Spoilers for Trigun: Stargaze and Trigun: Maximum, as well as some criticisms I have under the cut.
I believe (one of) the most dubious parts of Trigun: Stargaze was the redemptions, specifically who the redemptions happened to.
Midvalley is a good guy now. Leonof gets redeemed. Elendira gets to live out her life and Livio gets to be whimsical with loved ones. You know who doesn’t get to be forgiven and live a happy life? Hoppered the Gauntlet. Hoppered was incredibly kind and caring to Vash while Vash wasn’t locked in, despite the pain Vash (accidentally) caused him, but he still dies. And he’s heavily physically disabled. Elendira gets to have a little cry and be comforted by Meryl because she’s just a lonely little baby creature now. Ignore that the fact she’s transgender is completely erased in the anime, she’s just a wittle girl who needs Meryl and Milly to protect her! Livio is redeemed. Livio is a good guy! Razlo doesn’t get redeemed in this anime, and I will stand by that fact. He’s stuck as a violent, psychotic alter ego to Livio, and he has to be GONE forever or else Livio is bad too because of him. So Razlo has to get kicked out of the front and never be talked about again and never be forgiven. Chapel doesn’t even fully fucking show UP. He’s a paraplegic, so he gets banished to flashback-land and is gone by the time Wolfwood and Razlo fight. Don’t even play with me, you can 3D animate a wheelchair, they aren’t hiding him to avoid costs.
Don’t get me started on Legato Bluesummers.
I think redeeming the gung-ho-guns could have been done well, whether I think that it was a good story choice or not. But the story doesn’t even do anything with them! Livio is on the team, but because Wolfwood is still there, he gets sidelined while Legato threatens Vash. Midvalley and Leonof get to be a little cute playing with the kids, awww, but what purpose does this serve? None of the gung-ho-guns from the first season got to play house with the rest of them, and it feels like a last minute fan-service addition.
I like Midvalley and I like Leonof and I like Livio/Razlo and I like (manga) Elendira. But you cannot pickie-choosie who gets to be one of the good guys based on how “normal” you can make them. Livio should not have to magically poof Razlo out of existence to be considered a good man in your eyes. Elendira should not have to be turned into a 9 year old to be redeemed. Midvalley and Hoppered were FRIENDS in the manga, it would have been much more interesting to see their relationship develop with both of them surviving. But we don’t get that.
(If I missed anything or you want to add your own thoughts in tags or replies please feel free! I welcome discussion as long as it is civil.)