#trigun stampede post julai

[caro-x-x-x]

Happy Birthday Vash & Knives! ✨️🥳

The whole group is celebrating together! 🎉

(I drew this in 2h, so it's kinda messy, haha ^^')

[isawjamfirst]

more post-julai stryfewood from yours truly

[kiaraalazulu]

post julai merylwood

ref pic from @/miukumauk on twitter

[imustbenuts]

theres a few ??? thing going on in trigun stampede that's explicitly japanese/sino-ish in culture but im entirely not sure what to make of it. 3 things.

Knives' birthname being settled as Kni/Nai,

JuLai's emblem symbolism,

and the Buddha Thread??? thing in ep 11 10

Knives' birthname is Kni and hm! ...無い?

this is specifically a stampede thing. nightow didnt give him this Kni name in his work, so i can only chalk this up to the stampede staff's deliberate decision. if you render it into japanese, it'd be Nai, and the immediate word i can think of is... 無い. meaning, Nothing, or Without.

it fits rather well considering stampede has officially placed an emphasis on his obsessive love towards his brother on his bio on their official site:

my TL:

Vash's twin brother. Possesses a cold and merciless personality. Filled with a hatred for humans, he masterminds an organization with a plan to massacre the entire human species. With abilities beyond human understanding, he has the power to destroy entire planets. He greatly loves his only younger twin brother, Vash to an obsessive degree.

interestingly, the word used for the obsessive love here specifically is 執着 shuuchaku, which has roots/association with the word Abhinivesha. from what i understand it is a mental state, a fear of death, and a desperation to cling onto life so much one becomes ignorant and causes their own suffering. and ignorance is another big core of what makes Knives' character tick.

so i feel like this has some pointers towards Knives, or even child Kni being nothing without his younger brother. (or it could just be a simpler play on the word naive lmao)

meanwhile for Vash there's not really anything japanese that jumps out at me, but some have pointed out his name sounds like the french word Vashe, used for female cattle. extremely passive and born for consumption and theres a lot to dissect in that direction but im not going there! his name is Knife and his brother is a cattle there's catholicism may your brain go brr.

theres more to the nothingness concept in buddhism that doesnt put it squarely in a negative category but lets talk about buddhism later. next:

JuLai's emblem

stared at this for a few seconds and yelled fuck me. this represents the twins, AND its the broken yin yang symbol:

:). hey look at that female thing popping up again--

Knives is evidently the light Yang, and Vash is the dark Yin. ngl this daoist thing is somewhat sexist but lets brush that over 2 thousand year old aspect aside for this post. for stampede's case we can clearly see what theming is going on especially for those in the know of the original work.

Knives is hella assertive to the point of echoing fascist eugenics nonsense, and Vash has that nurturing instinct that seems to pop in whenever there's a human child or people who needs help.

interestingly the planet No Man's Land has too much fugging sun and is too hostile for human life. to survive people have to live in the shade and turn to plants for counters to the harsh, hot celestial sun. so here if Knives is being the sun, hes also being hostile to human life, and meanwhile the feminine looking plants and Vash's personality plus actions are the only thing giving these people at chance at life. (also vash has the power of Dark Matter or something)

obviously, just like JuLai's broken symbol, the balance is completely and utterly out of whack. in daoism a broken balance is thought to cause a lot of suffering. in the finale, Vash doesnt have a single speck of white on him, and Knives doesn't have a single speck of black. this means there isn't a balance and they cant come to an agreement at all.

im gonna also point out here that vash's idea of co-existence even if accepted wouldnt be a permanent solution due to the dependents having limited lifespan. so through this lens, stampede seems to be saying that neither twin's ideas are really effective long term solution, tho Knives is completely unacceptable due to obvious genocidal reasons.

