#vash is just So pretty in every iteration............... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ultraviolet-cello · 4 months

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Yo what's up it's me, ya boi, [horrendous infection that knocked me down for a couple days]

Anyway I'll be catching up episodes 3 4 and 5 tomorrow/day after, but for now I just wanna do my thing with ep 6. 6&7 are possibly some of my favourite episodes in Tristamp, so I'm hyped to show off my theories/details about them.

Once again spoilers for Trimax [HEAVY spoilers in this case, we're talking about Legato and Razlo]

TL;DR there's something fucked up with Tristamp Livio and by extension Razlo, and I need more of them all the time.

@tristampparty I'm back in the game!

So a lot of these theories and details will link to episode 7 :]

So of note in this scene is (obviously) Wolfwood's weird red eyes which. Pretty cool ngl. But I do think there's something to be said about the way he pauses and carries the Punisher in this scene; there's a pretty popular theory that Wolfwood gets extremely overstimulated when he takes a vial and the way he pauses and wobbles with the Punisher here is, for me, more evidence for the list.

Also that they won't give this man a CAR. Give him a Thomas or something??? I think it speaks to the dehumanization of Wolfwood by EOM that he doesn't seem to get to use transport like a normal person - always set to wander the desert, because he can survive that! Not like a normal person, of course. Only the Punisher is inhuman enough to do that.

I'll have what he's having [I love that Nightow's wanted poster gets in the magazine despite being. Yknow, 30 $$]

I'll talk about this more when I actually get round to analyzing episode 5, but Roberto calling out Vash's not-being-human and then immediately going "well I'm not risking my life for that" is interesting because he's, well, a reporter. It speaks to his experience that he's not willing initially to chase down something that could be a big scoop. But also,,,, Vash looks like. 20. Roberto is probably about in his 30s-40s, which means he's probably heard of Vash since childhood [Since Tristamp Vash has a much longer reputation history than Trimax/98]. I really wonder what Roberto thinks of that; did the picture not come as a shock to him, or did he already know? Does part of the reason he keeps letting himself be talked into following Vash stem from a lifelong curiosity? Much to think about.

This plant HAUNTS me. Why does she have such a different tank? Used to power the Ion Cannon, maybe, but there's the possibility people adjusted it so she can better power the sandsteamer and that's,,,, There's a complicated relationship between humans and plants (obviously), but little implications like those adjustments make me go !!!! [My friend @millions-dykes has a Plant Engineer oc, Enigma, who focuses on that concept. She's very cool]

LIVIO SIGHTED. Let me get this out of the way quickly, but y'know that panel that is often cited as inspiration for Tristamp Livio's design? Yeah that's. That's Razlo.

Which is really fucking funny to me because it's foundational to Tristamp Livio - love that for him, but trimax Livio specifically does not wield Punishers, and the page that this appears on is when Razlo is getting Livio to tell him he's the strongest (Which then goes into this training flashback montage page which is Razlo-centric). Which again, extremely funny to me.

Not necessarily analysis, but something all iterations of Trigun do great at is a sense of Scale. The sandsteamer is massive, yes, but so is the desert. There's some great shots with the moons later on, which I love as well.

Wolfwood really doesn't try and keep it secret, huh? I mean, in every iteration Vash Knows[TM], but tristamp Wolfwood in particular just,,, doesn't keep the secret. I wonder what other conversations they've had, when Wolfwood realized Vash knew.

Being always able to see Wolfwood's eyes gives him a layer of emotion that I really like - Trimax Wolfwood is a little more reserved, because he's more developed, further layered into those coping mechanisms and repressions that make up his character. Tristamp Wolfwood hasn't quite had that yet, and it's reflected in his design. It's sick as hell

Time for me to be so normal about Livio and Razlo ^_^ so I've built up a bit of a study case on the differences in when Livio or Razlo are fronting [Trimax], and once you start looking into paneling and shit it's Very apparent! Which is cool! And I'm starting to build up one for Tristamp Livio, which,,, well, you'll see. Anyway take note of his movements here - slow, even footsteps and steady guns.

The mask here is. Also a red flag for something being Off. The eye moving independently suggests that either they have some Weirder Than Usual Body Stuff going on, that Trimax Livio and Razlo can do that and nobody comments on it because they're being polite or - My theory - the mask having those electrical components are embedded somewhat in Livio's face. I will explain in just a second.

Livio as a kid being so upset about his parents interests me - In Trimax, Razlo kills Livio's parents because Razlo was formed as a protective alter due to heavy childhood abuse, and Livio doesn't seem too upset by that specifically, more just being,,, alone. I wonder what happened with their parents in this specific timeline, or if Razlo just hasn't presented yet.

Now I've uh. Kinda semi-intentionally blocked out some stuff I've read in the Bible, but I do remember someone being crucified upside down. St Peter that was it! I don't remember anything else but I'm sure people more well-versed in the Bible will have some imagery to point out lol

Legato's outfit seems a touch inspired by that one July flashback in Trimax. Which, given that Tristamp is a leadup to July, is a nice touch!

Legato might be a bit protective of his hair. Can't imagine why.

On a more serious note, it makes sense for Legato to have such a protectiveness around his body and physical appearance, especially if Knives had an influence in it.

sands undertal

I really do wonder what Legato's ability is in this. Like unless they retrieved Vash's arm from the. Wherever it got sucked into when it was amuptated they can't go the 98 route. But the wire explanation of Trimax also doesn't quite seem to fit. Something new, maybe. Could be related to Plants!

I wonder if Vash here is thinking about Rollo. That Wolfwood was willing to kill Rollo out of mercy, and he's going to do it again to Livio. Except this time, Wolfwood knows Livio. Vash doesn't know Livio, but Wolfwood does and it's going to hurt Wolfwood if Vash lets him carry on with this. So he goes to save Livio, and save Wolfwood as well. Similar to Trimax, where Vash kills Legato to save Livio as a remnant of Wolfwood's memory, Vash here could be protecting Livio to protect Wolfwood.

Okay here's where my crack theories come in. So I do think that Razlo is elbowing his way into front about here, not even necessarily because Livio is getting his ass handed to him, but because of the mask. He's probably not fully There, because the progressing fighting style continues in Livio's movements, but the eye changes are. Well, it's Livio and Razlo you can never be too careful.

