Vinland Saga

Season 2 should have been 12 episodes rather than 24. I know this part of the journey is about Thorfinn finding peace with his life after revenge, but I couldn't stand the sheer number of episodes dedicated to characters sitting and staring at each other. The highlights of this arc are centered around the slaves attempting to escape as well as Canute's evolution into a despot king. Aside from that, I was frustrated by just how many scenes were dragged out. Or with certain characters being built up to have some climax at the end only for it to basically go nowhere. Is that more realistic? Sure, but it's an anime so they could afford to add in a bit more spectacle. http://static.minitokyo.net/downloads/00/37/724350.jpg

Nothing from this season was interesting. They spent literally episodes on them chopping wood and farming. The scene where the dude accidentally stabbed the guy coming after him which led to canutes invasion that stuff was interesting if they had cut out the entire part with slaves and all that i would have been content. This whole season focused on basically nothing. There wasnt anything, no character building, no action, no progression. Thorfinn basically became a pacifist and then fought snake anyway defeating the purpose of being a pacifist. If there is even a season 3 i would be surprised. Cuz this whole season i have watched purely off the fact season 1 was good. Not many would give it that luxury.

https://i.imgur.com/WlApvev.png Einar was the worst character in this arc by far. I get at first he was a young teenager dealing with the loss of his parents and sister, yet I felt he should have had more proactive involvement within the story rather than being relegated to giving reactions to what other more interesting characters were doing. Snake's parts were simultaneously cool and infuriating. Clearly there is a parallel between him looking the part of a stoic badass while being a major hypocrite, but I digress. I won't lie I was really hoping the slave woman's husband was going to break his neck at one point for being a douchebag at the end, seriously! https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_maz30sfYlK1rtwz0go1_1280.jpg

I read comments criticizing people like myself who found season 2 lackluster. The main contention being that they assumed it had to do with a lack of violence and I had not appreciated the quite moments or subtle character building. The thing is, one does not need to depict a character talking in circles and restating their simplistic thoughts for several episodes to get the point across. The show does do an excellent job at times showing us visual changes subtly in certain episodes. There are scenes that one can point to to exemplify this fact. It was not a bad direction for Vinland Saga to explore a pacifist's journey through a war-torn world. My issue is, however, a lack of interesting dialogue in which Thorfinn and Einar explore methods of obtaining such a world. How would they go about keeping the peace or negotiating with groups of individuals who can't appreciate pacifism? How could the two lead a nation on this principle and what steps could they implement to ensure that as their nation of peace grew in population that its people wouldn't relapse into aggression! True that the first half of season 2 is exploring Thorfinn's PTSD, but I really didn't need 8 episodes dedicated to it, ya know. Einar's constant grunting, groaning, and bellyaching only irritated the experience further. Sure he's young and dealing with grief. Still Einar seems to be more than capable of taking some action that's proactive instead of reactivate. Show scenes where Einar matures to think more critically about outsmarting physically aggressive foes. Where he uses brain power to outmanoeuvre hostile enemies. Not clench his fist and shout repeatedly, "Thorfinn, what should I do?" Episode after episode of that makes me miss character's like Askeladd and Thorkell who each had a unique charisma as well as nuance to their decisions. Yes! Even Thorkell is shown to have some level of complexity to his outwardly appearing simple-minded aggression. The man craves battle, but he has motivations as well as strategy that dictate the sides he's with and for what reason. Not to mention honor for those who show strength in their resolve. All I am saying is, 12 powerful and thoughtful episodes are greater than 24 needlessly drawn out ones! For as little as King Canute is shown, any episode he's in had greater weight than all the Einar whining ones combined. https://i.redd.it/46dqi7ojdbr71.png

I admit that this last episode was great. It encapsulated the best parts of what was good about this season while showing more depth in the discussion between war and peace. Though I feel certain interactions between characters were implied rather than shown. Einar's 180 showing greater maturity and restraint was sort of night and day compared to last episode. All in all I can't say that it was not without a fair number of flaws. I mean Keital's farm after the battle and losing so many workers probably would damage his reputation beyond repair. Not really sure why things seemed to transition as smoothly as they did? Either way I look forward to season 3.