Returning Home

Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 24 is the final episode of the season. In this episode, Thorfinn finally returns home to Iceland. It’s been 16 years since he left his homeland. And, for those of you paying attention, that makes Thorfinn 22 years old when he returns.

We don’t know how much time passes between the start of this episode and the end. At the end of the episode, we see a clean-shaven Thorfinn with shorter hair. That could mean a day has passed. Or, it could mean a year or more.

My guess is that about a year passed between the start and end of this episode. It takes time to prepare for a journey like the one Thorfinn is setting out on. So, I’m going to make a guess and say he’s 23 years old at the very end of the episode.

Unfortunately, Thorfinn’s been gone for so long that the villagers forgot about him. Or, at least, they believe he’s not the real Thorfinn. Because he disappeared so long ago, it’s no surprise some of them don’t know of him. And even those who did know him assumed he died back then.

Ylva, Thorfinn’s own sister, falls in the latter group. At first, she pretends not to know anyone by the name of Thorfinn. But, it quickly becomes clear she’s only saying that because she doesn’t believe he is who he claims to be. She thinks he’s someone trying to trick her and impersonate Thorfinn.

But, Helga, Thorfinn’s mother, recognizes him right away. She says he looks exactly like his father, which is something I’m not sure I agree with. He has Thors’s eyes, but that’s about it. Still, she never doubted who he was and even accepted Einar into their family.

We Get a Little Silly Around Here

Obviously, Episode 24 was a good episode; every episode of Vinland Saga is. But, I didn’t like this episode as much as some of the others from this season. And the reason for that was the humor.

A few parts of the episode, primarily involving Ylva, were comedic. I get that this is the last episode of the season and comes at the end of another depressing arc. It makes sense to include some content to lighten the mood a bit. But, I’m not sure it works in this series.

There are plenty of ways to accomplish that without throwing in slapstick comedy. A few times in the episode, we saw Ylva manhandling Thorfinn. She holds him up and shakes him around as his eyes bounce around like a Looney Tunes character. Was that necessary?

I know there are going to be people who liked the comedy in this episode. That’s fine. You’re allowed to like it and the author chose to include it. But, for me, it takes a bit away from the seriousness of the rest of the series.

Vinland Saga is a story about war, slavery, and the tragedies that come with them. It has an important message to tell — one that Thors stated at the very beginning: Nobody has enemies. Having enemies and hurting others doesn’t benefit anyone in the end. It only creates victims, even out of the ones perpetrating violence.

So, when we have a series like that also engaging in cartoonish violence, there’s a disconnect. I could have done with less of Ylva slapping Thorfinn around. Instead, I wanted to see more of the emotions surrounding the family reunion. And we didn’t really get too much of that.

Thorfinn’s Journey Continues

In case you haven’t heard, Vinland Saga Season 3 was confirmed. There wasn’t really an official announcement. But, Takahiko Abiru, Chief Animation Director of the series, put out a tweet about it. In his tweet, he said that Thorfinn’s journey will continue.

The tweet also included a picture of Thorfinn holding out his fist. But, what’s important to notice in the picture is the Vinland Saga logo. There are three vertical, blue lines within the logo. Vertical lines that many — myself included — interpreted as the Roman numeral III. So, Season 3 is coming.

What’s Season 3 going to be about, though? Is it going to focus on Thorfinn’s new adventure in search of Vinland? Or, could it take us back in time to look at some characters of the past? The end of Episode 24 may hint at the latter being the case. But, I’m not buying it.

As we see Thorfinn preparing for his journey, we also get shots of the past. We see Thors, Helga, and a baby Ylva sailing to Iceland. We also see a younger Leif Erikson overlooking the dock. And, most interestingly, we see a young Askeladd putting his armor and sword on.

But, as I said, I don’t see the third season focusing on these characters in the past. My interpretation of those scenes was that they’re being used as comparisons. Thors, Leif, and Askeladd are all very influential figures in Thorfinn’s life. And now, he’s preparing to set out on a journey just as they did.

Sure, in the next season, we may get some flashback content. But, for what? It wouldn’t add much to the main plot. And it seems awkward to have to work into the story. So, I’m betting those scenes weren’t teasers.

Conclusion

What do you think about Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 24? Did Thorfinn’s family reunion go as you expected? How do you feel about the use of comedy in this episode? And, what are you hoping to see in Season 3? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me on your social media of choice — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

A Beautiful Man

Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 23 wrapped up the Ketil’s farm arc of the series. There’s one more episode left in the season. But, that episode is going to take place off the farm. From the preview, it looks like Thorfinn will be returning home temporarily.