So Livio hits the mask here and is down for the count for. A Bit. What's important here to me is that the mask does of course have an electrical component. Now, what would that be for? Well, gathering that Livio seemingly has a bit of trouble after this (early episode 7, this is a two parter theory), that the mask is used by EOM to force a switch remotely. After the mask seemingly malfunctions, we get a lot more Razlo-esque movements and traits in episode 7 before Livio seems to come back in and have his little meltdown.

It links in with both dehumanization of neurodivergent people (In this case, a system) and the usage of Razlo and Livio by EOM. Razlo's very often portrayed as Big Scary Murder Alter by EOM for scare factor, whereas when we get a bit more into Razlo's head in the Elendira fight we see a bit more what he's actually like - protective alter groomed into assassinhood by Chapel - and lends more understanding to the character. EOM being able to force trigger a switch would be viscerally horrifying for that loss of autonomy theme in a way that speaks to many neurodivergent people. Thanks for coming to my ted talk????

#cli speaks #trigun #tristampparty #trigun stampede #cli analysis

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jacenbren · 1 year

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I know it's probably been pointed out before, but I am Having Thoughts about the twins' shift in personality after the Big Fall so forgive me but I NEED to rant (here be spoilers be warned)

At first glance it's easy to think that Knives is very cold and emotionless and closed off, but when you look closer, you realize that that's probably the furthest thing from the truth. When we see him as a kid—no matter which iteration of Trigun you're watching—Knives is the high-energy, outgoing twin, with big ambitions and an even bigger desire to go seek out knowledge. Especially in trimax, he's the one who's the most intrigued by humans and wants to get along with them (it should be noted that both of the twins have a very black-and-white way of thinking and a very strong sense of justice; I personally headcanon both of them as autistic). He's the one who follows Rem around the ship, constantly bombarding her with why why why, and when she doesn't give him answers—either because said answers to his questions require a level of maturity he doesn't yet have to understand, or because Rem is fucking tired from taking care of twin alien boys who age rapidly and could blow up the entire fleet with their godlike powers—Knives stubbornly starts to look for them himself.

Then the Tesla incident happens. For Knives, this is the mother of all fuckery, and he basically is subjected to the alien equivalent of watching Mufasa get K.O.'ed by a herd of wildebeests in The Lion King. This scares the living shit out of him, because every one of his prior beliefs have just been obliterated. Knives being naturally very inquisitive and hungry for knowledge... well, after Rem comes and gets them and calms them down, Knives starts digging. He doesn't want to believe that this is what humans are capable of, but as he combs through the ship's data archives, he keeps getting atrocity after atrocity thrown in his face. Knives bears witness to the horrors of mankind's history, and with his black-and-white thinking, he can't help just fucking losing it.

We're all pretty aware that Knives wears his heart on his sleeve. Sure he acts all cool and calculating, but when he's actually in the heat of the moment, he clearly reacts to everything in a very emotional manner. That adventurous, energetic little kid he once was is still in there, but he's been damaged so very badly, and twisted to where his strong emotions are expressed almost entirely as anger and his inquisitive nature has become recklessness; Knives just doesn't know when to stop, because he can't. All he's been focused on for the past century and a half is the survival of himself and his kind, and he's basically been in a kind of high-alert attack mode since the Big Fall.

Knives has built up a shell around himself. A sharp, spiky shell of weaponized emotions, that nothing but Vash can break through.

Speaking of Vash, he was a pretty shy, reserved kid. Especially in tristamp, he's the softspoken, mama's boy type. He's pretty clingy towards Rem especially, and he's more than happy to let Knives do all the decision-making and talking. He fits the younger sibling archetype very well, despite him and Knives being twins.

When the Tesla incident happens, Vash takes it a bit better. He's not curious to a fault like Knives is, so he takes Rem's word for it when she reassures him and says that she would never let anything happen to him or his brother. Instead of flipping his viewpoints on a dime out of fear, Vash instead becomes even more firm in his ideals: yes, humans are by no means perfect, but they've been nothing but kind to him and Knives so far. Vash comes to the conclusion that if he doesn't give the humans a reason to hurt him, everything will be okay, so Vash constructs a wall around himself like Knives did, only Vash's is purely defensive and deliberately disarming. Especially after the Big Fall, Vash is extremely aware of how untrusting humanity is of him, so he pours all his energy into making himself as likeable and non-threatening as he can.

Unlike Knives, we rarely see Vash react to dangerous situations with genuine emotion. It's very obvious that Vash's careless, happy-go-lucky attitude is a construct that he uses to hide his true feelings, and a meticulously-constructed one at that—in the '98 anime, Wolfwood is one of the few people who seem to be able to pick up on this and point it out. Sure, Vash might be a genuinely good-hearted and hopeful person, but he's just as scared as Knives is, only he hides behind a facade and tries to make himself as palatable to humans as he can (yet another reason why I headcanon the twins as autistic; homeboy has been masking for literal centuries and when he finally ends up having a meltdown because of it he levels cities lmao).

Vash has also built up a shell around himself. His, however, is deliberately made to seal himself away from the world, out of fear for himself, humanity, and the rest of his kind.

forgive me for the long post but I am rotating these two little shits in my Mind Microwave omg

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to-eat-laugh-love-in-peace · 7 months

