How the Baltic Sea War Arc is Designed to Challenge Thorfinn

if the Vinland saga prologue was about Thornton's fall from grace and showing him at his lowest then the farmland arc was about Thornton building up his identity and becoming the man his father wanted him to be by discovering the pacifistic ideology I think people largely understand at least in retrospect that these were the main purposes of the first two arcs but what is the purpose of the Baltic Sea war arc then the Baltic Sea war is the follow-up to the orphans realization that pacifism is the answer he already understands this so you he more design the Baltic Sea war has a series of challenges that test this pacifistic ideology just about everything that happens in this arc is used to demonstrate how Thornton and his philosophy can be applied to the real world so if the prologue was about Thor Fionn falling away from pacifism in the farm arc wasn't about him rising back to pacifism then the Baltic Sea war arc is a demonstration of pacifism in action Yukimura has to understand that having the main theme of your story especially in the Seine and John Robie pacifism is a very hard sell most people just on face value would dismiss pacifism as the solution to their problems because it seems so unrealistic and childish in a progressively more cynical world the optimistic messaging is a hard sell and to offset this immediate dismissal Yukimura decided to demonstrate through the narrative how this ideology can work that's the conceit of the Baltic Sea war arc and if it can work in the far harsher world of inland saga then it should be able to work for you and me in our far more relaxed real world you can Mori put staufen and pacifism to the test in the Baltic Sea war Arc and just about everything that happens in the arc fits this conceit from 'the orphan having to resolve the issues with good riddance a gig to earning half dan's respect to having to take responsibility for kali and the dog to being confronted by heil to having to non-lethal 'i deal with garm to being able to reject absolute power as the leader of the jones vikings all of these complications are solved through Thor Finn's pacifism and this track record is supposed to influence us the audience into thinking that pacifism is applicable to our reality so in this video I want to start with the flooded turn chapters and work our way through the arc and all of these different elements to explain how each event in the Baltic Sea war was designed to test often in his pacifistic ideology for the sake of this video we are going to consider the flooded turn chapters as part of the Baltic Sea war for simplicity these chapters do a lot of things but primarily I think their main purposes are to reunite often with his family and introduce Sigyn good rude now the ark is very blatantly an attack on patriarchy the through line of the story arc is good rude breaking free of the restraints of our societal gender roles and resisting her oppressors as a woman in a weird turn of events leaf is actually portrayed as one of the main villainous figures who reinforced this system of oppression on good rude it's only when Thor Fionn comes to our defense that she is accepted into the group which plays nicely as foreshadowing into their eventual relationship Sigurd is obviously the representation of the fragile masculinity a patriarchal society creates his character arc here is one of the highlights of the entire arc as he learns to reject a tradition in some of his more toxically masculine behaviors he only does this by comparing himself to Thor Fionn who has become an ideal man having rejected those more toxic and self-destructive behaviors he has no pride and is willing to do anything no matter the societal implications to do whatever he perceives to be right and he is rewarded with goodreads attention and affection when in this societal structure Sigurd the richer and more traditionally masculine man should get the girl but the most important part of these chapters related to the thesis of this video is that Thor Fionn rejects the patriarchal structure of the world here and offers good read freedom from agenda and everything that comes with that in middle age Iceland he's the one that finally offers good her two spot in the crew the action of letting goodra join the crew also starts his arc along one-sided rivalry with sig ik their rivalry serves as a battle between toxic masculinity and progressive pacifism that Thor Finn thematically ultimately wins which ultimately transforms sig again to entirely the person that he is contemporarily which is a far cry from the unlikable prideful idiot he was back in the flooded turn chapters and the narrative presents him far cooler here than here it's almost like they're trying to tell you something the point is Thor Fionn is changing people by leading by example and thematically what's being said here is that in the face of this patriarchal and toxically masculine problem Thor Finn's ideology is not only better but can change the status quo but we'll get into Sigurd more as we progress the point is pacifism leads Thor fan to make the correct and most beneficial