20 years of YYH headcanons

yu yu and fruits basket are the only things maintaining my present equilibrium main blog is @jilyandbambi

[phantomrose96]

Personally? I would never deny Hiromu Arakawa her right to a short bratty braided blond character in a kickass red coat

[lost-technology]

Isn't it an amazing irony that Knives treats Vash the same way as humans treated Tesla? Been going over an amazing thread started from my asks all about Millions Knives vs. the Concept of Consent, and how he is one giant hypocrite. (And I think that's what we love about him as a character, actually. Like, Knives, you are yikes. Get. Therapy). Think about it... What set Knives off? (Manga, Tristamp/star). He and Vash found the records and remains of Tesla, the first known Independent Plant. Humans studied her and tore her apart in their scientific curiosity. They used and experimented on her until she had a fate worse than death. Furthermore, unease is explored with the human use of the Dependent Plants in general (even in the OG anime, which didn't have the Tesla-arc). Little Knives has a moment of betrayal: How COULD they? How could humans take a brilliant beautiful living thing - one of their kind, the first of their kind and just do that? Rem had done nothing but love them and care for them, but she hid what had happened from them and was one of THEIR kind. Could he really trust her after that? The secrecy? Being complicit? (Even if by simple failure). Maybe all of that kindness and equality she showed him and Vash was a lie. The ideal that he believed in - that there was no difference between human hearts and theirs - was shattered in that moment, beneath the tank. So what does he do later in life as an adult? Trusses up Vash in a straight-jacket, sedates him and puts all kinds of needles in him with Dr. Conrad to study his Gate. Pins him up on an operating table to satisfy curiosity and possible usage, ala Tesla... (Maximum). Plunges Vash into the Soup and tries to re-write his memories so that only he remains while simultaneously using Vash's energy to create more Independent Plants via forceable pregnancy on a number of Dependent Plants via Vash's Gate-access... (Stampede). Allows Dr. Conrad to do all sorts of weird Plant-hybrid / human alteration experiments on human children to create him a superpowered assassin force / get at making some kind of better-than-human lifeform... (Stampede). Knives complains about Vash's "humanity" but it seems like he has a lot of humanity in himself, too!

[moxie-girl]

fascinated by the way stampgaze Knives has placed himself in the role of “older brother” cuz. he’s not, they’re twins! but he refers to himself as Vash’s older brother, and has clearly internalized that role for himself. at some point, he decided that because Vash is - in his eyes - naive and innocent, it’s his job to protect him, to make all the decisions for him, because that’s what he thinks an older brother does. he withholds upsetting information from Vash because he thinks it’s for his own good, and then is shocked when Vash has a more optimistic view of the world.

it adds such an interesting layer to their relationship because I do think Vash sees them as equals, at least in a way Knives doesn’t… to Vash, Nai is his twin, his ideological mirror, a fully-fledged person with his own opinions that Vash nonetheless hopes he can change the same way he tries to help every stray human he stumbles across. to Knives, Vash is a misguided child who doesn’t know any better, who just needs to be protected while Knives does all the dirty work and makes all the decisions.

I wonder if this is something that stemmed from Tesla, or if it has an even earlier origin? maybe when Nai developed powers and Vash didn’t? or maybe Nai really is older by like… two minutes, and what probably started as an offhanded joke slowly morphed into a coping mechanism he latched onto and then even something that entirely took over his worldview?

[alcordraws]

Knives' solutions to dealing with Vash are awful, but also just a little bit funny. Trimax!Knives cant talk him out of his views and when absorbing him into the Great Beautiful Plant Hivemind doesnt work out... he traps him under the floor of his ship and has Legato Exert Preassure on him. And then couldn't think of anything better to do with him for 8 months.

Then there's Tristamp!Knives who chooses to put him in a jar and give em the ol lobotomy treatment because turning Vash into an empty husk at the heart of a giant tree (with a resemblance to their adopted mother that is totally a coincidence) is better than having the same argument over and over again. Can't disagree if your brother has no mouth to scream!

98!Knives didn't trap Vash, but he did sew his detached arm onto Legato so. He's not exactly winning brother of the year either.

