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* ButNowIMustGo
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* ButNowIMustGoButNowIMustGo: Vash, the initial premise being informed by just the type of Western that codified the trope.
* ButYourWingsAreBeautiful: Averted. Knives has people around him who think his freakiness is pretty damn awesome, but so does he. Vash could do with hearing this, but no one can actually bring themselves to say it. His wings freak them out too much.
** (Manga) Meryl is so badly traumatized by the situation in which she first sees them that she burrows into Millie's arms and screams, the next time he reflexively puts up a feather to catch a bullet. 'Colorless Emotions' is a depressing chapter all round.
* ButYourWingsAreBeautiful: Averted. Knives has people around him who think his freakiness is pretty damn awesome, but so does he. Vash could do with hearing this, but no one can actually bring themselves to say it. His wings freak them out too much.
** (Manga) Meryl is so badly traumatized by the situation in which she first sees them that she burrows into Millie's arms and screams, the next time he reflexively puts up a feather to catch a bullet. 'Colorless Emotions' is a depressing chapter all round.
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EverythingsPrettierWithButterflies.
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* BigBrotherComplex: Knives is a big brother complex gone ''horribly wrong''. He's pretty much of a {{Yandere}} over Vash, with huge emphasis on the "Yan." Also, he basically ''decided'' he was the older twin and it's up for debates which of them is the more childish.
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* KnightTemplarBigBrother: Knives is a big brother complex gone ''horribly wrong''. He's pretty much of a {{Yandere}} over Vash, with huge emphasis on the "Yan." Also, he basically ''decided'' he was the older twin and it's up for debates which of them is the more childish.
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** Vash occasionally utters a few words in French, calling his "maman" and saying "bonjour!" to his food. The first time, he then questions why the hell he's speaking French.
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** Vash occasionally utters a few words in French, calling crying for his "maman" and saying "bonjour!" to greeting his food.food with "Bonjour! Je t'aime!". The first time, he then questions why the hell he's speaking French.
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* ObfuscatingStupidity: Practically the definition of the trope.
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* ObfuscatingStupidity: Practically the definition of the trope. Vash didn't even fire his gun ''once'' until the end of the fifth episode, surviving the previous episodes by making it look like dumb luck. Another early episode had him rocking out on his headphones and going into a bar seemingly ignorant of the current hostage situation, but carefully and methodically diffused the situation all while seemingly harmless.
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* AnimeAnatomy: Manga Knives lacks certain "parts"; similarly, the female plants lack nipples.
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* BarbieDollAnatomy: Manga Knives lacks certain "parts"; similarly, the female plants lack nipples.
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** Vash's entire character can be seen as a sort of deconstruction of the TechnicalPacifist trope. Devoting his life to saving everyone around him takes a very, ''very'' heavy toll on him, as not everyone around him is happy that saving everyone includes the worst, most depraved [[CompleteMonster monsters]] out there, and as Vash's ShirtlessScene shows, he's damn near falling apart because keeping everyone from killing each other is a very hard job. And by the end, he's forced to learn the hard way that he can't save everyone all the time.
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** Vash's entire character can be seen as a sort of deconstruction of the TechnicalPacifist trope. Devoting his life to saving everyone around him takes a very, ''very'' heavy toll on him, as not everyone around him is happy that saving everyone everybody includes the worst, most depraved [[CompleteMonster monsters]] out there, and as Vash's ShirtlessScene shows, he's damn near falling apart because keeping everyone from killing each other is a very hard job. And by the end, he's forced to learn the hard way that he can't save everyone all the time.
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** Vash's entire character can be seen as a sort of deconstruction of the TechnicalPacifist trope, as devoting his life to saving everyone around him takes a very, ''very'' heavy toll on him, and eventually he's forced to learn that he can't save everyone all the time.
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** Vash's entire character can be seen as a sort of deconstruction of the TechnicalPacifist trope, as devoting trope. Devoting his life to saving everyone around him takes a very, ''very'' heavy toll on him, as not everyone around him is happy that saving everyone includes the worst, most depraved [[CompleteMonster monsters]] out there, and eventually as Vash's ShirtlessScene shows, he's damn near falling apart because keeping everyone from killing each other is a very hard job. And by the end, he's forced to learn the hard way that he can't save everyone all the time.
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The anime is the version with Wolfwood\'s origin being mysterious; the manga outright has Wolfwood as a Child Soldier Super Soldier from the local Church Militant.
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** The most extreme interpretation of his position in the manga is, as described on the main NunTooHoly page, ''[[spoiler: Knives priest]]''. The least extreme is [[spoiler: [[ProfessionalKiller assassin with a church front]].]]
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** The most extreme interpretation of his position in the manga anime is, as described on the main NunTooHoly page, ''[[spoiler: Knives priest]]''. The least extreme is [[spoiler: [[ProfessionalKiller assassin with a church front]].]]
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** Vash's entire character can be seen as a sort of deconstruction of the TechnicalPacifist trope, as devoting his life to saving everyone around him takes a very, ''very'' heavy toll on him, and eventually he's forced to learn that he can't save everyone all the time.
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* CouldntFindALighter: At a shooting competition, one contestant can be seen lighting his cigarette with a submachine gun.
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* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Legato mind controls a kid to eat a hot dog he is holding in his lap, before holding her head down. [[{{Squick}} Yeah.]]
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* BewareTheNiceOnes: Vash
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* BewareTheNiceOnes: VashVash.
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** Vash also happens to be the page picture for this trope.
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** The most extreme interpretation of his position in the manga is, as described on the main NunTooHoly page, ''[[spoiler: Knives priest]]''. The least extreme is [[spoiler: [[ProfessionalKillers assassin with a church front]].]]
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** The most extreme interpretation of his position in the manga is, as described on the main NunTooHoly page, ''[[spoiler: Knives priest]]''. The least extreme is [[spoiler: [[ProfessionalKillers [[ProfessionalKiller assassin with a church front]].]]
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* ProfessionalKillers: The Eye of Michael are a ring of the planet's scariest assassins with a front as a respectable church.
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* ProfessionalKillers: ProfessionalKiller: The Eye of Michael are a ring of the planet's scariest assassins with a front as a respectable church.
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** And then there are the [[ProfessionalKillers Eye of Michael]], who have slots in the Guns as an organization instead of individuals. Of course, even they as high-end assassins are less than qualified as simple professionals, since there was a plant-worshipping cult involved in their evolution as an organization.
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** And then there are the [[ProfessionalKillers [[ProfessionalKiller Eye of Michael]], who have slots in the Guns as an organization instead of individuals. Of course, even they as high-end assassins are less than qualified as simple professionals, since there was a plant-worshipping cult involved in their evolution as an organization.
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* CareerKillers: The Eye of Michael are a ring of the planet's scariest assassins with a front as a respectable church.
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** The most extreme interpretation of his position in the manga is, as described on the main NunTooHoly page, ''[[spoiler: Knives priest]]''. The least extreme is [[spoiler: [[CareerKillers assassin with a church front]].]]
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** The most extreme interpretation of his position in the manga is, as described on the main NunTooHoly page, ''[[spoiler: Knives priest]]''. The least extreme is [[spoiler: [[CareerKillers [[ProfessionalKillers assassin with a church front]].]]
* ProfessionalKillers: The Eye of Michael are a ring of the planet's scariest assassins with a front as a respectable church.
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** And then there are the [[CareerKillers Eye of Michael]], who have slots in the Guns as an organization instead of individuals. Of course, even they as high-end assassins are less than qualified as simple professionals, since there was a plant-worshipping cult involved in their evolution as an organization.
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** And then there are the [[CareerKillers [[ProfessionalKillers Eye of Michael]], who have slots in the Guns as an organization instead of individuals. Of course, even they as high-end assassins are less than qualified as simple professionals, since there was a plant-worshipping cult involved in their evolution as an organization.
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* [[DieHardOnAnX Die Hard on a futuristic sand-train thing.]]
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* [[DieHardOnAnX Die Hard on a futuristic sand-train thing.]]]] - B.D.N.
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Trope is averted.
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** Averted. Strife: Battle; Conflict; War. Thompson: As in the Thompson sub-machine gun, the defining firearm of 1920s-'30s American gangsters.
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* EstrogenBrigadeBait: A few characters fit this trope, but Wolfwood is practically the archetype. Too bad his only mate is an inflatable doll, as the [[{{Omake}} gag covers]] suggest.
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* EstrogenBrigadeBait: MrFanservice: A few characters fit this trope, but Wolfwood is practically the archetype. Too bad his only mate is an inflatable doll, as the [[{{Omake}} gag covers]] suggest.
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* {{Gonk}}: The vast majority of antagonist characters are either that or EstrogenBrigadeBait.
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* {{Gonk}}: The vast majority of antagonist characters are either that or EstrogenBrigadeBait.MrFanservice.
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* MistakenIdentity: A bit of a running gag early in the anime. Due to there being no proper pictures of Vash, just a vague description, people with a red coat, blond hair, and a big weapon become mistaken for Vash. It gets to the point that two guys even ''mistake each other'' for Vash.
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* BadassTransplant: Legato's MindManipulation ability is because he has Vash's arm.
