Vinland Saga: Farmland / Slave Arc

recently I did a video discussing the first Arc of Finland Saga I'll link it right there if you're interested in that video at the end I talked about I'm definitely moving on I'm definitely continuing to read the series because I love it and I absolutely want to but I was playing with the idea of maybe just holding off not making another video Until season two drops because you know there's plenty of anime only people out there and I want the discussion so gotta posture myself for the discussion but this Arc was even better for me than the first Arc I did not accept this series is blowing me away I'm so I'm enjoying it so much so I'm not gonna wait I don't want to I want to talk about it now so this is your spoiler warning if you are anime only um we'll do more discussions with the anime drops too so that we can all hang out but for my manga only people we gotta talk about this holy cow uh I don't know what this Arc is called it looks like it's called either slave Arc or uh Farmland Arc depending on who you're talking to online and so I will title the video as both but we gotta talk but before we dig into what is going to be too long of a video a quick shout out I did do a first Arc review on this channel which again is linked but also on my second Channel I've started doing book by book discussions with my friend Philip Chase who is a medievalist who studied the the lore and the mythology and the history of Icelandic Vikings who speaks a little bit of Norse himself very knowledgeable Guy this is the first manga he's ever read and we've been doing discussions on it as he's reading through it for the first time super recommend those chats if you're interested it's an even more exhaustive discussion and it's a lot of fun the first video will be up on Tuesday of next week as of the time that this video is being posted so it'll be linked in the description as soon as it's live but until then the link to my second channel is also in the description right now so you can just go subscribe grab right now if you're interested in that content so that you can be ready for it because they've been really really great discussions now let's talk about this Arc the slave Arc the Farmland Arc my goodness did it take a turn this Arc really slowed down as thorphin has been uh after he attacked Knute Knute said don't kill him but there had to be a punishment because you did just attack royalty uh and so he was carted off to be a slave I loved this Arc from the very beginning even though it slowed down so drastically even though the tone shifted so massively in it was almost like whiplap lash going into this Arc but immediately it was it just was this very close look into how much he's changed into how much escalad was right he didn't think about what his life would be after he fulfilled his Vengeance after askalad died he had no idea who he wanted to be or what he wanted to do with his life so when he was sold off as a slave he truly did just become a shell of a person just doing what he was told and not caring about his life anymore in this Arc everything really does slow down we do a moment by moment zoom in on the daily life of a of a broken man we see the effects of war from another side we see the effects of war from not the Warriors but the people who are left behind in that destruction and we do a really really close introspection a really close look into what is going on internally in these two men that that we followed in the first Arc thorphin and knut and everybody around them let's just get into it I have a lot of notes this Arc blew me away so we open up by learning that leaf has spent all his time between the events of the first and second Arc searching for thorphin he's been sold into slavery and leaf is looking for him so that he can buy him and raise him as his own son side note I love Leaf here we meet einar who's bought by Kettle and introduced to thorfin and the first time I saw thorphin my heart dropped I have always felt that yukimura does a phenomenal job of really showing this state of mind a person is in based off of their facial expressions and their eyes and the first time we see thorfin it's like a smack in the face immediately in his eye we see how empty his eyes are we see how he holds himself we see the relaxed position of his face it's such a drastic change from the thorphin that we've known up to this point and on top of that I think he does such an amazing job job of showing in in big ways how much thorphin has changed and what his State of Mind is and and how much he's lost the value of his life but he does such a great job of doing it in the tiny little minute ways as well in the last Arc thorfin every time uh askalad tried to have any sort of camaraderie with him or try to be chummy with him in any sort of way thorphan would immediately uh be resistant he was constantly insubordinate and and talking back and having all kinds of attitude with Knute and now he greets everybody with a good day now when einar is understandably mad about being mistreated by the guest thorfin defuses the situation by being submissive and by almost groveling we see how much thorphin has given up in these little moments of just basically saying this is my lot in life I don't care going from someone someone with such a drive and with so much ambition and who could take down anyone and now even though he still could take down anyone he doesn't care to fight anymore so they're told that their task is to clear the forest until implant a wheat field and after they earn back what it cost to buy them Kettle will free them so they work hard one to earn his freedom back and one because he's a shell of a man that simply follows orders and one thing that I love about the setup of this Arc of the beginning of this Arc is how it quickly quickly shifts away from the Battle of War and the trauma that that brings into the trauma that is that is left behind we see Warriors demanding supplies from villagers pillaging and murder and slavery all the things that we saw in the first Arc and that were never glorified but now we see them from the side of those who are being affected and it haunts thorphin to see the wreckage he's left behind without a thought thorfin may not have taken part