Trigun Bookclub: pancake-breakfast: Trigun Maximum Volume 1: Covers + Chapter 1-2

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Original Tumblr Post: Covers + Chapter 1-2

Time to start Maximum for Trigun Book Club!

Stream-of-consciousness thoughts for TriMax Vol. 1, Chapters 1-2 below. (More detailed thoughts will be their own posts.)

Table of Contents

TriMax Volume 1 Covers

Kuroneko on the chapter index gives me serotonin.
Vash finally finds a lamp with a genie in it and all he gets is punched. He seriously has the worst luck.
Wolfwook looks VERY possessive over that cross of his….
LOL, switched to the sex doll. Of course.

Chapter 1: Hero Reborn

First Knives is reborn, now Vash will be reborn?
Yeah… kinda hard to forget someone literally shot the moon when there’s a giant crater on it now….
Vash with dark hair has made his premiere.
Hmm. Needs more floaty cloth bits.

Well, someone’s having a bad day. I know I wouldn’t want to end up tied up and tossed in a fountain….
LOL, they shout for the sheriff and the next character we see is Wolfwood. He’s not a sherriff!
You gotta know a place is welcoming when you walk into a saloon and everyone immediately pulls a gun on you. I mean, that’s just a normal day in Texas or Arizona, right?
Oof. RIP bus.
I mean, I realize Fifth Moon was traumatic and all, but somehow I doubt Vash would be filling someone with “twice his weight in lead.”
I guess the person dumped in the fountain was actually the sheriff. Nightow could have shown the guy’s badge or something to give us an indication of that….
Poor Vash. He doesn’t deserve NEARLY that many knives in his picture.
Everyone has to ask about the cross. Wolfwood rarely actually answers. Deflection and misdirection is better.
LOL, Lina’s face here…

Oh, man. WW’s face in literally the next panel after Ericks’s entrance. He knows exactly who he’s looking at.
~~Vash~~ Ericks, I know you try to look for non-combative solutions, but female-bodied folk really don’t have a lot of options when people get handsy if we want them to decide not to push their luck beyond just being handsy.
Ah, see, this is why he thinks she overreacted. Because now a lot more people are in danger.
Heheheheheheh, WW, Lina, and Vash are all in such a close clump here.

Aaaand now “Ericks” has fully noticed Wolfwood.
Who the heck is this evil hamster of a human being?

All I’m saying, buddy, is that her footpring miiiiiight just be an improvement.
Gods, WW is so intent in this situation. Just looking at everything and listening to everything.
Dude, who STOLE VASH’S JACKET?!?! Also, those sunglasses jut feel wrong.
Oh, Ericks. So gentle….
Yeah, pretty sure actual Vash the Stampede wouldn’t stoop to humiliating people as part of a power play.
Ericks, though. He’s like, “Cool, a bargain where people live at the end!”
I wonder how much of Ericks telling Lina to cover her eyes is because he doesn’t want her to see his scars.
WW wasn’t really with the group long enough to see Vash’s scars before, but this really clears things up for the audience. And you can practically hear the gears grinding in WW’s head as he observes this scene.
Dude. This imposter even copied his gay little earing. Now that’s commitment.
Opening fire on a naked man? Rude.
*sigh* All of that for nothing ’cause Lina’s still caught.
AGAIN?! How often does this guy get shot!?

WW barely knows Vash and he’s already like, “I WILL CLOCK ANYONE WHO SPEAKS SLANDER AGAINST HIS NAME.”
What? He has super-healing? I mean, I guess that makes sense.
People really need to stop barreling their way into the infirmary….
Sheryl has a point. Things gotta get done. If the young folk won’t help, then this old lame woman’s gonna have to do it.
LOL, Wolfwood waking up Ericks will never not be one of my favorite scenes.

Awwwww, Wolfwood! Don’t remind him about Fifth Moon! He thinks about it every time he sees that moon, I’m sure. It’s NOT a pleasant memory in any way, shape or form, and he hates the legends around him!
Ugh, someone give this man a hug….
Cruel, indeed. The way he looks when he picks up that gun. There are so many emotions going on here. Loss, resignation, familiarity, sadness. Seriously. Where are the hugs for this man??