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So I have a theory that the next season of Trigun Stampede is going to tackle the Fifth Moon Incident seeing as one, there have been a few official merchandise that depicted one or more moons in the background such as a t-shirt depicting the phases of the moon right beside the series’ title and above Vash and Wolfwood who are standing back to back with their guns drawn,

a Vash figure that again has him with his gun drawn depicting not only three moons but also Jeneora Rock, which was where the Fifth Moon Incident took place in the manga, behind him,

and a poster from the Blu-ray Soundtrack CD Booklet depicting Vash releasing a grappling hook from his prosthetic arm towards the general direction of the largest of the three moons present in the background, with the friction from the grappling hook being released causing sparks to fly,

and two, in the end credits scene in episode 12 an unbroken shot of the crater-laden surface of a moon overlooking a red and brown planet that I think is supposed to be No Man’s Land is shown while two people can be heard talking to each other off-screen. This leads me to think that Chronica and the other members of Project Pieces of Earth are going to have something to do with the Fifth Moon Incident happening this time around as seen how one of the two voices belongs to an unidentified man, who says that Project Pieces of Earth is entering phase two now that the drain gate deployment has been completed and the experimental warp drive craft is just about to be released, only for the other voice belonging to a woman later identified as Special Ops Lieutenant Colonel Independent Chronica, to give him the order to suspend the countdown because she notices a fluctuation in the gate, that they’re receiving something via subspace, and so she gives the order to be given readings of the entire solar system from which they learn that the noise is coming from Project SEEDS, which leads to Zazie letting Meryl know that ships from Earth will arrive at No Man’s Land after crossing a bridge of light thanks to the twins casting a bridge across the void during their confrontation in July when they met up at the memorial, before they take off. Also, in Tristamp’s iteration of the July Incident, when Vash tries to keep the excess energy from his gate he had condensed into the cube he kept contained within his demon arm from killing every living being on the planet and even possibly destroying the entire planet itself once the cube came apart, he couldn’t just point his demon arm up at the sky from where he was standing like he did in Trimax and ‘98, he had to actually fly past the planet’s atmosphere in order to release the blast into space so he’s likely going to enter into another fight with Knives that takes place in space for the Fifth Moon Incident to take place so they might be bringing in the Ark.

And on top of that, I think that the series of events that lead up to the Fifth Moon Incident are going to be combined with the series of events that lead up to another incident in Trimax where Vash nearly caused another July Incident, the Dragon’s Nest Incident, seeing as the people present and had a role to play in the Dragon’s Nest Incident were Hoppered the Gauntlet, Midvalley the Hornfreak, Zazie the Beast, Legato Bluesummers, Elendira the Crimsonnail, Millions Knives, Vash the Stampede, Nicholas the Punisher, Meryl Stryfe, and Milly Thompson, and in Tristamp, and in Tristamp Hoppered is pretty much confirmed to show up since his entire character hinges on the destruction of July City, Midvalley was name dropped in a newspaper article Roberto was reading in episode 6 about how he was scheduled to perform in September City for his live tour, Milly was also name dropped and practically confirmed to appear in S2 as Meryl’s very own newbie, with Meryl literally heading back to HQ to pick her up, Vash, Meryl, and Wolfwood have traveled together and gotten to know each other for at least two months prior to Lost July, with episode 1 taking place at May 25 and episode 12 taking place at July 21, which they were personally there to witness, and even play a part in, with Meryl learning not only more about Vash but also Wolfwood thanks to Conrad after getting kidnapped by Zazie and held hostage at the EoM’s base of operations in July City on top of receiving her signature weapon that is her derringer from Roberto and solidifying her resolve to go after Vash and help him however way she can to stop Knives from killing off each and every human on the planet, and Legato and Elendira have already made an appearance, however brief they were, so the cast lines up.

Starting with Vash having to leave behind his life with Lina and Sheryl as Eriks, I think that bringing him back into the fray in S2 is going to be group effort among Meryl, Milly, and Wolfwood for reasons others have pointed here and here, and that S2 is going to take the scene of Meryl returning Vash’s belongings that had been confiscated by the Bernardelli Insurance Society now that it had gone out of business with everything that had been happening with Knives and the ark in Trimax, and have it be her returning Vash’s belongings that he didn’t bring with him to July and instead left on Ship 3, like his photo of him, Nai, and Rem, along with the other photos of them and maybe even that recorder thing that Rem used to film their first birthday that Brad had been able to bring back from the ruins of Ship 5 back then and also that notebook he was shown writing what were likely journal entries during the flashback to the first few years he spent living in Ship 3, among other things like small trinkets he’s kept during his travels around No Man’s Land in Tristamp, since he was kind of pressed for time what with Meryl and Roberto getting kidnapped by Zazie so he really only brought the bare necessities with him to July.

That is assuming Meryl was able to visit Ship 3 at some point after the July incident which I like to think that she was able to one way or another even if she did leave on short notice. I figured that with how well Meryl and Luida got along while she was on Ship 3, especially with how supportive Meryl was of Luida’s goal to terraform No Man’s Land into a green planet with the flora she’s been growing in Ship 3’s biodome in order to lessen the strain the plants, they would want to keep in touch with one another somehow from that point on. And then there’s also the fact that Zazie told her that ships from Earth were on their way to No Man’s Land so Meryl would want to talk to a first-generation Project SEEDS crew member about it which I wonder how it’ll go since it seems like in Tristamp no one not even the people on Ship 3 seems to hace any idea that there's still life of Earth seeing as Luida’s plan in Tristamp isn't to repeatedly send a message to Earth until their receive and respond to it like it was in Trimax but to terraform No Man’s Land into a green planet in order to lessen the amount of work that the Plants have to do in order to keep humanity alive. Also, I also have a theory that the new pairs of earrings that she’s shown wearing two years after the July Incident aren't just for show, that they were given to her by Ship 3 and they work kind of like how Vash's earring does in '98 and Trimax where it acts as a hidden communication device connected to a pen or just the other earring in her case since she owns a pair ever since I heard someone, somewhere, forgot where, point out that Meryl’s new earrings look not only like a combination of her signature dangle earrings and Vash's signature huggie earring in silver, but also like a Dependent Plant with their petals curled to form a bulb around their upper torsos, I haven’t stopped thinking about it ever since.

I’ve theorized before in the tags of another post here that Brilliant Dynamites Neon and Meryl might have a confrontation with each other in S2 since although the two haven’t interacted much outside of her and Milly disguising themselves as members of the Bad Lads Gang to later back up Vash and Kaite when they’re cornered by the Bad Lads Gang during their heist on the sand steamer in the ‘98 and Trimax, in both iterations Neon took the time to ask Vash about what exactly happened in July that led to the city being destroyed, and in '98 its residents being left alive but homeless unemployed and impoverished leading them to fight and kill each other to survive in the fallout of the incident, and in Trimax its residents being swallowed by a black hole leading to no survivors or even any bodies left to be found which led Vash to ask him if he had folks who were in July at the time of the incident and then admit that he just didn't remember much about July when asked if he had anything to do with it which Neon was forced to accept before the two had a duel and then after Neon shot a rock about to crush Vash's head during their duel he was revealed to have been prepared to kill Vash for some time since July only for him to decide spare him for now not having let go of his reasons for wanting revenge post-July to stay true to the terms of their duel as was pointed out in this post.

