Trigun Bookclub: deludedfantasy: Trigun Maximum Volume 12: Chapter 5-9

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Original Tumblr Post: Trimax Vol 12 Ch 5-9

Trimax Vol 12 Ch 5-9

Alright, here goes, second half of the volume. As always my suffering continues and I wanted to shake Vash the Stampede because he has no sense of self-preservation.

Ch 5

Listen, I’ll never be able to shut up about how much Vash loves humanity despite how terrible they’ve been to him. He knows!! He knows how awful people can be! He’s witnessed it firsthand. But still, he says, “I can’t judge them. I don’t know what they’ve been through or what led them here. Because there’s always a reason.”
It reminds me of the ultimate thesis of The Good Place: That people can only be judged by the circumstances and the world they were raised in, because that influences so much of how we act and the choices we have about who we are and who we can be.
I can’t believe Vash stayed with Knives for 80 years after the Fall. Considering how angry he was at his brother, it’s mind-boggling. On the other hand, he didn’t have anyone else. Vash, at this point, didn’t know or understand humanity beyond Rem. All he has in this world is Knives, so he can’t leave him. That knowledge that they’re stuck together even though Vash doesn’t want to be is what makes them grow apart.
Can’t believe Vash has had the same backpack for 70 years. That bag must be indestructible or something.
They’re still so young is what gets me. They might be eighty, but they still look and likely act a bit like children. Is it an Independent Plant thing or have they been stunted, only spending time around each other for so long?
Also, love that one day Vash just decides to get in a stranger’s car to get away from Knives.
Once again, Vash points a gun at Knives…and he doesn’t shoot. Knives get in his face and puts his head to the barrel and still, Vash doesn’t shoot.
Knives has never had a problem killing, especially to protect his brother, who he thinks is a naive idiot. He murdered an entire village, adults and children, just to protect him from whatever they were going to do to him.
How does Knives manage to look so young and innocent after murdering an entire town?
So interesting to me how Vash asks Knives to stay with him when his brother walks away. If I’m reading this right, Knives decides to leave him once and for all, because he’s done dealing with Vash’s human sympathies. But even though Vash was the one who walked away first, he doesn’t want his brother to go. If it was just about not killing people he would’ve just said, “Don’t go.” But instead, he says, “Stay with me.” Stay with me, don’t leave me by myself. Somewhere deep down, Vash still loves him and he doesn’t want to see Knives become this.
Is this the first time Vash shoots somebody? It’s so brutal that the first person he ever shoots, the reason he picked up a gun in the first place, is his own brother.
It doesn’t even seem to do much to him. It’s more of a nuisance. But Knives lobs it back at him tenfold. Because he doesn’t really care about Vash. He casually chops his entire arm off just to teach him a lesson. That a gun—a human weapon—will never be as powerful as the blades of an Independent Plant.
Then, Vash spends the next 70 years training to prove him wrong. This moment, this failure, it’s what sits at the core of Vash and what motivates him to become the gunman, Vash the Stampede. Because next time, he won’t miss.
Though I don’t actually think he was shooting to kill in this moment. That was the intent Knives put on him. I think Vash just wanted to get his attention, but Knives turned it into that and Vash ran with that because that’s a lot simpler than the very complicated feelings he has about him.
“Don’t worry, Knives. This time, when you go, I go.” Vash…please don’t say that. He’s so ready to die for this. He doesn’t see a future for himself anymore.
Actually, what is Vash doing? He doesn’t just miss, he’s too good to do that. He’s up to something.
Wow, I hate how right my last thought was. Vash, stop talking like this! I think there are many people that would disagree with this statement!

Ch 6

Is Knives creating holes in his body to dodge Vash’s shots? Because that’s…urgh. That’s a lot.
Ah-ha! Vash does have some other plan in the works that doesn’t involve outright killing Knives. And Knives is just now starting to get it. The way he looks down on Vash and humans will ultimately be his downfall. He thinks the fact that Vash won’t kill is stupid and naive but then also thinks that humans are terrible because they’re nothing but murderous scum…while he also goes around murdering people left and right. Ah, Knives, your hypocrisy knows no bounds.
Oh, they’re trying to communicate with the dependent Plants! This has never been brought up as a possibility before. Is that what the conversation in the Plant room a couple chapters ago was about?
Knives just doesn’t get it. It’s not necessarily about forgiveness (though Vash certainly has thoughts about that too). It’s about understanding, and not letting your impulses and first impressions cloud your judgment completely. As the story Vash then tells goes on to prove.
Those people were preying on travelers for a reason. They’d been turned out from everywhere else because they were contaminated. They had no other way to survive. If I’m reading this right, those people in the village were the same ones that had fought so hard to keep the contamination from spreading so far. In doing something noble, they damned themselves. It’s the tragedy of human existence collapsed into one story.
And that poor girl. She survived the contamination and Knives’s slaughter. She lost everyone she cared about because she refused to shun them as everyone else did. Being a survivor twice over is a terrible thing. But also, she’s the embodiment of human love in the midst of tragedy. She didn’t dismiss them, despite the contamination and what they did to survive. She loved them because they were hers, and it didn’t matter what had become of them.
The fact that Vash stayed and listened, tried to understand, says a lot about him. He has always wanted to understand humanity, its good parts and its bad parts. That’s why he defends them so fervently, because he has experienced the whole of the human condition, unlike Knives who is so stuck on only the worst of humanity, refusing to see the good that survives despite all the tragedy.
You say it, Vash! Knives is ignorant. His arrogance is a shield that protects him from harm but also keeps him from seeing the hard truth.
Goddammit, it’s the military! I completely forgot about them. Thank God for whoever is driving that shuttle, otherwise Vash would’ve had to spend much more of himself stopping the Plants from getting hurt than focusing on Knives.
Ah, yay, Meryl and Milly to the rescue! Causing chaos in the name of Vash the Stampede, as they should.
Don’t be sorry, Brad! Vash is grateful (and also probably thinking how much he doesn’t deserve it, but we’re gonna ignore that) and it’s exactly what he needed in that moment.
Being reminded that he has friends to help him will only give him the strength he needs to keep fighting.
Oh no, I feel so bad for Chronica. She’s lost her friend. And obviously, Domina was much younger than her, someone with a bright future that Chronica was so looking forward to seeing. Now, Knives has taken that away from her. Except it’s only strengthened her will. She’s about to go all out in the name of revenge, I can tell.

