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post-traumatic care & response in trigun maximum: a meta
one of my very favorite things about trigun maximum is the way it handles trauma, specifically in the case of vash and knives in their backstory. they have very distinct trauma responses that are completely believable to me & i want to talk about why / how!
disclaimer: i'm not a psychologist, i'm just a guy with PTSD that reads a decent amount about it. this is trigun meta first, psychological analysis second. i'm open to feedback but broadly just like. take it with a grain of salt lol
i'm going to summarize the SEEDS flashback and analyze throughout. i'll try to keep it brief for trimax readers, while still clear for '98 / stampede onlies. general trimax trigger warnings apply, but i chose to limit the gore in the screenshot references i use so it's even more chill
onward!
trigun maximum chapter 40 opens in the past, with knives and vash living on the ship with rem. one year ago, vash and knives appeared spontaneously from an existing plant, and have been raised in isolation by rem ever since. rem is the only human awake with them, while the rest of humanity slumbers.
unlike the other trigun adaptations, vash and knives have somewhat different personalities from what we are used to. in contrast to his present energetic optimism, vash is a serious, often stone-faced child. conversely, knives is a very sweet, sensitive child, who worries about how he is perceived, and also sees people rather optimistically. briefly, other humans wake up, conrad discovers the two of them and confronts them.
knives comes away from this experience hopeful and excited about the things that plants and humans have in common. humans and plants share the same heart, and are therefore trustworthy, from his POV.
after a peaceful year being raised by rem, things change. the twins stumble upon the records and leftover corpse of tesla, a young plant child who was similarly born the way vash and knives were. however, in her case, she was experimented upon by the humans - incredibly violently and traumatically.
this is too much for vash and knives to process, all at once and on their own. the difference between humans and plants is made apparent to them by this display of inhumane cruelty to a plant, and so their sense of safety breaks down. knives responds by passing out. vash responds by becoming similarly catatonic, though still conscious. they have locked themselves within this portion of this ship, and it takes a panicked rem several days to get to them. by then, they have not eaten, and are on the verge of death.
vash tries to push rem away, but despite this, she manages to take the two of them to a medical ward to care for them. vash continues to deny care, refusing to eat, yelling and lashing out at rem. in response to the traumatic event, out of the fight/flight/freeze/fawn responses, vash turns to "fight." trauma responses are meant to be self-protective. in fight, this is the most obviously self-protective, in fighting back against perceived threats. his understanding of his safety with rem has been compromised, and so he tries to protect himself.
although trauma responses are meant to be self-protective, they often can be the site of re-traumatization, instead. vash is initiating conflict because he pre-emptively wants to defend himself from aggression from rem. however, rem does the exact right thing as a caretaker in the face of this: she does not escalate. she does reckon with his feelings - brushing them under the rug would be just as bad - but she continues to behave as the same caring person vash has always known her to be. this isn't magic - vash continues to protect himself and not accept care for a while. the trauma was too great for him to trust in the safety presented to him.
things escalate, and vash goes to stab rem. she catches the knife in her hand - not lying down and taking his violence, but also refusing to turn the violence back on him. this provides an opportunity for vash to externalize his anger and fear, feel the catharsis, and - ultimately see how it was futile. it didn't protect him. all it did was make him hurt someone he cared about. he had begun to treat her the exact way he was afraid humans would treat him and knives. therefore, it's proven to him that rem is not a threat, and he does not need to continue to fight.
ultimately, vash patches up rem. they reconcile, and she meets him warmly and earnestly again. as we can see throughout the rest of the series, this wisdom from her would go on to effect his mindset for the rest of his life.
but then:
knives.
knives has been unconscious for this entire time. while vash has already been undergoing varying stages of trauma recovery, knives has been down for the count. by the time he comes to, vash has seemingly reconciled with rem, a human, the enemy to their safety.
when pressed, knives states that he does not remember, choosing to instead make peace with the situation. it feels implied to me from his expressions that this is not true. even once he has been briefed on the events, he does not outwardly show how upset he is. rem asks after him, and he chooses to instead deflect, saying essentially "it is what it is," and not accepting her comfort meaningfully.
