Trigun Bookclub: pancake-breakfast: Trigun Maximum Volume 14: Covers + Chapter 1-3

Original Tumblr Post: Covers + Chapter 1-3

This is it, everyone. The last volume. The final week. The end of an era.

I’m not ready.

Stream-of-consciousness thoughts for TriMax Vol. 14, Chapters 1-3 below.

Table of Contents

Chapter 14 Covers

Mind Games, huh? I think Nightow is playing his own mind games with the readers with this bright-and-cheerful fully-blond Vash image here.
Oh, he just HAD to sneak a tiny Wolfwood into the joke cover. Rude.

The back cover is Vash doing his whole love and peace thing. But will this manga end with love and peace? Guess we’ll be finding out real soon, huh?
Haahhaha, Chibi Legato looks terrified he’s going to fall. It’s cute.
GET THAT FEATHER, KURONEKO-SAMA! GET IT!!!
These titles are all so dramatic.

CW: Body horror

Gotta get that full ensemble shot in here before the end. I particularly appreciate that the way he drew Livio suggests Razlo is there, too. Though I’ll note even here we’re not allowed to see Wolfwood’s full face.

“I’ve been livin’ by my gun longer than you’ve been alive!” Hahahahahaha, that’s what YOU think.
LOL, Vash’s whole reaction to this is gold. He’s so casual, and then he realizes the sheer level of discordance with his looks versus his age when people think he’s human, panics, and rapidly changes the subject.
I feel like it’s unfair to call this a rivalry. The whole of the rivalry is located in Legato’s head.
Ugh, them fighting with all the debris falling around them. It’s crazy. I wonder if we’ll get to see this animated in Stampede.
Vash isn’t gonna have any energy or power left for Knives at this rate.
Look at him. He looks so happy.

Yeah, Legato’s right. This seems like a severe lack of foresight on Vash’s part. Legato was literally giving him trouble back at the beginning of all this before Legato gave him the activated box.
*sigh* Vash is really into burning this Last Run juice here, isn’t he. Idiot.
Dude, Legato, now you’re polar opposites? I thought you just decided you and Vash were kinnies in the last volume.
I have no idea what’s going on here. Legato is screaming. I got that much. I think maybe he destroyed Vash’s prosthetic arm?
Awww, is that Little Elendira? What, did Knives just find a bunch of bitter, bitter children and decide to raise them to be bitter, bitter adults??
If Vash pulls the trigger, he simultaneously loses and wins. But… I know how this fight ends.

Heh. And here Vash is, still refusing.
Legato, honey, baby, my boy. Don’t. It’s ok if you don’t get shot. It really really is.
Welp, that’s grotesque and terrifying.

Godsdammit, I know how this is gonna play out, but part of me really, REALLY hoped I just heard wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time. But the pieces are all in place now, and set up in the right positions, so….
Legato, you asshole. How dare you reduce Livio to only having worth as a tool! I mean, I get it. It’s how Legato sees himself, and thus it’s how he defines things, but it still stings.
And suddenly Vash is faced with a trolley problem he’s not sure he can avoid or solve by other means.
WhAT is THIS??!!!?!?! Sudden Wolfwood?!

Oh, this isn’t even Livio here. It’s Raz. Not that the result wouldn’t be the same.
Did… Vash shoot?
Yeah…. Yeah, he did. I like how Nightow doesn’t focus on the violence of it, but instead on the grief of it. Just the simplicity of Vash’s knee hitting the ground in defeat, and the place where Legato should be standing or kneeling or whatever in front of him is empty, instead replaced by just his feet and the edge of his cloak.

Just the way he couldn’t let humans die because Rem gave her life to protect them, Vash can’t let Livio die when Wolfwood gave his life to save him. He’s still mourning that he had to make this choice. He still hates this situation. It’s not a deed done with a clear conscious. It’s just the path he can live with better.
Aww, Livio’s trying to get Vash out of there. He knows Vash is in a bad place. I honestly think he could figure that out even if Vash’s hair hadn’t gone so dark.
Meanwhile, all Vash can think of is Wolfwood.
Meanwhile, it looks like Knives has gone to space to meet his new friends up close and personal.
Either whatever he’s paying attention to is REALLY important or he’s just lying a trap for them. Maybe both?

Well, if the Earth Fleet can’t stop itself, then I guess Knives will have to stop them.
Heh, Milly having to call Meryl by her actual name to get her attention.
They’ve found Vash! And Livio!
Oooh, Meryl just took one look at this situation and already knows how bad it is before Livio starts explaining.
This panel is… I dunno. This panel is feels.

Is Vash having a bit of a breakdown? What’s he gonna shoot at??
Bless Meryl. She’s doing so much for him right now. She’s probably been thinking about this sort of thing since they parted ways before. She’s ready now, and she’s going to do her best. Just because it’s a non-combat maneuver doesn’t mean it’s not important.
Six ships all aimed at each other with Knives in the middle, going for a smoosh move? Welp, this is bad.
Wait, are they talking to the Plants Knives has absorbed?? Silly me, I thought they were just gonna chat with the bulbed ones.

What in the zombie wasteland even are these first few pages??
Knives looks very unconcerned by his supposed impending smooshing.
Are these flashes to just after the Great Fall, maybe?
Gods, these random dramatic floating feathers are so late ’90’s/early 2000’s. All you kidses don’t even know. Personally, I blame CLAMP.
OH THEY ARE CRYSTALLINE FEATHERS??!! WANT.
Hahahaha, this kid got biffed on the head by one. Also, there sure are a lot of them. Is this the Plants bleeding themselves off of Knives, maybe?

Oh, the Plants are making the people resonate with each other the way the Plants resonate with each other. That’s… a thing.
Ah, yeah, these are definitely flashbacks. The town is growing up around the Plant.
Oh, NOW Knives decides to pay attention to his whole body going all vibratey.

“We need the support of more people.” This reminds me of Horton Hears a Who. Like, they just need more individuals making noise and then the Plants will hear them.
Yeah…. Really, it doesn’t even take 100 years for abuse to leave a very nasty mark that might be impossible to reach past.
“Be on the lookout for any retaliation.” Knives looks VERY ready to retaliate.
This Plant just wanted to help, but everything kept dissolving into violence….
…but there were good people, too. People who wanted to help and to learn and to teach others and to give thanks.
Hahahahaha, this is the “more people.” They’re the people in the past. This feels soooo much like Vash remembering the people of July and thinking that, regardless of what else they were or could have been, there were so many he knew that were just… kind.

Dude, this guy here just telling Knives off. Not sure if he’s got balls of steel or if he’s just ignorant or if he’s just dealt with enough renegade Independents to call them as he sees ’em.