Trigun Bookclub: pancake-breakfast: Trigun Maximum Volume 5: Chapter 5-6

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Original Tumblr Post: Chapter 5-6

Time to finish of Volume 5. Let’s see if we can’t get some more crazies on the playing board.

Stream-of-consciousness thoughts for TriMax Vol. 5, Chapters 5-6 below.

Table of Contents

Chapter 5: Death Deal

Everyone’s screaming…. Blood is everywhere…. Picking up right where we left off, I see….
Holy fuck, was running over his face with the bike necessary, Legato??? Geez, man.
Creechur Vash is displeased.
CREECHUR VASH IS DISPLEASED!!!

…I’m sorry, but Legato feeling legitimately ill and being moved to tears of sadness that Midvalley would turn a gun on him and “betray Master Knives” is freaking hilarious and I absolutely LOL’ed. Gods, this man is such a mess.
I do feel bad for Midvalley, though. I feel like, in another life, on another world, maybe he could have just played beautiful music.
Dude is just staring and Wolfwood and crying. I’m telling ya, he’s SUPER jealous. He wishes Knives trusted him as much as Knives is trusting Wolfwood right now, which is funny ’cause it’s Wolfwood.
This look, though…. Find you a man who stares down your enemies the way Wolfwood stares down Legato. ~~Even though he might not actually be able to see very well right now.~~

Got rid of them…? As in… Vash and Meryl? Vash and… Wolf… wood?? What did Zazie do?
Butterflies?
Ohhhhhhhhhh
Wait, I never *did* figure out why they were trying to get rid of Zazie. Glad Zazie’s having fun with bodies, though.
It was because they didn’t want Zazie to report back to Legato, huh?
Is… Gauntlet resisting Legato??
YES HE IS!!! GOOD FOR HIM!!!
Meanwhile, Creechur Vash is just waiting for all of this to die down, I guess?
Ohhhhh. Yeah, keeping Crechur Vash contained is gonna be a task for anyone.
Gotta have a good ol’ Mexican Standoff.
Ahhh, I know there’s so much going on here and it’s all bad, but he really is kinda cute like this.

MERYL TO THE RESCUE!!!
Gods, she’s screaming, she’s crying, she’s severely outgunned and/or outmatched by every player on the field…. She may be small, but her power is adequate.
AND SHE AIMS RIGHT FOR LEGATO!!! GET ‘IM, GIRL!!!
It’s enough for Gauntlet to pull the trigger on his gun….
…aaaand all hell breaks loose.
I like how even though Zazie’s new form is more feminine, it’s still like, “What is gender? I don’t care. My gender is worms.”
Legato appears to still be alive. Human skulls are more durable than we give them credit for.
Ohhhh, Stampede referenced this little speech of Legato’s.
WTH happened to his face? Like, I know he just got shot, but I’m having trouble figuring out how he went from this…

…to this….

…in the space of a panel.

Ah, that’s gotta be Midvalley’s corpse. Meryl’s right to scream. There’s no coming back from seeing that.
I like the little stringy lines implying Legato’s power.
Of course that bastard would be like, “Oh, you created a friend? Gotta make sure you pay for that by your friend’s hand.” He’s a very sick fuck.
Creechur Vash is still displeased.
The only one here who hasn’t quite seen this yet is Meryl, and she’s already freaking out. Even Legato looks terrified. ~~Glad his face is back to normal, though.~~
Ohhhhh, shit. The Nail is here.

Chapter 6: Let Us Walk The Path To Redemption

Ohhh, Vashie, babygirl….
Legato’s little monster-puppet handler can feel pain??
Oop, something going on here is bringing Vash back out of creechur mode.
She has a point. People with a strong enough death wish can cause quite a mess seeking their own destruction.
Nevermind, Vash has turned into a lightning bug with too many wings.
Ohhhh, baby Vash….

