Untitled

Writer: hey, does this side character ever reappear in any meaningful way?

Canon Researcher: no.

The original manga has something truly special, the reason it's a staple in space westerns, but it has a fatal flaw. SO. MANY. PLOT HOLES. When asked about them, Nightow has been quoted as saying "don't worry about it" which is just bad writing. The '98 anime suffered from this as a result (plus the manga not being finished at the time).

In my opinion, I feel like Trigun Stampede actually did an amazing job taking the source material and using it to fill those plot holes. Here's an example:

The manga opens with an introduction to Vash, saying he's wanted for his involvement with Lost Julai 20 years ago but also saying he's estimated to be 24-years-old. Now, you know and I know Vash is an over 150-year-old eternal youth but the rest of No Man's Land didn't know that so did no one wonder how a "4-year-old" committed such a crime? Changing Lost Julai to be a more recent event in TriStamp eliminated this issue.

However, Trigun Stargaze did not keep this up 😔 pacing was breakneck but not because of imminent danger. It was because they only had 12 episodes to squeeze everything in. By episode 2 I was thinking they didn't have time for this if they wanted to finish the story in only ten more episodes.

At the end of TriStamp, they teased Lina and Chronica and I was hyped to see them. While I didn't mind what they did with Hoppered, I was disappointed to not see Lina and Sheryl. I was sad Vash didn't get his two years of peace. Lina implied "Eriks" had amnesia which would have explained why Vash actually stayed put instead of punishing himself with a self-imposed exile. What's more, I was disappointed that Wolfwood wasn't the one to find him.

How would I fix this? Keep Hoppered finding Vash but have Sheryl and Lina take them both in! Lina's only a kid and Sheryl's an old lady so Hoppered serves as the mentally fragile Eriks' carer. Eriks' awareness is something that comes and goes. Somedays, he's laughing with Lina as they tend to the toma chicks but others, he sits motionless beside Sheryl on the porch. He doesn't have a prosthetic arm and he won't for a while. This calls back to the original manga run (pre-Maximum) when his arm was destroyed and Vash spent a good deal of time without it. We get to see Vash deal with being an amputee, let people see themselves in him.

But what about Jessica and Wolfwood? I have three main thoughts on this. 1) things playout as they did in TriMax/'98 anime where Wolfwood just finds him, they save Lina, etc, then they head back to Home to replace Vash's prosthetic and discover it under attack by Leonof the Puppet-Master. 2) Wolfwood has been working with Home to try to locate Vash and is there when Leonof attacks so he's the one who escapes following a final lead to Vash's possible location. He finds him as Eriks with Hoppered, Sheryl and Lina and when trying to get Eriks to remember who he really is, he inadvertently reveals to Hoppered that he's Vash the Stampede. Hoppered kidnaps Lina and things proceed as they did in the actual episode. 3) Wolfwood is looking for Vash alone and he's the one who finds Jessica. He agrees the help her find him and through their interactions, we get to see a peak at Big Bro Nico. They find Vash with Hoppered, Sheryl and Lina and things proceed either as in the manga or in the actual episode, just with Jessica in the background. Sorry, Jessica, but let's be honest here, she wasn't very plot relevant.

Also, did anyone else feel weird about TriGaze's Jessica considering in the '98 anime, she was Brad's love interest? I know they're different characters but still. Anyway...

Returning Home, Vash fights Leonof sans prosthetic limb and Wolfwood takes on Ninelives. Ninelives escapes so Wolfwood joins Vash, only for Milly and Meryl to drop in! I don't mind the change to Leonof's backstory, it wasn't totally clear in TriMax so I think it was a good change. Anyway, Meryl and Milly's appearance is followed by an episode covering what they've been doing for the past two years starting with their meeting and ending on how they got to Home in time to trap Leonof.

Here's an important deviation to TriGaze, after Leonof's defeat, we see Midvalley being deployed by Legato but the next episode is entirely downtime. The crew gets reacquainted and Brad makes Vash a new arm and dare I say, it includes the missing third gun?! Maybe Vash even needs to do some physiotherapy to readjust to his new arm. It's only at the very end that Midvalley arrives.