Buddha Thread

studio orange whaaat are you guys cooking over there... ok so. in ep 11, Knives drops Vash into the uhhh The Hell Pool, and Vash tries to get out of it with his wire and hangs for a bit. then we get a scene like this:

Knives proceeds to cut Vash's thread and he drops into The Hell Pool. and then the metaphorical SA scene happens.

i call it Buddha Thread but this can also be known as The Spider's Thread. there exists a story of The Spider's Thread that's very Japanese-Buddhist and well known over there.

the gist of this story is that Buddha lowers a single spider thread to a sinner in the deepest hell as a lifeline to get out, bc this heavy sinner had done a singular good deed of saving a spider he was about to crush with his foot. however, the thread is broken as a result of the sinner's selfishness yelling for the other sinners below him to let go, claiming this thread was his and his alone. the sinner having climbed halfway upwards the thread after great effort plunges back into the pits of hell. buddha having watched all of this reacts with sadness, and the days in paradise carry on as per usual.

and. digest that for a second. and then refer back to Knives and The Fall and this scene that plays later, when Vash's mind wipe begins proper:

fuck. me. knives is framed as a self proclaimed god in the loudest ways on multiple levels.

while these 3 aspect i just broke down explaining do not exist at least overtly in the original trigun, i thought it would be interesting to chew on in light of the overwhelming catholicism existing in the story.

there's some themes im also picking up from the original trigun that might be rooted in either buddhsim or japanese culture such as: the undeniable truth that yearning and hunger is part of the human living experience and to deny it is to deny living. but im not sure what to make of it bc A) not explicitly framed or explored as a buddhsim/japanese idea thing and B) catholicsm obv is the overwhelming theme of the entire work

idk what the heck studio orange is cooking exactly but. hm.

[museqmeg]

a Meg Trigun Stargaze thought 💭:

I think I have a good speculation on who is going to return Vash's gun in Trigun Stargaze... so strap in for this thread! 🧵

Notice how I used the word "return." I do believe Vash already has his silver long colt in Peace Bringer for Orange's reimagining of Trigun. See my post below about this thought:

I'm gonna place my bets and predict that Wolfwood goes through the wreckage of JuLai and finds Peace Bringer.

I think after some time, he knows Knives survived (his EoM affiliation being his informant), and we're going to have this moment... but with Vash's .22 in his hands.

I also think Wolfwood found Knives first in the JuLai incident, and his a moment like the aforementioned panel.

He thinks this is his chance to end Knives, but he has Peace Bringer in his hands and he becomes afraid.

"If Vash couldn't stop Knives with this gun, how can I?"

And so, I think Wolfwood knows he's not strong enough to end Knives even in his weakened state.

He realizes he has to put his belief in Vash... and that terrifies him. Wolfwood knows Vash is resistant to kill. He has to put his faith in someone that lacks the conviction.

We saw Vash challenge Wolfwood on this in Stampede. It's a core moment in Trimax.

Wolfwood has to put his faith in someone who refuses to kill, even if it's in the name of protection--which is Wolfwood's entire motivation for his existence.

And Vash learns this in one of the hardest ways imaginable... through loss and grief.

Vash has to witness firsthand Wolfwood's conviction to protect. He has to watch Wolfwood make the ultimate sacrifice to uphold that ideal.

And while Vash and Wolfwood had been narrative foils through much of the story... in this regard, they become mirrors.

This strengthens Vash's resolve and conviction to protect a loved one's sacrifice. To finally pull the trigger of a .45 silver long colt named "Peace Bringer."

Knowing all of this from Trimax and Orange's intention and Nightow's ask to have Vash's gun be a .22 in Trigun Stampede... I believe it's a way to sharply bring into focus these climactic moments in Trigun Maximum.

I do believe Wolfwood will return Peace Bringer to Vash in Trigun Stargaze and that Wolfwood will have requested it to be modded to a lethal .45 so that Vash can carry Wolfwood's conviction: Protection.

And it's going to hurt.

