#trigun bookclub

[millionsknives]

trimax nation how we feeling ‼️‼️

[akiratrimochi]

#TRITOBER #TRI_TOBER

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8. Angel

[bearberrythief]

Rereading volumes 1 and 2 of trigun I really noticed how angry Vash is under everything else. Every time people die in front of him, he's incredibly sad, yes, but he's also furious. And he carries that anger with him, along with his anger at Knives. Anger is a driving force for Vash just as much as love and peace.

[trigun-manga-overhaul]

Trigun Manga Club, a manga only Discord server.

Today we share the public link to the new manga only server for Trigun!

It will be a server focusing on discussing the manga, sharing thoughts, ideas and theories with each other. It will also be a space for people to get into the manga and share their experiences reading it for the first time.

This server is also a place for people both following the Trigun Ultimate Overhaul project and people engaging in the Trigun Bookclub where they can meet the people working on these projects and events.

The server will only have around 500 people in total, and we will close the invite the moment we hit 500 members. This is to maintain a calm server experience without too much of the usual chaos of big, public servers.

If the invite has expired and you wish to join the server, then you are free to contact us and ask to join the queue for the next available spot in the server when it drops under 500 again.

Hope to see you around!

[corrosivegun]

i just started reading trigun and let me tell you this mf?

hes not built different mf built WRONG HES SO STRANGE /POS

hes so creature right off the bat i was surprised

an absolute fool

[revenantghost]

The cruelty of Elendira saying this right here is absolutely next level, because we all know whose hands it was that ended Wolfwood's life

Regardless of Razlo being at the wheel in that moment, we saw that Livio was present enough to step up and take back control, even if it was too late. He saw it all. He felt it all. Livio knows that Wolfwood's blood is on his hands.

[discount-kirishima]

so early on and they're already this intense, like ????????? ok wolfwood, no one asked you to offer your entire life but whateverrrr

[pepplemint]

Wolfwood acting so calm and accepting his death with basically nonchalance to screaming and crying in regret and mourning what he'll never have because his family welcomed him home and he won't ever get to hug them or tell them how much they meant to him or how being with them were the best days of his life and he's wanted nothing more for the latter half of his life. Wolfwood dying with a smile on his lips because the people he loves the most, the people he has not seen for years because he was so afraid they would reject who he has become, accepts him and loves him still.

[versaphile]

Another bit of Trigun meta about Vash and Knives. I’m plowing through TriMax and I got to the Ark section, and Knives sticking Vash in a cage for 7 months??? (What the hell Knives, also what the hell happened during all that time?? There’s no way shit didn’t go down. Must find fic. There must be fic.) Also sticking every other plant in a cage but. 

Back to TriStamp and Knives’ messed up plan there. On the one hand, clearly a superior plan to make all other plants Independents instead of making them all himself (though to a degree it really is the same plan, he is also trying to make all other plants himself, mirrors of himself, perfect in the way he considers himself perfect, untouchable, needing no one and nothing, superior to all other life). 

On the other hand, the method he has for achieving this plan is to literally turn Vash into a Dependent plant. Trapped in a tank and unable to act for himself, entirely vulnerable, used for what can be taken from him, used for what he can make. And Knives still sees this as purifying and protecting Vash. Turning him into the very thing that Knives fears and detests, something weak and helpless and completely exploited. 

He is so angry at Vash. Just astronomical levels of anger and hurt. With the attempted genocide and all, it’s easy to get distracted by his anger at humanity, but his anger at Vash is so much more personal and bigger. He feels utterly betrayed by every choice Vash has ever made since they were born, every way Vash was not his mirror image, every way Vash mirrored humans (Rem) instead of plants. Knives’ anger is so much because he sees Vash as a part of himself, but Vash keeps pulling away from him, keeps being something Knives doesn’t want a part of himself to be. 

But also Knives still loves Vash completely and Knives is furious about the fact that <em>Vash doesn’t love himself</em>. Vash will do absolutely anything but love and protect himself, this part of Knives that Knives can’t control. Every time Vash hurts himself for the sake of humans, it’s Vash hurting Knives, it’s Vash saying through his actions that he and Knives are not worth a single human life, that it’s right for humans to exploit all plants including Vash himself and by proxy Knives as well.

I also got to the big TriMax flashbacks to Tesla and Conrad and Vash’s childhood suicide attempt. I really hope they include some of this in TriStamp season 2, because it’s so powerful and explains so much about Vash. His desperation for clinging to life and joy even in the darkest moments, and things get so absolutely dark. His near-inability to love himself or let others genuinely love him, let their love into him. He fights so hard in defiance of his own grief and pain, in defiance of the fear and despair that almost destroyed him and Rem and Knives in one fell swoop. 

