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Original Tumblr Post: Trigun Maximum 9.1
Trigun Maximum 9.1
- Home
NIghtow! NOOOOOO!
Wolfwood and food. It is one of his love languages
Someone recognizes Wolfwood?! Well, he grew up there, but he has been gone for quite a while now… And… *points to the growth spurt and such*. I don’t think it was spelled out that Wolfwood is on his way to rescue his orphanage. We, the readers, can assume this with the crumbs of info that we get, so this is just another crumb. Wolfwood returns home.
But we do not stay on this scene. Wolfwood is like: I have no time for this shit! And explodes his way through.
Oh, it is THE bike, the one with the crosses. Is that Angelina II? Or a new one? It has to be a new one. Where did he leave the last one? They walked to the ark… Huh… Through how many bikes did Wolfwood go during the series?
I love how Livio’s lashing out is so childish. It is just peak preteen/teen.
Baby Nico is just so… *chef’s kiss*
Brutal honesty, the best way to get Livio out of it. Livio tends to have his head up his arse a little. Not meant as an insult. Just the comparison between Wolfwood, the caretaker even as a child, and, well, another child that has been abandoned like him. While I do not believe that Wolfwood does not share the pain that Livio has, Wolfwood has already accepted the orphanage as his true safe haven, something Livio hasn’t done.
And fucking empathetic about the other children. As much as Wolfwood is a big derp about showing his care for others in words, he sees and gets stuff. He sees the pain the children carry with them, he understands it, he has been there, too. But I think his caretaking of the others, of the children that cannot express themselves or that shut themselves out like Livio, is with a coping mechanism, something that lets him push his own pain aside.
Working and helping each other can get one out of a shitty headspace, so right call there.
I do not not like Miss Melanie. But Wolfwood is truly parentified. He watches with her how the new kid integrates, he has a part in it. But he is a child, too. He is maybe a year, maybe two older than Livio, but he watches the kids like one of the caretakers, not like one of the group, And Miss Melanie should have cut that out from the beginning.
HOW THE FUCK DID THE FUCKING DOG EVEN GET THERE?!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The someone you should love is yourself. Not Jasmine. Like Wolfwood, Livio has a massive problem with self worth and self appreciation. But Wolfwood started to become a caretaker and absolutely neglected himself, while Livio became dependent on outside affirmation.
We learn in a later chapter of this volume about Razlo, so it is not a spoiler when I talk here about him. Razlo killed the puppy because it endangered Jasmine. He acted either out of an misguided attempt to make Jasmine, Livio’s crush, safer or out of a need for revenge for Jasmine, since the puppy endangered her life. It is a childish rationale, but there is a logic behind it. It is a shitty situation all around. I feel for the puppy and for Jasmine. (Sidenote: They have to deal with food shortage and stuff, Wolfwood said that they did not have enough. How the fuck did they keep a puppy?!) Razlo is protective, but not outright evil, but he needs to be reigned in.
Another sign that there is not enough personnel in the orphanage. Livio could just run away. It’s… just a sad situation all around. And Wolfwood takes the responsibility for Livio leaving upon himself, another thing he has to feel guilty about.
Livio does not remember what Razlo did, but he seemed to get at least some intrusive memory bits. The rejection from Jasmine, the distrust of the kids and the guilt and the fear of himself made him leave. He needed a psychologist, but find that on no man’s land…
*sigh* Nightow and drawing children/age. Wolfwood’s age is such a big question mark in the story. Livio’s too, to be honest. What I liked about Trigun is that the characters seemed to be, at least, not teens, maybe in their upper twenties. So my first shock was when Meryl was 21 at the start. Like… DAMN! She is barely out of her apprenticeship and you make her do WHAT, HUNT THE STAMPEDE? But Wolfwood is even more complicated due to the spontaneous addition of ageing up. We know he is an adult, but beyond that… He knew Maylene as a toddler, when he seemed to be a preteen, taking care of her. We meet her as a responsible young woman, but how old is she? I’d say at least 16, maybe even older. So Wolfwood would be at least 24. He would have left at 18, if we take the “haven’t seen for 6 years” from elsewhere, but… then he’d already been through his growth spurt, but maybe he visited them before the whole experimentation stuff… but who knows? Then there’s this little dude. He looked like 4-5 in the flashback and now he seems to be a preteen. If Wolfwood left nearly immediately after Livio left and considering that it has been around 6 years since the kiddos last saw him… Wolfwood would be around 18-20 years old. Which is… very young.