[gorgongorgeous]

EXPLICIT / ~7.5k words

Wolfwood could ignore it. Or, well, maybe he could have. If this were any other city. Any other night. Any other song, even, because it’s one that Vash knows—Vash, whose eyes light up even behind his stupid glasses, even more bright cyan than the neon, than clear desert sky at high noon. Because that’s the problem. Has been all along. That it can’t be, could never be, anyone other than Vash the goddamn Stampede who looks at him like that.

Between the start of Julai and the end of it, Vash and Wolfwood see if either one of them can get drunk. Or: a last supper, of sorts.

(aka Vashwood Reverse Bang post time at last let's funkin goooooo)

[avee-anne]

I just saw something in one of Trigun Stampede's reference sheets and I'm going to talk about it under the cut because it's pretty disturbing and it may count as a spoiler to the series (post-JuLai).

If you've read the manga, you would know that Gray the Ninelives is a robotic suit controlled by nine men of short stature. It's a bit different in Stampede because instead of grown men, the ones controlling Gray the Ninelives turns out to be the lab-grown clones that Conrad showed to Meryl and Roberto.

They're Gray the Ninelives.

[pinepinefir]

Chapters: 21 Rating: Mature Relationships: Meryl Stryfe/Vash the Stampede Additional Tags: Slow Burn, POV Meryl Stryfe, Post S1 of Trigun Stampede, Shared Dreams, Traveling Together, Some Fluff, Some Plot, Hurt/Comfort

Well over two years after JuLai, Meryl is put on a long assignment out of the cities again. And in a small town barely on the map, a dream turns strange.

EDIT: And it's complete now! Whee!

[into-the-feniverse]

🏜️Fen in Trigun Stampede UPDATED🏜️

Template: bit.ly/trigunresources

Disclaimer: backgrounds aren’t mine, most of it came from the show or pexels

More character info & voice claim under the cut!

——————

The basics:

• Her full name is Marlowe Fenley Holloway, but she prefers to go by “Fen”

• She’s 3 years younger than Meryl, but 14 cm taller

• female, cisgender, she/her, AroAce (demiromantic)

• Personality wise, she’s generally pretty quiet/reticent. She’s very non confrontational and fairly hesitant. However she’s good at giving off an air of friendliness and cheerfulness when need be, and is “always happy to help” (even at her own expense). Once she warms up to people she becomes much more chatty and exuberant. She’s very compassionate and sincere.

• Post trip/after the time skip she’s much more comfortable with herself and more confident, in both her appearance and actions.

• Hobbies & Interests: She enjoys drawing and painting in her free time. She also enjoys traveling and just being outside. After her time on ship 3, she also gains an avid interest in botany

The lore Backstory:

• She hails from a small town north of May City called “Juneport Junction”. She lived there her entire life with her family (parents, grandma, and 3 adopted older siblings), up until she left for November. Growing up, she really enjoyed observing (and chasing) the various small critters of Gunsmoke (mainly the sand worms)

• While Juneport isn’t necessarily a “religious town”, there’s definitely a moderate christian demographic. She does come from a fairly religious (Presbyterian) family, however she herself is agnostic

• While she's not necessarily distant with her family (at least not in a relationship way, physically yes she is, it's just part of the job), she's not the closest with them either. She keeps in touch with them fairly often (before heading off for November her parents gave her a wrist watch made with lost tech that acts as a telecom. they call bi weekly) and tries to stop by home when she can, but she tries to keep her visits as short as possible.

• She was brought on to the Bernardelli company as a photography intern, having heard about it from a friend of a friend and applying on a whim, and was (begrudgingly) placed under the tutelage of senior journalist Roberto De Niro. And so ended up getting dragged into Meryl’s mad chase to track down and interview the Humanoid Typhoon.

Random notes:

• The nicknames she accrued over the course of the trip include but are not limited to: curls, shutterbug, short stack, sunshine (Wolfwood), kid, trainee, green bean* (Roberto), and junebug** (Vash).

