Vinland Saga S01E13 - Child of a Hero

the moment you realised it was askeladd LMAOO

Don't worry. We really aren't suppose to know who that is right at the beginning! V common to wonder if it's Thorfinn! And the show is very confident. Rightly so imo.

You’re going to be blown away by the end of the season*. Vinland Saga has arguably the greatest character development of any piece of media I’ve engaged with *as in, by the end of the season you’ll be blown away by the show. And season 2 I think will hit you even harder

Obviously the pacing doesn't match up but from what I remember in my manga read of this, this is where the writer really starts to fall into his own. Conflicts are so different in this show but it's not like they're pulling any punches either? idk but there's a sort of spectre of Thors that seems to grow bigger and bigger through these arcs.

Thought it would be interesting to bring this up now! when Askeladd dueled Thors, he swore on his father Olaf's name and the God Odin. He was not honourable or fair in that fight. But when he promised to let Thors' men leave safely, he swore on his ancestor Artorious' name. It seems that promises made on his Danish side are worthless to him

The fact that Thorfinn essentially rage-baits Canute into being a proper character in the story is just so good 😂 Rewatching that bit with Ragnar makes me really aware of how the story ponders on fatherhood, and what it is to be a father/father figure, inadvertently or otherwise. There’s many different types of father figure, but no definitive answer on who is doing it right.

i love seeing information about askeladd be slowly revealed, the 'i hate the danes' as he overlooks his hundreds(?) of loyal men who have followed him for years really threw me for a loop the first time i watched it. he's soo fascinating. also thorfinn rage baiting canute kills me, he's actually incapable of having a civil conversation with anyone

bjorn knew askeladd for decades and even he is confused 😭😭😭😭

I was the one who commented about the manga vs anime structural differences before. I will say those differences are long past and at this point the anime is basically doing a 1:1 with the manga.

I'm getting giddy just looking at the next eps, and I'm not talking about the next few, I'm talking about the ENTIRE season. I absolutely love when you applaud episodes like these because it just makes me all the more sure that you're gonna be amazed by what's to come.

I believe the manga first covers ep 7 where Askeladd and Thorfinn join a skirmish among the Franks. After that they cut back to ep 1, so structurally I think that might be the only difference (I haven't read the manga so I'm a little unsure) .