On Meryl and Millie in Trigun: Stampede
Mar. 26th, 2023 03:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labingiThe Mary Sue has an interesting article on Meryl and Millie in Trigun Stampede, which prompted a long fannish comment from me. I'll go ahead and post it here, too, as a bit of Trigun meta.
Very interesting article! Huge fan of Trigun here (especially the manga), so here I go with some thoughts. I agree that women were not as well represented in season 1 of Stampede as in the '98 anime (or manga). I agree that season 2 will probably do better as we meet older Meryl and Millie. I agree that Vash's behavior toward Dominique is something Stampede would do well to omit. (Some Trigun spoilers follow.)
Here's where it gets tricky. Trigun is inherently a story focused on its male characters. It's fundamentally about Vash, Knives, and Wolfwood, and, in my opinion, at its best, it's just about perfect as such, especially the manga. The unfortunate thing about Meryl and Millie, back to their basic concepts, is that they are not really necessary to the plot or themes of the story. They have no major, needed function. They serve a bit as Everywomen encountering Vash and figuring out who he is, but once that role is done, they really don't have a core reason to be there except for the story to represent women. This is especially true in the manga.
The '98 anime serves them a bit better, oddly enough by making them love interests. I usually shudder at female characters being primarily love interests, but gosh if it doesn't give Meryl and Millie a pretty well-written reason to exist! (Spoilers for '98-->)Meryl's falling for Vash as she gets to know him and his inability to respond feels real and moving. Likewise, Wolfwood and Millie's eventual pairing up right on the eve of his death feels real and moving.
I grant, though, that's not the most progressive way to serve female characters well, but I can't figure out what else you'd do with them. As people, they largely recapitulate roles the men already hold. Meryl has a lot of Wolfwood's acerbic characteristics, and Millie is like a mini-Vash with a lot less life experience. Yes, Meryl and Millie's rapport is great, and it's fun to watch them be dangerous fighters (they get more of this in the manga), but it's just never going to be enough to put them on a par with the three top male characters because it's not integral to the story, and I'm not sure how you get around that while keeping Trigun as Trigun.
In terms of how women, in general, get treated on No Man's Land, there's a question of worldbuilding vs. good role modeling. I would argue that No Man's Land is, indeed, a sexist society, and it makes sense that it would be. The history of humans on No Man's Land is 150 years of losing higher technology and increasing struggle to survive. As this happens, I think, the largely egalitarian society of the Seed ships becomes more stressed, aggressive, and lawless (Wild West), and an inevitable consequence is that men will begin to dominate women: that's just how stress, aggression, and lawlessness work. I think that's good worldbuilding, and personally, I wouldn't jettison it solely to write egalitarian scenes for women. However, what I would probably do if I were a writer for Stampede would be to call this out explicitly, which neither the manga nor 98 anime do, to actually have a conversation about women getting the short end of the stick. Vash, in particular, would have seen this unfold across 150 years and it would be interesting to get his take on it, hopefully without the 98 anime's clinging, groping stuff.
Finally, to return to the fundamental structure of the story, there is one female character who is absolutely integral to everything that happens and whom I happen to consider one of the best-conceived female characters I have read: Rem. Rem is the genesis of the entire story: she raised Vash and Knives; she saved the lives of the ancestors of everyone on No Man's Land. She is the reason the story happens, from broad historical events to Vash's and Knives's personal attitudes and trauma. Manga Rem is truly fascinating, though we see her almost solely through her kids' POV, so we have to read her life between the lines of what she shows them. What's there is very open to interpretation and I'll spare my personal interpretation, but she's very tough, very strong, and very weighted by guilt. To use a Les Mis analogy, she is the Jean Valjean of the story (and I wonder if this was intentional, given the pattern of her name: Rem Saverem). The 98 anime took most of this out, and season 1 of Stampede took almost all of it out, leaving only a sketch of a nice, brave mom like a million others we've seen. I hope season 2 may flesh her out more, but frankly I'm a little doubtful; the writers don't seem to realize what they have with her. Nonetheless, my principal suggestion for the writing of women in Trigun to be more detailed and explicit about the depth and importance of Rem. As for Meryl and Millie, they can get fight scenes and be competent in adventures, but I'm not sure what else the story will support beyond that. Of course, I’d be glad to be pleasantly surprised.
