VASH
vash the stampede, also dubbed the humanoid typhoon and the 66 billion double dollar man, is a human disaster, roaming around no man's land. that is the name he made for himself. in actuality, all his willing actions were to prevent casualties, no killing no matter how dire the situation was and to refrain others from doing so too. love and peace is his core philosophy, what he hopes humanity can amount to, what he hopes will remain when he and his brother are no longer part of the picture.
WOLFWOOD
nicholas d. wolfwood is a traveling priest, working on freelance jobs of whatever town whom might be missing a priest and selling the handy dandy opportunity for people to fess up their sins. he is a traveling priest, or so, he proclaimed when they first met. the gigantic cross he carries is a heavy gun, one he swings with ease, as though having delivered death his whole life. when knives recovered, he sent nicholas after vash, to find him and bring him to knives. not long into their travels, he finds his morals are deeply in opposition with vash. everyone kills to survive, to protect their loved ones. there's no other choice.* in other versions, their path and root of their dynamic are similar, but how their past events occurred, how the two interact and what they get to see of each other changes the fluidity of their connection. they can talk, but they're both people who hide themselves, who are either unable to or unwilling to share their burdens.
DIFFERENT LIVES, DIFFERENT MEETINGS
my favorite vashwood comes from the original manga + trigun maximum. it is the complete tale of their relationship, from the stiff, argumentative nature of the beginning slowly shifting into a steady understanding of why the other do what they feel they have to do. when that understanding creeps in, so does an unspoken trust. but even with a friend, there's only so much they can ask for from each other. vash has something only he can do, someone only he can face against. what lies for the rest of humanity is on him, knives is his responsibility. when wolfwood met vash and later again, his affiliation is already with knives / legato. alongside with this predetermined guilt is his family, the safety of the orphanage depended on him. both have been alone for too long, there's no one they've been able to reliably turn to. when wolfwood throws away his life to save vash during his most dire time of need, vash opens his heart again to the possibility. of help, of hope. when wolfwood is given the chance to ask for the same, he holds his tongue and leaves on his own. vash comes to save him regardless, but it was only enough for the people wolfwood wanted to protect. although they couldn't be together after everything was done and over, at least, for a short period, they had someone close, someone who understood and chose them over everything else.blr vashwood is like nonexistent as much as it is very present in the movie. i have nothing insightful to say LOL we get the 4k view of wolfwood mourning vash and he carries a piece of vash with him after to remember him. vash is too busy fumbling to give him attention. they're divorcees but are trying to get back together but also want an open relationship.
stampede vashwood is in the budding start of their relationship. any casual friendliness is lost to the 12 episode duration and instead, we get insight to the most tense, shifting part of their relationships from episode 4-7. despite wolfwood's ever suspicious presence, making no real attempts to hide himself, vash still likes him, "i can see it in his eyes" and motivated to eat again after he joins them. in episode 5, there's a layer of projection from both sides and both the words and actions delivered hurt them, the point of understanding fractured. in episode 6, the squabble continues, up til the very point wolfwood's no.1 weakness comes walking in and shoots at vash. wolfwood's vulnerability is thrown into the open, he can't run from this and he can't stop vash from trying to help him. because vash tries, the burn of not reaching livio might've hurt a little less. and because he got to see this of vash, he knows how far he was willing to push himself to help others too. he sees it again, for the rest of the season, the goodness doesn't stem from naivety - it's an earnest attempt, a promise of extending himself until everything has been tried. although he can't get in between the fight between vash and knives, he'll do what he can to make it easier, a reminder, alongside meryl, that the fight is not a lonely one.
98 vashwood is friendly. the audience sees the most of their casual interactions in this adaption, from the way wolfwood swindles vash into running in a shooting competition to their domestic trips with meryl and milly. they spend a decent amount of time together, but still, they can't run from what makes them. where vash goes, tragedy follows, and it's caused once more when wolfwood kills to protect him. wolfwood mourns his decision. there's a decisive love for vash that makes him reconsider, has been throughout their journey together, and he does ultimately change. but their time is shorten when wolfwood is killed, an unpreventable death.
