Vinland Saga

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Absolute masterpiece in every way, shape, or form. No further points required to back this statement.


But there is one arc I must criticize: The Baltic Sea Arc. I don't like some parts of the 3rd arc. The unnecessary comedy does not fit the manga's theme at all. Thorfinn has a goth girl for a wife, which completely kills the vibe of the historical aspect. The manga also went woke, which was another let down. Another huge issue is that almost everything that happens is by pure coincidence - getting stuck in a huge war between vikings, finding and adopting a baby under the rubbles ... of a pillaged village, frequently encountering Siggurd in the most random places (like when he was being sold as a slave), etc. Also, the dialogue is very bad, its mostly telling and not showing. I don't know if it is because it is in English and the dialogue might sound better In Japanese. I also found a few characters to be quite annoying, especially Bug Eyes and Gudrid (they both become better in the Vinland Arc). All in all, the Baltic Sea Arc was a bit disappointing for me expecting an absolute masterpiece of fiction from one of the most critically acclaimed mangas of all time.

Arc ratings:

War/Revenge Arc 10/10
Slave Arc 10/10
Baltic Sea War Arc 6/10
Vinland Arc 10/10

To people wanting to get into it would recommend but only the first part after the farmland arc there is a big dip in the story imo. Here are the reason


Art gets worse imo the dark and griddy vibe is gone entirely gone mc gets such a wierd face especially compared to other characters it's like a jojo character replaced him


Immature topics sometimes characters used to be so multidimensional but it's like they are given one trait and that's the only thing that matters.

Mc becomes increasingly naive it's so frustrating to me i can understand avoiding violence you can make a brilliant story ... about that like ruroni kenshin (admittedly haven't finished it yet but it had a much more mature way of than violence is bad for being bad) and the male female division is so poorly done sadly even the women at that time were supporting when men used to go to war as it was a very important part of life to manhood and it was a quick and easy way to fame and fortune like today's YouTube. All in all mc becomes worse with time imo hild lowkey becomes the best character imo she is the best character in story rn.

FL is trash is gudrid a character I knew I would hate from the start I touched on this earlier but the men women division is so stupid it's like every men is a war loving moron who does everything in the name of family instead of realising he's doing it for himself which is wrong as most families HAD to fight to survive.

And the inequality factor of not having women hunter or sailors is simple they woulf not provide enough value. I think people forget that it is set in 1000' so the problem about stuff like period is way bigger than people realise since it makes you way more vulnerable to infection and that was one of the biggest causes of death back in that time. Second women are not as strong as men you can get more work done at a faster pace by replacing one women with men. THIRD pregnancy of a women is on board with several men a entanglement is bound to occur which can cause pregnancy and a child is one of the biggest problem on board and it's handles it so stupidly like men don't allow women cause man bad and women morally good.🤦‍♂️


It's forgot the virus plot line but it's still a bit new so I think it will take time to grow so I will allow that.


All in all imo the first part is a 9-10/10 but the later part after farmland is like a 6 so disappointed with where it went and how it's going wish something big happen push the mc in a mature direction to make him understand not all violence is bad cause according to that logic even police are bad.

"Idealistic, but not realistic" that is the core problem of Vinland Saga.

It is nothing more than an overrated manga that presents itself as a realistic, and historical take on pacifism, and the Norse setting only to fail horribly.

Characters:

-Thorfinn, the main character is nothing more than wasted potential. He starts off as a person who is fueled by revenge towards Askeladd, the mercenary who killed his father, Thors.

Not once during this period does Thorfinn ever ask himself the question of "who is the person that hired Askeladd to kill my father?" As a result Thorfinn wastes a decade of his life for ... nothing, and to make it even worse he ends up crying over Askeladd when he dies. After Askeladds passing, the prologue ends, and Thorfinn is enslaved. During this period of time, he reflects on himself and laments over the amount of people he killed in pursuit of Askeladd, and swears to live a life of peace to atone for this.

While this sounds promising and full of potential, you must understand that potential by definition is not being used, and this is where Thorfinns character begins to crack.

-Thors, is a legendary jomsviking who after having an epiphany on the nature of violence, exiles himself on the outskirts of society, and lives the remainder of his life as a pacifist. He is the one who is responsible for placing the seeds of pacifism in Thorfinn with his words “You have no enemies”.

"You have no enemies”.

The story tries to present this ideology as realistic, but if you truly have no enemies, why did Thors defend himself against the mercenaries who attacked his loved ones? Why does Thorfinn defend himself from characters like Snake, Garmr, and so on?

