Im not religious but- *cocks gun*

Ok, to start, Im chill with Trigaze/TriStamp not being a 1 for 1 adaptation of the manga, cause 1) Stampede got me into trigun, and 2) the new plot helped in feeling like I was experiencing the story all over again even after reading the manga

And I was SO chill with Stargaze, cause no other media has gotten me to fall to my knees with emotion before

But I am realizing. It does feel very watered down. It doesnt hold the weight that the manga did, and frankly, is missing any of the nuanced meaning that they managed to sew into Tristamp, and I think thats the saddest realization I've had cause I was so excited for stargaze. I was so excited to see how they'd write it. But it reads like a fanfic where the writer didnt actually understand what made Trigun carry the weight it did.

It started with the opening song. The screamo is cool, sure, but it otherwise sounds too much like a "girly pop" anime opening, which does NOT suit trigun very well at all, and as an alt type person I so badly wish they did more of a rock song like with the '98 anime.

Thats when it started feeling like they took the "western" out of this space western, which, my attatchment to that is also saying something, cause I almost DIDNT get into Trigun for that very reason, I dont normally vibe with space westerns, theyre just not always my thing, but I gave Trigun a chance and its been the only media on my mind since episode 4 of TriStamp came out in 2023 (thats when I decided to give trigun a chance)

And now to start with the "small" things that started to make me feel weird about Stargaze

Midvalley was cool, i liked his design, but I feel like his backstory was poorly explained cause its just like. Ok, dude killed people on his own before knives. But WITH knives he doesnt want to??? It didnt make sense to me, but as a writer myself I kinda just was like "fine ill do it myself" and decided midvalley and his friends killed for a living cause they needed all the money they could get to be living on the run from the crimes theyve had to comit living on a harsh desert planet where resources are very few and far between, so midvalley was never really a fan of killing, but he did it to live, so when he was killing for knives and not to live anymore he hated it even more. Fine. Sure. Why am I doing the work of the show's writers again?

But then the puppetmaster was defeated and I was kinda like. So. Hes not a bad guy anymore? Just like that? How did Vash know his name to begin with?? They didnt even explain that like they did in the manga, where the puppetmasters backstory actually kinda made sense as some sort of tragedy.

And then neither him or midvalley died?? Theyre just living their best lives with Home now with no motivation behind the decision to do so??? That. Feels a lil weird ngl but ok, I do like seeing them having that chance to live the lives they couldnt before, but we definately forgot a side on my entrè. Its not like it was my favorite food ever, it just came with the meal I ordered, so im not gonna fuss about it to the waiter. Fine. Sure.

I was still in love with Stargaze at this point just cause "yay more trigun content!!" So i didnt think about everything too hard, and the Vashwood food was a solid distraction too

Then the way they treated Razlo as a one and done episode show pony. The way they treated his whole situation was waaaaayy too comedic and. Just badly done. Also why is he paper white? Ok. I like that they explored an avenue for saving Wolfwood during that whole situation, I'm vibin still. I like some of the worldbuilding theyre exploring in that one episode, but the episode feels oddly out of place? Interesting. Im still vibin, im not thinkin too hard about it.

Ep 10 had me on the edge of my seat. I was tense, I was anxious, I had to stand up and spin around a couple of times before I fell to my knees and watched the last 5 min of the episode from the floor holding onto the edge of my desk for dear fucking life, and I was really hoping for Legato backstory, or even just like hints to it cause it is pretty important to why Legato is as fucked up as he is, but I was also excited bc. Vash was ready to kill someone. For Wolfwood. And Wolfwood wouldve been witness to it firsthand.

Then Knives showed up, and he was so ugly. Manga Eldritch Knives Millions my beloved, what have they done to you.... you look like a one punch man villian... who the FUCK approved his design, cause Twink Silhouette White Livio was already pretty sad, but now this??

I liked the cliffhanger tho, it was very evily done and kept me in solid suspense until ep 11 came out.

But in that time between episodes 10 and 11 is when I realized something. The reason why I was still in love with Stargaze was bc I have it filed in my head as a "fanwork" rather than a "canon work". Cause thats how it reads: like a shallow fanfiction that doesnt actually hold the core values of what made Trigun what it is.

Then Episode 11. I hate knives design so much that I couldnt get emotionally invested in the episode at all, every time he was on screen it would detatch me from the story so badly. And also Legatos death? Like. Ok, Knives comes in and saves Legato from getting a bullet in his skull, that couldve been an interesting thing, but no, instead he changes his mind and cuts his head off himself like almost immediately after??? Then whyd he save the guy????

Im so very confused, and now more than ever I miss the punk/goth-adjacent Vash og design and I wish they just did a 1 for 1 manga adaptation. It couldve been stunning in this animation style. Existing plotholes couldve been patched in the time it took them to write everything, but nope! Lets make some new plotholes instead that are even bigger!!

Last but not least, this is an issue I have more with Milly fans than stargaze itself, bc some of yall are so dense ya think that the way Milly's coat makes her silhouette boxier meant that she was a big girl cause of THAT. When in reality she was ALWAYS big girl cause she was tall and strong. Im begging yall to do a side by side comparison of Milly without her coat cause the one design they didnt entirely fuck up was Milly, they just didnt take the opportunity they had to make her into her true big girl self

Overall, I'm just dissapointed. I have Stampede to thank for getting me into Trigun, I genuinely love it so much, and bc of that I was so so excited for Stargaze, only to be met with a story whos writing was devolving before my very eyes. So many interesting plot points they added or changed that they couldve used or expanded upon, but instead they chose to just make things happen to happen. Very surface level writing. Very dissapointing.