decision for everyone involved therefore the narrative and Yukimura telling the audience that pacifism works Thor Fionn and his pacifism are also challenged in these chapters by his interactions with haften by ss of the plot Thor Fionn in half deny left alone to negotiate the logistics surrounding the would-be Vinland trip soften after all is looking for investors in his Vinland sagas see what I did there and Hoffman is the richest man he knows in Iceland often is another hyper-masculine figure in Finland saga who enslaves people and controls them through buying their land but he almost doesn't nobly and he lacks the toxically masculine prideful features his son possesses there's a scene we get here with haften before he needs with orphan that almost exactly highlights the folly in men's pride there's a man who can sell his land too often and get out of the debt he owes he would then work for huffed and while remaining on the land and be paid a fair wage this is undeniably a net positive for the man and his family but he refuses to do it initially and is at the point now where he's attacking the debt collectors he does this only for his pride because he thinks a man should get things done on his own this interaction with halfdan is yukimura demonstrating the pride is a wholly worthless virtue for men to have haften in this scene brings up the example of someone who did a similar thing by refusing to sell to him in the past and it turns out all that man's pride got him and his family was starvation due to the agreement the current man that often money agreed to his land and services are now forfeit to half didn't by law but there ends up being a silver lining to this scene because after haften walks out of the frame the gods and debt collectors that captured the man explained that they were once in the same position and ensure him that things get way better after your land and services are made half tons the man still lives on the land and still has a family all he lost that day was his pride and the narrative is telling us here that pride is useless but this all beautifully plays into the juxtaposition angle that Yukimura is going for with this scene and the upcoming Thor fan and half the negotiation scene Afton in the meeting with orphan is surprised by Thor fanat every turn he surprised a young man would come asking for so much offering nothing but a pipe dream he's surprised with orphans fascination with freeing a bird he's keeping in his office and most of all he surprised with orphans absolute lack of pride Thor Fionn eventually offers his life to haft in explaining that he'll forfeit his life if he fails but haften says that he has no interest in his life and then haften asks him to give up his pride as he remembers the previous encounter both orphan has no pride and asked to kiss Houghton's boot as payment he motions to do it without a second thought haften assumed Thor Fionn would cling to some semblance of pride and reject this offer like every other man would but when Thor Fionn offers to do it without hesitation haften pulls away shocked and tries to play it all off as a joke and the scene ends we then pick up with often explaining how the meeting went to everyone and this point is reiterated upon bug-eyes asked Thor Fionn if he would have still accepted the offer if haften would have told him to eat horseshit and Thor Fionn says that he would without a second thought because without any pride getting in the way both kissing Houghton's boot and eating horse at a small prices to pay afton then responds to Thor Fionn by offering him narwhal horns to sell in Greece as a test and a sign of respect Thor Fionn has to prove his worth by making a substantial amount of money selling the horns plus he has to demonstrate that he can survive long journeys pacifism and orphans impressive lack of pride won him half Dan's attention that led to the potential funding of the Vinland trip again the narrative is demonstrating the pacifism wins again with good rid the narwhal horn and Sigyn chasing behind them the real Baltic Sea war arc begins and they set sail for Greece the next challenge forthe orphan and his ideology is Karli the war orphan and his eventual son Charlie as a character is the representation in the narrative of the aftermath of war for once thought in finds himself having to fix what war has ruined instead of being the one that ruins with war Carly is a symbolic representation of Thoth and taking responsibility for his previous wartime actions and this is obviously quite the challenge in conundrum after all what are you supposed to do when a dying mother hands you a war orphan initially Thor Fionn in the group have to find out a way to feed and clean the child but after that they have to find a place to leave Carly because it seems like an impossible task to take a baby on their incredibly long and dangerous journey bug-eyes is again supposed to represent the average person here he's supposed to represent the audience and how they'd react in a situation like this if they were honest with themselves he is strictly against taking the child with them and is actively annoyed by it Thor