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Monday, December 1, 2014

A Writer's Take on Trigun: Milly Thompson (Character Analysis)


Milly doesn't have the character growth the other main characters have, because Milly already has a good and stable head on her shoulders and a firm identity. But as the series progresses, we do get to see other aspects of her character. Honestly, Milly seems the most stable out of everyone. She never doubts herself. She's completely authentic,

One thing I love about Milly is how intuitive she is. We get another (surprise!) great contradiction with her character--she often gives the impression that she doesn't know exactly what's going on, but more often than not, she understands better than anyone, whether she realizes it or not.



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For example, she thought immediately that Vash was the Vash the Stampede, and she was right. It took Meryl episodes to get to that conclusion. When they're on the sandsteamer, and Vash is buying food from them, she says he's like a growing boy, when Vash is in fact buying the food for a young growing boy. It goes on and on throughout the series. She's intuitive with people, at times picking up on Vash's moods when no one else does, understanding people long before anyone else does (including themselves). She picks up on Vash's belief system very quickly, long before Meryl, but because Milly doesn't come off as being the brightest, and she's not loud with her opinions, she's often disregarded and overlooked. The irony in her characterization is that she's an intuitive genius packaged in a bit of an airhead mold.

Milly helps Meryl see Vash's true characteristics and Meryl's own feelings for him. Milly has a strong sense of right and wrong, but also seems to have no problem accepting gray areas of ethics, like when Wolfwood shot Zazie. She says both Wolfwood and Vash were right.

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Milly cares deeply for others. We always see her helping people--people she knows personally, and people she doesn't know hardly at all. She's a lot like Vash that way.

Her "super power" is how well she can simplify situations, bringing even complex ideas to palpable simplicities, like situations with Vash and Meryl's feelings toward him. Milly's not always the sharpest person, but she is always one of the kindest. She doesn't seem concerned about what others think of her. She also provides some great comedy with the series, often misunderstanding and mispronouncing things.

Their Own Kind of Comedy

Side note. Have you noticed how each of the main characters in Trigun bring their own kind of comedy to the series?
  • We laugh at Vash's idiotic goof-off side.
  • We laugh at how Wolfwood plays off religion and gunfights, using buzz words like "redemption,"  "almighty," and "grace of God."
  • We laugh at Meryl's reactions to being surrounded by "crazies" while trying to do her job.
  • And we laugh at Milly's obliviousness (but often correct) statements on any given situation.
The writer of this series figured out how to make each character funny in his or her own way, so there are plenty of opportunities for laughs. And, there are plenty of diverse moments of humor. We aren't just listening to the same lines of humor over and over. We get diversity.

For Writers: If you want some humor in your story, look at how each character can bring a different kind of humor to their scenes.

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The Giveaway


Every time you like or share or reblog or retweet any of my Trigun dissection posts on my Tumblr, Facebook, or Twitter outlets, you will be entered to win a Trigun decal. You can pick out of the ones below. Obviously you can stick them on things other than iphones and mini ipads, like laptops, car windows (you can get them in white), whatever. This is an international giveaway. You must be a follower to win.


If you win and don't want the prize (you just wanted to like and share my posts), just let me know, and I'll select another winner.

1 comment:

  1. Get some tips on writing character analysis to make your characters even better and interesting for readers.

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