#the fact that you can’t see his disregard for vash’s autonomy and the plants even tho he claims to love them is. concerning | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

deludedfantasy · 10 months

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Trimax Vol 8 Ch 1-3

I'm losing my mind over this volume, I swear to god. It makes me feel like I'm chewing on glass. Anyway, here are some unhinged thoughts about the first half of volume 8.

Ch 1

The fact that the broken posts of the bridge look like crosses reads as very ominous to me…

Ok, this page. This page has lived rent free in my head for two months since the first time I read this. At first, I didn’t notice that Vash was balancing on the stump of his arm, it just kinda looked like he was doing one of his insane workouts but then. Oh but then. I looked closer and I Realized and the cold dread set in.

You know what else gets me? Knives stripped him of his clothes. He left Vash in only his pants. But worst of all, he took away his arm. You could argue it was because it has a gun in it, but all he’d really have to do is take the bullets out and it wouldn’t be useful anymore. Taking away his arm is just adding insult to injury and in particular shows his just blatant disregard for Vash’s bodily autonomy. Just because it’s not flesh and bone, doesn’t mean it’s not a part of his body! It’s his arm, goddammit! And Knives said, I’ll take this away from you, this isn’t part of you and I just don’t think you need it. It’s pointlessly cruel and punitive. I think he’s doing it just because he can, to show how powerful he is, and how Vash is his.

Knives really said, “I was going to use Legato’s powers for my evil plans, but actually, it’s better for just torturing you.”

Vash is right! Knives is going on and on about how humans abuse and misuse Plants, but Knives was the one who crashed humanity on a desert planet. These people are trying to survive with the only resources they have. Vash knows it’s horrible and unfair, but what choice do they have? They’ve been forced into a trolley problem of epic proportions and somebody has to die, either a lot of humans or a single Plant. What kind of choice is that?

Oh, Wolfwood. What are you thinking about? His mission is over, he’s led Vash to his doom, and now, he’s just smoking another cigarette. Is that a face of regret? Or despair, that he couldn’t do anything to stop what was coming?

So Knives’s ship is something of an anomaly. It seems like humanity doesn’t have the capability to make anything that flies anymore, so it’s a shock when it appears over the city. No wonder that one kid is asking their mom where their camera is.

Wolfwood isn’t shooting to kill! How interesting, I say with tears in my eyes. He’s always listened to Vash and now, he’s started to take it in. That he doesn’t have to be a killer, even if that’s what his mentor made him to be and is still trying to make him be.

Another instance of Wolfwood’s magically appearing handgun.

But man, Chapel is fucking evil. He sends Double Fang to slaughter those soldiers to teach Wolfwood a lesson, to make him hurt, for not doing it himself. Because Double Fang doesn’t give them a quick death like Wolfwood would. His is hard and bloody and revels in the carnage and you just know it makes Wolfwood sick.

Vash asks Knives, “Do you really believe people cannot change?” He’s not just asking him about humanity, Vash is asking Knives if he doesn’t believe he can choose a different path too. That even though he’s started all this and is intent on destroying humanity, he can’t find another way. Vash still sees something of his sweet brother in Knives and he’s begging him to stop.

OMG TESLA. The mention of her makes Vash so angry, he actually manages to fight against Legato’s control of him! This was what I was talking about in my meta, the hypocrisy of Knives using Tesla for his crusade, and Vash directly calls him out for it!!! He’s using her to fuel his rage and hatred rather than looking at the fear inside himself.

Oh, I love this conversation so much. Vash is right, they do have a duty to Tesla, but not in the crusade Knives created. “Only the victims of violence can truly describe its essence.” Because they know what can be done to them and have seen the results of it, they’re the only ones who can stop it. They’re the only ones who can change the story because they know the ending and the pain it causes. They’re the ones that can stop the cycle. Instead, Knives is just continuing it.

Also!! Vash calls out Knives for bottling up his feelings and letting them morph into something big and ugly and toxic, enough to motivate him to do these terrible things, to turn Tesla’s death into a crusade of hate. When he asks, “Is that who you really are?” it hits really hard, because we know what Knives used to be like, that sweet curious child. By never letting any of that fear out, it turned that cute little kid into a hateful, murderous man, and despite all the terrible things Knives has done to him, Vash still sees that little boy. He wants Knives to see it too. But he won’t, because he’s gone too far to stop now.

Ch 2

Ugh, Chapel is really twisting the knife here. Wolfwood already feels like he doesn’t recognize himself, that he can’t go back to the very place he gave everything up to protect. To then hear it from the man that twisted him into this shape only makes it sting more.

