gets me about Wolfwood's death in the 98 anime is like...you're expecting him to make peace with it. To be like, I'm ok with this. And he does for a minute - then he says he doesn't want to die, he wants to keep going, to be with Vash, Milly, and Meryl.

And you're expecting him to pull through it, to keep on living. But he doesn't. He just bleeds to death, alone, in a church praying to a god that's either not there, or no longer has mercy for him

[dozenssporks]

spoilers for '98 but I love post-anime fanfiction where you've got Vash, Meryl, and Millie, all recovering from everything that's happened and then . . . you've got a comatose Knives. They're not 100% sure what they're going to do with him when he wakes up

it's such a legitimate but funny concern, there's a genocidal maniac snoozing in the spare room and chances are high that he won't agree to his court-mandated therapy when he wakes up. Quite the pickle.

extra love for the fics where after Knives finally wakes up Millie is the only one he can tolerate.

[causalityparadoxes]

Knives is so incredibly cringe for engraving 'Angel Arms Factory' with little ANGEL WINGS to the guns HE MADE, HIMSELF, ALL ON HIS OWN

[stanley-h-oates-enthusiast]

wolfwood's last day of living in the 1998 anime is so crazy to me like?? the man killed a child, had sex with milly, then fought his abuser and subsequently died alone in a church thinking about his ideal world. absolute king shit

[cowboylivio]

God he’s so unserious

[rrogueamendiares]

i just wanted to hold you in my arms

[pfpanimes]

⌕ trigun stampede • vash.

like or reblog if you save/use.

[saintaviator]

paradise

[courtesanofdeath]

These are good. These are really good. Why... are they so...

[llamahearted]

somewhere green, where life is easier prints

[dozenssporks]

so in Stampede Wolfwood picks up Meryl and skedaddles right before things go nuclear and in ‘98 Milly picks up Meryl and books it as Vash melts down and what I need to know is if someone was toting around Meryl for rescuing purposes in the manga so we can have a complete set

[thundersbugs]

BIG FAWKING B&W WIP AND DOODLE DUMP PART TWOOOOO

[why-its-kai]

it's been over 11 years since I last made a proper Trigun amv/meme edit like this...

[madeofloveandpeace]

"What're you doin' Needle Noggin? It's right next to you. Use it, damn it!" UNDER THE SKY SO BLUE TRIGUN 98