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Original Tumblr Post: Legato And The Slave Girls
Legato And The Slave Girls
So now that we’ve gotten to volume 12, I can finally talk about something that’s been on my mind since I started my reread. With the context we gain about Legato’s backstory here, it puts an earlier scene into a very different context.
Let’s return to Trigun volume 2 for a moment, specifically chapter 5 Murder Cafe. Remember that confrontation Legato had with the Roderick Slave Traders in the bar in Jeneora Rock? Legato is generally, from what we’d seen up until that point, pretty cruel with people. He’s dangerous and doesn’t really care about how what he does affects others. But after he’s done brutally murdering the Slave Traders, he turns to the girls, who he’s left completely untouched, who we’ve learned have been abused and were going to be used in even worse ways later, and he speaks to them. Almost kindly. He has no reason to, really. He murdered the Traders because they were harassing him…right?
Except on the next page, he admits that he doesn’t usually waste his time on people like that. He blames it on how Vash has been getting under his skin, but I don’t know. From what we’ve seen of his past in chapter 12, I think everything they said, everything the Traders threatened those girls with, might have struck too close to home. Maybe he even saw a little part of himself in them. Legato doesn’t usually act so impulsively, especially regarding himself. Knives, sure. But not himself, not so much.
When we don’t know him or what he’s been through this chapter gives us the impression that Legato is cruel and brutal and kinda unhinged. Which yeah, he is those things. But at the same time, knowing what we do now, it makes so much sense why he reacted the way he did. This slaughter wasn’t unmotivated or pointless. In fact, it was very, very pointed and personal. But we didn’t know that. It’s amazing how one little bit of backstory can completely change how we view what I’d call a defining Legato scene.
#this just makes me wanna chew on glass okay #i make a lot of jokes about unhinged legato is but like….it makes sense #it all makes sense why he is the way he is #and he isn’t a good person but now this moment feels very human #like somebody hurting rather than just some guy being pure evil #do you get me????