Vinland Saga Season 2: Episode 17 Early Access Reaction!
Added 2023-05-02 13:00:04 +0000 UTC**TEARFUL HEADPHONE WARNING**
Well, time to cry, I guess! Seriously, the "road home" for Gardar: his journey from a proud father to warrior to slave to a dying human is so powerful -- and wanting his son to not become a warrior? As people in the Discord noted, it reads so much like Thors. I feel knowing the mangaka is a father himself made Gardar's final moments hit that much harder for me!
And that was only half the episode, as we also had Snake vs. Thorfinn, revealing more about Snake, as the looming storm surrounding Ketil's farm gets closer and closer...we can't have nice things in this series, can we?
LINK TO REACTION: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/Db5vwmvnL9ArCKht1CW1WE?
Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!
Comments
Oh no worries – I ramble on for hours about a show, so long comments don’t bother! 🙂 And yessss, anytime “the road home” is brought up, you know it’s going to be a deep and sad episode – the soundtrack also lends itself to all of this! The tenderness of this episode and how subtle it is makes for such a heartbreaking experience. I love that even as Thorfinn is getting better and better as a character, the other characters are right up there with him, just like in season 1. I love Arnheid; her character is so tragic but she bounces SO WELL off of every other character this season, how can you not appreciate her?! That’s a great tie-in to the note about the girl from that episode who was a “one off” character – and yes, her struggle seems all the more palpable compared with Arnheid’s in this one. I love the idea of how Arnheid contrasts with that girl; it’s a beautiful comparison! Ooh, that’s a good note about Rei being in there as well for comparison along with Violet Evergarden! Nice point with how they have no control over their fates and bodies…ugh…such a gut punch! The idea of Askeladd as “one of the boys” is so funny to me! Yeah, Anne and Arnheid are such dynamic characters whose stories are so tragic and “REAL” – I can completely see where you’re coming from! And yes, I’m not sure what her fate is going to be – are we going to see her in the next episode and the rest of this arc? Who knows. Thanks for the comment!
Romaniablack
2023-05-08 16:01:05 +0000 UTCThis episode was SO HEARTBREAKING! And that realization for us the audience that Gardar doesn't realize the slaves he sees are himself...just so tragic! And how that suffering made him lose track of time and himself... :( I LOVE that the show teased that it was actually Gardar in the beginning of the season and how it ties all back around to it here -- we were leading to Gardar up from the beginning...UGH...and that tie to Gardar telling Arnheid that...I wish Thorfinn could have heard it, because I doubt Arnheid will tell him Gardar's words about their son, but just us the audience knowing it...what a beautiful, cruel episode. My heart is still shattered. Thank you for the comment!
Romaniablack
2023-05-06 14:45:25 +0000 UTCRIGHT?! Even though we've spent some time with Arnheid, to get that much emotion from her and a man we met two episodes ago is crazy - and I LOVE the comparison to Violet Evergarden -- definitely got those vibes in this episode! Thank you for the kind words and comment! I was GUTTED, but in...a good way?
Romaniablack
2023-05-06 14:15:03 +0000 UTCThat entire thread of Arnheid, her thoughts on Gardar, what we the audience thought, and then the tie in to "returning home." UGH. My heart shattered! Thank you for the comment!
Romaniablack
2023-05-06 03:26:29 +0000 UTCUGH, RIGHT?! I'm not ready for future pain -- not at ALL! Thank you for the comment!