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Non-YMMV put back
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* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Legato, Knives and probably quite a few others.
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* HulksCooldownHugCorollary
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* InterruptedCooldownHug
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* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: ''Trigun The Lost Plant'', introduces Verona Tsubasa, a woman following Vash around on search for the titular lost plant; [[spoiler:the setting is placed six years later the original manga ending, Verona is the real focus of the story, Vash is just kind of there, and no other characters make a return, in fact, they are not even mentioned]].
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* TimeSkip: Two years passes after [[spoiler: Vash blows a hole on the moon]], transition from ''Trigun'' to ''Trigun Maximum''. Six years passes after [[spoiler:Vash defeats Knives and most Plants dies during the conflict]], transition from ''Trigum Maximum'' to ''Trigun The Lost Plant''.
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A movie called ''Trigun Badlands Rumble'' also exists, and is set sometime during the more light-hearted part of the TV series. The story concept is from Trigun creator Yasuhiro Nightow, and Director Satoshi Nishimura.
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** And most importantly, alcohol makes you puke.
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** [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking And most importantly, alcohol makes you puke.]]
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* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Vash and Wolfwood, arguably. Might also apply to Legato and Knives through the magic of HoYay, tight clothing and FetishFuel.
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* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Vash and Wolfwood, arguably. Might also apply to Legato and Knives through the magic of HoYay, tight clothing and FetishFuel.Legato.
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*BeardOfSorrow: In the anime, Vash grows one after he HeroicBSOD's after the incident with Legato during which time Meryl and Milly are taking care of him.
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* DeterminedExpression: Vash looks like this whenever he drops his facade of idiocy and decides to get serious. Only to be expected from a man who's byword is determination.
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* DeterminedExpression: Vash looks like this whenever he drops his facade of idiocy and decides to get serious. Only to be expected from a man who's whose byword is determination.
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[[redirect:Anime/{{Trigun}}]]
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[[caption-width-right:350:[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Deep space planet future gun action!!]] ]]
->''"I've never seen anyone kick so much ass in my entire life."''
-->-- '''[[InnocentBystander Random Villager]]'''
%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab.
On the [[SingleBiomePlanet desert world]] of [[MeaningfulName Gunsmoke]], outlaw and [[HonorBeforeReason absolute pacifist]] "Vash the Stampede" is being sought after by two young women: the tall, [[TheDitz ditzy]] Milly and the tiny, [[{{Tsundere}} short-tempered]] Meryl. They work for an insurance company that's getting bankrupted by all the [[DestructiveSaviour property damage caused by Vash]]: collateral from the ridiculous fights he tends to get into which result in his nickname of "[[RedBaron The Humanoid Typhoon]]". The reason? Vash has a bounty of $$60,000,000,000 (sixty billion [[GlobalCurrency double-dollars]]) on his head, and every BountyHunter on Gunsmoke aims to collect in [[ZanyScheme true Wile E. Coyote]] fashion.
Wacky hijinks ensue for a few episodes, then [[CerebusSyndrome the mood darkens]]. Lots of people die, in many cases slowly and horribly. Survivors discover new things about themselves. Personal growth takes place. There are hints of romance. [[ItGotWorse Mood gets still darker]]. For the eggheads out there, there is even a fair amount of analysis of certain aspects of Christian theology (though Jesus is never mentioned by name), as viewed from a very Japanese perspective, having to do with the contrast between pacifist ideals and the moral obligation some characters perceive to protect the innocent even if they must kill in order to do so.
A movie called ''Trigun Badlands Rumble'' also exists, and is set sometime during the more light-hearted part of the TV series. The story concept is from Trigun creator Yasuhiro Nightow, and Director Satoshi Nishimura.
[[Characters/TriGun This series has a character sheet.]] Feel free to expand on it.
An exceptionally thorough and entertaining analysis of the anime can be found [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/ir/jo/in here]]. The English dub was one of the flagship shows of AdultSwim (along with ''CowboyBebop'') and helped to set the mood that the sub-channel was simply for mature audiences and not necessarily "adult" audiences.
The show, formerly licensed in the US by Pioneer/Geneon and now licensed by Funimation, is on [[http://www.youtube.com/show/trigun YouTube]], [[http://www.hulu.com/trigun Hulu]], and [[http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Trigun_The_Complete_Series/60030879?trkid=2361637 Netflix]].
----
!!This show provides examples of:
* TheAce: Vash ''just barely'' avoids fitting this trope ''thanks to'' the fact that he's actually [[StepfordSmiler a completely traumatized individual]] with a borderline SplitPersonality and to the ideological ramifications of his "no killing" policy (What if he had killed Monev before he went on a rampage? What if he had killed Knives after his StartOfDarkness?). And he ranks ''abnormally high'' on [[http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm the Universal Mary-Sue Litmus Test]].
** BrokenAce
* AboveTheRuins: Episode 2 utilizes this.
* ActionGirl: Dominique the Cyclops and a few others.
* ADayInTheLimelight: In the anime, Meryl and Milly in episode 14 (lampshaded by Vash when he realizes how little screentime he got). The manga experiments with different points of view, including those of [[VillainEpisode ]] and [[LowerDeckEpisode side characters]].
* AintTooProudToBeg: Vash in an attempt to save Lina. He's also not too proud to strip naked and bark like a dog.
* AnAesop: Violence only creates more violence; non-violence is the key to solving conflicts (maybe); love thine enemy; HeWhoFightsMonsters; [[GreenAesop nuclear power is bad]]; respect difference; in other words, [[CatchPhrase LOVE AND PEACE!]]
** And most importantly, alcohol makes you puke.
-->'''Frank Marlon''': ...You drink too much.
-->'''Vash''': I'M SORRY! * heave*
* AndTheAdventureContinues: Manga ending falls somewhere between here and HereWeGoAgain. [[spoiler: Since the Knives situation has been resolved, Vash is free to enjoy his wandering life more, but the gag of Meryl and Millie becoming [[{{Paparazzi}} TV reporters hired to chase him around]] is kinda out there, and worse than insurance by a long way.]]
* AerithAndBob: With names like Vash the Stampede, Legato Bluesummers, and Millions Knives...names like Meryl Strife and Millie Thompson don't exactly seem to fit.
* {{Aesoptinum}}
* AfterTheEnd
* AGodAmI: Knives's megalomaniac tendencies and belief that he is a kind of noble crusader or even a kind of Jesus figure. Then [[ItGotWorse it gets worse]].
* AllLoveIsUnrequited
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer
* AlmostLethalWeapons
* AManIsNotAVirgin: Subverted ''hard'' by Vash, especially in the manga (though his [[strike:sexual harassment]] excruciatingly inept flirting with ladies in the anime can be seen as a sign of sexual frustration). He fakes being passed out in order to avoid the "favours" of prostitutes, spends an inordinate amount of his free time thinking about his dead mother figure, doesn't want any woman to see his scars and avoids any kind of romantic or sexual relationship, be it with Luida, Meryl or Jessica. He may have had sex before, but his scars and the fact that Knives's henchmen endanger everybody close to him probably prevent him from doing so. As for manga Nicholas, the [[{{Omake}} gag covers]] suggest he has a scandalous love affair with... a blow-up doll!? Make of it what you will.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Knives is an Aryan on steroids who rants about being a "superior breed"; Legato has his own particular brand of [[NietzscheWannabe Nietzschean philosophy]]; genocides involving high technologies.
* AnimeAnatomy: Manga Knives lacks certain "parts"; similarly, the female plants lack nipples.
* AntiHero: Wolfwood; Livio.
* ArmorPiercingSlap: Vash gets one in episode 19.
* AreWeThereYet: Towards the start of episode 15.
* TheAtoner: Vash; Wolfwood.
* AuthorAppeal: All the elaborate cowboy-like outfits and uniforms with all sorts of useless straps and buttons, huge collars etc. Also present in Nightow's other work, ''{{Gungrave}}''. [[http://www.animefringe.com/magazine/02.10/feature/4/1.jpg See]] [[http://media.animegalleries.net/albums/userpics/37811/Gungrave_image1.jpg for yourself]].
* AwesomeMcCoolname: Brilliant Dynamites Neon.
* AxCrazy: When KnifeNut just isn't enough.
* BackToBackBadasses: Vash and Wolfwood.
* {{Badass}}: The whole franchise seems to be about pitting badasses against each other and seeing what happens, making badasses even badasser, etc.
* BadassAdorable: Young Knives
* BadassLongcoat: Vash's coat is basically an elaborate red duster, which was inspired by the dusters worn by gunslingers in Westerns. Vash has probably one of the most extreme examples of this trope. In the show's opening and at other times, Vash's coat is shown billowing in the wind looking considerably longer than usual. But then, the RuleOfCool applies here, I guess.
** Also keep in mind that, in Japan, red is the traditional color of the hero. And the English dub mentions that Red Geraniums (Rem's favorite) mean "determination".
* BashBrothers: Vash and Wolfwood would actually be the ''[[FanNickname Bashu]]'' Brothers. Includes a good spoonful of BackToBackBadasses.
