Vash the Stampede

Vash the Stampede (ヴァッシュ・ザ・スタンピード|Vasshu za Sutanpīdo) is the main character of the anime and manga series Trigun. A fictional character, Vash is also known as "The Humanoid Typhoon" due to the destruction which surrounds him. He is initially discovered by Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, representatives from an insurance agency investigating claims made due to damages caused by the mysterious "Humanoid Typhoon". The pair find Vash while he is being chased by bandits who want to collect the bounty on "The $$60,000,000,000 (sixty billion double dollar) Man". He escapes while Milly and Meryl eventually learn that Vash is actually the person they are assigned to track.

Background
Vash is not human, but a human-like "Plant". Plants are inter-dimensional beings that are tapped as a source of power and energy for the planet Gunsmoke, similar to the "Fast-Friends" from the George R.R. Martin short story of the same name. As a Plant, his body does not physically age past his mid-twenties. Vash is actually 131 years old in the anime, 150 in the manga by the end of the first series and 152 by the beginning of the second series. Vash requires a special Angel Gun to activate his powers. Shortly after he receives his Angel Gun from his brother, Vash shoots Knives in the leg, then takes both guns and flees into the desert. He spends two years alone wandering Gunsmoke until he finally collapses. He is rescued by humans from the only remaining functioning SEEDS ship on the planet, which didn't quite crash during "The Great Fall." While there, he makes human friends and is gifted with his signature red (duster styled) trench coat. After a few months he leaves and ventures out into the world. Vash returns to the ship 80 years later in search of any relatives of Rem in its databanks and finds the last one alive: PASSENGER NO.300-89-9023AS, or "Revenant Buskus". Buskus had studied Plants and established a new plant-theory in July City. Vash goes to July City in the hopes of meeting him, but instead finds Knives standing over Revenant's dead body. In the ensuing firefight, Knives shoots Vash's left arm off. He then activates Vash's Angel Arm in an attempt to destroy the city and everyone in it, but Vash turns the Angel Arm on Knives instead, resulting in the July Incident. Vash's full name is never revealed however, in the anime, when Vash first meets Wolfwood, he introduces himself as Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Sicidabohertz Gumbigobilla Blue Stradivari Talentrent Pierre Andry Charton-Haymoss Ivanovicci Baldeus George Doitzel Kaiser III. When Milly says Vash the Stampede, Vash tells Milly she should not use his 'real name' all the time. In the anime, when Nicholas D. Wolfwood asks for Vash's real name, but Vash answers 'Just between you and me, my name is irrelevant'. Later in the story Vash "puts down his gun", hoping to leave his bounty hunted life and start over. He then goes by the name Kanan or when some call him Eriks. Wolfwood starts to look for Vash, and finds him in a town full of criminal gangs in which their leader calls himself Vash The Stampede.

In the manga, Vash is an "independent" plant, with a mostly similar personality to his anime adaptation. His body is ravaged and scarred, and he refuses to use his abilities as a plant to heal them. He denies himself the company of women because he is certain that "They would only run away" after seeing his scars (manga; Chapter 4: "Scars").

Personality
Vash displays two different personalities. Vash usually exaggerates foolish characteristics to make people feel unthreatened and to hide his identity. He exhibits an almost obsessive love of doughnuts, engages in lecherous behavior, and on at least one occasion claimed his real name was Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Sicidabohertz Gombigobilla Blue Stradivari Talentrent Pierre Andri Charton-Haymoss Ivanovici Baldeus George Doitzel Kaiser III (although this is most likely false). He frequently voices the catchphrase, "This world is made of love and peace," which is usually complemented by his flashing of the v sign. Vash's reputation as "The Humanoid Typhoon" is legendary, as is the damage and destruction associated with his presence. However, when those around him are threatened, Vash shows complete focus and control.

Vash is a multidimensional character who, despite his age, has still not found peace with himself. A point of conflict in the series are the inner differences between Vash and Millions Knives, his twin brother, and their regard for humanity. Though Vash and Knives have gone through the same experience and torment, Vash chooses to remain hopeful and loving toward humanity, where as Knives has fallen into a deep-seated hatred of their race. Their personalities also have other key differences: Vash cannot stand the despair of being alone, whereas Knives revels in his loneliness and has no desire for any company other than Vash.

