Trigun Bookclub: pancake-breakfast: Trigun Maximum Volume 12: Covers + Chapter 1-3

Original Tumblr Post: Covers + Chapter 1-3

It really feels like we’re moving into the home stretch, doesn’t it?

Stream-of-consciousness thoughts for TriMax Vol. 12, Chapters 1-3 below.

Table of Contents

Volume 12 Covers

Eyyy, it’s Grape Juice Vash! Wait. Why is his hair all black? WHY IS HIS HAIR ALL BLACK?!?!?!
Huh, was the gag cover not done by Nightow?
The people on the back cover are… an interesting and volatile combo.
Why is Livio strapped down and being tormented on the back cover? Noooooo….

By contrast, Legato looks much too pleased with everything.
Kuro looks like she just noticed she has a butt.
I don’t like these chapter titles. They don’t sound like things that bode well for our intrepid heroes.

Eyyy! Dramatic Livio!
Oh, so while Knives expects they’ll never see him coming, these folks have dealt with this sort of thing before and actually have formalized plans for how to deal with it.
Chronica doesn’t look particularly happy about this situation. What could be going through her mind as she heads off to fight another of her kin?
Is Domina another Plant? Or are we just running with dramatic names at this period in history?
LOL, Chronica just shut Domina down.

Oh, so Chronica’s experienced in this.
Domina’s gonna die. I’m calling it now.
Dramatic Vash!
Geez, how high up is he??
Did… he just think about jumping and then stop himself??
Kinda wish these two pages were put together in a spread. Makes it a bit easier to follow Vash’s… er… cheerful reminiscing.

Heh, but in spite of all the destruction he’s witnessed and been a part of, his thoughts go back to all the kind people he’s met along the way.
This isn’t even just the kind people anymore. It’s just all these people who made an impact on him. And Kuroneko.
Oh, hey. It’s Fake Vash.

Man, Legato takes up so much space here…. Definitely not all people who had positive impacts. Good to see Lina and her grandma kinda balancing him out a bit on the other corner of the page.
All the Gung-Ho Guns…. I like how Razlo and Livio are given separate panels, and how Livio’s panel is still kinda Razlo-centric. It shows him not being him, but just being a mask and a tool, the real person buried down deep and nearly lost to shadows.
The fact that Chapel’s here is interesting. Wolfwood had the coin, but it seems like, as far as Vash is concerned, only the actual Chapel was truly a Gung-Ho Gun. That would line up with his insistence that the coin was Chapel’s in the previous volume despite Wolfwood explicitly noting it was his own. (Though Wolfwood was actively trying to push Vash away at the time, so who knows how truthful he was being.)
Ah, and there we end with the two most important figures: Wolfwood and Rem.
MOAR dramatic Vash!

I love everything about this panel. I love the dramatic layout. I love that he loved both the good times and the bad. I hate that he basically expects to die here. I love almost everything about this panel.

Anti-Plant missiles?!? Dang, that’s a thing to have to invent…
Ah, so Domina is a plant.
LOL, ranting about your coworker out lout while forgetting your still in voice chat with them.

Uhhhh… the arc just disappeared??
Oh, whatever that is (the warhead, probably) does not look good.
Knives doesn’t look so hot. (Alternatively, perhaps he looks too hot.) ~~So that’s where Stampede got it….~~
I’m glad no one else seems to quite know what’s going on, either.

CW: Body horror

That seems like a dangerous amount of electricity….
Oh, cool. A crater.
Great, Knives has discovered warp travel.
Aaaand it’s an entirely new thing in Plant warfare.
If it’s been 200 years since they sent out the colony ships and 150 since the Great Fall, then the ship Vash and Knives were on was only out for about 50 years before they crashed.
Hahahaha, Domina’s cute when she’s flustered.
Seems like Domina might be able to sense Knives.
Nah, it’s not the system he hacked into.

I’m guessing Knives’ “extreme intelligence” is what’s allowed him to maintain his will through all of this.
Knives really doesn’t care about the lives of his siblings, does he? Even the ones with a legit conscious free will, he’ll destroy and/or absorb if they disagree with him. Shouldn’t really be a surprise given how he treated Vash, but it’s still a bit shocking how far he’s willing to go.

This isn’t going so well for the Earth fleet.
Yeah, the townsfolk really weren’t gonna do much against the ark with their puny guns…
It is very dangerous to fire straight into the air! Gravity’s a thing! Physics is a thing! Thank you for recognizing this!

This is probably the first time I have ever seen a piece of media honor the “what goes up must come down” property of shooting guns off into the air. Dramatic things like Elandira’s nail and Wolfwood’s rocket don’t count. It’s never honored with normal bullets.
Yeah, stupid general man is still sitting there with his stupid warhead. At this point, it might actually be useful if it distracts Knives… but a dirty bomb is called that for a reason. It would devastate the population below, too.
For all her good talk about forgetting Knives is a fellow Plant, Chronica’s struggling to do the same with her assimilated sister.

Uhhh, Vash? Vash, babygirl, whatcha doing?
Dang, he managed to cut Knives’ tie to Domina. What… what will that even do to her??

Guess I’ll find out next time….