Romaniablack
2023-05-05 00:57:24 +0000 UTCSorry for the wall of text, but this show jumped a couple tiers in my book after all this. Everytime an anime throws the good old "I'm home/Welcome Home" you know you're in for a godly tearjerker. I been following this show since it started because of its manga reputation & I really liked S1, but man S2 has been so much more my alley, and this whole Arnheid arc just took the show into something truly special for me. That piano has done it before in the show but I really like the tenderness it brings to truly wretched people facing up to the tragedy of their own lives. As the MC, Thorfin's growth has been great to see but it's almost out shone by every other character that's been involved in this arc... Einar's love for Arnheid being so great it didn't even allow a single second of jealousy or doubt to help them the moment her husband showed up tied so nicely to last season's speech about love. There's the whole arc of Gardar's tragedy. And then there's Arnheid, I don't know how long she'll stick around in this story, but she might be my favorite character in years. My favorite part of S1 was the story of the girl with the ring, there was a lot of focus on her hands too to represent how harsh her life was and how the fear of God & D weighed so heavy on her that when she saw real horror she sort of got liberated her sense of 'I'm an awful person because of this one small sin I'm not regretful about'. but although impoverished, she was a freegirl living with her loving family. Arnheid on the other hand has been living as a slave for years, has had to simply make peace with having lost her family without even knowing if her child might be dead or if he might be alive and living a similar hell, and the not knowing is probably worse than just confirming that he is dead. So she's just had to bury him her heart because how else could she go on living? And none of it was her fault, because even as a 'free' woman she never had any autonomy over her own fate. tragedy befell her because of the decisions the man she loved made. And now as a slave the scale of her dreams are reduced to bear the child of her enslaver because at least he's kind and that's just so fucking sad and the worst part is she can't even have that because the man who loves her had to come back and make all hell break loose again. And despite all of it, and being trapped in such hellish circumstances, unlike the girl with the stolen ring, there's such strength and kindness in her heart. I'm a sucker for this kind of archetype, the character seemingly made of dusty and brittle charcoal whose circumstances put them under such pressure that they reveal their diamond core whereas others would crack. 4Paz, brings up Violet & I do see the parallels. I would throw Rei too. All three are characters that never got a chance to have agency over their own bodies or their lives, yet their inner selves had such strength were always capable of protecting/liberating/helping others. Anne the ring girl & Arnheid as two girls trying to carve some semblance of a individual life in a world run by warmongering boys have been two of my favorite characters in the story so far. I love Askeladd but at the end of the day, he's was still one of those boys, pursuing revenge & glory. Anne might have had only one episode to shine so he still tops her but (sorry to Team Askeladd) Arnheid tops him in my book. And it sucks that I don't even know, if she'll still be around in the story and there would be some sort of trial where she could still be spared, or if her being surrounded at the end of the episode was all the send off we get and its left up to us to imagine what would happen to her as an escaped slave and we won't talk of it again.
Alex Kornejo
2023-05-03 20:59:06 +0000 UTCdamn... the tears... :(((( gahhh, this show just hits so differently, it's just so raw... and shit's probably just going to get worse now for the other three....
brianna a
2023-05-03 03:41:13 +0000 UTCGonna be short with this one. Just the entire monologue that Arnheid gave the last episode about how she had thought Gardar had “returned”, but that not being the case in her eyes. Once she saw him truly; as he’s dying, and the regrets he has, simply saying, “Welcome Home”. 😭
Tyler Castline
2023-05-02 23:25:38 +0000 UTCIt takes a lot of talent to evoke so much emotion around a set of characters who aren't central to the overall story (other than arguably Arnheid). I don't think I've been hit so hard by an anime since Violet Evergarden. Hats off to the mangaka and VA's. Loved the heartfelt reaction!
4Paz
2023-05-02 22:34:54 +0000 UTCYukimura and Mappa had no business in making one of the most heartbreaking episodes of anime I have ever seen out of nowhere Interesting things: - Gardar passing away seems to be a reflection of the "last moments" you see when you die. - Gardar sees a bunch of slaves, he doesn´t realize, when he feels pity for them, they are all him. - Gardar was so in pain and tortured as a slave you can guess that his out of touch with time was because how painfully slow it was, he went overboard several years. - there is some mistranslation in this episode in some parts, gardar talks about his son wanting to be a future warrior viking instead of adventuring, and him saying he will stop him, gardar was closer to thorfinn in that regard, maybe closer to Season 1 thorfinn, who also didn´t enjoyed violence. - as a manga reader, when I saw the first scene of season 2 episode 1 I was so impressed haha, they gave such a tease to this part of the season.
Sh3nx
2023-05-02 21:49:27 +0000 UTC
