Note: maybe some opinions that might be controversal in the Trigun fandom. Idk... big maybe? I don't mean to upset or go after anyone for their fan works and headcanons. I am just expressing my own opinions and preferences with this stuff (said stuff being shipping). Shipping fandom please don't come for my head. These are just my insignificant new Trigun fan opinions.
Also, a little warning as I am gonna discuss a little about Plancest and Trigun Stampede episode 11. (If that last warning is still needed at this point... idk.)
So, I have been in the Trigun brainrot fase and fandom for a couple of months now, and I think it's one of the most chill fandoms I have ever been in. And I have been enjoying a lot of metas, theories, fanart and fanfic, and any other fan content in between.
But... I am having a little bit of a problem... tho this problem might just be because of my own personal perferences, but I still feel it's a little over the top, generally speaking. Plus, it's something that exist in basically every other fandom. And what I am refering to is:
The over emphasis and oversaturation of romantic relationships in fandom, despite all the Trigun source material not really focusing that much on any ships in the story, existing just with some hints here and there with Vashmeryl and Millywood.
I mean, and I said it before, I think that compared to recent media and fandoms I have been invested in, Trigun came as big breath of fresh air. I even call it my new love and peace (lol). And I am really enjoying my time in this fandom.
But... I have a problem with how much the characters are shipped and oversexualized by the fandom. And everytime I look for fanfics there are very few fics that don't involve sex or romance (give me that good platonic stuff more, please). Plus, doesn't help that I love the headcanon that Vash might be asexual... and there is so little content about that but thousands of other content where having sex with his lover/s is something he is desperate for because "no one else treated him right that way for 150 years" or something. Like, obviously, nothing wrong with having this type of desires, but, idk, it just feels too much at times when done online in a fandom space of an action space western story...
Also doesn't help that everytime I look for fanfics that explore or are about Vash's plant alien weirdness, most of the stuff on those tags is sexual.... why??? Just why?? Doesn't matter if the exploration of his powers is supposed to be angsty or comedic, most of them have to involve sexy times for some reason.
Like, I get it that Vash and the other main characters in Trigun are attractive, but like, please chill a little with the sex. I want some plant weirdness without it turning into kinky stuff.
And another problem: plancest...
Look, I want to make it clear that I am not antiship. I just have a preference for platonic relationships and if it's romance I prefer things that are more soft and not the main focus of the story, because most of the stories I am following, like Trigun, are more about finding your place, feeling accepted and loved in many ways (which ya includes romance, but not as the only one/main one), about exploring morality, the Human condition and survival in a unsustainable and dangerous environment, and exploring fantasy and sci-fi concepts and settings. I am here for all of this stuff. If I really wanted romance and smut I would look for material that revolved around that (lol).
(please note that I am not necessarely saying that shipping these characters and enjoying these ships is wrong, I just think it's over the top how much people drown in shipping in a fandom of a series that doesn't have romance as a main theme in any way... like, I just don't get it... romance and smut stories exist on the mainstream and done by indie creators too, so??? What are some of you people doing here?
I mean, currently, the Trigun fandom is not a bad example of this (yet... hopefully never... at least in my experience and directed at me in shipping discourse, but unfortunatly this type of discourse exists in every fandom and I am still pretty new in this one, so...).
And yes, I like Vashmeryl, Vashwood, Millywood, Millymeryl and heck even Polygun makes sense to me (tho I like Vashmeryl and Millywood more), and these are ships that are cute and I can see working because all the characters involved have great chemistry with each other, as they already have great relationships in canon. But again, the relationships that most of these characters have in actual canon seem to be platonic rather than being romantic. And if these relationships have hints of romance, they are just that, hints, or something that is left in the background and have a special moment and then the story is moving on to more important stuff, such as the fist bump kiss between Meryl and Vash in Trigun Maximum.)
Now, with that out of the way, let's return to Plantcest. And I am like, why?? Just why?? Like okay I get it, it's because Knives is obsessed with Vash and Nightow himself said in an interview that "Knives is in love with Vash". But here is the thing... or ratter things: first, the translation of Nightrow's answer might be wrong or "oversimplified"; second, someone can be "deeply in love"/obsessed with someone, like Knives is with Vash, in a platonic way too, and also it's pretty common for antagonists to be obsessed with the protagonists in stories, like you are not gonna tell me that Eggman is in love romantically with Sonic (like please no...); third, throughout the story of Trigun, Knives never did anything romantic or sexual (i guess), imo, because him being obsessed with Vash and their plant sisters seems to be more in the way of "I need to save my kind more than anything and I am the one that knows best how to do so", so he decides to take the agency of his brother and/or sisters (that already don't have any of that to begin with) away, yay. Like, in all versions of the Trigun story what Knives does to his siblings and how he uses them is so fucked up, but in no way, shape or form is it motivated by romantic love and/or sexual desires... so why??? I would ratter even say that Knives is more motivated by his childhood trauma and hatred for Humanity than he is by the love he has for his siblings.
