Much of the destruction blamed on "Vash" is actually the work of bounty hunters pursuing the 60,000,000,000$$ (sixty billion "double dollars") reward placed on his head for the destruction of a city named July. Vash has no clear memory of the destruction of July and simply desires "love and peace," as he states; despite being a gunfighter of inhuman skill, he employs his weapons solely to save lives whenever possible. As the series unfolds, more details are gradually revealed regarding Vash's enigmatic past and the history of human civilization on Gunsmoke, the desert planet where the story takes place. While the series often maintains a humorous tone, it simultaneously features serious character development, becoming quite emotionally intense, particularly in later episodes. Vash is occasionally accompanied by a priest, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who is nearly as skilled a gunfighter as Vash himself, and is later targeted by a group of assassins known as the Gung-Ho Guns for reasons that remain mysterious at first. Trigun evolves into a profound examination of the nature of morality, raising questions such as: What is the nature of morality? Can we judge different moral codes? If a person is forced to betray their moral code, does that betrayal invalidate the code, and can the person still strive to adhere to it? Can the person find redemption for their wrongs, and if so, how?