TriMax 8 - 'Freed Bird' Wolfwood spin-off
May. 30th, 2005 02:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
Sumire's Part 1. And Part 2.
A few notes on timing - Freed Bird was originally printed in YKO in 1999, then reprinted in 2001, and it's that reprint that has determined its placing here in TriMax 8. Whenever this is supposed to take place, it isn't at this point in the manga, but considerably earlier. The 'turn to the next volume' page comes after the end of chapter 5, and makes it extra clear this part is not sequential.
Page 188 (Sumire's p144). Wolfwood carving a wooden bird, and musing on whether they really have it better.
Page 191. The arrival of Mayleen gets Wolfwood out of a confrontation with a bunch of goons, as she explains he must be the minister she's waiting for to bury her father.
Mayleen makes tea and recites the plot. She's just lost her only living relative, and they have debts. She has a choice of losing everything, or marrying the moneylender whose goons are hanging around outside. Wolfwood congratulates her on her marriage. (She's calling the dead guy grandfather now, instead of her father - since it turns out she's adopted, I imagine he was legally her father, and her calling him Grandfather was a family joke thing. He did look to be quite old when she was first adopted.)
Page 195 (Sumire's p151). Mayleen looks out of the window at a bird, and wants to know what it's like to be free, to have control over your own life.
Wolfwood's of the opinion that being safe and secure is a hell of a lot better than being free. (It says a lot about the planet and about Wolfwood that his idea of keeping her safe is to see her married off to a bullying thug, doncha think?)
Page 198 (Sumire's p154). Wolfwood's dialogue here has changed - the line about it being 18 years ago has disappeared to keep it compatible with Wolfwood's rapid aging. Nightow obviously hadn't thought of that part back in 1999! Flashback to the orphanage - I love Wolfwood's face at the bottom as he gets stuck with looking after a baby XD
Page 200. Wolfwood carves baby Mayleen a wooden bird. He looks after her for a year before someone comes to adopt her.
Page 201. Mayleen's new parents reassure Wolfwood they'll look after her. Mayleen cries and reaches out as she's taken away, still clutching her wooden bird.
Wolfwood's reminiscence is interrupted when Mayleen's would-be-hubby turns up in the bar looking for him.
Page 203. A somewhat-the-worse-for-wear Wolfwood gets back to his hotel room to find Mayleen there - dressed rather differently and carrying a gun.
Page 205. Mayleen explains that the Madame let her in to hide. Good to know that the planet continues the old tradition of combining hotels with brothels XD. Wolfwood is Not Pleased with her. Flashback to Wolfwood getting beaten by thugs, as Mr Moneylender decides to blame Wolfwood for Mayleen turning him down.
Page 207 (Sumire's p163). Wolfwood just can't resist telling him what he thinks of guys who want to screw teenage girls XD
Page 209. Back to the present in the hotel, and the goons are massed outside. Wolfwood's room goes up with rather a bang, along with most of the hotel.
Page 211. Mayleen sees the corpses in the rubble and starts crying. Wolfwood lays into her, telling her to STFU since this is all her fault. (Damn, he's not cutting the poor kid much slack, is he? He *still* thinks she should have married the guy, even knowing what a complete psycho he is.)
Page 213 (Sumire's p169). Mayleen has had enough of this, and stands up, screaming as she starts shooting.
Much gunfire, and Mayleen hits the deck again.
Pages 216-7. Wolfwood's now pissed off enough to bring out the heavy weaponry, and the thugs get to eat some rockets. But he's still furious at Mayleen too.
Page 218. The town smokes in the background as Wolfwood and Mayleen stand by her father's grave. He still thinks she's an idiot who should have been happy with being a bored nobody.
Page 220. Mayleen throws him the carved wooden bird she wears as a necklace as she leaves, and Wolfwood thinks what a poorly-made piece of crap it is.
Poor Wolfwood - always failing to save his kids, no matter how hard he tries.
I love his attitude in this, the whole 'shut up and suck it down' style of living he's trying to push this poor teenage girl into. And that's how he treats someone he cares about! I mean, talk about cynical....
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Date: 2005-05-30 02:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-30 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-30 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-30 02:54 pm (UTC)Awwww. . .
Date: 2005-05-30 03:42 pm (UTC)Re: Awwww. . .
Date: 2005-05-30 05:29 pm (UTC)Re: Awwww. . .
Date: 2005-05-30 05:33 pm (UTC)Re: Awwww. . .
Date: 2005-05-30 06:03 pm (UTC)Re: Awwww. . .
Date: 2005-05-30 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-30 05:43 pm (UTC)I suppose I can blame it on lack of Vash
Probably, actually, given how early on this has to be set. Obviously it's while Wolfwood was still wandering semi-randomly before Knives showed his hand in a big way. We don't see a time between Wolfwood collecting Vash from his Eriks hideaway and Vash's disastrous fight with Knives when the two of them aren't together. So this little episode basically defaults to those two years Vash was missing. There's no doubt that once they hook up these two guys influence one another to the point where their attitudes can comfortably meet in the middle somewhere.
Dooood, can you imagine what Vash would have had to say to Wolfwood if he'd known about this? XD
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Date: 2005-05-30 08:05 pm (UTC)There are more cute pictures of him as a kid too, I didn't scan all those pages.
Wolfwood knows all along, but she doesn't. I rather suspect he went there deliberately to look her up once he got the chance - that seems like a Wolfwood thing to do. There's no proof of that, though, it's just my guess - it could just be coincidence, and then he realised when he saw her wooden bird necklace.
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Date: 2005-05-30 09:51 pm (UTC)Ummm, he dress a very tight suit, specially in the legs, yummy yummy XD
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Date: 2005-05-31 08:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 02:13 am (UTC)Brilliant scans, the onest of Little Wolfwood were indeed unbearably cute. And I liked the character design for Mayleen too.
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Date: 2005-05-31 08:30 am (UTC)If he thinks they're making a mistake, definitely. He's not going to hold back on trying to get them to do what he thinks best. Even if that means being an obnoxious, bullying bastard. Look at that charming incident with Vash and the gun to the head XD. Only Vash will just tell him to go screw himself, while Mayleen needs a few more years first!
It does say a lot about what he thinks of his own life, and what he's seen happen to other people, that he'd rather she married this toad. I don't think Wolfwood ever stops seeing himself as someone's protector once he's put himself in that role. I just don't believe him when he says this is the last time he'll go out of his way to help her - he's angry when he says that. If they met up again and she was in trouble, he wouldn't be able to just walk off.
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Date: 2005-05-31 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 06:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-31 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-11 06:45 pm (UTC)*Ahem* The other reason I adore this story? 'Cause I look exactly like Mayleen. Oiiii!
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Date: 2005-07-11 11:33 pm (UTC)There's a reason I go for unlimited space and bandwidth image hosting and never take any of these posts down XD
I think he knows perfectly well who she is. I don't imagine his being there was coincidence. I think when he got a chance away from the Eye of Michael and the GHGs he deliberately went to look her up. I wouldn't expect any less from Wolfwood when it comes to his kids.
I look exactly like Mayleen
Hope you don't have that taste in frilly blouses and skirts!
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Date: 2005-07-12 05:57 am (UTC)