Because Vash refuses to kill any of his opponents, he often suffers at the hands of a number of very persistent enemies. As a result, his body is a patchwork of large scars, chunks of missing flesh supported by metal mesh, and stitch marks.

Also at one point it seems Vash has the ability to break the fourth wall. In the Anime episode 14 he complains directly to the viewers and perhaps the shows writers over how little screen time he got during the middle of a battle in which he fired a single shot while in hiding.

Abilities
Aside from his Angel Arm, Vash has shown a superhuman level of agility, strength, reflexes, eyesight and complete muscle control. In episodes of the anime, Vash has often shown the ability to dodge bullets at close range and dodge skilled melee attacks (at one point doing so while at the same time pretending to dance with a woman). During a gun duel competition, Vash was able to prevent the deaths of many of the competitors by throwing rocks at key moments to knock bullets off their lethal courses. Vash is possibly stronger than most human beings as seen when he was able to use Wolfwood's Punisher (although he did comment on its weight). Finally, his intelligence is stated to be superior to that of most (if not all) humans. In the anime it is shown that he is capable of telepathic communication with his brother, though whether or not he possesses Knives' telekinetic capabilities remains uncertain.

Weapons
Signature weapon 

Vash habitually carries a .45 caliber silver- or nickel-plated revolver which bears a resemblance to many different revolvers. It is a classic six-shot double-action revolver with a top break reloading mechanism and fires .45 Long Colt ammunition. The engraving on the side of the gun describes it is a ".45 Long Colt AGL Arms Factory" with wings around the "AGL" as in angel. Vash's revolver has the barrel aligned with the 6 o'clock chamber, not the 12 o'clock chamber as is the typical configuration of standard revolvers. Only one actual weapon follows this form factor, the Mateba Autorevolver. In the series, this pistol was created as part of a pair by Knives, of which Vash was given the silver model, and Knives kept the black model. Vash eventually carries both weapons for a time, before losing the black pistol to Knives in another fight.

In the manga, Vash uses his unique gun more out of mere novelty and habit. Visually the pistol in the manga is also different from that in the anime, though it still features the unique placement of the barrel in the 6 o'clock position. In Trigun Maximum, the revolver used in the anime appears for Vash for use as a two-panel replacement for his standard gun while it is being repaired.

Angel Arm

In the series, within Vash's trademark revolver lies the catalyst needed to activate his "Angel Arm". The Angel Arm is Vash's ultimate weapon. Upon activation, his right arm transforms into a weapon powerful enough to destroy entire cities with a single blast, but does not harm any people in the process. Vash fears the Angel Arm's potential for destruction, and knows little about how to use it.

In the manga, the Angel Arm is a natural feature of a plant's body, and can be manipulated into various shapes to create a number of effects beyond destruction. His power using the Angel Arm is limited- -like a battery, it contains only a certain amount of energy, and when that energy is gone he will die. Vash's Angel Arm typically takes the shape of a large cannon weapon, which uses a tremendous amount of power. As a meter of spent energy a plant's hair color gradually darkens as their internal power is spent until reaching a final color of black when fully depleted. To illustrate the power of the Angel Arm, Vash's hair began to darken after the second time he fires it, using enough energy to blast a hole in the moon. Throughout the manga, Vash learns to gain better control of his power to form smaller cannons and defensive feathers, though his hair continues to grow darker until almost completely black. By the final volume, he has only a small shock of blond hair left.

Cybernetic arm

Vash lost his left arm when Knives blew it off using a different revolver, after Vash stole Knives' black Angel Arm pistol years earlier. In the manga, Knives cut it off when they were younger with a blade he formed from his own body. He now has a cybernetic replacement, which also conceals an integrated firearm. In both the series and manga, it is initially a powerful semiautomatic pistol that is later upgraded to a fully automatic submachine gun.

Other weapons and equipment

In the series, Vash can be seen using a knife hidden in his boot in multiple episodes. During his battle with Brilliant Dynamites Neon, he uses an automatic weapon that appears similar to an AK-47 carbine. In the climactic final battle with Knives, he also uses Wolfwood's Cross Punisher.

