A tall, blond-haired man who seems to have disaster follow him wherever he goes. He is feared by the people of Gunsmoke as a ruthless, destructive killer. Supposedly responsible for the annihilation of July City, Vash has quite the bounty placed on his head—60 billion double-dollars, dead or alive! Constantly hounded by often entire towns of people wanting to claim the reward for his capture, Vash is always wandering, never staying in one place for too long (and leaving behind a lot of property damage). In reality, Vash is not a homicidal maniac, but a complete and utter goofball who actually refuses to kill anyone, despite the huge pistol he keeps with him at all times, a prosthetic arm that can switch into a machine gun, and a switchblade in his boot. He has an extreme fondness for donuts (and sometimes alcohol). He claims to be a "hunter of LOVE AND PEACE, searching for the mayfly known as Love". Still, it just may be that he only puts on a facade of being a harmless moron...
Dodge the Bullet: All the time. He's so fast he can deflect bullets by throwing rocks at them. On another occasion he emerged from a hail of bullets completely unharmed; when asked how he did it, he explained that he calculated where the shots would be as they were being fired. Subverted later when he gets shot full of holes while using this same method.
Fun with Acronyms: In The Lost Plant, six years after Knives' defeat, and going back to his old runnaway life, Vash goes by the name VTS to keep at least some lower fodder away from him.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: Rarely happens, but if you piss him off enough to push him into this mode, you're so screwed...
Meaningful Name More in leiu with the title of the series then his name. It refers to the three guns on hi: His standard pistol (which Knives made for him), the gun hidden in his prosthetic arm and lastly the arm cannon he can transform his arm into thats capable of leveling a entire city.
Stepford Smiler: Lampshaded by Wolfwood at one point, who observes that his smile doesn't reach his eyes, and that he's "hurting like crazy on the inside".
"Does this man look like the legendary gunman Vash the Stampede? That droopy-eyed, weak-looking, bristle-headed, promiscuous-looking donut freak of a man?"
An insurance agent for the Bernadelli Insurance Company, she and her associate Millie were given the task to search for Vash and apply "damage control" to the so-called disasters he leaves behind. She is often seen typing records of her and Millie's exploits on a typewriter, to send back to the company. She is nicknamed "Derringer" because of the array of derringer pistols she carries under her poncho. It takes her a while to realize that the goofy, donut-scarfing man that she and Milly always seem to run into is THE Vash the Stampede.
Meryl's assistant and fellow Bernadelli agent, Milly is plucky and cheerful, constantly trying to convince Meryl that above mentioned man is the real Vash. She's also incredibly tall, and nicknamed "Stungun" because like Meryl, she conceals a weapon underneath her clothes — a huge stungun that can pin enemies to walls without killing them. She likes pudding.
Berserk Button: Like Vash, she hates seeing people mistreating and/or killing each other (when facing a man who had earlier pointed a gun at his own parents, she took several swings at him, any of which would likely have knocked him clean out of his boots if they had connected. Also:
"You should never get between people and their pudding!" "Wastage of pudding is punishable by heaven!"
"I picked up my first gun at the age of seven. And I shot. I remember how strangely easy it was to pull the trigger. Ha. I actually laughed. Because that one shot was all that was needed to silence that sickening piece of garbage who had the nerve to call himself my guardian. Ha. It was that simple. And so I was free."
Voiced by: Show Hayami (JP), Jeff Nimoy (EN, series), Brad Hawkins (EN, Badlands Rumble)
A wandering priest that carries a portable confessional box and The Punisher, which is pretty much a mobile weapons platform (it's a rocket launcher, machine gun, and a pistol rack all-in-one). He tends to call Vash "Needlenoggin".
Becoming the Mask: Apparently part of his severe moral dilemmas regarding his friendship with Vash; also why he can so easily isolate Vash's Stepford Smiler tendencies.
Child Soldier: He was recruited by Chapel to become an assassin for the Eye of Michael at a very young age. The accelerated aging causes by his chemical enhancements to makes him appear to be in his thirties while he is only in his late teens in the manga.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Because he's a Knight Templar caught between extreme factions with the goal of protecting the maximum number of people it is feasibly possible to protect and a seriously Dark and Troubled Past, he betrays just about everyone at least once. Very rarely to any real effect, and they were usually expecting it. He's actually got a very loyal nature, so he kind of telegraphs before he does it. Related to Double Reverse Quadruple Agent below.
Creepy Cool Crosses: the giant cross he carries is actually a disguised arsenal.
Crystal Dragon Jesus: Dresses and acts somewhat like a Protestant minister, but does things more in line of a Catholic one (such as hearing confessions). In the manga, he's a member of the Eye of Michael, which claims to worship Plants. In the anime, he's intended to be the successor to the current Chapel the Evergreen, of the Gung-ho Guns, which would basically make him a priest of Knives.