* BerserkButton: Vash snaps if he witnesses mass murders or if he gets [[MindRape mind raped]]; Knives snaps even harder than usual if Vash contradicts him; and Vash must be Meryl and Brad's BerserkButton...
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Vash
* BewareTheSuperman: What everyone tends to think of first when they start to understand just how ''special'' Vash is.
** Wolfwood even has a [[ParanoiaFuel disturbing yet awesome]] moment in ''Maximum'' where they're hanging out and brooding together, and he seriously considers shooting Vash (by this time firmly established as his best friend) in the back right then and there, just to get at least ''one'' of the twins out of the way. [[ItWasHisSled He doesn't,]] but Vash gives him a sad, knowing look later and Wolfwood sort of smirks and thinks, 'who am I kidding? He knew exactly what I was thinking, and he would have survived.'
* {{BFG}}: The Cross Punishers and Angel Arms are the cream of the crop.
** Or at least they would be, until Caine the Longshot's '''hundred foot long sniper rifle''' is taken into consideration.
** One of the bounty hunters in the first episode has a gun that takes the cake for sheer impracticality: a two-barreled rifle, each barrel having its own long clip. In firing it looks like a propeller.
** Don't forget the huge starship gun Chronica tries to blast Knives with.
* {{Bifauxnen}}: Though the voice and the name are clear giveaways, some people (i.e. viewers/readers) tend to doubt Milly is a woman when they first see her.
* BigBad: Knives.
* BigBrotherComplex: Knives is a big brother complex gone ''horribly wrong''. He's pretty much of a {{Yandere}} over Vash, with huge emphasis on the "Yan." Also, he basically ''decided'' he was the older twin and it's up for debates which of them is the more childish.
* BigNo: "NOOOO, don't kill them!! BIGGER NOOOOOOO!!!"
* {{Bishonen}}
* BittersweetEnding: Manga only; it barely avoids being a DownerEnding.
* BizarreSexualDimorphism: The plants in the manga seem to have this until Domina and Chronica turn up from earth. In the anime we never get a good look at the girl plants or actually informed that Vash and Knives ''are'' plants. The flashback episode made it look like the infants had turned up in an airlock, implying they were extremely hardy aliens.
* BloodlessCarnage
* BoomerangBigot: Done seriously with [[TheDragon Legato]]. He was at least born human (prior to getting a ton of modifications), but is an OmnicidalManiac who wants to kill all humans and anxiously awaits the day when his own boss will kill him.
** There is no evidence Legato was modified--well, apart from anime Legato having Vash's severed left arm in place of his own. He's presumably a psychic mutant. This is not improbable, in the setting.
* BodyHorror: Vash's body is ''interesting''; involves a generous helping of TransformationTrauma.
** After he finally starts to learn how to use this (traumatically), the first time his [[spoiler: angel arm instinctively puts up some 'feathers' to catch a bullet he gets ''stoned''.]] You gotta wonder why he doesn't just let us all die.
* BountyHunter
* BreakTheCutie: "Eternal sufferings to Vash the Stampede!"
** Also Knives and Vash in the manga backstory. Poor, sweet little [[BigBad Knives]].
* BreakingTheFourthWall: In the episode, Little Arcadia, Vash breaks the fourth wall and says, "Hey, is that all the time I get?" It is also fairly obvious that he does it again a couple times in the series.
* BringMyRedJacket: Arguably the reason for the color of Vash's trademark coat. Debatable: in the anime at least, Vash inner-monologues about Rem and her love of red flowers while the camera pans over his coat.
* ButNowIMustGo
* CainAndAbel
* CaptainObvious: Knives "captain obviouses" Vash at least once in the manga. Vash tells him that his true fight should be with himself, meaning his priority should be learning to control his destructive urges. Knives misunderstands this and answers "Yes, the pain I feel is horrible. Thanks for enlightening me to the situation."
* CareerKillers: The Eye of Michael are a ring of the planet's scariest assassins with a front as a respectable church.
* CarnivalOfKillers
* CasanovaWannabe: Anime Vash.
* CastFromLifespan: Vash's Angel-arm is ridiculously powerful, but every shot costs him life energy and shortens his lifespan.
* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: In the manga, at least; the only seriously recurring women are Meryl and Millie, who are absent for at least half the story and fairly useless most of the time, and eventually Elendira, who is m-t-f transexual. In the anime only slightly, as there are Meryl as viewpoint character and Millie as her stalwart companion, and regular appearances by women like Mary-Anne, Elizabeth, and Jessica. All the actually significant characters are still male, though.
** Dominique is the only actual female antagonist, and she had only one trick and didn't last long.
* {{Catchphrase}}: "Love and peace~!"
* CatsAreMagic: Kuroneko-Sama, the black cat, randomly appears across the desert planet Gunsmoke where our heroes show up. FanWank is that Kuroneko-Sama is {{God}}.
** [[WordOfGod According to Yasuhiro Nightow]], Kuroneko-sama is actually [[spoiler:a small black cat]].
* CatSmile: Milly.
** Vash during the first episode.
* CerebusSyndrome
* CharacterExaggeration: Manga Vash may do just anything he can to be silly, he doesn't harass ladies 'for the lulz'. Anime Vash becomes a CasanovaWannabe.
* ChargeIntoCombatCut: In the opening scene after an armed gang demolishes a bar that Vash was drinking in, he slowly stands up after finishing drink, adjusts his glasses and points his gun at the gang... cue a cut to another town, in which the insurance adjusters on Van's trail are introduced.
* ChasteHero: Vash, possibly due to Yasuhiro Nightow's Christian overtones. (He's a Roman Catholic... and Japanese!)
* TheChessmaster: Knives.
* ChivalrousPervert: Vash, in the anime. In the manga, he's more of a ChasteHero.
* ChurchMilitant: Nicholas; Chapel the Evergreen in the anime. Nicholas, Chapel and Livio as part of the Eye of Michael in the Manga.
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: Wolfwood's Cross after Vash takes it. It saves his life in his fight with Knives.]]
* ClothesMakeTheSuperman: Livio is only half competent without his beautiful hat and cape. Also, Vash's coat is bullet-proof and contains airco and bullets.
* ColdSniper: Some of the Gung-Ho Guns, but Caine the Longshot is the absolute embodiment of the trope. He has ''no'' lines, a huge sniper rifle, and straight-up suicides when Vash breaks it (though at least in the anime, this may have been Legato's doing rather than purely his own choice).
* {{Confessional}}: Wolfwood even sells confessions despite probably being a Protestant priest.
** 'Protestant priest' means Anglican or Episcopalian, pretty much. Both of which practice confession. Most sects that abolished confession also abolished priests, as such, and most sacraments, since they're something of a package deal and distrust of priestly corruption and its impact on the efficacy of sacerdotal endeavor was a major article of reformist heresy and eventually the Reformation. Wolfwood seems to be some kind of [[RecycledINSPACE Space Episcopalian]], which makes sense since they're very cut off from Rome and Nightow is Catholic.
*** Though apparently, inasmuch as he was ordained at all it was through the Eye of Michael, who are purportedly an assassin ring fused with an underground ''plant worshiping cult.'' So yeah. He can be forgiven his scattered doctrine.
* ConservationOfNinjitsu: With gunfighters in place of ninjas.
* CoolMask: Vash. The 'little round glasses' variant. In the manga, Livio. The...hair variant.
* CoolShades: Vash; Wolfwood; Knives in a few manga artworks.
** Yasuhiro Nightow is fond of giving his gunslingers glasses, especially in his designs for ''{{Gungrave}}'' characters (Brandon Heat, Bear Walken, Blood War).
* CoolStarship
* CoveredWithScars: Vash. The girls walk in on him after a shower. [[spoiler: The prosthetic arm the audience knew about, after Monev, but the girls didn't have the angle.]] The scars are what he pays for trying to save everybody all the time. Of course, what some of those metal bits are doing on him is a deep mystery. [[RuleOfCool What, does he have some pressing medical need to tack his skin to his spleen?]]
** He's a plant. Plants don't heal, they just grow back. The metal is keeping him in one piece.
* CrapsackWorld: The world is full of gunslingers. Shootouts and property damage seem to be the norm. The planet itself is a desert and the competition for scarce natural resources is definitely bringing out the worst in people. The fear of the Humanoid Typhoon hangs over every town. Death is never far away.
* CreepyCoolCrosses: Wolfwood, duh. His main weapon looks like a giant cross with a gun handle in its middle. The elongated bottom spoke conceals a machine gun, the top spoke above it holds a rocket launcher, and the two side spokes slide outwards to reveal racks for about a dozen pistols. The anime also has Chapel the Evergreen of the Gung-Ho Guns, who also carries a giant cross, though his seperates into two heavy machine guns.
** Man: "Whoa, this is HEAVY!" Wolfwood: "That's because it's full of mercy."
* CrossPoppingVeins
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Vash is the definitive example, especially when he's played by JohnnyYongBosch. He ''seems'' like a simple gangly fellow with a penchant for donuts and beer... until you piss him off. There's a very good reason why he has a $$60 billion bounty.
* CrucifiedHeroShot: Wolfwood and Vash.