And how awful that it was Knives who trusted and loved humans more than Vash as children in TriMax. I think that’s why the trauma of Tesla consumed him. Vash was already afraid and came very, very close to letting that trauma consume him too, only for Rem to pull him back with her love. Knives felt safe and secure and then had all that ripped away in an instant, and because of his coma during Vash’s ordeal, he never had any reconciliation or healing from Rem. Not in the deep, life-changing way Vash did. And in fact, Vash’s closer connection to Rem after Tesla probably felt like an incomprehensible betrayal to Knives, the first in a long line. How could Vash love humans more than Knives, after Tesla? It was all wrong. Vash was wrong and he had to be saved from himself and from whatever the humans might do to them next.

But Rem saving Vash’s life, that made Rem a part of Vash even more than being their adoptive mother. And losing her not long after they had this life-changing experience together. It must have felt like Knives killed a part of Vash in the Big Fall. And ripping Rem away in that formative time, it made Vash this torn live wire, needing to put all that love into something to ground him, and where else but every other human? Into the survivors, people who Knives hurt just like him. People (he hoped) would be just like Rem, that would keep Rem alive in some way. 

I do think it might happen in TriStamp season 2 because there’s clear indications that Conrad was awake at some point on Ship 5. He recognizes Knives when they reunite on Noman’s Land, and he might also be the reason why Vash and Nai have secret plant profiles in the computer, since it’s unlikely that Rem would have put the data in when she’s trying to pass them off as humans.

Reading through TriMax, it’s been really fascinating to see all the pieces that were pulled out and remixed for TriStamp. Like Vash and Knives’ ridiculous conversation about running away from humans and coming back again! Almost word for word from the Ark fight. I’m so incredibly curious for what they’ll do for season 2. I still have several volumes left to read but TriStamp really plows through the themes and major plot points and character moments even in those scant 12 episodes of season 1. It makes the world feel so rich even though we only get glimpses of so many things.

Also, I kept waiting for it to be revealed that Legato has Vash’s arm but apparently that concept was created for the 98 anime?? I am honestly surprised. It’s such a fantastic idea and I really hope that’s what they’re doing with Legato in TriMax, it does feel like they’re hinting at his arm being important. And it gives me a reason to tolerate Legato, lol.

I am starting to have a better appreciation for the contributions of the 98 anime to the Trigun canon. It’s obviously much more lighthearted overall, more emphasis on the western worldbuilding while TriMax really just goes hard on the giant battles and SF as it goes on. I still find 98 a bit too goofy in places, especially the rather tedious “horny Vash” stuff (ugh). I’m rewatching now that I have more context, which helps a lot, as the back half of 98 felt like quite an abrupt shift and left me quite confused in places. 

[nekotachis]

I want to know more how this applies to more specifically Vash. I know he can talk to plants and communicate with them but I'm so fascinated about like, how he (or independents, for that matter) develop a sense of self if they're constantly still part of the collective. Maybe it goes over it and I missed it (very likely), but is it that they're intentionally disconnecting and connecting from the shared consciousness? I know they talk about how Knives is being bombarded by it on the ark, but what about before the ark?

I recognize it as a gap in the story which means it's an opportunity for fanfic haha

[millionsknives]

good evening trigun bookclub participants

[akiratrimochi]

#TRITOBER #TRI_TOBER

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24. Destruction

[merylstryfestan]

Trigun Maximum Vol 6 Ch 1&2

Hey friends! I found this volume so interesting I actually decided to contribute to the bookclub conversation for once! Except that there's so much to talk about that I have to split this into multiple parts lol

I'm going to start with chapters 1 & 2, since I think they pair together well, but this is going to get super long so buckle in!

Poor Meryl :( she is very clearly still trying to process everything that happened at Dragon's Nest, and this is the first evidence we see of how that's affecting her.

She goes and has a chat with Wolfwood, evidently trying to gauge his thoughts on the matter.

Except that it seems he's also trying to figure out how much she knows, without revealing anything himself. Also, he's such a bad liar, like how has he made it this far?? And this is also when he tells her the she and Milly should leave, specifically stating that Vash himself is too dangerous for them to be traveling with, hinting at Wolfwood's own fear of Vash which is addressed in chapter 2.

