Vinland Saga is an anime/manga that changed my life and is also my favorite of all time. I thought that if I ever made a review, it should be about this and so here I am making one. I will divide this review per arc so that I can explain and express what I felt through each one. Also, I saw the s1 and s2 of the anime and then started the manga from there.

War Arc (Anime)
Easily the one I dislike the most but nonetheless, a particularly important one. Let us talk about Thorfinn, Thors, Askeladd and Canute as those are the most important characters in this arc.
Thors introduces the mentality of a true warrior early and most people don’t take it seriously or don’t get the full meaning behind it. He grew with that “Viking mentality”, went through countless battlefields, killed hundreds and lived like that for years up until he started questioning himself, if all he believed in was a lie, Valhalla for example. Started wondering about how he should truly live, to be happy, to atone for what he did and to “love”. And so, he ran. He let go of his past, holding no grudges against anyone and tried to live peacefully with the purpose of making his family and all those around him as happy as possible.
Askeladd is then introduced as the leader of some mercenaries that kill Thors and so Thorfinn, as any child who sees his father get killed in front of him would do, becomes obsessed with revenge.
Thorfinn forgets about his life and devotes it to avenging his father, not caring about anything or anyone else. That’s basically all there’s to him in this arc.
Askeladd on the other hand didn’t care about killing Thors nor anyone else, as he had his own goal and didn’t care what he had to do to achieve it. Basically, he kind of becomes a badass father figure to Thorfinn who also understands him. Eventually, leads the mercenaries to ruin, in the end, revealing that he always hated them for being nothing more than savages. In a desperate attempt to save Wales, which was his ultimate goal, kills the king and dies. A man with a goal who used the mercenaries to accomplish it. His death was Thorfinn’s downfall as he loses his life’s purpose and realizes that all he did was for nothing. Before dying, Askeladd tells Thorfinn to stop living like a savage and to try and achieve something truly meaningful like his dad did. This scene was certainly the best he had in the anime (along with Thorfinn’s dream/vision in season 2). He is the key character in this season, taking a lot of screentime and having such a big influence in Thorfinn. In my opinion, it worked just fine.
We get to Canute, which holds my favorite scene in this arc. The discourse about “love”. “The creations of god are so beautiful and yet there’s no love in the hearts of men.” (I just love this quote) Canute is nothing more than a kind of rival to Thorfinn which I will talk about more later. In this scene, we have Canute and a priest, they end up talking about the distinction of love and “love”. The priest describes the love as we know it to be nothing more than discrimination, if you love someone but at the same time you mistreat another, you are just putting that same person in a pedestal while the others are nothing of your concern. They reach the conclusion that true “love” is to be equally kind to everyone and to not, by any means, discriminate them. Of course, you can like some people more than others but that doesn't change the fact that you should respect and show compassion towards them. In the end, Canute says that God is unfair for creating the Vikings, who will never be able to “love”. And so, he rebels against God and pretty much tries to create a paradise where Vikings can live.
In resume, we have Thors who introduces the mentality that Thorfinn will later follow. Askeladd is the badass, funny, sometimes serious and enjoying character to watch who understands Thorfinn and serves as his father figure for a while. Finally, Canute, who has some development in this arc and will have a major role in the next ones to come. This arc serves the purpose of introducing us to the world of Vinland Saga, its ideals and developing Thorfinn’s story. It was the one I disliked the most because it’s basically just a prequel to the real story of Vinland Saga that starts in the next arc.

Slave Arc (Anime) My favorite arc along with the Vinland one. This arc truly changed me and made me open my eyes to the depth of this story. When this season was releasing, I hate to say it and I hate even more to sound ungrateful, but I wasn’t living my best days. Lost, made many mistakes, no purpose, feeling that I was living in some kind of loop with no meaning and on top of all that, I lost the one who I thought was going to take me out of it. While all of that was happening in my life, I was watching Vinland Saga. Thorfinn Karlsefni became a slave and, for completely different reasons, was in a similar situation as me. Empty. With no goals, purpose or any direction to point his life towards. He says it himself: “But why? Why should death be something everyone has to fear? Do we only live because we don’t want to die? Why is that? Does something good come from living? It hasn’t for me.” He saw no further use for his life. During this arc we get to see Thorfinn recover, forming a brother’s bond with Einar (I will talk about him later), finding happiness in the little things, like having dinner together with more people, putting away violence and most importantly, finding a goal. To atone for what he did and to create a utopia free of hatred, violence and war. “A world where I can say to anyone that death isn’t the only way to be saved. That there is a place here on Earth, a place that is more appealing than death. In this cruel world we live in.” This must be my favorite scene in the anime/manga along with Hild forgiving Thorfinn in Vinland, it’s so well written and holds such a depth that I can only praise the author for such a good work. And why did it change me? Thorfinn became kind of a hero to me. He, in a much worse situation than me, was able to recover, put his life together and work towards a meaningful goal. He became a very strong and kind person whose life influenced others in a very positive way. We have the example of Olmar in the begging and in the ending of this arc, how Thorfinn’s mentality changed him completely. Into a real man. This arc also introduces Einar, my second favorite character along with Hild. Einar is a very strong man, he lost his family, his home and was sold as a slave, all of it, because of the Vikings. He could give up, but he chose to honor his family and kept moving forward, always being as positive as possible. Another thing that he did was not judge Thorfinn for being an ex-Viking and help him when he needed the most. The love he had for Arnheid was genuine and we get to see it when her husband returns and he does all he can to help them run away, only caring about her happiness and not about himself. This love for Arnheid is also the reason he is going crazy in Vinland, but we’ll get into it later. Canute returns at the end of this arc and has a talk with Thorfinn that ends up changing his goal and it’s basically when they become rivals. Canute sees that Thorfinn, being an ex-Viking, was able to achieve “love” and is going to build a utopia free of any casualties. So, he realizes that what he is doing is meaningless, Vikings can achieve “love” by themselves, and he doesn’t need to rebel against God or anything like that. At that moment, Canute starts the project of creating a utopia for everyone, although, bathed in blood. We also have Snake and many other characters and important events in this season, which are also works of art, like Arnheid and her husband’s story, but I won’t be talking about them or else I will never end this review. In resume, Thorfinn recovers and grows a lot in this arc. Einar is introduced, becomes Thorfinn’s brother and vital to the story. Canute changes his goal and becomes Thorfinn’s rival in creating a utopia. Many events, emotions and other characters are present, but I won’t mention them here. It’s divine and this arc holds my favorite scene.

