Vinland Saga - Ch. 206 - Thousand Year Voyage Part 15

[danbellucci]

Thorfinn's fanciful, self-indulgent, naive leadership naturally leads to the people who trusted his leadership to protect them getting killed.
Of course the author will still pretend that what Thorfinn did was somehow right even it leads to his family and his people being put in grave danger.
Instead of merely hoping for the best he should have also prepared for the worst.

 

[danbellucci]

Looks like Thorfinn was 100% correct about swords

The locals would have driven them out because of plague and wanted to take their stuff because of their metal anyway. It's not like only swords are magically cool and desirable. Any one of them could see a metal axe blade or arrowhead an imagine how powerful that material could be as a weapon.

 

[Narmaya-]

THERE WILL BE BLOOD SHED

 

[Theozilla]

I really like how this chapter highlighted the snowball effect Ivar’s sword had on the plot. Also IIRC in the historical vinland sagas, in addition to an oxen breaking loose and scaring the local indigenous people during an interaction between them and the Vinland settlers (plus historians speculating that the natives’ bad lactose intolerance reaction to dairy goods caused them to think they were poisoned), it was also mentioned that one of the contributing factors to relations souring was that a native desired to trade for one of the settlers’ swords and the settlers refusal to trade their sword(s) spiraled out from that.

Also the theory that Cordelia could end up adapting one of the more notable historical accounts (from Icelandic Sagas) of Freydís Eiríksdóttir is an interesting idea.

 

[TheGodEmperor]

Piece of shits attacking a house and killing innocents.

 

[LordofAlI]

and there goes all of thorfinn's dreams and hopes I guess

 

[NLight]

I wonder where all of this is going. Will it be Thorfinn going back to Iceland while his friends die, and realizing the most peaceful place was right under his nose. Will it be that he finds balance and that fighting has its place when you need to protect someone important, cause he kinda went into two extreme directions. There is no way this ends in peace, it is too late for that.

 

[madmax103]

shit's going so down south i can't even see it anymore

 

[CT-9904]

Cordelia I need you to awaken your inner Thorkell

 

[Makenai]

This was heartbreaking to read... Cordelia really needs to fight back now. I'm pretty sure she does so with Gudrid's and Karli's life on the line.
I wonder what Thorfinns reaction will be after being back on the village. The only way I ever see him fight back is when Hild gives her ok to do so. I don't see him breaking his promise otherwise.

 

[NotSomeone]

please dont let anything happen to his family ffs

If this follows the sagas to the end,

Spoiler

in every single one of them Thorfinn got back to europe with his family and lived his days quietly.

 

[Jamadhur]

You mean Freydís Eiríksdóttir?


The reason why axes yes and swords no is that swords are only good for killing people while axes have many other uses, same way a rifle can protect you against a wild animal or be used to hunt for meat, but an AA gun battery has only uses in war

You dont use a sword to cut grass or to fell a tree, you only use it to slash and stab humans, thats the idea Thorfinn was against

Yes that one, I mean they got the Norse guy or whoever his name is with sword, I think they will defend the settlement knowing its getting attacked and defeated but then Cordia will took the sword rampaging unto native attacker, it will be match with the legend thou just saying

 

[Saybah]

Bad people are everywhere. The elder thought maybe they would be united by fear of the nords but he underestimated the other tribes' greed. As long as people exist negative feelings will dominate action and good people need to be able to protect other, weaker people.

Indeed. Its good that the manga shows that the natives can be motivated by evil / greediness just as much as the nordic settlers.

This is Thorfinn greatest trial, and I'm afraid he has abandon of what he wants to achieve.

 

[hiddentheory]

All for nothing.

Native tribes are just bunch of chimpanzees.

 

[gundulgondrong]

i want to see how thorfin react if something happened to his family, would he still be the same?

 

[Theozilla]

We’ve already seen from the previous arcs that Thorfinn will resort self-defensive violence (e.g. Snake, Garm, various soldiers sent by Floki, etc.) when he can’t literally can’t find any other option. I don’t think that should be really the main question to be speculated on. Not killing is the most significant element of his vow (and what Hild specifically held him to for years), and what will be challenged the most with warfare breaking out, as it far more complicated by Thorfinn being directly integrated with the involved parties in ways he wasn’t in the previous two arcs.

 

[Grimmycoffee]

You can't live as a pacifist unless people agree to let you be or you're prepared to die for that believe, aka don't resist when people come and steal your stuff.

Why the fuck would being anti-war be the same thing as letting yourself get robbed...

 

[gomennasai]

Thorfinn was right about swords but not in a way I expected for sure: it wasn't only about refusing to arm Vinland, it was also about not introducing swords to the natives, some among them might get ideas and want a piece of that to subjugate the other tribes and so on. And I guess we're here now.

 

[5H4B0N3R]

Ah fuck. This better not become a thing where Thorfinn just exterminates the Indians.

 

[MusashiKarlsefni]

At the risk of making myself look ignorant, misunderstanding the intention of this arc and Yukimura, I find it funny some aren’t realizing what I think is trying to be portrayed here. As much of a pacifist Yukimura may be, he knows that one sided peace doesn’t work, there’s always another party that needs to agree, and if they don’t, “I have no enemies” only applies to one person. Yukimura isn’t trying to make Thorfinn come off as completely right, he is extremely naive, and at a loss when dealing with an entirely different culture.

Yukimura knows the peace Thorfinn seeks is naive, and humanity doesn’t allow for it. At no point was Thorfinn supposed to be looked at as perfect and completely correct, he over corrected with his mentality, and has been putting those he loves in danger for awhile now. That’s what makes this journey compelling, he is still trying to learn what to do in situations like this, and is flawed in his way of doing so.

Though you can’t say he wasn’t partially right as far as swords go, if it wasn’t brought along and used as it was, this raid looking for it, and the obsession with having it themselves wouldn’t be happening.