Trigun Stampede – 09

[Millions Knives]

Trigun Stampede’s latest episode segues from Vash’s past to his current ordeal as he becomes familiarized once again with his latest parental figures, Brad and Luida. But as he revisits his old loved ones, he has to come to terms with his past as this episode highlights why Knives would want to weaponize the plants against humanity.

A THOUSAND KNIVES

While much of the present-day scenes allude to the upcoming conflict they’ll have against Zazie, the flashback moments make this episode a memorable experience. Starting from the get-go, they outdo themselves with the scene where Knives is playing on his piano. As he tickles the ivories, he imagines his younger self playing alongside his brother Vash. Even in his imagination, Vash tries to perk him up to no avail as he remembers the instances where they’ve hung out with each other.

In a way, it helps elaborate on how Knives’ ultimate goal isn’t to break Vash’s spirit, but rather for Vash to reunite with him and join him in sharing a mutual goal of surpassing humanity. Knives spends the majority of his reunion with Vash as a ploy to get him to see eye-to-eye with his old brother.

To Knives’ credit, he has a strong argument for why humanity is not worth salvaging if it means watching other plant aliens being used as an energy generators. Knowing how stories like Fire Punch depicted exploiting a superpowered being for the benefit of humanity, it makes sense why Knives would be outraged to the point of wanting humanity wiped out. When Zazie and Knives both posit whether plants or humans will be able to restore Earth to its former glory, the humans of Trigun Stampede are too concerned with survival to examine the ethics behind what they do.

But because this all contradicts Vash’s pacifistic worldview, especially if what Knives proposes is outright genocide, it also makes sense why he’d be hesitant on joining Knives. Especially when Knives’ first attempt at swaying Vash is having him kill the one person who looked out for him. It’s such a weird way for Knives to try to sway Vash over, but since Knives has little to no idea who Luida is, he likely didn’t realize that she’s the Rem that he never let Vash grow up with.

It also checks out with some of Knives and Vash’s origin stories in other properties like the anime, where Knives is deeply convinced that Vash would eventually come around to see the world how he sees it. In that instance, Knives felt outright betrayed when Vash made it clear that he wasn’t going to side with him on humanity no matter what. But as opposed to getting shot in the gut, Knives gets off a bit more easily by chopping off Vash’s beam arm and retreating.

With news of a film coming up, it’ll be interesting to see how much they’ll flesh out Vash and Knives’ connection knowing that it’ll probably be prime material for the movie. But from the looks of it, Vash is more likely to have to contend with Zazie and possibly Legato since they’re in closer proximity to him and his friends at the moment.