* CulturalCrossReference: So many, it'll be faster to check the ShoutOut section.
* CuteMonsterGirl: (Arguably) Zazie the Beast's girl terminal in the manga.
* CuteShotaroBoy: Noteworthy examples are young Vash, young Knives, and several kids from Zazie's group in the anime.
* DarkerAndEdgier
* DarkAndTroubledPast
* DarkSkinnedBlond: Manga Zazie.Both of...it.
* DesertPunk
* DespairEventHorizon: As it is set in a CrapsackWorld heavy on RuleOfDrama and one of its major questions is whether idealism has any real meaning...so many characters, all the time. Especially backstories, but the 'eternal suffering to Vash the Stampede' gives us a couple heroic ones in the main timeline. Meryl and Millie are actually ''notable'' for never falling to this point, in either version. (In fact, the odds of things ''not'' going completely to shit increase significantly in their presence. Too bad the guys never notice.)
* DespairGambit: Knives' main plan with regard to Vash. In the anime, this ultimately pushes him into a HeroicBSOD.
* DestructiveSaviour: Vash is called the "Humanoid Typhoon" for a reason, and while he doesn't ''like'' people's homes and so one being wrecked, the only CollateralDamage that's ''really'' important to him is human life. He's willing to die for you, but not for your car.
** The dark side of this, as it were, comes up in the anime: apparently his wish to not kill anyone affected the Angel Arm enough when Knives set it off in July that he managed to wreck an entire city without directly killing ''anybody''. But now they were a city full of refugees in the middle of a desert...
* DeterminedExpression: Vash looks like this whenever he drops his facade of idiocy and decides to get serious. Only to be expected from a man who's byword is determination.
* DeusExitMachina: In the chapters where Meryl and Millie are protecting the oasis owned by the old couple, Vash is almost entirely absent. The plot instead focuses on giving us a better idea of who the insurance girls are. Vash even lampshades it at one point when he pops out to make a single assist. The camera then pans away and he says ''"Hey that was it? That was my turn?"''
* DevilInPlainSight: Legato out to lunch in a bar or having a sandwich on a village plaza; in the manga, Knives hanging around in bars before freakin' killing everybody, in Midvalley's memories.
* DiabolusExMachina
* DidNotDoTheResearch: It's minor but it's still there. In the Victorian Language of Flowers, geraniums do not mean "courage". That's garlic flowers. Most definitions, depending on the species, are friendship, ingenuity, consolation, or wanting to meet someone. Though people usually let it slide because it's surprising that Nightow even knew about such a truly Western concept as the Victorian Language of Flowers in the first place, let alone, the details of it.
** A truly Western concept? What about [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanakotoba Hanakotoba]]?
** But he wasn't using Hanakobata. Was he?
* [[DieHardOnAnX Die Hard on a futuristic sand-train thing.]]
* [[DiedStandingUp Died Kneeling Before An Altar]]: [[spoiler:Wolfwood]]
* DisasterScavengers
* TheDitz: Vash, [[ObfuscatingStupidity or so it seems...]]
** Millie is TooDumbToFool.
* DoesNotLikeMen: Amelia in the ''Badlands Rumble'' movie.
* TheDragon: Legato.
* DramaticWind
* TheDrifter
* DrowningMySorrows
* DyingLikeAnimals
* DysfunctionJunction: Oh boy...
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Both versions, particularly the manga.
* EnfantTerrible: Young Knives
* EnvironmentalSymbolism
* EstrogenBrigadeBait: A few characters fit this trope, but Wolfwood is practically the archetype. Too bad his only mate is an inflatable doll, as the [[{{Omake}} gag covers]] suggest.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Vash and Wolfwood, arguably. Might also apply to Legato and Knives through the magic of HoYay, tight clothing and FetishFuel.
* EvilCounterpart: Knives to Vash; Livio to Wolfwood might be a case, if you believe [[{{Yandere}} Wolfwood]] can have an EvilCounterpart.
** Don't forget Midvalley! For one rather confusing fight, there was Midvalley in his white suit and Wolfwood in his black, both kind of ambivalent but fighting like hell, with the whole 'wolf fangs' theme going. Manga only.
* EvilGloating
* EvilTwin
* EvolvingCredits: Each episode's opening (except for episode 2) shows a couple of scenes from that episode. Starting in episode 18, the wanted poster also changes to one warning people that Vash is coming.
* ExactlyWhatIAimedAt
* ExplosiveOverclocking: [[spoiler:Wolfwood after taking two vials of serum.]] He regenerates almost instantly from almost any wound, but burns out his life and dies shortly afterwards.
* {{Expy}}: Knives has been accused of being a [[DragonBall Vegeta]] Expy.
* EyeScream: In the manga, Zazie's flies crawl in and out of his eyes. Midvalley's horn playing also seems to make eyes bleed/explode.
* TheFaceless: Knives during most of the first ''Trigun'' manga and almost all the anime. Even when he does show up at the end of the first manga, much of his face is hidden by a mass of improbable curly hair -- presumably because Nightow still wants to conceal his resemblance to Vash.
* FaceHeelTurn
* FanDisservice: Legato in the manga... *shiver*
* {{Fanservice}}: Lots of eye candy if you love big muscles.
** Or long legs. Or glowering.
* FantasticMeasurementSystem: Distances are measured in "iles" and "yarz," although it's never made clear whether those are actually miles and yards with letters removed and different spellings, or something different.
* FearfulSymmetry: [[EvilCounterpart Vash and Knives]] in the anime. Very strange and gratuitous because it's extremely unlikely Knives would have the same gunfighting training and practise as Vash, having just left SealedEvilInACan state and being secluded from the real world.
* FoeYay: Particularly egregious when Legato seems to be hitting on Vash.
* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: Wolfwood is the Cynic (or the Conflicted), Vash is the Optimist, Meryl is the Realist, Milly is the Apathetic (when being silly) or Conflicted (the rest of the time).
* FreakOut
* FreudianExcuse: Most of the villains and even some of the 'good guys'.
* FreudWasRight: Vash's enormous Oedipus complex.
* Fridge Horror: When Vash first meets Legato Bluesummers, he gives him a bag that he says "contains a lesson from him." Just then, a woman runs into the town square says that her husband was murdered. In Japanese, her words loosely translate to "He can't talk." However, a more accurate translation would be: "He cannot talk because his head was taken from him." It is never shown in the anime just what Legato's "lesson" was, but the manga was very clear: the bag contained the woman's husband's head. As if that weren't bad enough, Legato is shown eating a hot dog out of the very same bag. Where did he get that I wonder?
* FriendOrFoe
* FridgeLogic: Nightow occasionally forgets that having grown up on a desert-like planet, the characters wouldn't have the same comparisons and metaphors as us. A notable example is when Vash compares the sky to "the deep blue sea": you'd almost forget he grew up on a spaceship then on Gunsmoke and has never seen the sea...
** He's read books, though. Even seen video, quite likely. Lots of people on Earth talk about the sea without any practical experience; it still has cultural currency. He does do this, though. Especially as he declined to make the setting realistically inhabitable even with the plants, or balance the limited native biosphere into something comprehensible.
*** I.e. it consists of ostrich-horse tomas and giant sand worms. And ''little birds'' which must have hitched a ride like feathery rats or something, at least in the anime.
* FriendToAllChildren: Vash. Playing with children is one of his many activities whenever he stays in one place more than a few hours, and if he stays more than a few days the local kids will all consider him their personal minion. Wolfwood doesn't play with them quite so much, but they're an even bigger part of his world.
* FullFrontalAssault: Knives.
* GallowsHumour: The humour tied to Legato and Knives's insanity and to Vash goofing around in the most desperate circumstances gets particularly disturbing -- so much that Nightow edited out some of the "offending" passages of the last three or four volumes, presumably under fandom pressure.
* GeckoEnding: The anime -- an odd example, though, as Nightow was in on the whole planning process, and many events play as a shorter dry run of things in the manga.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Vash in 'Diablo,' the episode where the anime gets DarkerAndEdgier, as a sign of his UnstoppableRage. In hindsight, also an early indication of [[BizarreAlienBiology how damn freaky his body is]].
* GoodCostumeSwitch: Livio.
* AGlassOfChianti: Knives in the anime.
* TheGlovesComeOff: Happens to Vash when he's forced to [[spoiler:kill Legato]] in order to save Millie and Meryl. Unusually for the trope, the act itself is rather understated.
* {{Gonk}}: The vast majority of antagonist characters are either that or EstrogenBrigadeBait.
** Also a lot of the background characters.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation
* GoodFeelsGood: Vash, obviously. The show also underlines that even though it may ''seem'' so, [[EvilFeelsGood evil]] ''[[EvilFeelsGood doesn't]]'' [[EvilFeelsGood feel good]]: Legato is suicidal, Knives seems to have a chronic nervous breakdown, {{Villainous Breakdown}}s abound, Wolfwood is terribly conflicted over his questionable actions, etc.
* GoodScarsEvilScars
* GoodThingYouCanHeal: Wolfwood, Livio (in the manga) and Knives. Vash has the power but refuses.
