Trigun Bookclub: makima-s-most-smile: Trigun Maximum Volume 3: Part 2

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Original Tumblr Post: Trigun Maximum 3 Part 2

Trigun Maximum 3 Part 2

Why the hecking heck am I so slow. I need to catch up! I will do so this week! Don’t hold me to my word, please!

05: The long goodbye

Poor Brad. He’s in all over his head. He does not even have any fighting experience!

There he is! Our well-prepared, dead man! Being sucked in by the darkness that followed the bloodbath!

The things Wolfwood protects are painted in crass contrast to him. They are just white outlines. They are innocence. Wolfwood on the other hand is painted in blood, black suit, dark hair.

Nightow likes to drive home why Wolfwood is able to do such brutal acts. Without him contrasting Wolfwood’s actions with the closeups to his face showing his despair and intersecting with Wolfwood thinking about the kids he protects, I don’t think the readers would feel so much empathy for Wolfwood. Nothing about Wolfwood’s fight is clean or straight, unlike Vash’s. Vash is somewhat in control during his fight, no, he has control. He can keep the enemy at bay, he lets the puppets close and acts only when he knows they truly are puppets. He talks to Emilio and tries to get through to him. Wolfwood has no such power. He hasn’t even got words left. Wolfwood’s fight is direct, gory, bloody, brutal, and personal. It reads like a rabid animal fighting for its life, being cornered and having no way out, baring its teeth and tearing its enemy apart. But who can fault him for it?

Other users already pointed out that Wolfwood’s eyes go bright when he is in emotional stress. This a desperate animal trying to stay alive, to not die. But Nightow intersects Wolfwood physically killing the little people in Ninelives so brutally with Wolfwood needing to concentrate on the reason why he does it. For me, it reads like Wolfwood outright fully dissociating while he kills Ninelives. Fleeing to his safe place and the reason why he persists in this world. Wolfwood is truly a monster, but even at his most monstrous we get to see him at his most human, too. Brutal and cold, his actions may be, but they are not done by hatred, but stem from a love for someone. His expression visibly softens while he thinks about the orphanage.

It is extra horrific that the little people inside Ninelives are so small, childlike from their height and body proportions. It must be extra hard for Wolfwood. Wolfwood needs therapy after this!

Another reason why I read this as dissociating is that the other two Ninelives are able to sneak up on Wolfwood. He shuts himself off and is unable to hear or sense them in any way and leaves his back completely open, even though he knows there are many people in the body and he doesn’t know how many. It is unlike Wolfwood to let his walls down like that. He’s at a breaking point.

When you want to protect the corpse of your childhood sweetheart and you accidentally topple over like a domino game. This panel made me laugh.

Time for a concussion! Not like Nightow really thinks about the consequences of head trauma *stares at Vash giving head trauma left and right* This trope, I hate and love it.

*pats Brad* Sorry, buddy. Now you know, too.

Either Brad vomits because of the revelation or because of the headtrauma. Porque No Los Dos?

Brad says: Yeet the creep! Not gonna lie, that is a very intelligent way to deal with the intruder. The part with the power is interesting. Brad is very aware of the power source and what they need it for. Foreshadowing?

Vash to the rescue! Even after all Emilio did, Vash doesn’t want him to die. I have many feelings about that. Not all are positive towards Vash. Not all are bad, either. It’s a difficult situation and a difficult stance. No one would have faulted him for not trying to save the man who killed and vivisected so many of his loved ones. Some may even take offence to it. There is no right answer in the grand picture, but Vash can at least know that he did all he could from his ideal’s perspective.

Emilio chooses to die. He cannot live with the loss of Isabel, his not-girlfriend. At least I conclude that Emilio never told her and the regret eats him alive. I hope that is no foreshadowing for Vash, since Emilio is kinda his counterpart to Vash in this arc. Both are men made by grief. Emilio even compared Vash and himself at the beginning, both harbouring so much grief and suffering behind their masks. Being a higher being like Vash means for Emilio that Vash is able to just deal with the losses, totally dehumanising Vash. But he does not see that Vash does not do it. The people who he really connects to haunt him and their memory controls him til today, like with Rem. Emilio and Vash also mirror each other in the way they feel about their life. Emilio does not want to live a life without Isabel and chooses to die when he cannot even have her corpse, the illusion of her at his side, Vash does not really want to live either, without Rem or any real connection, but he still avoids those. Our latent suicidal boy :C

That looks biblical… Also, Wolfy? You still there? You look completely gone.

Aw, the girls have his back! Did… Did Milly shoot them through the ceiling? She looks so delighted. “Look what my gun can do! Weee!” Why do I get a flashback to the 98’ scene where Vash is like: “I know a shortcut!” And proceeds to shoot through like 20 floors down.

