Trigun Bookclub: deludedfantasy: Trigun Maximum Volume 6: Chapter 4-6

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Original Tumblr Post: Trimax Vol 6 Ch 4-6

Trimax Vol 6 Ch 4-6

Despite the fact that there are no GHG fights in this half of the volume and the smaller scale of the plot, there is still so much going on. I have a lot to say, and as usual, have been driven slightly insane by it.

Ch 4

Well, that’s not an ominous title or anything, especially with Knives as the cover image.
Knives out in public among humans…I don’t think we’ve seen him in the presence of anyone except the GHG before. It’s very strange honestly and like the new guy says, it feels dangerous when you know what he is. And the way the panels focus in on the top half of his face, it makes him look like Vash. Like it’s reminding you that they are very similar, both equally capable of destruction.
Omg baby Knives!! He has no right being so cute. But who is this guy and why does he recognize him? Why does Knives show up in his house in the middle of the night?
Oh!! It’s manga Conrad! So Knives needs him for his Plant knowledge and nefarious plans…whatever they might be.
Hang on, Conrad was the guy that helped Knives experiment on Vash then. So he’s feeling a little guilty about what happened in July too.
Conrad is having second thoughts about working with Knives, even though he was originally fascinated by the possibilities he presented because apparently so little is known about Independents and what they’re capable of. Well, dude, he’s certainly not the little kid you somehow remember. How old is this guy if he knew Knives when he was little?
I was starting to wonder what happened to that plot point about the mysterious empty towns. What was Knives’s goal there? Was he just killing people or using them for something?
I don’t quite know what to make of this, but it’s interesting that the Plant scientist holds up a cross when he says they’re doing a Last Run on the dying Plant. I can’t tell if it’s because he’s asking for strength or forgiveness or what. To me, it feels like he’s warding himself against what’s about to happen, especially because he’s telling Knives and co. to leave.
Well, that was horrifying! I get why the guy told them to leave. Knives’s face though, the way half of it is obscured, has so much fear and rage and hopelessness in it. This isn’t an expression or emotion we’ve seen from him before.
I think this might be the first time we really see how humans abuse and misuse the Plants and understand why Knives is out for blood. And I get it, I really do. You know you have a great villain when their motivations and reasoning make such awful sense.
However, I’m curious about the way Conrad described the Last Run. “When Plants reach their final stage and they’ve run out of energy, they deliberately go out of control.” So, he makes it seem like a conscious choice by the Plant as they die, a part of their natural life cycle. But Plant scientist guy made it seem like this was scheduled, something that humans are doing to the Plant. Despite what Conrad said, by asking Knives’s forgiveness on behalf of humanity, he supports the idea that humanity was directly responsible. So who’s right? The thing is everything must die eventually, including Plants. Unfortunately, their deaths are horrific. Is Knives angered that they’re simply being used like this and driven to death? Or is Conrad not outwardly acknowledging their direct hand in a Last Run?
Knives just destroys the entire Plant facility in a rage (though a beautifully drawn rage I will say. These pages are sublimely horrifying).
The black hair reveal!! On my first read, I remember putting the pieces together about this and Vash’s changing hair color and getting so scared for him.
But Knives has just been seriously betrayed. Conrad has been waiting for this to happen and actively keeping this fact from him!
I can’t believe I didn’t catch this the first time, but he’s a lot more mad about what this means for Vash than for himself. That’s why he kills Conrad. I wonder, if he’d known how using their power would bring Vash closer to death, would he have done what he did to him at July or Fifth Moon?
Also, this is a great reminder that no matter how fucked up Knives’s reasoning is or his ultimately genocidal plans, he loves his brother. He doesn’t want him dead, he just wants to make a better world for him. Does he go about it in the most twisted way possible? Yeah. But, still, there’s love there, no matter how dark.
Did Vash somehow sense Knives’s anger/emotions at a distance again??? Telepathic Plant powers are so cool honestly.

Ch 5

Love me some narrative irony. The government calls Vash—basically an angel—an Act of God. They don’t know how right they are.
Vash always becomes friends with the local kids. It’s so cute! But I often wonder if it’s because he never really got to be a child himself, so that’s why he does it, to give himself a moment to be childish and without burden or responsibility.
A fallen angel walks into a church…sounds like the start of a joke, but he’s really looking for absolution. And he can’t find it. He doesn’t believe he deserves it, not from others or from himself. I’ve believed pretty firmly that Vash was willing to offer people forgiveness and absolution in the hopes of finding some of that for himself, but now I’m not so sure.

