when life gives you trigun make trigun soup out of the lore!!! i haven’t read the manga yet so my opinions may change but ive been forming a picture of what vashwood looks like in my head in my own canon from what i like from the two shows:
vash ‘98: he’s a menace and i kinda love that? ‘98 is… real rough with the misogyny, to put it lightly. but for whatever reason, seeing Vash be a complete idiot for women made him more human, i guess? more complex. imperfect, not a complete angel. yknow? i also just love this design, it’s got that 90’s anime edge and 100 belts everywhere and i love the more grounded western style. stampgaze has an awesome sci-fi aesthetic but im a sucker for the clunkiness of the 90’s designs. i also like his sheer audacity. 0 filter no plans let’s go get ourselves shot - he’s a golden idiot to the core and has just. 0 shame or dignity left (barking scene). most feral version of vash 10/10
vash stampede/stargaze: you can fit SO MUCH TRAUMA into this poor soggy wet cat of a man. FUCK this show had me in my feelings for everything Vash goes through and the fact that he still comes out smiling in the end. this show is great. i do love how much softer he is and how it’s a little more obvious from the start that he’s playing up the goofy idiot act to hide what he’s really going through. without the rougher edges he’s able to be more effortlessly kind from the start and has more of a filter than 98; in a way of being more careful with his words, i guess? he acts reckless but he also has like 3 backup plans. this vash is so much more tightly in control of himself and it makes sense considering his story. i do agree that all of this does make him a bit… goody two-shoes. we don’t get to see him be flawed in a more human way - not like 98’s portrayal. i don’t think he’s a complete mary sue but there’s no way he wouldn’t have more self-destructive behaviors and deep flaws to muddle through that aren’t related to his savior complex - trauma shows up in inconvenient ways. i can totally see this vash playing up the party playboy persona and getting a little too friendly with the women (and men i firmly believe this vash is bi/pan) in a self-destructive thrill-seeking way just to get attention on him that’s not related to his past.
now: wolfwood. oh god here we go.
i love vash very much but i see a lot of myself in ww and we’re not gonna think about that too hard
ww ‘98: why did they kill him. why did he have to die. in ‘98 he’s just… a normal human. strong, well trained, but no experiments, no healing factor - just a human forced to do horrible things. but god, i find this wolfwood so much more compelling because of that. they lean into his traveling priest persona a lot more, and i really enjoy his nonchalance and gruffer attitude. he’s quippy and witty and like vash, a complete menace from day 1. his arc hits so much harder not just because of his death but because of what he’s been forced to do to protect his orphanage. i think that story beat - the fact that it’s his orphanage, that he built himself - makes his character so much more powerful.
ww stampede/stargaze: i’ll get the petty out of the way and immediately start out with the fact that i don’t like ww’s design in stampgaze nearly as much as ‘98. i think they generic anime pretty-boy’d him. where’s the scruff and gruff!! the downturned nose! the little creases by his eyes! he looks so much younger in stampgaze and it just doesn’t feel right for what his character is supposed to be; haunted by the years of being forced to do this. in stampgaze we don’t get an idea of long it is really, but it’s implied it can’t have been too long because the kids at the orphanage still recognize him as their former peer - so that’s like, maybe 4-5 years maximum? ‘98 implies a lot longer than that.
but! i love ww’s new story line. HE GETS TO LIVE!!!! and being an experiment for the eye of micheal and being able to keep up with vash because of that is good shit. waiter! waiter! more trauma!! i do think the idea of him being forced to age rapidly is good character trauma but at the same time… with the timeline, how old is ww…? if he was roughly 8-10 when he was taken… is he only 15? 16? i’m betting below 20 at least, and that’s not a bad plot point on its own, but it’s also never touched on and never explored and feels both wasted and a bit nasty alongside the stargaze yaoibait. sir is this a minor. it’s like the inverse of the 12 year old girl who’s actually a 1000 year old dragon in disguise.
but - we get to really see how Vash changes him in this version, climaxing with Midvalley and Livio. by giving him the super healing we get a timeline where ww not only wants to live, but gets to live, and i nearly sobbed. (i did sob at his scene in ‘98. vash your boyfriend is bleeding GO FOLLOW HIM YOU DUMB ASS-) just. Wolfwood. good character. mother fuck.
fanon things i’ve absorbed: latino/hispanic (unsure which label would be more accurate?) wolfwood is my bread and butter now. he got a bit bleached in stampgaze (and shaved 😔) but i can absolutely see it in ‘98. it works with the overt catholicism, i think, this idea of a man raised within god’s walls forced to twist that philosophy against his own morals and culture. it would work with someone of any descent but there’s something about how intrinsic Catholicism is to latin american culture. (i need more spanish-speaking ww in my life and have considered replacing some of his nicknames with a spanish translation. quick ideas; tontería (nuisance), rubito (blondie or little blonde))
in my heart of hearts Vash is a trans man and i will not let go of that. it lines up too perfectly; being outcasted, not being able to fit in with anybody, being cast aside and feared… being invisible as best as you can or else you’re seen as violent and dangerous. i know a lot of trans women can relate to this as well, but the allegory of vash is a plant to being a trans man is something i can so clearly see in my own experiences. the body scars as top surgery scars and all of the little ways he pushes back against society. (trans plantussy. who said that)
all together in my brain, vash is a soft sweetheart on the inside protecting it with 10 emotional walls and an overblown act of playing the goofy, overly flirty idiot to keep how he really feels hidden and tucked away and get the attention he craves in a way that’s “”safe””. wolfwood is a layer cake of someone deeply morally broken on the inside, surrounded by a gruff, grumpy shield to keep people at a distance, covered in the too-sweet icing of a charming Southern Priest. they are both so so ill
