Review of Vinland Saga Season 2

(this is more of a critique than a review and contains spoilers) Is it a good show? Yes. Is it an extremely deep and expertly written masterpiece? nope. While I liked this season I think it has flaws and I'm not talking about the lack of action. These flaws were also in the first season, but this time they are more noticeable because of the lack of spectacle early on. My biggest problem is that the character development in Vinland saga feels cheap and unnatural. Lets take season 1 Canute as an example. instead of gradually becoming more of a leader and taking small steps to get over his fear, it's likea switch is turned on in his head. suddenly his fear is completely gone and he's not even flinching when Thorkell throws a punch at his face.
yes it's a cool moment, and yes he had a revelation that changes him, but Canute's development goes from A to G instead of the more realistic and slower A B C D E F G. (Like with Zuko and Walter white)
When we see Canute in season 2 he is changed even more, poisoning his own brother, becoming a killer for the greater good.
He is a completely different person from the weak girly coward. This extreme character development sounds great on paper but the rushed execution ruins its potential. Instead of him talking to the goofy head of his death father, we could have had a scene of him breaking down, crying, thinking to himself ''What have I done? I killed my own brother!'' Also how much more interesting would it have been if he was forced to kill his own brother because of some kind of circumstance. instead he just does it because his brother could become a problem later on. (this made him really unlikable to me)
Vinland saga doesn't need more action, it needs higher stakes and most of all it needs to test it's characters more on their morals. they should have to make extremely hard choices. choices that change them as people. this is how good character development is done. (again think about Zuko or Walter white as good examples)
Having characters change because of a dream or some kind of hallucination is cheap and takes a lot less skill to write.
And this is what happens to Thorfinn in this season. Yes He realized he want's to live because of instinctively dodging snake as well as him feeling guild for killing people because he spoke to Einar. But the big moment that changes him is a cheap hallucination where he talks with Askeladd in the underworld. instead it would have worked better if his big moment was relevant to the bigger story. (not just punching some bozo side character and getting knocked out from behind) A moment where he was forced to kill someone, but decided not to. This choice could have had negative consequences(other people getting killed because he didn't kill one person) testing his new morals.
Imagine if Einar got killed by Canute at the end of the season. That would have really tested Thorfinns new morals. He would have had to just walk away with Einars body in his arms, accepting he fucked up, not letting his anger take over. But of course something like that didn't happen because Thorfinn activates his talk no jutsu and for some kind of reason Canute finds it hilarious and is like 'fuck the shit I planned. Lets take this huge risk by removing most of my soldiers from England.' and of course this works without any consequences. Even tho he killed their 2 former kings with poison.(which makes him look weak) rumors about him killing with poison would have definitely spread around England. why would everyone accept him as the new king?
Thorfinns "I have no enemies" bullshit only works because he isn't properly tested. He doesn't have to make any hard choices. Everything is just handed to him. he was never a real slave. his master was nice to him and gave him freedom. Thorfinn throughout his whole live was almost never in any real danger that he didn't choose to be in himself. I'm all for pacifism but Thorfinns pacifism is just annoyingly naive and unrealistic. Thorfinn indeed never had any real enemies. neither had his dad. because they had the privilege of never being oppressed by someone stronger than them. The reason Thorfinns live sucked was by his own choice. And the only reason he can follow his new pacifism beliefs without being a big brain strategist is because he killed so many people, which made him a strong fighter even without a weapon. The show might seem extremely deep if you compare it to basic shonen for 12 year olds. But If you look at it a bit more critically it's a good show, but far from "peak fiction"

7/10