Fionn is then used to juxtapose against what the average man would do to prove how superior his ideology is and would you look at that everything works out in the end with orphan and Carlee pacifism wins again overcoming another challenge Kiley also operates in the dave is away for Thor Fionn to go through the character growth of becoming a father without having to rush a romantic interest on Thor Fionn he becomes Carly's father before he gets with good rid they do eventually adopt him and become a proper family but he became a father beforehand in the narrative because it leads to character growth then Thor Fionn and his ideologies next challenge comes in the form of hi old I've been harsh on heil individually as a character in the past but she does work well in the narrative relating to the theme and relating to Thor Fionn as a character it's just on her own where she leaves a lot to be desired the situation with Kylie was Thornton's past tangentially catching up with him it was a symbolic representation of Thor Fionn dealing with the same type of destruction he wants to caused but how old is a very literal representation of Thornton's past catching up with him so often and ask lads band as its revealed and hiles backstory brutally murdered Howard's families often personally murdered Hales father right in front of her and practically laughed in her face afterwards how it has a lot of perspective justification for Hayden Thornton hard serves as a reminder to the audience and to Thor fan himself just how [ __ ] he used to be so hard is a challenge of what Thor Fionn does when he's confronted with someone who hates him because of his past direct actions and wouldn't you know pacifism strikes again so often as a person has obviously changed drastically from the first time he encountered hail to when he does in the snow but Heil doesn't know this Goodridge in the rest of the group stand up forthe orphan and try to convince her when she announces her intent to kill him that he has changed but Thor Fionn is frozen he doesn't know what to do it's a neat demonstration of how selfless Thor Fionn is he initially thinks hard should have the right to kill him he thinks he has no defense but the people he is effective since changing defend him Goodridge stands up as i mentioned to try and convince i'll that thor Fionn is different but ultimately it's i honor that makes the difference in having hard Spaeth orphan as well as some metaphorical interference by hiles father and her hunting master howard also as a character is a parallel to Thor fan from the prologue she's just like Thoreau fan once was she wants revenge and seemingly nothing can stop her or save her from her quest of avenging her father but because of Thor fans new outlook she doesn't go down the same path she agrees to let the off and try and atone for his sins by founding Vinland but makes Thor Fionn agree that if he ever kills anyone again or diverges from the path of pacifism that she has the right to kill him now I've criticized this a lot in many of my other videos about Finland saga claiming basically that it's blatantly obvious that eventually Heil is gonna forgive Thor Fionn but her character has two functions that are beneficial to the narrative here firstly Thor Fionn is no longer just symbolically held to pacifistic beliefs by the theme of the story now if he diverges he's going to have literal textual consequences courtesy of hydaburg if he was to in a fit of anger kill fluckey he would not only be betraying the theme but he directly lead to his demise because hyah would kill him it's a clever little riding intention device secondly as I mentioned she's a parallel to younger Thor fan a version of him that didn't fall into this revenge mindset she hasn't killed anyone unrelated to achieve her revenge like young Thor Fionn did yet so ultimately that's how high ode is yet another challenge designed by Yukimura to test the fandom pacifism as an ideology and ultimately it's another win for pacifism there's then some conflict with both Thor kill and [ __ ] ease men that does act as a challenge fourth orphan here in the Baltic Sea war this happens when he's put in situations where the only moral act is to surrender himself or fight non lethally but everything therm Attica Lee said by these moments in this conflict is better portrayed by the next challenge I want to go into in detail Gham what happens when Thor Fionn is forced to non-lethal II deal with someone equal to Thor kellen fighting ability this is the concede around gum as a character how does pacifism hold up against an extremely aggressive powerful enemy that unrealistically wants to kill you and is unable to be reasoned with so often explores running away as an option but gum hunts him down no matter where he runs to just to fight him even if it's a little besieged fortress because gum is not a rational actor not everyone in life is a rational actor and if pacifism is a philosophy worth applying to the real world then it also has to account for these things and eventually Thor Fionn realizes he has to channel everything he's learned about fighting in his journey and pour it into