Is the writing for Farmville arc better than S1 overall? I suppose so... There are at least more opportunities to focus on writing and character development alongside themes and competing ideologies because the action takes a backseat. Frankly, I think S2 has more scenarios that showcase writing than being better written as a whole, and while Thorfinn's character arc is paced far more appropriately than Canute's insanely abrupt one in S1, at least what Canute became wasn't so silly and made perfect sense within the world they inhabited. Unfortunately, much of the proceedings resemble the most boring farming simulator out there, broken up by segments featuring some hyucking punks with names like "Badger," "Possum," and "Hippo."
Thorfinn was a more superficial character in S1, and he has a lot of room for growth here. He makes a friend, learns new life skills, and goes from a low-key PTSD nihilist to an extreme idealist and messiah superhero and a real go-getter philosocan't in a way that allows him to engage in so much mental gymnastics that he twists his ass into a pretzel. If S1 could vaguely be seen as a coming of age story, then I'd suggest S2 is an uncoming of age, as Thorfinn doubles down on masochistic idealism like only a shonen main can ("ahem... ackshually, it's a seinen"). No amount of heavy character development will matter if what you become is essentially the punch line to a joke.
First of all, going back to S1, Thors is a charlatan pretending to be virtuous with his dumb dumb philosophy hour ideology that led to everything happening in the first place. I can understand not killing people if it can be avoided, but he endangered his crew by only lightly injuring Askeladd's men. Let's face it, Askeladd and his men had it coming and deserved to die, and Thors knew full well what they'd do if he failed. And that's while overlooking how ridiculous it is that Thors can solo a whole band of mercenaries in spite of the "semi-realism" the series is going for or that his kid grows up to do the same with butter knives, slicing through mail and plate armor like toothpicks through cheese.
One can value life without this puerile pacifism so common in anime, where they're so adamant about not killing anyone to the point that the people whom they love are harmed as a result, not to mention, themselves. It sickens me, and Japan has long been into these navel-gazing "love and peace" messages, when I demand more realism (character-wise) or at least not masochistic pacifism that glorifies getting beaten so hard that the MC looks like the Toxic Avenger with a wig or running with your tail between your legs and sacrificing everything. To be clear, Ketil's Farm was a futile battle that they never had a chance of winning against Canute's forces, so I can understand retreating in this case, but Thorfinn's ideology is explicitly cardio-intensive even when the odds are in their favor.
I almost dropped S1 back then, but I didn't because I enjoyed the dynamic between Thorfinn and Askeladd and liked the latter as a character. It was clear that Thorfinn would always be in the shadow of his father, and there would be an arc where he would reevaluate himself in relation to what his father was and what Thorfinn had become as a result of becoming part of Askeladd's gang and seeking "principled" vengeance (in reference to Thorfinn refusing to kill him during his sleep). That sense of "loss" Thorfinn felt when he lost the opportunity to defeat Askeladd in a duel was a preferable way to handle a theme of vengeance. Then we're left with this broken husk of a man for S2, leading to the inevitable "redemption" arc where he becomes the mirror image of his father, which leads to me not caring about Thorfinn's arc no matter how well it's handled. You know the saying, "If it's not broken, don't fix it"? Thorfinn taking up his father's mantle is the equivalent of something being broken, not fixing it, pretending it works, then the author forcing it to work due to plot contrivances.
Just as my favorite character was Askeladd in S1, the side characters tend to be more interesting in S2 than Thorfinn, even when they have relatively simple arcs, fewer scenes, and arguably less complexity (a lot less in some cases). The characters surrounding Thorfinn tend to be more realistic fixtures of the world. In contrast, Thorfinn is monumentally idealistic and allowed to indulge further in his nonsense because he has shonen powers. Other characters include the honor-bound Thorgil, who will gladly sacrifice himself for glory; the boastful and pathetic Olmer, who eventually realizes his short-comings and swallows his pride; the industrious yet meek Ketil, who keeps accumulating wealth and land yet fears he will lose everything (with his scene where he's urged to discipline the thief being among the best); and finally, Sverkel, who is kind despite his sternness and values farming as a way of life rather than the materialistic thirst of Ketil. These four present different themes associated with the Nords and their pacification, with Sverkel even having Snake read bible passages to him. Snake and Sverkel also have a compelling dynamic going with one another and are present in many of the better scenes.
