Vinland Saga S2 – 19 [War at Ketil’s Farm]

Welcome all, to another week of Vinland Saga! This week marks the beginning of the war, as Canute lands on the farm and battle is joined. Who will come out on top? Who will survive? Let’s jump in and find out!

So, the war. Thing aren’t looking good for Ketil. They are horribly outmatched, in both skill and equipment, and everyone worth their salt knows it. Snake, Thorgil, Thorfinn, Canute. Everyone who has actually seen battle knows that these farmers don’t stand a chance. Everyone that is, except for the farmers themselves. All idiots driven into a frenzy. Having their heritage and pride played off of, being convinced that their superior numbers will be able to overcome Canute’s battle-hardened elite. It’s sad really. These people are being led to their deaths for the glory of another. They have nothing to gain in all of this, they could probably sit back, let Canute take over and continue living their lives under new management. But as is often the case, the greed and ambition of greater men drive them to their slaughter.

As for who’s glory? Well you might think it’s Ketil’s, as he’s the one who runs the farm. But he’s just holding on to the last tatters of a ruined life at this point. It more feels like Thorgil who’s driving this forward and really tricking these people along. Coming up with plans, organizing the meetings, waiting until they are all together to tell them, etc. All so that he can have a shot at Canute’s head. Throwing away 350 lives just to sneak up on him. That, along with Ketil’s own issues, tell me that this is really more of a personal conflict that in no way needed to drag all of these other people into it.

Speaking of Ketil, we learned a great deal about him this week. Or well, we had it confirmed. We’ve long suspected that he’s been lying about the “Iron Fist” thing. In fact I think it was confirmed prior to this to. But here we get it again, from a reliable source to: Snake. It’s really sad in a way. He came here looking for his mentor, a man who trained and raised him, looking for a place to call home. And what did he find? A pretender. Sure, the guy let him stay here as basically a guard dog. But this still isn’t the life Snake wanted, and it only makes Ketil look even more pitiful for having run with the lie this long, even in the face of someone who actually knew the real Iron Fist.

Moving on to the other half of the episode, easily the best part was Arnheid’s little vision quest. This was just… beautiful. Framing the world as a deep dark forest, filled with danger and beasts thirsting for blood. Her, Gardar and both of her kids slowly making their way out together, passing on. Free from all the pain and despair that is living. Einar and Thorfinn depicted as a stag and a wolf, surviving side by side in this shitty reality. It’s all just so… staggeringly sad, and poignant. Vinland Saga makes it painfully clear that Arnheid isn’t surviving this, hell Gardar says as much when saying they will wait for her while she says goodbye. Another victim of the violence that permeates life in this era. It’s ridiculous how many of these moments Arnheid’s story alone has brought.

Finally lets talk about Thorfinn and Leif. Last week these two’s reunion got skipped over to keep the tone of the episode consistent. Well it appeared this episode, and it was… fine? It definitely felt like it lacked a bit of gravitas for 2 friends meeting after so long. One thing it did accomplish though was that reinforcement for how Thorfinn has changed. The look in his face is better, he looks more like his father. It’s confirmation that Thorfinn, for all the troubles in his life, is moving in the right direction. And that those who remember him, who care for him, approve of it as well. It’s something that’s largely been provided by Einar until now, but hopefully it coming from someone who knew him before that as well will mean something more.

So yeah, all in all I think this was a solid episode of Vinland Saga. A lot of it still feels like prep work, as we all know how the war is going to go. The real thing I’m looking forward to is how Thorfinn deals with all of this. He obviously won’t just sail away, not without meeting Canute again. What’s the point of getting them in such close proximity if they weren’t going to get to chat, you know? So long as Vinland Saga can nail that, can nail their ideological differences and how both have similar goals with completely different ways to achieve them, then it should be great.