Vinland Saga S01E21 - Reunion

I think Bjorn is one of the very few examples we see so far of a viking who has both fully invested in the viking culture, but still holds tender feelings for things like friendship and feeling disregarded. I wonder if that was intentional play on his whole mushroom thing. He seems so much more emotionally intelligent than the rest of Askeladds old band, and I think that must be what drew Askeladd to him as his right hand man, even if he ultimately hated the simple mindedness in other ways.

great ep! I just love how unafraid VS is of disrupting structure, like you've touched on earlier. They are never afraid to take it down a notch and give us a more character-driven episode, and it works for me every single time. Vinland Saga has possibly the top 2 biggest highs for me in all of tv, and they would've never paid off as much as they did if we didn't get episodes like S1EP14

The next episode is top 2 in the show dont worry. Its not 1 tho🫥

I think most of us were thrown at the beginning with the Canute double thing - even this "was he a woman all along?" thing, especially as it was interspersed with Leif and Thorfinn. Bjorn was stabbed in the gut by Atil (the guy who was forbidden from the battlefield), slowly fatal wound. The next few episodes are some of my favourite!

Bjorn grabbing Askeladd instead of his sword as he died was devastating to me. I didn't really feel all that attached to Bjorn so I didn't expect it his death to impact me so much but to see him risk Valhalla just to ask Askeladd if they're friends moved me

The moment with bjorn is one of my favorite moments in the season. Bjorn to me is the average Norse Viking. He doesn’t stand out personality wise compared to Thors’ imposing but calm demeanor, thorkells excitement for battle, askeladds cunning and playfulness, or thorfinns pure rage. Bjorn is shown to us as very mellow and chill, and we are told that unlike the rest of the band of warriors he’s in it for the killing, yet the only time we see him truly pumped up to fight is when he takes drugs(the mushroom) And throughout the whole show he’s shown to want this connection with askeladd and of course here he admits it. In another life you’d wager that a lot of these characters would choose the same path, but for bjorn it feels like his disposition isn’t really that of a warrior, but he’s born into this way of life. One would wonder if he would have been a warrior in another life. He fell into this world of killing and slaughter and in the end he truly just wanted connection. And it puts into perspective more complicated characters like askeladd and thorfinn and their relationship with Norse culture, as they are two extremes while bjorn is in the middle, the average. But alas, fighting and killing is their way of life, what else would people like bjorn be expected to do

You have some really interesting questions about where the story goes from here that I won’t spoil you on, but I assure you, they do get answered! I think it’s pretty obvious by now in this season that whilst Thorfinn is definitely our protagonist, Vinland Saga evolves a lot more into an ensemble cast than you first expect.