THE THOUSAND YEAR VOYAGE - REDEMPTION IN VINLAND SAGA

BLAKE MORRISON - Writer

Originally published in Vol. 57 Issue 7 - Drama

It’s been a thousand and one years now, and the voyage still continues.

SPOILERS FOR VINLAND SAGA SEASON 2/CHAPTER 101!

The second main arc of Vinland Saga is in a tricky yet opportune position. Known colloquially as the Farmland arc, this stretch of 45 chapters, adapted in full by the second season of the anime, marks the crucial turning point for Thorfinn Karlsefni, the payoff for all of his stunted non-development in the first season. Frankly, Shonen protagonist-esque ball of rage season 1 Thorfinn is often a pain to watch, and that’s the point. The star of the show in Vinland Saga’s prologue is Askeladd, although he is mostly a static character, and once he finally sacrifices himself for a cause greater than himself, Thorfinn steps up to fill that void. He does this by thinking, really thinking. Thinking and re-thinking, grieving, regretting, pondering. Very few protagonists undergo such drastic change as Thorfinn does over his greater arc. Season 1 Thorfinn, vicious and vindictive, is not so much an interesting character by merit of his thoughts and ideology, which amounts to little more than to the maladaptive belief that might makes right. Rather, the bloody first leg of Thorfinn’s journey is interesting because of the dire situations that he is thrown into by cruel chance and circumstance and the pathos of seeing him descend into the hell on earth of blood feuds, war, and senseless violence that his father tried to shield him from. Of course, one can only descend so far, and Thorfinn’s realization at the end of season 1 of the essential hollowness and futility of his quest for vengeance, right as it is snatched away from him, a climax executed in sublime anti-climax, should cue any viewer into how Thorfinn will not and cannot remain the same. The story changes course, towards the direction it was always headed.

As Thorfinn himself observes, the main cause of slavery is war. It is remarkable to me how, despite the admittedly marked tonal shift between seasons 1 and 2, mangaka Makoto Yukimura consistently depicts the often brutal living conditions of medieval Europe throughout the story. Some viewers may be distracted by the heaps of flashy action scenes in the first season, but the slaves and corpses created by the violence of Thorfinn, Askeladd and the rest of the warriors receive much attention as well. The story of the Slavic slave in episode 1, the Norwegian slave girl in episode 8, and the fate of the English village in episode 14 all come to mind. However, these victims of war do not receive as much attention as the battles themselves in season 1 (although Thorfinn, Askeladd, and the rest of those who wage war are arguably victims of it as well). The main cast is too caught up in their own petty squabbles and egos to pay too much attention to the casualties of their campaigns, after all. But the consequences of war are still frequently depicted in the first season, even if Thorfinn gives no deep thought to it at the time. Thorfinn’s enslavement in the second season, therefore, figures as a direct consequence of the violence he perpetuates in the first, and the hollowing out of his desire for revenge, the surface level manifestation of his pain at becoming the victim of a deeply unjust culture in which might makes right, opens himself up to personal growth for the first time in a long time. In essence, he finally asks himself: if I was hurt, why do I have to lash out in return? All that does is create more pain. It solves none of my, of our, underlying problems. What are these problems? What can I do to resolve them?

But if this was the direction that Vinland Saga was always headed towards, towards the journey of a warrior turned pacifist to build at least one town in recompense for the lives and livelihoods he has destroyed, why did it take so long to get there? Somewhat understandably, many anime-only viewers of the season 2 have expressed their disappointment with the slower, more introspective turn the story has taken, but to anyone who thinks that season 2 is a complete 180 from the first one, I want to ask if they were really paying attention, or rather, I want to ask what they were paying attention to. The first answer that comes to my mind is the action and the other more conventionally exciting aspects of the prologue. A compelling quest for revenge, a series of exciting fights, a charismatic and intriguing anti-hero in Askeladd. These are all admittedly key aspects of the first season that are absent in the second, but they are not absent without good reason. The core of Vinland Saga was never these specific parts but rather Yukimura's holistic depiction of medieval Europe and Thorfinn’s journey. Caught for a time in the spiral of death and destruction, Thorfinn escapes by chance and then stumbles towards new growth and ideals as he develops real relationships with the people around him. Thorfinn’s oft-quoted and memed declaration “I have no enemies” may sound naive to some, but naive can be a dysphemism for admirable, or more neutrally, for idealistic. The point of an ideal is that it does not align with the status quo, with our lived experiences at large. It is something you have to struggle for, something you may never be able to truly achieve but you believe is worth reaching for nonetheless.

Only a few stories have changed the way I think, which is to say changed it in ways that I think about a lot. Vinland Saga is one of those stories. Simply put, it has made me want to be a kinder, gentler person. I was in my late teens when I caught up with the manga over two years ago, and I learned much from it. I watched the first seven episodes of the anime as they were airing four years ago before my interest petered out with the weekly broadcasts, but if I decided to continue the story then, I would have also learned much from it. An even younger me would have learned a lot. That said, it is not important to me that I could have learned more or less if I experienced this story at a younger age. Rather, if I had experienced the larger arc of this story earlier, if I had seen Thorfinn make a concerted effort to grow up to become what he sees as a true warrior a year or even a day earlier than I did, I would have been a different person for it. That said, any story anyone ever experiences changes the way they think, if you grant that the change does not need to be dramatic. And if you grant that, then all art and every experience is “life-changing.” Let us say that all experiences are transformative, then. Why do I care so much about my experience with this one story? Although the story is not without its own flaws, I think reading and watching Vinland Saga has changed me for the better. That alone makes me want to recommend it to as many people as I can in the hope that it can do the same for them.