** Or something. Knives appears to have spent a long time in a tank of something to grow back whatever bits of his body Vash blasted off in July. Vash doesn't really have the resources, and given he's put his apparently genius intellect toward calculating bullet trajectories and not much else all these years he may not even know he has the potential.
* GratuitousEnglish:
** All of the series' writing is in English, and there is one point in the second episode of the anime where we see a flier for a "BODYGARD" who is a "CREAT SHOOTER LIKE VASH THE STANPEAT".
** There's also a sign that says "Coffe & Restlant!!" in episode 5, and when Vash uses the computer in episode 26, it says "Searth Target, All People Relate to Lem Sayblam". In the manga, there's one instance where there's a container of salt labeled "solt".
** The Quickdraw application in the eponymous episode is pretty legible, though. Maybe Wolfwood is just a better-than-average speller?
** The whiskey labels are very faithful reproductions of actual brands.
* GratuitousForeignLanguage:
** Vash occasionally utters a few words in French, calling his "maman" and saying "bonjour!" to his food. The first time, he then questions why the hell he's speaking French.
*** HilariousInHindsight: MasayaOnosaka later got rather well known as ''[[Manga/AxisPowersHetalia Hetalia]]'''s France.
** "Danke, danke!"
** In the anime, Rai-Dei presents him with a formal Japanese challenge... whereupon Vash notes he can't understand a word of it.
* GreenAesop
* GunFu: Vash vs. Knives in the anime and Wolfwood vs. Midvalley in the manga seem lifted directly from a John Woo flick.
* GutPunch: Legato's introduction.
* TheGunslinger
* TheGwenStacy: Rem is Vash's.
* HackerCave: You wouldn't think manga Knives is a tech geek. Oh wait, he's actually ''made'' of tech geek material.
* HairOfGold: Vash is a male example.
* HannibalLecture
* HeartBrokenBadass: Vash
* TheHeartless: The manga heavily implies that Knives and to a lesser extent Legato function symbolically as TheHeartless.
* HeelFaceTurn
* HereWeGoAgain: [[spoiler:The manga ends with everyone once again chasing after Vash. And he couldn't be happier.]]
* HeroicBSOD: Once or twice in the anime, repeatedly in the manga.
* HeroWithBadPublicity: Vash, so very, very much.
* HeyItsThatVoice: To name a few; JohnnyYongBosch (in his first role!) and MasayaOnosaka as Vash, Jeff Nimoy and ShowHayami as Wolfwood, Dorothy Fahn and HiromiTsuru as Meryl.
** Ivan Buckley playing a CorruptCorporateExecutive?! Preposterous! [[{{OutlawStar}} Wait...]][[hottip:*:Ivan Buckley voice acts Cliff Schezar in Episode 2 of {{Trigun}}, and voice acts Ronald [=MacDougall=] in most of all of OutlawStar.]]
** Mona Marshall, who voices Kite from the [[{{dothack}} .hack quadrilogy]] (as well as [[{{SouthPark}} South Park's]] Sheila Broflovski) voices...Kaite, a 2-part character from {{Trigun}}.
*** Young Knives is voiced by Joshua Seth, voice of Tai from {{Digimon Adventure}}. It's very easy to find out, seeing as how he does nothing to differentiate Young Knives from his Tai voice. One could put a voice clip of Young Knives onto Tai and Digimon fans who haven't seen Trigun would be confused.
*** Rem is voiced by Bridget Hoffman, voice of Namie from ((Durarara)). Now, try to imagine her suddenly as a mother figure to [[JohnnyYongBosch Izaya]]. On that note, young Vash is voiced by Masaomi.
* HiddenEyes: The manga contains quite a few variations on this, including ScaryShinyGlasses.
* HiveMind: Apparently kindasorta the case with the bulb plants, even before [[spoiler: Knives starts subsuming them into his giant body]]. In the manga also to some degree the case of the sand worms, whose psychic network extends over most of Gunsmoke's native life and learns how to invest itself in a human vessel, giving Knives the Gung Ho Gun 'Zazie the Beast.' They have some kind of alliance with him against the human invaders, although this is never properly explored.
* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:In episode 21 of the anime, Vash looks like he's about to revive a wounded plant and save the ship...just when Hoppered regains consciousness and destroys the plant with a suicidal LastBreathBullet.]]
* HotBlooded
* HowToStopTheDeusExMachina: Vash is incredibly skilled with his weapons and probably capable of taking out every single baddie he ever faced, short of [[spoiler:his own brother]]. What holds him back? TechnicalPacifism. If he really unleashed himself, he'd hurt a lot of people, and he doesn't even want to hurt the bad guys. Unfortunately, attempting other options often allows harm to come to innocent bystanders.
** Surprisingly rarely, though. In fact, the impression is given that before Knives sicced the Guns on him he pulled off a miracle practically every time, so his world goes through a bit of a paradigm shift while we watch.
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Being at least two times taller than Meryl, Vash really has to bow down when he wants to hug her. That or he hoists her up.
* HulksCooldownHugCorollary
* HumanPopsicle
* HumansAreBastards: The root of the problem.
* IAmNotShazam: His name is '''''Vash the Stampede''''', '''not''' "Trigun".
* IHaveManyNames: Vash only ever gives 'Vash' if actually pressed into introducing himself [[hottip:*:except that one time when he met Wolfwood and said he was Valentinez Alkalanela Zeehok Sushira Boheres Gombigonela Blue Stradavari Tralentent Pierre Andre Charlatenhemost I'vanovitchi Baldos George Doitzel Kaiser the Third]] but he's also 'The Stampede,' [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast 'The Humanoid Typhoon,' 'The Demon of July,' 'The Walking Disaster,' 'God's Armed Arm,' 'The First Human Act of God,']] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Broom-head.]] And Spiky.
** Oh, and Eriks. That one time when he [[TenMinuteRetirement finally gave up]].
** Nicholas D. Wolfwood is also Nicholas the Punisher. And [[spoiler: Chapel.]]
* IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight: Vash does this pretty much every time he meets Knives in the manga; from Knives's perspective, ''he'' must be the one doing it to Vash, which brings once again the question of whether the twins are by "nature" peace-loving or mindlessly violent.
** Given their silent sisters appear to all be sweethearts, although easily influenced, Vash appears to have a leg up in this argument. Chronica, meanwhile, has a bit of a temper and apparently a rather military mindset, vaguely like a sane Knives, while Domina is sweet and spunky.
* ImplausibleFencingPowers: Rai-Dei the Blade can block bullets.
* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: Also note than in the Trigun ''verse'', nothing is cooler than a coat with the bottom part torn apart by dozens and dozens of bullets. With ScaryShinyGlasses, fuck yeaaaah!
* ImprobableAimingSkills: A must for any TechnicalPacifist operating as a gunslinger. Vash almost invariably hits what he aims at, no matter how absurd the shot, though a combination of rigorous training and superhuman potential count for a lot. On one occasion a terrible hangover made him reflexively hit all the targets in a quickdraw tournament he'd been forced into, when he'd meant to miss some.
** In the same episode, he throws pebbles from the sidelines to knock bullets askew and make sure all wounds are nonfatal during other people's duels.
** In another, he concusses an opponent by flinging the bullets out the back of his gun, and blocks the hammer of another guy's gun with the bubblegum he had been chewing, apparently ''at range.''
** On the other hand, on one occasion his response to an ambush netted one accidental potentially-fatal blow somewhere on the abdomen, so he interrupts his role as John [=McClane=] in a DieHardOnAnX episode to staunch the enemy's bleeding in alarm, to the surprise of his ally. So he's not infallible or anything.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Played straight (?) with Midvalley, whose saxophone is actually pretty sinister in the manga. Also, the deadliness of CreepyCoolCrosses is directly proportional to their size and [[FreudWasRight probably inversely proportional to the size of your penis]].
* InLoveWithYourCarnage: Legato is this way towards Knives. Especially in the manga.
* InstantDogend
* InstrumentOfMurder: Midvalley's saxophone.
* InsultBackfire: "Knives, you're inhuman!" and "Knives, you calamity!" Also, go ahead and try to insult Legato, we'll wait for you.
* ItGotWorse: Everything does. Also, the apocalypse kinda comes and goes during the manga. Story proceeds.
* ItsPersonal: Vash's conflict with Knives becomes personal very early; his feud with Legato soon becomes this too, with Vash announcing loudly "From now on, YOU are the hunted!"
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Nicholas D. Wolfwood. The manga never quite explains why his TrueCompanions inflict it upon themselves to put up with him in the first place, knowing that he never uses {{Honorifics}} and expresses his affection by distributing humiliating nicknames ("Tongari / Spikey," "big girl," "small girl," "crybaby Livio"), "playful" insults and various blows. Plus, his manga version is particularly macho and even tries to protect Milly from Midvalley... by pretending he'll shoot her if she doesn't leave immediately. Borders on ValuesDissonance when his mistreatment of Vash is [[HilarityEnsues played for fun]]. It's even a wonder Nightow still manages to make him such a likable and well-written character for all his KnightTemplar and {{Jerkass}} traits.
