#trigun meta

[firethekitty]

thinking about how knives’ last interaction (not only with a human but literally ANYONE) is with this cute little kid in awe of his apple tree who just treats knives like a totally normal guy, not like a freak or a god to worship

you’d assume for someone who hates humans so much that knives would eventually die in a blaze of glory like shot down by the military or something. but the real beauty of his death is how in willingly creating the tree with the last of his powers, he ensures not only the survival of vash, not only the survival of these two humans, but the survival of ALL humans. and at this point, knives has finally accepted the fact that humans are inherently good and he’s confident in leaving vash with them. he TRUSTS them to save him.

i especially love that the kid asks if knives told vash he was leaving. just like a very basic indication that you care about someone. and knives kinda takes that as his cue to finally let go and leave vash on his own

#talking #trigun #trimax #trigun meta #maybe he never lost that little kid who wanted so badly to be friends with the humans...

[revenantghost]

Man, there are a lot of great (and very true) posts about how Knives doesn’t see his fellow plants as individuals, but this was the moment I really first had that gut-punch realization. I’m sure there are no rituals for laying a plant to rest, but it’s incredibly fucked up to take a corpse, writhing in pain, and string it up for your own motivation. Your own selfish purposes. The afterlife is something fairly present in the Trigun universe, and this soul surely isn’t at peace

#Trigun #Trigun Stampede #Tristamp #I think I made a shitpost about this scene while watching it JUST TO COPE #IT'S SO FUCKED UP MY DUDE!!!!!!!!! #My Trigun Meta #Trigun Meta

[orcelito]

everyone always talks about That One panel of Trigun: Multiple Bullets, but i havent seen anyone talk about how fucking BATSHIT INSANE the surrounding fight is

like

Vash & Wolfwood fighting back-to-back, both using the punisher as a shield

(the rest under a readmore bc this accidentally got LONG...)

Vash seeing the shots coming from behind & purposefully not moving bc he knows if he does, Wolfwood would get hit

Wolfwood getting injured too, but not moving from Vash's back. the way he's stanced, it looks Protective. he's doing what he can to keep Vash out of the direct line of fire.

even when he's getting shot up for it, he Doesn't Move. (this also seems to be the moment he got hurt, which leads into the panel later)

& throughout this whole scene, we are only seeing Wolfwood's reactions.

until the girls give them an opening, and they burst out with THIS:

Wolfwood injured, so he can't properly aim the punisher... and he gets around this by sticking one of the leather straps in his Mouth

and then we FINALLY get to see Vash's face again as he grabs the punisher (with a "GAN" sound effect, so he fuckin SLAPPED that metal hand on the punisher).

Wolfwood trusts him enough to just do what he says in the thick of battle, so we FINALLY get to the iconic panel:

which brings us to the aboslute insanity of what Vash is actually Doing.

"DON DON" -> two shots fired for two missiles launched. he literally manages to TURN THEM AROUND MID-FLIGHT (interesting to note that they seem to have internal propulsion, rather than simply being fired by Wolfwood. how many of these does Wolfwood have? they seem heavy.)

he manages to avert the third missile from hitting the dude directly, and instead makes it land Behind him. then the other two missiles, he rests his arm on Wolfwood's shoulders to hit them and direct them behind the other two enemies

Boom.

killing no-one, but showing an INSANE level of fine control AND teamwork.

and in the end, Wolfwood's arm is in a cast, Vash seems either unhurt or hurt but unbothered by it (typical Vash). And Life Goes On.

(forgot to mention before, but all panels are from @trigun-manga-overhaul! thank u for the beautiful pages)

#speculation nation #trigun #vashwood #fanny reads trigun #fanny's trigun analysis #does this count as meta? it's more a fight analysis than anything else #sure w/e i'll tag it. i'm going pretty in depth into it anyways. #trigun meta #anyways. these 2 drive me fucking insane & this WHOLE fight exhibits it so much #the cooperation... the Protecting each other... the extreme skill... #as it's put later in the manga. 'These two are accustomed to fighting as a team.' #& honestly this is the Perfect example of it. #no id #bc it would take... an Eternity to ID all these. sorry .

