Nicholas D. Wolfwood (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mycrosstobear) wrote2019-07-21 08:38 am
mycrosstobear) wrote2019-07-21 08:38 am
Entry tags:
Balance Application
Nicholas D. Wolfwood: May God's grace go with you. | |
| APP HMD MONK ORLANDO |
Character name: Nicholas D. Wolfwood
Age: around 18 or 19 (appears roughly a decade older)
Canon: Trigun Maximum (aka the manga)
Canon point: following volume 10 chapter 7, so post-death
History: Wiki link, or if you want more detail I wrote too much over here
Three key adjectives: pragmatic, argumentative, altruistic
Influential Events:
Paradise
The most important thing to happen in Wolfwood's life was being taken in (after, it's implied, being on the streets at a very young age) by a church orphanage. Melanie, the woman who runs the orphanage, the other adults, and the other kids there became his family. With the encouragement and support of the adults, Wolfwood ended up taking on a big brother role for the other children. He complained about it some of the time, but he was always ready to help the younger kids out, whether that meant accompanying them to the bathroom in the middle of the night or helping them get out of a dangerous situation on the roof. At some point he started carving as a hobby, and used it to make a toy for a baby he'd been asked to care for.
The kinds of values he'd come to believe in come out pretty clearly when he befriends Livio, a boy who arrives at the orphanage some time after Wolfwood. During his first few days there, Livio spends his time apart from the rest, frequently crying. Wolfwood eventually approaches him, getting Livio to eat and later convincing him to start getting more involved. One of the things Wolfwood focuses on is the importance of helping. You can at least come and do some chores. And that way, you can find out that working together with people and looking after others is satisfying in and of itself. And no one's alone.
...Admittedly, Wolfwood's kind of a grumpy jerk through the whole process, given how bluntly he deals with Livio's worries and the whole "throwing a can at Livio to see if he'd get a reaction" part. It's the underlying thought that counts? (And hey, it works out until Livio's alter ego causes problems.)
The orphanage, to Wolfwood, represents what the world could and should be - a place that offers community and support to everyone, that seeks to give children a better future than the one they were born into. A "paradise," in his own words. It's this vision, and these people, that he wants to protect above all else.
Eye of Michael
But he didn't get to stay in paradise. The Eye of Michael is the opposite of the orphanage. It's a place all about destroying other people - both in terms of the group's work as assassins and in how they treat their members. It seems Wolfwood was at the very least made to think that those in charge were willing to kill him (likely not just an impression), and that the only way to be safe was to succeed in the tasks set before him. Even then, success could still be met with a shot to the leg if his mentor Chapel felt like making a point about the realities of combat. Wolfwood never took to the total devotion to the "mission" that's brainwashed into some other members of the group, but he was still profoundly changed by his experience. Thanks to the organization's "enhancements" to his physical capabilities, he ended up aging a few years rapidly, and continues to age at an increased rate. And he became a killer.
As far as Wolfwood was concerned, he came out of his experiences at the Eye of Michael unrecognizable both physically and mentally. He certainly came out with a lot of cynicism and self-hatred. Although he never lost sight of his real goals (to protect the others at the orphanage, to try to make the world a better one for all kids), his approach changed to be much more in line with the kill-or-be-killed mindset the Eye of Michael fostered. He became convinced that it's necessary to be ruthless, in order to protect the powerless people who really need help. And in order to make the world one where, well, fewer people will end up like him. Wolfwood hated the Eye of Michael, but he didn't run away or try to gather allies to help take it down - instead, he took matters into his own hands. He shot Chapel and impersonated him in an attempt to kill both Chapel and the man giving the ultimate orders (...neither worked but look, he tried). Because sometimes making the world a better place means you have to sink to where it is first, and the only way to stop some people from harming others is to kill them.
Even if it's necessary, though, that's still blood on your hands. Someone who's committed crimes like that isn't fit to, say, help care for a bunch of kids. They're probably just fit to continuing to do the dirty work so no one else has to pick it up.
Wolfwood still wants to protect the community he found early on, but he cuts himself off from it. And, really, from any meaningful relationship with others. For all that he'll strike up a friendly chat one-on-one or in small groups, he often hangs back from gatherings and rarely offers up more than the broadest personal details. If he does end up around someone a lot of the time, he finds little ways to put up walls - exclusively calling Vash, Meryl, and Milly by nicknames after they start traveling together seems to be as much a way of distancing himself as it is a friendly affectation. He'll let himself continue from generally questioning someone into making an insensitive remark (sometimes he'll apologize for that, at least), driving people back. He's dangerous to be close to, after all, due to the kind of life he leads. And it's dangerous for him to care too much as well, because it might make it harder for him to be as ruthless as he thinks he has to be in order to deal with the world's problems.
But sometimes you really can't avoid someone, because you've been assigned the role of their guide.
Travelling with Vash
The thing about Vash the Stampede is that he can't let any problem, or any person, go without trying to help. The thing about traveling with Vash (and trying to keep him alive) is that you're stuck at least watching all the situations he gets himself into because of that, if not participating. You're definitely stuck bailing him out of the aftermath.
