Legato Bluesummers

Legato is cold, sadistic and almost unnaturally composed. He can sit eating calmly while people around him die and treats human lives as disposable material for whatever psychological pressure he wants to place on Vash.

His devotion to Knives is extreme. Legato regards his own life as insignificant beside Knives's wishes and reacts violently to anyone he believes has insulted or failed his master.

That devotion combines with a personal obsession with Vash. Legato understands that simply killing him would not accomplish the punishment Knives wants, so he repeatedly constructs situations intended to destroy Vash's belief that every life can be saved.

Legato can manipulate human bodies against their owners' will. In the original manga, this ability comes from Vash's severed left arm, which Knives grafted onto Legato and which allows him to use Plant-derived power to control biological bodies.

The 1998 anime presents the ability more mysteriously, showing Legato controlling individuals and crowds remotely without initially explaining its mechanism. He can force people to aim weapons at one another, attack allies or move despite desperately resisting his commands.

Legato is also exceptionally dangerous without relying solely on body control. The manga depicts enormous physical resilience and a willingness to continue fighting after catastrophic injury.

Legato enters Vash's journey as the messenger and operational leader of Knives's campaign. He commands the Gung-Ho Guns, deploying assassins such as Monev the Gale, Dominique the Cyclops and Rai-Dei the Blade to attack Vash and the people around him.

His objective is psychological as much as physical. Every confrontation is designed to test whether Vash can preserve his absolute refusal to kill when innocent lives are deliberately placed at risk.

Legato eventually creates a situation in which Vash must either kill him or allow Meryl and Milly to be murdered. Vash shoots Legato, making him the first person Vash deliberately kills and fulfilling Legato's goal of breaking the absolute boundary Vash inherited from Rem.

Millions Knives is the object of Legato's absolute devotion. Legato willingly treats his own life as expendable if doing so advances Knives's objectives.

Vash the Stampede is Legato's principal target. Rather than seeking a simple victory, Legato wants to destroy Vash's commitment to preserving every life.

Monev the Gale, Dominique the Cyclops, Rai-Dei the Blade and the other Gung-Ho Guns operate under Legato's direction during the campaign against Vash.

Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson become leverage in Legato's attempt to force Vash into an impossible moral choice. Legato threatens their lives through his controlled agents, ultimately compelling Vash to kill him.