second episode (mostly negative) thoughts!! it ughhh.... sure was an episode. trigaze spoilers + trimax spoilers + i offer a rewrite of several scenes to make it suck less
firstly, jessica. *huge sigh* i get that they tried adding more diverse characters. but key word here is "tried". this episode we got to look at her more and the more i looked the more her design bugged me. everyone already discussed the hairstyle that doesn't make sense, but mannn why are her lips so pale.... is the poor girl so damn dehydrated?? also why tf does she habe a button nose. i don't think people that designed her know that black people have specific features besides the skin color and hair texture. sad... and i already said this in a different post, but slapping one (1 single) black character onto a bleached white cast isn't how diversity works. i know some people want to give studio orange kudos for trying but imo they should've tried harder. at least they fixed her being madly in love with vash im really glad for that thanks for this specific change jfc
as to the episode proper... imma be real it did warm me up to hoppered being the one to take care of eriks/vash. it's fucked up but the exact level of fucked up we love in this house. still a major retcon (watching last episode i completely forgot but lina was introduced in stampede epilogue so it's genuinely a retcon in the most literal sense of the word) buut fine whatever
now main thing that sucked: WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO THE SENSE OF URGENCY???? I totally get jessica's hesitation in asking vash for help, plus she's literally just a kid, however. i would be there screaming crying fucking throwing up cause wdym your family is being killed rn and you gave up on trying to shake the guy up after 1 minute??? not even a tug on his sleeve?? i know it's just me but i'd be straight up biting and clawing in her place. and overall, despite flying by so quickly, most of the episode nothing happens. they just talk and sit around until the major fight in the end. ALL THE WHILE PEOPLE ARE GETTING SLAUGHTERED!!! it would have been such an easy fix too, just intersperse the dull mondanity of eriks with flashes from the ship, people screaming and those creepy puppets dancing, that would keep the audience stressed as fuck!! but no, instead the main feeling is "eh, that's gonna wait we got plany off time"
in trimax vash was able to take his sweet time to decide if he was willing to abandon his life as eriks because there wasn't any ongoing situation? like yeah, people have been disappearing but it was a slow process. but here in this episode home's people are getting slaughtered left and right as we speak!!! but sure man, take your time to play on the piano what the fuck ever
also despite being a cool shot, it was a bit anticlimactic to see vash just. snap out of it so completely with no reprecussions. as much as i enjoyed his dead-eyed catatonic era, it just so happened he was present all of that time and able to take action? okaaaay suuure
also i think that despite fleshing out hoppered so much they still dropped the ball on his motivation?? cause i know he didn't kill vash for 2 years because he wanted him to gain his memories back and see him suffer because of guilt first... but i know this from manga. i'd like to hear anime onlys thoughts cause personally i don't think i would've drawn the same conclusion from what was actually shown? i'd assume he wanted to fight because he was suicidal and preferred to kick vash's ass a lil before dying by his hand. ALSO major fucking thing: he made vash pull the trigger on him!! they legit gave one of the most defining wolfwood's scenes to fucking hoppered!!! i mean, unless they have wolfwood pull the same move later it feels like they just. stole his scene only to include it somewhere (hoppered could've easily died from falling on rocks or smth, it didn't have to be this specific way), stripping it of the sagnificance it had in the original and making the bond between vash and ww even more nonexistent. like, even if they repeat the scene with wolfwood it wouldn't feel as special since we already saw that, and given that legato's gonna do the same later on it would be just a bunch of people making vash to pull the trigger on them and 3 times in a row is just silly
also, minor nitpick but HOW THE FUCK DID JESSICA STAY ASLEEP DURING THE FIGHT????? THERE WERE ROCKETS AND SHIT!!!!!!! that took me out so fucking much i can't even remember last time my suspension of disbelief had been shattered like this. and this could have been such an easy fix too, she could be tied up and gagged, just squirming there like a worm. but no, honk shoo to rocks exploding it is. sure
now, to show i don't only complain but can back up criticism, here's how i would change this episode to make it more impactful:
upon seeing vash in his sorry state, jessica retreats back to the porch. then after her flashback of being pushed into the escape pod, we also get a flash of the current massacre. back to jessica crying, she runs back to vash and screams at him in frustration. he doesn't seem to react at first, but after jessica telling about home getting attacked so suddenly, it stirs smth in him and he just asks "was it nai?"
jessica doesn't know. she gets frustrated at him and runs off, vash keeps playing the same note while a flashback of july plays, and suddenly he gets a few next keys right! the melody goes on as his eyes get clearer, and then, as music continues to play (non-diagetically now) he takes a few steps away from the piano, first uncertain then faster, until he breaks into a run, runs outside calling for jessica...
outside the building, he sees that hoppered has grabbed jessica and is holding her tight while she tries to get away
before vash can intervene, hoppered, boiling with anger, asks if vash remembers what he did (and calls him by his real name like in the actual episode)
reluctantly, vash nods. his heart is heavy.
hoppered antagonizes him, vash tries to talk him down with a soft voice, saying he really appreciates him taking care of him, and that he doesn't want to fight, but it doesn't work. hoppered threats to snap jessica's neck right there, then throws a pistol at vash and tells him to meet him at the designated spot of he wants the girl to live. vash still screams at him and refuses to fight, so hoppered gives him til sunset to deside
their duel then plays out pretty much the same, except jessica isn't asleep, either tied up or just told to sit there (she's a reasonable girl, i think she'd listen). also hoppered doesn't force vash's hand, instead he pierces himself on some rocks after vash shoots him down, which in turn makes vash somewhat complicit. there's a quiet moment, then we get reminded about the massacre still going back at home, either through visuals or through jessica urging vash. he still buries hoppered, could be a somber silent moment or he could say smth along the lines of "he took care of me. i owe it to him" which would be pretty neat. he then DOESN'T play the piano, just shows up in a red blanket and heads out with jessica
here!!! fixed it for you. it's literally that easy
to end on a positive note: ww getting hit by car funny. although what i enjoyed most about that scene was meryl putting on this act of "you can't trust journalists, newbie" while clearly being stoked AS FUCK about hearing that vash was spotted lmao... studio orange chose literally one single aspect of the story they weren't going to fuck up and it was meryl