Favorite Quotes from Trigun

[dangermousie]

I looooove, looooove loooooove the dialogue in Trigun. Seriously, this show is giving me wonderful Firefly flashbacks. Here are some samples.

Vash: Death and Poverty like me so much, they brought friends! Not to mention the Insurance Girls!

Vash: I meditate diligently every morning. The subject is Life and Love. I quit after three seconds.

Meryl: Does this man look like the legendary gunman Vash the Stampede? That droopy-eyed, weak-looking, bristle-headed, promiscuous-looking donut freak of a man?

Vash: Merciless slayer of all that is good! Doer of the evil, evil deeds a man with $$60 billion on his head does!

Vash: My name is.... VASH THE STAMPEDE!!! Forgive the lack of warning, but it's time for my daily massacre! If you do not believe I am the real thing, take a good look at me and start freaking!!

Wolfwood: I'm a man of the cloth.
Meryl: Who, you?
Milly: Aaaaaaah! Do you make pretty dresses?

Vash: Legato, I am the one who is hunting you this time. I will find you whatever it takes. Yeah right... It sounds really cool in my head, but in reality I haven't got a CLUE as to how I'm going to find him!


Wolfwood (to Vash): Well, I'll be. You can smile like that. You're always smiling, real friendly like, but your smile is so empty it hurts to watch you. It's like you are hurting like crazy and grinning to hide it.

Wolfwood: 'May you go with the protection and love of almighty God.' It's the usual mantra of the big guy.
Vash: Does it work?
Wolfwood: That's entirely up to you.
Vash: Wonderful mantra you got there.
Wolfwood: Believers will be reedeemed in the end.

Chapel: Life is like an incessant series of problems, all difficult, with brutal choices, and a time limit. The worst thing you can do is to make no choice, waiting for the ideal conclusion to present itself.

Vash: It's my fault. It's my fault that everyone gets involved, that my friends die.... everything.

Meryl: Why doesn't anything NICE ever follow you?!
Vash: It's a real drag, isn't it?

Wolfwood: You got us into this, do something!
Vash: You fell in all by yourself!
Wolfwood: You're the outlaw!
Vash: What's that got to do with anything!?

Vash: H-Hey, don't kill anyone!
Wolfwood: Don't ask the impossible!
Vash: Thou Shalt Not Kill! What the hell kind of churchman are you?!

Vash: To-tal slaughter
To-tal slaughter
I won't leave a single man alive
la la la loo la
genociiide
lee lee loo lee loo
an ocean of of blood
Let's be-gin the
killing tiiime!

Vash: I am known as Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Sicidabohertz Gombigobilla Blue Stradivari Talentrent Pierre Andri Charton-Haymoss Ivanovici Baldeus George Doitzel Kaiser III. Don't hesitate to call.
Milly Thompson: Hehehehe. What are you talking about Mr. Vash the Stampede?
Vash: Huh? I HATE IT WHEN YOU CALL ME BY MY FULL NAME!

Bartender in a rough Western bar: What will it be?
Meryl Stryfe: [Bangs fist on counter] A banana sundae.
Milly Thompson: A gâteau mille-feuille with Ceylon tea.
Drunk Customer: Listen missies, the gag won't work unless you order milk.

Vash: What happened?
Wolfwood: Thank heaven you asked! It's a long story although it's kind of a short one...

Vash: That cross is awfully heavy.
Wolfwood: That's because it's filled with mercy.

Wolfwood: We're nothing like God. Not only do we have limited powers, but sometimes we're driven to become the devil himself. What's your answer this time?

Vash: Don't look away. I know you're not foolish enough to stay ignorant of the feelings of the people your life was built on.

Vash: (to Wolfwood): When this is over and I'm dead, don't ever shoot anyone again.

Comments

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Believers will be reedeemed in the end.

I often get the feeling that even though Wolfwood is talking to Vash, most of his lines refer back to himself as well. Wolfwood and Vash were the same in a lot of ways which is probably why they got along so well.

When this is over and I'm dead, don't ever shoot anyone again.

But Vash doesn't realize that he's the harder one to kill. Because of what he is, it makes it nearly impossible to kill him unless he uses the Angel Arms. Wolfwood on the other hand is a lot more fragile. I think that's part of what Wolfwood was always trying to get through to Vash. Even though Vash could make it through life without killing anyone, it wasn't that easy for the rest of the world. Even Wolfwood, who is one heck of a gunman, couldn't make it. I think the main theme of the whole anime is really what is redemption and pacifism? Are they really all they're cracked up to be? Or are there some circumstances that killing can't be avoided? If Vash had killed Legato earlier, would a lot of trouble been avoided? If Vash had killed Knives would a lot of trouble have been avoided? The series never answers those questions.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

But Vash doesn't realize that he's the harder one to kill. Because of what he is, it makes it nearly impossible to kill him unless he uses the Angel Arms

Yes, but seeing he was about to let Wolfwood kill him in that scene, he is kinda justified for asking something back in return. :P

But yes, there is the theme of what if by not killing someone you perpetuate more misery? If Vash had killed Legato earlier, a lot of people would still be alive. Forget Legato, Vash let go a lot of people who probably shot or raped or stole later.

But I think what Vash really struggles with, where his true bone of contention is Gandalf's duality of "many who live deserve death, and many who die deserve life. Could you give it them?" Vash can agree, in principle, that such and such a person is unworthy of life. But he cannot see himself as having the right to end that life. And I love how the show keeps pushing this belief to all its boundaries and contradictions.