Death by Sex: Sleeps with his friend/love interest of sorts, Milly. Dies in the same episode.
Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: The anime doesn't go much beyond a morally-conflicted Double Agent, but between the Eye, Chapel, the Guns, Vash, and the children manga Wolfwood is playing a lot of sides at once. Although he's not in control at all.
Dying Alone: But only in the anime; he's with Vash in the manga.
Dying Moment of Awesome: Manga only: the last moments of his life, from the moment he defeats the robot gang to his complete owneage of Chapel and Lazlo.
Improbable Weapon User: Oh sure, we've covered the Punisher, but it reaches a new level in his fight against Razlo when he ejects his pistol's magazine into his opponent.
More Dakka: The Punisher he carries has a rocket launcher at one end, a machine gun at the other, and racks for about half a dozen semi-automatic pistols.
Mysterious Middle Initial: Word Of God's response to the question of what the D stands for is utterly random, ranging from "Daily Cigarette Intake" to "Dokonokuminomonjawaresumakinishiteshizumetarokakora."
"What the hell family do you think you're from!? I'm gonna tie you up in a reed mat and dunk ya!"
Nun Too Holy: He claims to be a priest, but he not only hears confessions for money (admittedly, there were times in history where priests would sell "forgiveness" for money and land), he's also a chain-smoking hard-drinking killer who, in the anime at least, actually paid for the orphans he took care of by being a gunman for hire.
Obi-Wan Moment: In the manga, he shares one last quiet drink with Vash in the rubble of the orphanage he just saved by killing Chapel and defeating Livio/Razlo. The last thing he sees before his body finally gives out is confetti thrown by the children in gratitude as a ship carries them off to safety. The contrast between this scene and the brutal fight before it is incredible.
Perma Stubble: Though he is mostly clean-shaven in Trigun Maximum.
Poisonous Friend: Killed one of the Gung-ho Guns because he thought Vash's idealism didn't cut it. In the manga Knives sent Wolfwood to follow Vash for this very purpose.
Since the anime replaced his epic execution of Rai-Dei with the Zazie incident, after making Zazie no longer The Worm that Walks, and put Rai-Dei in August, there's an oddly chilling little scene amid the rubble when Rai-Dei, who had somehow survived being at ground zero probably due to Vash's Heroic Willpower alone, sees Wolfwood, expresses recognition, and starts talking about how they have to get together and kill that monster, Vash, while they can. Wolfwood nonchalantly shoots him dead and drives away. This is implied to be done on command from their mutual employer, but he clearly thinks it's an okay idea.
Redemption Equals Death: In the manga he dies after stopping the Eye of Michael from destroying the Orphanage where he grew up, and redeems his childhood friend of Livio.
In the anime, after a heated argument with Vash regarding killing Zazie the previous day, Wolfwood opts to adapt Vash's lifestyle. When he fights his mentor later that day, Wolfwood manages to get away with getting a few non-lethal shots at him and letting him live. As soon as Wolfwood turns, Legato manipulates Chapel via mind control into shooting Wolfwood. Presumably, Wolfwood didn't shoot back even after seeing Chapel raise his gun again.
Younger than They Look: In the manga he's seventeen-ish, but looks like he's in his mid-30s. This is because of the special treatments Chapel put him through during his Training from Hell, to give him enhanced strength, reflexes, and Healing Factor.
Deal with the Devil: They are said to have given up their humanity in exchange for strength. This is metaphorical, but their choice to work with Knives while knowing his goals is much more literal.
The Magnificent: Each of them has a title, usually referring to their abilities. E.G. Mine is the only one which does not fall into this form. In Gratuitous English, no less.
The first Gung-Ho-Gun. The only thing known about him was that he was locked away and trained solely for purpose of killing Vash.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Begs for his life after slaughtering an entire town and subsequently getting beaten by Vash.
BFG: Wields two types, a chain gun he wears around his wrist and back and a rocket launcher after he loses that
Expy: Of Venom, his design strongly resembles him. Heck even his name is Venom spell backwards. Most likely this was a homage as Nightow was stated to be a fan of American comic books.
You Have Failed Me: Winds up killed for his failure. Mostly likely from Legoto.
Nineties Anti-Hero: He looks like one. Disproportionately huge muscles, bright colors, massively impractical guns, grimacing like a loon all the time....Rob Liefield would have a hard time coming up with anything crazier.
The second Gung-Ho-Gun. Tries her luck against Vash but he finds out her powers and easily beats her. Her fate is different depending on the media. In the anime, she found and killed by Legoto off-screen. In the manga, she commits suicide by falling off a cliff
Teleport Spam: What Vash assumes her power be after watching her in action.