in both of these cases, knives is showing a few trauma responses. initially, his fainting was his nervous system freezing. then, he switched to fawn - he has determined that rem is unsafe and not to be trusted, so it is best to appease her for the time being to ensure his safety. i wonder if at first he thought vash was doing the same, only to realize he sincerely trusted in rem despite everything.
no trauma response is necessarily more "extreme" than another, but they do indicate how much agency the victim is operating from. "fight" has the highest agency - the victim is certain enough, subconsciously or otherwise, of their own ability to defend themselves should they act upon it. flight is next - having enough options to even run to allows one to run away from the danger. freeze is the response of the cornered animal; if one simply makes no false moves, then perhaps they can survive the moment. and then finally, fawning operates from the least agency. if one cannot escape the unsafe environment, cannot hide, cannot avoid notice, then one can grin and bear it as the new normal.
this also determines the potential re-traumatization - or lackthereof! rem not fighting back to the "fight" response from vash proves that she is not unsafe. but rem reacting positively to knives' fawning does not prove anything, it simply validates that his fawning is working, and therefore validating his fears in the first place, that he must appease in order to attain safety.
behind the scenes, knives is not doing well. he is actively self-harming, and slowly plotting to crash the ship. fawning keeps him safe by day, while at night, plotting his escape lets his psyche find solace in the visible exit.
so, why does this matter?
studies show that the number one most important thing that prevents the development of PTSD (or at least, lessens the severity of the impact of the symptoms), is immediate care after the trauma.
again, i'm not a professional psychologist, just a normie with trauma, so take this with a grain of salt, but: current best practices in after-trauma care consist of something called "psychological first-aid." this includes removal from the traumatic situation, stabilization, compassion, patience, etc. conversely, the other technique that was often practiced more broadly prior to the implementation of PFA is called "crisis debriefing." this entails recollection and discussion of the traumatic events in full. currently, it is not generally advised to do this first thing, as it poses a great risk of re-traumatization.
in vash's case, he got a shockingly effective roll-out of PFA. he had the time to ride through his trauma responses, while still experiencing the care and stability necessary to feel safe. conversely, the first thing knives was conscious for was a debriefing. it was good for him to know what happened, but it likely had adverse consequences, as seen in his actions thereafter.
(sidenote: i'm an armchair psychologist already in US medicine, so i can't pretend to be an expert at all in japanese perspectives on trauma treatment. but, when reading trimax, i was so blown away in nightow's portrayal of vash and knives' respective responses to their trauma, and the tragedy of knives' going unaddressed. particularly because, at least in western medicine, PFA wasn't practiced under that name in the US until 2006, from my quick-and-dirty, research, whereas these chapters came out in 2003. crazy!!)
it's not rem's fault - she did take care of knives, she did the best she could. it's also (initially, anyway), not necessarily knives' fault. that's the tragedy of it! if things had been a little different, it all could have been completely different.
is this a justification for knives to commit mass murder? lol, uh, obviously not. but it IS what makes him so compelling and heartbreaking to me. i see exactly how and why he made the decisions he made. for a character motivation that didn't show until rather late in the manga, and is in fact entirely different from the '98 one, i was amazed by how much it 180'd my opinion on knives. prior to it, i felt like he was a rather one-note shounen antagonist. now i think he's one of my favorite media villains of all time.
final bonus note:
i do think it's interesting how vash & knives' respective trauma responses flipped over time! as a child, knives fawned. as an adult, he closes off entirely and uses violence. meanwhile, vash turns to running or fawning. i don't have a tight conclusion but it's neat. ty for reading!
I think a big part of Vash putting Rem on a moral pedestal, thus clinging to unrealistic standards for himself, has to do with him projecting the particular kind of love that Rem had for him and Knives onto humans indiscriminately, while Rem didn't mean for it to be that way.
He thinks that, in order to honour her memory, he has to love everyone to the point of self-denial, to have space in his heart for every person he meets and to grieve them when they're gone as if they're his friends and family, because that's how Rem loved him.
The thing is, Rem loved him, Knives and Alex, and she also loved humanity, but those are not the same kind of love. Being fond of humanity as a whole and devoting yourself to it with your work is very different than loving your children or your spouse. Both are loves, but Rem, having had a life on Earth, would be able to tell them apart.
