@Juke
Your free to have your opinion about this being the worst arc but your criticism i find lacking.
"It started with what should've been a heartwarming meeting, turned into his ogre of a sister knocking him unconscious upon first seeing him. Just for the gag. The author's Japanese is really starting to show here; we just watched Thorfin take 100 blows from a trained warrior but then the ever powerful housewife is the one that knocks him unconscious with a single strike. Hilarious."
The meeting between Thorfinn and his family was heartwearming. He met his mom who recognized him immediately which was nice and Ylva came around too once she had proof of Thorfinn being Thorfinn. Also the "gag" was a natural reaction to finding out your brother (and first born son) had abandoned you and been off who knows where and while you were busting your ass all alone with your sick mother (keep in mind she had no idea what Thorfinn has been through yet). Also as we learn later both Ylva and Thorfinn are related to Thorkell and as we can see Ylva takes after Thorkell quite a bit so it isn't that outrageous for her to one shot Thorfinn (especially when he has his guard down).
"Now for this arc, we have the insert-black-haired-girl who refuses to be a wife and wishes she were a man. We get that (women can do anything a man can do, even better!) shoved down our throats every day in society, why insert it here? Even the loaner's wife, constantly nagging about how men need to listen to women; the moral of this arc is that if the loaner had just listened to the woman, all would have turned out better."
Gudrid's character has nothing to do with women being better than men at all and i don't know how you came to that conclusion. She represents women who don't fit into the traditional roles women are assigned and how unfair it can be to be forced into those roles and denied being able to do the things you want to pursue in life. The manga doesn't mock women doing those traditional roles and most women are satisfied being in those roles and in fact portrays women in those in roles in a good light, but there will always be those outliers among women who want something different with their lives. We even see later in the manga a man who isn't satisfied with participating in the traditional role of men which again doesn't portray those role as negative but that the role isn't suited for him. If Halfdann had listened to his wife things most likely would have turned out better and i really don't see the problem with that? Do men always have to be right and women wrong? I view this more as a man's thinking can't solve some problems while a women's thinking can which i can agree with, neither sex is perfect and the different ways of thinking can cover the other's weakness. While i will agree that this manga does show men more in a negative light than women overall it's only natural seeing the time period we're in with men being at the forefront at this time while women are in the support role.
Just to make to make it clear i'm not hating on your opinion but just critiquing your critique. Also i'm not some SJW who loves the "Yas Queen slay" women archetype we see in media nowadays and i revile it but i don't see that here. also anyone please feel free to respond because i would to hear your opinions on the matter