History Recap / TrigunStampedeE12HighNoonAtJuly

** The episode title is the title of the prologue to the ''Trigun'' manga, which also definitively turns ''Stampede'' up to this point a combined re-imagining and prequel to the Trigun story at large.

** The episode title is the title of the prologue to the ''Trigun'' manga.

* DoubleMeaning: Knives keeps screaming at Vash to "Take me back!" Initially he means being taken back to the higher plane. Over time, however, it's clear he really means "take me back ''to the way things were''" -- to the last time he remembered being safe and together with his brother.

* TenderTears: Vash begins to cry as Knives begs him to join him in wiping out humanity, realising that Knives will likely never see eye-to-eye with him. When he speaks, it's not to argue back, but to sadly ask Knives when they stopped being able to understand each other.

* VillainousBreakdown: Knives goes ''berserk'' when Vash throws off his control, his appearance of calm rationality gone in favor of desperate screaming and clawing to take back the cube of energy produced by Vash's Gate.

* AlasPoorVillain: Even with the horrible things he did to try and achieve his goal, all Knives want was a place for him and his brother to exist in without fear of being hunted or abused by humans.

* MythologyGag: The episode title is the title of the prologue to the ''Trigun'' manga.

* FantasticNuke: Vash breaks down the mass of roots and flowers and compresses all the matter that comprises them into a portable glowing cube. Unfortunately, that form is temporary, and the moment it breaks all the energy will be released at once. Even after Vash successfully bleeds off most of the power, the final burst unleashed when Vash crashes back into July ''[[SphereOfDestruction erases the entire city]]''.

* ManBitesMan: Or Plant bites Plant, technically. With his gun in one hand and the energy cube in the other, Vash has no means to stop Knives grabbing the cube other than sinking his teeth into Knives's wrist, which is what he does.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: As Vash runs from the dream Knives had trapped him in, he sees a geranium-red spirit that looks and speaks like Rem, encouraging and comforting him as she would have. After waking up, Vash thanks Meryl for allowing him to hear Rem's voice. Did he mean that Meryl gave him the will to imagine what Rem would say and galvanise himself? Or was Rem really there, her spirit guiding him even long after her death, and Meryl's voice allowed him to hear her too?

* RelocatingTheExplosion: Knives and Vash's climatic fight comes down to Vash trying to get the cube of compressed energy from his Gate somewhere safe before it [[EarthShatteringKaboom decompresses all at once]], and Knives trying to take it back and force Vash's Gate open again.

* ForegoneConclusion: In both the original ''Trigun'' manga and the '98 anime adaptation, July had already been destroyed (in the manga this was revealed in the prologue, titled High Noon At July). Anyone familiar with either knew the city wasn't getting out of ''Stampede'' intact.

* IAmWhatIAm: Vash interprets his title as "Vash the Stampede" in his own way. As someone who will run as long as he needs to be with humans until they quiet down and he goes back to rejoin them. As he cries, Vash smiles as he declares, "I am Vash the Stampede", accepting his identity.

* ManBitesMan: Or Plant bites Plant, technically. With his gun in one hand and the energy cube in the other, Vash has no means of getting Knives to stop trying to grab the cube other than sinking his teeth into Knives's wrist, which is what he does.

* MythologyGag: The episode title is the title of the prologue to the Trigun manga.

* RelocatingTheExplosion: Knives and Vash's climatic fight comes down to Vash trying to get the compressed energy from his Gate somewhere safe before it [[EarthShatteringKaboom decompresses all at once]], and Knives trying to take it back and force Vash's Gate open again.

* SuperWindowJump: Vash tucks and crashes through the window of the July building to try and dispose of the cube somewhere safer. Knives follows the same way, but less successfully than Vash.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: As Vash runs from the dream Knives had trapped him in, he sees a geranium-red spirit that looks and speaks like Rem, encouraging and comforting him as she would have. After waking up, Vash thanks Meryl for allowing him to hear Rem's voice. Did he mean that Meryl gave him the will to imagine what Rem would say? Or was Rem really there, her spirit guiding him even long after her death, and Meryl's voice allowed him to hear her?

* SuperWindowJump: Vash tucks and crashes through the window of the July building to try and dispose of the cube somewhere safer. Knives follows the same way, but less successfuly than Vash.

* MythologyGag: The episode title is the title of the first chapter in the Trigun manga.

As he rejects Knives from his Gate, Vash takes the energy forming his roots and manages to condense it into a cube. He tells Knives his plan has failed and the two brothers clash one final time in a race to regain control of Vash's power before its unstable energy tears itself and the planet apart.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Vash relentlessly unloads every bullet he has onto Knives without the slightest sign of his normal hesitation, expending more ammunition in the final battle than he has in the entire series so far combined.

* SpitefulSuicide: Knives's final charge into the Angel Arm was as much a means to destroy himself rather than live without Vash as it was a last gasp attempt to complete his plan. He mocks Vash in his dying moments, laughing at him and claiming Nai's death is Vash's fault.

* AllForNothing: Vash tries desperately to save the city from his Angel Arm and avoid killing Knives at any cost. He ends up destroying July and 90% of its population from falling back to the planet when trying to safely discharge his Angel Arm. Knives ends up killing himself trying to grab at the core of Vash's Angel Arm, still promising to create a paradise for him and Vash alone. At best, Vash managed to prevent Knives's plan being carried out, but the emotional cost and death toll was steep.

