My Brother's Keeper (VI)
You may have noticed that I didn't extensively discuss Rollo, Livio, or Legato, which is maybe odd considering they are (and pretty blatantly so) parallels or foils to Wolfwood and the twins. And it's mostly because I'm trying not to let this damn thing become even longer (it was supposed to be three parts. Three. It's clocked out at seven, and that's after I took a machete to it to stop it becoming eight. Goddamnit) and I did already go on about all of them in the episodes they appeared.
It's also because at this point, Wolfwood's story (for the moment) is done. When he makes the choice to leave July and Vash behind, that's the end, and the reason he returns actually isn't about him at all. The narrative focus is instead on Meryl and Zazie, making sure we know what both have to say about this. It's good to know Zazie's displeased by this turn of events and very unlikely to ever again believe a word Knives says. (Humans will eat your planet just like they did their own and real quick Imma use Vash to eat the planet myself first sorry-not-sorry BYE WORMS.) It's sweet that Meryl's love of Vash didn't result in her death by Knives's jealousy, as it did for Rem and nearly did for Luida.
Nick's concerns, however, have always been limited to the orphanage and Livio, and their fates are both now out of his hands.
Everything always comes back to the twins, in the end. I think in this analysis I've come to understand the key to Stampede, which is that almost nothing in it is only about the thing it seems to be about. It's always also in some way about the twins.
Wolfwood's part in Stampede is about how he was Knives's weapon and became Vash's follower. He goes from being Nicholas the Punisher full time, a walking dead man carrying his own tombstone, to being Nicholas D. Wolfwood, the awkward, scruffy, snarky dweeb who cares for his family with his whole heart and lives to see a kinder world. Inevitably he has been scarred and stained with blood - he remains the one who killed all those people on the cult's orders, and he'll bear the cross for them. But he's no longer limited to killing in order to save. There's a new path for him to follow.
It starts with doing what Vash would do: getting out of there while he still can before everything explodes. He just happens to scoop Meryl up as he's fleeing. When the twin angels ascend to do battle, the best place for mortals to be is anywhere but nearby.
He wasn't going to rescue Vash, and he never could have. Protecting Vash was the task Knives gave him, and that was out of an complete absence of respect for Vash as a person, a competent adult, a being of unimaginable power, an independent-thinking-individual-who-isn't-exactly-like-Knives etc. The very last fucking thing Vash needs is to wake up in the care of another paternalistic "older" brother - not that I believe Wolfwood would ever treat him the way Knives does, but frankly I can see why neither would want to take the risk.
(Also increasingly sure Knives is bsing about being the older twin. It's like how Wolfwood really is still a kid, and he acts like one, and honestly I think Vash treats him like one. Those startlingly fond, adoring expressions that blow you away a little bit? They're What Vash Is Like Always About Everyone. But especially kids. He's like that about Meryl, too, just less overtly.)
If anything, Vash saved Wolfwood. So Nick realises he has to survive, when before he kinda just wanted to die. He's no longer permitted some dumbfuck last stand. Fighting Knives is crazy and impossible, so let the impossible crazy man take care of it. It's his field of expertise. Love and peace ya'll. Woowoo's out.
Two things, however.
The reason, in the manga, that Wolfwood didn't return to Hopeland (until he did), and the reason, in the manga, Chapel has none of the narrative's sympathy (not even Vash really gives a fuck when Wolfwood snaps his neck, and Chapel was already in a wheelchair at the time. I remember a bookclub post that declared God hates Chapel. I'm a layperson, but I'd call that theologically sound).
I mean, there are multiple reasons, but the most relevant is that in the manga, this evil-minded wrinkly fuck trained Wolfwood to kill. Wolfwood believed that being a killer rendered him unfit to ever again return home, until the day Chapel launched a direct assault on the orphanage using Razlo and Livio, revenge upon Wolfwood for taking up another cause - being Vash's friend - when his sole loyalty and purpose was supposed to be in death. He's disgusted that Wolfwood let Vash's ideals blunt his edge when previously he was near-"perfect".
I can't tell you what shape these events will take. But I can tell you they're still in the future. Stampede is a prologue, and the final phase has not arrived. Wolfwood's beginning is complete. His real story is yet to come. And I don't think he's forgiven himself for fulfilling the contract, even if Vash has.
The angel's eye, the Eye of Michael, still watches.
(And only the angel's? We'll see.)
Anyway, back to the twins.
(Part I)
(Part II)
(Part III)
(Part IV)
(Part V)
(Part VII)
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It feels like it was only yesterday I read about Oscar getting a mermaid girlfriend and now there's Ikasumi. I ship it, though! I'm curious what happened to the mermaid girl. Also, I think I'm experiencing what the rest of the guild is feeling when it comes to Oscar's lovelife, like since when was this a thing I want deets 😂
FUN FACT: HE STILL HAS THE MERMAID GF TOO!!!!!!!! this is what i mean when i say oscar has that playboy streak!!!!!!! hes like "Oh we have [problem]? I know someone who can help! ^^" AND ITS ONE OF HIS EX-GIRLFRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and FOR REAL this is oscars running joke. he always has things going on that for some reason he doesnt tell anyone about and doesnt bring up?? 1) his girlfriend changes often and 2) his other running joke is hes always doing part-time work at some different job every so often. mochi and coco go outfit shopping, trying to pick clothes, mochi like "What do you think of this color on me?" and oscar, somehow working at that clothes shop, out of nowhere is like "Nice it brings out your eyes!"
mochi & lime after some magic commission exhausted in a far off town, go to get dinner and sit down and the server (oscar) is like "Hey guys! I can get you a discount since I work here!" when theyre like "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU EVEN DOING HERE???" he replies "Oh me? My uncle lives nearby and im visiting him for the weekend so i decided to help out at their diner. Pretty cool, huh?"
they go to some festival happening in town, walking around stalls and theres oscar managing one of those hacked, rip-off game booths like "Hey Mochi! We have this fluffy cat stuffed animal that looks like your style! Maybe you can solicit Lime into winning it for you! (overworld challenge noise)" (which turns into an aggressive "I'm gonna win that fucking cat." vs "I own this damn game and you're gonna empty your pockets before I let you win it.")
anyway, oscar is a psuedo-cryptid in his own right.
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Me for the longest while: Hera is super meticulous and organized and is the person gently tapping a portrait until it's perfectly aligned and/or gutting the entire wall to rebuild it because they've realized it's why the pictures keep getting off tilt by less than a degree. She very much is a perfectionist, and likes everything to be spotless and flawless, from her home to her children to the entirety of Olympus, and blessings on anyone who threatens her immaculate tranquility.
Me for the last couple years or so: Zeus is also super organized but in an orderly, autistic, "everything has its place and must be in that right place, and if it is not I will not handle it in a healthy way at all because I have been more or less catered to my entire life and therefore have terrible coping mechanisms" and "gets weird about the right names and uses for things, and will get even weirder, for example, if you use a mug for cold water because it's supposed to be for hot beverages" kind of way
Me:
Me: This is definitely an area they fight and have weird sex about.
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