In the manga, Vash's signature coat changes on multiple occasions, usually after being damaged, destroyed, or lost. At least one model is described as being bullet-proof. During a battle with Knives aboard The Ark, tubes on his then-present coat were used to reload his revolver and to feed ammunition into his sub-machine gun. The tubes were used without Vash laying hands on them, but it is not made clear if this is done by mechanical means, or by Vash using his plant abilities.

The Great Fall
Vash and Knives had been found by the crew as human-like infants a year before the SEEDS fleet arrived at Gunsmoke. The crew initially wanted to kill them; however, Rem threw herself between the twins and the weapons, begging for their life. In just one year, they aged nearly ten years in appearance and with much higher intellectual capabilities than normal. One of the crew members named Steve disliked the idea of the living Plants on the control ship and didn't conceal it (ironically, he's the exact lookalike of Vash's friend Brad. Possibly being Brad's ancestor or relative). One day, the twins and Rem were at the recreation room, when Vash saw that a butterfly became stuck in a spiderweb. Knives grabbed and killed the spider, much to Rem's dislike ("one can only live if others die"). Another time, Rem cut Vash's hair, and said she had an idea and the result was Vash's current hair style. Knives grew tired of hearing Rem and Vash speak as if nothing was wrong, and decided to cut his own hair in a different style; he even explains to Vash: "If we continue to look the same, there's no individuality." This is the second sign of Knives' eventual madness (the first being the spider incident). After Steve knocked him down and kicked him multiple times, he got his revenge by asking the other female crewmate to lie and say that Steve raped her. After the unfortunate man was hibernated, another member sabotaged his cryopod. When he killed the woman (because she didn't want to marry him after she learned about the murder), Rem performed the same feat as Meryl when she saved Vash from an enraged man. However, the captain opened the airlock because he saw that the man was about to shoot Rem. Knives told him that he agrees with the solution, but when the captain showed signs of remorse, Knives killed him and put the gun in his hand. Vash and Rem have heard a message from the computer system that the fleet had changed its course and was about to crash. After sending Vash and Knives into an escape pod, she closed the door and told Vash to care for Knives. The pod was launched and Vash watched as the control ship exploded in re-entry and collapsed, crying. Knives started to laugh and revealed that he killed everyone and changed the course to kill every human on board. Suddenly, all the ships stopped and resumed to which Knives remarked, "The bitch has done it." The pod then fell onto the surface. When Vash regained consciousness, he saw in the dawn sky dozens of ships raining down as meteors. Knives wanted to help him, but Vash pushed him away, accusing him. Knives then changed his voice saying, "Yeah! Cool, huh?". They then spent the following years wandering through the deserts, observing crash sites and the few survivors. When some humans started to argue over some water, Knives activated the ship-board Plant's Angel Arm, but Vash pushed him over and prevented him from firing. After some wandering, Knives had found the ship he was looking for. He spent a whole year rummaging through the wreckage, finally procuring the two revolvers and some battle armor for himself. He threw one of the revolvers to Vash, saying "They are our new siblings. We will use them for wiping out the human scourge." He then went up to a hill and test-fired, creating a huge blast similar to a nuclear explosion. He then says "Only a 13% output, that's the best we can do." This then lead to an argument between the two, resulting in Vash shooting Knives in the leg and running away with both weapons.

July Incident
The infamous July Incident occurred before the start of the manga, when Vash traveled to the city of July in search of a man distantly related to Rem. Upon arriving, he was greeted by Knives, who had slain the man whom Vash had come to speak with. Knives announced that he'd destroyed the last connection Vash had to Rem, and in the exchange that followed, shot off Vash's left arm. Against Vash's will, Knives activated Vash's previously dormant Angel Arm, hoping to annihilate the surrounding town. However, Vash aimed the blast at Knives; the resulting blast reduced July to rubble, though there were no casualties as a direct result of the skirmish (there were, however, indirect fatalities after the homeless citizens of July began to fight among themselves, turning the remnants of the town to "Hell", in the words of one survivor). In the manga, 200,000 people are killed directly in the explosion.

Other appearances

 * Vash the Stampede makes a cameo appearance in the videogame Wild Arms 2 and in the anime Excel Saga.
 * In artist, writer and musician Voltaire's fourth Deady book ("Deady: Big in Japan"), there is a cosplayer dressed as Vash eating pocky.
 * The pop punk/ hardcore band, Four Year Strong, has a song named Vash the Stampede

Vash Vash the Stampede