Very interesting article! Huge fan of Trigun here (especially the manga), so here I go with some thoughts. I agree that women were not as well represented in season 1 of Stampede as in the '98 anime (or manga). I agree that season 2 will probably do better as we meet older Meryl and Millie. I agree that Vash's behavior toward Dominique is something Stampede would do well to omit. (Some Trigun spoilers follow.)
Here's where it gets tricky. Trigun is inherently a story focused on its male characters. It's fundamentally about Vash, Knives, and Wolfwood, and, in my opinion, at its best, it's just about perfect as such, especially the manga. The unfortunate thing about Meryl and Millie, back to their basic concepts, is that they are not really necessary to the plot or themes of the story. They have no major, needed function. They serve a bit as Everywomen encountering Vash and figuring out who he is, but once that role is done, they really don't have a core reason to be there except for the story to represent women. This is especially true in the manga.
The '98 anime serves them a bit better, oddly enough by making them love interests. I usually shudder at female characters being primarily love interests, but gosh if it doesn't give Meryl and Millie a pretty well-written reason to exist! (Spoilers for '98-->)Meryl's falling for Vash as she gets to know him and his inability to respond feels real and moving. Likewise, Wolfwood and Millie's eventual pairing up right on the eve of his death feels real and moving.
I grant, though, that's not the most progressive way to serve female characters well, but I can't figure out what else you'd do with them. As people, they largely recapitulate roles the men already hold. Meryl has a lot of Wolfwood's acerbic characteristics, and Millie is like a mini-Vash with a lot less life experience. Yes, Meryl and Millie's rapport is great, and it's fun to watch them be dangerous fighters (they get more of this in the manga), but it's just never going to be enough to put them on a par with the three top male characters because it's not integral to the story, and I'm not sure how you get around that while keeping Trigun as Trigun.
In terms of how women, in general, get treated on No Man's Land, there's a question of worldbuilding vs. good role modeling. I would argue that No Man's Land is, indeed, a sexist society, and it makes sense that it would be. The history of humans on No Man's Land is 150 years of losing higher technology and increasing struggle to survive. As this happens, I think, the largely egalitarian society of the Seed ships becomes more stressed, aggressive, and lawless (Wild West), and an inevitable consequence is that men will begin to dominate women: that's just how stress, aggression, and lawlessness work. I think that's good worldbuilding, and personally, I wouldn't jettison it solely to write egalitarian scenes for women. However, what I would probably do if I were a writer for Stampede would be to call this out explicitly, which neither the manga nor 98 anime do, to actually have a conversation about women getting the short end of the stick. Vash, in particular, would have seen this unfold across 150 years and it would be interesting to get his take on it, hopefully without the 98 anime's clinging, groping stuff.
Finally, to return to the fundamental structure of the story, there is one female character who is absolutely integral to everything that happens and whom I happen to consider one of the best-conceived female characters I have read: Rem. Rem is the genesis of the entire story: she raised Vash and Knives; she saved the lives of the ancestors of everyone on No Man's Land. She is the reason the story happens, from broad historical events to Vash's and Knives's personal attitudes and trauma. Manga Rem is truly fascinating, though we see her almost solely through her kids' POV, so we have to read her life between the lines of what she shows them. What's there is very open to interpretation and I'll spare my personal interpretation, but she's very tough, very strong, and very weighted by guilt. To use a Les Mis analogy, she is the Jean Valjean of the story (and I wonder if this was intentional, given the pattern of her name: Rem Saverem). The 98 anime took most of this out, and season 1 of Stampede took almost all of it out, leaving only a sketch of a nice, brave mom like a million others we've seen. I hope season 2 may flesh her out more, but frankly I'm a little doubtful; the writers don't seem to realize what they have with her. Nonetheless, my principal suggestion for the writing of women in Trigun to be more detailed and explicit about the depth and importance of Rem. As for Meryl and Millie, they can get fight scenes and be competent in adventures, but I'm not sure what else the story will support beyond that. Of course, I’d be glad to be pleasantly surprised.