Plus, he has a god complex. He literally believes that the Independent Plants, aka him and Vash, are Gods or fallen angels or something. So, he trully believes that every action he takes in the name of liberating his kind is fueled by this idea that he and his siblings (or at least him and Vash) are perfect powerful beings drowning in a sea of vermins (the Humans) that used, abused and destroyed the Plant kind, even tho, ironically, Knives is doing the same to achieve his goals. So, of course he is obsessed with his brother, just not in the romantic and/or sexy way, okay?? Knives is more obsessed with the idea of Vash being the perfect Independent alongside him and with the power that Vash possesses and how it can be useful to him and his goals. Like, I thought this was obvious...
It's like people cannot look at a very close or obsessive or complex relationship between characters without immediately jumping to romance or to one character having weird over the top carnal desires about the other character.
They are brothers! Yes, Knives is fucked up and did some questionable stuff to his siblings but that doesn't translate to romantic and/or sexual feelings/obsession, okay???
Just... I am sorry, but in no way, shape or form do I understand shipping siblings together. And I have seen this in the DC fandom with the Bat siblings, in Trigun with Vash and Knives and, worse, in Gravity Falls with Mabel and Dipper. And as someone with a sibling I am just... WTF?? Like... why?? JUST WHY???!! It feels like that weird thing where some people see siblings being close emotionally and physically (stuff like giving each other hugs and cheek kisses) and not having so much banter and immediately assume that something incestuous is going on (also, I blame some disturbing animes for this one...). Also, stop invalidating sibling relationships, like seriously some people love to do this a lot, especially with adopted siblings with the "oh, but they are adopted, they don't share blood so it's fine"... no, sorry, it's not. Otherwise they wouldn't be called adopted SIBLINGS in the first place!!!
Also, I know that the pregnant Plants scene in Trigun Stampede episode 11 kinda took a lot a people with the Plancest train. But I just don't see it that way... like yes, the symbolism of birth and female parts are all there but it's nothing like we Humans do it... like, sorry if I am "sounding" stupid by writing this, but let me explain my interpretation. So, the Plants all consider themselves siblings, because whenever they refer to each other, or at least when Vash and Knives do, they always talk about "my brother and our sisters", plus considering the designs of the original plants from the manga I think a more "reasonable" way to explain how plants are born is by one of their body parts detaching itself from the main plant and then growing into an Independent. Like, I am not saying this is true, even Nightow himself said he is not sure how Plants are born. But, if they were to reproduce like us, why do they all consider themselves siblings? And would this mean that Humans would somehow artificially inseminate them? Or are they all clones started from the first Plant found by Humans? Idk, but the "Vash is now a father/mother" or any other variation of that sounds weird to me considering plants and their familial relationships with each other don't work the same as ours. - so, I guess, this is my own headcanon to how new Plants come to be, which I think it also makes sense considering they are called PLANTS and plants irl can reproduce asexually exactly like this, a part of them is either cut away or falls and with the right conditions it can grow into a new plant (I mean, this might mean nothing considering that plants also reproduce sexually through pollination - but again it's still very different... plus idk how Nightow thought, or if he even did, about this in any detail... but again, last I saw he said he wasn’t sure about that and, obviously, the Humans in Trigun don't know either, because if they did they wouldn't be fighting each other over the Plants they have on No Man's Land, lol). And Knives needing Vash's gate to access the High Dimension could just be seen as him just getting those plants the energy they need to use their body parts to create new Independent Plants or be reborn as Independent Plants. Plus, it's also implied that Plants were somehow created by Humans or at least experimented on which would also explain why Independent Plants are so different from the Dependent ones and look so Human and are capable to withstand the harsh environment, just like the Humans, lol).
(Okay, sorry, I ended up theorizing in a post complaining about shipping, lol. - but ya, the point is that I don't think there is anything romantic and/or sexual going on in this scene. It's just that Knives is doing everything in his power to do what he believes to be right for his siblings and it just happened to include taking away his brother's autonomy and impregnating his sisters. Plus, the use of female body parts and pregnancy in this scene might be just symbolism for rebirth, so there is no sexual act actually happening between the Plants - it's them getting reborn into Independents. And even if Knives actually was in love romantically with his brother and wanted to have baby Independents with him or something - wording it like this because this seems to be the impression that most people get whenever they hear of this scene without context (and actually even people with the context - like some people just saw the female parts and pregnant Plants and their brain immediatly went "there is no heterossexual and non-incestuous explanation for that") wouldn't it make more sense to bring Vash to a bedroom or something to do the thing. Okay, sorry, that was a bad attempt at a joke, but you get the point, even if we can say that Knives has romantic feelings for Vash they are fucked up in many ways especially considering that he only sees Vash as a "good Independent" without everything else that makes his brother be Vash, as he sees his ideals and choices as nothing more than Vash being brainwashed by the Humans, especially Rem and her ideals. All the while, Knives says this while changing his brother's memories for his own goals, without actually caring about what his brother wants, hypocrisy at it's finest. So ya, considering all of this, I just don't understand why this ship exists... maybe that's just me and my interpretation...)