DEPTH OF THEIR LOVE
not a firm belief, but i like the thought vash crushes first meeting, like an instant bathump! of his heart when encountering wolfwood's bright energy and the kindness he extends to kids, especially after having one of the worst nights of his life. i think it deepens then at the home arc, when waking up and seeing wolfwood across from him, resting and injured, but alive. there's a relief there, even after fighting an enemy like that, wolfwood could make it out, still the same, like him. his feelings freezes over after the dragon nest arc, the loneliness and inevitability of his destination seeps and takes away the thought of a future for himself. although wolfwood guides him til the very end, it was an uncertainty of if they'd see each other again after that point. vash could only think of what he needed to do.
the rescue arc is a pivotal resurrection, of vash's faith and his desire to keep going. what motivated him up til then was to stop knives at all costs, but then came wolfwood, who was willing to risk everything to make sure he was freed. the important part was in wolfwood's success of meeting him halfway, doing just enough for vash to regain a bit of his strength and get them both out of there. they can help each other, finish what the other started, complete the half, back to back. wolfwood is proof that vash wasn't forgotten over the course of the seven months, people are waiting for him and there was someone desperate enough to come that close. i think his love was always a realized one, but he didn't think he could settle until everything was fully over, and that's with the belief he or wolfwood hadn't died by the end of it. but after he was rescued, he felt it was okay to open his heart a little earlier because there was hope after all. if they leaned on each other, burdened each other like so...
wolfwood had a lot on his mind. notably, vash the stampede. plastered all over the planet he's been wandering and the single target of knives who sent wolfwood to find him. no doubt someone he had to think of everyday for those 2 years and then some more when he finally did, becoming travel companions. because of their moral differences, i think wolfwood had a harder time realizing his feelings for vash. in the hospital arc, he gained a proper insight into the kind of person vash was. someone who suffered for his taunting ideal of "love and peace" but never wavered in all his years of it. what they hope for is the same, but in the end, there was still someone who needed to defeat knives and vash was the only one who held a chance.
i think in ch 35, vash and wolfwood had plenty of chances to fight back to back, trusting each other without words, recognizing the other won't turn away when there's someone in need of help and won't abandon each other. but wolfwood's still a bit slow, caught in his own concerns, thinking of the orphanage and stress of what could come. maybe knives' brother was the same and there was no greater force fighting for humanity's side after all. but even after having the opportunity, he doesn't shoot and later on, wolfwood would realize properly, beyond any logical reasonings of his chances against vash, his heart was already with him.
there were still lines he could not cross. wolfwood had his own guilt, feeling a sense of betrayal because of what he was sent there for and his own problems, his home, a separate issue from vash loomed over him. there was nothing he could do but see him off before entering the seven months of knives' reign. after seven months, wolfwood could steel his resolve to save him and in those months, maybe he thought that was the least he could do for vash.
vash and wolfwood are a perfect pair. they hope for the same future, they trust instinctively, skilled in battle enough to fight back to back, and they have something they want to protection. in v10, wolfwood thought of vash and cemented his faith in him, there'll be something for the rest of humanity because vash will fight for it. wolfwood excluded himself from that future because it'd have been a burden. and just as all hope seemed to been lost, vash came to help him, as wolfwood had done for him.
regardless of being platonic/romantic, vash and wolfwood's relationship is very dearly crafted and a perfect story. they were designed to have crossed paths by the circumstances around them and they didn't allow themselves the luxury to hold each other close in the bit of time they had traveling together, only after when it was too late. they both realized their feelings for the other, a mutual knowing trust. despite not being able to spend their tomorrows together, they knew they were loved. vash spent half of his powers to protect the remains of wolfwood's home and his corpse. wolfwood is remembered with a smile and through a bullet to another person's head.
