Trigun Stampede

Episode 8

Yeah, this seems about the right time for us to get more of Vash's backstory. I'm admittedly a little bit surprised that the majority of this episode focuses on what happened to Vash after he lands on the planet, because technically we still haven't been told much about what happened before. We know that Knives is the one that brought down the ship colonies and that he probably lied or manipulated Vash to help with that. We know that most of humanity is probably dead outside of the few that survived in the ships, but aside from that, Vash's past is still largely a mystery. This episode doesn't really clear that up; instead, it is more about Vash coming to terms with the consequences of what is arguably the major inciting incident of the entire series.

My question about the order of events aside, I loved a lot of what was here, which continues to expand on the original lore of Trigun in a very unique and interesting way. Episodes like this help give STAMPEDE a bit more of its own identity and really hammers home the guilt that Vash feels. By making him at least partially responsible for the colonies coming down, it makes a bit more sense why Vash keeps himself so distant from everybody. I knew it was only a matter of time before people found out that he was lying, but I'm glad that it was handled in a “oh my god this kid feels responsible for so much shit” kind of way instead of making him outright hated. Brad and Luida are definitely going to die in the next episode though.

And then finally there is the lore around the plants. While it's obvious that the plants were some kind of bio-organism that give off energy, whether or not people know these things are actually sentient is another question entirely. We know that Vash and Knives are special because apparently they are a rare result of plants giving birth, but if these people know that these plants are alive then why does nobody see any issue with keeping them captive for the sake of powering their machines? You could argue that they don't have a choice because there's no other way to generate power, but it feels weird that's kind of being glossed over – it could have made for an interesting moral conundrum considering that Vash is helping these plants stay alive for the sake of humans using them. I'm also curious to know what Vash is actually doing to the plants to keep them alive and what Knives is doing to put them in that red state. This is the first time since starting the show that I'm genuinely looking forward to what is going to happen next, and I can't wait to see how the rest of this flashback plays out!

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Trigun Stampede is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.