** From the anime. [[spoiler: Dying]] Wolfwood goes for a cigarette. Flashbacks
--> Millie (flashback): "It's bad for the baby, dear!" (it makes sense in context)
--> Wolfwood (present): "I'm sorry, honey."!
* KillAllHumans
* KilledOffForReal
* KlingonPromotion: How [[spoiler: Wolfwood]] got into the Gung-Ho Guns in the manga back story. Shot his teacher, Chapel, in the back, and used the contractual auto-replace feature to step in as the new Chapel.
* KnifeNut: Especially in the manga. Vash's special boot-knife is neat, too.
* KnightOfCerebus: Legato.
* TheLancer: Wolfwood.
* LargeHam: Lazlo; Legato; Wolfwood; Knives very often; Vash, in quite a different style.
* LaxativePrank: It's arguable that Kaite does this to Vash in episode 7 "B.D.N."
* LittleUselessGun: Meryl's derringers are neither taken seriously as a threat or used to deliver meaningful damage over the entire course of both series. This is because of the InverseLawOfUtilityAndLethality; Millie's stun-gun can be used with impunity, but since Meryl's little guns can't invoke RuleOfCool and the beaten-up-by-bullets effect and she's not a killer, they aren't allowed to actually do much of anything. Still good that she doesn't go around unarmed, and she does take some useful actions; the derringers themselves are just useless. Even though a real derringer can kill you very dead.
** Part of this is that the only enemies there is ever any chance Meryl might really ''need'' to shoot ''are'' effectively immune to the level of damage her guns can inflict; it's a shonen and then a seinen series, where being {{badass}} automatically renders you immune to things like ruptured arteries.
* LivingBattery: All Plants are this.
* LivingForeverIsAwesome: Vash doesn't age and has a lot of angst, but he's also a goof who spends his time helping the people of Gunsmoke
* LoveTriangle: Arguably, Vash has one with a lot of people.
* LowerDeckEpisode
* MadeOfIron
* TheMagnificent: Most major characters have one of these. Whether the name was earned by exploits or assigned as part of ThemeNaming by employers etc. seems to vary. At least one was inherited via KlingonPromotion. Meryl and Millie shake up the trend by having nommes de guerre that come ''before'' their proper names and do not involve prepositions.[[hottip:*: Stun Gun Millie and Derringer Meryl, in case you're interested. They share with Nicholas the Punisher the convention of being named after your weapon.]]
** Vash the Stampede, the Humanoid Typhoon. Destroyer of July. God's Right Hand of Destruction.
** Monev the Gale.
** Nicholas the Punisher. (Not [[ThePunisher that one]].)
** Midvalley the Hornfreak.
** Chapel the Evergreen has great rhythm but doesn't do the scary thing that well, either.
** Livio the Double Fang and [[AxCrazy Razlo]] the [[UpToEleven Tri-Punisher of Death]] help make up the Eye of Michael's scary name quotient.
** Elendria the Crimson Nail
* ManlyTears: Vash; Wolfwood; manga Knives; manga Legato; Livio.
* MeaningfulName: Rem can be translated to english as "the world," depending on the context.
* MegatonPunch
* TheMessiah: Vash borders on this towards the end of the manga.
** He borders on this ''all the time.''
** He gets it from his mother figure, Rem, who died to save everybody during the crash landing.
* MessianicArchetype
* MexicanStandoff: Happens a few times throughout the anime and manga, but by far the most over the top one occurs in Volume 5 in the manga. [[spoiler: Those involved include Wolfwood, Zazie, Hoppered, Legato, and Vash, in a sense. Wolfwood has guns trained on Legato and Zazie. Zazie has guns on Legato and Wolfwood. Hoppered is crippled and is trying to fire on Legato. Legato is holding back Hoppered with his powers and is trying to contain Vash. Vash's involvement is debatable, as he's simply losing control of his Angel powers and trying not to freak out. The standoff is broken by Meryl leaping up from beneath Vash and taking a shot at Legato. Guns go off all over the place, but the only one who dies is Hoppered.]]
* MismatchedEyes: Livio, sort of.
* MonsterOfTheWeek
* MoodWhiplash
* MoralEventHorizon: InUniverse; Vash doesn't believe in this, claiming that no one is beyond redemption.
* MoreDakka: Within five minutes of the first episode, an entire BAR is torn to pieces by a giant and his {{Mook}} army's gunfire.
* {{Mordor}}: Pretty much everywhere!
** Except geo-plant areas.
* TheMovie: AndTheFandomRejoiced.
* MookHorrorShow: Vash sometimes plays up the horror factor that his reputation gives him, since it gets him out of fights and he actually has a strict moral code against killing. He's done the sneak-around-and-pick-your-dudes-off thing and the ImplacableMan advance-while-singing-a-terrifying-ditty-about-genocide thing.
** A note: singing "Total Slaughter, Total Slaughter, I won't leave a single man alive. Ladi-Ladi-Die, Genocide. Ladi-Ladi-dud, an Ocean of Blood. Let's begin the killing time." didn't work.
** Further note: Kicking a rocket fired from an RPG by the terrified mook, AFTER singing that, into the ceiling DID work.
** Monev the Gale found out the hard way how scary a genuinely angry Vash can be when Monev gunned down a bunch of innocent civilians. He compared Vash's Glowing Eyes of Doom to the eyes of the devil himself.
* MurderInc: The Eye of Michael. Bonus points for the AncientConspiracy undertones.
* MustMakeAmends: In the Trigun manga, Young Vash and Knives discover that [[spoiler:there was another sentient plant called Tesla]] like them before and worse, they made several experiments with her and in the end lead to her death. The problem is that their surrogate mother was one of the researchers from the experiment. Knives after facing the truth, fell in a coma and Vash simply refused to eat. In an attempt to make him eat,Rem started peeling a fruit, Vash leapt on her, tried stabbing her with the knife she was using and succeeds.at first he seemed relieved but right after that he started panicking and carried her to the medical wing of their ship.
* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: [[spoiler: Legato uses his own death to psychologically torture Vash.]] It worked.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Vash
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Millions Knives.
** Legato Bluesummers, on the other hand, just carries an air of faint menace.
** Most of Vash's nicknames count: the Human Typhoon, the Demon of July, the First Human Act of God, etc. etc.
* NeverFoundTheBody: In the movie [[spoiler:after Vash gets shot by one of Gasback's henchman.]] However, [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt nobody in the audience would believe it]], especially on the basis of ''canon'' and all...
* NietzscheWannabe: Several characters, but Legato practically ''defines'' the trope
* NonchalantDodge: Vash does this a lot.
* NoRomanticResolution: In the anime, the relationship between [[spoiler: Meryl and Vash]] is left hanging.
* NunTooHoly: Wolfwood is the male version, obviously.
--->'''Vash:''' What the hell kind of churchman are you, anyway?!
** The most extreme interpretation of his position in the manga is, as described on the main NunTooHoly page, ''[[spoiler: Knives priest]]''. The least extreme is [[spoiler: [[CareerKillers assassin with a church front]].]]
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Practically the definition of the trope.
* OedipusRex: Both in the manga and in the anime, Nicholas D. Wolfwood has a bad complex towards his tyrannical mentor/father figure.
* {{Omake}}: The gag covers, and they're a doozy; also, the end-of-volume pages involving SuperDeformed Nightow prancing around in near-insanity.
* OmnicidalManiac: Legato wants to witness and be part of TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt because he feels his existence is meaningless. Actually creepier than Knives, who (at least in the manga) has actual motivations and intends to save his species. The world would be way scarier if Legato was the BigBad instead of a young creep psychologically dependent on someone stronger than him.
* OnceAnEpisode: Appearances from Kuroneko-sama.
* OneWingedAngel: Manga only, but it was [[CosmicHorror pretty awesome]].
* OlderThanTheyLook: Vash looks like that he's around 27, [[spoiler: but he is actually over {{Really 700 Years Old}}]]
* OnlySixFaces: All the non-{{Gonk}} characters must have only ''four'' faces or something. So much in Nightow's work that most "Kekkai Sensen" characters look like ''{{Trigun}}'' expies. Vash's face must be the most overused one, too, Livio even looks like Vash/Knives with a fancy tattoo.
** Anime Vash and Knives have moderately different coloring. Some of the manga scenes are almost incomprehensible at first or second look, especially if both of them are in it and there are a lot of sound effects.
* OrcusOnHisThrone: Knives. Less than totally ridiculous example since Knives' only deadline is his sisters' lives expiring and his only threat is his brother trying to pose one. Which he likes Vash doing. And Vash is pretty bad at.
* TheOtherDarrin: The dub of ''Badlands Rumble'' replaced everyone in the main cast but Vash.
* PalsWithJesus
* PapaWolf: Wolfwood, for any child he happens to encounter at all. Made his anime [[spoiler: killing of Zazie all the more shocking]] (and even more of a gesture of attachment to Vash, but Vash wasn't really in a state to appreciate that.)
* ParentalAbandonment: Most of the cast are either abandoned or orphaned; some even killed [[OedipusRex a father figure]] or mother figure as a result of abuse or insanity...
