Descartes

Descartes is aggressive, boastful and eager to claim Vash's enormous bounty. He commands a gang of armed followers and relies heavily on intimidation and his enormous physical presence.

He is also caught up in the same unreliable rumor network as everyone else pursuing Vash. His willingness to identify possible targets from vague descriptions contributes directly to the confusion of the opening episode.

Descartes is exceptionally large and physically powerful. His signature weapon is a massive metal boomerang launched through a mechanical apparatus, giving him a destructive ranged attack suited to his size.

He also commands numerous henchmen, allowing him to surround targets rather than depend entirely on individual combat.

Despite his strength and weaponry, he cannot match Vash's speed, precision or ability to manipulate a fight without killing his opponents.

Descartes is one of the major sources of confusion in "The $$60,000,000,000 Man." Meryl and Milly have only contradictory eyewitness descriptions of Vash, including reports of an enormous man with a mohawk and many followers.

Descartes fits that description far better than the actual Vash the Stampede, while another bounty hunter also becomes mistaken for the target. The resulting confusion allows the episode to introduce Vash through his reputation before establishing how little that reputation resembles the real man.

A version of Descartes also appears in Trigun Maximum in a minor role separate from the anime's opening-episode plot.

Vash the Stampede is Descartes's intended bounty target. Descartes initially fails to recognize that the unassuming blond gunman is the person he is hunting.

Loose Ruth is another bounty hunter whom Descartes mistakenly identifies as Vash during the confusion.

Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson initially consider Descartes a plausible candidate for the Humanoid Typhoon because he matches one of the descriptions they have collected.