Millions Knives is the main antagonist of Trigun and Vash's older twin brother. Both are sentient Plants born during a colonial mission, raised together on a settler ship and cared for by Rem until Knives deliberately crashed it to prevent human colonization. That's where their paths diverged.
While Vash believes in redemption and the inherent worth of all life, Knives sees the world through a lens of survival of the fittest. After witnessing experiments performed on another Plant, he became convinced that humans are parasitic and evil—irredeemable obstacles to peace. He made it his mission to eradicate them entirely, viewing himself not as a god but as simply superior to humans. Vash refused to accept this logic and spent the series working against him, while Knives repeatedly tried to pull his brother away from what he saw as Rem's poisonous "idealistic nonsense."
What's interesting about Knives is that his vision of an "Eden" on Gunsmoke with Plants living freely suggests he's not motivated by cruelty for its own sake. Fans have noted that if he succeeded in his plan, he'd likely govern with the kind compassion and gentleness Vash shows—he just sees mass extinction as the only path to get there. The brothers ultimately represent two opposing philosophies: hope versus pragmatism, forgiveness versus harsh judgment.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
