It started off strong and rapidly became very dull. I don't mind if there's no action but i literally stopped caring about the plot, about Thorfinn wanting revenge. Hell Thorfinn barely appears. The rest of the characters are just assholes. Then prince Canute does angry face and I just couldn't watch it anymore.
Priest be like "love is when dead person" my eyes rolled so hard I could see my brain.
Can't even bring myself to finish season 1 i simply don't care about a single character.
I didn't learn my lesson with Re:Zero to just not listen to whats popular cos its a guaranteed wet fart.
It's a good thing right after you stopped Thorfinn grows as a character and has to decide whether he wants to continue a cycle of violence or not
Yeah, the priest is wrong and that was the point
massive shrug emoji
I dunno, I thought it was good but not amazing. It's certainly not the action series that it gets sold as after the young Thorfinn arc, but it has good stuff in it about Violence and Power in abstract, grudges/revenge, generational trauma, etc.
E) Also I guess I should point out I read the manga and haven't seen season 2 of the anime yet.
E2) spoiler
I really can't stress enough how much it isn't about Thorfinn getting revenge, and rather how Thorfinn is tormented by choosing to live a non-violent life in a world ruled by violence and desperately trying to escape that world of violence seemingly to no avail.
S2 the plot (and violence) slows down massively and is overall pretty solid character growth for Thorfinn. The first half is pretty solid. The second, half, though...
massive spoiler
Thorfinn learns that violence is always wrong and actually slavers can be good people
In regards to your spoiler'd bit yeah I just added that to my spoiler'd second edit.
spoiler
Where I'm at in the Manga they are building their community in Vinland
Gotta say,
spoiler
it's pretty weird to use "real" history when that means the vinland settlement and Canute's schemings are both going to fail.
Then again the author is a lib so idk what to make of all this. Maybe I'm over-focusing on the sociopolitical aspects in the background when it's more just about Thorfinn's personal growth.
Yeah and if you read his little notes and whatnot at the end of the Manga volumes alot of this just comes from rationalizing his fascination with Nordic culture against his Liberal sensibilities. That's literally the entire character of Thorfinn right there.
This is ultimately where I'm at with it; it's an interesting story about the subjective experience of a young boy, and then man, trapped in a world of violence.
I imagine the vast majority of the Japanese audience doesn't know that and has likely never heard of Vinland or Canute. For that audience it'll probably hit like a punch in the gut.
I know the priest is wrong its just the tone kf that section just felt so flat to me. It all feels so very flat with no impact and the main character is nowhere to be seen nor says anything for episodes at a time.
Funnily enough though I saw a comment on reddit saying the priest had changed their outlook on life and thought it very profound.
I can see what you mean, though I didn't find it as bothersome. It gets better about this later on as C and D plots get trimmed down and you move into Thorfinn's adulthood.
The kids aren't alright