A Writer's Take on Trigun: Knives, Part 2

So last time I mentioned that the Trigun series really revolves around a war of values and ideas. Knives' logic of survival and killing for self-preservation vs. Vash's morals of saving and caring for everyone.

Get this: Everything Knives does to Vash in the series is used to not only cause Vash suffering, but ultimately for Knives to prove his point: that you can't save everyone. If he can break down Vash's values, he can beat Vash. So we see all the situations Knives forces on Vash, putting him in circumstances that hit at Vash's morals hardest. Here are some:

• Knives creates situations where Vash must risk injury and his own life to save people, like in the third-to-last episode, "Sin," when Midvalley is attacking humans, and Vash goes out of his way to block them, receiving personal injury.

• Knives shows that even those Vash saves end up dead. He does this by killing those Vash cares for, and by even killing the Gung-ho Guns Vash spares, like Dominique and Monev. 

• Knives mocks Vash's inability to save people by having characters like Caine and Midvalley commit suicide right before Vash's eyes. I mean, there is literally nothing Vash could have said to stop Caine or Midvalley. And because saving others is so important to Vash, he takes the death on as if it was his fault and mistake. He feels like a failure because he couldn't save Caine. And Knives wants Vash to believe that if Vash had died, these other people wouldn't have. (You can't save everyone.)

• Knives plans to show how even Vash's friends will kill those closest to them. He does this by assigning Wolfwood to kill Vash. I really don't think Knives expected Wolfwood to succeed in beating Vash, but it would have added to Vash's torment to have Wolfwood try.

• And finally, the closing act is to prove to Vash that even he has to kill to save others, and Knives does this through Legato. For Knives, it was imperative that Vash shoot Legato dead himself. It wouldn't have had the same effect if Legato had made him do it. Knives scores a goal in this because Vash does shoot Legato and he does it to save Meryl and Milly, driving home that "you can't save the butterflies without killing the spider" mindset.

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A Writer's Take on Trigun: Knives (Analysis and Themes)

(Knives--This character analysis is crazy.)

Origins

It's interesting how Vash and Knives grew up as twins in the same environment and how they turned out so differently. Where does Knives veer off course? I think most fans would say it happens when he kills a spider to save a butterfly--that's the first real manifestation of it--but honestly, it starts before that.

It starts when Commander Joey of the SEEDS ships explains why they were sent to find a new planet. Not only does he reveal the faults of the human race, but also their drive to survive, and he explains that they use logic to "make the smallest sacrifice they can think of at the time."

This wisdom sticks with Knives, we see, because he repeats the advice to Vash when Vash is crying. Steve told Vash "he's not human" (an insult Vash himself uses on Knives later). And when talking about the humans, Knives says, "Remember what Joey said? We have to make the smallest sacrifice we can think of at the time."

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A Writer's Take on Trigun: The Quiet Battle

So in Trigun, we've been following this ongoing feud between Vash and Knives, which turns out to be a war over the whole human race. I feel like the only reason the human race has lasted this long on Gunsmoke is because Vash blasted Knives in July City, and Knives had to spend years regenerating from it. Knives' plan for the destruction of the human race was kind of put on hold; he's also upset with Vash about everything and wants to torment him, after all, that was what he was taught to do as a child from the SEEDS crew. They abused and tormented him, which is also partly why he wants to obliterate the whole human race.

So Knives wants to eradicate humans. Vash wants to save them, which is such a beautiful contradiction in and of itself, because if anyone is keeping count, Vash has been wronged way more times by humans than Knives has, or probably anyone for that matter. Vash is trying to save the very people who want to kill him. (I'm telling you, this series is pro at irony and contradiction!) He's like that literary Christ-like figure; he forgives them because they don't really understand the forces at work here. He also forgives them because of Rem's teachings, and he values them because Rem gave her life to save these people here. Rem had such an effect on Vash that if Rem values these people, Vash will too. Also, since she did give up her life to save them, keeping them alive and safe is like keeping Rem alive. If the human race dies, Rem dies in vain.

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A Writer's Take on Trigun: What the Heck Vash plans to do with Knives After the Series

This post is part of a series I'm doing where, as a writer, I'm dissecting Trigun. We're getting deep into this story. If you're a writer, maybe you'll learn some new skills along the way.

What I love about Trigun is that it's one of those stories that changes every time I watch it. The best stories do that, because they're layered. You know, the kind where you catch onto something new the second time, the third time, the tenth time you watch it. Or the meaning of the story changes because you've changed.


(And I'm not talking about noticing Abraham Lincoln.)

This time when I watched Trigun, I finally really caught on to and appreciated what the heck Vash planned to do with Knives at the end of the series. The show has a pretty open ending. I've always wished there was just one more episode, or even 15 more minutes. What do you do with someone as sadistic as Knives when your morals prevent you from killing him? When no jail is capable of holding him?

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