Good Morning Trigun Bookclub!
As we go into this last week I need you all to listen to this song while you read for no reason at all haha it won't hurt I prommy ❤
buccellato reblogged
Before the week ends I have a question for the people
I dont remember the chapter but there's a page where knives calls vash a contradiction because of his naive ideals and "pride"...yeah that confuses me. I have never seen vash as someone who has pride. He says it himself in stampede but that's technically another vash, I guess.
THE POINT IS: I can see how vash is a contradiction (his patience and faith in humans vs the anger he carries thanks to them) but I don't see any pride in that? Thoughts?
I always figured he meant it in a "not seeing the forest through the trees" sort of way tbh, like Knives believed that deep down Vash knew and agreed with him but he was too stubborn to admit that he was wrong. Since Knives is dedicated to the idea that he's Always Right™️, especially with regards to Vash, he may be viewing Vash's disagreement as a matter of personal pride instead of something that comes from a place of genuine belief. It's another way to belittle him for not doing what he wants imo
#his arguments tend to give off big “scoldings from an older family member for going against their wishes” vibes to me though#so I could just be reading it in a funny way lmao#but also it helps to remember that things a character says about another aren't inherently true especially if they're antagonistic to them#what Knives is saying may be meant to be taken with a grain of salt either way since he's been presented as the antagonist from the start#and “genuinely listening and trying to understand each other is good” is an intentional reoccurring theme for trigun#trigunbookclub
We can't really go into exactly how and why this is so cruel yet, but I still want to talk about it because it's insane how little perspective Knives has here:
We're shown a page of Vash being medically examined and experimented on in July (at Knives' behest, while he just cooly watches on), entirely against his control, where hes treated as an object and not a person
And after what would be a frankly horrifying and humiliating ordeal to go through, after having his body changed against his will to check his aptitude as a tool of violence and force it to activate for Knives' will, Knives has the gall to just...say this:
Yet he's doing the exact same thing! He's torturing his brother in cruel and humiliating ways while looking him in the eyes!!
#trigun#trigunbookclub#trigun spoilers#trigun maximum#cw medical abuse#what would he say if Vash actually got some of those scars from Thomas or Worms or just general accidents#like not every scar would necessarily be intentional but Knives never even genuinely asks where each one came from#but unfortunately Vash can't even throw his words back in his face because Knives is such an abuser he probably won't even acknowledge it#once again going through a “And what were YOU doing at the devil's sacrament?” moment#Knives probably watched Tangled and thought “y'know this Mother Gothel lady has a point”
Welcome to trimax vol. 5!
We got Agony and Suffering!
We got body horror!
We got Mexican Stand-offs!
We got a little friend stored in our pocket to ruin said stand-off!!
(someone should probably go help her though)
We got Elendira!
And we got whatever the hell is going on with Legato's...uh...driver? Servant? Attendant?
seriously what is this
Anyways, enjoy your stay!!
#trigunbookclub#trigun#trigun maximum#trigun spoilers#cw body horror#like...serious body horror#Interesting that Elendira hates suicidal people despite working for a man that will undoubtedly get her killed btw#I know Legato's friend thingy has a name but I'm not sure if it's been revealed yet in-story? so I'll be as vague as possible lmao
Good Milly Panel
I love how dedicated everyone is towards rescuing Meryl 💖
Milly, who is bright and cheerful and has been a little easy to fluster so far is willing to pick up her gun and point it at her friends just for a chance to help save Meryl
Wolfwood, who is absolutely pissed and ready to hunt down and kill every gung-ho gun involved
And Vash, who literally just jumped on a giant enemy worm without thinking (even if it got him literally nowhere lmao)
#trigunbookclub#trigun#trigun spoilers#They all love her so much <3#Don't worry Meryl your crew is ride or die they will never ever leave you to be a hostage 🥺🥺#I also like how Vash is slowly realizing that it's more dangerous for both him and his friends to be separated from each other#haha get loved idiot#getting the “I think we're gonna have to kill this guy Steven” vibes from Wolfwood tbh
This man is so embarrassing. Imagine hearing this, completely sincerely, out loud. The fact that Midvalley didn't laugh him out of the building is stunning
Anyways
Wolfwood, at this very moment:
Gonna make a post about Wolfwood too because I think it's super duper cute that he's angrily trying to fight Vash's way at the start because he doesn't wanna have to fight with Vash over it again
and even though he tries so hard to fight Vash's way he fails to actually follow through with this belief because what he's fighting is completely unreasonable
ALT
Seriously, what the fuck is going on here, how did they even manage to make a cyborg this gross?? Is one of the nine dudes in the hand or do the fingers have cameras in it??? Wolfwood just cannot catch a break in this fight, the only time luck is on his side is when the Insurance Crew shows up (there's probably a lesson he and Vash both should learn from that, but I digress...)