** Manga Legato gets triple points.
* PastelChalkedFreezeFrame: Wolfwood in 'Quickdraw,' right after he turns around screaming with GunsAkimbo.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Vash is classified as a '''Human Act of God'''.
** For insurance purposes. For some reason this also causes the bounty to be taken off his head.
* PillarOfLight
* PillowPregnancy: In the anime, Milly Thompson tries to [[TwoMenOneDress hide a slave-girl who is being chased by having her cling to her belly under her coat]], then pretending she is pregnant and Wolfwood is the dad.
* PirateNinjaZombieRobot: Nightow's official genre classification. Also, some of the character designs. Rai-Dei is a Cowboy Samurai Assassin on Steampunk Rocket Skates!
* PowerGivesYouWings
* PreExplosionGlow
* PropheticName
* PsychoForHire: Legato and the Gung-Ho Guns.
** And then there are the [[CareerKillers Eye of Michael]], who have slots in the Guns as an organization instead of individuals. Of course, even they as high-end assassins are less than qualified as simple professionals, since there was a plant-worshipping cult involved in their evolution as an organization.
* PsychoSupporter: Legato, especially in the manga.
* PuppyDogEyes
* RapeAsBackstory: [[spoiler:Legato]] in the manga.
* RatedMForManly
* RazorWings: One of Knives' powers is part of his body turning into feathers which are monomolecular blades.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Interestingly, some other characters are YoungerThanTheyLook in the manga.
* RecklessPacifist: Vash.
* RecurringExtra: Kuroneko-sama
* RedOniBlueOni: Vash vs. Wolfwood; Vash vs. Legato; Vash vs. Knives is a more complex case, as Knives is the more cerebral one but also the more impulsive and violent. In all these cases, it's often reflected in their clothing and/or background colours, though Knives often appears in red too -- but often in darker shades such as crimson.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified: When LaResistance is made out of trauma-fueled genocidal psychos and a massively oppressed species.
* RevolversAreJustBetter
* RUINEDForever: The reaction to the fans of Funimation recasting for the Trigun movie dub.
* RuleOfCool: Deep Space Planet Future Western Gun Action!! Also see NinjaPirateZombieRobot.
** In the third episode of the anime, Vash somehow manages to deflect machine-gun fire using only a garbage-can lid. Which he'd previously been wearing as a hat.
* RuleOfFunny: Right now, someone is talking to his donut. In GratuitousFrench.
* SamaritanSyndrome: Vash.
* SaveTheVillain: This is practically Vash's core belief.
* ScaryShinyGlasses: Fear Vash when he gets into this mode.
* SchizoTech: Somewhat justified by the AfterTheEnd setting.
* SdrawkcabName: Monev the Gale's name backwards is Venom, a ShoutOut along with his costume to the Marvel character.
* SealedEvilInACan: Knives is Sealed Evil In A Friggin Lightbulb for most of the anime and till the very end of the first ''Trigun'' manga.
* SexyPriest: Wolfwood. Whoa, boy....
* ShirtlessScene: Vash; occasionally Livio, Wolfwood and [[FullFrontalAssault nekkid!Knives]])
* ShoutOut: Several.
** The sandworms, among others, are an obvious allusion to ''{{Dune}}''.
** The name "Wolfwood" (Urufuudo) is an allusion to a Japanese band called "The Ulfuls" (Urufuuruzu) and the character in question is designed after their singer.
** Many to American popular culture. Includes such gems as "double dollars", country-style music, and countless loans from western movies and American comics, noticeable both in plot elements and graphic references.
** Often in chapter titles, such as the one to {{QuentinTarantino}} in the chapter "Reservoir Dogs."
** Tessla probably alludes to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla a certain Serbian inventor and engineer]], himself [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_Fists_of_Science a glorious Steampunk hero]] (click if you dare). (Alternately, she might be named after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Motors one of the companies named after Nikola Tesla]].)
** The GunFu battles may be [[ShoutOut shout outs]] to John Woo.
** Monev's name and costume are a ShoutOut to Venom from Marvel.
** Vash seems to be riding a wheeled [[LastExile Vanship]] during the trailer for Badlands Rumble.
** Blink-and-you'll-miss-it one in the very last episode. The photo shown for [[spoiler: the man related to Rem that Vash was tracking down in July]] is a still of single-episode character Shiro Tokita from Neon Genesis Evangelion, right down to his outfit in said shot.
* SiblingYinYang
* SingleBiomePlanet: [[FridgeBrilliance Although, with the twin-suns, is it any surprise it's a desert world?]]
EverythingsPrettierWithButterflies.
* SinisterShades
* SlapYourselfAwake: In a variant, Vash concentrates on the pain from his previously injured finger to counteract a villain who uses hypnosis to paralyze people.
* SlasherSmile: Knives; Legato; manga Wolfwood; Livio; Lazlo; Elendira.
** Little Vash between when he tries to kill himself and when he decides to save Rem.
* SlidingScaleOfAntiheroes: Wolfwood is a mix of Type II (the Disney anti-hero) and Type IV (the "What the Hell, anti-hero!?").
** As necessary, though. Whatever it takes, and generally no more. At least with Vash acting as MoralityChain.
* SlippedTheRopes: Vash once slides out of ropes to protect a young woman from bandits. Said bandits catch him before he can get back into them... the second time.
* SlouchOfVillainy: Manga Knives, generally with a hand over his eyes of forehead to show he's Full of Upset.
** He [[SlasherSmile grinned]] while doing this at the flashback to Midvalley's concert. (At which, naturally, everybody died.)
* SmallGirlBigGun: The girl in this case (Milly) isn't exactly small; it's just that her gun is just that big. Meryl is an interesting variation, as her guns are tiny but so numerous she must be carrying her weight in derringers.
* SpaceWestern: And the soundtrack reflects this extremely well.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Lazlo/Razlo is a noteworthy and oddly controversial example. Also note Livio de Pupe (?), Chronica/Cronica/Kronika, Revnunt/Revnant Buskus/Buskuz/Vasquez, Tesla/Tessla, Kaito/Kite, and the names of several cities.
** Rem is a particularly confusing example. Rem or Lem? Seibrem, Saverem, or Seiburem? It doesn't help that the manga lists her name as "Rem Seibrem" while the anime lists it as "Rem Saverem."
* Squick: In the manga, when Zazie the Beast pulls a worm out of her crotch.
* StartOfDarkness
* SteamPunk: Even though it takes place in the future.
* StepfordSmiler
* StopOrIShootMyself: Wolfwood seems to do this, to provide a visual example on how someone's chosen action will lead to the death of hundreds. It is quickly revealed however, that he never intended to put himself in any danger, and was using an empty clip.
** There's a chilling scene in the manga, on the other hand, where to prove how serious he is, Wolfwood holds Vash's (loaded) gun to his own forehead while it's still in Vash's hand and demands, '''''shoot'''''. Saying if he could trigger a willingness to do what's necessary and keep moving in Vash, that would be completely worth his life.
* StuffBlowingUp: The reason why everyone runs Vash out of town.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: Vash and Knives are technically ''not'' alien lifeforms, but there are strong suggestions of this trope, especially in the anime since [[spoiler: there are no "ThereIsAnother" plants from Earth]]. And, let's face it, manga Vash and (even more) Knives are very [[AGodAmI god-like]], which [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic ties in]] with the [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory religious subtext]].
* SuicideByCop: None literally, since there is almost nothing by way of law enforcement on Gunsmoke. However, this is part of the modus operandi of several of the Gung-Ho Guns, especially [[spoiler:Legato.]]
** In the anime, this is also an interpretation for Vash's complete failure to say a word or make a move in his own defense while being lynched by the town that recognizes him as the Stampede, in the episode after [[spoiler: he shoots Legato in the head.]] He wasn't actually catatonic, as he demonstrates at a couple of points, but he kept acting almost as though he was while they ''tied him to the back of a truck and dragged him around on his face.''
* SuperDeformed
* SuperpoweredEvilSide: [[spoiler: Livio/Lazlo]]; [[spoiler: Vash]] might fit too.
* {{Superspeed}}: Vash shoots about six times faster than a human gunman, which is ''impossibly awesome''. Also played with with Dominique the Cyclops.
** He ''makes gunpowder explode faster than normal''. He breaks physics through physical contact! And we thought he didn't have the girly family superpowers.
** Elendria rams nails through peoples bodies ''faster than the eye can see.''
* SupervillainLair
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: [[spoiler:Livio, for Wolfwood]].
* TakeAThirdOption: Vash constantly adheres to this.
** Which is the reason why episode [[spoiler:24]] of the anime is a WhamEpisode; [[spoiler:there ''is'' no easy way out this time, which forces Vash to ''kill Legato'', and later have a [[HeroicBSOD mental]] [[AngstComa breakdown]] over it]].
* TeachHimAnger: Likely the intent of the BreakTheCutie campaign that forms the backbone of the plot, the part that isn't just Knives' inner child throwing a tantrum about his brother not doing what he wants. Vash is already perfectly {{Badass}}, with a sizable temper if pushed far enough, but as a TechnicalPacifist and FriendToAllLivingThings he lacks the genocidal anger his twin wants to see.
