Welcome everyone, to another (late) post this week, this time for Vinland Saga! Turns out that when one post gets pushed back by a day or 2, so does everything else. Good thing I already have Wolf’s Rain done for tomorrow or else I’d be in a pickle. My struggle to consistently put out content aside, lets dive into the episode!
Getting into the episode, so far in Vinland Saga we’ve had 2 distinct worlds/stories. The first is, of course, Ketil’s farm where the focus in on Thorfinn, Einar, and building things up. The second though is the war front, with Canute, Thorkell, and a focus on death and destruction. These two stories have, so far, been completely separate and diametrically opposed. So why do I bring up the obvious? Because, slowly but surely, these two worlds are starting to intersect. Because this week Thorgil, Ketil’s elder son and the embodiment of everything Einar hates, of what Thorfinn used to be, has returned to the farm. And in just a single day he’s already begun to stoke not only Olmar’s dreams of going to war, but violence on the farm itself.
Going into spoilers past the break, I thought this was a pretty interesting episode. Not the most engaging, lots of it was people sitting around and talking, the Ketil family basically taking over the episode. But the dilemmas introduced were at least thought provoking. Up until now Vinland Saga has been pretty anti-war, going all in on building things up rather than tearing them down. But it’s down so on a largely personal level, exploring the choice each individual has to make. This week though we see it zoom out a bit and look at how a culture can influence those decisions, can feed that cycle of violence. And it does so primarily through Iron Fist Ketil, the patriarch of the family.
Ketil’s dilemma is simple: He doesn’t want to hurt the kids. Not only that, he clearly wants to not only let them off scott-free, but to feed and take care of them himself. It’s why he immediately jumps on Pater’s suggestion of having them work the land he had already lent their father. The problem however is that his society, Viking culture in general, doesn’t allow that kind of justice. It’s a punitive system, where theft is punished harshly and physically. To let them off without a scratch would be to show weakness, to tell everyone else they can come, steal from him, and get rewarded for it. And through these children, through Sture, we see how that system creates only resentment and further conflict down the line. Sture isn’t thankful to be let off easy, he doesn’t care that Ketil hits softer than Thorgil. He only remembers being hit.
Further more, we learn just how deep this goes when Ketil admits to Arnheid that he made the Iron Fist thing up. All because he knew people wouldn’t respect, couldn’t accept, a coward and a pacifist as a great man. As a leader in the community and of a large farm. Now we see why he’s so lenient and understanding with Olmar. He see’s himself in his son, how Olmar is just as ill-suited for war as he is yet is still wrapped up their cultures love and admiration for it. I’ve always thought this was really interesting myself! The culture someone is raised in will influence a lot of their values as an adult. We saw it Thorfinn back in Season 1, when revenge for his father drove him to become a mercenary and only now is he breaking out of that. Now we see it again.
With all that said, it makes you wonder how Thorgil ended up so differently from his father and brother. He is, in every way, the stereotypical warrior that Vinland Saga rails against. And not even the enlightened “True” warrior that Thors was, just the roaming killer akin to Thorkell or those that destroyed Einar’s home. He praises a child for volunteering to take his sisters beating, only to hit him with far more strength then is necessary. His first suggestion for punishment is to cutoff both of the child’s arms, effectively killing him, all for a single bag of flour. Thorgil even brought home a necklace of ears, commenting on how bad they taste! It’s almost laughable how stereotypically bloodthirsty Vinland Saga makes him. Yet that’s also why he sticks out like a sore thumb the moment he returns to this idyllic farm life, so different from everyone else here.
Meanwhile, off in his own little world, Thorfinn continues to learn about the wonders of farming! Thorfinn didn’t really get to do much this week, but that’s ok. He’s still on a personal journey of self-acceptance and figuring out what it means to live without hurting other people. This week? The magical experience of watching something as small and fragile as wheat seeds grow into something that can sustain so many. You can see it in his face, as he realizes once again the work that goes in to something he once took for granted. Plus we got some fun praying bits from Einar, with Thorfinn not really taking part since he isn’t very religious. He doesn’t understand that it isn’t really about the “Who” and more about the community and being in it together. So yeah, Thorfinn continues to grow into a cinnamon roll.
Anyways, all in all this wasn’t the best episode of Vinland Saga, but it was still a good one. We’re starting to see the cracks in Ketil’s little paradise, and war has finally arrived on his doorstep in the form of his eldest son. Will more follow? Or will they be able to let this momentary visit go by without anything more eventful happening? Obviously I already know the answer, but I’m still looking forward to it.
