My hot takes on the new Trigun that will get me cancelled
Note: this is after my experience of watching the first 7 1/2 episodes of Stampede. I have not dared Stargaze
I don’t think there’s a single choice I like. Some are small things: showing Vash’s backstory in the first episode, Meryl’s now a journalist which is objectively less funny than an insurance agent. One small change that felt like a slap in the face was Wolfwood from a priest to an undertaker: they make fun of the other profession in Stampede.
But big reasons I hate it?
I hate that in the first episode his reason for not killing people is he doesn’t want to use his gun because “bullets are expensive” instead of his philosophy of love and peace and we see his skill with a gun so that he can actually get in a gunfight and not kill people.
I hate that Wolfwood’s inevitable betrayal was set up in the first episode he appears in so there’s no reason to get attached.
I hate that Meryl looks fifteen and is a rookie and doesn’t have a gun instead of being a goddamn adult and the senior agent and known as “derringer Meryl”.
I hate that instead of just not having Milly, she’s replaced by a drunk man.
But Mediatherapy! You might say. It’s a prequel! They have to *evolve* to where they’re going to be.
First off, I call bullshit. All the main characters but Millie are there, the main plot starts, main villains appear, even plots loosely based on the original show’s adventures appear. The only thing that kinda makes it a prequel is July (so I’m told) happening at the end, and, in my opinion, that’s just an adaptation futzing with the timeline.
But let’s say Stampede is a prequel. It’s a bad prequel. It’s too scared to have new adventures with new characters, with a new overarching plot. Changing virtually nothing and calling it a prequel because the timeline of one event changes is lazy as hell.
TL;DR: just watch the original.
EDIT: I am not upset that changes were made. I am upset at WHAT changes were made, and how they were implemented.