#Arnheid Did Nothing Wrong

[unlikely-cherry-blossom]

The post you made about the ketil supporters? I'm shooketh. I don't follow fandoms much but this was like... just what the hell. What kind of shit is this?

Good question: I'm just as shocked as you.

I mean, I maybe understand not liking a character even without a reason. Your choice, and everything.

What strikes me though, is the blatant mysoginy end even slave advocating. The notion that a person has to settle down with a derogatory title for their whole life just because treated "better" than others, because their owner is "nicer" than others.

Manga

Anime.

Does this look like a happy woman? Does this look like a satisfied and fulfilled person?

Ketil was nice? Yes. But that was that. It was rather clear that he was possessive of her and wouldn't have given her the possibility of freedom, it was even explicitly stated at one point. Unlike Thorfinn and Einar, she couldn't have her freedom back. He must have loved her veeeeeery much, for sure. Unlike Einar, that cared about her happiness and was happy if she was happy.

Because Ketil is Nice™

Poor rich Ketil, poor manly man Ketil who doesn't have a damn a damn bone and prefers to beat children instead of appearing "weak" on a bunch of people WHO HE PAYS TO WORK AND DEPEND COMPLETELY ON HIM ECONOMICALLY SPEAKING. And can't even protect the woman he supposedly loves from his wife and cannot even stand up for himself. What he could do? Have sex of HOW terrible his life is, on his SLAVE's lap.

"But she was happy to have his child-"

Do I have to remember WHAT happened to her child with her husband? Do I?

Is disgusting too how they had to bring up her status as a sex slave, as if she applied for it.

"But Askeladd/Thorfinn did worse, she killed four people with her stupidity-"

What a balancing indeed. Four pieces of shit on earth died (sorry, not sorry Snake I don't care about your feelings here) who years prior wanted to kill Einar and Thorfinn. Because they were slaves.

Poor Snake :(

Poor man, he must have suffered for his piece of shit bros, they sure have been pure angels that now are part of God's angels for how good they were

Just say you hate her for being a woman who dared to have sex with more men (only two I guess) instead of faux reasons.

Believe me, I hate using the word "mysoginy" on fandom discourse because of sjws around, but how can I describe this even? And defending SLAVERY too, just the cherry on the top. And they literally justify EVERY MAN, NAMED AND UNNAMED that casually is A MAN.

Sorry for this grammatical horror if a rant, kinda got boiled here. And now, Rize out.

[cappucosmic]

Oh, and I just wanted to add because I remembered something else.

In this series, the only people keeping women down, forcing patriarchal ideas of womanhood on the women who want to fight against it (particularly Gudrid and Hild), are other women. If you look back you will realize it is always other women telling these women what they can and cannot do, and how they need to marry. It is ALWAYS the men in these womens' lives who feel bad for them and give them opportunity. I found that the most offensive part of the story. Especially because the ability to write a good woman is there. Arnheid is written perfectly. She is a woman who did nothing wrong. She lived her life as she liked and a man still ruined it by being stupid, and ultimately she became nothing but a pawn or piece of property for other men. Even in death she is treated as an angel by a man who barely knew her and who she did not want, who was enamored just because she was nice to him. That is the reality of being a woman in that age, and what it means for womanhood to be a curse: you are property, bound to the whims of the men who lay eyes on you. Yukimura likely wrote this thinking only of creating a good story about a slave, and completely overlooked what it says for womanhood, which is why you never see anything like that again with the female characters.

(Additionally, I think there's something to be said that outside of Arnheid and maybe Siggy's mom, all the women are significantly less mature or wise than their male counterparts of the same age.)

I think, ultimately, while Yukimura is a great person, he's probably a misogynist. He may not know he is, he may think women are great, but I think it shows through in his writing and the way he talks about women in his author's notes. He finds women amazing for their ability to have children. Ultimately, he too thinks that's all women are there for, and that any woman who isn't just that is an anomaly.

Sorry for rambling more. Just remembered that issue I have and wanted to add on, as it's an interesting topic and it's something that is largely overlooked when discussing Vinland Saga.

Started reading Vinland Saga after enjoying your art and Gudrid is one of my favorite characters. Honestly, I don't get all the hype for Mikasa being one of the best female anime characters when Gudrid is much better-written than one-dimensional Mikasa.

People are calling Mikasa well-written...?

Shonen fans have such a skewed idea of what a well-written character is. I appreciate you enjoying my art and I do like Gudrid, but honestly I don't like how she's written and do not think it is well written. I think it's a woman that's written from the perspective of a man who does not think deeply about womens' place in history. The actual person she is based on was far-travelled and reached Vinland before she even married Thorfinn. And you can tell Yukimura hasn't bothered to research womens' history in his work. The women in the series are largely disposable in the sense of chores. Which makes no sense. It bothers me. Pre-industrial revolution, women did not just sit and make babies; you could take care of children while you worked. They did farming and ranching and they were especially important for arguably the most crucial part of society; cloth.

There was a whole holiday, Distaff Day, specifically for women to take a break from spinning thread, because women did it year-round. Every piece of fabric, every article of clothing, the sail they use, all thread, that was made by women historically. That was 'womens' work.' That's only barely touched on in one scene with Ylva weaving thread to keep herself from mourning. Otherwise every ounce of true work beyond cooking and laundry is seen solely as something men do in Vinland Saga, and any straying from that is just... Rather than it being seen as a man allowing a woman who is property of that man to do things, it is seen as the woman being 'better' than the other women. That she's just different and wants to do 'man' things more. When again, these aren't even man things we're talking about, like how I said the real Gudrid the Far-Travelled reached Vinland before she married Thorfinn.

Like think about how she is treated by Leif. Leif says it "just is" that she needs to act like "a woman" even though he feels bad. He feels bad. But the thing is... No one's telling him he -can't-. He was at that time the head of the house. According to law, with her husband dead and her under his house, she would be Leif's property(because that's how it worked back then, it was not just a magical patriarchal force; women were literally property). If he felt bad he could have let her do whatever she wanted. And yet it's written instead as if he has no power over this all-encompassing concept of "what women must be" no matter how he feels about it.

I'm rambling here, but you touched on something I've ranted about to other people and I couldn't just not take the opportunity.

Now. Hot take I'd get burnt at the stake for is that I think Casca is the first character that comes to mind when I think of the best-written female manga characters.