Now in Tristamp Meryl was not only in July when the incident took place but was also there to witness firsthand what exactly happened for the city to have been completely demolished and more than half of its population to have been killed by a large explosion. Also, unlike Vash in '98, Trimax, and possibly Tristamp she didn't develop amnesia from the traumatic incident and still retains her memories of the incident. On top of that, she along with Roberto were announced on the radio to be suspected accomplices of Vash the Stampede who the military police were looking to bring in as persons of interest in episode 4, and she’s implied to have been spending the past two years since the July Incident defending Vash as was pointed out here. And then add in the fact that she's met the Bad Lads Gang when they took her and Roberto with them to the sandsteamer to take pictures of them during their heist to publish in the paper before Vash came in and knocked them out and all of this took place on July 20, the day before the July Incident took place, meaning that they could recognise her if they tried to find her. Also I wonder why Neon wasn't on the ship at the time like was he visiting his folks in July only to be pulled away when he heard that the heist was a bust because the ship was taken off course and its ion cannon was locked and loaded to fire at Hopeland? And if Neon had folks in July in Tristamp then what's their deal since it's been said to be the wealthiest city in NML with its citizens having to contribute to the city's development and pass a screening process to obtain citizenship according to additional lore provided in a tweet by Studio Orange.

I’ve also theorized in the tags of another post here whether or not Studio Orange will adapt the Little Arcadia arc considering what they've established with the flora in S2 which I think that they’ll likely adapt it because one, that’s when Marilyn Nebraska along with her mother and brothers make an appearance in Triamax and in Tristamp she’s been seen in wanted posters from time to time confirming her existence in this iteration, and two it puts a lot of focus on Meryl and Milly, like it provides some insight into their personal lives with their families and everything, as well as who they are as individuals and as partners, and with Milly being confirmed to show up in S2 as Meryl's very own newbie it's going to be crucial that they take some time for them to get to know each other and grow closer. Besides that if they ever do adapt the Little Arcadia arc I wonder how they would adapt Badwick and his family? With how Meryl reacted to the flora and by extension Geo Plants on Ship 3 are Geo-Plants just that rare even among Plants? Does no one else really try to use them to grow flora to the extent that Luida does? If so, what would that mean for Badwick's parents? Are they people who have no connection to Luida or Ship 3 and simply happen to share her dream to terraform NML into a green planet through the use of a Geo-Plant they have in their possession only for their dream to be threatened by their son planning to sell the land to someone who wouldn't really take care of it not to the extent that they have and certainly not with the dream that they hold? Or is something else going to go on with them?

Moving onto Legato, I think that when he does reappear in S2 he’s already going to be in a body cast like his Trimax counterpart was in since I think that the reason why he wasn’t in the S1 finale was because Knives crippled him prior to Vash’s arrival as punishment for acting on his own when he had taken the sandsteamer off of its original course to July through the use of his telekinetic ability to have it collide with Hopeland instead, leading Vash to take even longer to get to July after he had exhausted himself from communicating with the ship’s Plant to slow the ship to a stop, on top of redirecting the ship’s ion cannon which he had also telekinetically manipulated to power up to keep it from firing at Hopeland, fighting with Livio who he had sent after him, and fighting off the Bad Lads Gang who’d taken over the ship and held Meryl and Roberto hostage, and so had to be taken to Ship 3 to rest and recuperate for more than half of the day he was supposed to have already arrived in July, when he was just supposed to take the ship’s Plant once it arrived to July and further raise the stakes by stranding the ship’s passengers, leaving them with no other choice than to seek refuge in the city.

Either leading him to focus either solely on Vash after possibly both out of anger for being responsible for Knives’ state after July, nevermind the fact that Knives wouldn’t have been in that state had he not continued to put himself in Vash’s demon arm’s line of fire to reach for the cube despite Vash yelling at him to stop, to get out of the way, that he’s going to burn himself alive if keeps this up, and shame because his actions had led him to be put in a position where he couldn’t assist Knives when he surely would have needed it most, or direct his attention to Vash along with Wolfwood and Meryl because all three of them, in his eyes, had a part in Knives’ being severely injured, if not nearly dead after July. Or at least in Wolfwood’s case, he was the reason why Meryl had gotten out of July before the incident took place which I’m sure he wouldn’t be very happy about.

For a moment I thought that the idea of him meeting Vash for the first time since July in a full metal body cast like the coffin-shaped one that was either carried around by a lackey, attached to a motorcycle he would drive around, or attached to a sort of arm piece that would prop him up or push him forward his Trimax counterpart was in when he introduces him to the game he’s set up wouldn’t be likely since it would be a bit too conspicuous for him to go out in public in but then I remembered that his Trimax counterpart had also used his ability to make himself invisible to everyone but Vash in their first meeting, which was why Meryl and Milly expressed confusion when Vash warned Wolfwood about him on the bus ride to Jeneora Rock, so he could also just do that in Tristamp. And the thought of Vash being the only one who is able to see him in this utterly ridiculous contraption while everyone else just goes about their day like nothing’s wrong is such a funny mental image to me.

Since Monev is dead in Tristamp, I think that the one who Vash is going get into a fight with first after Legato introduces him to the game that he’s set up for him is Dominique the Cyclops because when he fights her in Trimax, he’s down one arm after he had his prosthetic arm blown off during his fight with Monev, and in Tristamp he’s also down one arm after he had sacrificed his prosthetic arm along with his gun to form his demon arm during his fight with Knives in July so the circumstances he’s in in Tristamp kind of line up with the circumstances he was in in Trimax. Also, Studio Orange could could easily give Dominique a backstory in Tristamp similar to Monev’s in Trimax with just a few changes to act as a parallel to Legato’s backstory, considering how they revamped Monev’s backstory to act as a parallel to Wolfwood’s backtory in Tristamp, again with just a few changes made for it to also act as a cautionary tale for both Wolfwood and Vash.