Gardar and Arnheid comprise an often corny time-waster arc. I find it hard to be sympathetic with how obvious it is that things won't end well and especially after Gardar killed a bunch of Snake's men. The selflessness of trying to smuggle the two to safety, as directed by Einar and Thorfinn, feels like a cuckold simulator. While I can understand slaves trying to help each other, the duo put too much on the line. If they were going to escape with the couple, that would be one thing, but they will get caught, and punishment will not only be swift, but their freedom will be curtailed or maybe even forfeited for what is a blatant pipe dream. I get it: characters fail at doing things, but there should be more believability, so the scenario seems plausible.
The whole setup seems to be there solely to reinforce "slavery bad" on top of our running theme of "war bad," so Thorfinn and Einar can throw their lives away for "the greater good" before everything turns out fine and Thorfinn can flesh out his utopian ideals faster. When the dream sequence shows Thorfinn and Einar as a deer and a wolf standing together, I laughed my ass off, as it seemed to be an admission by the author of how absurd this segment was and how preposterous Thorfinn's vision is. Nevertheless, props to the author for failing to present Snake as a fufufufu-tier villain, when he sought to uphold justice. The author tends to depict character actions without being overly judgmental, which is rare enough to be commendable.
The confrontation between Thorfinn and Canute is also laughable. "Forcibly expropriating land is bad, and you shouldn't do it! I can't oppose you, but it's really, really, really mean if you do this, so I just came to tell you that you'd better not, and then I'm going to RUN AWAY!" and Canute is like, "LOL! Alright, big guy, you win. If you got my hole covered (wink), I'll work out my daddy issues and learn to trust people." AND THEN CANUTE'S FLEET SHRUNK, AND BLAH BLAH BLAH. Honestly, I think Vinland Saga S2 is one of the finest examples of extreme pacifistic masochism from an idealistic and naive character that I've ever seen in anime. I know it's not a parody, but I've seen this kind of thing in anime throughout the years, and it's perfectly tailored with the zeitgeist of a clash between Viking warriors and pagans and Christianity to become the ultimate deadpan parody of shonen idealism. I see this as a borderline comedy, and evidently, so does Canute, who also laughs his ass off at Thorfinn, as if to say, "Your standup comedy routine is so funny that I'm just going to do whatever you want. You're the greatest court jester I've ever had."
The series is so preachy that it presents Thorfinn's method as the greatest and most noble one imaginable and that it should be generalized elsewhere when possible, irrespective of the fact that Thorfinn's circumstances were highly unique—that is, a prior connection to Canute and Thorfinn having badass shonen skills—and not applicable to almost anyone else.
The aesthetic fails to enhance the writing: it looks like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon or Viking Boondocks, so it's ugly and stiff. Occasionally, a backdrop will have more dramatic lighting, such as with easy shots like a sunset or the solemn scenes where columns of light are breaking through the clouds. Often the animation is like a PowerPoint presentation, the composition is so-so, and we have these turgid tracking shots. We don't need better combat animation or anything, but character acting can help bring a production to life, especially since the series focuses on characters and writing. It can hammer the emotion into a scene when the dialogue is not enough, and when it is enough, just the right amount of character acting enhances the scene, possibly even to greatness. When I think about which anime are the most emotional for me, most of them have freer character animation, such as Letter to Momo, Jin-Roh, Junkers Come Here, Ping Pong, or Kaiba, for example. MAPPA even managed to pack decent character acting into their recent Chainsaw Man adaptation, and I wish it could have rubbed off on Vinland Saga a little bit because, of the two, this one needed a generous budget for character animation a hell of a lot more.
When considering the subpar aesthetic, the sclerotic character acting, and Thorfinn's disgusting idealism, all we're left with are a few decent characters, a small amount of conflict and butting of ideological heads, and a few scenes of fair enough writing, spread thin across long stretches of nothing, it's hard to think of this as anything special.