Because in the early eps, he can get out of trouble and save people without too much inconvenience through not killing.

And later you see that this is not so, and that he pays quite a toll for it.

And we see that he almost snaps when he sees another kill almost a whole town.

And yet later he comes across a man who wants to kill a man who horribly killed his daughter. And what can he do then? How can he be righteous about it? He can beg and plead but significantly it's clear that he is deeply sympathetic to the man and he is facing that dilemma of "isn't that man justified, not even a bit?" It's not clear cut any more.

And then we get the dilemma come to a head with Legato and it almost breaks him. Though he learns what Wolfwood in part have been trying to teach him. Because the thing isn't about being willing to die for your beliefs (which Vash clearly is), it's: what if you have no choice and it's not you? Would you let innocents suffer or kill a guilty person instead? Will you choose a horrible man (Legato) over good people (Milly and Meryl) and will you sacrifice your morality and your sanity because saving the good is the lesser of two evils? Vash doesn't want to, can't play God, but sometimes the brutal world he lives on just won't let you have a choice (you are right, Wolfwood tried to point it out). I really think that this is the crux of it and Vash does emerge out of this a stronger person, but I love that Trigun doesn't shy from exploring the ambiguity of his code.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I love shows that don't give easy answers. That's why I love anime and Supernatural. They rarely give easy answers to anything. Sometimes it just comes down to taking the lesser of the two evils. There isn't a right or wrong, just different options with one being no less destructive than another in the long run.

Vash knows he can't play God, but Wolfwood also points out that sometimes you've got to make choices. Wolfwood feels he has to do some bad to do more ultimate good. Is that the right philosophy? Who knows. Vash doesn't think so, and while his way is the more idealistic, he also leaves an extremely high body count behind him for one who loves peace so much. He inadvertantly kills a lot more people than Wolfwood ever does. So who's right? No one in my view point. Wolfwood doesn't have a right to kill any more than Vash does, yet the "good" philosophy gets innocent people killed too.

The later Gundam series tangle with the pacifism stand too. A lot of mecha anime do. There's Zechs, who thinks the military can bring peace yet in the back of his mind knows that's unrealistic, there's Relena, who thinks no one should fight, there's Treize, who's an honorable fighter but who thinks his eutopia of military control will bring peace by fear, and there's Heero, who has no real philosophy and is just trying to do his job.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I guess Chapel has it right, on a level:

Life is like an incessant series of problems, all difficult, with brutal choices, and a time limit. The worst thing you can do is to make no choice, waiting for the ideal conclusion to present itself.

All you can do, is make the best possible choice, realizing there isn't a good one available some time.

But of course, the other side of that coin is that it's too easy to slide into moral equivalency and choose the easier way out. "Well, if I kill that extra person, the chances of someone coming after me are smaller and I need the money to take care of orphans" or what not becomes rather seductive. But you can't be an absolutist either because that way lies madness. I think in a way, Rem did a huge disservice to Vash by her upbringing and he never had a chance to grow older organically with her and to correct her attitudes in himself. Instead, she got enshrined like his mother and a Madonna all in one.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Which is why I think it's a big thing when he finally sheds the coat. Everything is does is for Rem up to a point. And honestly it isn't until Wolfwood, Meryl and Milly get involved in Vash's life that he really has people who know HIM and understand him. He's been keeping masks on for so much of his life, those three people are the only ones who get behind them.

And Vash is naive in a lot of ways. It's painful to watch that naivety be shattered (just like it's painful to watch Claus and Lavie suddenly have to grow up beyond their years in Last Exile or Heero and Zechs watch everything they believe in go up in smoke in Gundam Wing or Folken suddenly realize he's on the bad side in Escaflowne or Sam's belief that he can just walk away from his family problems come to a disturbing halt in Supernatural). It's the rebuilding process from there that you end up rooting the character on for. Whether it ends well as for Vash (or as well as it can end) or not as for Wolfwood (which, interestingly isn't as bad as it could have ended), you invest in the character because you HAVE seen them at their worst.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, I love the symbolism of his finally losing that coat.

it isn't until Wolfwood, Meryl and Milly get involved in Vash's life that he really has people who know HIM and understand him. He's been keeping masks on for so much of his life, those three people are the only ones who get behind them.

That's true and that is a huge reason why he only "grows up" then. Because up until then, he is stuck in stasis with Rem and not wanting to be like Knives as his only steady influences. He wonders through the world but isn't really of it.

which, interestingly isn't as bad as it could have ended

True. He did save his soul and died in relative peace and oh boy, it could have ended much worse.

[girlintheattic.livejournal.com]

To-tal slaughter
To-tal slaughter
I won't leave a single man alive
la la la loo la
genociiide
lee lee loo lee loo
an ocean of of blood
Let's be-gin the
killing tiiime!

LMAO and also: WTF!????

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, it makes total sense in context.

Vash (the protagonist) has a nickname of "The Humanoid Typhoon" and a reputation of a fearsome, horrifying gunslinger/killer. Now, he is generally a pacifist and is hardly likely to engage in genocide but in this moment he is trying to psych out the bad guys who have hostages by announcing he is Vash and singing this song to show he is all fearsome (and because he is a huge goofball and is having fun with his rep and also not a believer fear of his rep will work).