I’m not sure how much I’ve talked about Trigun over the last two years of this blog. It might be my favorite anime or at least my favorite dubbed anime. Everyone is bringing their A game in that dub.

For those that don’t know, the show is about this goober down here:

Vash the Stampede. Looks pretty badass right? Well, this is how he’s normally portrayed:

Big old goofball. He’s an expert marksman but also a pacifist. He absolutely refuses to kill his enemies and has been punished by getting badly hurt in the process. But that’s also the thing about him, there’s a 60 billion double dollar bounty on his head for the destruction he causes. When you see him in action though, you realize that mostly comes from people trying to catch him and causing damage around him.

For the first eleven episodes, you see a lot of goofy adventures that tie into more classic “western” style storytelling. Bank robberies, disputes over land and bounty hunters, that kind of thing. Then you get to episode twelve and the true plot reveals itself.

We meet someone by the name of Legato Bluesummers, who is the leader of the Gung-Ho Guns. A team that has the exact opposite philosophy to Vash. Kill everything that stands in their way.

And this is where the show truly excels because not only does the switch-up feel natural but it recontextualizes everything that came before it. For the most part, over the last eleven episodes, we’ve seen Vash run, hide and scream his way through interactions. He shows moments of brilliance and incredible skill. But he’s just a big old goofball.

The Gung-Ho Guns cause him to lock the fuck in. It’s shown in the first episode where Monev the Gale whose been mocking Vash while murdering members of the town they’re in, indiscriminately, suddenly sees Vash for who he is: El Diablo.

After this, we see Vash fighting against stronger and stronger enemies. We know that he’s powerful but they’re just more so and part of that comes from their merciless nature. How do you fight someone merciless when all you want is to be a pacifist?

Finally, we reach the climax of the entire show. Vash ends up in a town where he has to fight against this man named Midvalley the Hornfreak with backup from Legato Bluesummers.

That saxophone he’s holding is able to create enormous blasts of air that cause immense pain. Meanwhile, Legato can control people with his mind. They combo Vash to have to jump in front of the air blasts instead of letting innocents get killed. Eventually, Vash is able to destroy Midvalley’s horn and he kills himself as recompense to their main boss, Knives, it’s the fate of all failed Gung-Ho Guns. Vash heads off to fight Legato.

He finds Legato and shoots him a bunch but still refuses to kill him. Legato wants to push him though and threatens two of Vash’s friends by controlling a group of people to hurt them. Legato forces him to make a choice, kill him or let his friends die. After a great deal of sorrow, Vash kills Legato.

It’s a heartbreaking and powerful scene. It leads to Vash suffering a deep depression as well. This whole run of episodes, would later lead me to have appreciation for an equally horrifying scene.

In Doctor Who, there’s a story called The Family of Blood where the Doctor is hiding out in a boarding school as a human in the years before WWI. His companion, Martha is trying to keep an eye on him. They’re being pursued by a group called the Family who want to eat his heart. Shenanigans happen and the Doctor is eventually forced to reveal himself.

Much like Vash, the Family finds out what happens when you force the Doctor to lock in. Here’s the transcript.

The Doctor has a reputation for being both lovely and terrible. There are many evil aliens throughout the universe that are afraid of his name. Vash though, is the surprise. You have to see what it takes to force his hand. And in that moment, you realize that if it wasn’t for his rules, all those fights before, would be over in about five seconds.

Both of these scenarios I feel like will be summed up in an exchange the Eleventh Doctor has in his run:

Madame Kovarian: The anger of a good man is not a problem. Good men have too many rules.

Eleventh Doctor: Good men don’t need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.