Vinland Saga tells the story of a boy whose childhood is ripped from him forcefully as he’s forced to find purpose in life on the lawless battlefield of vikings in the middle ages. As we all know from school, this was a time of great conflict, and one could say confusion, across Europe as society arguably regressed following the fall of the Roman Empire. As a result, the world Thorfinn comes to know away from his childhood home in Iceland is ruthless; a world of grays, as is typical of war.

I found the depiction of the world the character live in and how it influences their actions to be very well done. I don’t know what actually happened in this time, and frankly I don’t care. The intent is to create a work of fiction so I am judging it as such, but I digress. A lot of time is spent simultaneously on what people say and don’t say as characterization. From their words, to their actions, to their silent reactions, a lot of time is spent expertly crafting the major characters as nuanced people, and the minor character as effective cruxes of character development. For the most character actions were very justified, but there were a few rare instances were that was not the case. I think that might be due to Askeladd and Canute being characters that are not as all they seem, in particular the former. Thorfinn on the other hand is a lot simpler, while being just as, if not more impactful, but I’ll address him a bit more later.

I found it interesting there was a great focus on political conflict and scheming of wits. I did not expect such things from a show about vikings, but I was pleasantly surprised to see things I would have likely seen in Mobile Suit Gundam or any adaptation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. These politics made the constant conflicts more interesting, not to mention helped in drawing out the larger narrative and Askeladd as a character. On that note, while I felt some episodes were boring to me as they were just fighting, a lot of time before or after was spent yapping about something, and what as said was interesting and good for character development so I didn’t really mind.

The show became most interesting to me in the second half as the fighting became harder overall, more difficult for Thorfinn, and more threads were woven into the story beyond Thofinn’s primary goal, including the introduction of Canute and the seemingly anti-religious themes. On that note, I found it extremely interesting from the perspective of ending a show that this first arc ended so flashily. The ends of arcs are rarely this flashy (maybe I can’t remember any good examples off the top of my head that are like this lol) and it generates intrigue in a natural way for this story, and it helps the twists were not out of left field.

A quick note about Thorfinn’s character throughout the season that’s spoilers, but I’m trying to be vague. If you haven’t watched or read this yet, feel to skip this.

All that said, I am very excited to see season 2. Wikipedia says now the stories of Thorfinn and Canute will run parallel and juxtapose each other as both seek similar things for different reasons, and go about it in different ways. It will be interesting to see how that plays out!