SOME RAMBLING ON VASH & KNIVES IN TRIGUN STAMPEDE

Hello friends. This is another cross-post of a short Twitter thread I wrote last night after watching this week’s new episode of TRIGUN STAMPEDE and I wanted it to stay on my blog as well. Needless to say, the post contains screenshots from episode 11, so enter at your own risk ~

I usually watch TRIGUN STAMPEDE on Sunday nights (more convenient time-wise) and after watching this week’s episode, I had some thoughts! 🍏🍎

There’s a phrase in Turkish that directly translates as “two halves of an apple”, which is used for really close people or siblings that are very similar (in ways of thinking, behaving, habits etc), and when together they complete each other to become whole. That’s the phrase that came to mind when watching today’s episode.

When the professor said Vash’s choice between brotherly love and his love for humanity will determine the future, it became clear as ever that it’s not an either/or situation but something that has to coexist. For Vash to actually achieve his dream of loving everyone equally has to start by loving, or more accurately, accepting Knives and seeing him for who he is, acknowledging that pain instead of pushing it away or burying it deep.

This will be a Captain Obvious statement since Evil Twin’s probably one of the first tropes that’d come to mind when watching Trigun Stampede. I won’t be saying anything revolutionary when I read the trope as the “good” and the “bad” sides of the same person either. And for Vash to complete himself as a person, he needs (or more like needs to allow himself) to feel sadness, anger, frustration, and all the ambivalent feelings that make one a complete, complex creature.

I’m sure it’s been pointed out by other people how Knives’ outfit resembles a cocoon that seems to serve as protection and his using knives underlines his choice to dirty his own hands instead of shooting from a range exactly because he values living (I think he said it himself in one of the episodes?). But what the cocoon and the millions of knives he’s pointing at other people tells me he’s scared because of all the hurt and exploitation after putting trust into the “other”, in this case, humans.

And that kind of pain is all-consuming. It obscures your memories, distorts your reality, seeps into your relationships, and distances anyone and everyone from you, including his beloved brother Knives. It’s interesting that he has chosen such a method, and I’m curious to see what will happen now that he’s close to coming in contact with Vash’s core. Because from this episode only, it seemed like the window is opened at the expense of Vash, and wonder if Knives would really allow that… because if my memory serves me right, I only remember him coming out of his “cocoon” in front of Vash. Not sure about this though.

Anyways, another amazing episode that made me go FERAL, damn this adaptation really went beyond any expectation I had going into! Have a great weekend ahead!