But, we’ll get to that next week. Right now, we need to go over how Thorfinn managed to save the farm. I wasn’t expecting him to actually be able to convince Canute to leave. However, Thorfinn managed to do the impossible. And, he did way more than save one farm.

So, what made Thorfinn successful? It looks like it all came down to his familiarity with Canute. Well, that and his insistence on not wanting to fight. He didn’t show up to the meeting armed and he had no intention of tricking Canute. And when Canute said he wouldn’t back down, Thorfinn said he would run rather than fight.

From Canute’s perspective, that’s what makes Thorfinn interesting. He knows how skilled of a warrior Thorfinn is. And yet, Thorfinn never had any intention of fighting Canute and his men. And because he already knows Canute, he was able to be straightforward with him.

As a king, Canute probably doesn’t have many people who are willing to disagree with him to his face. But, that’s what he got with Thorfinn. Thorfinn pointed out the flaws with Canute’s plan. And he even made it clear he’s refusing to live under Canute’s rule.

But, at the same time, Thorfinn also didn’t blame everything on Canute. He understands what Canute is trying to achieve. And he can’t fault Canute’s imperfect solution — he doesn’t have a perfect solution himself. So, Thorfinn declares that he’ll do what Canute can’t. He’ll fill the hole Canute leaves behind.

Filling Canute’s Hole

All I’m saying is Canute called Thorfinn a Beautiful man and Thorfinn said he’d fill Canute’s hole. Okay, well, he actually said he’d fill the hole Canute’s solution to creating a paradise left behind. But, that’s basically the same thing. Thorfinn x Canute, anyone?

Alright, but what did Thorfinn mean when I said all that stuff about filling holes? He means that Canute’s method of creating a paradise doesn’t benefit everyone. To build a paradise for the majority, Canute has to take from the minority. His plan to requisition Ketil’s farm is a perfect example of this.

So, what Thorfinn wants to do is create a separate paradise. He wants to build somewhere the “others” who are excluded from Canute’s paradise can live in peace. If there are people unhappy or unwelcome living under Canute, they can seek out Thorfinn.

Doesn’t this sound like a rival kingdom, though? Shouldn’t Canute be unhappy about that? Well, not exactly. Canute knows that Thorfinn has no intention of ever rising up against him. And the people attracted to Thorfinn’s paradise are those unwanted in Canute’s. In that sense, the two nations will have a symbiotic relationship.

Thorfinn doesn’t have the same power that Canute does, though. He can’t support the same number of people that Canute can. And so, Thorfinn wants Canute to put all his resources into supporting as many people as he can. Thorfinn’s alternative paradise isn’t an excuse for Canute to displace even more people.

He’ll give a home to those who need one. But, it’s up to Canute to make the number of people who seek out Vinland as small as possible. And, Canute seems to have agreed to this. He decided to stop requisitioning farms and even reduced the size of his army.

Roald, Son of Grim

At the end of Episode 23, we finally learned Snake’s actual name. He’s Roald, son of Grim. But, if you were expecting that to be some big twist, it’s not. It actually doesn’t seem to mean anything at all. It changes nothing for Snake’s character.

The name Roald doesn’t add anything to Snake’s character. It’s a Norse name, which makes sense since this is Vinland Saga. And, you might think that’s important because it confirms Snake is Norse. But, we actually already knew that much from Episode 17.

Back in Episode 17, Snake used the name Miklagard to refer to Constantinople. Miklagard is the Norse name for Constantinople. So, we already knew he was Norse, or at least raised by Norse people. And, similarly, his father’s name, Grim, doesn’t tell us anything new, either. That’s not someone we’re familiar with.

Vinland Saga doesn’t need to explain everything about every character. Choosing what to include and what not to include is important when writing a story. But, I would have liked to get more background information on Snake. He was one of the more interesting characters this season. And yet, by the end, we know very little about him.

We know he was a warrior of Miklagard. We know the real Iron Fist Ketil trained him. And we know he fled Constantinople after making some kind of mistake. But, we don’t know what exactly he did that led him to flee.

And that seems pretty important for his character. How can he be redeemed if we don’t even know what he did? But, that also leads to my other issue with Snake. We never saw his story end. Yeah, we see him working the farm now. But, whatever happened to all that Bible stuff?

Conclusion

What do you think about Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 23? Were you surprised that Canute left the farm? Do you think Thorfinn and Canute will ever cross paths again? And, were you satisfied with how Snake’s story ended? I guess it’s still possible we’ll see him again.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me on your social media of choice — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about becoming a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 24 is available now.