But Vash, at the time of Rem's death that marked him irreversibly, hadn't yet lived among humans at all. His conviction to live by "Rem's wishes" traces back to when he'd only been alive for a single year, among his immediate family. The only love he's ever known is his mother figure's towards her children – unconditional, self-sacrificial. So, with Rem having told them that they are humanity's protectors, he twists this into thinking that he has to suffer for everyone in the same way she would suffer for them, jumping in front of bullets like she jumped in front of that knife.
Being assigned the role of the protector, in combination with having wholly internalised his otherness (alongside his massive guilt complex), he fully believes that he has to protect every stranger as if they were a family member, a child or a spouse, and anything less is a betrayal to the woman who simply loved her children as her children.
It takes him actually getting close to people on a personal level and loving them as his friends versus indiscriminately as humans, it takes him realising that they don't see him faltering as a betrayal, that they'll forgive him if he breaks his moral code, that they will neither leave nor die because of it, to begin to deconstruct this.
I’ve seen a few take a different approach to Vashs pacifism and non violence, but one of the most intriguing ones is that Vash doesn’t actually believe in it; and instead is doing it because it’s the only thing Rem ever really asked of him.
And while, from a general standpoint I do think it’s an interesting stance to take. From that viewpoint it shows why Vash clocked Wolfwoods whole deal immediately, because they’re the same. It also elevates Vashs anger in a way I haven’t really thought of before.
However
It takes away the only agency Vash has in his life. It’s what Knives is trying to tell him, that he “doesn’t really believe in it.” And that takes away so much of what makes Vash a strong character. Taking away his pacifism hurts him so bad in Trimax because that is who he is. Vash stand firm on his ideals and that’s what makes him Vash
Somewhat of a hot take but I really like to think it's both at the same time. From what I gathered in Trimax, Vash by himself was not as empathetic and emotionally driven as Knives, he would learn from what Rem taught them but it was Knives who really felt the wish to get along with humans (and later the overwhelming grief for Tesla, so all-encompassing it prevented him from taking Rem's explanation to heart because he had already committed his emotions to what he felt was true)
Vash on the other hand seemed to me a type more inclined to follow others' lead in his moral choices, and, at the same time, have enough reason and rationality in him to be able to listen even when he believes in the worst. He was able to forgive Rem (and humans in general) because he is not as ruled by his emotions as Knives.
So I personally think at the time of the Big Fall, his moral compass does come directly from Rem, both in refusing to kill and in following Knives. The latter, I believe, he would have been doing mostly to control him and stop him from doing more harm, as that would have been the meaning Vash assigned to Rem's parting request. Although emotions are messy and obviously Vash's love for his brother would be another string keeping him where he was.
But Vash is also attentive and logical in his own way, so he would be able to see the reality of humans without the negative interpretation that affected Knives' judgement. Which is why, I like to believe, his own moral decision to stick to the pacifism we all know and love had formed at some point during his travels with Knives. And then continued to develop, as morals do, throughout the story.
And because the root of his beliefs in this case would have been another person's words in tandem with careful observation, I believe Vash in the manga is, interestingly, making a conscious effort to stay kind and forgiving in every instance that requires him to fall on his morals. His anger can lead to terrible consequences and he knows it, so it's even stronger of a point that he actively chooses, every time, not to act on that anger. Originally as a continuation of his promise to Rem and then as a way to stay loyal to himself.
All the while people like Meryl and, I firmly believe, Knives do the 'correct' thing based solely on what their heart tells them is correct.
The death of me was so quiet
No friends and family allowed
Only my murderer, you, and the priest who told you to go to Hell
And the funny thing is I would've married you
If you'd have stuck around
I feel more free than I have in years
Six feet in the ground
I do believe the Devil Wears Prada 2 is not a good sequel: the story is all over the place, there is little intrigue and even the seemingly promising last supper & gethsemane motives don't really go anywhere. What it is, is a solid love letter to the original story, to fashion and art, and to women who are the main driving force of fashion industry despite the biggest names often being associated with men.
All in all I would say it's about 6.5/10 for various reasons including some. unfortunate choices in both writing and cinematography. Still, it was fun, I got sufficiently blasted with the Nostalgia Ray, and the ending was satisfying enough. Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci cannot be rivaled, I just fell in love with their characters all over again.
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