in all of the things that are on display in this Arc but he at least took part in part of it he killed without thought and when his comrades were pillaging and stealing and raping and selling people into slavery he turned his back and he is feeling the effects of that now now that he's become close friends with a man who was personally affected by the very things that he did or watched happen he and his comrades did I guess I could put it that way now that he's becoming close friends with someone who was personally affected by that and is now a slave because of it he's he's every day having to look in the face of the type of things that he caused the kind of trauma that he put on people himself so Kettle the owner of the farm the one who bought thorfin and einar works the fields with the slaves and he's kind to them he has two sons Omar who's useless and thorgil who Embraces the thrill of war and is quite terrifying so anyway one of the guests tells Omar that to become a man he has to kill kill a man Super Sound Logic so he fetches thorfin and einar to kill them and he delivers this chilling line when einar asks what they've done to deserve this he says you've done nothing wrong but your lives do not belong to you that's all a man has the right to do what he likes with his own property doesn't he now here's what I love about the scene up to this point we've gotten several displays small displays of the state of mind that thorphin has descended into in the time since we've last seen him but in this scene I think it's on display so well because while at the end of this Arc thorphin does develop the kind of pacifist ideals that Thor's tried to teach him when he was a boy at this point that's not what's happening at this point he just truly doesn't care anymore he just doesn't have any value for his life and we see that when einar fights for himself and says I'm not just gonna let you you kill me I don't deserve this he still has value for his life but thorphin has fully accepted the position of worthless property which is how he's viewed by the guests and even when einar is fighting and and thorfin is just standing there at sword point and he says this is stupid just kill me because the idea of death is nothing to him because his life is nothing to him at this point when one of the guests starts harassing him and cutting him up in small ways and trying to get him to show some sort of emotion and he says come on you're scared show it and thorphin says does something good come of living it hasn't for me in all the days I've lived not one good thing has happened to me and I just think that those two pages say so much and The Last Arc he had this intense mission mission he had this tunnel visioned goal to meet to to avenge his father's death to have the duel and finally take Escalade out and it didn't matter how much Carnage was left behind it didn't matter to him what it took to get this and he didn't consider any of his actions and that really hollowed him out we watched him lose himself as a young boy making choices to betray the woman and to go against his father's ideals even though his father was Haunting him in his sleep and he knew this wasn't the right path and now we see now that that mission is over now that he's lost that too he looks back he sees the wreckage that he's left and he's and he says nothing good has come and there's nothing good ahead so snake ends up stepping in and saving them and snake is quite frankly a phenomenal character he's someone who didn't we didn't get as deep we didn't get as much time focusing on all that's behind him but in just just a few panels there managed to be so much brought into this character anyway he stops them he saves their life because I do think that the guy lizard was no lizard dies I don't remember this one's nickname I do think that he would have killed them because I do think that he viewed them as completely valueless and if Omar wasn't gonna do it then he would have done it just out of irritation meanwhile on the farm thorfin and einar need a horse to finish the work of d-stumping the forest that they've cleared so they make a deal with a super random old man who has them do chores around the house in exchange for using his horse also the super random old man is the most important fellow on the entire Farm meanwhile in another part of the farm we see what I think is the first exposure of kettle's uh faulty character when some children who are in a desperate situation steal from him and he's put in the position of as the leader of the farm of the master the master of the farm he needs to issue a punishment his son is there who is a brute and wants to chop off their arms and legs I think it was but ultimately the decision is left up to Kettle Kettle is a man who does not want to harm those children but he's afraid of his son he's a leader of the arm that relies on others to make decisions for him and that would sooner go against the kind of justice that he wants than to go against the people that he leads when he was given the way out the the logic of no we can't cut off their arms and legs then they can't serve us this boy could could grow up and be a good helping hand or good hand on the farm and Kettle is given an excuse not to just do terrible things so then he issues the command of beating them as as their punishment Kettle does show some form of Mercy in that thorgil wants to issue the punishment and he's excited to brutalize this child and Kettle steps in to issue the punishment himself so that the kid can live another day but again he's the master of the farm he gets to choose what kind of Justice he wants to issue yes I understand the mentality is well I have to do something there has to be some punishment because there needs to be order but he would have allowed I think would have allowed them to cut this boy up if somebody didn't provide a logical way out to issue a softer Justice because Kettle is a man without a backbone he's presented to us in the beginning as a kind-hearted Master someone who will allow his slaves to work for their freedom again not arnhide not his favored slave she can't have her Freedom anyway he's presented to us in this way at the beginning and he's quite likable but this is the first time where we really