100 Punches

What else can I say about Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 22 other than that it was great, as expected. At this point, we should all know that every episode of Vinland Saga is going to be a banger.

By this point, I hope that the majority of people calling Season 2 boring have dropped the series. They don’t deserve to see this content. Somehow, they’d call this episode boring even though it had a lot of great moments. For example, there was Thorfinn calling out Drott to finish his 100 punches.

At first, I thought Thorfinn may have been a bit harsh to Drott. Did he really need to say his punches hurt less than insect bites? As someone who wants peace, I’m not so sure insulting other people is the way to go. But, after thinking it over a bit more, this was probably the right call.

If Thorfinn stood there and took Drott’s punches in silence, what would the soldiers think? They’d think that, although good at taking a beating, Thorfinn doesn’t have a warrior’s heart. However, by speaking up and insulting Drott, he showed that’s not the case.

Thorfinn is a fighter. He’s just fighting in his own way. And with his words, he made it clear that he’s stronger than Drott. Thorfinn didn’t only say that Drott’s punches are weaker than a bug’s bite. He also said that he’s a busy man and he wants to get these punches over with.

That’s something the soldiers seemed to respect. Thorfinn’s saying, “I’m stronger than you, and I’m going to prove it. I’m not going to run away. I’m going to stand my ground and we’re going to finish this.” And by the end of the 100 punches, even Drott respected him.

The King’s Former Guard

I can understand why Canute’s men wouldn’t believe Thorfinn saying he was a former guard of Canute. He’s small and unimpressive looking. And he’s also a slave, which isn’t exactly the career path most of the king’s guard goes down.

But, by standing his ground and taking 100 punches from Drott, Thorfinn earned respect. No normal man would be able to achieve such a feat. So, the fact that Thorfinn accomplished this proves that he’s strong. However, Thorfinn could have accomplished the same thing without getting his face busted.

As Wulf says, Thorfinn could have defeated Drott in combat. That would have been the quickest way to prove his status as a former member of the king’s guard. Of course, Thorfinn didn’t do this because he wants to avoid violence at all costs. Even if he defeated Drott without harming him, a fight is still a fight.

Why should that matter, though? If Thorfinn is able to defeat Drott in a fight by disarming him, why shouldn’t he do it? The answer is pretty simple — and it’s something Thorfinn actually brings up to Snake earlier on. Once you begin fighting, it’s difficult to talk things out.

If Thorfinn beat Drott in a fight, would the other soldiers really have accepted it? Or, would they view Thorfinn as someone who got lucky? Would they then want their turn to prove that they can defeat the man who beat Drott? By engaging in a fight at all, Thorfinn gets farther from his goal.

Instead, he needs to show that he’s stronger than the soldiers without fighting. He needs to make them understand his conviction in a way that doesn’t make them more mad. To that end, he did a perfect job.

The King of Rebellion

Am I the only one who thought the waves were actually going to stop when Canute commanded them to? For a brief moment, I thought we were about to get some implied magic from Canute. You have no idea how relieved I was when that didn’t happen.

But, this was a pretty powerful scene. The whole point of Canute trying to stop the waves was to show how powerless he is. Yes, he’s the king of the largest country in northern Europe. And yes, he has the most feared army. But, even he’s powerless before his God.

Now, despite thinking this was a powerful scene, I’m not entirely sure what Canute’s point here is. At first, I thought he was trying to say that war is one of those inevitable things that can’t be stopped — like the waves. But, I’m not so sure that’s it.

Toward the end of his speech, Canute declares that he wants to save the Vikings. He can’t create a paradise on Earth, because that would go against God’s will. After all, if God wanted the Earth to be a paradise, He would have made it one, right?

However, the part I don’t understand then is how Canute plans to save the Vikings. Is his plan simply to eradicate all opposition? Technically, that would put an end to the wars. And it would be his justification for going to war. But, it’s not as if he stated that’s his goal.

His only stated goal is to save the Vikings. And to do that, he needs the wealth from Ketil’s farm. If this doesn’t make sense to you, congratulations, Einar is with you. As Einar points out, who is this benefiting other than Canute and his men? It’s not the average person.

Conclusion

What do you think of Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 22? Did you think Thorfinn was actually down after 32 punches? Should Thorfinn have fought and disarmed Drott? And, did you think we were about to see Canute use some magic on the waves? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me on your social media of choice — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 23 is available now.

When Boys Become Men

Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 21 wasn’t as depressing as some of the recent episodes have been. Sure, Olmar still had a good cry. But, it’s not like anything happened to any of the characters we know and love this week. Well, unless you count Oddny’s dad.

