Review of Vinland Saga Season 2
“I have no enemies”. There's a moment when consuming fiction where, you truly start to feel things. It isn't just “experiencing” a story, or watching anymore. It's something else, something deep within your mind starts to change at that instant. A seed was planted, but not many stories can make it truly blossom into that “special” flower. It's the thought that, a true, empathetic human being, isn't one that can kill its enemies, it isn't a stoic person, or a powerful being that, through violence, can change the world. The only one who can consider themselves a true, amazing human, is one that doesn't haveany enemies. Even with that thesis, “Vinland Saga Season 2” strives for something more, to actually back up the claim, walk the walk, run the mile. To truly show us a person that could go from the lowest point on their lives, to a coherent moment where they want to make the world a better place. Not with hate, with swords, selfish ideals, or human sacrifice, but with love, with empathy, with an unwavering sense of duty.
Thorfinn IS the definition of living long enough as a villain to regret your actions. A kid that throughout Season 1 was beat down, battered, taught how to hate, how to kill, and find respite in those actions as some sort of “purpose”. His revenge was everything, it was the very word that gave him a meaning to live, and after it permanently got away, after you remove everything from a man, including his reason to live, what is there? Thoughts. Wondering, working, existing. Floating at the seems of an empty body with no direction to move. All he needed was somebody to teach him something new.
Some random dude entered his life, and by virtue of being open, there was some sort of… happiness. It wasn't a moment of revelation that turned his life around, it was a routine that allowed Thorfinn to think, and truly find how much horror he had gone through. Time to heal, to close those wounds, and find a thing you can be good at that doesn't require the sadness of death. Of course, healing isn't easy. After you get a routine… there comes the guilt, the pain, the suffering, something not everybody can withstand at that level. It didn't even come out of nowhere, “Vinland Saga” was telling us from the very beginning, these are human beings, and your cycle of hatred is costing HAPPY LIVES.
It's not as if a person can just live with it. The events shape you, mold you, but you can turn it into something new. A drive, a purpose, a desire to fix that which you ruined. It was fantastic, masterful, soul crushing, and all the more fitting to see a person filled with hatred smile. To just smile at his friend. The small talks in the mornings, the food you can eat, the simple happiness which is to live in one spot, and be able to get to know those around it.
The series doesn't just tell you about the horrors at the beginning, it moves towards slow salvation, to purpose, to friendships, to work, to the lows, to the highs, to the smiles, and the anger. Ultimately, towards the thesis all over again. No spoilers, the last moments on the last three episodes brought tears from my eyes, not from sadness, but something much more profound. It was awe, it was the overwhelming emotion, and feelings of purpose the story manages to communicate. The musical tracks, the animation, the editing, character designs, voice acting.
We got to know an antithesis, the opposite of everything we were taught, and at some point I forgot I was watching an anime. It was THAT level of perfection which intensifies the feeling of grandeur. This season is most definitely, one of the best, or probably, THE BEST redemption story out there, and it doesn't even end there, even though it most definitely could. A masterpiece in writing, visual storytelling, awe, musical power, no emotional manipulation, but simple, and complex writing that truly brings out the best of fiction.
10/10. “I have no enemies”. No wonder, the phrase went beyond anime, and became a pop-culture reference.