#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.

[shinjisdone]

Vinland Saga S2 Episode 20 Take...

Spoilers below:

God...bro...stop.

First of all the battle:

It is so interesting to see both sides of a 'warrior': The one who revels in the killing and loses himself in the blood and the one scared for their lives. Each of them experiences both sides and its just *mwah* to see FOX being the one TERRIFIED. The one who first suggested to Olmar to kill to truly "become a man". The one who was glorifying the act, telling him so sadistically how easy it is once you realize how soft and fragile a human's body is.

And now it is the Joms vikings who feel the same glee as they strike down each slave as if they are toothpicks.

It shows the humanity and hypocrisy. How each loses - either to the bloodlust or straight up their lives.

It also shows the difference between mere mercenaries i.e. the 'guests' and actual, trained vikings who work under the king. It's *Chef kiss*.

The look in the vikings eyes are the same as the guests and Askeladd's band.

Bro Thorgil is insane???

You know that the moment you meet him but he keeps doing mad things to keep reminding you. Like, dude swam around the island with a sword on his back, no armor to defend himself and was ready to decapitate the king who he worked for just months ago???? Cuz his family got insulted thats why.

Bro is on the same level as Thorkell.

And Canute actually fighting back??? AND ATTEMPTING TO KILL THORGIL TOO? My man got guts and its so surprising.

There is no way Thorgil thought he might do that. Plus, he was too confident to even think he might lose.

Ketil u son of a bitch he survived. There is just something infuriating and tragic knowing a phony like him could fall this deep and low in his own arrogance, pride, weakness and delusion.

Man shouldve died. Stop saving him, Snake.

And now to the tearjerker

Bro

Bro bro bro. Arnheid just...seeing her family waiting for her? Hinting even an episode before that her unborn child is already dead. Gardar took care of it like its own kid in the sequence.

And she woke up just to say her thanks and bid goodbye. Thorfinn and Einar keep trying to give her hope and not to die...

But she keeps on asking; Where will we go and is there war? Is there slave trade? If so, then I don't want it.

She'd rather die. All of these things are just another prolonging nightmare for her.

I was a bit sceptical of Arnheid as a character but it all makes so much sense.

She's just supposed to be a normal woman in the world of the nordics. The world of vikings, war and slaves. Not the daughter or wife of a warrior or anything but just a woman.

She had everything that was part of a normal life. A village, a home, a husband and a child and it's all just taken from her.

She did absolutly nothing wrong. Her only crime being her existence.

When there are no men to defend you in times like these, you are taken away as a slave, your toddler child seen as useless and killed. You are taken to a master and work as his servant, maid and bedwarmer. She becomes pregnant without asking for it but decides and has the strength to protect her second child.

And then...one thing goes wrong and it all comes tumbling down. The master who "adores" her beats her to death and the one person she wanted to protect dies.

"Everyone I loved died. Why should I live?" She has no reason to live anymore.

This isn't just tragedy falling upon you. It's a young woman's will being completely destroyed by the cruelty of this world - of the men who wage war and those who enslave her.

Why should women live in a world like this? Anything peaceful can be taken from them in an blink of an eye and they are collected either as a "prize" for the vikings or sold off as slaves. They are especially vulnerable compared to men. They are straight up SOUGHT by raiders. It's insanity.

The war takes away their fathers, husbands, Brothers and sons. Slavery takes away their mothers, sisters and daughters.

And her speech of asking why she should live mirrors Thorfinn's speech of "Nothing good has ever happend to me" - That's what I think at least.

It's the reason why he looks so pained at that part especially I believe.

Man lets all say thank you to Thorfinn's convenient elephant-like memory. Guy remembers when you sneezed and why like 7 years ago.

Just seeing him try to bring her back to life like his father did, which he saw when HE WAS SIX AND SO CONFUSED ON WHAT HIS DAD WAS DOING AND IT WAS FOR ANOTHER SLAVE NO LESS

And Einar keeps on trying to give her hope 😢 he confesses how much he likes her, even now...

And oooooooooouuuugh here comes Ketil and my blood boils

SNAKE STOP SAVING HIS ASS

Einar trying to kill him and PUNCHING THORFINN when he tried to stop him hurts. My man would never raise a hand against Thorfinn but here he did nooo.

Bro but Thorfinn finally snapping him out of this oh so familiar rage and telling him "don't become like me. Don't drown in that nightmare I've had" *sobs*

*BIG SOB*

They make her a grave...and Thorfinn, once again, just conveniently remembers what Canute once said about his view on God and Love.

And now he just...wants to stop him???? Bro how????

He SAID THERE WOULD BE AT LEAST 50 MEN AND THE WORST CASE SCENARIO IS THAT HE'LL GET AWAY WITH HIS LIFE AT LEAST

STOP SAYING THAT UR SCARING ME

LEIF ALREADY LOST U LIKE 2X PLS DONT DO SOMETHING RECKLESS

IM LEGIT SCARED. WHATS HE GONNA DO? TALK????

Ugh...I'm so feelings it makes me sick

[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.