In case you somehow forgot who Oddny is, she’s Olmar’s “girlfriend.” Well, girlfriend might not be the right word here. She’s the girl Olmar was sleeping with toward the start of the season. And her parents wanted Olmar to marry her because that would increase their own status.

Well, Oddny’s dad lost both his hands in the battle against Canute’s army. And when he sees Olmar, Oddny’s dad begs him to take care of his family. So, does this mean Olmar will finally take Oddny as his wife? It’s possible. But, I think it’s more likely that we’ll never see Oddny again.

Enough about Oddny. Olmar is the star of the first half of Episode 21. With Ketil incapacitated, Olmar is the de-facto head of the clan. That’s right, it’s not Thorgil. And there are likely two reasons for this. Though, these two reasons do appear to be related.

The first is that Thorgil isn’t around much. Until the recent developments, Thorgil was away as one of Canute’s soldiers. So, it makes sense that Ketil wouldn’t leave his farm to Thorgil. Thorgil already has a profession as a soldier and likely wouldn’t have any interest in running a farm.

But, the second reason may be the true reason. Ketil isn’t a warrior. Remember, he stole the name “Iron Fist Ketil” from another man. So, the other reason he likely named Olmar as his successor is that he identifies with Olmar. He sees himself in Olmar and not in Thorgil.

What’s Next for Snake?

Once Olmar became head of the clan, he chose to surrender to Canute. His reasoning is that he doesn’t want to see anyone else die — and he doesn’t want to die. He doesn’t care what happens to the farm or himself as long as he gets to live.

Obviously, Thorgil doesn’t agree with this choice and storms off. But, Snake chooses to stick by Olmar’s side and even goes with him to meet Canute. This seems to mark a turning point for Snake. Though, you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s just going along with whatever Olmar says.

It’s true that Snake is loyal to Ketil and his family. When he first arrived at the farm and learned that Ketil wasn’t Iron Fist Ketil, Ketil allowed him to stay. And Snake took him up on that offer because it was better than a life of war.

But, even though Snake was glad to not have to fight, he still has his honor. When Ketil wanted to fight Canute’s army, Snake stood by his side. And when Thorgil was talking about continuing the fight, Snake said he would continue, as well. So, why did he suddenly side with Olmar?

Is Olmar’s new status as the head of the clan the reason for Snake’s allegiance? Not quite. All Olmar’s status did was allow Snake to follow him without seeming like he was betraying the clan. In reality, Snake chose to follow Olmar because he respects Olmar’s decision.

Snake isn’t the same kind of warrior as Thorgil. He doesn’t blame anyone for not wanting to die on the battlefield. He’ll go to war, but he doesn’t want to die in battle like Thorgil does. That’s why we saw him announce the retreat. In Olmar, Snake sees a man who values life.

The Slave and the King

The second half of the episode is about Thorfinn attempting to speak to Canute. He wants to convince Canute to leave the farm alone. Despite Ketil not exactly being a good guy, Thorfinn still wants to repay the kindness he was shown on the farm.

Based on the next episode preview, we know that Thorfinn gets his audience with Canute. But, I’m not expecting Thorfinn to be able to change Canute’s mind. Canute does remember him, showing that Thorfinn made an impact. However, neither man is the same as they were 4 years ago.

Thorfinn is no longer someone Canute has to fear. He’s not the violent person who didn’t care about authority that he was in the past. And, similarly, Canute isn’t the cowardly prince he was back then, either. He’s now the King of Denmark and England.

I think that when Canute sees Thorfinn, he’ll realize this isn’t the same Thorfinn he once knew. I’m not sure how he’ll react to that. But, it’s going to be pretty obvious to him that Thorfinn is a changed man. And I could see Canute viewing Thorfinn’s change in personality as a sign of weakness.

However, even if Canute doesn’t stop the war because of Thorfnn, the war will stop. Olmar is already heading to Canute to surrender. And, this might be where Thorfinn can finally make a difference. He may be able to convince Canute to show leniency to Olmar.

Also, let’s not forget that Thorgil is still out there somewhere. Is he still planning on trying to assassinate Canute? If so, Thorfinn might also be able to convince Canute to spare Thorgil’s life. You know, because I can’t see Thorgil actually killing Canute. Thorfinn may even stop Thorgil.

Conclusion

What do you think of Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 21? Do you think Olmar will remain as the head of the clan even after Ketil recovers? Will Snake continue to serve Olmar after Canute hands down his punishment? And how do you think Canute will react to seeing Thorfinn? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me on your social media of choice — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 22 is available now.