* That one caused some confusion amongst the travel crew, Roberto never actually explained why he called her that. They think it's a mix of green horn and bean sprout, and possibly also because of her jacket

** tossed out there by Wolfwood initially (around the time he found out she had an interest in bugs and came from a town called Juneport) but fondly adopted by Vash

• In her messenger bag she has her canteen, wallet, camera, a first aid kit, a small pocket knife, and a notebook and multiple pens. She doesn’t leave anywhere without her bag, and doesn’t mind carrying things for other people as well. After the time skip, she still brings a pack with her when traveling (which still stores her canteen, a sketch pad, and a first aid kit, but it’s smaller and she doesn’t take it everywhere ) but she upgrades to a larger (utility) knife which she keeps on her at all times. And her new camera (which is more compact than the one she uses during her internship).

• Her telecom watch also gets a slight upgrade post JuLai, courtesy of ship 3, so that it has a small medium impact force field (good for blocking bullets!).

[kochelle]

My friend and I have a problem lol. We've created so many AUs and so many versions of my baby girl.

We love all of them though.

So we have OG Trigun Stampede Raeni. Pre Time skip and Post Time skip. (Ages 22 and 24)

Comes to have a found family situation with Wolfwood during the 2 year skip and later Livio. Her town was destroyed by Knives, her fanily dead, and the town plant taken. She doesn't want revenge only answers, and later to stop Knives from hurting other people and plants.

She loves and respects plants and treats them as any other living being. She sings to each one she meets and gives them names. In turn the plants bless her with a "Plant touch". Basically alterering her DNA to be half plant like. This means that her and Vash can concieve independent plant babies and her life span is extended.

Modern Day AU Raeni. ( Pictured at 18)

Here, Raeni met the half brothers Nicholas D. Wolfwood and Livio Conrad at 5 years old. (Livio was 7, and Nick was 9). She practically adopted them as her big brothers, and after a long legal battle with their abusive father, they came to live with her family. She was in an abusive relationship, but very soon after, she got with Vash, who is nothing but supportive and loving.

Hunger Games AU (13 years old)

Changed the age from 12 to 13 for first Reapings. Raeni is Wolfwoods half sister and Livio's full sister (all share the same Mom is Melanie). On her first Reaping and Wolfwood’s last, she is picked for the girls. Wolfwood volunteers as tribute to take the other boy's place place to protect his sister knowing it will lead to his death if she is to win.

Military AU (about 26)

Her Oldest brother Nicholas Wolfwood was in the Military until being discharged honorably after saving many lives and nearly dying himself. Helps him care for himself by checking in regularly and loves to visit his service dog Vash II named after his deceased comrade. In an abusive relationship that strains her relationship with Wolfwood.

Baby Raeni AU (pictured at about 14)

Born with an 18-year age gap between her oldest brother, Nicohlas D. Wolfwood and 11 years between her and her brother Livio Wolfwood. Raeni and Livio were in a car accident when she was just 6 months old that killed both of their parents. Wolfwood took in his younger siblings, and Raeni is raised thinking Nick is more of her Dad than her eldest brother.

The Last of Us AU (21 years old)

Raeni is the Ellie of this world. Immune to the virus that has infected the world. Wolfwood is tasked with delivering her to Julai to William Conrad to create a cure. They pick up his friend along the way and make their way towards Julai. Along the journey Wolfwood discovers she is a child lost from his orphanage as a kid and he is now conflicted at finishing his mission.