Look, I already hated Chapel from my first read of the manga, but now I hate him even more. He’s so cold and cruel. He’s telling Wolfwood all these things to hurt him, and he does it with such glee. He looks down on Wolfwood’s love and care for the orphanage. It’s straight up fucking evil to tell Wolfwood that the place he gets most of his assassins from is the orphanage, that Wolfwood didn’t manage to protect those children.

These moments, as the soldiers are trying to figure out what happened across the bridge and we see the carnage Knives left behind, were particularly chilling on my first read. I was kind of in denial about where this was all going and really didn’t think we were going into what’s essentially an Apocalypse scenario. The way it’s revealed is so fucking brutal and it still makes me so tense.

And then it just keeps getting worse and worse. Knives accused humans of only being able to cause death and destruction, endless suffering, but look at what he’s doing. The empty cities, the riots, the kid crying over his dead parents—he isn’t doing anything that humans haven’t done before. Another instance of his hypocrisy.

NOT VASH IN THE OUBLIETTE.

And Wolfwood…poor Wolfwood. He’s just sitting there and looking so angry that he can’t do anything. I personally think that he’s also feeling guilty so his part in it and that’s only making the anger at himself and the world worse.

In one chapter, the world is completely decimated…but at the end a ray of light. The girls are back! They’re still alive and they’re working with Luida! I love how every time we leave them, we’re reintroduced to them in a similar way. But this one is so very silent, with two lone, cloaked figures riding across a barren landscape. When they enter the building, rather than the usual jokes and talking, they’re greeted warmly as equals and we get the feeling that someone is still fighting for humanity when Vash can’t.

Ch 3

Really hoping that a chapter called “Counter Attack!!” will give me a little hope after all that despair.

This chapter, and the reveal that Meryl and Milly have spent seven months traveling around the planet trying to bring aid to people, leaves me with a great hunger to see some of their growth and adventures during this time. It would be such an interesting spin-off series.

Especially because Meryl looks so different. She’s always been serious, but somehow she seems even more serious and determined. There’s a darkness behind her eyes that didn’t used to be there before. How did she deal with all her trauma surrounding Vash and the subsequent breakdown of society, not even knowing if he was alive, if she’d ever see him again and be able to work through what happened between them?

I’m sure many people have pointed out this panel, but man, Meryl’s face here. The circles under her eyes, the grimness. She knows everything, she’s seen so many horrible things, but there’s still a spark of determination.

Luida and everyone from Home knows exactly what kind of enemy they’re up against. They understand how powerful Knives is and that they stand little chance against him. But they’re going to fight anyway. For Vash and everything he stands for and everything he did for them.

I love Luida so much. Everyone else in the hangar gets really worried after Meryl tells them what happened in July and what Vash is capable of. But Luida, as usual, sticks up for Vash and reminds them of all the good things he has done for them, how he’s always fought against Knives. And how they owe him, not just to fight, but to help him out and rescue him. He’s not just the destroyer of July, he’s also, above all, always been a protector. And now he deserves someone to save him.

Oh and Luida’s moment of doubt, her wondering if she’s a coward. Meryl comes forward and admits she’s had the same thoughts. She’s worried about the same things. They both have such a sense of duty and responsibility, but it comes with the burden of never knowing if you’re doing the right thing.

It’s interesting to think about much, much earlier, when Meryl had her doubts about herself way back during her early days with Vash, when she wondered if she was too cold and calculating. Luida is having a similar moment. There’s something so human about it, their fear that they aren’t doing enough or the right thing. I just love the female characters in this story and their complexity so much.

Oh my god, this Plant memory. It has lived rent free in my head for months. For all Knives’s talk that humans abuse Plants and don’t care about them, look at this little girl and how joyful she is about it. How the humans thank her for her work. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to Knives’s rage, but it’s wiggling its way in. It’s making him doubt everything he’s ever believed about humanity’s cruelty.

Vash in that cage/coffin thing fucks me up so badly. You know Knives locked him up like that to “protect” him, so he wouldn’t get in the way of Knives’s work and not kill himself quicker trying to stop him. But it’s so, so cruel to shove him into that small space and isolate him like that.

Is Knives getting overwhelmed by all of the Plants’ memories? He did absorb so many of them. That’s a lot of minds for any one person to handle, even if he’s a hyper-intelligent Independent.

YES YES YES. WOLFWOOD TO THE RESCUE. The ambush of the fighter planes was just a distraction for him to get in and get Vash out!!!

Still wonder exactly how he managed to get on the Ark during all this. Was he hiding out on it from earlier? Or did he somehow jump from one of the fighter planes?

#trigun #trigunbookclub

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