Vinland Saga

Loved that chapter. Though, fighting with chains is quite dumb.

Anime released Episode 11 today.

Not the most eventful episode, but it features the best line ever from our enlightened priest.

By the way, according to the author the episode that aired on TV was partly censored compared to the one on Amazon Prime? Can anyone confirm?

I've heard that as well but the link's in Portuguese.

I got an article about it.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2019-09-23/vinland-saga-creator-episode-11-tv-version-is-cut-full-version-is-on-amazon-prime/.151442

What is missing exactly?

Chapter 165 spoilers: I don't think anyone saw that timeskip coming

It makes sense, I was also low-key looking forwards to seeing Thorfinn learn how to haggle in Eastern Europe but obviously the mangaka wants to pick up the pace a little, so it's fine.

Episode 12… Not gonna lie, I completely forgot that there was a mini-arc in Wales early on. I thought the reveal of Askeladd being Welsh happened much later… so it was like I completely rediscovered that part, which is nice.

Anyway, I really liked the work on atmosphere in this ep. It was quiet, yet slightly tense, with discreet but effecitve music. The only thing missing is characters speaking their actual languages.

Seriously, imagine a historical drama where actors would speak Old English, Old Welsh, Old Gaelic, Old French… that would be awesome.

On the minus side… what the hell was that cut to Leif near the end? It felt completely out of place…

Edited by Lyendith on Sep 30th 2019 at 12:51:52 PM

Maybe to reminds us that he exists?

'Cause the sheer length of time between Leif being introduced and him coming back to the narrative made his part on the Farmland arc a bit Deus ex Machina -y.

I don't think that qualifies as a Machina.

Edited by slimcoder on Sep 30th 2019 at 3:56:45 AM

Leif is looking for Thorfinn and saw a slave boy/girl that looked a lot like him. I am pretty sure that scene is meant to establish that his old family is still out there trying to find him.

Edited by Wispy on Sep 30th 2019 at 10:05:39 AM

I know, what I don't get is why they put that scene there, in the middle of a completely unrelated scene.

Leif coming back to the narrative happened just before the end of "part 1" if you like. Shortly before when Askeladd does his Heroic Sacrifice if you want to call it that and before the farm arc. This is an incidental meeting that doesn't lead to saving Thorfinn one bit, so that certainly isn't Deus Ex anything. It simply established that he's still looking for Thorfinn so that his appearance later on in the farm arc doesn't come out of nowhere.

The ending of episode 12 felt like a mid season ending, showing Leif was part of that feeling.

That is because technically this haven't been revealed yet. I mean, for us who know it is very obvious, but it is not immediately so otherwise, as you do still need to make a few leaps to conciliate that conclusion with the fact he is a norse speaking viking.

Yeah. I think it might be because it is technically the mid point of the season? Animes usually have some big dramatic shift at that point, so to make up for a lack of such they made a dramatic circle of all the relevant characters. If there was a pause in between this episode it would make a bit more sense, I think. Still very odd it is in the middle of the scene, though. It feels to me the last 30 seconds should have been the first 30 of the next episode.

Whew, the new ending is a work of art. I prefered the first opening though. OI, DAREKA, KOTAETEMITEKUREEEEE!!!

Well now it's revealed unambiguously. Wasn't the theory that King Arthur was based off Artorius debunked though? Unless I'm mixing it up with something else…

If I am remembering correctly it wasn't exactly "debunked" in the sense that it have been confirmed that theory is bunk. There is just too little information on the actual King Arthur to say for certain if one theory or another is right or wrong. But, yeah, the theory that Arthur was the historical Roman general Artorius Castus is, to my understanding, not well supported and rejected by most scholars.

That being said, the show does describe Artorius as a "Roman Celt", instead of a Italian-Roman general like the historical Lucius Artorius Castus was, so maybe they aren't fully married to that theory either. The show even have Gratianus as a living example of a Welsh man with heavy Roman influences, so it is easy to believe this is the case of Artorius.

Episode 14 is out, some pretty horrible shit happens

Vikings man, they were fucking brutal.

Edited by slimcoder on Oct 16th 2019 at 11:04:54 AM

After reading spoilers, it just occurred to me that the lyrics from the op were from Askellad's perspective

Even knowing what would happen, episode 14 still hit hard… Some fantastic direction in Anne's scenes.

The most horrible aspect of all this is how casually Askeladd's men treat it, like it's just another job.

Episode 15 was already pretty nasty and sad I honestly feel really bad for Ragnar. I felt like the death was coming and was expecting it to be sad but not that level of sad. Ragnar's last words give me the feeling that if Ragnar and Canute met eachother at a different time period that they could of been a happy stepfather and stepson duo. That whole sitto was very tragic and honestly makes me despise Askeladd and his men more.

Edited by Wispy on Oct 21st 2019 at 8:01:14 AM

What's really sad is that honestly Ragnar needed to die.

The man was coddling Canute & while well-meaning it was harming the boy more than helping him at this point. If Canute is gonna survive then he must learn to play the Game of Thrones & sadly Askeladd is the only one who can help teach him.

I am not entirely sure about him needing to die to get Canute to grow. It seems like Canute was starting to grow without Ragnar's help via Thorfinn and witnessing the nasty stuff that Askeladd was doing.

It is a shitty situation though that leaves Ragnar getting the short end of the stick and Canute having to grow up too fast less he'll get killed by the world around him. I can't help but imagine if these two lived in a less violent time period that they may of lived far happier lives together. But instead they lived in the timeframe of constant wars and horrific slaughters paired with decadent political courts that are too busy trying to shank eachother.

Edited by Wispy on Oct 21st 2019 at 8:34:13 AM