Same with Livio. Chapel took him in as his pupil after Wolfwood left, while he was part of EOM before that, he still looks like 12 years max…
I know the ageing up was a last minute addition, but damn, as soon as I think about it, my head hurts. I really liked Wolfwood being at the end of his 20s. I still hc it that way, fight me.
Why wouldn’t Livio be welcome back there? Isn’t he seen as Chapel’s perfect pupil? Or did Chapel get repercussions from Wolfwood defecting?
They named a kid Cactus?! He truly had loving parents…
And here is the hope for Livio that we were waiting for. Not unlike Wolfwood at the beginning, Livio kills, but in the end he does it to protect someone, too.
There is also the question of worthiness. Livio seems to be somewhat, I’d say, triggered by it with the way he brutally responds. And there is the question of worth and affirmations by others that were present in little Livio, too.
How old does Wolfwood look for you? Somehow many manga have the tendency to show everyone adult as either 20s or old. Wolfwood looked like at the end of his 20s for me (‘98 mid to end 30s and Stampede… is maybe 18?)
02. Tempest
??? Who is speaking in the first panel? The second seems to be Wolfwood, but the question of there being any point in saving him seems out of character for Wolfwood, especially as he presents in the fight. Wolfwood has gone beyond killing if not necessary. So why would he ask if the guy should be saved?
I just love Wolfwood’s versatile use of the Punisher. He knows his mistress and how to use her. And… I just really dig it, how he switches her modes to everyone’s surprise.
Since before his training, Wolfwood had a steady set of morals and rules. Chapel may have thought that he tortured that out of the kiddo, but it remained. Wolfwood has chosen his own path, he goes beyond Chapel’s teachings, choosing mercy, even if it is dangerous for himself.
Is that a weird level of care? They led Wolfwood there to die. Why would Chapel care if Wolfwood’s way of fighting is better or worse for survival? Or is it anger or hurt pride? That his teachings did not stick, that this pupil dared to choose his own path against Chapel’s orders? That even though he was a perfect student, he dared to become something other than a perfect assassin under Chapel?
Wolfwood warns him. I like that the missile that Wolfwood shot up into the air in the beginning has a comeback. His style of fighting truly resembles Vash’ now. Like a weird chainreaction or play where everything comes back in the end.
And our expectations got played with. We expected Wolfwood to panic because of the missile, but it was because of Livio the whole time. Wolfwood was in control of the situation with the small scale bandits, but not with Livio.
Yes, he could have, but why should Livio care about the lives of the dudes that just endangered the orphanage? Why would Wolfwood care about them? Vash’ idealism is reasonable up to a point. That said, I don’t think that Wolfwood comes from the same angle as Vash does. Wolfwood doesn’t want to kill anymore. He broke under the guilt of what he did on the ark.
Livio as he is now is a reflection of Wolfwood at the start of the series. Okay, granted, a Wolfwood in a much worse place, but the basics are there.
03: LR
But he is here! Makes me wonder why the kiddos think that little Nico could help them in this situation. Like… maybe comfort them… But little Nico wouldn’t survive these kinds of people. Nicholas on the other hand…
Another thing, Wolfwood hasn’t been there for years, but he left such an impression on the kiddos that they still look up to him.
His little crush and the shame that came with hurting her, even if he does not truly remember how he did it or why.
And latent suicidality and no self worth… Could any of the male fighters in this manga have something different going on? Oh… Razlo has…
It is creepy how easily Razlo kills and how brutally. Razlo’s care is only Livio’s safety.
Livio and Razlo mirror Wolfwood in their need to be useful. But damn… But again, they go a completely different way. Wolfwood IS a caretaker, L/R want so desperately to be needed that they fall victim to an manipulative and abusive system. Wolfwood’s stability and fortitude comes from already having a set of morals that make him, he doesn’t need outside input, but Livio hasn’t such. Wolfwood already had something that was the rock of his existence and personality, L/R do not have such and that’s why Chapel’s manipulation fell on fertile grounds.
This panel… Just… So dynamic. Their whole fight. But here, how the gun looms out of the bounds of the panel… My oh my.
Knowing Wolfwood, I already expect him to not have killed Livio, even though it is kept intentionally vague here. Wolfwood’s big regret and mission is to save the orphanage including Livio. No way is killing Chapel more important than this.