Is Vinland Saga Season 2 as boring as many people think?

Vinland Saga Season 2: Is this second season really as boring as many believe?

This past January, the second season of Vinland Saga, one of the anime that has been giving more of what to talk about and it is not for less, since the first season enamored more than one with its frenetic history, wars, battles, tragedies, Vikings and English, a combination that generated a great hype in the viewers and therefore, many expected more of the same with this sequel. However, the events of this second part have been, to say the least, very distant from what we saw in the beginning and many users have branded this second season as boring, but is it really so? Has Vinland Saga lost its touch? That is why we will now review the elements that are part of this work and see if it has really moved away from its essence.

What have we seen from this second season of Vinland Saga?

From now on, you should be aware that the following article will contain spoilers, although these will be limited only to the episodes that have been aired in the anime and a little more, but nothing that may affect the user's experience regarding future arcs, so if you are up to date with the anime, you will have nothing to worry about. That said, let's get started.

The second season of Vinland Saga begins with the sacking of a village in the north of England, where we see how a company of Vikings assault, murder and enslave its inhabitants. Sowing terror and desolation in the poor wretches.

Here appears one of the characters that will be recurrent in this work, Einar, who lost his mother and sister, both victims of the Vikings, and although the latter tries to fight for his freedom, he ends up being overcome and as a result, enslaved.

After that he is bought by Ketil, who has a wheat farm and from now on, he must work on it. To the surprise of the viewers, Einar must work with another slave, Thorfinn. So far it is unknown how our protagonist ended up being enslaved, but the fact is that he is now a slave and his task is to sow a wheat field.

Ketil tells both Einar and Thorfinn, that they must completely deforest a forest and turn it into a wheat farm, if they accomplish that task, they will be rewarded with their freedom. Einar is filled with excitement that there is a chance to escape slavery, but Thorfinn doesn't seem to be too thrilled about it.

As the episodes go by, we see a Thorfinn that looks little or nothing like the one we saw in the first season. Totally apathetic of what is happening around him. On the other hand, Einar seems to have a second wind knowing that he can regain his freedom. Thus giving start to a rather disparate duo.

However, this is where the criticism from users begins, who are eagerly awaiting the return of the epic battles that fascinated so much in the first season, but as the episodes progress, we see nothing of the above and, on the contrary, it seems more and more that this rhythm will not return.

Some situations put Einar and Thorfinn on the verge of violence, but despite this, our Viking still does not react and continues to show a disinterested attitude towards everything. What ends up generating a great discontent in the viewers, who after each week, criticize the development of the new episodes claiming that the series became "boring".

And the big question is whether it really got boring, and to answer it, we need to review what this story is about and where it's headed.

What is Vinland Saga really about?

Vinland Saga immerses us in a world of Vikings and therefore, we will more than see what made them famous and it is all about their conquests. These skilled, but bloodthirsty warriors violently decimated Europe and the first season of this series portrays perfectly how they did it.

Invading, slaughtering and conquering, a practice Thorfinn follows to the letter, but the moment Askeladd dies, his determination to exact revenge vanishes and with it, his motivation to move forward.

The new Thorfinn is no longer in the midst of battles and, having lost his motivation, he finds himself empty, a term used by the character himself to describe his behavior. However, he is encouraged by another character, Ketil's father, who takes the opportunity to tell him that this is the best time to start over, taking advantage of the fact that he is empty and has space to learn from 0.

Even though these words have a strong impact on the boy, it is still not enough, but they did serve to give him a boost. Little by little he begins to see the good in his new reality. He learns to harvest, to repair roofs, to fish and other tasks that had nothing to do with his lifestyle as a warrior.

Finally comes another event in which both Thorfinn and Einar are involved in a fight and although it is not a battle to the death, our protagonist hits someone, only to be hit from behind with a shovel, becoming unconscious and it is here where he has an epiphany.

I have no enemies

While passed out, he has a dream in which he meets his father Thors, who tells him that he "smells blood", to which Thorfinn realizes that he is stained with blood, but it is not his own, but that of all those he killed during his time as a warrior.

The reunion leads him to see Askeladd again, who puts him in context, as Thorfinn thought he was in Vahalla, but instead, he saw a bunch of corpses coming towards him. Askeladd tells him all those dead, are all the people Thorfinn killed when he was a warrior and the boy, realizes he does not recognize any of them, to which he begins to cry disconsolately asking forgiveness for what he did to them.

He finally manages to escape from that place, but not before taking with him a profound message from his father, who tells him that "he has no enemies", a sentence that reaches the depths of the protagonist, who, upon waking up, has the phrase in his mind, "I have no enemies".

That scene occurs in episode 9, which was released this March 9, and it is here where the author's intention is quite clear, Makoto Yukimura, After Thorfinn's dream, he wakes up and meets Einar and they have a conversation, in which the protagonist begins to cry and confesses all the damage he has caused, all the lives he has taken for practically nothing, and vows never to resort to violence again.

Vinland Saga, a journey of redemption

Although the first season of this work immersed us in a frenetic story overloaded with action, it is not by any means, the central axis of the plot, since the true purpose of the author, is to send a message about redemption. A message that makes it clear that we can all change despite the damage we have caused if we have truly understood in our hearts the pain we have inflicted on others.

This anime is not an action anime as many have misinterpreted, but on the contrary, it is an anime that sends a strong and clear message that violence only leaves more violence and the only way to break that bitter cycle is to understand the evil we have caused and take responsibility for our actions. A journey that Thorfinn has just begun and fortunately, he has finally started this long process of making peace with himself.