Seeing as what we do know about her is that she talks about the deaths of half of the Roderick Slavers as a simple matter of taking out the trash that profits off of the suffering of others, even calls it spring cleaning, and expresses happiness and relief over the surviving slavers having left town and no longer lining their pockets at the expense of the townspeople and expects Vash to feel the same, she has the ability to induce sensory paralysis in her foes, momentarily stunning them and making her movements appear immediate, when she lifts her eyepatch, which reveals a reptilian eye that I like to think is simply from a mutation rather than a product of experimentation, and locks eyes with her foes, regardless of the distance between them, and she commits suicide after she loses to Vash, saying that if she couldn’t be of use to Legato, then there was only one way this could turn out, which already kind of mirrors how Legato acts when it comes to Knives.

So she could made to be another slave girl who Legato freed for whatever reason, maybe not even with the intention to free her, like how he violently killed over a dozen people with his powers in front of those slave girls in Trimax, not because he intended to free them but because the slavers picked a fight with him first, though he did spare the girls, none of them were physically harmed at all despite the carnage, and he did offer them the closest thing he had to reassurances before he left, when he could have just ignored them, which he also could have done when he freed Dominique, the difference being that instead of being left to process what exactly went down in front of her like those girls did, Dominique expressed an interest to learn from him, work for him, if he’d let her, which Legato did allow her to do, though not without warning her that she would die a slow and painful death if she ever failed or disobeyed him, maybe after learning about her left eye’s ability and figuring that it could prove useful to further Knives’ cause much like his own ability.

Since Grey the Ninelives had also made an appearance, both as the mech suit in episode 3 and as the nine people who control it in episode 10, the attack on Ship 3 is all but guaranteed to take place, and I’ve also theorized in the tags of another post here that Meryl and Milly are going to play a much larger role to take them down probably alongside Wolfwood unlike in Trimax when they really showed up at the end of the fight as comic relief like they literally just happened to land on top of the surviving pilots right when they were just about to try and attack Wolfwood again since in Tristamp Meryl got to learn more about them when Conrad took her and Roberto in a tour around the Eye of Michael’s base of operations in July after she and Roberto had gotten kidnapped but not kept locked up by Zazie so she could be how Wolfwood finds out that this big guy is just a mech suited being piloted by nine people and in Trimax there’s this line that the guy who gave Meryl her first derringer says in a flashback something along the lines of how even small gun like that could even the odds between the biggest guy and her which really gives off a lot of David and Goliath vibes that they could and I kind of want them to reference during the fight. Though I’ve briefly considered that Milly is going to be the one who gets kidnapped instead of Meryl since she’s already gotten kidnapped before by Zazie in episode 9 during which she learned more about not only Vash but also Wolfwood thanks to Conrad in episode 10 and even had gone through quite a bit character development in an elevator lift thanks to Roberto later on, I think that Meryl is still the one who's going to get kidnapped, probably to keep Vash from reaching Knives before he’s fully recovered from his injuries this time around, seeing as Wolfwood did tell her he got her out of July in a mad dash that they were likely going to be hunted down by the Eye of Michael since they’ll never allow those who pose a threat to them to survive so maybe they’re eventually going to catch up to her and then take her away when she finds herself in a vulnerable position, maybe when she’s in the middle of looking out for Milly during a fight.

Which would automatically give Milly a personal stake to get Meryl back alongside Vash and Wolfwood since not only was she there when Meryl was taken away but also she was the reason why Meryl had been taken away despite how vigilant she’d been since she was aware of what was going on. And could lead to Wolfwood and Milly having an argument over whether or not she should come with them to get Meryl back.

Wolfwood could also have a conversation with Meryl after her kidnapping about what Vash and Knives are and what they can do as well as how Meryl should maybe back out and take Milly with her like he did in Trimax, which would be a stark contrast to how he planned to leave her and Roberto behind to be digested by a grand worm to separate them from Vash so he could get he alone would bring him to July as was pointed here and here. This could be something Meryl might seriously consider doing especially when she keeps in mind the fact that they’re fighting actual supervillains and she’s nowhere near on par with Vash and Wolfwood physically, so how is she supposed to protect an intern, who is bigger and stronger than her, as the situations become more and more dangerous, and on top of all that she’s still dealing with her grief and guilt over Roberto death so she wouldn’t want to risk repeating history with Milly.

Since Zazie appears to no longer side with Knives after what he had pulled in July nearly put them and their planet in danger of being wiped out, with how Wolfwood pointed out that he had never seen them so flustered when the two met up just outside of July, and how Zazie expressed confusion and borderline disappointment towards how the general public made Vash out to be the villain behind the July Incident when they and Meryl met up at the memorial, it’s unlikely that they’re going to be ones to kidnap Meryl this time around, with that role either falling to Midvalley or someone else. I think that it's going to be Midvalley since he was the one who commented on Zazie being the one to come up with the idea to kidnap Meryl and hold her hostage to draw Vash out in Trimax so why not just have him be the one to come up with the idea instead in Tristamp, seeing as there’s also this scene during his and Hoppered’s fight with Vash and Wolfwood where he manipulates the sound waves in the area in such a way that Vash can’t hear Hoppered lunging right at him so that could be how he catches Meryl off guard.

I didn’t even bother considering Hoppered to be the one to kidnap her since I think he’s much more likely to try to kill her the first chance he gets when you keep in mind that in Tristamp not only does Meryl know more about what's going on in than her ‘98 and Trimax counterparts have at this point of the series as was pointed out here but also she’s been implied to have spent the past two years since the July incident defending Vash’s name seeing as the first scene we see of her two years after the July incident was her ripping off Vash’s new wanted poster of the wall of the rest stop she stopped by at and then she later gets scolded and even threatened to be transferred to the insurance society by her coworker if she kept acting on her own after she told him she was at the crater so Hoppered definitely wouldn’t think killing her right then and there would be meaningless like he did in Trimax.

Lastly, seeing as Elendira was first introduced in Dragon’s Nest in Trimax, in Tristamp it could be where she could make a reappearance and have that rematch with Wolfwood Kenji Muto mentioned in a post on his twitter that depicted an older Elendira dressed and posed just like her Trimax counterpart, even holding that suitcase from where she would fire her nails in Trimax so I'm guessing that it’s somehow supposed to help her generate larger nails from her gate, did in the only flashback we ever see of her where she follows behind Knives from Legato’s perspective so she likely won’t show up just to keep Vash from firing his angel arm, or I guess demon arm in Tristamp, and retrieve Legato on Knives’ orders.

