Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 8 Review: The Death Of Humanity

We delve deeper into Thorfinn’s psyche in Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 8, as his inner demons are yet to be exorcised. Let’s see how it went in this review!

Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 8 Overview

Vinland Saga Season 2 is an action, adventure, and drama that serves as the sequel to its highly acclaimed and fan favourite Vinland Saga Season 1, which aired in 2019. The series is based on an award-winning manga written by Makoto Yukimura. Read the review of the previous episode of the series here!

The show’s second season is being animated by Studio MAPPA, a different studio that the one which did its previous season in Studio WIT. However, most of the personnel behind the series have been retained. Director Shuuhei Yabuta, of Inuyashiki and Attack On Titan fame, is returning to direct the series.

– Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 8 Review does not contain spoilers –

Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 8 Review- A Broken Man

Unlike Season 1, Vinland Saga Season 2 isn’t a show for everyone. It is not a show for people who don’t appreciate when things take their time to build a story and characters up before paying them off in a big way. It is also not a show for people who were expecting the same level of action and adventure they saw in Season 1. While of similar quality, both of these seasons feel like very different shows and are going for very different stories about different people, except one.

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This episode was entirely about Thorfinn and how he feels about himself and the actions he has performed in the past. He is an extremely sad character to have at the centre of this season because he is almost completely devoid of emotion other than regret. It took a lot to make him realise the futility of his ways and how he chose to live his life in the past, and that realisation broke him as a person. The real question we need to ask ourselves is, “Did Thorfinn ever really get a chance”? I don’t believe that he did.

Born as the only son of the greatest Viking warrior, wanting to be just like your father, only to be told by him that a true warrior isn’t one that kills but one that saves would be a rough place to start. Watching the same father being impaled to death with arrows as he tried to save you from meeting the same end would definitely make things much worse. Swearing revenge on the person who killed you and throwing your whole life away in pursuit of that when you’re only six years old is an unimaginably bad idea, only made worse by spending 11 years under the same person only for someone else to kill him.

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Just writing all that, it is hard to imagine how Thorfinn is even alive right now. So many things had to go just right or horribly wrong for us to be in the position we are right now. After everything, the fact that Thorfinn realises the error of his ways and is constantly haunted by them is actually the least horrible thing that could have happened to him. I have a feeling that this can make Thorfinn one of the most beloved protagonists ever if this goes to the kind of resolution we know the show is capable of.

Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 8 was as much about Thorfinn’s relationship with Einar as it was about his demons. They suffer a devastating setback in this episode and come to a realisation that humans are even more garbage than they originally thought. The dynamic of Thorfinn knowing his actions in the past were similar, if not worse, and Einar having to deal with the loss of even more of his freedom was tremendous. Combined with the fact that the episode looked like an absolute dream made it a fascinating, depressing, and devastating watch.

Verdict

Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 8 was a slow but soul-crushing outing which allowed the characters to lower their pace and think about their actions in the past, which is a big theme for this season.

Click here to read the review of the next episode!