Trigun Bookclub: makima-s-most-smile: Trigun Maximum Volume 10: Part 2

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Original Tumblr Post: Trigun Maximum 10.2

Trigun Maximum 10.2

How can it get worse and worse?! When did this manga take a turn to despair… I know, like 11 volumes ago… *flops facedown* I am hit critically in the feels.

03: Sudden Change

Oh, how this chapter title took me for a spin in my first read through. Yes, the tides of the battle turn, but not completely and at what cost? There is a change in Wolfwood, too, physically, but also mentally.

Yeah, as if you were his best friend and he couldn’t live with the idea of losing you. Especially with what you sacrificed for him repeatedly.

But behind that, there is Wolfwood’s core problem. He sees himself as a burden. Not only is everyone else more important, his existence is a burden for others. Something he has to make up. That’s why Chapel got his claws around him so easily. Remember back at Vash’ and Wolfwood’s first meeting?

He left the place either as a young teen or a preteen… And even there he constantly worked as a caretaker for the other kids, to lessen the load on Miss Melanie and the other staff.

While there is a cold logic to Wolfwood’s decision: Vash needs to save the whole world, Wolfwood cannot risk him for my much smaller problem. Though, in reality it boils down to: I cannot burden him. Wolfwood cannot take into consideration that he himself is an important person that not only needs, but is allowed to have someone at their side that protects them. He is that to other people, because he never had it himself.

Okay, it seems my question in the last volume got answered. When Wolfwood received his Punisher (the tenth), it was the tenth Punisher that has been ever made. Question is, did Razlo get new ones made or did he inherit those from the former members?

I can’t. Does Vash ever have nightmares about this after all is done? That Wolfwood stared at him with panicked eyes and then chose to kill himself for Vash, the kids and Livio?

This scene has so many different interpretations and I have a different one each time I read it. Right now I read it as: Vash is in trouble and Wolfwood is too hurt to help, so he makes the choice to sacrifice himself so Vash can protect the children. And with Vash being the shield for the children, Wolfwood has another chance to get through to Livio. If he fails, Wolfwood trusts that Vash can take him on.

A few pages later we see that Vash gets a punisher bullet through his side. So, Wolfwood’s assumptions seems more like a keen observation.

Speedwagon again… Why… would Chapel care in this situation if Wolfwood survives? Oh, no, that’s not it. It is that Wolfwood is in a position to stand up against Chapel and fight him, again. Chapel was so close to breaking Wolfwood down, but he failed and that’s what makes him call out to Wolfwood like he is an idiot that does not understand these vials and their workings. But Wolfwood does. Chapel cannot understand that something is more important for Wolfwood than his life.

Another reason why I think taking vials back to back amplifies their effect to the better and worse. Did Wolfwood grow, too? The cracking and bulging sounds imply that.

He turned into a breakdancer! *okay, jokes aside*

*sobs*

Does… Does Wolfwood headbutt Chapel to death?!? Naice.

In the end, Razlo is a little, bratty kid that had no one. He is dependent on Chapel. Chapel fostered the dependency to have control over Razlo. He used him. But Chapel was still Razlo’s safety anchor.

One more point for the team: Vash can hear thoughts of people who are dying.

Poor Wolfwood, that he is a monster is just so ingrained into him that he cannot bear the thoughts of the people he loves so dearly see him. He cannot even fathom that they’d see something completely different than he does. And the return of the glasses! The glasses hide his true self, they hide his fear. They are his crutch that helps him to put distance between him and others.

I KNOW that this is Razlo being totally irrational, but I shouted out: “Oh, come on! You two just tortured the big brother of your other self!” Razlo is so strong, he never had to deal with the fear of losing, either his life or just a battle. Wolfwood goes into battles with the knowledge that he can not only die easily, it was one of the reasons why he reprimanded Vash for the risks he took. This is the first loss Razlo has experienced.

And fitting to that, Razlo did not care for Chapel as a person, he needed to be needed. Chapel filled that desire. It is about the loneliness that comes at the loss, not the loss itself.

Oh, now we get an insight into Vash?! NOW! So it hurts even more?

Vash, if you truly listened to Wolfwood and tried to understand why he does the things he does, you would have understood that your beliefs aren’t that opposed. In the end, it is the scale that is different. But you never asked. You are so used to doing your own thing, that you trust what you get by your observation skills and do not really interact with the people or with the conflict that ensues. The whole “You give up hope too easily” stuff is a perfect example of this.

One of the reasons why I have a growing annoyance with Vash while the volumes go on is that we do not get his insight, we do not see him grow much. As much as he puts up distance between himself and others, we as readers are kept at a distance, too. That’s why the characters Wolfwood and Meryl are so important, because they are there for the readers as a point of reference. But that way we also grew incredibly close to them. I’d say closer to Wolfwood, since we get so much more insight into him and Meryl gets sadly pretty sidelined. We see them struggle with Vash and what he is and what that means for them, we see Wolfwood in constant conflict with his reality and how it opposes his morals. We do not get that from Vash. That often makes him seem aloof, stubborn and judgemental, at least to me. There are little flashes like the talk on Home, but those are very rare.