Time Stands Still: What her real power is as her right eye affects her opponents senses and freezes them in place, allowing her to get the drop on them.
The third Gung-Ho-Gun. A villain with two shells on either side of him that shoots out spikes.
Anticlimax Boss: Vash beats him seconds after his introduction.
Adaptational Badass: Actually manages to be a more of a threat in the anime.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His method of murder includes shooting spikes at his opponents. Ironiclly hes stabbed by Rai-Dai after he loses to Vash.
What Happened to the Mouse?: In the manga, after Vash bonks him on the head, the focus immediately switches to Vash and Legato, E.G. completely forgotten and never again mentioned. Though at least his name is given whenever someone tallies the dead Gung-ho Guns, so it wasn't like he was forgotten.
Heel Face Turn: After realizing Knives is becoming too powerful and might end up wiping them out as well as the humans. They're killed, however.
Hive Mind: Zazie is actually a group of insects that resided on Gunsmoke before the humans populated it. They're actually controlling people they take over to act on their behalf.
The Worm that Walks: Bizarre variant; Zazie is the collective mind of many literal worms in a hijacked human body.
Pretty Butterflies: First respawn, appears in a cloud of pseudo-butterflies; possibly some kind of connection technique for the newly appropriated hub.
Leonof the Puppetmaster
Voiced by: Kaneta Kimotsuki (JP), Milton James (EN)
The fifth Gung-Ho-Gun. As his name suggests, he can control puppets many at a time in fact. He can also make them looks surprisingly lifelike right down to the personality to fool his opponents. This gives Vash a hard time as he has to distinguish friend and foe.
Berserk Button: He flips out when Brad discovers the body of his love interest.
The Lost Lenore: In the manga, he's preserved the body of his dead love interest in a coffin next to the other puppets. It's implied that he started making puppets because he was lonely.
Voiced by: Keiichi Nanba (JP), Jonathan Charles (EN)
The sixth Gung-Ho-Gun. A crippled being encased in a bullet like shell that he can use to spin toward his targets as well as a shield behind him which also has a gun.
The Lost Lenore: His motive for joining the Gung-ho Guns in the manga. The girl in question died during the July incident, for which he's blamed Vash ever since.
Power Limiter: Removes it during the battle against Livio.
The Resenter: Toward Legato, for being favored of Knives. It's mutual.
Livio the DoubleFang
In the manga, one of two members of the Eye of Michael called in to be the last of the Gung-ho Guns. One of Wolfwood's friends from the orphanage where he grew up.
Bait-and-Switch Boss: He isn't, but when Legato mentions "Double Fang" and "Trip of Death" arriving, we cut to two guys, one with two big tusks, and the other with the power to extremely expand his muscles. One would think these are them until the real McCoys make their entrance.
"Your reaction was better then I hoped. You're fun. And to think I could kill every man, woman, and child here in the blink of an eye if I wanted to. The power of death is intoxicating."
Handicapped Badass: In the manga, Knives shatters his spine after the incident with the fifth moon, and he spends most of the series paralized from the neck down. This doesn't stop him from tormenting Vash and even his own minions.
Epic Flail: In his final fight against Vash in the manga, he swings a mean weapon called the "Guernica" that can only be described as this. The head of it is rather artistic and about twice his size. It's also full of guns.
Even Evil Has Standards: Really hates slave traders, due to his past as a sexually abused slave boy.
Faux Affably Evil: Even more so in the sub where he mimic Vash's boyish tone to be sarcastic,
Freudian Excuse: He had a really really really really crappy childhood, and honestly Knives is the best thing that ever happened to him. Which is just pathetic. So he has reason to hate everybody.
People Puppets: Psychic in nature in the anime, where he also has some degree of telepathy. In the manga, he has the mutant or cybernetic ability to extend nearly-invisible "wires" of some sort that can directly activate other people's muscles.
Poisonous Friend: To the Gung-Ho Guns, he even admits that he doesn't care for them in the manga.
Power Limiter: Played with in the manga, the coin case that Legato gives Vash way back near the beginning. Once Vash collects all the coins, the case acts as this. Instead of Vash voluntarily using it, Legato uses it himself just so their final fight will be interesting. In the end, Vash destroys the case.
Psycho for Hire: Not for hire as such, though, since he's actually utterly devoted to his boss and money really doesn't come into it.
Rape As Backstory: Manga only. On panel.Luckily, Knives turned up by coincidence and destroyed the building and everyone else in it before they could rape him all the way to death.