What do the first two panels even mean? Argh! Please, someone tell me.

Hehe, in the “Nick” of time. You did that on purpose, didn’t you, Milly? Is that the Toma-Dude calling down to them? Wolfwood looks just so done.

06: Families

Interestingly, the title does not say ”Family” singular, but plural. So it will be about the contrast between Vash’s blood family and Vash’s chosen family?

I am not laughing at Knives’ silly BDSM-getup with the 6 eyeholes, while having a fucking round piano thingy around him. I am totally not laughing at him. His get-up reminds me somewhat of Belzebub, the master of flies. But I am not laughing at him. … I am. I am laughing at Knives.

And he shoots just a hole into the ceiling… For funsies.

Aw, a memory of Doc and how they found Vash! Q_Q

HOSPITAL YURI! HOSPITAL YURI! HOSPITAL YURI! AHHHHHHHHH! He woke up to Wolfwood’s heartbeat! Vash looks so somft when he realises that it is Wolfwood! But also so distraught at either the condition that Wolfwood is in or worse, he faults himself for it because they argued about their ideals before.

Not gonna lie, I’d react the same way. Jessica reads weird to me with her puppy crush. They met when she was like 5, she is now around 17 years old and still has her infatuation on high drive. Maybe I am too autistic to get that. *sits with the insurance women and is confused*

Why… does Meryl hit him over the head? Vash is just really happy to see her. He does not do anything creepy like ’98 Vash. They are having a moment here! This is so outta the blue. Is it one of those tsundere jokes? That Meryl is unable to show her true relief and thus acts out? Meh :C

I love how they then awkwardly proceed to give him business cards. I know business cards are incredibly important in Japan. But the insurance women give them one handedly, which is not right as far as I know. They hold them out more like badges. They are such cute weirdos.

LUIDA! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOUR STYLE! AHHHHHH!

And good on her for putting on Vash’s head right. He rescued them! His existence is not wrong. These are Emilio’s, Ninelive’s and Knives’ actions! I love how down to the matter Luida is. But at the same time, she avoids talking about Doc. She is hurting, too. But she needs to be a leader now, first and foremost. But her grief is palpable.

Sidenote: In ‘98 the whole ship was pretty hostile towards Wolfwood as an outsider. And they even turned on Vash in the end. And damn, that was really hard to watch. Maybe that’s why I saw and see Brad in a harsher light, because he was kinda the summary of the ship’s behaviour. I really, really like that Nightow did not keep this up. Vash has been through so much and FINALLY there is an adult that can understand cause and effect and “judges” Vash for what he does and not for who is after his ass. It is the question of who is at fault, the gun or the one who pulled the trigger. Who do you hate, the gun or the person who shot?

No, another nightmare for Wolfwood? At least now I got my question answered if anyone ever saw him get one. Vash did.

This is a funny scene, but it says so much sad stuff. The second Wolfwood is conscious, worse from a nightmare, he is alarmed. He needs to check his surroundings for safety first before he can even allow himself to check up on his body’s condition. Didn’t he break all his ribs? Every breath must be painful, but no, he needs to check his safety first. A hospital should be a place where people feel safe, but Wolfwood surely does not. And as soon as he spots Vash, his mask is back on and he is his usual snarky self. And that after a nightmare that woke him up! GODDAMN! GIVE THIS MAN THERAPY!

Damn, going right at his own throat. Vash does not judge Wolfwood. Wolfwood judges himself and projects that onto Vash. And Vash denies him. He thanks him, instead. Here, Vash is understanding Wolfwood, but Wolfwood doesn’t understand Vash due to his own prejudices. Wolfwood cannot accept that someone does not judge him as hard as he judges himself. Man, those men.

“I’ve burdened you with my own ideals.” Such a raw line. I love it. What I am missing a bit in Vash is that we see Vash reflect upon other people. We get Wolfwood who constantly reflects upon himself and others and judges, we get Meryl trying to understand Vash and bringing his inhumanity together with his apparent softness that he has shown again and again, we get Brad dealing with Vash’s unchanging immortality and the way he bonds with people in a very inhuman way. But we don’t get Vash reflecting on how other people impact him. Even now, his stance is how he affected Wolfwood, not how Wolfwood affects him. Vash is unchanging. For the better and worse. That may be by intent from Nightow, since Vash is such an inhuman being. Maybe even we, the readers, aren’t prone to get a true insight of him and only bits and pieces from the story to build up our own image.

“The way he talks, his words… they contradict everythin’ I stand for. Immortality.” Foreshadowing?!

