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Year: 2023
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Episodes: 24
Rating: 5 out of 5
Do you know the history of the Vikings? During my extensive research on Wikipedia, Vikings were seafaring people from Scandinavia. The Viking Age was from 793–1066 during the Middle Ages. Norsemen went on epic and large-scale raiding, conquest, pillaging, colonizing, and trading throughout Europe. They also voyaged around the world, for example, Leaf Erickson, from as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East, Greenland, and the land called Vinland, now present-day Canada and North America. Leaf Erickson came to the Americas more than 500 years before Christopher Columbus. One of the most important texts in Norsemen lore is the Vinland Sagas. The Vinland Sagas are two Icelandic texts called The Saga of the Greenlanders and The Saga of Erik the Red. Each contains different accounts of the Norse voyage to Vinland, written around 1220 and 1280. The Vinland Sagas are credited with Norse exploration of the Americas.
Overview
Taking place a year after the events of the first season, life has changed for all the characters. This season focuses on Einar, a slave from England. Einar was a farmer who lived with his sister and mother. Life is great when Vikings come and kill his entire family. Einar is taken and bought by a man named Ketil. Ketil owns a vast and extensive estate where he farms. Slaves can work in their fields and buy back their freedom. Upon arrival, Einar meets another slave named Thorfinn. Thorfinn is reserved and doesn’t speak much, as he was exiled after the first season. As the years pass, Einar learns more about Thorfinn’s life and the horrors he committed. Yet, the two form a friendship as they work hard to buy their freedom. Soon, Thorfinn’s past will catch up with him again, and he must come face to face and truly accept what he did in the name of vengeance. Elsewhere, Canute continues his conquest of England. Soon, both men come face to face, their souls on the line for redemption or damnation.
Review:
The second season of Vinland Saga was freaking awesome. The story took a turn that I wasn’t expecting. It honestly threw me off because it was a complete change from the first season. The first season was filled with Thorfinn looking to get his vengeance against Askeladd. Thorfinn was like a rabid dog who fought and killed anyone that stood in his way. The second season starts with a man named Einar, whose family is killed, and he is sold into slavery. I initially thought the entire season would be about Einar, but then boom, we are introduced to an older Thorfinn who seems to have done a complete 180. He doesn’t look like a rabid dog but a boy who appears lost and likes working the fields.
To see the evolution of Thorfinn as a person who doesn’t want violence and trying his best to not do violence. Two scenes show this. The first one is when he fights Snake. Thorfinn wants no business with Snake, and the minute his blades come back into his hands, he has to resist his other side. The scene that was the most telling was when Thorfinn goes to this dream world of hell, and Askeladd is sitting on top of this hill, watching people kill each other. It shows that Thorfinn is still haunted by the past, but through it all, Askeladd still gives advice that makes Thorfinn move forward with his life.
I like how the story also focuses on Canute’s conquest and the internal conflict within Canute. The character development of Canute is on par with Thorfinn and might even be the opposite. What I mean by that is in season one, Thorfinn is a young boy who turns into a killer and then searches for peace in his life. On the other hand, Canute starts off as a scared prince who wants peace but then will do almost anything for expansion and the throne. Dude killed his own brother to make sure he had both crowns.
These two paths conclude with each other as Thorfinn and Canute reunite and have a deep conversation about what each one wants. You want to talk about the journey Thorfinn had to go through to speak to Canute. The dude took 100 punches just to have an audience with Canute. The dude took those blows like a freakin champ.
The ending to this fantastic anime was spot on. Thorfinn is reunited with Leif after Leif searches endlessly for him. They set sell to Thorfinn’s village where he is first viewed as an outcast because it had been so long. Dude’s own sister doesn’t remember him but his mother does. A mother never forgets her baby. Thorfinn recounts all that had happened in full detail. It looked like he was finally washing away the sins that had occurred over the 16 years he was away. The show ends with Thorfinn wanting to travel to Vinland and create a peaceful land.
The characters of the anime are the same. As stated before, Thorfinn and Canute differ from the time skip. Thorfinn has completely changed but wants peace rather than war. He seems to have seen the errors of his ways, and you can’t be a killer who is bent on revenge forever. Canute has that evil up in him. You see it when his mutated father’s head speaks to him. Both characters have come a long way from when they first were introduced.
Other characters like Einar bring some joy to the anime. Yes, his family was massacred, and he was sold into slavery. Yet, he is the positive one in the anime. He is optimistic and falls in love with another slave, only for her to have a husband and straight up die. The slave girl was the mistress of the slave owner, who gained a fake reputation for being tough. He had two sons; one was a weakling who feared death, and the other was like the freakin Terminator.
The animation was spot-on in this anime. It was crisp and clean. The animation made it clear on the thoughts of several people. When Canute went into his own head to speak with his father, it was dark, and his dad’s head was purple. The scene where Thorfinn went to “hell” was some beautiful animation.
Vinland Saga ended nicely as an anime and one of the best for the 2020s, even if the first season came out in 2019. The anime has some nice historical characters, but I liked Thorfinn’s redemption from a killer to one who wants peace. Give this anime a chance and watch Thorfinn’s final quest.
BONUS CLIP!!!
