TriMax 8 Chapter 3
May. 23rd, 2005 02:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
Chapter Three - COUNTER-ATTACK!!
Once again I am Sumire-less. Anything that turns out to be translated differently in the official English version is all my fault XD
Page 74. Discussions on board the Seeds ship, the practicalities of feeding the towns and maintaining some kind of order, none of which is very promising. A rather hollow-eyed Meryl adds her take on what they've seen.
Rumours are doing the rounds on board the ship that an attack is being planned at a place called El Paso. Brad and his teams have been working on his ship and a bunch of others like it for the past three months - they're all equipped with great big missiles. Brad still doesn't know how well the ships will do in the assault, and he's relying largely on speed, both for surprise and to get away. Meryl's very unhappy hearing all this, while Luida's acting tough.
Page 77. Meryl says, "Miss Luida, I... I heard about Mr Vash's past... and...." She trails off, and there are a lot of Looks.
Someone mentions July, and that rakes up the usual discussions over just how far they can trust Vash and the risk of a second July incident. Clearly not everyone on the Seeds ship is a fan. Luida's had enough of the old debate, and shifts the emphasis onto Knives' history.
Page 79. Luida points out the differing reactions of the twins after July - Vash's determination to put things right and sort things out with Knives.
We see a younger Luida holding her hand out after a departing Vash - yeah, no question about it, Luida was once a Jessica too. She says he's been fighting the battle alone lately, and states firmly that she trusts him. They have to do what they can for the sake of survival, and it's time to get on with it. Everyone disperses off to their work, leaving Luida standing near Meryl and Milly. She turns away from them.
Page 81. Luida is crying, and Meryl approaches her cautiously. "Sorry," says Luida. "I'm... thinking a moment." She says if there is another incident like July, she doesn't know if Knives can be stopped. She admits that's she's scared, berating herself for it. "Miss Luida..." says Meryl. "Me too... I'm the same..."
Page 83. Two pages of a mother introducing a small child to a Plant for the first time. The child calls the Plant 'big sister' and wants to know why she's in a Bulb. The mother says she works in there, and they thank the Plant for providing their food. One of the Plant technicians approaches and he and the mother are flirting while the kid watches the Plant. "Mama, look. Big sister smiled. She smiled...."
Page 84. Knives, connected to his well of Plants, suddenly looks up. "....Now what...?"
Page 85. Vash in his cell aboard the Ark. Wolfwood looks up as it passes overhead, the noise of its engines loud around him. ".....A dream....?"
Page 87. The Ark, now with Angel wings sticking out all over it, approaches the massed ranks of missile launchers on the backs of trucks. Elendira waxes poetic about singing the song of destruction.
Brad and his attack ships are approaching the Ark through clouds. The Ark fires upon the army on the ground, throwing trucks and troops into the air (sucks to be the decoy, huh?).
Page 91. Knives marches across the Ark, laughing maniacally, then comes to an abrupt halt, his Angel form shifting.
Pages 92-3. He falls to his knees, his face becoming more feathered as he sees images of people, more and more of them. Visions in his head of Plant Bulbs, the Seeds ships in space and falling to the Planet. Knives crashes into the deck. "Master Knives!" yells Elendira.
A few of the army's missiles are now hitting the Ark. It is shaken by multiple explosions, some of them, to Elendira's shock, coming from behind.
Page 96. Brad's ships are making their attack run, but as he'd feared, there's only so much they can do. He looks down. "....Sorry," he says quietly, and then orders the retreat.
One of the ships continues its attack run despite Brad's repeated orders to stop, and Elendira destroys it with her giant nail gun.
Page 98. Further explosions shake the Ark. 'Now what?' thinks Elendira. 'From inside!?'
Page 99. Wolfwood's on board the Ark. That would explain a few explosions XD. "Tongari...." he's saying as he strides along the corridors. "You hear me? Tongari...." And Vash reacts....
Page 101. A huge door is blown off...
Page 102. ...and Wolfwood stands behind Legato.