[h4venpha]

me when baby knives who had just as shiny, sparkly, big ol downturned eyes as vash. so full of wonder and joy and curiosity!!!

poor baby :((( pls look at his gentle eyes and little sheepish smile

#i swear i posted this earlier but my shit was lagging #anywya i have This ig #millions knives #trigun stampede #trigun maximum #trigun maximum knives #trigun knives #knives angst #vash the stampede #trigun manga #trigun #trigun nai #trimax angst #trigun meta

[justmaghookit]

I see a lot of Vash outlives the gang and lile eventually reincarnation aus and stuff but my personal headcanon post trimax is Vash has used up like all his power, his hair's fully black. I think he starts aging normally(aging like a human), I think he dies first actually, the years catch up. I think he's surrounded by his loved ones, I think they stroke his hair and hold his hands and he feels so so loved and he's going to miss them so much but its almost a relief to not see them all go first, to know they have years ahead of him. I think he falls asleep peacefully and wakes up to a hand ruffling his hair and asking if he's really going to sleep in "Needlenoggin" I think Wolfwood's there to greet him in the other side. They've got places to go, things and people to see.

I think the phantoms of The Puisher and the Humanoid Typhoon are main stays in the local legends all across gunsmoke.

#bird chatter #trigun #trigun meta #vashwood #be emo with me

[sword-dad-fukuzawa]

I know everyone and their mother is frothing at the mouth about it but. The fact that they have Vash say “Who are you?” in the English dub before telling Knives he doesn’t recognize him anymore. Good lord. It’s like Vash is seeing Knives for the first time and realizing his twin has become completely unrecognizable.

Even as the visual cues have actually made their physical similarities even more obvious (Vash’s finale redesign having his hair pushed back, the multiple side by side shots, Knives himself having discarded his amongus hoodie) it’s a moment where their identities diverge.

Violently.

“I’m Vash the Stampede” and “Nai is dead.” The finale of Trigun s1 is the declaration to end 150 years of stalemate. Even as they once defined themselves as a pair, when Vash asks “Who are you?” with such broken, seething horror, it’s like he’s realizing he’ll have to let him go.

It’s heartbreaking when you consider he once said “I’ll find a way to save everyone…including Nai.” This is when the denial shatters and Vash thinks for the first time that maybe he can’t save his brother.

(Maybe his brother doesn’t want to be saved.)

It’s an interesting parallel to every little betrayal Vash has stacked on Knives’s shoulders over the years. Knives, at least, holds no illusions about the sort of person his brother is. Knives knows damn well Vash won’t listen to him, hence the mindbreak in ep11.

It’s Vash who’s held on for so long to the fragile hope that he can get through to Knives. Vash who believes in Knives’s capacity for change. Vash who has faith in him.

“Who are you?” is emblematic of all that hope, all that love, shattering. It makes me so emotional. Imagine asking your twin, your mirror, the only one like you in the world, who they are because you don’t recognize them anymore. God. The localization team went off with that one.

#Vash the stampede #millions knives #trigun #trigun stampede #trigun meta

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

it could be that I’m just missing the subsection of the fandom that likes to play around with this concept, but I’m a little surprised I haven’t seen more people pulling at Vash’s fear and confusion at his own body and its transformations for angst material

it’s really unique to me, in the way that usually body angst and physical changing is accompanied by self-hatred of the body itself - but Vash doesn’t actually hate his body. He doesn’t hate that he’s a Plant. His self-hatred comes from the actions he is forced or stressed into performing when he no longer has any control over himself; when control is wrest away from him, often violently - and this is all signified by physical changes in his body; literally being shaped into a gun to be fired

and here’s the thing. Wolfwood is so special to me because he has to learn who Vash is and remind himself several times of his character in the face of his fear and of being in the presence of a being incomprehensibly more powerful than him. but Vash is scared too.

he didn’t understand what was happening to him in July. his own plantness is just as much a mystery to him as it is to most humans. he had no guide. he has no mother.

vash and wolfwood spend much of their journey in mutual fear - wolfwood for having no control, and vash for having already seen the consequences of losing it. because it really is about control in the end - and the way that Vash constantly has his stripped from him, the way that his scars (which he doesn’t hate either btw!) are the only proof he had for the longest time that his choices were his own, the way Vash cannot confront his brother for as long as his own body is the linchpin of Knives’ control over him.