see those cracks in that facade and this is where we really see how weak he truly is another thing that I think that this Arc did such a phenomenal job at is depicting the internal struggles of the characters and specifically right now I'm talking about thorphin we see right from the beginning how much he's changed and how submissive he's become but when he admits to being completely empty I loved the scene where spherical gives him hope tells him that he can be reborn and when the guests destroy the crops they've worked so hard on and einar loses it thorfin says that because so much of his life has been spent being one of the Destroyers he has no right to be angry now that he's on the receiving side of it and that he's finally come to realize that nothing good comes from Revenge this is huge for him this is massive this this is everything we've seen from him he's realized how faulty it really is then when he enters into a fight to protect einar and gets beat up so badly that he passes out and starts seeing visions of the people that he failed when he dedicated his life to Revenge and when his father asks him who do you kill with these swords and he sinks into a depiction of the true horrors of what he was and the pain and Devastation that he caused on his Path of Revenge and then ask a lad shows up too to remind him of the never-ending fight of being a warrior and that very few actually make it out of this pit this is one of my favorite scenes in the arc the the look of fear on his face the absolute desperation he's experiencing when he has to look into the eyes look into the faces of all the people that he killed and realizing I don't remember who you are or where I was when I killed you I don't remember any of this realizing that this Path of Revenge caused him to be so tunnel visioned that he didn't even view these people as humans now he's a slave not being viewed as human and he's realizing that when he was in the middle of battle when he was in the middle of War when he was in the middle of this quest for Revenge he was not viewing the people around him as human either and he was causing all this destruction to them and their families too it's such it's such good storytelling and when he breaks down and he cries out I'm so sorry and askalad yells at him to go to climb out of this and to go be a true warrior he comes out of the stupor he comes out of this fight with the resolve to never fight again no longer because he doesn't value his life but because now he values the lives of the people around him and now his pacifist quality isn't this I've given up I don't care anymore it's a determination to create a better world for the people that he has so greatly failed and I just think that it's really really beautiful I also just think like man I could spend too much time on all of this even just the parallels of like the small things like how thorphin is learning to farm and bring new life into the field at the same time that he's learning how to not live empty and to bring new life into himself and his goals and his future that it's it's just oh it's so good now let's catch up with Knute Knute is displaying lots of the coldness and callous leadership that we saw the beginnings of in the first Arc but he's also refusing to let his men pillage and turn and participate in slave trade we also get a quick check in with Thor kill he's doing well and Knute arranges the assassination of his brother so that he doesn't have to share the throne and even though I could see the beginnings of this in the first Arc you know how he was pushing down his emotions and just so callously telling Ragnar's brother well he's dead and didn't care about how that affected him and you know you could see him turning quite cold in callous in the first Arc you could see it but he's changed so much strategizing and not valuing the individuals seeing certain things as the necessary means to a good end lighting fires issuing threats killing people people I mean he's changed in the videos that I did with Philip on the second Channel which I talked about at the big at the beginning of this video we talked about how much uh thorfin and canoe really parallel each other we talked about how their two young boys about the same age both of which have gone have have lost their father figures Ragnar and Thor's and have gone under massive changes of Personality because of that and you know we watch their who they once were kind of fall away from them as they take on a new life and a new mission for themselves and at the end of the first Arc we see one descend into despair after askalad died and one rise up and take the crown and we continue to see these parallels in this Arc as well in many ways but one of which is in the way we explore their trauma and how their past is haunting them as knut kills people off to gain power his father's head had taunts him about the curse of the crown that he warned him about and that Knute was so sure he wouldn't be ruled by even when he tries to reason with himself that the ends justify the means his father's head cuts through it all and taunts him about how much he's become a ruler like him who would do anything so anyway knute's brother and nephew died of some unknown disease and Knute is the new king So Kettle and his sons traveled to attempt to talk to him and gain his favor like they had with his brother but Knute has decided that they will be his new source of income instead and because Omar is an idiot Knute creates a plan to make that happen we also get to catch up with Leaf again thanks to Omar's incompetence and I'm sorry I'm going to interrupt the just for a second because I love Leaf I love knowing that we saw how much Leaf hates slavery but there's only so much he can do you know he can't dismantle the entire system so what does he do when he does find a boy that you know he's been directed by somebody said oh I found thorphin he's over here and he matches his description and everything and leaf is aware that's not thorphin what does he do he buys him he gives him Freedom he takes him in as a son and raises him as his son teaches him the family business and works with him and continues to search for the truth orphan continues to try to find him so he can free him but he's doing what he