Vinland Saga Season 2

Episode 16

It's kind of crazy how the Vinland Saga crew keeps getting away with releasing episodes that are only around five minutes long, right? It can't possibly be legal to do that. At first, I thought I was going crazy because the timers on the Crunchyroll player and the numbers on my clock kept telling me that over twenty minutes had passed, but that simply cannot be true. I defy you to find me a single person who can sit down, watch an episode like "Great Purpose," and convincingly argue that more than 300 seconds pass from the cold open to the end credits. It can't be done.

The only other option would be that Vinland Saga is telling such a brain-meltingly compelling story that the mind is utterly incapable of processing the linear flow of time. You know what? That tracks. This anime has been firing on all cylinders for so long that I've forgotten what it's like not to be immersed in peak anime drama week after week. The first half of this episode is just Thorfinn and Einar catching up on the chaos Arnheid and Gardar have gotten themselves wrapped up in since last week. It's still the most gripping television I've seen since, well, the last episode of Vinland Saga. Is it because Arnheid's voice actress, Mayumi Sako, sells every ounce of anguish in the woman's pained sobs? Or is it because we have a man like Einar, who throws himself into helping Arnheid in whatever way he can, even though he knows it means losing her forever one way or the other because he's just that good of a person?

The answer is "both of those things and also everything going on with Thorfinn!" It's a tragedy in the most classical sense, honestly. Now enlightened to the error of his ways and committed to living a better life than that of a castoff murderer, Thorfinn finds himself in a position where he has to decide whether it is ultimately more just to stick to one's principles and avoid violence altogether or to charge ahead and knowingly commit a grave sin, so long as it is to protect another person's life. Just in the last episode, Thorfinn acknowledged that violence for the sake of "peace" is a vicious and self-defeating paradox, yet here he is, squaring off against Snake to defend his friends.

I've been unfortunate enough to witness some comments around the internet complaining that we've gotten sixteen episodes into this second season of Vinland Saga with little "action," especially where our heroes—Thorfinn and Einar—are concerned. I hope I do not need to explain how utterly and disastrously these people have missed the point of this entire show. This is exactly how you build up "action" in a story like this. Vinland Saga is about confronting the physical, moral, and spiritual cost of waging war and striking out against other humans in anger or fear. This is the only way to go about it despite being exposed to its ills if it is ever going to indulge in the baser instincts of the audience that still crave such violence.

You have to reckon with what it will cost Thorfinn to raise his fists again, and you have to make it matter that he is willing to break his oath. Am I going to lie and tell you that I wasn't excited to see Thorfinn adopt his warrior stance and take a stand against Snake? Of course not. I'm just happy that here in Vinland Saga, we have an anime capable of so much more than simply appealing to our collective lust for bloody spectacle.

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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.