and that’s why it’s significant that Vash’s triumph over his body was not an overcoming of self-hatred for being a plant (this was never an issue), but actually his ability to take control over his own transformation - to assert himself with a goal much stronger than resisting another’s influence, or preserving the memory of the dead - that Vash and Wolfwood overcome their mutual fear in volume 8 in order to save each other is the pinnacle of their shared development before the end, and there is so much more I could say to elaborate on this godDAMN

But yeah. The way Vash’s body transformations are a mystery to himself and symbolic of his lack of control is absolutely one of my favourite things about this manga

#he! doesn’t know! ANYTHING AT THE BEGINNING!!! his body is a mystery to himself! #can we play with that! can we PLEASE PLAY WITH THAT!!! #look there is so much I left out of my half formed ramble here #but I think the point comes across #storyrambles #trigun #trimax #vash the stampede #trigun meta

[oikyskau]

seeing kenji muto, the director of trigun stampede, reading an article about the portrayal of women in media made me want to take a little bit of a closer look at the women in trigun and as i was rambling about this earlier to my partner, they told me to write it down LMAO

as most of us know, in a lot of fiction, women are mostly characterised through common tropes, leading to a lack of complexity and a one-dimensional portrayal: as the doting wife, the femme fatale, the mistress, or the virgin. Their role only amounts to an Other, an extension of the male hero. they’re either the whore or the madonna.

for female characters in anime that usually means they’re either the sexy femme fatale, big badonkers and all to be gazed at, the mother, the helpless damsel in distress, or the child (yet, still sexualised despite the fact that it is a literal child); they’re portrayed through the way they are being perceived by men and mostly sexualised beyond belief. 

tristamp doesn’t do any of that.

in fact, the female characters in stampede achieve something that you don’t often see in anime: they are people. and stampede makes that clear in its very first episode by decidedly not going the route that you would usually take with the female characters they introduce:

of course, the biggest example here would be meryl, who i’d argue is the biggest driver of the plot, despite the fact that the plot of stampede is technically determined by vash - vash is an entirely passive character, he doesn’t make things happen, things happen to him and they mostly happen to him because of meryl. she’s the one who unties him, she drags them to the city, she makes them stay with him after ep3, she drives over wolfwood (rip my man), she stops for them to find rollo, she makes them follow the steamer.. you get it. she does all of this, despite being introduced as the newbie, the innocent person who would usually be the damsel in distress, who is helpless and shy and easily manipulated and who will probs be sexualised in her role as the “virgin” (sexually naive young girl who just doesn’t get all this adult sexuality yet hehe) 

but she’s not – she wears a non-sexualised outfit, she only gets called out for being a newbie, or for being small height-wise by wolfwood, but not for being a “girl”, she determines the action despite the fact that she does have a mentor figure and is therefore still in a position of a student – she still isnt an extension of roberto, vash, or anyone

in fact, the other characters – Rosa, Elendira, Luida, Rem – all take up roles that would in other media be portrayed in very specific ways: Rosa could just be a pregnant mother, who is also a divorcee, Elendira could be an innocent child beholden to her caretaker, Luida could be the loving motherlike figure and rem the Madonna figure, symbolising all the virtues a woman should aspire to have. – Rosa is a leader, her pregnancy is mentioned one single time and never made a bigger part of her character, Elendira is young but powerful, making choices by herself that are not inherently based on any kind of innocence, Luida doesn’t coddle Vash or prioritise him over her own work and mission (which also serves to inspire another woman, meryl!!), and rem is also just a non-perfect person, with secrets and questionable morality

none of these women are judged on the basis of their gender, none of them experience gender-based violence, none of them are made into a joke, none of them are sexualised (or desexualised – if you compare them to the male characters, who also do not ever make jokes about sexual promiscuity or similar stuff), they have different body types (rem has a very pronounced chest, and yet stampede doesn’t ever focus on it or give her cleavage) – note also that when presented with the perfect opportunity to call a female character a “bitch”, they chose to go with a “witch” instead, in both original japanese and english dub

their femininity is not used as a weapon against them, nor are stereotypical hypermasculine elements used to define characters’ positive traits (vash not being our traditionally hypermasculine hero for example) - the only time we see a semblance of gender-based violence is, you guessed it, at the very end, when knives forcefully takes control and bodily autonomy away from vash and inseminates the plants against their will (also interesting to note that knives, as the character that does exhibit that kind of violence, is the only character to be shown incredibly buff and all muscle) 

the women in tristamp are written for women, with the goal to be women that we can recognise, that represent the women that we are and know

anyways, i love all women in tristamp and have not once felt uncomfortable or said “oh look, a panty shot” and honestly i just find that pretty neat

