Review of Vinland Saga Season 2

Vinland Saga Stories would've been probably a best name for this "second" season, specially because it doesn't follow up on much of anything previously established, and mostly builds up on a new story and events, to the point that it feels like the original characters are only special contributor instead of the main focus of the show. They are there, but they don't feel like leading the ship. Personally i don't mind slow paced stories, if they are well written i will like them, but something in this second season it feels inherently bad as a slow paced show, the fact that it's tied to anvery action based aggressive background creates somewhat of a contradiction to what was expected. With greater weights on their backs, they would've needed to follow a specific path, and unfortunately several things in this season felt like out of character, out of place, poorly explored and even distracting or time wasting. Maybe it was because of the way the first season was presented, it simply made the second season impossible to be properly adapted in a way it would've given the same feelings and emotions of spectacle as in the first one. People who liked the first one for the action and impact, gore and violence will most likely hate the sequel for this boring slow feeling that it has now.

The first great question i had from the middle to the end of this season was: What was this all about? In the first season you would have easily answered: greed, power, revenge, the price of your actions, how far would you go and what were you willing to sacrifice for your beliefs, or for revenge. But what about this second season? What was this all about? Slavery? Love? Hatred? Penance? Forgiveness? And even if you could say it had a bit of it all, was it even tied well to everything that was happening? Did things lead up and tied one to the other?

This story isn't about Thorfin or Canute, even if the show tries to portray them as the main protagonists and antagonist, this story is about Einar, Arnheid, Ketil and all the other supporting characters. You could even at any time remove Thorfin and Canute, or at least hide who they were, and it would've all ended with a similar plot, with similar events. And that feels like a significant flaw in the story, specially for a Vinland Saga Season 2 story. When the two greatest ties to everything that was previously established could've been so easily be removed and forgotten without changing anything on how things work and happen, you have a significant problem on your story's structure

They don't even feel like the same characters. Thorfin doesn't feel like Thorfin, nothing on his struggle makes sense to how he was previously established, i can understand him having internal conflicts because of losing his revenge and reason for living being stolen from his hands, and now none of his misdeeds being justified, but i don't get it how he got from that into catatonic vegetative state, and how he somehow got enlighten with his dad's words of peace at the very last, most convenient moment, even less how Einar of all things was the Trigger for that awakening, it alt felt unearned and forced.

Canute felt worse, he did already had a very promising possible conflict, would've he followed on the teachings of his adoptive father and his concepts about religion, or continue the ruthless lineage of his biological father, and it all was thrown away and replaced with a generic "i will bring chaos because god is unfair", and "the power of the crown corrupts". It was made even worse because not even a single time where the crown thing was used made a single sense, he didn't had any clear reason to engrave this message from his biological father so hard on his mind, a message from someone who never gave him any reason to do be remembered, and somehow these generic worlds of power corrupting where what most haunted and dictated Canute's actions?

I don't even think they've chosen the right subjects to tie the events of the story well. Why is Snake, Ketil, Sverkel and friends all so underdeveloped and under explored? When they all are the ones with most time expended on, with the most ties to the main events of the story, when they all had so much potential with their backstories and past events, it all just to be wasted and replaced by the Arnheid and Gardar's cursed lovers story, something that was simply stretched and forced into the story right from the start, and took the entire show to lead up to anything, to the point i could even made the assumption that their story was actually supposed to be the main story of this season, and everything else was just forced to fit along, rolled around to be named as a Vinland Saga

I don have any other problems with this season, other than it doesn't feeling like it fits what was pre-established about Vinland Saga, i would've had even less problems if it wasn't tied to, or made as an direct sequel to Vinland Saga. The way it ended up was a disappointment for me, a very confused incongruent "sequel" to a highly praised show. For me at least this season simply don't exist, Vinland Saga ended up with a sad resolution for Thorfin's revenge ark, and that's it. Another one for the Wit Studio Bucket, where Mappa couldn't do a proper follow up