can in little pieces to help other people along the way as well he's not he doesn't have this tunnel vision mission like so many people we see in the story we see someone who does have a mission who will see it through but who's seeing the humanity around him along the way so Omar is a hot head that falls for the bait thorgil is a terrifying Beast that excitedly joins the fight and leaf quickly gets them out of there in hopes of finding thorfin I'll also note that this is the moment Omar realizes what it really feels like to kill a man and he realizes what Thor's taught us a long time ago that there is no glory in war so Kettle and Company are on their way back to the farm knut is also on his way back to the farm and while everybody's been gone a monster has arrived so Ironhide was once married to gardar and he too was a man who reveled in the glory of War so he fought a fight that he didn't even need to fight and while he and the other men were gone the village was attacked so arnhide was bought by Kettle and while she's smacked around by kettle's wife she's kettle's favorite slave and all that comes with that and she's the one that the only one that we're aware of on the farm that isn't allowed to buy her Freedom back because Kettle won't let her go despite all that she's decided to make the best of this life because at least here she has some sort of Security even though she doesn't have any freedom but when gardar her husband returns to capture her to set her free to continue their life as it once was it disrupts everything when Garda arrives she sees how much he's changed and how much the trauma of losing his family and being enslaved has made him lose his mind and she's afraid of him but she loved him and she can't stop herself from at least tending to his wounds but it goes terribly wrong Gardner kills the guards and convinces her to free him and he's badly injured thorfin and einar help hide gardar from the guests but when snake shows up because he's realized where Garner is ascalad appears as a stand-in for the conflict inside of him this is fine right it's diffuse a situation not for vengeance so what will he do break his oath of peace or save the man snake is coming to kill thorfin fights him but snake Cuts him and stabs gardar and gardar attacks it's arnhide that saves snake's life she didn't go with gardar in the beginning because she wanted a safe and protected life for this child that she's pregnant with now more than she was able to give her child before but now she risks her life and her child's life to save snake and this story is a tragedy he gave his life for the thrill of war and he lost everything and because of him his family lost everything as well and he knows it and he regrets it all more than anything else I never thought I would cry over a character that is introduced to be a disruption and a destroyer and a monster and then get killed and his ark is over never thought I would cry over a character like that but this story is never the most straightforward and simple version of itself he served as the perfect mirror for what thorphin was on his way to become he fought without a thought for all the destruction it brought he he fought for something that never even needed fighting over he's someone who was so caught up in his own Ambitions that he failed his family and now it haunts him and it's his greatest regret in life now he's dying in the arms of his wife crying and apologizing over how much he failed her and his child how much of their lives he's missed and how he should have dedicated his life to being there for them it was the perfect mirror of what thorphin was on track to become he was the perfect example of of the path thorfin was headed down how it only brings misery and pain and it's so tragic it's so tragic to see to see him in this way but I also got to give lots of love to arnhide because she's such an incredible character too she saved snake's life by telling gardar that she would leave with him and that their son was still alive and that they could just go back to life as normal that they could just pick up where they left off even though that life was completely destroyed and taken from them and gone she told him that they could go back to that life to save snake's life and she put her life and her child's life in danger that she said I'm not leaving with him because I want even though I don't have my freedom I can at least give this child protection she surrendered that to save snake I just really want to make that clear because I love her and her story is such a tragedy too so this section of the story ends on Kettle returning his wife telling him that arnhide tried to leave him and uh and I don't know I thought he would give her mercy I thought that he would let her speak she would tell him what happened and he didn't the mercy that he was able to give to a child not that long ago what little Mercy he had the capacity for he couldn't can show this woman who was carrying his baby and once again when a slave is about to be killed snake steps in stops it this time he saved her life sort of for the moment so anyway snake and Kettle and Company go off to fight in the battle because Knute has arrived leaf and thorphin and Company go to try to run away and live a life free they have arnhide with them as well and now we're at the climax of The Ark which is funny because this is actually my least favorite part of the arc not because I don't like it no it's excellent this part of the arc is also excellent but it's funny that when everything amps up and when there's a battle and when there's action and when things are moving so fast this is the part that I I just feel like all of the The Great Character stuff and internal struggling and and small small changes that lead to big big moments all that build up was somehow even better than this which is also awesome anyway Knute is ready to Siege the farm and thorgil couldn't be happier so they gather men up to help them fight and a hundred Farmers die almost everyone that agreed to fight by kettle's side and Kettle himself are killed in the battle and back with thorfin on their way to safety with Leaf Ironhead died and einar nearly lost it but thorfin pulled him away from falling into the life he had and instead