* TenderTears: Vash begins to cry as Knives begs him to join him in wiping out humanity, realising that Knives will likely never see eye-to-eye with him. When he speaks, it's not to argue back, but to ask Knives when they stopped being able to understand each other.

* IAmWhatIAm: Vash interprets his title as "Vash the Stampede" in his own way. As someone who will run as long as he needs to be with humans until they quiet down and he goes back to rejoin them. As he cries, Vash smiles as he declares, "I am Vash the Stampede".

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Vash relentlessly unloads every bullet he has onto Knives, not even hesitating like he normally does.

* ArmCannon: Vash smashes the cube into his gun, which also takes his prosthetic arm and merges together to create his Angel Arm.

As he rejects Knives from his Gate, Vash takes the energy forming his roots and manages to condense it into a cube. He tells Knives his plan has failed and the two brothers clash one final time in a race to take back the cube from one another before it goes off.

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Twice. When Vash wakes up, his hair has been blown back to his original spikey-haired look from past incarnations. Then as Eriks he's grown his hair so much that his bangs cover his eyes, due to his depression.

** As they see the vines caused by Vash's gate start to swallow up July, Zazie makes a beeline out of the city. When Wolfwood calls them out on this, Zazie explains that the twins would likely take over the entire planet at this rate, so fleeing is the best option.
** After saving Meryl, Wolfwood points out the insanity of fighting Knives and decides he and Meryl are better off getting out of the city.

* TheStinger: The final scene after the credits has the audience hear about people from Earth getting a signal from Noman's Land and Project Seeds.

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Knive's reaction when he hears Vash's plan to continue to return to humanity is the same thing he's been doing for the past 150 years.

* AllForNothing: Vash tries desperately to save the city from his Angel Arm and avoid killing Knives at any cost. He ends up destroying July and 90% of its population from falling back to the planet when trying to safely discharge his Angel Arm. Knives ends up killing himself trying to grab at the core of Vash's Angel Arm, still promising to create a paradise for him and Vash alone. At best, Vash managed to prevent Knives's plan being carried out.

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Twice. When Vash wakes up, his hair has been blown back to his original spikey haired look from past incarnations. Then as Erik's he's grown his hair so much that his bangs cover his eyes, due to his depression.
* ForegoneConclusion: For anyone who has knowledge of the original story of Trigun, they'd know that the destruction of July was always going to happen one way or another.

* {{Leitmotif}}: Vash starts to hums a song and the other Plants quietly join along. In his mind, Vash's child self is also singing this song, telling Knives it was something he sang to calm himself but didn't know why. This melody is part of the song Knives obsessively plays in his music.

* PleaseDontLeaveMe: Knives and Nai both start begging for Vash not to leave, claiming he'd be so much happier here with them. Vash doesn't stick around as he runs, leading Knives to scream for his brother.

* PreAssKickingOneLiner: Vash points his gun towards Knives, declaring his plans to have failed and it was time to finish this feud between them.
* SayMyName: Despite all of the torture and pain Knives brought onto Vash, Vash still can't help but call out for his brother in pain as he watches him disintegrate due to his Angel Arm.

* SignificantBirthDate: Vash and Knive's birthday becomes the anniversary date of the destruction of July.
* SpottingTheThread: Child Vash realizes that he's still dreaming when Nai tells him he'd always protect him. That wasn't something Nai said, but Rem.

* ThousandYardStare: Erik's likely has this expression as he listlessly plays a couple of keys on the piano.

As he rejects Knives from his Gate, Vash takes the energy forming his roots and manages to condense it into a cube. He tells Knives his plan has failed the two brothers clash one final time in a race to take back the cube from one another before it goes off.

Rem escorts the twins to one of Shop Five's Plant rooms to introduce the boys to their sisters, and to tell them the reason she believes they were born: to help Plants and humans to understand each other.

As he rejects Knives from his gate, Vash takes the energy from his gate and manages to condense it into a cube. He then points his gun towards Knives and the two brothers clash one final time in a race to take back the cube from one another before it goes off.

Meryl desperately calls out to Vash as he remains trapped in the memories Knives created. Then a red geranium flower blooms in Vash's hand, leading him back to reality as Rem calls for Vash.

* AllForNothing: Vash tries desperately to save the city from his Angel Arm and avoid killing Knives at any cost. He ends up destroying July and 90% of its population from falling back to the planet when trying to safely discharge his Angel Arm. Knives ends up killing himself trying to grab at the core of Vash's Angel Arm, still promising to create a paradise for him and Vash alone.

* ABirthdayNotABreak: Vash in one day, destroys July, killing 90% of he population off and kills Knives in the process. All on his birthday.
* ConscienceMakesYouGoBack: Despite being resigned to whatever fate would have in store, all it takes it looking down at the pack of cigarettes he looted off of Roberto for Wolfwood to go back to July and save Meryl. Claiming he was doing it as payback for the cigarettes.

* PowerGiveYouWings: Both twins sprout one wing from their shoulder's when fully activating their powers.

* AlasPoorVillain: Even with the horrible things he did to try and achieve his goal, all Knives want is a place for him and his brother to exist without fear of being hunted or abused by humans.

* PowersGiveYouWings: Both twins sprout one wing from their shoulder's when fully activating their powers.

* The Stinger: The final scene after the credits has the audience hear about people from Earth getting a signal from Noman's Land and Project Seeds.

* VoiceOfTheLegion: Knives and Nai's voices start to blend together when Vash calls out the fantasy they're living in.