#Trigun #Tristamp #Trigun Stampede #Trimax #Trigun Maximum #Trigun '98 #Trigun 1998 #That's about everything I wanted to say and I can't wait to see what going to happen in S2 #I just wanted to put down my thoughts on what could happen so when it comes out I can look back on it and see what I got right #what I got close and what I got wrong and so I can see what other people think could happen in S2

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lost-technology · 1 year

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Vash - Asexual Icon?

Okay, controversial hot-take ahoy! This is NOT a anti-shipping post. I freakin’ love shipping. It’s awesome! I used to be big into Vash x Meryl back in my old OG fandom days. However, I read something on here (because this is tumblr, of course) about Vash being a queer icon, as in some notation on how in Trigun Stampede the director was cited as saying that he made Vash kind of like “both the female lead as well as the male lead” - as in, male, but having some traditionally feminine traits, hence why he looks more “bishounen” than he did in other iterations. He has some “ship-fodder” moments with various other members of the cast - commenting on Wolfwood’s “kind eyes” and, of course, my VashMeryl heart soared at a certain scene in Episode 11 - those who’ve seen it know the one. So far, in this version, there’s no clear canonical shipping with Vash. In the other iterations, there was never any canonical shipping with him (the only canon ship is the OG anime having Wolfwood and Milly “eat sandwiches” together). He never “ends up” with anyone. Some fans think that he’s heterosexual (well-argued in the OG anime due to his flirtatious behavior toward some female characters - the old late 1990s trope of “let’s make the hero a bit perverted for humor” that was popular at the time). I’ve met yaoi fans who were convinced that he’s one-hundred percent gay (despite the pervy toward attractive women behavior). Bisexuality can be very well-argued for him, especially in Stampede as noted above, also the “every character in every fandom is bisexual or pansexual in fandom” rule that people seem to have unless a character as a specifically stated sexuality. But has anyone besides me ever thought of Vash as an...asexual? (In this essay I will...) Consider Vash’s general character through the franchise when it comes to romance and / or sex: Stampede incarnation: Has a few moments that can be interpreted as flirty or budding feelings toward both Wolfwood and Meryl, however, nothing clear. His most significant relationship is familial - his grief-filled relationship with his toxic brother. This seems to be what this anime is about. Trigun Maximum incarnation: Never has any clear shipping with anyone, although there are interpretable moments, same as above. I remember that moment of pretending to be unconscious to avoid the attentions of prostitutes and being ashamed of his scars in the manga, same as in the OG anime. Nothing else of note. Classic Trigun Anime: Vash plays the flirt with pretty women. He goes into that common Late ‘90s Flirty Shounen Hero trope for anime heroes of the time. This seems more or less tossed in by the anime writers and director. As the anime becomes more serious, this is generally forgotten in a “Vash has too much on his plate for the romance-stuff” and it’s an action anime, not a romance anime... And the same shame of his scars... the same scene with the sex workers as noted above. (The context for the scene is that a town is celebrating because Vash saved them all and some of the men in the town set up with the local brothel ladies to show Vash a good time as a reward. Vash pretends to have drank too much and passed out, couldn’t be roused - to the disappointment of the brothel workers. He gets up as soon as they leave and wonders “could I be regretting it? Maybe just a little)? The scene is generally interpreted as him not wanting to take advantage of the women in the situation. (Although, honestly they were eager)... Well... it seems to me that Vash might not be as interested in the old bang-bang as some fans would like him to be (and are perfectly within their rights to fanart and fanfic to their hearts’ content). Even the “flirty” Vash of the OG anime seems to be doing it as part of the fake-stupid / silly behavior that he does to throw people off-guard. And where it seems to be genuine behavior, well... I still think asexuality is a valid interpretation because, speaking as an asexual, myself, many of us “do things that we think we are supposed to do” because society tells us that people are supposed to do certain things. Some of us never learned what asexuality even was until fairly late in life and went through various “supposed to” behavior even when we weren’t really feeling it before we discovered ourselves. This is common throughout the queer community - the gay person raised in a community that is hostile who will try to date the opposite sex, someone thinking they are straight until they discover that they really are bi, and etc. This happens to asexuals, too. I had a boy-band member crush when I was 12, just like all “normal girls” did. It took a while for me to figure myself out - that I wasn’t really “normal” and that it was okay. Therefore, I see even the “Let’s make him pervy for comedy” written with clearly heterosexuality in mind of the OG anime as compatable with an asexual interpreation of Vash. He was just doing the “I am a normal human” act! Do keep in mind that I am arguing for “an asexual interpretation for the sake of fanwork / fan-fun” for Vash NOT based on his artificial human nature / his status as a plant, but just, individually, as a person.

#vash the stampede #trigun #trigun maximum #trigun stampede #vash #asexuality #asexual #asexual vash #variable character interpreations #a real asexual having asexual thoughts on fandom

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lovexpeacexdonuts · 1 year

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Not sure how many folks will see this, but I wanted to share a PSA for episode 11 of Trigun Stampede.

This week’s episode has a lot of extremely intense themes and visuals.

It’s done very well, but it was pretty triggering and I sort of wish I had waited to watch it back to back with next week’s episode. I wanted to share some info in case anyone else struggles with watching certain themes like I do, whether it’s live action or animation.

Spoilers, thoughts, and descriptions of potential triggering content under the break.

- This was heavily hinted at from the preview, but Vash is essentially tortured (mentally and physically) for this entire episode.