Plus, putting on and looking with romantic glasses at these relationships also takes away from the complexities that some of them have. And this is especially obvious with Vashwood that often get reduced to the Sunshine Goofball that always gets hurt/sick because he is a reckless idiot that neglects himself (Vash) and the Grumpy Protective Caretaker (Wolfwood). Nevermid Vash having almost 150 years of experience in dealing with fights and getting hurt and healing mostly on his own and the equality and trust that exists between these 2, and the fact that Vash as a Plant is way more resistant than Humans, even ones that are enhanced like Wolfwood. Like, don't get me wrong, there are some amazing fanfics with this ship that do these characters and their dynamic and tragedy just right and I understand the appeal of whump fics with characters that are usually strong, but I am also starting to see some "woobifying" trends with these 2... so ya. And also reducing them to sex obsessed weirdos sometimes, when they feel like characters that never had the time to sit and think/dream about stuff like this with how messed up their lives are. Or worse, they put Vash in the feminine role and make him a damsel in distress for Wolfwood just because he is the softer one, and completely forget about his other characteristics... (and no, this is not about the Trans Vash headcanon, that one is fine. I'm really talking about the classic gay shipping where the nice and more sensitive guy is made the feminine one and his masculine attributes are completely thrown out of the window, like how people do with Izuku Midoriya in MHA when he is shipped with Bakugo or Todoroki).
And I even made a little comparison between older fics and newer fics on AO3. And what I have noticed is that, while yes there are fics with Vashwood and Plancest and smut from years back, the Plancest and smut wasn’t as prominent as it is today. I mean ya, this was easier to see because the fandom is still pretty small compared to other fandoms I have been in or seen, and it has recently exploded in popularity because of Trigun Stampede. But the amount of fics I get on AO3 the moment I filter out the stuff I don't want it's very small compared to the number of fics with smut and with those 2 ships.
Also, this fandom drowns in too many Vashwood fics. Like, I don't mind the ship, I understand it's appeal and I even fell for it even if it took a while. But, like I mentioned before it is not my fave ship or something, as I perfer the other 2 I mentioned before, Vashmeryl and Millywood. Like, it's even reached a point where even if the ship being written is Mashwood or Polygun most fanfics still end up putting more importance on the connection between Vash and Wolfwood than the connections the girls have with them or between each other in the relationship. Just why? Like, I get that the boys have a more complicated relationship which makes them more appealing, but shouldn't all involved in the poly relationship get the same attention and love? At that point it would have made more sense to make it just a Vashwood fic than a Polygun one, lol.
So, uh. Don't take this the wrong way. I am not here to ruin anyone's fun with shipping, as these are just my opinions and they don't really matter that much, as they, obviously, just matter to me and my enjoyment of the series and fandom. This is just my silly rant about ships and my personal beef with how oversexualized everything seems to be and how often romantic relationships are put on a pedestal while platonic ones seem to be thrown in the dust once the main romantic pairing is in the picture, either being it in canon or fanon. (Tho, this is not really Trigun's case in canon, as this is happening just in fanon.)
I just don't understand why nowadays most of the people in most fandoms seem to look at almost every interaction between characters as being romantic and/or sexual. Like, are platonic relationships that boring to people nowadays?? Do some people not understand platonic relationships between characters or something? What is going on?? I mean, I understand that romance and sexuality are part of being Human and that some people feel like the best way to express them (or have as a only way to do so) through fiction, but maybe it's not all that there is or some things related to these just shouldn't be shared in fandom so much. Again, it's not anything wrong, it's just done to a degree that feels so excessive. (and this is without getting into shipping real people, like celebrities... that is so disturbing... I don't get how people that do this don't understand (or seem not to) that those are REAL PEOPLE!! It's just so wrong...)
Also, despite my opinions, I'm emphasizing that I'm not antiship, despite having my dislike/hate/irk reaction with certain things (like incest or shipping adults with minors), and that people shouldn't be harassed because of shipping. Because if the ship is something I don't like, I usually block the tag and move on. Plus, commenting/calling out people that ship something problematic usually doesn't do anything much but cause more discourse and most shippers of problematic ships ain't gonna change their minds that easily or at all. So, there is that...
So, uh, thanks for reading my shipping rant if you did so.
(Shipping fandom please don't kill me)
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