Trigun Bookclub: lizkreates: Trigun Volume 1: Chapter 0-3

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Original Tumblr Post: Part 1 (Ch 0-3)

Trigun Vol 1 – Part 1 (Ch 0-3)

*cracks knuckles* I’m going to throw a bunch of stuff down, like some story-structured thoughts (which might be a bunch of nonsense, but I’m gonna try!) and parts that catch my interest. Sorry if I repeat anything, I started lurking at TriMax Vol 5. :’D Here we go!

Trigun wastes no time jumping into the mysterious destruction of July. The prologue was short sweet, and now lives in the back of your mind.
The phrase “The same song of humanity sang.” paired with the artwork implies that humanity’s path was not one that flourished but one of destruction. Humanity brought our problems with us. Without the drawing, the line itself can be looked at positively or negatively depending on your outlook. **SPOILERS for new readers** For a story whose main protagonist isn’t human, it is a gut-wrenchingly human story.

Vash looks so baby-faced here!! I love how contradictory the idea of a pacifist gunman is, at least in the story’s context, where most of them choose violence.
Oh so THIS is how violent No Man’s Land is.

That’s Tonis!! I totally didn’t catch that in any of my reads before; he looks so different in TriStamp.
Ow Vash’s first signature smile. :’)

The girls!! I love their intro so much, it sets them up, idk how to explain it, as people, they have their own goals. I love how the guys who made the crude jokes were immediately met with consequences. 98 really leaned into “the expense of women as a source of entertainment” which bugged me, glad to see that the manga does it less and less as you progress. Trigun would be a very different story without its feminine undertones (not just in gender) starkly contrasting the world. (I’m sure someone’s written an essay on it, I’d love to read it!)

“This is the first time the name Vash the Stampede appeared in the annals of history, about a shadow of a blonde-haired man, who still lingered among the mountains of rubble.”

Interesting choice to frame this as already written history! That means at least someone survived to tell the tale.
So about Vash’s outlaw name “The Stampede” – HOW LONG HAS HE HAD IT?? Was it given to him after July? Before? Did he give it to himself? Did some coin it for him? How about Humanoid Typhoon? I need to know. (If you know any fic that covers this, I am chopping at the bit for it, plz send it to me.)

Come here. Closer. We need to talk about RESOURCES. Briefly. I understand I need to suspend my disbelief when something is drawn to look cool and emphasize the scale of a threat, but I like hard science. In a resource-scarce environment like No Man’s Land, manga-size Goseff would be a costly and massive drain on supplies, unless Father Nebraska has his own Plant. Stampede did a more realistic take, which was nice to see!

Anytime I see wood or a lot of organic material in abundance I die a little on the inside. :’) *cries over world-building* But we’re here to enjoy the story! The world-building given to us is just enough so we can follow the plot.

The first mention of “Him,” Knives! I love it when Nightow does an extreme vertical, half-face, close-up, of Vash, it’s so dramatic. I want to appreciate how skillfully Vash’s revolver is drawn here too, this man thrives on complicated designs.

98 was my first introduction to Trigun, so I didn’t realize until I read the manga that they dropped his bounty here. In 98 they dropped it after the 5th moon incident. Trying to keep the canons straight is hard sometimes. :’)

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