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Original Tumblr Post: The Tolling of an Iron Bell
The Tolling of an Iron Bell
Aight, I’m seeing a few people confused by the text on the final panel of the final chapter of TriMax Volume 9, so I’m gonna elaborate a bit. If anyone is working off the actual Japanese (@trigun-manga-overhaul, tagging you guys in case there’s more adaptation going into this than I’m aware of), feel free to correct me and/or add additional insight.
If you struggled a bit with this panel yourself, you might benefit from reading this before (or ASAP after) diving into Volume 10, as it definitely sets a tone.
This is probably referring to funeral tolling or death knells, which is the very, very old practice of ringing a bell to signal someone’s death. Usually, the bell in question would be the iron bell in a church tower.
More specifically, given Nightow’s clear knowledge of Western media, it’s probably referring to the well-known and oft-referenced line from a John Donne essay that goes like this:
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee
Doesn’t quite sound familiar? That’s because in modern English, we usually say the following instead:
Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Even if Nightow isn’t referencing Donne specifically, this phrase has been referenced everywhere from Hemingway to Metallica, and while individual interpretations vary, it’s very frequently used as memento mori, something meant to remind the hearer and/or the audience of impending mortality and inevitable demise.
For Wolfwood to think he should be hearing this implies he’s either at death’s door, or thinks he’s at death’s door.
For him to say he can’t hear the bells even though he (thinks he) should hear them implies he’s either not as close to death as he appears to be, or he’s actively choosing to ignore the signs of his death.
Or perhaps, given how often we’ve seen him driven by fear of his own death throughout the story, it means that even if his death knell is currently ringing, its sound no longer has any meaningful effect on him.
But which exactly of those you choose to think is intended, I must leave to you… and to volume 10.
Good luck to us all.