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I've always wondered about the English translation of Trigun. Knives and I are "plants" ... but what does that really mean? Is "plant" used to denote photosynthetic/autotrophic organisms? Or is it more like "power plant" or "generator"?

Any conjectures? Anybody read/speak enough Japanese to know what the original word was?

It makes sense.. Power plants providing energy, natural plants providing food and oxygen. A logical choice for a name, I do believe

Yeah, trees and grass and vines generally don't open up vast energy portals.

Plant's are inter-deminsonal beings. No body explained how they came into existence, but it's speculated that they were created by scientists.

They look like enhanced human beings, so it's possible they were once humans with special qualities and are now their own race through experimentation and breeding.

Really, it's not explained WHERE they came from.

However, it is explained why some of them can exist outside of their 'light bulb pods'.

These plants (like Vash and Knives) are called 'Independent Plants'. They have the same powers as regular plants, but they have more control over their body.

It's explained that plants don't have any conscious thought that isn't shared with the entire colony of plants. Which means that when one plant has a thought and it's connected to a plant, they share thoughts.

Plants also have 'energy'. This energy is their life force. As seen from the angel arms, it's extremely potent and powerful. This is what humans harness to run their machines on the dessert planet. However, plants DO run out of energy and they die that way. So Knives is mainly upset that humans kill plants for their own survival (at least in the Manga plot line, it's not explained in the Anime).

Plants can actually 'merge' with each other to create one being. Which is most likely what Knive's goal ultimately is. Had he succeeded, he would have just fused with his brother's body and they would have become Siamese twins (mind you, not CONSUME him, just fuse) and use his power.

So, if you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

Oh, by the way, apparently extracting energy from plants is an entirely painful process. As demonstrated by Vash (his angel arm friggen hurts, I bet) and other plants.

Also, when plants are used up, they have something called a 'Last Run' where they exert the rest of their life energy and then proceed to intenerally explode from it. Organs everywhere. Not pleasant.

Other tid-bid. Plant's hair turn black when they use energy. In the manga, Vash's hair is already turning black on the sides.

((I'm jost going to say my own theory here!))

I believe that Vash is a plant. If you take a look at the japanese version, which my stepmother owns, it says that Vash and Knives are both a power plant of a sort. A living experiment. Anyway, most of what Kachie-chan, pretty much explains it to the point! Thanks Kachie!

I have to agree with alot of what you said however, Tesla set about improving Edison’s line of dynamos while working in Edison’s lab in New Jersey. It was here that his divergence of opinion with Edison over direct current versus alternating current began. This disagreement climaxed in the war of the currents as Edison fought a losing battle to protect his investment in direct current equipment and facilities.
Edison’s lamps were weak and inefficient when supplied by direct current. This system had a severe disadvantage in that it could not be transported more than two miles due to its inability to step up to high voltage levels necessary for long distance transmission. Consequently, a direct current power station was required at two mile intervals. Tesla was a pioneer in many fields. The Tesla coil, which he invented in 1891, is widely used today in radio and television sets and other electronic equipment. That year also marked the date of Tesla's United States citizenship. His alternating current induction motor is considered one of the ten greatest discoveries of all time. Among his discoveries are the fluorescent light , laser beam, wireless communications, wireless transmission of electrical energy, remote control, robotics, Tesla’s turbines and vertical take off aircraft. Tesla is the father of the radio and the modern electrical transmissions systems. He registered over 700 patents worldwide. His vision included exploration of solar energy and the power of the sea. He foresaw interplanetary communications and satellites. Nikola Tesla patented the basic system of radio in 1896. His published schematic diagrams describing all the basic elements of the radio transmitter which was later used by Marconi.

In 1896 Tesla constructed an instrument to receive radio waves. He experimented with this device and transmitted radio waves from his laboratory on South 5th Avenue. to the Gerlach Hotel at 27th Street in Manhattan. The device had a magnet which gave off intense magnetic fields up to 20,000 lines per centimeter. The radio device clearly establishes his piority in the discovery of radio.
However, the heart of radio transmission is based upon four tuned circuits for transmitting and receiving. It is Tesla's original concept demonstrated in his famous lecture at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1893. The four circuits, used in two pairs, are still a fundamental part of all radio and television equipment.

The United States Supreme Court, in 1943 held Marconi's most important patent invalid, recognizing Tesla's more significant contribution as the inventor of radio technology.

Tesla built an experimental station in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1899, to experiment with high voltage, high frequency electricity and other phenomena.

When the Colorado Springs Tesla Coil magnifying transmitter was energized, it created sparks 30 feet long. From the outside antenna, these sparks could be seen from a distance of ten miles. From this laboratory, Tesla generated and sent out wireless waves which mediated energy, without wires for miles.

In Colorado Springs, where he stayed from May 1899 until 1900, Tesla made what he regarded as his most important discovery-- terrestrial stationary waves. By this discovery he proved that the Earth could be used as a conductor(the plants) and would be as responsive as a tuning fork to electrical vibrations of a certain frequency. He also lighted 200 lamps without wires from a distance of 25 miles( 40 kilometers) and created man-made lightning. At one time he was certain he had received signals from another planet in his Colorado laboratory, a claim that was met with disbelief in some scientific journals.

About the ray gun it was a hoax, Tesla was believed clinically senile at this time and it was never built, However te design was used and proven flawed, but was used as a base for modern laser targeting devices developed in the 1980's.

In 1915, a New York Times article announced that Tesla and Edison were to share the Nobel Prize for physics. Oddly, neither man received the prize, the reason being unclear. It was rumored that Tesla refused the prize because he would not share with Edison, and because Marconi had already received his.

All in all Edisin Is may have invented electicity but he did not know what to do with it.

As for the Basis Of the "plant" Combination AC electrical compression, is the only explanation in the real world for the angel arm and energy effect created in the bodies of Vash And Knives, to explain the discoloration of the hair in regards to using the angel arm, Modern Electrical conduction is usually accomplished using a conductor, copper in large scale electical transference, or even tungsten in the small lightbulb. Generally these break down in time, and "blow" so to speak and as a light bulb stongly brightens, in the final nanosecond before it blows, that explains the "last run" consequence of explosion to the plants body

If there are any more questions Ask me I am the Shadowed Gunslinger

wow.