From early on, a major component of Wolfwood and Vash's relationship is a clash between Wolfwood's pragmatism and Vash's idealism. Wolfwood tries to convince Vash that you can't try to resolve every dangerous situation you come across, because it puts your ability to deal with larger threats at risk, and sometimes killing someone who's threatening you or others is the only way. You have to prioritize, and you can't afford to give everyone every chance. Vash, in turn, insists that it's wrong to ever pass something by when you can help, and killing is never the answer.
This first really comes to a head in Vash's fight with Rai-Dei the Blade, after Wolfwood (against Vash's wishes) shoots the defeated Rai-Dei when it looked like the guy was going to get back up and attack Vash from behind. In the argument that follows, Wolfwood demands that Vash shoot him, in order to prove that he possesses the ruthlessness necessary to get past the Gung-Ho Guns and protect the world from Knives. Vash, obviously, doesn't do this. He does state that he believes Wolfwood doesn't really believe in the cynical extremes he's arguing for. And Vash says he feels sorry for Wolfwood, because it seems that Wolfwood can just give up on anything. It's a conversation Wolfwood thinks back to a number of times, particularly troubled by the accusation that he just gives up.
Wolfwood does keep arguing with Vash, because one argument (that actually got under his skin) from a naive idiot is not going to move him, no way. For example, he makes a point to tell Vash that the only way he, Wolfwood, was able to help protect the people on the ship Vash sometimes comes home was to kill 7 of the 9 people who made up Gray the Ninelives (just go with it). But even as Wolfwood continually tells Vash he shouldn't risk himself getting involved in local problems, Wolfwood gets more and more drawn into it himself. At the start of their journey, Wolfwood hangs back and watches when Vash does things like dive into resolving a hostage situation, content to just break Vash out of the jail he ends up in afterwards. As time goes on, though, Wolfwood ends up joining Vash's battles even when they don't involve the Gung-Ho Guns (who are the larger threat), the two of them fighting local bandits and the like back-to-back, defeating them without any deaths.
The thing about Vash is that he never gives up on anybody. It's enough to make you want to be someone more like that.
Last Stand
And all of these things come together when Wolfwood finally returns home to the orphanage, in order to protect it from Chapel's retaliation after Wolfwood betrays him again. It's here where Wolfwood truly puts the increased idealism he's picked (back) up from Vash into practice, though not without including some of his own realism with it. And it's here where he has a number of the assumptions that have haunted him proved wrong.
When Wolfwood arrives and finds the orphanage already under attack, he deals with the goons Chapel had hired by injuring them, carefully avoiding killing them. As he confronts Chapel and Livio (now also a member of the Eye of Michael), Wolfwood does do his best to kill Chapel (the guy is stupidly resilient). Chapel, after all, has proven pretty thoroughly that he won't stop being a threat to others. But Wolfwood also puts himself on the line trying to get through to Livio as they fight (or, mostly, as Wolfwood fights Livio's alter ego Razlo), avoiding chances to kill in the hope that maybe Livio can be reminded that there's a better way to live than as the killer he's been turned into. And hey, it works out.
This is making the world better. Getting rid of the biggest threats, yes. But also trying to avoid killing anyone else (incapacitating...well, they were attacking an orphanage). And giving people the chance to change. Wolfwood expresses a satisfaction with how things turned out after this that's at distinct odds with, say, how defensive and argumentative he was after fighting Gray.
For years, Wolfwood had believed that even if he did go home, he wouldn't be recognized. And that would be for the better, because the kind of person he's become shouldn't be welcomed. This ends up being as misguided as Wolfwood's earlier conviction that he couldn't change his approach was. Melanie does recognize him, and worries about him. And when he asks her not to tell the kids who he really was (since he'd, you know, just been involved in a bloody battle right outside the building, which isn't an ideal thing for kids to see), she ignores that. When the kids find out, they send a sign to show Wolfwood that they still welcome him too.
The connections you have with others don't just disappear. You can always reach out and help each other.
Shame about the dying immediately afterwards.
Link to Samples: Sample 1; Sample 2
Chosen path: Monk
5 Abilities:
Deflect Missiles
Mystery of Death
Tranquility
Radiant Sun Bolt
canon power: Eye of Michael
Why this path?: There's reason to believe that Wolfwood does feel some actual calling as a priest rather than just using the profession as cover (he certainly believes, and he's capable of conducting services), so I think he would gravitate towards something which has, from the sound of it, a religious connection (and I don't think he'd like the sound of "cleric" as much). Monk's mix of strength and defense also suits the role he plays in canon pretty well - he has no problem leaping into a fight, but he also has a strong focus on shielding others during battle. He's a tricky customer when he wants to be, too - he did infiltrate and double-cross the Gung-Ho Guns.
...Also I think giving him an ability called "tranquility," not to mention "mystery of death," is hilarious.
blurb code by photosynthesis