If you want to know any more about any of my baby girls just ask. I love her so much

[blankticket]

7, 17, 19

7) If you could “borrow” one aspect of Vash and apply it to yourself or your own life, what would you borrow?

plant powers tbh. wrt the lifespan thing, for the record im pretty staunchly anti-immortality anti-singularity etc. bc as i've made vash say as much, none of us will need forever. plus any sorta tech like that if it's ever possible is going to prioritize, if not exclusively save, those who can afford such a thing. but anyway the idea that i would get to live for as long as i want is appealing.

i'm not thinking of a longer lifespan as a safety net for failures, cause i think i'd appreciate being imperfect with a longer lifespan, but rather thinking of it in terms of how i could then guarantee there's more good that i'll be putting out into the world. i'd probably have to take a page out of vash's book and travel around a lot so that people don't realize the same 20-something's been around for centuries but eh. idk maybe my feelings would change 300 years in, who knows

17) Why do you think you connect to Vash?

made a face like i licked a lemon reading this question bro i wont lie. the same reasons i connect to vash are the same reasons i avoided trigun for many many years. i was afraid (trigun maximum) vash's character would hit too close to home. particularly the twin stuff, even before knowing that vash would lose his own brother, too—being a lifelong lone twin myself. in comparison to maximum, stampede emphasizes much more on the twins, and even besides that, a lot of vash's deal in stampede feels uncannily similar to my own experiences. um you ever bump into a fictional character you feel completely #read by and just want to fucking run and leave and forget for as long as you can. well. yeah it was like that except now i'm much more able to handle this shit so i'm here now

sharing the same personality as him (in vash so far i definitely see a lot of who i used to be as well, when i was so much more of a self-deprecating people-pleaser bc i believed so much in my own worthlessness), the twin bereavement thing, wearing glasses (myopic deadeye), preferring revolvers (when he spun the cylinder while loading bullets in i was like omgg hes just like me fr), thinking nicholas d wolfwood is hot, all these connections definitely inform my interpretation and portrayal of vash. and i kin the guy but that's obvious enough

19) If you had to judge Vash and sentence him to a “fair” fate, what would your judgment be? Would you punish him? Reward him? How?

ok in my opinion. and also this is going to sound hilariously ridiculous without the context of trigun maximum but whatever. it looks like orange is ultimately going to turn vash into a giant apple tree or otherwise use the last of his lifespan to save his brother. i'm not completely set on how i feel about that, given that not even a little teaser for the final phase season is out yet! but for how i feel right now at least, i think that fate is pretty fitting. can't say whether that's exactly either a reward or punishment though

spirale-wise it's so much harder to say lol, i'm not writing vash keeping an ultimate endpoint in mind or ever considered one for him…

hm. well, if i come up with something, it'll be a hypergiant challenge deal. i have considered doing something like that for him 2 years after last year's giant challenge, to mirror how in-canon the timeskip is 2 years post-julai. but idek if i'll still be writing him by then. stay tuned?

[caro-x-x-x]

5th Trigun Shitpost Sunday everyone! ❤️‍🔥

Post Julai TriStamp Group on a Roadtrip, woo ^^

And Millie behind the Camera, because I NEED her to be part of the Post Julai TriStamp group! :3

ALT Picture design is inspired by TriStamp's Ep 12 Group Photo of Roberto, Meryl, Wolfwood and Vash at Lost Julai 🤞

and the reference

[isawjamfirst]

starting to have a thing for long-haired vash thanks to @avoidingavoidance ‘s Come and See fic

[kiaraalazulu]

i just need them to get over vash's death by being with each other

[eye-of-trigun]

Stampede S2 Predictions

posting these now before I get influenced by anyone else's predictions lmao

many spoilers for Trigun Stampede and Trigun Maximum ahead!

