Trigun Bookclub: makima-s-most-smile: Trigun Maximum Volume 5: Part 2

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Original Tumblr Post: Trigun Maximum 5 (Part 2)

Trigun Maximum 5 (Part 2)

Slowly but surely I inch myself closer to where the rest of the bookclub is at.

04. Villain

Oh, damn. What a title… With Vash on the cover you’d assume that Vash is a villain. But we got context. Is he?

Another damn from me. I thought Meryl got… uh… absorbed “just” to see July. but she gets more, more than Hoppered. She gets a young Vash with two arms, being shot down again and again, grabbing the gun for the (I assume) first time, training and realising how much damage they do and how he tries to help people, most likely people who tried to shoot him. And it all culminates to the one moment of July. When the gun becomes synonymous with his angel arm, Vash loses so much. But for me the question remains. What about this was his choice? Did he really choose to shoot? Or did he just choose to aim the gun at Knives, when it was already starting to go off?

Poor Meryl, she really saw his enigmatic past, didn’t she? I think the feathers show you two kinds of things. 1. The thing that is on the plants mind and 2. Something you have a personal interest in. Hoppered has not the slightest interest in who Vash is. He is only and fully about July. But Meryl is interested in who Vash is. While the panels before show it kinda weirdly (the fangirlface she made when Zazie said they tell her more), she is interested in the person Vash. So she gets to see more about him, more about his fears and history.

But that is just a theory… A manga theory. (Sorry, brain went weird for a moment here.)

Ah, yes, Wolfwood, the people man. Surely, pointing a gun at a stubborn woman will make her do what you want. Especially when she knows that you do it out of care for her and won’t shoot. Vash should talk to him about trigger discipline and maybe that he shouldn’t have his finger on the trigger when he does not intent to shoot. But then again… Wolfwood’s intimidation would work even less.

And Vash’ power saves them. They don’t know, we don’t know how. But, welp, time to move on.

Such a Wolfwood line… Both of them have such a vibe going on. Depressed nihilist, both of them!

If it wasn’t Vashwood, it could be Hopvalley?

Hoppered’s revenge has failed and since revenge is all he had to live for, he wants death. That’s sad. Again, a mirror to Vash himself. Like many said before, Vash uses his revenge for going on. While there are real doubts as to if he could truly go through with it, it is his reason to live. Without it, Hoppered and Vash would be in the same place, inviting death.

Midvalley just up and dehumanises Vash and Knives. They are a different species, sure, but he only sees their ability to destroy. He fails to see that Vash did not destroy right now. He saved them, he saved Hoppered, he saved Wolfwood and Milly (btw, where is she?) and later we see, Meryl is saved by him, too! But then again, Midvalley doesn’t know Vash, but he knows Knives. And Knives is… uh… yeah…

Excuse for what exactly? Excuse for Midvalley to just up and leave? For him not even trying to stop those beings and help humanity survive? And how does that circle back to loyalty? Who is Wolfwood loyal to right now? Humanity as a whole or just his orphanage? Though, bringing his loyalty into question, how? By stressing how Wolfwood will betray Vash? Or Knives? Because in the end, I cannot imagine Wolfwood betraying that for what his true loyalty lies and that is the orphanage.

Suddenly Legato! Man, I’d even prefer Knives to him! That’s the person Zazie saw approaching before… y’know… being murdered.

This needs to be an Akira-reference in the new season!!!!

This is important! One of the most important scenes between Wolfwood and Midvalley. Because Midvalley mirrors Wolfwood’s desperate desire to escape and survive. Wolfwood understands the expression, he knows what comes. He knows Midvalley will attack Legato. And more importantly, Midvalley fails miserably. Omen for Wolfwood?

And the chapter ends with the true villain. Not Vash, whose agency was taken, but Legato, who takes others agency.

On a side note, it is fucking tragic that Midvalley dies by Hoppered’s hand, even if it was forced. Both of them had such a good rapport going on.

05: Death deal

Add insult to injury. Legato just drives into Midvalley. Fuck, that’s mean.

And Vash’ wing protects at least the body. Even not conscious (I assume), Vash cares.

“Death is the only proper punishment.” Next panel has Wolfwood in focus. NOOOOOO!

Not gonna lie, I chuckled at how nonchalantly Wolfwood just pointed a gun at them, without even looking.

Okay, getting a new host is not easy. Why? Because Zazie prefers a specific style? Do the host need to be… uh… prepared? Can they take over corpses or do they need live people?

Midvalley’s body just laying there is feels a bit silly, but also very sad.

Thanks, I am going to have nightmares now! How is Legato the most creepy thing in the story with body horror plants?

Okay, everyone except Meryl and Vash got shot down. What now?

Wait, I thought it was Legato’s legs the whole time, but it is still the unnamed mummy dude! But… I thought those were Leonof’s. Who are you, mysterious bandage man?