- While in Vash’s (semi-warped) memories, we see child-age Rollo get vividly shot in the head on screen

- Meryl spends the episode watching Vash going through everything and the secondhand helplessness as a viewer is distressing as hell

- The memory scene with Tesla, while brief, is incredibly disturbing. The twins discover dismembered pieces of Tesla’s body floating in separate containers, after which a status of “ALIVE” is shown for her on the data screen. Felt genuinely nauseous at this part

- Knives manipulates Vash into thinking the Big Fall was his fault entirely, that the humans being killed was just a result of Knives acting out of love (protection) for Vash

- As the episode progresses, Knives is essentially destroying Vash’s memories and erasing all the connections he has made mentally and emotionally with humans. This ends with Rem being decapitated by Knives in Vash’s last remaining memory - thankfully she stylistically bleeds geraniums instead of blood, but it’s still pretty damn grim

- The reveal of Vash’s vines/wings having some degree of involvement in the plants becoming/looking pregnant was super uncomfortable. Not quite sure how to word this, but it sort of gave off forced group rape vibes??

- Overall, potential triggering content: gore, torture, body horror, bodily autonomy being totally destroyed and ignored, gaslighting by a loved one, etc

I love this iteration of Trigun, and I’ve watched every other episode of this season multiple times, but I’m not sure if I can watch this one again. Phenomenally done, but I feel sick to my stomach seeing Vash go through all of this, maybe because he’s been so loved by myself and others for over 20 years.

Ramble over, love and peace to you all x

#trigun stampede #trigun stampede episode 11 #just a psa #content warning

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antiphrastic · 1 year

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Fics I read and loved this week (Feb 27-Mar 4)

I didnt read anything for a couple of weeks because I started playing Dragon Age: Origins again, for reasons that WERE unknown to me but then I figured it out and well. This isn't the time to talk about it, but let's just ADHD + faulty time perception + grief is a sometimes funny combo. (I'm okay! Honestly! I just. Get a weird urge to replay Dragon Age: Origins, every February, and I always thought it was funny and this year I finally realised what was happening, and it's still funny, because my grandpa would NOT understand but he'd just shake his head at me about it anyway).

Is this a segue into a bunch of Dragon Age fic recs? It is not!

An art for a Trigun fic crossed my dash and I liked it so much that I thought "why not?" and then I liked THAT so much that I found others and here are a handful of things I loved that I guess I'm in the fandom for now? even though I've never seen the source material? or any iteration? ANYWAY

fool in the moon by arahir

Words: 8292 Rated: Mature

Wolfwood carries a body.

Vash is a walking death wish. A race between self-sacrifice and skill, and in all Wolfwood’s shitty years on this shit-ass planet he’s never met a man with so much of each.

So maybe Vash taking a bullet to the head for him shouldn’t have been a surprise.

Missing scene? Canon-divergent? I don't actually know I don't know Trigun at all. Vashwood hurt/comfort. There is a warning for graphic depictions of blood and wounds. I am given to understand this is very spoilery for all sorts of stuff. But it is beautifully written, and there is so much juicy characterization. The way the author writes Wolfwood grappling with his conflicting desires and emotions is absolutely delicious. I went in knowing nothing except what the main character looks like based on gifs from my dash, and I left fully invested in these characters.

(also, this is the tweet with the art that made me go look for the fic)

Let Not My Bones Be Laid Apart From Yours by ghosttopiary

Words: 5942 Part 1 of a series Rated: M (it's pressed up pretty hard against the boundary to E, though)

Here he is again, being sewn up.

So a theme may be emerging: canon divergent hurt/comfort Vashwood. Graphic in the blood and wounds/body horror and re-setting bones sense. Also graphic in the human/non-human sex sense. Also graphic in the intense catholic guilt that absolutely kidney punched me and I am not nor have I ever been christian in any way beyond the cultural so that was a surprise. It's just. I'm going to call it beautiful too. It's beautiful, even when it's horrible. If you want to feel things, and feel them Intensely, this one is for you.

#antiphrastic reads #fic recs #trigun stampede #vashwood #there were others but I'm getting sleepy now

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kayjayo1227 · 1 year

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Hello there, sorry to be interrupting!

I was curious about what issued you've personally encountered with Stampede!

I'm completely new to the series, I know there's an older adaptation also but supposedly it was very inaccurate to the story and I'd love to know the differences between iterations before sticking to one.

I am definitely 👌 close to just reading the manga and nothing else though, given that Stampede didn't really spark joy for me as I'd have hoped it would.

Thank you for your time either way!

Wishing you a stellar day :)

You asked so I’m gonna probably write a whole lot lol 😝

I am not by any means a Trigun 1998 purist or anything, I actually got some issues with it too later on once they deviate from the manga. Personally, I think between the three the manga is ABSOLUTELY the better version just in terms of storytelling and visual style and whatnot. I very highly recommend it.

Trigun 98 nails Yasuhiro Nightow’s visual style perfectly. It’s got absolutely iconic music, and it’s one of those animes that helped make anime a big thing in the US. Plus, I’ve got a lot of nostalgia for it personally because I watched it first and as a kid. It’s very good.

The problem with 98 is that the Trigun manga took a hiatus and was republished later under a different magazine, and from that point on is known as Trigun Maximum (if you do watch 98 this split starts to happen right after the stuff with Eriks and the little timeskip) so it misses out on a LOT of good stuff and makes up it’s own ending. But up to that point it’s a phenomenal adaptation.

Trigun Stampede is… it’s a weird case for me. Because while on the one hand I don’t hate the cg style here, I also feel like it’s wrong for Trigun. It’s so crisp and clean instead of gritty. They seemed to be leaning a lot more into the sci-fi side of Trigun than space western and it’s just a surprising choice?

They’ve done a great job characterizing Vash. I was actually very excited to see Knives using y’know KNIVES lol and (while I haven’t got there yet) I know the ending of the series plays into 98/the manga somehow. But it felt weird to me watching it when so many characters were weirdly different.

They made changes and I don’t get why? Like changing the planet’s name from Gunsmoke to No Man’s Land lol why? I personally was really hoping they would give us more accurate manga adaptations but instead they gave us something that was neither. It keeps a lot of that original Trigun peace and love to it, but every character change leaves me just looking at the screen and going “WHY”

Just for example about what I mean (and the biggest example of it)

One of my favorite manga characters is Livio. I love Livio. He isn’t in 98 at all. But he has a big part in the manga. The second he showed up in Stampede I was pretty annoyed. They took one of my favorite character designs and just…made it real bad. And so far the characterization doesn’t seem right either, although I’ll admit it bothered me enough I haven’t watched more yet.

None of these things make me consider it an abomination or anything, I do believe there s a lot of good stuff there. Just makes it hard for me personally to keep watching. It could be better!