Vash has fully lost his memory of everything that happened immediately before and after JuLai

it's possible he's forgotten Meryl and Wolfwood and Roberto as well

He'll gradually gain memories back as Wolfwood and Meryl show up and trigger something in his brain

Wolfwood will find Vash (as Eriks) and be like "hey man" and Vash will be like "?????" until he sees the way Wolfwood handles the Punisher

when Meryl finds Vash he'll remember her and Roberto when she shows him the photo of the 4 of them that's seen when's she visiting JuLai. or he'll remember her just by the way she says "Vash"

Milly is going to be so plucky and will help pull Meryl out of her depression, or at least ground her whenever Meryl starts feeling like she wants revenge for Roberto

at some point, Meryl will point her derringer at Elendira and possibly even shoot it

the underside of Vash's hair will be black and we'll get more lore on decaying plants

somehow Doctor Conrad survived JuLai (maybe with Elendira's help?) and helps Legato to revive Knives

Meryl is gonna be very standoffish when she sees Wolfwood again

Wolfwood will start saying he's a priest rather than an undertaker (credit to my friend for this one!)

Meryl: "ugh you're here, Undertaker?" Wolfwood: "excuse you, I'm a priest now!"

Wolfwood has started smoking the same brand of cigarettes as Roberto and Meryl notices and then feels warmer toward Wolfwood

Wolfwood is looking for Vash because he's been contracted to look for him again under threat of the destruction of the orphanage again

but this time, Wolfwood already knows Vash and knows what Vash is capable of and he's hoping that Vash can stop Knives and the Eye of Michael for good this time

in her search for any clues of what happened to Vash, Meryl looks into Wolfwood's past and the eye of Michael between her reporting assignments

as a result, Meryl is extremely distrustful of Wolfwood when they meet again

I think it's a given that we'll see the rest of the gung-ho guns: Dominique, Rai-Dei, Midvalley, Leonof, Midvalley, Hoppered, and Razlo

Legato will finally confront Vash himself and may even establish the killing game with the gung-ho guns

it's possible that E.G. the Mine will make another appearance since he's seen being taken back with the plants to HQ in episode 3

Vash and Wolfwood will fight as a team again and again. Vash's trust in Wolfwood will be tested but he'll always believe in Wolfwood

Brad will repair Vash's arm again after the Eriks arc... but Vash's journey to visit Brad and Luida will bring trouble to them again... possibly resulting in Brad and/or Luida dying

Knives' entire body needs to re-constituted -- as it was after July in the manga. but since we're already diving into the timeskip, Knives won't get his body back until Vash is captured (like in Trimax vol 8) and at that time, Vash's memories of JuLai will fully come rushing back to him (like in Trimax vol 5).

Elendira will have grown to be adult size and will be way more powerful than before

Wolfwood and Livio and Razlo fight will still result in [redacted] and I will sob my heart out

I think Chapel will appear in some capacity! Someone probably had to have trained Wolfwood and Livio

Most characters will get updated outfits for the timeskip

Midvalley and Knives killer music duet??? (I just think it'd be fun)

Knives or Elendira gravely injures Legato for not following Knives' wishes

a non-zero number of episodes will start with radio updates on the arrival of the Earth ships

Legato's backstory will include lore about his blue hair

Knives will survive the final confrontation with Vash

Vash won't say his signature "love & peace" catchphrase until after the dust from the final battle has settled

[miss--river]

every post i see criticizing trigun stampede is the same. they all talk about the same thing:

vash is too goofy vash is a cry baby vash is useless vash isnt badass enough vash is pathetic BLAH BLAH BLAH

and this comes from people who prefer the '98 anime over the reboot. but did these people watch the original with their eyes closed???

vash is outwardly goofy because thats how he wants to come off. i mean, he *is* goofy but inherently he's serious and intelligent. and how is he not badass enough in the reboot? are you watching this one with your eyes closed too? look, i also prefer the '98 anime over the reboot because thats what i grew up with but the reboot is still spectacular as it is. besides, it's pre-July (JuLai) and vash still has so much growing to do!

i just feel like people who refuse to give the reboot a real chance are going in with a negative mindset so they watch the first episode and think thats all its ever going to be. seeing the same criticisms about the reboot is so exhausting. the only different thing ive noticed about reboot vash is that he isnt horny like '98 vash was but its not like thats integral to his character or anything. reboot vash deserves just as much love as '98 vash.