Wolfwood, always the pragmatist. He knows this isn’t a great path, and how unfair it is for him to drag Vash back to it. But he also knows it’s the path forward.
Heh. Yeah, just the two of them. For Vash to exhibit this amount of trust in WW suggests he’s at least suspected WW’s true nature for a while.
PUNISHER REVEAL!!!
Annnnnd Vash’s first thought on seeing the giant machine gun is, of course, “Please, no death.”
This panel of them heading into the fight together just fills me with so much joy.

Fake Vash is in a bit of a pickle, isn’t he? Looks like he knows it, too.
Wolfwood reacting to Fake Vash demanding actual Vash say his name is beautiful. He looks like he’s gonna die of laughter there in the dirt.

Heh. And with that last gunshot, Vash reclaims who he is.
And even after that reclaiming, he gets a heartfelt, genuine, and warm hug from a young girl who has only really known him as her friend and adopted family member, Ericks. <3

Chapter 2: Lina

“Something freaky is going on here.” Yes. You’re dealing with Vash the Stampede and Nicholas D. Wolfwood. Even one of those should be enough to cause serious alarm.
SHOES OFF THE BED. Geez. Barbarian….
Ugh, I love his expression here.

I’m sorry, I can’t get over Wolfwood’s weird duck face in this panel.

This is a very interesting take on the Lady and the Tramp spaghetti dinner scene. That poor sausage….
Aww, you can see where his hair’s gone all dark underneath now that he has it tied back.
Well, that’s one way to get Vash’s attention. He doesn’t have as much chill when it comes to his brother. And understandably so.
Uhhhhhh, what’s up with that spiky weird shadow guy?
TBH, Vash has good reason to be suspicious of anyone who knows too much about Knives. Knives’s games aren’t about humans. They’re about Knives and Vash. Humans are just pawns and casualties.
I love how this 12-year-old girl is able to cow a bunch of whiny, scared men with just her presence. I love how angry she gets on Vash’s behalf.
“If he and his followers sniff me out…” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no comment. ~~Vash just got really freaking lucky with exactly who’s sniffing him out.~~
The comedy of this panel is great. Granny’s all like, “Oh, no…. You’re gonna end up beaten up in a ditch somewhere….” Meanwhile, her granddaughter has already begun just wailing on Vash. Without even dropping the groceries.

Ugh, just… having someone take care of him for a bit. It’s a small and much-needed kindness. But that’s how it often is with small kindnesses.
Wolfwood: “That brat (affectionate)”
LOL, Vash gets head-pats. GOOD.
Wait, Evil Hamster Man is back??
What the heck is even happening in this panel? Is this a second guy? Is this a growth on Evil Hamster Man’s back? I don’t know. We already had a guy with a LITERAL GUN for legs, so either wouldn’t exactly surprise me. Wolfwood’s face sums up my feelings perfectly.

Ohhh, Vash isn’t having any of this guy’s shit.
WTF, he just KICKED the round out of the sky?!
Vash isn’t really prone to showing off just to show off. I’m guessing he’s doing this to make Lina and Granny feel a bit better about how competent he is.
Even Wolfwood, who’s seen Vash’s weird before, seems a bit shocked.
Also, LOL, Wolfwood frog face.
Literally still can’t tell if the second gunman is an actual dude or just some weird Evil Hamster Man growth.
Oh, there we go. He seems to be a separate entity, after all.
LOL, Wolfwood, calling them like he sees them. (Thank you, @trigun-manga-overhaul, for keeping the swearing. It makes it that much more funny.)

And now Evil Hamster Man is given a choice: a chance at redemption, or having to deal with an angry Stampede. Let’s hope he chooses wisely.
Well, Granny’s feeling better about the situation. Lina seems more… resigned.
There’s something so lovely about the hair-trimming scene. It’s one last bit of domestic comfort with his little found family before he heads off to war.
I genuinely believe Wolfwood here. He has a good heart, even when he tries to hide it.

*sigh* And as Lina cuts away at his hair, we just drown in their shared memories. The vast majority of it is simple things. Family things. Quiet moments. But they meant the world to Lina. And they probably meant the world to Vash, too.
I have thoughts about Lina burying herself in the cloth from Vash’s haircut.
This chapter ends beautifully and makes me want to cry.

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