#trigun stampede #trigun #meryl stryfe #rem saverem #trigun meta #ramblings #dont take this too seriously its just me being very nerdy for female characters LMAO #a lot of anime that i like fall into the trap of writing female characters for men and in relation to other male characters and i honestly #expect it at this point but PHEW was i going help WOMEN??? during tristamp #also do i need to add a citation bc im technically just citing my own thesis..... LMAOO

[whatever-you-can-give-me]

i'm not a "vashwood was always canon" truther i think that's a reductive reading of the text (and in fact i think it's much more likely that the centrality of vash and wolfwood's relationship to the text as a whole snuck up on nightow and beaned him in the back of the head with 2x4)

however.

[ID: A page from Trigun Maximum Volume 10, Issue 4, Vision of Death. Wolfwood throws himself forward and shouts "Spikey!!", then trips when a dagger hits him in the thigh. As he falls towards Vash, Vash shouts Wolfwood's name and drops his gun to reach out and catch him. Panels of Vash's outstretched hand and their shouting faces are shown as Vash narrates, "That is why after all was said and done, I wanted to share my tomorrows with him. Don't you agree... Wolfwood?" End ID]

that is why, after all was said and done, i wanted to share my tomorrows with him.

vash doesn't really want anything, over the course of trimax — he wants small, immediate things. for people not to die. for knives to stop. there's no indication of what he'd do after he's pulled the brake on knives' bbeg machinations.

for all his talk of blank tickets, we never really know where it is he wants to go — his blank ticket is a sentencing. there will always be a tomorrow, but there's no point planning for it.

he knows, before this, that what he wants will end up being torn from his hands. it's the first lesson of trimax. i was really happy with my life here.

AND YET! AND YET! he lets himself. for just a moment. want something. want a future. want a real, tangible future. it's the only thing he really wants.

don't you agree, wolfwood?

#vashwood #trigun maximum #trigun meta #the visual symbolism of him dropping his gun to catch wolfwood makes me SICK #trigun spoilers

[firethekitty]

i don’t understand when people say tristamp vash is “missing” his anger. like were you guys not paying attention to his multiple screaming matches with wolfwood or knocking wolfwood onto his ass or when he straight up violently chokes a dude out.

even just in this gif you can see how he needs to take a moment and bury his anger to respond to wolfwood calmly

(gifs by @/typhoonstrikes!)

just because his anger isn’t always loud and explosive does NOT mean it doesn’t exist

#talking #trigun #tristamp #trigun meta #like yes he’s generally more Wet Cat than other vash iterations #but i can see his anger very clearly. it’s just a bit more subtle. can you guys handle that

[revenantghost]

Man, I think the best and worst part of Knives’s character is just how compelling he is*

I get it. You get it. We all understand exactly how and why he is the way he is. So many people have put this idea into better words than I could. He witnessed an unspeakable horror at an incredibly young age. He knew he was different, that he was other, and a worry set deeply into his bones that humanity would reject him for being born who he is. 

And he was right. It was so much worse than he could have ever realized. He was born to be an object for humanity to use as they see fit. All he wanted was love and peace for himself and his brother. And after seeing that? What they did so mercilessly to Tesla? Who can blame him for not believing in any future with humanity in it. Who can imagine a future without unbelievable strife and prejudice when you’re outnumbered and are seen as an item to dissect and toy with as you see fit

And yet

And yet

In his fear, in his need to control and correct, the cycle continues. The abused becomes the abuser. He assaults his brother multiple times. He takes away Vash’s autonomy and manipulates his body without his consent. Hell he happily experiments with/tests and uses Vash’s body while unconscious. He says he loves Vash while refusing to hear a word coming out of his mouth. Because, if he has a moment of doubt, any hint of weakness, all of that anger slips away and he becomes that boy again--afraid and weak and alone

In his fear, he takes plants. He strips them of their independence and will, denying them their souls. Again, he uses the bodies of his siblings against their will. He displays their corpses to keep him angry instead of putting them to rest. He kills and breaks apart the body of his sister so that he doesn’t have to die, so that he can be reborn. He willfully denies the thoughts, dreams, and pains of his sisters and instead absorbs them, impregnates them, tries to kill them in the “right” way

