Vinland Saga 2×17 Reaction

3 thoughts on "Vinland Saga 2×17 Reaction"

1. I liked the discussion y’all had about Snake’s moral standing and viewpoint of “justice” in regard to how to treat Gardar. I feel the same way Eric does regarding Snake and how he thinks. It’s obvious that Snake is at least moderately educated and intelligent, so why does he shut down any conversation that attempts to point out his hypocrisy? I understand that Snake wants to bring Gardar to justice because he killed 5 of his men, and there needs to be consequences to murder, but its so confusing to me that Snake rejects any context of Gardar’s situation and moral standpoint that led to this conflict. The only thing that seems to matter to Snake is getting justice for his men, but then why did he bring up the argument of a man’s worth, and claim that Gardar’s life is of no more importance than his own men’s lives? He’s trying to say that if Gardar doesn’t face consequences for his actions, that must make his life have equal or more value than his own 5 men’s lives, which shouldn’t make sense because no one’s life is inherently more valued than another. But in making that point for this conflict, you expose the fact that then slavery has no merits or logic, and should therefore also not exist, but Snake is perfectly alright with slavery. Why bring up the value of a life in one argument, but then ignore it in another to serve your flawed beliefs?

   I liken Snake to Askeladd a lot, and there are certainly similarities bewteen them, but Askeladd is a much more interesting take on this type of character writing. Askeladd is also incredibly strong and extremely intelligent, enough to know how flawed the system is, considering he was a victim of it for quite some time. However, even though they both willingly participate in this broken society, Askeladd has meaningful intent to why he plays in for so long. He’s determined to achieve his one goal of lasting peace in his homeland, and in order to achieve that, he actively exploits and plays in to the system in order to gain power and influence. He knows how broken the system is, but he’s using that for his own purposes and desires. On the other hand, we have no idea why Snake participates in the system. What’s his endgame for why he does what he does?

   There’s gotta be more to why Snake thinks like this, because it doesn’t make sense according to everything he actually says and does. Right now he’s just a man who knows the system is flawed, but willingly participates in that system, and is scared to be exposed to his own hypocrisy and wrongdoings. I really hope we get more on Snake, because he is such an interesting character.

2. We cry for Gardar because he’s a victim of unfortunate circumstances, the things that we wouldn’t want to happen to us or wish upon others. Not because he was an important character to the others necessarily.

3. Man this episode hits so much harder in the dub. I was kind of not feeling it in the sub.