they agreed to create a country of Peace in Finland a land without slavery and War meanwhile Omar the new head of the family is in charge of deciding what they do next his brother and mother want to fight to The Bitter End but Omar decides to surrender thorfin decides that before he can leave he needs to do anything he can to stop what Knute is doing and requests an audience with him but they refuse him and he barters a deal if he can survive 100 hits he can speak with Knute and I know there are many parallels that I I could talk about between thorphin and knut and all the ways that their goals paths personal Journeys intersect but I just really love that canoe realized that ultimately they had the same goals albeit different ways of trying to get there and that earned knut's respect and he felt good about withdrawing from the farm this is obviously a huge moment for thorfin as well because this is where he is able to put into practice his new ideology of how can I create a land of peace with violence and choosing to sustain violence in order to gain that that place of respect that favor to be able to speak to Canute and being able to talk through this situation this is where he's able to you know he's he's gone back and forth a lot trying to figure out exactly where he stands and how far he's willing to take this new philosophy that he holds this is where he's able to put it into practice and he succeeds and I do wonder where we go from here in the next Arc because this isn't gonna work every time you know like next time he faces a pirate as einar put it ready to go pillage and steal your land of peace it might not be someone that you have a history with and who respects you for having the same dream as them they might just want to pillage and steal so I do wonder where we go from here because while of course I respect thorfin's ideology it's not gonna work every time so I do Wonder what it's gonna look like from here is it going to continue to adjust it is he going to become a defender of the land not initiating fights but willing to fight for to protect the people that he's trying to give a land of Peace for like where does he go from here I'm just curious where the story is going to take him because I feel like we can't really stop here realistically and just like that's the end of his Arc he's got to keep arcing I'm just curious what it's going to look like anyway I would also like to note that I'm super proud of Omar when he talks to thorfin um ah yeah he clasps his hands and tells him I can't thank you enough and I don't know of all the characters that I have grown to Love in This Arc and it's been many I just didn't expect it to be this one I I'm just I'm so very proud of Omar because he's truly become a man you know he thought he wanted battle he thought he was told to become a man you had to kill but he's figured out what a man really looks like and I'm just real proud of him so we end the ark with Leaf bringing thorfin home to his family and I loved the reception he got from his sister and her kids but the reception from his mom I loved especially and ending it on the emphasis that he had the same realization as Garner that his path of war and fighting only lead to pain for him and his family but when he comes to that same conclusion that Garner came to he has the opportunity for a happier end than Garner got and I don't know I just I feel like I could I could sit here for another hour and talk about all the tiny little parallels all over this Arc which I won't do but things like this are what make this story so astounding you know like this story's been told the story could be told again but there's something really special about putting it in this author's hands because he has all these little connections that bring the impact so much stronger and Garner a character that realistically could be entirely removed from the ark did we need him to enter did we need the conflict with him and arnhide and the thing with Kettle beating her until she was near death did we need all that in order to do what we needed to do for thorfin not super I mean yes it all benefited the story my point is the purpose of this was to show what thorfin was becoming and to Circle back around to that and to have him have the same realization but because that's not the path that he continued on he's able to move forward and have a better life for him and to and and to have a better life for his family moving forward like that's phenomenal storytelling I'm really curious to see where thorfin's path goes from here and where einar's path goes from here and I'm really really excited to see what kind of parallels are going to continue between thorphin and knut because there have been some phenomenal parallels up to this point when one sinks the other Rises and they're going through very similar things together they have similar goals but they're going about it in completely different ways I'm just excited to continue to see those parallels happen and how that's going to continue to be explored I've been sitting here for too long I'ma stop but I will continue on to the next Arc let me know if you're interested in continuing to get videos on it also let me know what you like better my first Arc review was much more condensed talking about the big moments and the big themes and all that and this obviously was meant to be a lot more let's just go through it all and chat I've done one piece reviews with the the quick or condensed and with the really really long form let me know what you like for Finland Saga I'll adjust how you like it but anyway please chat with me in the comments on what you thought about this Arc who who is your favorite character what was your favorite scene did you love it as much as me I post videos every Monday Wednesday and Friday on this channel Tuesdays and 30 days on the second Channel which you should definitely check out because there's lots of Finland discussions coming over there with my friend Phillip and he's great I'll see you again soon bye [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: Merphy Napier | Manga

Views: 70,062

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Id: V61JuTHvAaU

Length: 35min 34sec (2134 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 07 2022