Ch 7

Oh no, Meryl and Milly are in trouble! Not my best girls!
Was that Vash’s blood? What happened? Because it doesn’t look like Knives actually got a hit in.
Oh…he’s bleeding from the eyes and the everywhere? I guess? Because he’s pushing himself to the brink of death and using up all of his power.
I need to include this panel because…just look at him! He’s bleeding from the eyes again, this time because he’s pushing himself to the brink of death to fight Knives. And he’s so determined to do it. There’s nothing in those eyes but raw will and hatred.

So the Earth fleet isn’t aware of Vash’s presence at all! They’re gonna be in for a big surprise when they realize there’s another Independent on the planet and he’s trying to stop Knives.
Yay, Livio to the rescue! He’s helping out the girls because they’re Vash’s friends. He’s so nervous though, and I totally get it, but he’s not messing anything up. Livio is so hard on himself because he wants to do better, but Livio, my friend, a little awkwardness never hurt anyone.
Livio has turned over a new leaf, but he’s still gonna do things his way. Which means not tip-toeing around talking or negotiating, but acting. But he’s right. There’s only so long they can keep the military distracted. They have to find a way to stop them so they don’t keep interfering with what Vash is doing because he can’t afford to be distracted from his fight with Knives for a second.
Ahhhhh, Vash is running out of time! Knives knows it too and he’s using it to his advantage, tiring him out rather than killing him, because Vash is basically doing his job for him.
Also, I remember someone mentioning how Nightow doesn’t use the character coughing blood/bleeding from the nose trope often so it’s really significant and shows how dire things are when they do. And when was the last time we saw someone bleeding like this? When Wolfwood was on the verge of death…

Ch 8

We’re receiving so much Plant lore here. It’s so interesting that they apparently don’t have a sense of self. But from what I understand, they aren’t a hive mind either! They’re like a collective consciousness, each individual adding up to a whole. Add Independents into the mix though and then things get a lot more complicated. Because it seems like they’re the ones who are behind all the fusing even though dependents Plants are probably capable of it on their own.
Vash, no!!!! I can’t tell, did Knives hit him with something or did Vash just overextend himself and collapse in a bloody heap? Either way, he’s just spurting blood everywhere and I’m scared.
Meanwhile, Livio is out here serving absolute cunt, if I do say so myself.

Oh Vash…despite how hurt and exhausted he is, he’s still trying to get up. He’s sees the world and the city, and it’s enough to remind him what he’s fighting to protect. All those people huddled down there, all of his friends. He’s not done until he knows they’re safe. He has to see this to the bitter, bloody end.
Elendira? Chronica?? Legato??? What’s going on? There’s a lot of people popping up out of nowhere!
Though it seems like connecting with the Plants gave Chronica a better view of the situation on the planet because now she knows Knives’s name and is apparently going after him directly.
Also, who was Vash planning to shoot? Knives? Is that why Legato finally makes his appearance? To keep Vash from killing Knives?

Ch 9

And now we briefly return to Vash in the oubliette. Sorry, I still can’t get over that Knives get him locked in a glorified hole in the ground for 7 months.
Apparently, during that time Vash tried talking some sense into Legato and learned how pointless of an exercise that is. Because Legato is devoted. His life doesn’t matter, only serving Knives does. And this chapter, we’re gonna find out why that is.
Oh boy, I’m not prepared to read this again. I was truly not expecting what I found out the first time and it’s haunted me ever since.
Suddenly, everything about Legato makes sense. Of course he hates humanity. He watched them pass him by every day as he suffered, as he was used. It takes a special kind of rage and hurt to produce the kind of hatred in a person that would lead to them using their powers to slaughter an entire city.
Something in me also squirms uncomfortably at the idea of Legato wanting to serve him after all he’s been through. But then again, at least this time he gets to choose who he serves and what he does. This being had the power to decimate all those people Legato hated in an instant. He gave him the revenge he’d craved for so long. All that power Knives had, isn’t it what he’d dreamed of having himself when he made his plans to slaughter that town?
And how strange that must be for Knives. A human wanting to serve him, being awed by him. Does he think this is the treatment he deserve as a Plant? What exactly was going through his head when Legato sank to his knees and offered him his service? This is likely the first time he’s let a human get so close to him on their own. It’s such an intriguing meeting that leads to an even more intriguing dynamic.
A lot of people have said it better than I have, but Knives does seem to care about Legato. He probably recognizes in him the way humanity uses and discards things so easily. In a way, they’re kindred spirits. But the downfall of their relationship is that Knives ideology keeps him from truly getting close to Legato or letting him in. Because all humans are bad and evil, and in the end, even Legato has to die.
Hang on, is the implication here that Knives was the one who named Legato? I can’t even put into words how big a deal that is. A name is huge, it’s a marker of individuality and humanity and the fact that Knives gave that to someone, let alone that he did that for a human, is kinda insane.

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