Tearful Smile: Biggest, happiest, most weepy smile you ever saw on a naked child when he was kneeling there in the rubble, realizing that Knives had chosen to spare his life and accept his petition to follow him, and had even asked his name, and he didn't have one to give.
Thanatos Gambit: Forces Vash to shoot him in the head to save Milly and Meryl, using this to break him further.
Freudian Excuse: He and Vash were physically and verbally abused by a crewmember on the SEEDs ship as kids (in anime). He and Vash were exposed to a truly horrific revelation about the nature of morality and their position in relation to all other sentient beings in the manga.
Unstoppable Rage: The unproductive kind, for the most part. Tends to destroy everything within range even if that includes people who were fairly integral to his plots.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: As a child, his motives and goals are actually fairly similar to Vash's in that both desire protection and survival for the people they care about — it's their methods that provide such a stark contrast. Knives seems to have lost track of their similarities pretty early, and by the time the main story starts cannot be relied upon to adhere to any goal other than rage and revenge.
One of the maintenance staff on the SEED ship. She takes Vash and Knives in as her own children when the crew finds them, and acts as their surrogate mother. She is extremely kind and idealistic, and Vash treats her lessons and worldviews as sacred. She is also, however, highly competent and has great resolve.
The Atoner: In the manga. She didn't fight hard enough to save Tessla, the first independent plant born on the voyage, who died Strapped to an Operating Table less than a year old, and all the devotion and secrecy in which she raised the boys was initially motivated by her determination to do better, given this second chance.
Heroic Sacrifice: On a greater scope than most; her sacrifice single-handedly saves the entire population of the SEED ships.
Hero's Muse: She inspired and guided Vash. She's the reason he never kills anyone, no matter how much they deserve it. She took Vash and Knives in as her own children when the crew found them, and acted as their surrogate mother. She is extremely kind and idealistic, and Vash treats her lessons and worldviews as sacred.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: More or less; despite her statements, she has a noticeably bad habit of putting off actual planning on how to confront problems, because that might conflict with the conviction that a perfect solution is possible. This trait was passed on to Vash and was a major factor in his doing nothing to resolve the plot for over a century.
Manga-exclusive character. One of the scientists on the SEED ship who discovers Knives and Vash when accidentally woken up from cold sleep. He agrees to keep their existence a secret after talking with Rem. After the Great Fall he used his knowledge of Plants to become wealthy and live a comfortable life in July. Vash goes looking for him. Knives finds him first, and makes plenty of use of Conrad's knowledge.
Actor Allusion: Named after William Conrad of the radio show Gunsmoke. Bares a striking resemblance to Patrick Stewart.
The Atoner: Agrees to serve Knives out of his own guilt for the cruel experiments he performed on Tesla.
Humans Are Bastards: He might even be more aware of that fact than Knives. He tries to lead Knives away before the latter can witness the Last Run, when an aging plant is drained of all remaining power to cause a horrific death.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: When Knives learns of the limited powers of Plants and the black hair that signals eventual death, and how Vash is even further gone than he is.
Joey
In the anime he's the captain, Rem's confidante, and something of a father surrogate.
Armour Piercing Question: Cuts right to the heart of the matter in the manga when little Vash and Knives are shyly meeting their second human ever—"Do you love Rem?" [Knives nods shyly. Joey smiles.] "Then it's fine."
Boom, Headshot: Anime Knives takes him out right between the eyes.
Only Sane Man: Is one of the few crew members who isn't unhinged.
Shoot the Dog: Kills Rowan to save Rem, and feels horrible about it afterwards.
Bullying a Dragon: He both beats and verbally abuses a being that has far more intelligence than him and that possess unknown powers.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He's pretty much the sole catalyst for Knives' descent into madness — if he wasn't such a Knight Templar, Knives would never have become so scared of humans.
A manga-only character, Chronica is an independent plant, just like Vash and Knives. She serves aboard an Earth-based fleet that is finally responding to Planet Gunsmoke's transmissions.
Big Damn Heroes: She and the rest of the fleet only show up at the bitter end, when Knives is about to finish the rest of humanity.
The Stoic: Even in the face of Domina's fusing, she never loses her calm demeanor.
Not So Stoic: ...until her ship crashes. As Vash runs off with Knives at the end of their battle, she attempts a desperation attack on them, but is stopped by Livio.
Superweapon Surprise: Despite their desire to swoop in and save humanity, Chronica immediately employs their most powerful weapon, the "Tall Hammer", against Knives. Of course, it doesn't work.
Domina
A manga-only character, Domina is Chronica's subordinate, and also a plant.
The small black cat with huge green eyes that appears randomly in the manga and at least once in every episode of the anime. Included because the author found the kitty easy to draw. Her name means "Lady Black Cat".