Midvalley's episode proceeds pretty much the same because honestly, I loved it. The only thing that would need to change would be Vash trying to adjust to his new arm in time to help Wolfwood. Maybe the hidden gun is giving him trouble? Just a suggestion, maybe the third gun is a laser and he's struggling to control the blasts (they gave the Punisher a laser, so why not?) In the end, Midvalley is defeated and reveals the Arc is coming and he was sent in advance.

Unfortunately, this is where my ideas of how to fix the storytelling end. The gist of it is, the characters needed to interact with each other more. Speaking of characters...

They massacred my boys!

By which I mean, Livio and Razlo. It was funny, the flashback of Conrad explaining the existence of Razlo to a shadowed Chapel was a pretty accurate description of DID. When a child at a certain point of development (under 8-years-old, I think?) undergoes repeated and continuous trauma, they can dissociate as a defence mechanism. If they can dissociate to a high enough degree, their underdeveloped brain can develop an alternative individual (an alter) who experiences the trauma instead (emphasis on the I think, I'm not a psychologist). In TriMax, Livio and Razlo are both mad at Wolfwood. Wolfwood gets through to Livio, only for Razlo to assert control and continue the fight. Considering what Livio did in TriStamp, I'll give them a pass for having Razlo front the entire time. What I can't forgive is how they "killed" off Razlo! Like, no, that's not how DID works and it's not what happened in the manga either!! In TriMax, Livio fronts while making peace with Razlo so when Razlo fronts again later, he's fighting on the same side as Vash. Why? WHY didn't they keep this in? WHY?!

And the fight between Wolfwood and Razlo? The animation was beautiful but what was with the lightsabers? I know Trigun's a sci-fi but it's a western too! I wish they kept Chapel in, at least in some flashbacks of Livio/Razlo's time at the Eye of Michael!! Or show us how Chapel trained Wolfwood into an assassin after Conrad's experiments aged him up. Also, TriMax had some goofy-ass weapons that were refined in TriStamp and TriGaze but they kept Razlo's third arm? Seriously?!

I'm not going to touch on the whether or not Wolfwood should have died or not. One part of me says yes for the narrative reasons he died in the manga, but the other part of me says no because... poor Nico 😢 Although, the fake out death was not appreciated 😒 I was literally on the verge of tears, only to have the rug pulled out from under me. On the upside to having Wolfwood live, he and Livio got to reunite and fight side by side as brothers once more! And having Legato try to kill Wolfwood to motivate Vash to shoot him? 😱 Oh, the emotional impact that would have had on Vash!! (just like in the manga and '98 anime) only to have Knives split the bullet?! The double fakeout of anticipated plot points?! 😠 Not cool.

I theorise the second was done because it was believed there wasn't time for Vash to have an emotional breakdown before the finale. Which is nonsense since that's when Vash killed Legato in TriMax and he was able to keep going.

Speaking of the finale... I appreciated seeing Tesla's spirit go free. I can even appreciate the twist that Knives knew of Rem's involvement but kept it secret for Vash's sake. However, when Knives was separated from the Plants he'd absorbed, they should have had his hair be almost black instead of still being mostly blonde. And they cut not just Chronica but Domina too!! I was so excited to see them!! I wanted Vash to meet them and realise he isn't alone as an Independent, even with Nai gone. Also, the manga ended with Nai regretting his actions but did anyone get that feeling from the finale because I didn't. Personally, I think the finale's biggest crime was that Vash and Wolfwood didn't talk to each other at all! Whether you ship them or not, the relationship between Wolfwood and Vash is integral to the story of Trigun. They're perfect foils to each other. We got that in the beginning of Stargaze but it disappeared near the end!! They completely sidelined Wolfwood and Livio in the end! Should have had them make it onto the Arc and confront Elendira, even if it ended with her not dying... Actually, apart from Legato, there was a distinct lack of deaths 🤔

I also wasn't happy with the TriGaze opening song. Sounded like generic J-Pop to me.

It's like Trigun Stampede was made with such wonderful passion but that passion was completely absent from Trigun Stargaze.