Is it truly Vash’ apparent immortality that scares Wolfwood? Or is it the sudden realisation that Vash is so much longer than Wolfwood on the planet and still holds onto his “naive” ideals? That nothing he experienced did deter his optimism? Wolfwood already breaks under the burden of his priorities, the orphanage and thus his own survival. But for Vash, it is everyone except himself. To grapple such an idea and see it successfully executed is jarring. It is inhuman. Vash is inhuman and this is the point that Wolfwood truly understands his inhumanity. And it fucking scares him

07: His life as a …

A reminder that No-Man’s-Land is pretty lawless. Why does law exist (in theory)? The law is there so people do not abuse their power. So people don’t take revenge. It is there so that after a misdeed families don’t run into blood feuds taking revenge upon revenge until the triggering act is forgotten but the stream of blood does not stop. The men in the beginning of the chapter do exactly that, use their power to exact pure revenge over people in their captivity. This is an extremely ugly consequence of people willing to do everything to protect their families. I can empathise why they do it, but I don’t approve of it.

Vash is about 180cm in the manga. How small is Luida? Damn! Also, baby Brad! Baby brat Brad! So the front page shows Luida, the doc, maybe doc’s father and Brad and Jessica. It looks like a family picture. Is Doc Luida’s father? How does Brad relate to her? Or Jessica? Brad wanting to woo her at least should mean that they aren’t related.

This scene always gets me. Luida putting her foot down and just being a boss. It is so small, but so telling about the characters. I love how Wolfwood just respects her rules, even though he chimes in like a little boy with: “But it ain’t even lit.”

I also love that Wolfwood just carries his drip like the punisher.

Vash shows Meryl and Milly an extremely important part of him. He is showing vulnerability, but at the same time… I don’t know, it feels incomplete? Vash is staring away, at his past and more importantly at Rem, while Meryl watches him and reflects upon their experiences. Meryl watches from the outside, she does not get any insight.

We, the readers and Wolfwood, get a bit of a summary about Vash’ past, but I don’t know if Meryl and Milly do get it. It looks a bit like it, but at the same time absolutely not. There is a hint that Vash is older than them, but it is a hint: “It’s from a long time ago. Before your grandparents were born.” It is from before he was born, too! But it has been on this planet since before their grandparents were born. He is not part of the sentence. But it is subtle and I would not get it when I was in the insurance women’s shoes. Milly may have gotten it, but the scene focuses on Meryl. Does Vash tell them about his past? I don’t think so. If he did, why does Meryl think that she can see his enigmatic past laid out there? Why are we shown this introspection without any Oh!-moment? It is more about feeling and not knowing. The cuts to his past are always told from Luida’s/ Home’s perspective and focuses on Wolfwood’s reaction. Vash is truly a man where you need to pull every info out of his nose by force.

“This time… it is possible…” What is possible? Wolfwood is focused on Vash’ age, so I understand that he immediately zooms in on Vash dying, but I read that more as a worry for Vash. Vash is passively suicidal. That is a fact.

But why is it a foolish question? What does Luida mean with Vash’ true immortality? Sorry, that I totally do not get. Yes, if Vash used his true power no one would stand a chance, but he doesn’t because he gives everyone else power over him. That reads as a cry for redemption. We, the readers, know that Vash feels an immense loss for Rem and that’s why he needs to protect every last living human. But self flagellation for an idol is still a cry for some kind of absolvement or redemption. Does Luida mean that he could just regenerate? Knives should have been able to do that! He needed a new body because Vash damaged his old one too much. But Vash choses the pain that comes with the mutilations he endured. That is self hate. So why is Wolfwood wrong by assuming it is a cry for redemption? Or is the question foolish because it is too obvious. (I really need input here, please.)

Uh, okay, I got my answer. Luida agrees with Wolfwood that Vash wishes for a form of redemption.

I still stand by my point that knowing everybody’s face and name may be amazing, but it does not mean true connection. Vash does not feel connected to them for me. If everyone is important, no one is. He is a human caretaker and not part of the group.

Another user already pointed out that Wolfwood’s face is torn (tell me who you are and I add you, better show me the post and I link that one).

The left side is smiling affectionately and the right side looks forlorn and commiserating. While I don’t think Wolfwood accepts Vash’s point of view, he emphasises with the pain that Vash carries around and comes to terms with Vash’s point of view here. Vash won’t change it. It is something Wolfwood cannot change, even though he wishes to. While he does not understand it, he starts to admire Vash’s resilience and strength. Additionally to that, the talk with Luida helped Wolfwood understand that Vash’s behaviour does not come from not understanding the world, what he thought even at the start of the chapter, but by outright fighting the status quo. The last sentence drives that home for me. Vash is not a true gunman that tries to look on the bright side of life, Vash is a true gunman that keeps trying to look on the bright side of life. This is an active decision of Vash’ part and that makes a big difference. Maybe here, Wolfwood even starts to wish to protect Vash for it.

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