And of course he's expecting a fight with Vash for what he's done Vash is like "No it's cool :). Thank you for helping me Woowoo, I'm sorry if I made you feel guilty and I'm glad you could pull the trigger :)" (of course Vash is probably just incredibly relieved that he's alive and doing okay lmao)
And of course he does the totally relatable™️ thing, which is "pick a fight over something else because you were raring for a fight but it turns out there was never a fight to begin with and now you got nothing else to do with your wounded pride"
Luckily he gets to commiserate over this with Luida lmao
We're at one of my favorite parts of the story (and probably one of Vash's least favorite parts 😬😬), where we get to see how much Vash's family means to him
In book 1 of trimax, the Doc tells Brad that Vash's concept of family extends to the entirety of the human race
...So a Man revenge-killing a murderer isn't just 2 humans committing various levels of violence against each other (at differing levels of justifiable), it's 2 families members hurting each other and Vash can't bring himself to not try and stop it. Even if you understand *why* they fight, you probably wouldn't want your cousins to kill each other in front of you, right? And Vash struggles with it, because some of these people he's saving really do deserve the bullet reserved for them; but at the end of the day he still doesn't want to watch them to die.
And over the course of volume 1 and 2 of trimax, the story repeatedly brings up the question (either overtly or through subtext) "What would you do if you your family was in danger? What lengths would you go?"
Which leads us to the first big fight for this question when Vash's actual, closest living thing to a loving family is under attack. His anguish is palpable to everyone alive in the room with him, his wrath is close to deadly, and every new room he finds with more puppets just hurts him further. But even when he's faced with a monster that has destroyed his one vestige of safety in the world, even if that monster has talked about how he wants to do the same to him, he still can't bring himself to kill him! He even goes so far to try and spare him!
Not because of any specific moral reasoning (even though he's given one to Dominique before), but because before he was Leonof the Puppetmaster, he was a little boy named Emilio that loved his father's bread and had a crush on a girl named Isabel. He was someone that Vash knew, someone he recognized, and someone he undoubtedly cared for greatly at one point. And even if he couldn't save him, he at least had to try, because he was family at one point too.
And of course, it's not all pain and suffering for Vash, because when he wakes up in the hospital ready to blame himself for not being able to save everyone, Luida cuts him off: He did the best he could, he saved lives despite the losses, and at the end of the day he's still family to them, too. Even if the rest of humanity views him as a menace, there's still someone out there who reciprocates his love in a way that doesn't hurt him.
And boy, you can see how much of a relief (and source of stress it is for him) on his face lmao
ALT
#trigunbookclub#trigun#trigun spoilers#nobody else talked about the family stuff yet so I guess that I will lmao#Also it is Not A Coincidence that the chapter titled 'families' where Vash's love is reaffirmed has Knives on the title page#but I can't talk about that yet because I have no idea how to approach that topic yet without dropping massive spoilers lmao#It's such a good volume and it hurts so much anyways Luida please marry me I'll leave my resume on your desk thanks#Vash is the most tired sopping wet cat on the ship despite his better efforts to pretend otherwise#was gonna drop a song here because it fits imo but I'm saving it for a later volume because it fits there too lol#(really it's a good song)#(I'd post it all 3 times I think it fits but I don't wanna tagspam anymore then I'm doing now so I'll post it later)#shoutout to the overhaul project <3
I know it's supposed to be a very serious point of contention between Vash and Wolfwood but the way Wolfwood just continues to fill him with lead after already taking him out makes me snort
He's not getting back up! Just one bullet would've sufficed! Now you're just wasting money!!
