Trigun Bookclub: alena-reblobs: Trigun Maximum Volume 10: Part 4

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Original Tumblr Post: TRIGUN BOOKCLUB TRIMAX VOL10 PART 4

TRIGUN BOOKCLUB TRIMAX VOL10 PART 4

God why is this volume so long and full of so many epic pictures

Commentary for chapter 6 and 7 of Vol10, will do the last one in another post!

While I’m doing this, reading each chapter and after that, doing my commentary, I notice the effect of the volume lessening…damn! I should read it in one go first and THEN write my thougths but I’m afraid I’ll forget what I want to say. Vol9 and Vol10 are in a way really meant to be read in one go for the full effect.

Chapter 6:

Yes! Wolfwood trying to end this fight not with his weapon, but with his bare hands is so important! He’s not fighting to kill, he’s not EoM’s puppet, he’s trying to bring back a friend…I can’t say why but also the fact that this obviously pains Razlo more than bullets also feels right. That’s how it should be.
And then…there’s Vash.

Oh god and then there’s Vash.

This is…one of the most cruel images of Vash yet. To me it is THE most emotional in the whole series. Pure desperation. Sadness for things lost. Vash allowing himself to break down while we only hear the punches of Wolfwood beating down on Razlo. Looking at this image makes me sad. Damn it Nightow for making Vash have to grief before they even had the chance to start their future together.

But again, props to Nightow for the storytelling.

Vash promised Wolfwood to leave Razlo to him BUT NOBODY DARE INTERFERE.

LIVIOOOOOOO

And just when we fought we had gotten rid of him and he couldn’t piss us off any more he’s coming back round to hurt our boy

THANK YOU RAZLO. There can never be enough bullet holes in this dead man’s body.

I really really like that Livio is not treating Razlo like the bad guy here, but acknowledges that Razlo is also a victim in a way. A victim of having to live through the fucked up shit that Livio could not cope with, of having to deal with that. (I hope I worded that all right, since I don’t really know anything about the medical condition of which Razlo is the result?)

You did it, man. You saved Livio. And now you’re even a person he looks up to you. Of the feels.

CRYBABY LIVIO IS BACK BITCHES
oooh you earned that cigarette, Wolfie

Chapter 7:

I just love the kids and Melanie and how lively it seems. Surely it was hard and filled with loss as everybody had lost their parents, but it must also have been a childhood filled with love.

Baby Wolfwood oh my sweet boy…
Sometimes I have wondered how little Vash and Wolfie would have gotten along. Or well, I’m sure they would’ve gotten along. I just would love to see them interact as kids. Out there, little Wolfwood, a long time ago, was once a boy drifting in space who would later be your most trusted friend. And who would, not in every way, but in an important way, save you.

Ah, just below is the panel where it says “six years have passed since that day” that always confuses me?? Still now because 6 years is not possible? I will wait for any explanation that you, my fellow bookclub readers, will come up with.

Don’t scream at him!!!

Vash wanting to explain it to them is killing me. And Wolfwood’s expression here is so…unclouded. Completely honest. Vulnerable. No my sweet boy you are no monster, did that not get into your head??

With the little time left…maybe he’s right, maybe he can not explain to the children what he is, all the complex stuff.

You know, Vash, Wolfwood is tired. This moment, he just wants to spend it with you, and isn’t that enough?

Wolfwood saying this…and then Vash begging to GOD, praying to not lose that man.

I never really got the grip on what Vash means with “stupid things”. There’s been this theory that Vash denies Wolfwood telling Vash his true feelings, but I don’t think so. I think they both at this point know how they feel about each other. I think Vash just…can’t stand to hear the emotional talk now because it’s simply too much. Maybe it would be nice if they could talk out their innermost feelins at last. But maybe, they don’t need that. Have their actions not proven enough already by now?

Throw that confetti guys

If some of you are on twitter and have followed the trigun fandom there you might have stumbled upon the marriage tweet my friend made when she read this scene the first time. I have nothing to add apart from that it rips my heart and soul in two.
Now, there’s one more chapter to this volume but this arc kinda already concludes with this here…and so I just want to say: I have NEVER before read something that felt so deeply emotional and tragic like this whole…Wolfwoof dying scene. Or, I might have and I might not remember, but in my mind this is the most tragic thing I can recall. Because…it takes its time. It already starts in Vol08, with Wolfwood’s inner thoughts, and then it goes on for the whole next Volume where the stakes are getting higher and higher, until Vash appears to save them and save Wolfwood but it STILL is not enough. And Vash is shocked, is in denial, is in anger and is griefing and then we get a short moment of breathing, before it hits us again. We’re living this all through Vash, and…and he can’t bring himself to smile in the end. He can’t. He only stares blankly until he then slumps down.
Oh, and I read in the Trigun Wiki I think that this scene here is the only scene where we see Wolfwood cry. Which….gives it also so much more impact.

And, all in all, I think this is not the worst ending for Wolfwood. Of course I am devastated. Reading so much fanfiction, seeing so much fanart, makes it pretty easy to forget that there is no future for these two in canon…not together. (which is WHY I read the fanfiction because good lord did I need something to cope) And when I think about how they never get the chance to live the life together as they both may have wanted…then the feeling of loss hits the hardest.
But then, on the other hand: First, killing off one of your main characters while giving them a metaphorical wedding scene is a sick move. An evil, sick move. And second: it fits the series. Because Trigun feels so real, and in real life, things don’t always turn out the good way. And Wolfwood, with his life, never really had any future…but the thing is also, he died while knowing that he was able to achieve what he always wanted: the orphanage is safe and he brought Livio back. It is all he ever wanted to do, and it is thanks to Vash that he was able to do it. Would it have been dope if he lived on and if he and Vash could build their own orphanage and be caretaker dads together? Oh hell yeah. But, within the story of the series…it was always unrealistic. Wolfwood died smiling- whatever we think about it, he was content with what he achieved. (I think so at least! The panels where he cries out, they always strike me as a defiance, not wanting to die, but that might be reading to much into it. The whole thing for him is so emotional, the confetti, which tells him they welcome him back, despite knowing who he is…it would be a wonder if he didn’t cry. So it might just be the emotionality of the whole scene.

PHEW I’m sure I could say more if I thought a bit about it but I’m gonna shut up here now. Time to do the last chapter, though I’ll make another post, this one is far too long already.

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