Vinland Saga Season 2 is a pretty unforgiving series. It always leaves me pretty battered, but I can’t watch anything else after. Once I finish this one, I’m ruined for the rest of the day. And these are the most intense episodic pieces I write, as well. This is such incredibly dense and multi-layered material that I can’t just toss off some reactions and call it a day. If you aren’t going to think seriously about what’s going on here, you may as well not bother writing about it at all.
There’s a big shitstorm converging on Ketil’s Farm, that much is certain. Canute and his ships are two or three days behind Ketil and his sons (and Leif). There are some complex dynamics even here – Floki is pretty disrespectful towards the king and his decision to personally go to subdue a bumpkin landowner, and makes pains to declare that he and the Jomsvikings are basically hired hands, and that Canute is not his liege. Canute asserts that “people are assets” – the comment being nominally about Ketil and his clan, but implicitly the Jomsvikings too.
What’s really interesting here is that at this point, it’s hard to say whether the King will be arriving as villains or allies of the protagonists. Ketil is already a basket case by the time the ships land (Thorgil’s behavior not helping in the slightest). He seems to basically stiff the captain whose cargo he promised to buy for three times its worth. But when his wife tells him what’s happened with Arnheid and Gardar, he completely loses it. All sense of reason is lost in an upswell of rage that this slave in particular should choose to “betray” him.
Thorfinn and Einar, meanwhile, are confined but don’t seem to have been beaten or tortured. Thorfinn is still lamenting what happened, forcing him not just to fight, but to fight a man he’s come to respect. There must be some other way, he muses – a “first method” to be tried when situations arise which prompt Einar to say simply “sometimes you have to fight”. The next few episodes could play out in any number of ways, but one of them would be the impending crisis providing an opportunity for Thorfinn to learn more about this vexing idea.
Pater has some notion that things are going to go badly for Arnheid (but in truth, he has no idea). He tries to convince Leif to purchase Einar and Arnheid, assuming the Master follows through on his promise to let him take Thorfinn for free. Leif hasn’t even been allowed to see Thorfinn and confirm his identity (this winds up happening off camera, for reasons which I can understand given what else was happening but still presenting a bit of an anti-climax). Leif will always try and do the right thing, that’s a given, but it’s soon to be made irrelevant.
There are astounding intellectual and moral depths to what Yukimura Makoto is saying with this part of the story, but I do think some elements of it can be distilled down to their essence. To wit (though perhaps I should say “to mappa”), people owning other people is bad. The myth of the kindly slaveowner is just that, a myth. When Snake was called upon to kill to uphold the system, he killed. And when Ketil (already at the end of his tether) is presented with news that the woman he “adores” tried to escape his clutches, all he feels is rage and a thirst for revenge. Because Arnheid isn’t a person, she’s his property.
The scene that follows is obviously pretty brutal. It had damn well better be, given the meaning. Ketil isn’t even moved by Arnheid’s pleas that she’s carrying his child – that just makes her even more of a betrayer. Again, till I’m blue in the face, I echo Yukimura’s point – slavery is a pervasive toxin that poisons everything and everyone it touches. Some days may be better under some owners than they would be under others, but the core issue is always the same – it’s an institution that dehumanizes both parties. One legally, and one psychologically. The issue of “good slavery” is directly tied to Einar’s belief in “good fighting”. And it gives you an idea of the mountain Thorfinn has to climb in resisting both entrenched notions in his world.
Arnheid is critically wounded. Einar, of course, will want nothing more than revenge. Canute is about to arrive, and Ketil – whose entire history as a “warrior” is a lie – is now hardened to fight to the death in what seems like an unwinnable battle. This is such a chaotic situation that it’s impossible to guess what will happen. Snake probably realizes this fight is hopeless, but if he’s forced to wage it perhaps he’ll also realize (Canute will very likely be thinking in the same terms once he realizes he’s present) that Thofrinn would be an invaluable asset (he is still property). Arnheid – and her child – may live, she may die. Who will walk (or sail) away from Ketil’s Farm when the dust has settled – and to where will they go?
Stewart
May 9, 2023 at 11:53 pmKetil beating Arnheid to near death is the most brutally scene in VS to me. We see vikings kill each other and civilians throughout the series but this type of violence is the hardest for me. The voice acting and animation made it worst then manga. I thought the anime would censor it a bit but I respect that it didn’t.
I’m not sure if you noticed or not but Thorgil didn’t tell anybody who is attacking the farm yet just that some “group” is coming to attack the farm. Snake,his men and the farmhands don’t know exactly how bad it is right now.