I do love the use of white space here, though. This happens a lot when we fall into Vash’s memories, and it really emphasizes his loneliness.
That’s too many bullets. The image of bullets falling like tears….
Aaaand Legato is ruining the moment with his madness. Gods, this wet cat is gonna punish himself even harder now because of all this, and other people might actually have to watch that.
I like how they have yet to actually show her face.
Goshdarn, someone wrap Vash in a weighted blanket and feed him something nice and give him all the hugs.
YOU CAN DO IT, VASH!!!
Eyyyyy, body horror….
I love that he’s focusing on the kindness of those in the past to pull himself through. He has no idea what the future holds… for himself, for mankind, for the companions who, after this, might not want anything to do with him ever again. But he’s doing what he can to focus on people’s kindness….

And… he’s protecting Gauntlet, isn’t he? Of course he is. Gauntlet, who’s so tired from everything that’s happened tonight, he probably wants to die. He was expecting to die. He lost his only friend by his own hand because of Legato. And now the man he came here to kill is protecting him.
OUT OF BULLETS, YA BASTARD!!! (The sound effect here is “ga-chi, ga-chi, ga-chi” over and over again. Def not a gun firing sound.)

Awww, man! Creepy weird guy carrying around Legato has a knife arm…. Whyyyyyy.
Look at his stupid face, though. He’s enjoying this.

Ok, that’s too many teeth. Please return some to wherever you got them from.
Did… Airship Lady shoot him through the head?
Yeah, she did.
Hahahahaha, the first time we see her fully revealed, and she’s just being a baby after falling in the sand.
LOL, Meryl….

You know what? Legato deserves to be talked down to like this. He really, really does.
“Secret Number 13!” But that doesn’t add up. Literally. In chapter 5 of the last volume, Wolfwood said they only had three left: Zazie, Midvalley, and Hoppered. They’d only been through six in the previous chapters, and adding Wolfwood to that mix only makes 10. Unless he’s counting Legato and Knives, but in the last volume didn’t think they wouldn’t actually come out to fight??? Or was trying to mislead Vash on their numbers, since he said that one out loud but this one’s in his head??? Very confused. Fix your math, Nightow.
Ah, that’s… that’s a lot of nails….
“You’ve really been losing it lately.” You know it’s bad when even the other bad guys are like, “Yyyyyeeeeaaaahhh, sorry about our buddy over here. He’s… he’s a little crazy. We’re just gonna take him home so he doesn’t do anything else stupid today. We’ll resume tormenting you later.”
Mannnn, if Bluesummers could hear Knives say this right now, he’d start crying all over again for a completely different reason…

I’m honestly not sure what happened in this explosion here.
Even Legato’s little pet monster-thing is looking not so good. One’s spine really should stay inside their body.
Looks like Vash is getting ahold of himself ok over there.
Meryl is soooo brave here. She’s terrified to the point of tears, but she grits her teeth and readies herself.
Vash looks spent.
Nothing gets Vash’s attention quite like someone in dire need.
Dude. Gauntlet. Why you gotta be like that to Vash!? You know and you’re still like, “Eh, I even know it’s wrong of me to do so, but I’m smiling about it.”
And yet Vash STILL holds his hand so Gauntlet doesn’t have to die alone.
Wolfwood and Meryl running to Vash’s side now that it’s safe. Meryl immediately inquiring after Vash’s health. <3 <3 <3
BRB, finding a way to give hugs to a fictional character.

Hahahahaha, Milly. She’s sooooo enthusiastic. I love her.
Is that… Zazie in the crutches??
LOL, yeah. But how did Zazie get ahold of a black wig? What a weirdo.
Heh. In spite of everything, here’s Vash dragging Wolfwood to a makeshift funeral for the makeshift graves for two people who adamantly tried to kill them.
…No comment. I’m just gonna put this here. Yeah.

LOL, Vash is calling Wolfwood on his bullshit again.
This panel is a good panel. I’m going to put it here, too.

“You break it, you fix it.” The path to redemption, indeed. Onward with the manual labor!

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