Oh, there is so much to speculate on in this one. I just love Nightow :-)
Once again I am Sumire-less. Anything that turns out to be translated differently in the official English version is all my fault XD
Page 74. Discussions on board the Seeds ship, the practicalities of feeding the towns and maintaining some kind of order, none of which is very promising. A rather hollow-eyed Meryl adds her take on what they've seen.
Rumours are doing the rounds on board the ship that an attack is being planned at a place called El Paso. Brad and his teams have been working on his ship and a bunch of others like it for the past three months - they're all equipped with great big missiles. Brad still doesn't know how well the ships will do in the assault, and he's relying largely on speed, both for surprise and to get away. Meryl's very unhappy hearing all this, while Luida's acting tough.
Page 77. Meryl says, "Miss Luida, I... I heard about Mr Vash's past... and...." She trails off, and there are a lot of Looks.
Someone mentions July, and that rakes up the usual discussions over just how far they can trust Vash and the risk of a second July incident. Clearly not everyone on the Seeds ship is a fan. Luida's had enough of the old debate, and shifts the emphasis onto Knives' history.
Page 79. Luida points out the differing reactions of the twins after July - Vash's determination to put things right and sort things out with Knives.
We see a younger Luida holding her hand out after a departing Vash - yeah, no question about it, Luida was once a Jessica too. She says he's been fighting the battle alone lately, and states firmly that she trusts him. They have to do what they can for the sake of survival, and it's time to get on with it. Everyone disperses off to their work, leaving Luida standing near Meryl and Milly. She turns away from them.
Page 81. Luida is crying, and Meryl approaches her cautiously. "Sorry," says Luida. "I'm... thinking a moment." She says if there is another incident like July, she doesn't know if Knives can be stopped. She admits that's she's scared, berating herself for it. "Miss Luida..." says Meryl. "Me too... I'm the same..."
Page 83. Two pages of a mother introducing a small child to a Plant for the first time. The child calls the Plant 'big sister' and wants to know why she's in a Bulb. The mother says she works in there, and they thank the Plant for providing their food. One of the Plant technicians approaches and he and the mother are flirting while the kid watches the Plant. "Mama, look. Big sister smiled. She smiled...."
Page 84. Knives, connected to his well of Plants, suddenly looks up. "....Now what...?"
Page 85. Vash in his cell aboard the Ark. Wolfwood looks up as it passes overhead, the noise of its engines loud around him. ".....A dream....?"
Page 87. The Ark, now with Angel wings sticking out all over it, approaches the massed ranks of missile launchers on the backs of trucks. Elendira waxes poetic about singing the song of destruction.
Brad and his attack ships are approaching the Ark through clouds. The Ark fires upon the army on the ground, throwing trucks and troops into the air (sucks to be the decoy, huh?).
Page 91. Knives marches across the Ark, laughing maniacally, then comes to an abrupt halt, his Angel form shifting.
Pages 92-3. He falls to his knees, his face becoming more feathered as he sees images of people, more and more of them. Visions in his head of Plant Bulbs, the Seeds ships in space and falling to the Planet. Knives crashes into the deck. "Master Knives!" yells Elendira.
A few of the army's missiles are now hitting the Ark. It is shaken by multiple explosions, some of them, to Elendira's shock, coming from behind.
Page 96. Brad's ships are making their attack run, but as he'd feared, there's only so much they can do. He looks down. "....Sorry," he says quietly, and then orders the retreat.
One of the ships continues its attack run despite Brad's repeated orders to stop, and Elendira destroys it with her giant nail gun.
Page 98. Further explosions shake the Ark. 'Now what?' thinks Elendira. 'From inside!?'
Page 99. Wolfwood's on board the Ark. That would explain a few explosions XD. "Tongari...." he's saying as he strides along the corridors. "You hear me? Tongari...." And Vash reacts....
Page 101. A huge door is blown off...
Page 102. ...and Wolfwood stands behind Legato.
