Vash the Stampede

Vash deliberately presents himself as foolish, flirtatious and harmless. He loves doughnuts, exaggerates his reactions and frequently allows other people to underestimate him. Much of that behavior is intentional, helping defuse confrontations before violence becomes necessary.

His pacifism is uncompromising. Vash believes every life has value, including the lives of people trying to kill him, and will injure himself or accept enormous personal risk to avoid taking a life.

That idealism does not make him carefree. His humor conceals guilt, loneliness and an acute awareness of the suffering around him. The tension between his principles and situations designed to make those principles impossible to maintain drives many of his hardest decisions.

Vash is an extraordinary marksman with superhuman reflexes, coordination and situational awareness. He can ricochet shots, disarm opponents without killing them and calculate trajectories under extreme pressure. His ability is so great that observers often misunderstand his carefully controlled actions as luck.

He is also far more durable and physically capable than an ordinary human. His body bears extensive scars accumulated while protecting others and surviving disasters across No Man's Land.

Vash is not human but an Independent Plant, a sentient member of the energy-producing species on which human settlements depend. His Plant nature grants abilities far beyond his already extraordinary gunmanship, including manifestations associated with the Angel Arm.

Vash begins as a legendary disaster whose reputation bears little resemblance to his actual personality. Meryl and Milly follow him while investigating the enormous financial damage attributed to the Humanoid Typhoon, gradually discovering the person behind the bounty.

His travels repeatedly bring him into conflict with people who challenge his commitment to nonviolence. Wolfwood becomes particularly important because he shares Vash's desire to protect people while rejecting his refusal to kill.

Vash's central conflict is with his twin brother Millions Knives, another Independent Plant whose hatred of humanity places him directly against Vash's belief that humans and Plants can coexist. Their opposing convictions underpin the disasters and battles surrounding Vash's past.

Millions Knives is Vash's twin brother. Both are Independent Plants, but Knives' hatred of humanity turns their relationship into the defining conflict of Vash's life.

Rem Saverem raises Vash and profoundly shapes his moral outlook. Her death during the Great Fall leaves Vash determined to preserve the belief in life and compassion she taught him.

Meryl Stryfe initially follows Vash as part of Bernardelli's investigation. She gradually becomes one of his closest companions and develops deep feelings for him.

Milly Thompson travels with Meryl and comes to understand the compassionate man beneath Vash's destructive reputation.

Nicholas D. Wolfwood becomes Vash's companion, friend and ideological foil. Their disagreements over whether killing can be justified give their friendship much of its tension.