Knives Millions

Knives Millions (ミリオンズ・ナイヴズ|Mirionzu Naivuzu) is the main antagonist of the series and manga. He is one of the few fully sentient Plants and the twin brother of Vash The Stampede. They are both born during a mission to further the human race, and they are taken care of by Rem Saverem until Knives disrupts the course of the ships, causing them to crash. While Vash believes all beings have potential for good and deserve life, Knives believes in the survival of the fittest. After discovering experiments performed on other plants, he decides that humans are evil and grotesque, and that they need to be eradicated. Vash does not agree with his plans and seeks to stop him, and Knives seeks to dissuade Vash from basing his life around the "idealistic nonsense" preached by Rem.

Personality
While being virtually identical in appearance to his twin brother, Vash the Stampede, Knives's personality could not be more different. In contrast to Vash's playful and boisterous nature, Knives is quiet and observant. While Vash can be emotional and intense, Knives is contained and casual. Vash seeks companionship as comfort, whereas Knives revels in his loneliness. While they were children under the care of Rem Saverem, he often comforted his sensitive twin brother and shielded him from the abuses of fellow crewmen such as Steve. As an adult, Knives continues to act as a high-handed older brother towards Vash and seeks to dissuade him from basing his life around the "idealistic nonsense" preached by Rem. Ironically in the manga Knives was the more sensitive twin as children, crying in relief and fainting after they learned of fate of their predecessor Tesla. His views and actions are also fueled by the memories of those atrocious acts.

Biography
Many years after landing, the two meet in the city of July, and the face off leaves Vash without his left arm and Knives in a very critical state. He slowly regenerates over a period of time, and forms the Gung-Ho-Guns to act for him. After he revives and learns that he is slowly dying by using his abilities, he begins absorbing other plants into himself, which causes his powers to grow exponentially. After fusing with thousands of plants, Knives launches his "Ark", a floating ship designed to leave humans without any resources. As he absorbs more and more plants, his Ark takes on the form of a sentient organism, capable of defending itself and, in some cases, even teleporting short distances. Vash and Knives eventually fight for a final time, and with the help of the humans Vash is successful in breaking Knives's control over all the other plants. Robbed of nearly all of his remaining power, Knives and Vash clash one last time, before escaping together from the vengeful ships from Earth. The two apparently make peace and take refuge at an isolated house occupied by a father and son, who provide the wounded pair with medical care. Knives seemingly uses the last of his power to raise a small fruit tree beside the house as a final gift to the father and son and to Vash, and seemingly vanishes afterward. He is never seen again.

In the anime, Vash manages to locate Knives and the two have a massive battle. Vash manages to gain the upper hand and defeats Knives by disabling him. He then picks up Knives and heads back into the town he was currently staying at with Milly Thompson and Meryl Stryfe. His fate is unknown.

Abilities
Knives understands his origins and powers better than his brother Vash and as a result he knows how to tap into his powers and create weapons such as the Angel Arms. On the surface, they resemble Mateba Autorevolvers, but a special power core is hidden above their barrels. These power cores, when held in either of their hands, transforms the guns into very lethal weapons. It can actually cause their arms to morph into miniature versions of one of the SEEDS guns, the true power of the Angel Arm. Even at 13% of its maximum output, the results are nothing less than devastating.

Knives is also a powerful telepath, using his ability to manipulate other plants, evident in two flashbacks (Ep. 26: "Under the Sky So Blue"): when he almost causes a plant to combust in order to kill humans, and the instance in which he manipulates Vash's Angel Arm. He can also use this power on humans, evident in Episode 17: "Rem Saverem". In this episode, Knives kills the crew members one by one via manipulation and the apparent insanity that the crew members seem to suffer from.

In the manga, the Angel Arm is a natural ability of a plant, and does not require a revolver to use his power. Knives' power manifests itself as an array of monomolecular wire/extremely sharp blades. Also, Knives further learns how to increase his power by merging with other plants, demonstrated on multiple occasions in the manga where he absorbs his "sisters" into his left arm, taking their power source into his. This power, however, includes a nasty side effect. When using his power, parts of the plants he has absorbed can be seen. Arms, legs, and the occasional horrified face peek through the cloak he wears from his left shoulder to keep it concealed. Later he tries to use this ability to absorb his brother, Vash, yet he is almost overpowered due to Vash's more potent "flow." In this instance Legato steps in to pull Knives away from the brink before he is lost.

After fusing with thousands of plants, Knives launches his "Ark", a floating ship which travels around the Planet Gunsmoke, absorbing almost all the plants on the planet. This results in the near total collapse of human civilization on Planet Gunsmoke, as cities are left with no means of producing power, water or food. He claims that when he removes all the plants, the humans will kill each other over resources, thus proving to Vash that that is all humanity is good for. As he absorbs more and more plants, his Ark takes on the form of a sentient organism, capable of defending itself and, in some cases, even teleporting short distances.

Voice Actors

 * Adult Knives Millions anime voices: Tooru Furusawa (Japanese), Bo Williams (English)
 * Young Knives Millions anime voices: Masamichi Ota (Japanese), Joshua Seth (English)