Welcome all, to another episode of Vinland Saga! This week we take a break from Thorfinn, instead spending time with our other favorite damaged boy: Canute! And man is he kind of fucked up. So without further ado, lets dive into it!
Getting into the production, Vinland Saga continues to not be the most animated of shows. It has a few moments, such as Thorkell or the flashback, but that’s about it. There were also some CGI soldiers in some shots that didn’t look great, but they came and went very quickly. Luckily for Vinland Saga, this arc isn’t particularly action packed so it really doesn’t impact it much. Instead what stands out is the strong direction, such as framing Canute atop the pile of coins or in front of the burning countryside, along with solid background art and compositing/lighting to bring it all together. The end result ends up giving Vinland Saga a lot more gravitas and drama then some kind of flashy action sequence would, as the focus isn’t on war and battle but rather Canute’s avoidance of direct combat. What does that mean? Well lets talk about it.
So in case it wasn’t obvious, this episode was all about Canute and how he has grown/changed since Season 1. In some ways its obvious, he’s growing a beard and is a lot firmer of features. His design has clearly matured since his time as Thorkell’s hostage. In other ways though, its much subtler. Gone is the old aversion to war and the disgust towards blood. Now he’s threatening to burn down countryside’s and poisoning kings! On first glance, he would appear to have become the very kind of monster he abhorred in his father, King Sweyn. A brutal, terrifying king who executes his own men and wants to conquer everything he sets his sights on. However I think if you step back, you will find that Canute really hasn’t changed much at all. And that’s part of what’s so frustrating to Thorkell.
Simply put, I think that Canute is doing all of this to prevent bloodshed. Threatening his men to keep them in line and prevent them from harassing refugees/civilians, people uninvolved in this war. Declining the Danegeld and refusing to leave, knowing there would only be more conflict later. Instead demanding fealty and for them to kill Ethelred. And when scaring them into obedience, he does so not through threatening their life but by showing how easily he could destroy their entire country. This is effectively Canute’s answer to the trolley problem. He will poison kings and execute men if it means less people must suffer in the long run. He will become the biggest, baddest guy around so that, with that weight, he can keep the peace. That was his answer to the question from Season 1. You can have peace, but only at the end of a sword.
Maybe this is just me projecting my own interpretation of Vinland Saga onto his character, as I firmly believe it is a condemnation of war and violence, but I think that Canute hates the Viking ideal just as much as Thorfinn and Einar do. He doesn’t seem to respect the laws of battle, and doesn’t take part himself. Rather then face Ethelred on the field, he conspires to poison him multiple times, his son to. To people like Thorkell, this is probably cowardly. But I imagine that Einar would find it… agreeable. He would probably prefer there be no conflict at all, sure. But if given the choice between the Kings settling it themselves or marching armies through his village, I think I know which he would pick. And that’s what makes it so interesting. What Canute is doing is wrong. But it’s not… the worst.
Beyond that, I really just want to say that the scene with the Welsh Lord was easily the best scene in the episode. The way he changed his tactic after the man showed some backbone, stepping all over the gold and silver already treating it as his. Demanding to know why he should accept money to leave land that, as King, he rightfully rules. Even openly calling for them to betray Ethelred, saying they already have by offering him this truce behind his back. Bit by bit he broke down their armor, either through threats or pointing out how they have already broken faith themselves. All culminating in the signal fire, something planned in advance just to scare this man into submission. I thought it was a great scene, filled with tension despite there being no actual threat to either of their lives during a truce.
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Now the only question that remains is will Canute meet Thorfinn, and what will their meeting be like when they do? We know via this episode that 3 years have passed since Askeladd’s death, finally giving us a timeline for how long Thorfinn has been a slave. How much of that is time pre-Einar and how much post-Einar we don’t yet know. But I imagine the more time Thorfinn has to come to terms with his desire to live, and to figure out how to do so, the better place he will be in when the two inevitably meet.
So yeah, all in all another very solid episode of Vinland Saga. Just like season 1, it isn’t the most animated nor visually impressive show of its season. But it’s very picturesque and conveys all the emotion it needs to through strong direction. Meanwhile narratively things are starting to pick up as Canute enters the picture, the closest thing to a “threat” we’ve had in the series so far. Sure the guards exist, but after the encounter with Snake we know they probably won’t do too much. Suffice to say, Vinland Saga is hitting its stride and I love it.
