Yeah... it is absolutely incredible. Season 1 was already stellar, the writing was amazing, the animation (aside from the god-awful CGI background characters like those were so bad) was great and Askeladd was one of the best villains I had ever seen but Thorfinn, well he was good, but I did not really think much of him. Season 2 changed that.

I have never seen such a beautifully written character arc like Thorfinn's. Every bit of it oozes emotion and it feels so real. His growth and redemption are incredible and his "I have no enemies" scene, which has been overplayed to hell online, is one of the best moments I have seen in an anime. The message is so simple and so obvious yet so impactful. When I am brought to tears by a piece of fiction, it is usually something like Clannad Afterstory episode sixteen or episode eighteen or the entirety of A Silent Voice, not something like Vinland Saga but I cried and for me, that means something.

Looking at the other aspects of it, the soundtrack was amazing with the piano coming in at crucial times that elevated the experience tenfold, OP1 is genuinely one of my favourite OPs of all time (until I get sick of it from constantly replaying it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and... well you get the gist), the animation is a little harder to judge as it's doesn't really have fight scenes like Season 1 did to really compare but it was serviceable at most times and had some absolutely gorgeous scenes like the chasm scene... oh my lord was that a stunning scene. The voice acting was great and definitely iconic (though I wish that they had kept the hoe line in from the manga), and I have heard that the English dub is fairly good, so I will probably watch this my father. That is right. It is an anime where you do not have to worry about any cringe scenes when you are showing people. No walking in on the tsundere changing, no weird age-gap incest stuff (like I love Fruits Basket, I think that it is one of the greatest anime of all time, but the age-gap thing was just kind of fucking weird like it happens twice… why?), no fanservice, just no anime bullshit. It is just storytelling at its purest and for that, it is a 10/10. No matter what slight shortfalls this season may have, it just hits so hard that I cannot see myself give it anything else but a perfect score. Also, it does not have the shitty CGI horse and background characters of Season 1 that burnt my eyes whenever I looked them so that is a plus.

Also, the people that were complaining about this season being less interesting than season 1 due to it being less violent seriously missed the point of the show. It is a little slower paced, but the writing trumps any moment of sakuga. It could have been a PowerPoint for all I cared and it would have still probably hit as hard.