Welcome all, to what may be the best episode of Vinland Saga all season. A tall claim considering some of the previous episodes, I know. But this little bit has always been one of my favorite sections of story in the entire series, for reasons I hope everyone can see. And for those who can’t? Well allow me to explain.
To me, this episode completes Vinland Saga’s message. Not in that it was lacking before now, it wasn’t. “War and violence bad” is a pretty clear cut and stand alone message that doesn’t need much. Rather I see it as the beginning of Yukimura-Sensei’s response. After all, saying something is bad doesn’t really mean much if you don’t provide an alternative. And what is his alternative? Well taken at face value, as presented by the characters, it would be “Turn the other cheek”. To simply not rise to the words/insults/threats of others. But that’s ignoring a lot of the context surrounding their responses and, I feel, doesn’t wholly do it justice. To truly understand it we need to dive into what this response means for each character, starting with Olmar.
