Vinland Saga Season 2

Episode 15

The question that “Storm” forces Thorfinn to ask is so old, and so simple, that it is easy enough to dismiss out of hand. I'd wager that most people, both during Thorfinn's time and even now, would scoff at the notion that we could build a world entirely free of violence against one another. As Einar points out, sometimes you have to commit violence to preserve the peace of your life from the assault of other aggressors. Thorfinn refuses to accept that, since using violence to preserve “peace” is an inherently fallacious concept. If you are doing harm—you are doing harm, regardless of the justifications you may have for doing so. What Thorfinn wants is something truly radical: a world wherein the reasons to do any harm to another human being are simply never allowed to take root in the first place.

What makes this dilemma so compelling (not to mention heartbreaking) is that both of these men are right. For example, the Nords exist within cultures that are predicated on warfare, not just as an inevitability, but as a way of life. When tens of thousands of men are raised within the same glorified system, not even committed pacifists can expect to live a life where violence can be avoided completely. There can be no true freedom when everyone's choices are restricted to cutting men apart for sport and profit, or keeping your head down and praying that you can just ignore all the bloodshed long enough to die with clean hands.

The real problem at the heart of the matter is that, at least so far as a radical like Thorfinn sees it, there are no clean hands to be found when everyone lives trapped in the bloodied walls of the same haunted house. A killer like him isn't actually atoning by choosing not to kill anymore. It isn't enough to plug your ears and ignore all of the sufferings in the world. You have to plant more wheat than you trampled underfoot. You have to build more homes than you destroyed. You have to create peace where there once was hope for none. But how? How do we escape the chains that bind us if the links stretch across every inch of the soil that covers the known world?

Well, we start by finding new soil to plant our seeds in. Even Thorfinn's first instinct is to discard such a dream as a fool's errand. He first heard of Vinland as a boy, and even if he did somehow reunite with the one man who might possibly know where to find this mystical place, how on Earth is Thorfinn supposed to gather up all of the men and resources needed to start a brand new country? How is he supposed to get them all there? Based on the hell that is coming for Arnheid and a newly “freed” Gardar, though, the old routine of running and fighting, only to run again, only then to be caught in another battle to survive—it doesn't work. It probably never will. Something must change.

This is where Thorfinn's saga truly begins. After years of wandering through a fog of blood and tears and broken men, our wayward hero has taken the first steps toward fulfilling his dream of creating a world without war and slavery. It is the smallest of steps, to be sure, but it still matters. Even in the face of insurmountable odds—especially so—it matters so much that two men can sit down together and ask whether there exists a place in this world that has not been sullied by the stain of bloodshed and the forced bondage of other human beings. It probably doesn't exist. It probably never will. How will we ever know, though, if someone like Thorfinn isn't brave enough to try anyway?

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Vinland Saga Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.