#trigunbookclub#trigun#Wolfwood saw the guy get back up and draw his sword and said “no. absolutely not.”#the man is either so horrendously down bad for Vash that he dropped all pretenses of good behavior#or he is just THAT MAD about a dude bringing a sword to a gunfight lmao#and Wolfwood is once again NOT beating his “bad with money” charges#hope they keep this part in Stampede in some way because it really is over the top#repoast because I posted to the wrong blog oopsie daisy#had something written at the beginning but I forgot what it was :clueless:
I really actually love this chapter specifically, mainly because you don't get many chances to see how little gung-ho guns actually care for each other, but this chapter involves not only that but also Legato having an Absolutely Terrible time
like, he's forced to eat food in some sort of straight jacket (due to, uh, spinal compression) and nobody else has cut his food for him, or is helping him with it in any way, but they are all watching him choke on it. And he is definitely not happy about it.
...And all of this seems incredibly cruel and fucked-up until you remember he can control people's bodies completely against their will (and we're reminded of it 2 pages later when he fucks up Midvalley for pointing a gun at him), which means he's doing this to himself on purpose? As some sort of weird self-harm??
Then, right after the world's worst work party, we have the world's greatest tone-shift by cutting away to Vash flipping the bike because he's over 100 years old but can't actually drive lmao
#trigunbookclub#trigun#really it's a very good chapter#the terrible work party...the bike crashing...the “how do *you* know what my brother looks like naked” talk...the duel...all good#someone get Legato a therapist I'm sure the workplace healthcare plan covers that much#not dental though. I refuse to believe the ghg actually get dental coverage. Unless they *only* get dental coverage and nothing else.#cw self harm mention#<- just to be safe#shoutout to the Overhaul project <3
I know it was only a one-off Maximum Bullets gag, but imagine if Lina really did give Vash the dog's name as an alias
Vash got told to strip and bark like a dog and all he would think is "Buddy, you just gave me the funniest bit to act out"
#trigunbookclub#trigun maximum#I mean he's probably already thinking it tbh. Look at that smile. Nothing but trouble going through his brain at that very moment!!#but also very polite of him to tell Lina to avert her eyes...even if she's already had to help hose him down in a basin tub out back before#also very late this week oops (ruined my sleep schedule and have just been very sleepy all week 😴)#trigun
We're far enough along in the week that I think this won't disrupt the rest of the book club discussion, but just to be safe I'm putting it under a cut since it deals with the themes of sexual assault
#trigunbookclub#trigun#cw assault (kinda)#thought about bringing up the page where Knives talks about Vash's scars because what were YOU doing at the devil's sacrament sir#how do you know and recognize the scars of someone who's clearly scared to see you and berate them for not learning from them#but I couldn't really figure out where to fit it into the post otl
Vash, who is functionally homeless but for once isn't completely penniless: Oh no kids, don't bother this man...his ass is broke 💔😔...he's a pauper 😥😢....he stacks no paper 😬🤢...you need to find a grown-up with a real job 😒😑
#trigunbookclub#trigun#my crack headcannon is that this is the *real* reason Wolfwood gave him that backhanded compliment 2 pages later#because you can't go “Hey aren't you poor?” to someone in the middle of a charitable act!! It's rude!!!#or maybe I'm just projecting because my grandma keeps giving me grief about using my xmas gift to buy stuff for other people idk#also I keep forgetting but shoutout to Trigun Overhaul for these squeaky clean caps!