Thorfinn faces the turmoil of war and becomes a new person as Vinland Saga continues. No longer dealing directly with the aftermath of his father’s death but instead a child who is following the forces of his father’s killer. To obtain his duel with Askeladd he must do well in battle, but in his first foray with war Askeladd saves him from a quick death. Thorfinn quickly turns himself around and kills someone for the first time: and we spend the rest of the episode watching him become a killer capable of working alongside Askeladd and his crew.
What does revenge make a man? Thorfinn goes from a boy who desires to kill his father’s murderer to a young man who murders people. It’s such a juxtaposition because Thors was once a mercenary and then became a man with no desire to see the deaths of others. Was this what Thors was once before? And this is a question that comes into play with the theme of the episode. Midway through an injured Thorfinn is found by a woman and her daughter. The woman opts to save Thorfinn and treat him like a son. This is overall a bad idea: he’s come to scout an attack on her area.
What is moving to me is seeing how Thorfinn has changed as a person, but how there is still part of him that remembers his life and yearns for things he once was. Even though he could just disappear, he implores the woman who saves him to run and when she decides to run after him? He sees images of his past. I found myself impressed with what this story becomes. Even though Thors is gone I still feel attached to many characters and I feel loss for what Thors has become in order to obtain vengeance.
There is a moment where Thors is seen by this woman, a woman who desires to see him as a son, while he is in a killing rage. He stops killing things for a moment and then has to turn and kill someone anyway. He knows in the end that even though he might have been something else once, he is a killer now. His father’s death and his quest for vengeance have made him something else entirely. There is no running from who he has become, only acceptance.
And just like that, Thorfinn joins Askeladd’s men on their journey to kill even more. Yet vengeance is far from within his grasp.
Oki