[alcordraws]

Trigun is so mean it's like here's this funny whimsical little man with the love of five thousand suns ans rainbows. Isn't he so very cute and loveable? Now watch him go through the absolute most diabolical torment the author can think of. And they did three different versions of it. AND THEY ALL SLAP

[skipsjack]

shoutout to the Midvalley fight being one long ragebait session

Midvalley, an actual serial killer: Aren't you ever haunted by all the people you kill...how many lives you've taken...the weight of what we are doing bearing down on us...

Wolfwood, the unwilling child experiment: Don't care + didn't ask + you should just quit + you're a pussy + ratio

[shelternmberone]

98 anime Knives' metaphor about saving the butterfly by killing the spider hunting it is just so good. The way Knives immediately decides that killing the spider is the only way to solve it. The way it assigns spider as evil and butterfly as good simply based on looks. The way it absolutely ignores the complexities of ecosystems and how spider preying on a butterfly is natural and morally ambivalent. The way it all happens while they - including the spider and the butterfly - are flying at incredible speed through inhospitable depths of space, and the entire biome of that tree is an artificial creation of human hands.

There's multiple layers to it, and it is really in-character how Knives is completely oblivious to most of them.

[stefisdoingthings]

oh, what a man will do / when a man's lost everything?

[sharkyy27]

I know a school principal hates to see him coming

[stealingpotatoes]

pretty sure this is exactly how lessons at qifrey's atelier go

(links // tip jar!)

[onelongsound]

蔵幽(蔵?) kurameshi doodle

[masterqifrey]

coco. don't look so worried. you'll be fine. as long as you're a student at my atelier, i'll do everything i can to protect you.

TONGARI BOUSHI NO ATELIER (2026) episode 08 ✴ the misgivings of the knights moralis created by shirahama kamome

[apparently-artless]

Don't look so worried. You'll be fine. As long as you're a student at my atelier, I'll do everything I can to protect you. There's nothing for you to worry about. Nothing at all.

Tongari Boushi no Atelier Episode 08 - Coco & Qifrey

[genkais-arcade]

[mazokutattoo]

I feel like, given Yusuke's "colorful" upbringing and the fact that both his parents are implied to have ties to the yakuza, he has a wealth of random knowledge on a variety of different subjects that doesn't get brought up or mentioned unless the situation applies, all stemming from the unconventional, likely unstable childhood he had being raised by a hard-drinking teen mom w/ ties to the Japanese mafia

some examples from off the top of my head:

- Yusuke can write his name--and only his name-in English. Someone taught it to him as part of a cover for a con they and his mom were running at the time. Yusuke doesn't remember the who's or why's

- He knows the names, birthplaces, and birth & death dates of every member of the Shinsengumi. One of his mom's boyfriends who Yusuke actually liked was obsessed so Yusuke learned everything he could to impress the guy. It worked, but not enough to make him stick around.

- has never heard of the periodic table of elements but is practically a wizard when it comes to making homemade fireworks out of rock salt and battery acid (Don't ask)

- makeup--> not just contouring but stage makeup, thanks to one of his mom's friends who worked as a makeup artist for a theater company. It came in handy for fooling his teachers into thinking he'd sliced his arm open w/ safety scissors and needed to "go to the nurse"

- a legal expert's knowledge of the Japanese court system, for obvious reasons

- how to finesse a good defense lawyer when you're strapped for cash

- how to prepare Michelin-caliber sashimi

- can recite whole passages from The Greater Learning and The Doctrine of the Mean from memory. or he could, at one time. No one's asked him to do that trick since 5th grade.

-at 12, learned to both hotwire and drive a car.

[mazokutattoo]

Yomi's so funny. Having a crush on his best friend for 1000 years. Getting jealous pissed when said friend shows up a millennium after he left him for dead, with a NEW BEST FRIEND who's Human (gross). Blackmailing said ex-friend into coming home and being best friends again. Making Kurama wear matching outfits around the castle so that everyone knows Yomi's Kurama's ACTUAL best friend, not Raizen's gross human son. Making sure he's the first to reach Kurama after he passes out during the tournament just so everyone knows that yeah ok Kurama betrayed him (again) to go be with Raizen's son but that doesn't mean anything bc Yomi is sTILL KURAMA'S BEST FRIEND NO LISTEN--

[mudanonaito]

proud dad qifrey