Oh, there is so much to speculate on in this one. I just love Nightow :-)
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 05:32 pm (UTC)It also comes immediately before Knives has his initial WTF? moment, and I think that might be more relevant. If the Plant is smiling at the kid, that suggests Plants don't automatically resent humans. When Knives collapses and has his visions, is that the Plants trying to stop him from hurting people? Are we seeing them fight back? It's either that or his own guilty conscience as far as I can see, and I'm less inclined to believe the latter.
That page with Wolfwood looking up at the Ark is another weird one. I read it as Wolfwood thinking about Vash rather than the other way round, but Nightow certainly likes leaving things convoluted for us to untangle!
no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 08:05 am (UTC)If the Plant is smiling at the kid, that suggests Plants don't automatically resent humans.
Then Knives is in deep shit. O_O IF he were able to destory all humans. The plant angels are going to have his ass. That, or abandon him in Eden. xD (Poor Knivesu ;__; )
When Knives collapses and has his visions, is that the Plants trying to stop him from hurting people? Are we seeing them fight back?
That would be really interesting and bad for Knives. But thats a really good thought. *ponders*
It's either that or his own guilty conscience as far as I can see, and I'm less inclined to believe the latter.
See! If that were true then he's not a killing machine...maybe he'll have second thoughts about what he's doing? Hmm @_@ what does the big man do this to us? *takes some headache pills* @_X
no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 08:39 am (UTC)Vash and Knives are Gods
That's certainly what Knives is angling for with the Eye of Michael - unquestioning devotion to orders through religious overtones.
I think it's gone past the stage of Knives having second thoughts now. The more he merges with other Plant Angels, the crazier he seems to get. That chance is past as far as I can see.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 05:42 pm (UTC)What's intriguing for me is the way that that Vash hears Wolfwood. Wolfwood's not yelling out loud, or he'd have spiky speech boxes. The Arks's on fire in multiple places, there are explosions going on, Vash has to be more than a bit distracted by Legato, and out of all that lot he picks up Wolfwood talking in a perfectly normal voice and knows he's coming.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 04:12 pm (UTC)The Plant technician shuffling around in the background of the page with the little kid is amusing, I like that even when things are really going to hell there's a hint of humor hidden in the details. Why was that kid calling the plant "Sister?" Or maybe it's just become a generalization, sort of a nickname for the species... Just speculating.
Is it ever really talked about, whether the sister-plants have much of an opinion on their own fate? I mean, I'd be more than a little put out with Knives if I was in their position, being used as a power source by him and all, but they aren't really fighting back against him either... or maybe they are and Knives is ignoring them, which seems more likely. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, maybe it'll come up later. *shrug*
no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 08:07 pm (UTC)We honestly don't know much about the Bulb Plants and their POV in all this. Is Knives coercing/forcing them or are they volunteers? TriMax 8 leads me to believe in a couple of places that they aren't completely on board with Knives' plans. There's that thought of 'Knives! Wait!' just before Knives takes the flying leap off the Ark to gather more Plants. And there's the possibility that Knives' little collapse here might be the Plants trying to hold him back.
Or he could just be going nuts all on his own, of course XD.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 09:34 pm (UTC)Sadly for Vash, yeah, that was the deal.
As you said, pure speculation, since Nightow hasn't really told us anything.
That's one of the things I absolutely love about the Trigun manga. It's like a fanficcers' paradise! All these hints dropped with no full explanations, so you can twist things exactly the way suits you and your fic. It's like the best present ever, a completely flexible playground for shippers of all persuasions :-)
no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 09:48 pm (UTC)Generally, I try not to look at it too much that way because it feels like major 'ship wank to do that, but you certainly can read it that way (and I did when I suited a fic of mine XD). Between Wolfwood looking up at the Ark and wondering if he's imagining something, and Vash hearing Wolfwood talking to him on the Ark, it isn't entirely beyond the bounds. Because Vash reacting to Wolfwood - I only see two possibilities. Either he's got some awesome hearing abilities (which is likely, I'll grant you) and he's specifically listening for Wolfwood's voice (after seven months, that's a hell of a lot of faith in a friend), or Wolfwood is reaching him on some other level. And Vash is certainly telepathic, even if Wolfwood isn't, so I can run with some superficial degree of 'feeling' there.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 09:30 pm (UTC)And Wolfwood, there for Vash. Of course. :-)
no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 10:01 pm (UTC)Really, if the Plants were fully conscious and resented their situation, they'd have blasted their way out a long time ago. Either they're mentally subnormal or they just don't mind their existence in a bottle, and I still wonder if Nightow's going to give us a definitive answer on that one. Knowing Nightow, probably not, he'll leave us guessing!
