Welcome everyone, to another week of Vinland Saga! This week sees Canute and Thorfinn enter onto a headlong collision course, meanwhile Ketil runs into an old friend of ours and Canute shows he’s a bit of a baddass. Without further ado, lets dive into it!
Starting off, with Thorfinn in such a good place it’s not surprising that we got another Canute episode this week. And much like last weeks, Canute continues to show just how much he’s changed from that young man all those years ago. Case in point, despite still hating swords and violence, as seen by his reactions and his complete disdain for his armaments, he still trains with them, publicly, to reassure his warriors and gain their approval. As with so many things we see this week, such as his resolution to requisition farms to pay for his army of believing he needs an army at all, it’s a microcosm of Canute’s new attitude. Simply put: He’s become a Utilitarian. The ends justify the means, so long as an action results in more people being safe/happy then those who suffer, it’s worth it. And unsurprisingly, it’s kind of hypocritical.
What do I mean by that? Well let’s take a look at his army for one such example. Canute believes that the only way for him to control England is to have a standing army there. Armies cost money, meaning he has to pay for it. And the only way for him to pay for an army is by requisitioning land/funds from others. In effect, he’s simply transferring the suffering down the line. But the only reason these people have to suffer at all is because of his own actions. If he hadn’t been so set on conquering England, on holding it by force, on this path of war, then he wouldn’t need to requisition land to begin with. Basically, he’s acting to minimize the suffering in the world, but he’s doing so by generating more suffering, and doesn’t see any problem with that.
And who happens to be the victims of this suffering this time? The Ketils! This really shouldn’t come as a surprise, Vinland Saga needed some way to bring conflict to the farm and this is it. What’s interesting though is how Vinland Saga is bringing that conflict. I think that using Olmar is genius. He was already a bit of an arrogant twat, eager to show off but no skills to actually do so. But he seems to have only gotten worse in the last 3 years. Even his design has updated such that, while horribly out of place, it’s become reminiscent of the traditional Japanese delinquent. This whole thing with Canute is the perfect opportunity to teach him a lesson as well as to trigger some growth. Assuming he survives it at least.
Speaking of lessons and run ins, this week also saw the return of someone we haven’t seen since episode 1: Leif! I had forgotten Leif shows up here. It was a nice bit where both he and Ketil are admonishing unruly sons for their behavior. A demonstration that, for all of this cultures bravado, not everyone in it is a bastard. Most important of tall though, its lead to Thorfinn being discovered. With his freedom in hand and Leif on the way to see him, will this be how Thorfinn gets home? Or is Leif going to show up just in time to watch another farm burn to the ground? Guess we will find out soon!
So yeah, all in all another solid episode of Vinland Saga. The show continues its quiet, consistent march. Heavy themes of war and peace, of what it means to be a man, but all presented in such an easy to understand package that there really isn’t any need to write much about it. As such, you can probably expect these posts to stay around this length or shorter for a bit while I deal with some grad school stuff. Don’t worry, it’s just midterms and me taking on a bit to much work. Hopefully things should calm down around May. Until then though, thanks for reading!