Legato would fit perfectly into the crusade with his extreme devotion to “God”.

Me, too, Meryl. She is the normal person in this situation and gives us readers a reflection of how normal people would react to this shit. Man, I wanna hug her.

Didn’t… Legato kinda… decapitate Midvalley with his bike? Does he control a headless corpse? Just… Oh mein Gott…

*sticks out leggy* I know you don’t like weak men, but what about a weak weirdo, Elendira? *wiggles eyebrows and gets shot right through the head* Worth… it…

Jokes aside, at least everyone gets how dangerous Vash was just in that moment. Everyone was panicked and rightly so.

06: Let us walk the path to redemption

Vash’ philosophy broken down to its basics. Except that he would add: No, it is never enough, but I must do it.

Elendira gets Vash. Which is sad, but cool, too. I wanna know more about her reasonings.

I… just can’t with creature Vash. I know it is dangerous, but with the whole chibi style it kinda takes a bit of the direness for me.

Poor Meryl, scared beyond words. But at least she is able to gesticulate her problems precisely.

I like that Wolfwood looks out for Meryl first, before even, dunno, running for his own life. And then he gets knocked around by Vash’ power. Do they ever address this? Meryl gets addressed (not as much as I’d like), but this doesn’t. Wolfwood’s struggle is still about Vash as a whole and how he feels about it and not how much he endured.

Well, if Knives didn’t just wave Legato aside the whole time, this madness could have been avoided. Legato is starting to lose it, this is the scene where we readers start to see it. This is where his devotion becomes a “selfish” need for any kind of acknowledgement from his God. I don’t think that Legato is truly on Knives’ side from here on, but becomes his own kind of player.

Oh, I did not get that in the first readthrough. No one sees this. This is Vash with all his guilt. The deformities could be symbols for the lives he has extinguished. His arm is inhuman, monstrous, a deformity, something that should not exist, full of despair. This is in his mind, while outside, everyone sees feathers.

I laughed at Legato. Haha, the magazine is empty. You may control the headless corpse of a dude that just wanted to leave, but… Fuck your need to kill everyone that dares to go against Knives’ wishes. And then he goes scythe monster.

How… does Meryl go: A transwoman? I shall add in my imagination that Elendira jumped from the ship with a fucking transflag following behind. I need to draw that as soon as my motivation returns.

Wolfwood heard a single shot and I counted 18 nails. Not bad, woman, slay!

I switch between absolutely despising Legato and pitying him. Elendira calls him failure without blinking. For Knives he is just a piece for the puzzle that is his brother’s subjugation. He has no one.

Wolfwood is working for but also fighting against a higher power because not fighting would accepting that the children in the orphanage have no future.

Midvalley was trying to flee from the higher power because he only cared for his own life and nothing was worth risking it.

Hoppered only cares for his revenge. There is no future for his path.

Elendira does not care about the future, because it is doomed either way. She cares about the now and getting as much out of it as she can.

And Hoppered gets to reflect in his last moments about his revenge. He sees Vash now for what he truly is, someone who cares and protects. Vash protected Hoppered at the cost of his own health.

But Hoppered cannot let go of his hatred. Not fully. But somewhat. Because I read this as a curse and a wish, both. He wishes Vash the worst and best thing he could do with the understanding he got from him. A long life.

Ah, yes, Vash, master of deflection. Don’t call Wolfwood out when he does it, because you did the same just now. Yeah, your arm is not about to explode anymore, but it is not fine, you are not fine.

AT LEAST MILLY IS FINE! Insurance Wife moment! And Wolfwood and Milly also came closer! Wolfwood wouldn’t be there otherwise.

Is that… Zazie? It is Zazie! Why do they get to be so silly?!

He is a pirest… I… cannot get over this silly little spelling mistake. I don’t mean to be mean. It is just the most fitting place for the mistake. I mean, everyone makes jokes about Wolfwood being a priest or a shitty priest or a nonpriest. And even the best translation there is, is unable to write him as a priest.

And again, Wolfwood being a priest is reason for jokes, not something serious. Which is sad, because he uses it, again, as deflection. But he prays for their souls. He cares for Hoppered and Midvalley, at least somewhat. As much as he is “right” with that the fighting never ends, he is standing there in all his hypocritical glory and prays for them, too.

That I do not fully get. Is the second speech bubble Midvalley’s, too? Does Midvalley think that Wolfwood is strong enough to fight Knives? How does Midvalley think that Wolfwood could make a stand?

And it ends with a joke and putting Vash’ idealism into focus. Poor Wolfwood, he only fought for his life and he didn’t put a whole into the buildings, like Vash. But man, he swole.

But it is also an answer to the question at the beginning, redemption starts with trying to undo the damage you have done.

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