And Wolfwood, there for Vash. Of course. :-)
Well, yeah, no question he'd take the first opportunity he got XD The next two chapters are such a slash-fest. Nightow does like to play with us, and I love him for it! :-)
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 04:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 08:11 am (UTC)The Luida thing gets kind of over-shadowed by all the interesting Plant stuff going on in this chapter, but I really like seeing something of her background, and the flaws behind that amazingly cool and take-no-shit front. And Meryl's allowed to see it because she's an outsider, not one of the ship folk (and so that
I think it's close to impossible to grow up on that ship and not crush on Vash at some point.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 05:40 pm (UTC)Only in the manga. The anime version's pretty sexless if you ask me.
I think it's interesting that it's Meryl who approaches Luida there, not Milly. I mean, Milly's the more emotionally forth-coming and understanding one, so how come she hangs back and lets Meryl do the talking? I'm betting Milly has sussed something out.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 11:32 pm (UTC)If liking pissed-off and fighting Vash makes you a pervert, then my f-list's full of them (like I didn't know that already!). If they're not convinced when they get here, I work on indoctrinating them XD. I think the frequency of the feather fetish among Trigun fans is more worrying myself. I mean, why is Vash so hot when he's less human???
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Date: 2005-05-25 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-25 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 11:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 08:14 am (UTC)Hmmm now i wouldn't say that >__>;; (Manga Vash is better then the anime one >__>)
no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 11:45 pm (UTC)Wolfwood: Bitch, where's my boy? Don't make me cut you.
Legato: I'd be all witty and crazy, but between keeping Vash down and this big fucking hole in my chest.... hell.
I swear the story gets more patchy as the artwork improves! Nightow seems to enjoy that... "ok, we'll outline every second of this fight over half the book, then have a two-year gap. Now... another totally in-depth fight, and...um... seven months? Yeah. Seven months pass." My plotbunnies love you, Nightow-sensei! You
give it upmake it too easy!no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 08:19 am (UTC)I think the jumpy timeline and half-complete answers are something you either love or hate. I know some people who say having to invent the stuff to fill in so many gaps themselves annoys them because they want to know. But I always liked building the lego models myself - it wouldn't be as much fun if someone just handed to them to you all done XD. Look at the fanfic for the anime and there are basically two types - the short ones and the post-series epics. The manga doesn't tie you down so tightly that you can't write longer stuff within its confines. A playground just for me!
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Date: 2005-05-24 10:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 06:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 03:28 am (UTC)Mmm such a nice chapter too. So much left unexplained and unsaid...*is fighting plotbunnies since she has exams*
I actually read page 85 as Vash somehow knowing that Wolfwood was around and not quite believing it (so the 'dream' bubble would be Vash), probably because I can't actually see Wolfwood's eyes in that frame, so I didn't get the impression of him looking up.
Ahh theories. It's always fun to speculate.
Page 99 and the last page are both awesome - I especially like how it's impossible to see Wolfwood's expression at all in both pages. Nightow really is brilliant at composition - his decisions about what to omit and what to show are genius.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 08:33 am (UTC)I suspect Nightow sticks things like p85 in just to play with our brains and see what whackiness we come up with! I do love that page with Wolfwood's appearance on the Ark - that was a fun piece of decision-making. But poor Vash looks so tired and awful :-(
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 03:29 am (UTC)*coughs*
And er *SQUEE* That pretty much sums it up. ;D
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