Review of Vinland Saga Season 2

There's a lot to praise the season 2 of Vinland Saga for. The presentation of the artwork is extremely tasteful and pleasant to look at. The animation is clean, coherent and delivers a genuinely beautiful experience. Fantastic soundtrack, with an amazing first opening. Quite frankly, everything apart from the character writing is borderline perfect in it's own theming. But that's where the problems start. Vinland Saga builds up a certain sort of idea throughout its lifespan. Even in the beginning of season 1, you need not pay too much attention to what the author is trying to present, as it is beaten over your head witha shovel, over and over again.

Peace. The idea of pacifism in itself is not an uninteresting subject. The idea of a proper and honest exploration of choosing to shy away from conflict was one of the more interesting parts about this show. While the action scenes in previous season were cool to look at, they always exuded a sense of futility. War for the sake of war, death for valueless currency known as honour. It simultaneously trudged a line between "this is cool as hell!" and "man, so much wasted life." A dance between two concepts, performed so beautifully.

Then comes season two. A big switch-up occurs with the farming arc, where the story abandons its previous visage of a blood soaked adventure, and turns to a more grounded story of redemption. All of which, mind you, I think is great conceptually. But ultimately is executed without proper respect for the human condition. An overzealous example of a concept that is never sufficiently challenged, that drowns under it's own moral weight.

And that's such a shame. Ultimately, whether or not you'll like this show is dependent on how much you're willing to suspend your sense of disbelief for. While the very japanese mindset permeating throughout a viking tale is a bit tonally disonant, I never found it to be overwhelming enough for it to break my immersion or my enjoyment of the show. I do think that this is still a show that you should watch, and make up your own opinion on the events that occur.

Spoiler free review ends here.

(Spoilers for season 1 and 2!)

Thorfinn is one of the most extreme renditions of pacifism that I have ever seen in my life. The switchup he has is so unbelievable and immersion breaking, that his character arc alone destroyed every single sliver of investment I had for this show in almost an instant. The actions he takes are so thematically absurd, that you'd have superheroes from mid 20th century comic books looking in awe. It is almost impossible to unsee and unhear the author's words directly permeating through Thorfinn's mouth, as he utters line after line of the most delusional and preachy dialogue that you could think of.

"I have no enemies". A sentence, delivered to him by his own father, Thors. Let's talk about Thors, for a short bit. A legendary viking who one day had grown sick of the fighting, and chose to flee the battlefield for a more fulfilling life with his family, instead. Thors is what shapes Thorfinn's character later on in the story. As the story progresses, he progressively mimics his father more and more, ultimately, becoming a near carbon copy of him.

Here's the issue, though. His father, Thors, is a fool. He tried fighting off a band of marauders without a weapon, following his own moral compass. Shortly after which, he condemns his son to a miserable and horrific fate, simply to uphold his pacifistic streak. This isn't inherently bad. Thors is an overzealous moron, but he doesn't have to be a bad character. This could be an interesting dynamic, but the story glorifies him, instead. There's no examination of how much of a hypocrite he is, there's no exploration on why sometimes violence IS the only answer. Nothing. There's only one right way to go through life, and that's pacifism.

Whether I like or dislike the concept itself, I find it incredibly disappointing that a story that takes so many interesting turns chooses to pick such a black and white route for the exploration of itself.

Much like his father, Thorfinn consequentially becomes a completely bumbling idiot as well. Fighting people only with his fists, endangering everyone that relies on him in the process, only to uphold an asinine belief system in a place as cruel as the scandinavian seas. Whereas most of the story elements are interesting and well explored, the underlying concept of "you have no enemies" is never challenged. When it comes to that, Thorfinn always wins. His enemies simply surrender, his allies forgive him for everything. All friction that the show had, disperses as if it was a quiet whistling of the wind.

I wish I could look past the blatant fourth wall break of the preachy nature of the storytelling, but I simply cannot. I can't find enjoyment in a story that refuses to challenge the beliefs it espouses. It makes for a far less compelling narrative and I hope that further seasons may prove me wrong.

Thanks for reading.