Some comparison photos of Livio

And some comparisons of Knives

It’s just…it’s not bad but it’s not what it could have been 🥲 I don’t believe there is anyone out there that has read the manga that would think either anime adaptation is superior to it

Anyway, sorry for the novel! I love the manga and have been screaming at my friends to read it for years lol

Definitely check it out!

#trigun #trigun stampede #trigun maximum

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hikennosabo · 10 months

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upon watching tristamp, trigun 1998, and then tristamp again, i can say that both have their pluses and minuses and i enjoy both of them a lot but i think i like 98 better. and this is completely free of nostalgia for 98, since this was my first time watching it lol. i prefer the episodic nature, slower pace, and for the most part, the character designs of 98.

i like 98′s versions of meryl and wolfwood, both individually and how they bounce off the other characters, better than their stamp counterparts. stamp is overall a lot less comedy-focused than 98, and i like when the characters are sillay. it’s kind of difficult to think of them as the same characters; when i got to wolfwood’s introduction in 98 i was SHOCKED at how different he was. the different VAs don’t help (although stamp’s voice acting is undoubtedly way better) and i think jyb returning as vash helps bridge the two versions together. although i love vash in every universe.

roberto didn’t really add anything for me, he just kind of exists. (aside from him calling knives “hundreds spoons” in the dub which i’m obsessed with LOL.) and i miss milly, but that will change with season 2 lol.

nai is a better, more nuanced character in stamp and honestly probably my favorite aspect of stamp overall. and ofc my favorite part of stamp is his fight with vash lol. the final episode is just fantastic all around.

i’m slowly reading the manga, i’ll start trimax tonight or tomorrow, and i’m so curious about what the original story is. nai seems pretty different in each iteration, i just want to watch him spark in the microwave...

#june speaks #trigun talk

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hafula · 2 years

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hehe. knives for the character game *stares at you with my autistic eyes*

HEH. im doing specifically manga knives for this so these are big spoilers connor stop looking. you can come back when youve finished reading it. this got long so its going under a readmore

My overall opinion on the character

GREAT antagonist and character. i love him so much because i understand why he does the things he does even though they are VERY extreme. in all fairness to him, he sees the worst of humanity from a very young age which traumatizes him greatly and vash reacted the same exact way he did at first which makes me wanna throw up thinking about. i also love that hes not an antagonist because he hates humanity for mistreating plants but because the way he goes about things goes directly against vashs own moral compass! he was such a good kid and its devastating to see how his trauma fundamentally changed him as a person and how he couldnt really even be redeemed by vash. tragic and sympathetic (to a degree!!!! not entirely!!!) antag in my eyes. i think it could have been handled better but overall hes my problematic fav and im sorry

One virtue they have

im trying to think of one. i dont know what counts as virtue when im talking about a chaotic evil antagonist. um he has very strong ideals that he sticks to and definitely has determination to go through with them, even if theyre directly against the protagonists wishes. i cant say much because overall hes a pretty bad person. lmao.

One flaw they have

just like vash, black and white thinking. he cannot comprehend that there is a good side to humanity because he has seen the worst of it and what its done to his species and, more importantly, what they did to vash. like his ideals are so strong but theyre skewed because hes actively looking for every single bad thing humanity has done and ignoring the good when it doesnt support his mission. this really says something about society

Favorite moment from their arc

IN PART with the above i absolutely loved when he absorbed a plant and obtained her memories, which also included memories of humans being good to her. like i feel like that would have been a great way to start showing him that humanity is not inherently evil and start an inner conflict with his goals & the memories hes getting from his siblings' lives among humans.

Least favorite moment from their arc

i honestly cant think of one. he was a good antagonist the entire series from what i remember but its been a while since ive done a complete readthrough so this may change when i finish up reading. least favorite iteration is anime knives literally fuck that guy he was evil just because a guy was mean to him one time so he started thinking humans as inferior ??? fuck off man at least manga knives has trauma and no reason to trust humans after literally seeing the remains of his would-be older sibling dismembered and put into glass tubes as a testament to the fact that humanity is scared of things they dont understand and thus causing them to do horrible things 🤨 it doesnt justify his actions but at least they make sense

One relationship they have with another character

JUST one? he has so many interesting relationships with the gung ho guns but like he also sees them as tools so ill go with vash. his relationship with vash is a lot more important in the manga than in the anime or at least he never says "we should try to act like brothers". they ARE brothers. they never had a sibling hierarchy before the big fall but i think it speaks levels about the fact that he starts calling vash his little brother to the point that the gung ho guns also address vash as his little brother since for all intents and purposes vash always looked after him like an older brother on the ship. knives was more sensitive and naive than vash was. knives had the big ideas of being accepted by humanity. and its literally destroying me to know that their places could have EASILY been swapped if vash never injured rem and gotten her "ticket to the future" talk. its tragic! theyre twin brothers! they care about each other but they no longer see eye to eye on anything! THEY HAVE TELEPATHIC POWERS WHICH HAS BEEN IMPLIED TO BE A THING THE ENTIRE TIME SO THEYVE BEEN LINKED THROUGH THE ENTIRE MANGA? WHY WAS THIS NEVER EXPLORED

One relationship I'd like to see explored from this character

wolfwood! i feel like they had some freaky weird dynamics going on there and their interactions made me want to see more. the fact that he knew that wolfwood was trying to kill him and wasnt actually chapel but also was just letting him do whatever cuz he didnt think wolfwood was a big enough threat... dude. itd be funny to see their interactions if knives ever got his domestication arc fr. it would have been so fucking awkward. i also think wolfwood would have some pretty strong words for knives and i wish he got to say them

What I would have liked to see happen with them in the media

his domestication arc. or like him living in general. its very dumb of me because the entire point is that some people cant be redeemed in the end but like. i Know that seeing him start to get more acquainted with the good side of humanity would do things to me esp. if he managed to remember how rem used to be good to him and genuinely loved him, and also i think it would have been comical. the one thing i loved to see from the anime was the fact that vash spared knives and took him with him to start over or whatever and i wish that happened in the manga! him turning into a tree was pretty funny tho ngl

#bumåbaba #asks #istrangheru #knives tag

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