I found these panels interesting for two reasons: first, the injury to Vash's hand. I assume this must be from when Elendira shot a giant nail through his angel arm, so it's interesting to see that injuries sustained in that state persist when his arm goes back to normal. Also, this is the first we see of Vash participating in self-destructive behavior in this volume, and don't worry, there's more later :')))

But moving on to the fight at the bank. There's a lot I find interesting about this fight. First, Vash's approach here is... something, and I can't say I fully understand his reasoning. Rather than his more typical "Haha I'm just a silly little guy, don't fight, let's just talk this out!" routine, it's more similar to that time in Trimax Vol 1 where he's intentionally acting deranged, presumably in an attempt to intimidate his opponents into giving up. I don't know, I feel like it was a weird choice in this situation.

But another thing to note, is even after it's made clear that the act isn't really working, we see a couple more panels of Vash looking, well, scary tbh. And it's not that we haven't seen him looking frightening before, but in the context of this relatively low-stakes fight, it's pretty odd. And also in volume 1, once the intimidation tactic ultimately failed, he gave it up. so what's going on?

But then we have to remember that we're pretty much watching this fight from Meryl's pov, which is important. In the moment, Meryl's conscious thoughts tell us that she's scared for Vash. Will he have the determination to fight, to pull the trigger, etc. However, based on how we (and presumably she) are seeing him in this fight, as well as some events later in chapter 5, subconsciously she's very much afraid of Vash too, and she just doesn't want to admit that to herself.

There's even a moment right before the fight ends, where as far as we can see, Vash isn't really in immediate danger anymore, and he even gets his own gun back, but we still get a whole page with a frightening looking Vash with Meryl screaming and collapsing in the background. It's been made clear by now that he's able to fight just fine, so that can't be the reason for Meryl's reaction here.

Still, by the end of the chapter, Meryl hasn't put this together herself, and instead admires how he's strong enough to keep fighting despite his regrets. Don't worry, there's more on this in chapter 5 :))

And on to chapter 2!

This chapter also starts with a nightmare (you seeing why I paired these chapters together? :3 ). This one is Wolfwood's, except instead of it directly being about Vash himself, it's about Knives, but we'll see how Wolfwood struggles to separate the two in his mind.

Wolfwood draws the connection between these two events, identifying the power the twins have to literally exude fear in a way that physically affects others nearby. This solidifies to him how the twins really are the same species, completely different from humans, despite Vash's very human tendencies. And that makes them terrifying! But then we get one of the most iconic panels in all of Trigun.

The juxtaposition here is top tier! Vash, our lovely protagonist, smiling and relaxed, happy to see his friend. Contrasted with the direct evidence of his power to destroy, Wolfwood having just called him a monster in his thoughts. Wolfwood is also caught off guard by this stark irony, and then we get another of the most iconic panels in all of Trigun.

The themes and motifs!! Now Wolfwood is the one looking down on Vash, now he's the one framed by destruction. His expression is hard to read but it could be anger? fear? By the next page, Wolfwood has put his gun away, Vash (supposedly) unaware of what's happened. But the fact is, Wolfwood's experiencing almost a kind of cognitive dissonance here. Knives is a monster, who Wolfwood wants dead -> Vash is Knives' brother -> Vash is also a monster, and Wolfwood should want him dead.

Except it's not that simple is it? Because the chapter goes on, and we see how Wolfwood doesn't just protect Vash during the fight, but they fight together in perfect tandem, back to back, a well oiled machine, hardly even exchanging words.

And when it's all over, Vash turns his back to Wolfwood without a second thought, completely trusting him now the same way he does when they fight together. And Wolfwood has the thought, "Man, everything's different when I'm back to back with him." Wolfwood also trusts Vash and is able to turn his back to him, despite everything. And even to himself that hardly makes sense, but it's true.

And so yeah, these two chapters very much complement each other, showing two of Vash's closest friends and their fear towards him and how they react to it. Meryl, at this point, is trying to ignore her fear of Vash, and instead focuses on her fear for Vash and his safety. Wolfwood very much acknowledges how scared he is of Vash and what he can do, but at the same time must admit that he trusts him anyway. Which is all some great setup for what happens in chapter 5!

Anyway, thanks for reading all this! Posts analyzing the rest of the chapters to follow :3

[thatrandombystander]

Man come on now. Why ya gotta do this to me

[aku-ma]

What a Mama’s Boy ♥🥰🙈

also he speaks French?!

[revenantghost]

Idk what Nightow was on when he devised these two idiots, but I love him for it