Trigun Bookclub: deludedfantasy: Trigun Maximum Volume 5: Chapter 1-3

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Original Tumblr Post: Trimax Vol 5 Ch 1-3

Trimax Vol 5 Ch 1-3

These first few chapters have emotionally devastated me in new and unfathomable ways and I am not calm about it.

Ch1

Flashback time! Vash is just having a good time, playing with some kids and being a general goofball. I love seeing Vash like this, it’s a side of him we haven’t gotten the chance to see often…but it’s sobering to realize that this is all happening in July. And that the reason we haven’t seen him like this is because after July, he was never quite so carefree again, both because he was on the run and because of the guilt of what he’d done, even if he couldn’t remember all of it.
Side note: he actually has a job! In a kitchen! I don’t know why, but there’s something really heart-warming to me about the idea of Vash being a good cook. He just wants to take care of people!
These people love him and care about him! But it’s so painfulbecause they’re all dead, and to Vash, it’s always going to be his fault. Their blood will always be on his hands.
I think this might be the first time that we’ve seen pain actually bring Vash to his knees. It says a lot about him that he can push through any kind of physical pain, but it’s the emotions kind—the guilt, the grief—that overtakes him. But it’s Meryl, the fact that she’s in danger and he needs to save her, that brings him back to his feet and keeps him going.
Are Midvalley and Hoppred collaborating against Zazie to further their own plans? Dundundun, betrayal within the Gung Ho Guns!
I barely understood this bit the first time I read it, but the second time through (and I assume with the Overhaul translation), it’s insane to realize that Midvalley basically sucked the noise out of a space to allow Hoppred to attack Zazie unseen and unheard. Like…that’s insane! I’m with Hoppred on this one, it’s basically magic.
Ahhh, Meryl is not doing very well 🙁

Ch2

I have so, so many questions that I know I’ll never get answers to. What happened to Hoppred that he’s like that? Who is this woman? Why does he care so much about her? Is she his wife, his daughter, his sister, something else? What happened to her? It torments me.
Also, it’s nuts that Wolfwood is completely blind from Midvalley’s attack and he’s still on his feet and actually fighting with a pretty good level of accuracy.
Midvalley straight up calling Wolfwood a demon, as if the two of them aren’t similar at all. Actually, it’s interesting to see how other people talk about Wolfwood, calling him a demon and inhuman vs how Vash talks about him, who always emphasizes his humanity.
I love this panel of Wolfwood, with the white eyes and the looming black shape of him. It’s the perfect reflection of Midvalley’s dialogue and his view of Wolfwood. A demon, indeed.

Argh, the tension in these pages! Vash not hearing Meryl’s warning! Midvalley concentrating so hard he doesn’t see Wolfwood advancing on him!
YES GO MILLY! MILLY TO THE RESCUE!!!
All I can say about Vash’s situation is ouch.
Oh my God, it’s a saxophone gun.

Ch3

Midvalley calls Wolfwood a traitor and he doesn’t know just how right he is…or will be. It’s interesting that Knives didn’t let anyone else in on his orders to Wolfwood, except Legato and that was only recently. So he’s literally having one of his Gung Ho Guns kill the other ones to torture Vash. That’s some truly diabolical shit right there.
Wolfwood fighting completely blind, only using what I have to assume is his superhuman hearing, is so badass. He shields Milly even though she’s behind him and he can’t see shit and he can’t actually see where Midvalley is either. It’s insane.
OHHHHHH. First appearance of angel Vash!!! My beloved!!!
Interesting! Vash also sprouted/shed feathers in July. I don’t remember him doing that at Fifth Moon.
Is Vash projecting his memories at Hoppred? I didn’t catch that on my first read through! Vash’s telepathic Plant powers are so interesting. This is like a step up from projecting his emotions onto the whole room from his fight with the Puppetmaster.
The paneling is a little unclear so I can’t tell if Knives hit Vash or if he knocked him over telepathically. Either way, he knocked him out so he could experiment on him and that is many levels of fucked up. I can’t get over how horrifying that must be for Vash. He’s had his bodily autonomy taken away from him so many times, by Knives especially, and now he remembers that he had him experimented on.
Also, so interesting to me that Vash didn’t know about the existence of his powers for such a long time. I don’t know enough to say if he was outright denying the Plant side of himself, but he certainly seemed a lot more focused on being human. Meanwhile, Knives dove deep into the study of it, spending the years Vash was wandering mastering his powers. The irony of course being that Vash seems to be much, much more powerful than him.
The entire sequence leading up to the destruction of July is masterfully done. I don’t really know what to say. It’s heart-rending. Knives is trying to show Vash what he really is, and he succeeds, sort of. Not in proving that humanity doesn’t care about him and that loving them is pointless, but that Vash is a weapon? That he isn’t human and never will be? Definitely. No wonder Vash forgets all of this. No wonder he throws himself into danger more and more often to protect people after this. He’s trying to prove Knives (and himself, to a certain extent) wrong.
I might be interpreting this wrong too, but I think Knives lost control of Vash here. He wasn’t strong enough to hold all that power back and neither was Vash. So it exploded and destroyed a city, and supposedly Knives as well (at least temporarily).
Not me interpreting this scene completely incorrectly because I’m in denial :). Thank you to the lovely Tumblr user who emotionally devastated me by pointing out that Vash didn’t accidentally unleash his power, he was trying to kill Knives. He was so angry and enraged by what Knives was saying to him that he unleashed the angel arm, destroying July in the process. I think the problem is that after watching Stampede and the way they framed the destruction of July as Vash doing everything he could to save the city and then failing, I had a hard time reading this scene and realizing that this is not the case at all here. In a way, it was still a mistake. Vash didn’t mean to take the whole city down with him. But he did. And there was nothing selfless about his actions. Now there’s blood on his hands because he pulled the trigger. He’s destroyed Rem’s ideals and his entire idea of who he is and what he stands for. No wonder he forgets.

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