Guardian Enzo
May 10, 2023 at 6:30 amWell of course, he doesn’t want them to know how overmatched they are.
Ronbb
May 10, 2023 at 10:29 amI was expecting a big reunion scene since S1. Perhaps moving the plot forward is more urgent now.
I am contemplating the idea of slavery. To me, slavery extends to authoritarian countries where only one party, institution or individual rules. The imbalance of power and the lack of equity can be the impetus to violence, brutality and existential danger to humankind. The cycle of killing to preserve one’s absolute power or to survive goes on. Morals, virtues, ethics, kindness…all go down the drains. Simply look at those authoritarian countries of today. I am curious about what “first method” Thorfinn will come up with. I am also contemplating the themes of life, death and love that Yukimaru-san said in that interview, and how that relates to my own faith.
OMG… VS is so gooooood…!!
Guardian Enzo
May 10, 2023 at 11:03 amYes, it really, really is. Genuinely deep.
There’s no big reunion scene in the manga either – the first time we see Thorfinn and Leif together is exactly the same as the anime. I haven’t read past that but I assume Yukimura didn’t want to distract from the immediacy of the moment with Arnheid and Ketil.
Stewart
May 10, 2023 at 11:12 am“I assume Yukimura didn’t want to distract from the immediacy of the moment with Arnheid and Ketil.” Yeah,Yukimura did confirmed that’s the reason on his Twitter earlier today.
Guardian Enzo
May 10, 2023 at 12:48 pmThanks for letting us know that.
Pastuzo
May 10, 2023 at 7:38 pmI see so many fans hating on Ketil now that he’s beaten Arnheid half to death. I would think that if the king wasn’t on his back and that he’s about to lose everything or die, a normal Ketil would’ve handled the situation better. I also think Arnheid didn’t expect this either as Ketil is normally pretty reasonable. He’s one of the better slave masters as has been shown. Arnheid is very unlucky in this instance as Gardar happened to show up at the worst possible time.
It’s hard to justify for Ketil’s overreaction but the show has spent so much time painting him as a kind master that I feel Einar/Audience’s hate shouldn’t be toward him but rather at the world at large or in this case it’s Canute that’s driving most of the chaos this time.
Guardian Enzo
May 10, 2023 at 8:26 pmYeah.we’re gonna have to agree to disagree on that one.
Eugene Tan
May 10, 2023 at 7:57 pmThere…really isn’t any way to justify beating a restrained pregnant woman half to death. Especially when he basically just did it out of a temper.
Of course the broader social context matters here but at the same time that doesn’t absolve an individual from the cruelty of their actions. People reveal who they really are in times of strife.
DukeofEarls
May 11, 2023 at 2:23 am“Again… I echo Yukimura’s point – slavery is a pervasive toxin that poisons everything and everyone it touches.”
Indeed – look at how pathetic a man Ketil truly is. This institution is a perversion of human morality, suppressing the true human experience for both the perpetrator and the victim.
Ketil disgustingly believed he was loved and understood in a romantic and spiritual sense by someone he kept under bandage. In truth he’s deprived himself of any possibility of this kind of love. He’s spiritually stunted, morally corrupted. No matter how many sex slaves he owns, he’ll never truly feel the kind of love one could receive — because he’s the man who keeps a woman in chains and beats her for having an modicum of autonomy.
Marty
May 11, 2023 at 5:06 amImma just say this, I know a lot of people want to jump on the Ketil Defense Force, but mind-broken or not, 1 act of Domestic abuse is 1 act too many.
DukeofEarls
May 11, 2023 at 5:38 amIf anyone wants to defend him they’ve missed the point to a hilarious degree. It’s pretty on the nose
Guardian Enzo
May 11, 2023 at 6:28 amI think that pretty much goes without saying.
Vance
May 11, 2023 at 11:41 amHoly hell, I did not expect Ketil to just snap like that. He is an entirely different person now after being backed into a corner, feeling that he lost everything.
It would be very touching if Arnheid lived to raise Ketil’s child anyway in spite of the savage beating he gave her, but given what happened with the Thorfinn/Leif reunion, which one might have thought would be a big thing, ending up as a off-screen event, maybe the fetus also died off-screen. I’d be surprised if the child survived given how Arnheid is close to death herself. Given that whether Arnheid will even live on is in question, I’d be surprised if her body didn’t focus all its resources on surviving rather than nurturing a fetus that is likely not even viable.
