For some reason this got deleted, so I'm posting it again since it seemed to be popular! Here goes!:
ON THE SURVIVAL OF REM AND HER RELATIONSHIP TO MILLY
It is my belief that Rem survived the ship explosion and is the great-great-grandmother of Milly.
I started thinking about this when I saw Rem's face for the first time. At first I thought she was Milly! But that was not possible. Milly was too young and besides, Vash surely would know Rem no matter what. And besides looking and sounding like Rem, Milly has the same kind of attitude toward life. Consider Milly's weapon, her Stungun. It's designed to stop people with out killing them or hurting them too badly. And in Escape From Pain, Milly tells Wolfwood that her big sister told her to help people when she could. Just the attitude one would expect from people influenced by someone like Rem. And consider Rem's favorite song, "Sound Life". Vash knows it because he heard Rem sing it. But Kaite and Meryl know it too. Pretty good for a song to last over one hundred years unless someone has been spreading it around. So here's my theory:
Rem left Vash and Knives in an escape pod and went back to the bridge to save the ships. When she got there, she found it was a simple matter to correct the other ship's courses. She then had time to get to another escape pod and leave. But the main ship was too far off course and exploded. The explosion forced Rem's pod far away from the boys' pod and it blended into the debris so that's why Vash didn't see it. Result: Rem lands safely.
Q: Why didn't Rem try to find Vash and Knives?
A: She did, but she didn't know where they landed or even if they landed safely. Besides, she saw how badly the other survivors were equipped to handle this planet, so she put all her effort into helping them. It just the sort of thing she would do. She fell in love, married and had a huge family, including grandchildren and great-grand children. Again, with her love of life, this is the sort of thing she would do. She still tried over the years to find the boys, but we know they didn't encounter other people very often and so Rem didn't have any information to go on.
Q: With Vash's reputation, why didn't Rem find out about him later?
A: Vash's reputation didn't start until the destruction of July (Lost July). By that time she had died of old age.
Q: Why didn't Vash ever remark on the resemblance of Milly to Rem?
A: Remember, Vash thinks Rem is dead. He has no reason to believe she survived.
Q: Why didn't Milly connect Vash various mentions of Rem with her great-great-grandmother?
A: Milly is the youngest of eleven children. Rem died before Milly was born, so Milly would not have any memories of her. Besides, many children don't refer to great-great-grandparents by first name. And, Milly never heard Vash talk about Rem so she would never have made the connection between Rem and her great-great-grand-mother.
Q: Why didn't Milly ever comment on the song?
A: Simple. She never heard Vash sing it. And even if she did, it seems to be common enough that it wouldn't excite comment.
So there you are. I hope, if a sequel to Trigun in made, that one day Vash will find out about Rem and Milly's relationship.
~~~~~George W. Bush: the Maxwell Smart of presidents~~~~~
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