Vash's Hair Essay
So uh. I haven't even posted and I'm already writing essays!

Let's talk about Vash's hair, and why it being blond again means Vash thinks he died.



So you MIGHT NOTICE that in some of Vash's icons (like the one being used) his hair is blond in the fron and black in the back.

THERE IS A REASON FOR THIS.

Basically, Vash is a PLANT. PLANTs in Trigun are those angelic creatures that live inside big lightbulbs all across Gunsmoke. Humanity LITERALLY cannot survive on that planet without PLANTs. Not only do they supply power (ANY kind of power) but they can make organic matter. This means the majority of the food on the planet is produced by PLANTs, and why they have things like salmon sandwiches in a land with no natural water.

Now, as far as we know, PLANTs are naturally limitless in their power. They are being that were created by man to serve... what they do now. However, because of how much distruction they could cause if one were to... ah.. become an individual, and survive outside of the bulbs they usually live and die in, all PLANTs have a naturally limiter within them. Once they use more than a certain amount of power, they die.

The way to mark how much of their power has been used? Their hair. It gradually turns black as their lives wind down.

Now, Vash lived for 150 years without using up enough of his power to start 'dying'. This includes the time he blew up July with the same 'Angel Arm' he later uses to put a hole in the Fifth Moon. And while Vash apparently never intentionally used his powers prior to that, they did naturally protect him. For all that Vash's body is REALLY badly scarred, it would be much worse if it didn't heal and maintain itself. In the anime he's hardly ever shot, in the manga he gets shot a LOT, and one of the doctors mentions how the bullet 'was pushed out'.

The first time Vash's hair changes is the second time he uses a massive amount of power. At Jeneora Rock, Knives once again forces Vash to use his Angel Arm. This time Vash successfully at least points it UP, and that power is so great that it travels across space and leaves a giant crater in the moon. This event causes a little less than half of Vash's hair to turn black.

However, after that every time Vash uses his power, more and more of his hair turns black. He uses his power again signifigantly to protect Wolfwood's home, and this leave him with only about a fourth of his hair still blond. And then in prepartion for fight Knives, Vash 'stores' nearly all of his power within bullets, til he only has one blond streak of hair left.

For the sake of logic, as best as I can make it, Vash's hair is completely blond again, despite the fact that he is from... post current Maximum chapters. Unlike the anime, Vash in Maximum is VERY intent on killing his brother. He's been planning to kill Knives likely since July, where Knives forced him to kill about uh. 100,000 people. In the anime it says that, somehow, no one in July was killed. In the manga they ALL died, and Vash has some Serious Fucking Emo over this. Plus Knives killed Rem, which is what Vash really hates him for. So anyway. There won't be any happy ending for these two, Vash fully intends to kill Knives the first time he gets a chance. He also fully expects to die in the process.

The problem for me, as a player, is that if Vash comes to camp without fulfilling what he sees to be his Only Purpose In Life he will be. Uh. Emo. A lot. Vash in Trigun Maximum lives only to protect the people of Gunsmoke, that Rem gave her life to save. That is his reason for existing. Otherwise he would've let himself die ages ago, cause he honestly thinks he doesn't deserve to exist. Furthermore, recently in Trigum Maximum Knives slaughtered... a whole lot of people. I'm talking in the millions. Basically he 'stole' the plants from every city he came across, and the people within them were left to starve to death and kill each other and often become cannibles. This went on for seven months and now there are only a few cities where people are still alive and safe. If Vash fails to stop Knives now? Every human on Gunsmoke WILL die.

So! You can see how it would be traumatic for Vash to think he failed. He would, perhaps, eventually get over it. But it would take a long time as he's very old and the knowledge that he failed would mean that his last 150 years of work had come down to nothing, he was unable to protect Rem's people etc etc etc.

Thus, while it hasn't happened in canon yet, I'm sure there will SOON be a point where Vash may briefly appear to be dead while it briefly appears he might've killed Knives as well. Vash is from this theoretical point in time. He believes he successfully killed Knives and can thus enjoy his afterlife.

I will retcon this as necessary. However, it really SHOULDN'T come up in camp. Vash won't talk about how he died, Vash, in general, Doesn't Talk About Stuff, so this will be very easy for him. He believes his hair is blond again because he died, and believes he killed Knives in the process, but he has no real reason to seriously talk out the details with anyone, likely not even Wolfwood.

And before it can be asked. Yes, this is really the best I can come up with x.x Due to the order of events in Maximum, there is no way I could take Vash from any point after Wolfwood's death without triggering major "the planet is being destroyed and I'm not there to save it" trauma. And I consider taking Vash from after Wolfwood's death to be a requirement, since the reunion is part of the reason I apped him.

So anyway. Ignore Vash's icons. His hair is currently all blond.


Oh, and SPEAKING of icons? Wolfwood made like. Pretty much all of them. I have 500 icons from the anime and manga all courtesy of Wolfwood, who owns my soul FOREVER.