Eastern Expedition Arc (Manga)
A good and important arc to the story that covers a lot of different and relevant topics. First off, we are introduced to Gudrid, Hild and Sigurd.
Gudrid is a caring and strong woman who dreamed of living her own life and explore the world. She understands Thorfinn almost more than anyone and is willing to risk her life not only for him but for others. I personally think she adds her weight to the story well not only as Thorfinn’s wife but also as an example to others.
Nonetheless the biggest example of a person we have here is Hild. An intelligent, strong both physically and mentally women. She lost a lot of people, never had anything the easy way and learned to live by herself while also being a gentle person. Her quarrel with Thorfinn was more than justified and still, she was able to hold her thirst for vengeance and give him a chance to redeem himself.
Sigurd is a character with a lot of development in this arc that we first see as kind of like a villain and soon we realize that’s not true. We learn he was a man who took pride in his family name and wanted to impress his father but deep down he always had a good heart and even ends up helping Thorfinn. A conversation between him and another character whose name I don’t recall also left a really good message not only about him but about any child whose raised in a good environment: “Siggy, do you remember when you were a boy, how bad you were at fights? Do you know why? It’s because of your good heart. You never really wanted to strike your friends with a hard wood sword. You were holding back all along… Though you yourself didn’t notice it.” When I think about Sigurd somehow this quote always comes into my head.
In general, we have Thorfinn trying to raise funds for the Vinland project and ending up in the middle of the battlefield. The Jomsvikings are disbanded, as soon as Canute realizes that it is impossible to create a utopia full of wolves whose nature is to kill. Thorfinn also grows even more in this arc throwing away for good any feeling he still had for vengeance and risking his life to protect his friends. He also meets Garm who is like a version of him who never grew up.
The purpose of this arc also lies in explaining how meaningless and stupid war is. There are two memorable scenes I can pick to explain it.
The first one is the thoughts of a soldier that went in the frontlines and ended up being one of the first ones to die. While falling he feels proud of the fact that he was able buy the others time to advance and now he will finally go to Valhalla. Soon he realizes that there’s nothing except a cold darkness in the afterlife, as he gets more and more sleepy, his body sheds a tear questioning what he fought for his whole life. In his thoughts, telling the captain and the others to not waste their lives, eventually fading away.
The other one is in the following day, the war ended, and we are presented with a beautiful panel saying: “The Sun shines equally on both the victors and the defeated.” While there’s a dialogue between two members from different sides that woke up at the same time:

• You’re on Thorkell’s side, aren’t you? I’m a Jomsviking, you know.
• Yeah, I know. Good to meet you in any case.

Proving neither of them had any quarrels with each other.
Honorable mention to one of the most beautiful chapters in the manga and the last one of this arc called “Wedding”, Thorfinn and Gudrid get married. Simply a lovely chapter.
In resume we are introduced to a lot of different and important characters in the story. Thorfinn leaves his past behind for good and raises funds for the Vinland project. The biggest message I caught was the value of human lives in the middle of a pointless war.

Vinland Arc (Manga)
This arc is still being released at the time that I’m making this review, even so, I will talk about it too as it is my favorite along with the slave one.
First of all, it brings me joy to see Thofinn in this arc, how much he grew along the way, a happy and positive individual who is now leading the expedition to Vinland.
There’s also a final goodbye to Leif who did not die but did not go to Vinland with the others since he’s too old. I haven’t written about Leif in this review yet, so I’ll do it now. Leif the Lucky is there from the very beginning, was the one who told Thorfinn about Vinland and never stopped searching for him when he was with Askeladd and sold as a slave. A very kind individual who helped Thorfinn fulfil his dream and served as his third father figure.
Thorfinn’s fleet arrives in Vinland, they started building Arnheid’s village and befriended the natives. With everything going well, while Hild was talking with Karli (Thorfinn’s adoptive son), she realizes that there’s no use holding up to that feeling of vengeance she still had.
A unique and precious chapter comes up. Thorfinn and Einar are talking with one another and Gudrid comes up with a big smile telling her husband she’s pregnant. Their reaction is awesome and puts a smile on anyone’s face too. Hild understands this is the right moment to finally let it go, calls Thorfinn and forgives him. Everyone’s smiles turn into tears of joy. The perfect chapter.
From here on, the natives get sick and turn hostile. Thorfinn gets seriously injured and suggests that everyone should leave Vinland to avoid this war. Not happy with the suggestion, most of the residents of Arnheid’s village choose to stay and fight including Einar, who refuses to give up on the village they built to honor Arnheid.
I’m loving this arc and despite being concerned about Thorfinn, I’m curious to see how the story will go from here on.
This is the end of my review, thank you for reading and thank you Makoto Yukimura.