Guardian Enzo
May 11, 2023 at 11:49 amRespectfully, I think Yuikimura is saying that was who Ketil was all along – a slaveowner who saw other people as property to do with as he pleased. It just took a little adversity to unmask him.
Vance
May 11, 2023 at 1:52 pmWhile I can respect that point of view, I just didn’t come to the same conclusion. Ketil even said that he was terrified of everything to do with war and Viking ideals and scared of his own son, Thorgill, but after faced with the loss of potentially everything, he lost all his humanity and became a creature obsessed with the single-minded obsession with defending his honour with blood and guts. This is the same Ketil that wanted to employ the kids who stole from him as farm hands and didn’t want to punish them but was forced to since Thorgill would have killed the young boy since he didn’t know the meaning of restraint. To say that he was this person all along is ignoring what came before in my opinion.
Ketil did say that Arnheid was his one light in the world, and after perceiving that he lost her, I can see how he spiralled and decided to abandon the person he was. I see Sverkel telling the story about how he avoided going to battle/war and sacrificed Ketil’s happiness by letting the woman his son loved be taken away by another man only for her to die in an act of war anyway was a precursor to this event with Canute deciding to seize his land and Arnheid trying to escape, when Ketil came to see that Viking ideals are the only things that can secure your future and livelihood. I perceive Ketil also as being a victim of war, although that is not to say I defend anything he did to Arnheid because it truly was wrong for him to do any of it.
When Ketil asked Arnheid to explain why she had tried to escape, I believe she should have answered honestly that Gardar killed a man when she was less than a foot away from him, and she feared that she would have been blamed and killed for that. Again, I’m not defending Ketil here, but because Arnheid didn’t stand up for herself, Ketil was left to come to his own conclusion, that the one person that he thought represented all that was good in the world was just like the rest of the scum of the Earth. I believe in all stories, especially stories that are cream of the crop like Vinland Saga and Re:zero, that one should look at everything holistically and carefully consider all every character’s viewpoint, which Thorfinn himself remarked that he failed to do with Snake, and that might have been why he failed to save Gardar. For this same reason, I have believed since Season 1 Episode 24 that Emilia would die at the end of Re:zero’s story with Season 2 only reinforcing this belief. I also believe that Priscilla thought of Subaru as a potential lover after their meeting in Episode 12, and I’d be willing to share with you both why I believe Emilia will die permanently at the end of Re:zero and why I believe what I do about Priscilla. It’s your blog though, so I won’t do that unless you give me permission though.
Guardian Enzo
May 11, 2023 at 2:49 pmAgain respectfully, you are defending Ketil. Which is your right, but let’s be clear about it.
As to the Re:zero stuff honestly I’d just as soon not bog down a VS thread with that. There are plenty of places to discuss that series, let’s leave this one for Vinland.
Vance
May 11, 2023 at 3:06 pmI don’t believe I am defending Ketil. I do believe there is a difference between trying to understand a character’s actions and actually condoning his/her behaviour. I believe what Ketil did to Arnheid was truly evil, but I believe I understand why he chose to become that person because of what he personally experienced in the past. I do the same with people with conservative politics despite being a diehard progressive. Just because I try to understand a conservative’s beliefs in no way means I am defending the actual beliefs. I believe one reason the world is becoming a more dangerous place is because of a lack of empathy and inability or maybe lack of interest in understanding other people, which is leading to increasing political polarization.
Pastuzo
May 11, 2023 at 8:33 pmI think the fact that a lot of people are reacting differently to what Ketil has done just shows how great of a story VS is. I totally understand that we should take as face value that Ketil is an evil man after this heinous act. But I also see points others have made like how if Arnheid just stayed put and not go to Gardar, it would’ve been okay or that if Gardar didn’t rock up and ruin things for everyone. Of course the fans with that view are not taking into the fact that the author’s underlying message here is that slavery is bad. I can definitely see how Ketil will draw both heavy criticism and others would blame the victims as well.
One thing that is less divisive is that Sverkel has foreshadowed or was afraid that all the money and power that Ketil has gathered will ruin him sooner or later, as he has said in episode 6. “My idiot son hasn’t realized yet how pointless it is”
After looking into this, I am not sure if Yukimura is also indirectly criticising capitalism. But i guess being wealthy back in the middle ages is very different to being wealthy now. So it might not be comparable.
Vance
May 11, 2023 at 2:09 pmOops, I mean I came to the conclusion that Priscilla saw Subaru as a potential lover after their first meeting in Episode 12 after I had finished watching Subaru and Priscilla’s scene together in Episode 16.