In his fear, he drove humanity into hurting his kind more. He forced their hand into injuring and killing more plants than they’d ever dreamed of harming. He’s the one that put Vash into a constant position where he’s gaining mountains of scars. (His brother who, on the opposite end of the spectrum, has let the cycle of abuse continue while using himself as a shield instead of breaking free from the pattern.) He uses and discards the humans near him no matter the kindness and devotion they shows him

The same behavior Knives shows everybody and everything else

He’s awful. Absolutely sick and perverted and so stuck in his own mind that all he does is hurt and hurt and hurt

And yet

I get it. I’ve been traumatized to the point where all I want to do is cause pain in return. To feel that justice can exist and will come to pass, no matter the cost. To be so afraid that anger is the only safe emotion you can cling to. It’s what makes him one of the most compelling antagonists I’ve ever seen. Kudos to Nightow for fucking me up about Knives and his pain more by the day, honestly

*Except for ‘98 Knives lmao, that man is fabulously unhinged and overly dramatic about everything and I love him for it

#Trigun #Trigun Maximum #Trigun Stampede #Tristamp #Trimax #Trigun Meta #My Trigun Meta #Long Post #I did NOT intend for this to be so long #Maybe a quarter of this length at MOST #Ohhhh this didn't show up in the tag I'M VERY ANGY

[duncanor]

'Saw some folks discussing the wedding imagery of Wolfwood death on Twitter today. And one take was about Vash rejecting Wolfwood and pretty much leaving him at the altar because he couldn't give him the smile Wolfwood wanted and even cut him off.

And honestly, I think it's the opposite.

Vash is the one who proposed to him. Asking him to share his tomorrows with him.

The quote both a demand and an implied confirmation that it's two-sided.

However, Wolfwood is the one who ends up leaving Vash at the altar as he dies. The metaphorical wedding ring coming off as he expire. (as pointed out by @Jeneorarock earlier today)

In a way, I get why Vash reaction in this scene comes off as a rejection. But it isn't a rejection of Wolfwood himself,

It's a rejection of a future without him by his side. It's impossible for him to execute Wolfwood last wish as much as it is impossible for God to grant him what he begs for.

In conclusion, they truly do have the worst wedding of all time.

#trigun #trimax #Vashwood #Trigun meta #Vash #Wolfwood #Vash the stampede #nicholas d. wolfwood #trigun spoilers

[h4venpha]

vash who finally decided he wanted something permanent in his life,

and wolfwood who finally decided and accepted his death moments before.

#goodnight people #woohooooo #this is so fun right ??? #i love loving vashwood so much #this is what my entire account has become #vash the stampede #nicholas d. wolfwood #vashwood #vashwood angst #vash angst #wolfwood angst #trigun angst #trigun maximum #trigun maximum wolfwood #trigun maximum vash #trigun meta

[joulethieves]

Translation of Wolfwood’s contract. I am totally gagged by the fact he had to swear on this under oath of Vash’s name.

#Vashwood #tristamp #Wolfwood #trigun meta #trigun stampede #nicholas d. wolfwood

[twin-wings]

One of many reasons Manga Vash is so compelling to me is that he himself doesn't know the "correct" answers to the moral questions he struggles with, but despite this he never stops fighting and looking for them.

He is willing to take the pain and be hurt in place of others if it means one more life will be saved, but he doesn't expect everyone else to live the way he does and doesn't see himself as morally superior. He doesn't even really try to impose his own ideals on others unless he feels that killing is easily avoidable. He even thanks Wolfwood for being willing to dirty his hands to protect the people on the colony ship.

Ultimately, I think the manga is more interested in showing the characters' personal journeys than in giving definitive answers to the moral questions it presents, because reality is complex and sometimes a clear-cut, black-and-white solution doesn't exist, or is too hard to grasp due to our own limitations. Vash acknowledges this. He himself is in constant searching and I really like this aspect of his character.

#trigun #trigun maximum #vash the stampede #trigun meta #trigun spoilers #my post

[nanomooselet]

Holy shit he throws the Punisher away. Do you realise what this means. He put down his cross. He put punishment aside to save his family.

#trigun stampede #tristampparty #trigun meta