** Also one of the many contradictory goals of poor Wolfwood, especially in the manga. He is perfectly willing to die for the sake of convincing Vash to actually ''kill'' the bad guys (specifically Knives) and really ''solve'' problems, because he's pretty sure Vash would fill his chosen role of [[ThePunisher righteous executioner]] much better and longer than he can.
* TechnicalPacifist: Vash, in ''spades''. It even says 'pacifist' on his Quickdraw tournament application, if you look![[hottip:*: Evidence that Wolfwood, who did the paperwork, had already been briefed on his target before their first encounter, since they'd interacted by fighting robots and sharing a bus, and the no-kill rule [[FridgeLogic had not had a chance to come up]].]] Partakes of the irony of someone whose life is defined by combat but who still thinks in 'pacifist' terms.
* TenMinuteRetirement
* TenderTears
* TheFettered: Vash. Source of his philosophical dispute with Wolfwood; arguably the same with Knives; Knives is just much further on the other end of the scale.
* TheMagnificent: There are a lot of epithets on Gunsmoke. Some seem to be self-chosen, and/or assigned by their bosses; every official Gun-Ho Gun name comes with one. Vash, on the other hand, got saddled with his by earning them. ''The Humanoid Typhoon.'' '''The Walking Disaster Area.''' '''''The Human Act of God.'''''
** And (manga) Wolfwood got Nicholas the Punisher because that's the name of his weapon, the cross punisher, and he made it kind of a signature thing. [[spoiler: And picked up Chapel the Evergreen by shooting his mentor out of the role.]]
* ThereIsAnother: Manga only.
* TheReveal: Vash is [[spoiler:an ArtificialHuman]]! Knives is [[spoiler:his EvilTwin]]! The Gung-ho Guns' coins are [[spoiler: meant to activate a device that de-powers Legato]]!
* TheSweatDrop
* TheUnreveal: Among other important plot points, the existence of independent plants is never explained and suffers from a borderline {{Handwave}}. In {{Fanfiction}}, many fans suppose that they are the result [[spoiler: of plant engineers "playing" with plants]], which is a likely explanation.
** Genetically, it's logically more likely than their being mutant throwback versions of normal plant reproduction. Because all the plants are girls and the twins are boys. Story-wise, the latter is more likely, if only because the only person not in cryo on the ship in the time frame for Vash and Knives to get sired was...Rem. Also because the crew would have worked that out while experimenting on Tessla and intentionally reproduced the event if at all possible.
* ThisIsSparta: Legato, Knives and Wolfwood, occasionally. Lazlo, ALL. ''THE''. ''TIME!!''
* ThoseTwoGuys: Those two girls, Meryl and Milly, fit the description to a large extent.
* ThouShaltNotKill: Vash believes in not killing, ever. The ramifications of this are explored as Vash [[spoiler:is shown to have been torn to shreds under his jacket from numerous wounds he acquired while winning fights without hurting people.]]
* TimeStandsStill: Dominique the Cyclops pretends to be able to do this. In fact, she uses hypnosis to momentarily freeze her target.
* {{Transsexual}}: Elendira the Crimson Nail; also fits into the VillainousCrossdresser trope as a result of DidNotDoTheResearch.
** Well, her surgical status is ambiguous and VillainousCrossdresser embraces scary trasgendered persons, given they have at least as much alarm capital to cash with the public.
* TrainingFromHell: Vash; Wolfwood; Livio; Monev; Rai Dei hints at this too. Strangely enough, Knives's apparent lack of regular training doesn't reduce his deadliness and muscle mass, because being an {{Ubermensch}} apparently gives you a near-unlimited supply of [[RuleOfCool cool]].
* TransformationTrauma
* TraumaCongaLine: Poor Vash...
* TricksterArchetype: Vash, in particular, is an incredibly impish, baffling, and tricky character.
* TropeOverdosed
* TrueCompanions
* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: Vash's "real name".
** Wolfwood's WordOfGod middle name is Dokonokuminomonjawaresumakinishiteshizumetarokakora.
* {{Tsundere}}: Meryl towards Vash.
* {{Twincest}}: FanWank notwithstanding, nothing actually happens, but manga Knives has a very... fusional and obsessive relationship with Vash to say the least.
* {{Ubermensch}}
* UglyGuysHotDaughter: In the anime, the (only identified) daughter of the Nebraska clan is an attractive teenage girl, while her dad is an ancient-looking ugly guy with three teeth and her mom is, basically, an OppositeSexClone of Gofsef Nebraska, the deformed, cybernetically augmented giant, only without the cyber-mods.
* UnflinchingWalk: Vash and Wolfwood in "Goodbye for Now".
* UnstoppableRage: Frequent. Vash's is the most impressive, manga Knives' the most destructive.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: [[spoiler: Knives]].
** Also Wolfwood, Livio, and Legato, for a given value of 'sweet;' they were respectively already bitter, already carrying an EnemyWithin, and already vengeance-driven at the earliest points in their lives we see them, but by comparison they come across as heart-twistingly innocent.
** Vash, by contrast, has forcibly changed as little as possible over the years leaving him ridiculously childish at times. Of course, it's not all genuine.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans
* VillainEpisode: The manga has a few chapters with Legato, Knives, Livio etc. as focal characters or even narrators.
** Midvalley's narration of his fight with Wolfwood (during much of which Wolfwood is blind) is actually particularly good.
* VillainousBreakdown: Happens to quite a few villains, some of whom commit suicide or start W/{{Angst}}ing if they fail.
* VillainousCrossdresser: Elendira, the only [[{{Transsexual}} trans woman]] {{Badass}} enough to freak people out while being called "the Crimsonnail," fits this trope to a large extent.
** She is equally subject to censorship for being a trannie and for being ''terrifying.'' In a world of guns, Rai-dei got by with a sword and was [[LampshadeHanging appropriately observed to be crazy]]. In the same world, Elendria fights with '''a briefcase full of giant red nails,''' as in hardware supplies, and is very possibly the most deadly thing on the planet. (Only because Knives is lazy and Vash is TheFettered, mind.)
* VillainsOutShopping: Played for [[GallowsHumor gruesome fun]] with Legato's junk food addiction; never has eating ice cream looked creepier. Also creepy in the case of Knives, seen [[SealedEvilInACan hanging around naked in a tube]] and drinking AGlassOfChianti in an oasis in the anime, and playing the organ in bondage gear in his base and [[{{Wangst}} hanging around with a depressed/psychotic expression]] in the manga. Knives might be the laziest, most idle BigBad around, which is bound to make us think he'd be less messed-up if he had a hobby or something. As for Elendira, she likes reading cards while fawning over Knives, apparently.
* VisibleSigh
* WalkingDisasterArea
* WalkingTheEarth
* WaveMotionGun: The Angel Arm.
* WeaponOfMassDestruction: That are actually sentient -- see above trope.
* WeaponTombstone: [[spoiler:Vash uses Wolfwood's cross punisher as his gravestone. Considering its shape, it's very fitting.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: Livio in the manga
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Knives; Wolfwood to a certain extent.
* WhamEpisode: "Diablo", the twelfth episode of the anime, though episodes 7 and 8 arguably count as well. (Almost every episode after 16 tends to be jaw-dropping as well, particularly episode 24, wherin [[spoiler:Vash ''kills Legato'']].)
* WhamLine: Accomplished with a single word!
-->'''Vash (to [[spoiler:Elizabeth]]):''' [[spoiler:Aw, you aren't after that stupid reward, are you?]]
-->'''[[spoiler:Elizabeth]]:''' [[spoiler:''[[LittleNo No]]''.]]
* WholeEpisodeFlashback: Episode 17 of the anime, "Rem Saverem".
* WordOfGod: Nightow says that Kuroneko-sama is female and that Vash and Wolfwood aren't in a gay relationship, yaoi {{Doujinshi}} notwithstanding.
* WordSaladTitle: Either justified or debatable.
** Let's not forget the manga's subtitle: Deep Space Planet Future Gun Action!!!
* WriterOnBoard: Yasuhiro Nightow is a Catholic convert retaining some Buddhist influences by his own admission, and boy does it show.
* XDaysSince: In an interesting variation of this trope, showed a sign in one city counting the number of murders and serious injuries that had occured that day.
* {{Yandere}}: Manga Wolfwood can be seen as CuteAndPsycho -- you start suspecting something's wrong when [[NightmareFuel he turns Grey the Ninelives into minced meat]] with a SlasherSmile. Also, Knives might be a {{Yandere}} over Vash, because nothing is too creepy or dysfunctional for him. Depending on interpretation, Vash might also be CuteAndPsycho.
* YellowBrickRoad: Getting to [[BigBad Knives]].
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Vash and Knives; Nicholas; Livio; Kaito. In the manga, all of these characters including Knives express nostalgia towards the 'more innocent times' of their childhood and regrets at not being able to go back in time.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Legato; some of the mutant characters.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Vash and Knives in both versions of the flashback--they were a year old when the Fall happened. [[spoiler: Wolfwood]], in the manga. He's in his mid to late teens when introduced, and [[spoiler: dies before]] he's twenty. SuperSoldierSerum is involved.
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