non lethally defeating this terrifying opponent in the final fight with garm Thor Finn both mirrors his father when he throws his blade away to confront his enemy and mirrors asclad when he takes the armed opponent out using his bare hands and then a monster knockout headbutt he channels both his father figures into one climb maduk showdown and again pacifism saves the day because after garm comes to and realizes he was bested he finally leaves thor fan a lot then after the climax of the baltic sea where our coffin is tested again when he is offered almost unlimited power when he is offered to lead the jung's vikings if he took a more canoed approach to creating a paradise this would be a turning point and he'd capitalize on this potential massive investment but Soffen stays true to himself and dis pans the drums of vikings where they stand saying true to his pacifistic ideals but the single biggest test Thor fan in his pacifistic ideology faced in the Baltic Sea war arc is the confrontation with floki over the course of the arc Thor fan learns that fluckey was the mastermind behind the death of his father and immediately the question in every readers mind becomes what will Thor Fionn do if he sees floki and in the emotional climax of the arc Thor Fionn is confronted by floki and loses himself for a moment hard immediately reacts and it's a great moment of tension and an awesome moment for his character this moment shows that Thor Fionn is still vulnerable he's not completely over the death of his father and I think that's actually evident in the post much conversation he has with garm after defeating him he references ass collide here and is surprisingly disgusted with himself for using a technique he learned from him to his advantage he still holds some ill will towards ass collide and I thought that was an interesting little character detail forthe orphan the pain didn't fully go away he's just trying to stay positive and the fact that we see him slip here helps humanize the seemingly infallible character it's personally perhaps my favorite moment from the entire arc but Thor Fionn does manage to restrain himself in ops 2 does not concern himself with floki and eventually even floki it's a happy ending he's saved from execution isn't allowed to live out the rest of his days fishing with Boulder his grandson in happiness pacifism wins again and it even gives floki of all people a happy ending to me this was the ultimate test for Thor fan in pacifism in the arc and it truly demonstrates that this philosophy has value outside of the story but things get better because of pacifism even after the climax of VR good Rude is one over and even falls in love with the pacifistic person--the orphan has become and she sticks up for him constantly especially with Heil and Thor Kell and eventually they get married which seems to be beneficial for all parties involved as we went over earlier even singing the ultimate non sophistic toxically masculine male is won over both orphan and the example he leads see he gets over good root in his fear of his father which ultimately earned him the respect of his father and he finds a new love interest and sets off with his friends to make a difference in the world and following dolphins footsteps as a contemporary everyone gets a happy ending at the end of the Baltic Sea war arc it was the ultimate test for 'the orphan in his ideology and he passed at every stage everyone was better off because they encountered the orphan in this arc it's often for the first time instead of leaving destruction in his wake he created a new hopeful path which shows not only massive personal improvement in himself but says something more profound therm Attica Lee and that's the ultimate goal Yukimura is outlined for the Vinland saga the Baltic Sea war in my opinion is just as good as the farm and prologue arcs albeit very different and I don't think people give it the respect it deserves this video didn't say everything there is to say about this arc but I hope I demonstrated why the arc isn't a drop in quality from everything else this series has to offer this is the theme Thor's promised realized if you enjoyed the video and want to encourage me to make more villain saga content possibly about our favourite girl our need patreon is an excellent way to influence me if you explain that you patrons specifically for villain saga content it's much more likely to get made and at the $5 tier you get a bonus analysis video a month and maybe one month it could be about a Vinland saga topic who knows support links in the description below thanks

Channel: Kyle Entertainment

Views: 89,037

Keywords: Vinland Saga, Baltic Sea War, How the Baltic Sea War Arc is Designed to Challenge Thorfinn, Thorfinn, Baltic Sea War Arc, Vinland Saga Manga, Manga, Karli, Gudrid, Einar, Hild, Garm, Thorkell, Floki, Thorfinn Confronts Floki, Thorfinn Kills Floki, Vinland Saga Review, Vinland Saga Analysis, Sigurd, Halfden, Challenge Thorfinn, Arc Design, Baltic Sea War Arc Review, The Baltic Sea War is Just as Good

Id: wUAauhuJxDY

Length: 16min 57sec (1017 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 27 2019