And back to the bird high in the air. It fits here, too. It is unreachable, up in the air. Wolfwood was seemingly free to do as he liked towards everyone. Freer than Vash could be with the chains Vash has put around himself to punish himself, robbing himself of so much agency to act in his own defence or defence of others. But Wolfwood was struggling the whole time to survive. His morals and his chosen responsibilities slowly suffocate him.

Battle buddies, my favourite trope.

The only way Wolfwood can show care or thanks. He hides behind his abrasiveness and the obvious problem looming over all of them. As he justified his leaving to himself, Vash is needed there and Wolfwood’s problems are just a negligible distraction. It is the fate of the world that is in Vash’ hands.

The obvious answer is that Wolfwood is just so much more important for Vash than the fight with Knives. I’d even go so far and say that he needs his assistance in the fight, even if it is just for the mental boost. But neither of them is able to tell the other what they truly feel, they hide it behind banter, not speaking the most important words.

04: Death Omen

Uh… didn’t we have a chapter with the same title? Eh… But fitting… 4 and death omen..

It is the only time he has… Wolfwood is so happy that Vash is there. He is grateful for their time together.

Wolfwood’s face behind the glasses. Vash does not understand what or why Wolfwood acts that way symbolised by the way Wolfwood’s eyes are hidden. And he throws Wolfwood’s words back into his face, how Wolfwood is a realist, how he has to survive at any cost. For the kids. Even for their friends.

And it clicks. Vash starts to realise that something is deeply wrong with Wolfwood. That Wolfwood is truly believing that he will die here. Vash may have even forgotten for a while that Wolfwood is in the end human. His childhood was exchanged for a fighter’s body and he has the vials. But has really ever understood what that meant? Did Vash see the wounds as something he has been already through, so Wolfwood would survive them, too? Vash is still in denial. But it starts to dawn on him. Are the wounds on Wolfwood too dire?

The expressions of sorrow on Wolfwood is so… so… good. The sorrowful Wolfwood’s are with the best expressions he ever drew.

It… It’s the page. Them desperately reaching out for each other. Vash finally had realised how important Wolfwood is to him, either during the arc-rescue or when Wolfwood ghosted him. And Vash finally stopped avoiding the connection they had, he seeked Wolfwood out, breaking a series going on for 150 years.

But it is too late.

And Vash understands that Wolfwood is dying. He was too late.

How his fingers dig in… That is the side where Chapel shoved his weapon into, Wolfwood was speared there. There may be not much left under the suit.

(Sidenote, since bible fanfiction. Jesus has been speared into the side, too, after the crucifixion to check if he was truly dead.)

Vash always does his best to not shoot in anger. But all is lost to him at that moment. The only reason why L/R survives is because Vash cherishes Wolfwood’s wishes too much to do more. But if Wolfwood would have been unsuccessful in saving Livio, I have no doubt that Vash would have murdered him in cold blood.

What else but leaving a man his dying wish?

This hurts so much. They finally got together, they finally bridged the gap that kept them apart for the whole time. They finally found understanding in each other. And now Wolfwood’s looming death parts them. The last panel shows the growing distance.

Wolfwood is the bird and the one longing at the same time. He has no real freedom, he never had, but had to struggle the whole time to survive. He wanted rest and peace, but his life did not offer him any of it. His only real choice was to be the protector for others. So that others have a place to rest and feel safe. So that their safety is not a cage, but that they gain both freedom and a home. And that led him to an early and brutal death. Is there true freedom in this decision? He chose his own path here. But at the same time, it was the only path he could take. The only way for Wolfwood to stay Wolfwood was to die. Breaking his morals here to save himself over Livio, would go against his whole person. He has to protect. Without being the protector, Wolfwood is not Wolfwood.

Vash is the bird and the human, too. Vash longs for the first time to be with a human, but he can only look in longing, since his wish will never be. After his long and painful existence, he truly wished to find peace with someone (platonically or romantically), but the bird that is Wolfwood has already passed him and he can only look at him in longing, because he has no way to reach him or make him stay.

Wolfwood is in full big brother mode. Razlo gets treated like the brat he is. It is funny that I wrote that Razlo is a brat before reading this.

The way Wolfwood’s eye is shown, tells us that he is serious. Very much so. Razlo is in for a hell of pain.

Nightow is *chef’s kiss* at cool expressions and poses.

Wolfwood not only received his death omen, he is a dead man walking. But he is the death omen, too. He will end the hold that Chapel has over Livio, over Razlo’s dead… uh… not body, since it is Lilvio’s. But Wolfwood will find a way.

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