While there are normal people who get to like this story as they are just history fans that have never watched any anime, there is this pretentious weeb core within this manga that makes some anime fans think now that they heard the most delusional philosophies like ALL lives matter and pacifism can work, they achieved deepness and think this is the most superior and groundbreaking form of thinking never heard before and everything else sucks, when this is just the most delusional version of Power of Friendship.
The protagonist Thorfinn doesn't do anything likable in the whole series and everyone simps for him for no reason other than he is the protagonist - I don't care about how much "development" he gets as remorse-based character development is pretty lame for a protagonist, he's always been very dislikable in general whether when he is a mass murderer or a Gandhi-wannabe. He is the same as Reiner from SNK just he is a super delusional version of him. Even Reiner drops his remorse nonsense when violence was actually needed for the sake of his beloved kids.
Not to give any details or spoilers, there are these ludicrous instances where Thorfinn wonders whether or not he should use violence against the dudes putting his loved ones in serious danger (or just against evil dudes in general like mass murderers and rapists) as he doesn't wanna dream with zombies again because muh feels. Then the same dudes out of nowhere always let him be, due to the Power of Friendship No Jutsu - truly the most mature manga, you just don't get it. This is like Batman but worse, "Oh how bad it is if I punch actual criminals". It just made me wanna laugh at the idea of this even being a dilemma. The real dilemma is hoping please Hild for the love of the Gods, do shoot Thorfinn in the back.
Also it is not that historically accurate at all, the author doesn't understand anything about the Norse religion other than superficial crap like Marvel movies or things you can read on Wikipedia - as you can verify from his arrogant "author talks" trying to prove how his worldview is superior to other cultures and ages, and this passes down to the extremely pretentious fanbase of Vinland Saga.
For one, contrary to the manga, the Jomsvikings actually didn't give a shit about Norse religion and culture, and together with King Harald they brutally forced christianity in Scandinavia. Duels are also completely wrong as it's up to the person being challenged what type of duel it would be, it could be a poetry battle etc., and even if it was a violent duel, if you murdered your opponent you should comensate their family according to the law, and if you commit murder a second time, it's death penalty.
To other absurd claims that in Norse law you could abuse whoever you wanted so long you were stronger, and only christianity gave them "ethics" lmao. His whole beef with Norse culture is because as the author writes it himself, he is a prideless wimp who can't stand any pain, hard labor or masculine demands, so it's absurd and beyond his imagination a culture that is based on disregarding self-preservation and go straight ahead into war instead of accepting humiliation and cultural genocide.
Besides falsifying Norse history, this mango also ripped off the True Warrior philosophy from the 2002 Chinese movie Hero (and even the literal scene in case), but distorted its philosophy and choice of non-violence to included some "universal love" bullshit such as it's always wrong to use violence even to avoid imediate danger, and chosing one's loved ones over criminal scumbags is "discrimination".
Hating "violence" doesn't make you a kind person, it's just an excuse to feel moral about yourself for being a coward wimp (or a nerd philosopher-wannabe). Another manga that preached the same BS - Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X - well the author happened to be a pedophile... Don't hurt criminal people pls violence is Le Bad. 🤡
I mean if you wanna talk shit about the "sword" go write about your own brutal Japanese history, mr. author dude. You can only write your cartoon talking shit about the Sword today because your samurai were brutal and used the Sword to grant you this privilege (for good or for bad), otherwise Mongols and others would have wiped your culture out of existence, same with the Norse, same with Native Americans. "Violence" is a normal part of life that grants you "peace".
Your "enemies" keep you fit. If Japan had become a country that adopted this timid pacifist cancer, your men would start marrying anime waifus and AI bots, and your birthrates would start to drop drastically... Oopsie it did...
The author is a very good artist. The drawings are some of the best in all manga, paneling and structuring of his bullshit narrative is very good regardless of how BS the so called message here is. He should be the assistant to some other mangaká.
Very good comics 10/10, do not recommend.