The reality is that YOU DO HAVE ENEMIES, and the only reason why Thorfinn and Thors are only able to be pacifists is because they have the strength and force to back it up.

The author never addresses the fact that Thors/Thorfinn have superhuman levels of strength, and their philosophy isn't applicable to regular people. In some cases it is necessary to use self defense, and take the lives of others because we don’t have the luxury of letting them live another day.

The sacrifice from this joke of a character gets even worse later on as his death was entirely preventable when it is shown that he had the reactions, speed, and strength to knock out superhumans like Thorkell before the latter could even react.


The author also never address characters like Askeladd and Thorkell who more or less lived a happy life on their terms despite all the bloodshed they engaged in.

- Canute, the prince is set up as the foil to Thorfinn where the former wants to create a utopia through bloodshed and the latter wants to create one through peace. Master vs Slave morality.

While this character sounds good on paper, he:

●barely has any interaction or screen time with Thorfinn in the later arcs, and it this point in serialization it would be too late for him to show up

●His development is incredibly rushed and makes no sense as he started off as an incompetent teen who couldn't do anything until he listened to a rant by a drunk priest and had his adoptive father die which made him into a hyper competent leader? This all took place less than 1 month in the story, and it claims it's realistic, what a joke.

STORY:

-While the prologue may have been passable, the Ketil Farm Arc is when the story begins to fall apart. During this arc we are introduced to Ketil, who is the master of the plantation Thorfinn belongs to as well as Arneis and Einar who are slaves as well as Thorfinns friends.

Behind her smile, Arneis lost her original family, unborn child, and spent the last years of her life having her dignity taken away through being raped and abused on Ketil's plantation, she ends up dying because Ketil killed her in a fit of rage.

This event leads to Einar attempting to kill Ketil, but Thorfinn intervenes and then preaches about the cycle of revenge, and pacifism so essentially Thorfinn lets Ketil get away with raping, extortion, and all of the terrible things hes done, and Arneis is left without justice .

-The story gets a bit better in the Baltic Sea War arc, and goes back to being garbage in Vinland Expedition. During the former, Thorfinn is able to get through without killing people by having the strength to back it up, and with political connections. This arc is much more enjoyable than the previous farm arc, and it seems like the author is growing only to fall off in the next arc.

-During the expedition to the Vinland colony, Thorfinn gets into an conflict with Ivar who argues that they must bring weapons to the colony since they are going to uncharted territory, and thus need a means to protect themselves or it is all for nought. While Ivar struggles to articulate his ideas, he still ends up making a case grounded in logic unlike Thorfinn who straight up admits he has no actual response or argument for Ivar...

THIS IS MORE THAN A HUNDRED CHAPTERS IN, all this preaching about pacifism, and self reflection only for Thorfinn to have this little self awareness or ability to defend his ideas.

At this point Thorfinn should understand the rest of the settlers are just regular people, not superhuman, and need a means to defend themselves in this certain time…

SETTING:


The author fails to realize that while Norse society was violent (most of western civilization was at that time) they also had means of regulating violence through honor culture, and institutions such as the man-price or weregild where you would have to pay money for doing someone wrongfully.

He also fails to recognize that the general attitude of the Norse and their culture is what allowed them to thrive in such an environment, being a mercenary was a legitimate career path in these societies, and Thorfinn does not offer any meaningful alternative to this culture.

What the author could have done is explore the differences between Norse Society, and the Christian civilizations since the historical Thorfinn was Christian (alongside his wife is as well) and their views regarding how society should be run.

This is a massive missed opportunity since the Norse would gradually accept Christianity, and Thorfinn even travelled to Constantinople which was a civilization not only important to Christians, but the Norse as well.

BUT NO…. instead the author offscreens this travel which could have been used as a moment of self reflection, and bring more food to the table.

Like I said earlier, he could have had a master vs slave morality dynamic, and explore both cultures' views towards peace, and violence but the author does not have the nuance or skill to do this.


THEMES:
while the author is big on self introspection, he continuously proves in his writing that he has NONE.

the motto "You have no enemies" is completely unrealistic given the nature of the world the story depicts, and Thorfinn despite being all about self introspection doesn't have the self awareness to realize his philosophy is only possible because he has the power to back up, and the second you swap him for a character like Gudrid or Einar who are just a regular person, the story crumbles apart.

A horrible story, 0/10. Just watch Vikings, read the actual Norse Sagas or the New Testament instead.