This page hurts a lot. Look at Vash’s face. The circles under his eyes, the dead-eyed look, he’s completely overtaken by despair. He’s not even trying to hide it right now.
And then we go straight into the shenanigans. It’s very rude to attack a man in a church.
“You got him out without a fight!” If only the bounty hunters knew that Vash is just Like That. He’s not going to let them open fire in a church!
Poor Wolfwood can never enjoy his noodles in peace.
Hang on, has Vash been drunk this whole time?? That explains so much actually. Downers are not good when you have depression, no wonder his thoughts in the church were so morbid.
I’m also losing my mind over the way he licks alcohol off his hand. It’s so not Vash at all and he looks kinda unhinged. Look at how he’s drawn when he does it.

His face is dark and obscured, we don’t actually see what he’s feeling. This feels a lot more like what the world at large imagines him to be: a ruthless, uncaring killer who would laugh and drink his way through a fight. I know he’s probably just very drunk, but it almost feels like he’s giving up a little.
For someone as drunk as he is, he’s still fighting really well. Especially after they get the news bulletin and he gets an idea of where Knives might be.
Lol, needle noggin-isms.
Well, Vash’s Plant powers haven’t done that before. It caught a fucking bullet in mid-air.
Oh, poor Meryl. She’s terrified. It just brings her back to the Dragon’s Nest and being trapped inside of Vash, no idea what he is or what’s going on. I feel so bad for her. It was a traumatic experience and she’s been pushing it away, trying not to deal with it, because this is Vash, right? He’s not scary or a monster. But trauma is trauma and seeing it again just brings back that fear.
And Vash! He’s shaking and he falls down. He’s scared too, but for an entirely different reason. He didn’t do this of his own volition, this is his body acting on its own. As many people have pointed out, Vash controls himself very tightly all the time, because he’s so afraid of what’ll happen if he doesn’t. But this chapter his control slipped just a little. He got drunk, he’s shown all these people he isn’t human and one of the few people who has ever actually cared about him is scared of him.
I just…the townspeople stone him. Talk about Biblical references, I guess. Vash’s reaction kills me though. He just takes it, because he thinks he deserves it. I’m glad Wolfwood is at least sorta standing up for him.
This is Milly’s moment where she truly grasps that Vash smiles through the pain. But as others have pointed out, she doesn’t see this as reflection of his determination to keep moving and always see the good in the world. For Milly, all she can focus on is how much of himself he’s really hiding. She sees a pain that permeates every part of him, but that he refuses to show to the world. He feels it, but doesn’t let it out. For Milly, who is a deeply compassionate person, it hurts to know that her friend is suffering like this and won’t let them help.
In the end, they do have to leave the girls behind. I guess you could say that it’s because it’s gotten too dangerous for them or it would damage their reputation too much to be seen with outlaws like Vash and Wolfwood. But I think it has a lot to do with Meryl’s reaction to Vash. Meryl can’t be with him right now. It’s still too much for her and it wouldn’t be good for her to keep forcing herself. There’s not even an argument from anyone this time about it.
Okay, well, this chapter made me very sad.

Ch 6

I’m so curious what Elendira’s goal here is. She seems entertained by the possibilities of Knives’s power being limited and the potential destruction that could cause. Either way, Knives has definitely become more dangerous.
Wolfwood does not react well to being threatened, understandably.
Is Vash somehow picking up the memory/impression of Knives murdering Conrad? That’s an interesting new power. Is it triggered by the fact that Knives was there and the one who did it?
Vash backstory time? I’m very excited.
Omg, baby Vash and Knives are so cute! On my first read, I was shocked when I realized that was Knives because he looks so nice. Tristamp has him being a bit evil even when he was a child and here…he’s just a little kid.
Also, Vash just floating by himself in zero g curled up into a ball…it does things to me. Why do I get the feeling that even before the Great Fall he was a lonely, melancholy kid?
Every version of Trigun has a birthday scene for the twins except this one makes me really sad. I didn’t notice this before but Rem’s eyes are obscured by her glasses, the same way Vash’s are when he’s trying to hide his pain. What she’s saying too seems very much like someone trying to obscure their deeper, more complicated feelings. She doesn’t want Vash and Knives to see whatever is bothering her.
Can you imagine being stuck alone on a spaceship when the weird power source you don’t understand suddenly pops out too babies? There are some panels missing of her freaking the fuck out about it.
Can you imagine my shock when I first read this chapter and realized that Nai was an invention of Tristamp? Rem really looked at a baby and went, “I’m going to name you Knives.” I’m blaming it on the intense freakout we never see.
“She looked so kind. But somehow her smile seemed sad.” 🙁
Just like someone else we know. Vash had to get his bad coping mechanisms from someone. It makes sense that it all leads back to Rem.
Wow, Knives actually had a little hope for humanity at one point! He wanted them to accept him. I like that Nightow didn’t make Knives a villain from the beginning. He’s just a little kid, who wants to be friends with the humans and loves his brother.
Also, can I just say how incredibly dumb it is to have only one person awake on the fleet, purely for mental health reasons? I don’t know how Rem didn’t lose her mind pre Vash and Knives.
Uh-oh, trouble’s coming. Why doesn’t Rem want the crew to wake up?

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