Personally i dont mid slow paced stories, if they are written well i will like them, but something in this second season makes it feel inherently bad as a slow paced show, the fact that it's tied to an very action based aggressive background creates somewhat of a contradiction to what was shown, with greater weights on their backs, they would've needed to follow a specific path, and unfortunately several things in this season felt for me out of character, out of place, poorly explored and even distracting or time wasting. Maybe it was because of the way the first season was presented, it simply made the second season impossible to be properly adapted in a way it would've given the same feelings and emotions of spectacle as in the first one. People who liked the first one for the action and impact, gore and violence will mostly hate the sequel for this boring slow feeling that it has now.
The first great question i had from the middle to the end of this season was: What was this all about? In the first season you would have easily answered: greed, power, revenge, the price of your actions, how far would you go and what were you willing to do for what you want or believe. But what about this second season? What was this all about? slavery? love? hatred? penance? forgiveness? And even if you could say it had a bit of it all, was it even tied well to everything that was happening? Did it really made things lead up one to the other?
This story isn't about Thorfin or Canute, even if the show tries to portray them as the main protagonists, this story is about Einar, Arnheid, Ketil and all the other supporting characters. You could even at any time remove Thorfin and Canute from the equation and it would've ended with a similar plot, with similar events, and for me at least, this is a significant flaw in the story for a Vinland Saga Season 2. When the two greatest ties to everything that was previously established could so easily be removed and forgotten without changing anything on how things would happen, you have a significant problem on your story's structure
They don't even feel the same, Thorfin doesn't feel like Thorfin, nothing on his struggle makes sense to how he was previously established, i can understand him having internal conflicts because of his meaning of life being stolen from his hands and now none of his misdeeds being justified, but i don't get it how he got from that into vegetative state, and how he somehow got enlighten with his dad's words of peace at the very last most convenient moment, even less how Einar of all things was the Trigger for all that supposed returnal and progression, it alt felt unearned and forced
Canute felt worse, he did already had a very promising possible conflict, with the pre-established bases, ready to be built, would've he followed on the teachings of his adopted father and his concepts about religion, or continue the ruthless lineage of his biological family, and it all was thrown away and replaced with a generic "i will bring chaos because god is unfair", and "the power of the crown corrupts". It was made even worse because not even a single time where the crown thing was used made a single sense, he didn't had any clear reason to engrave this message so hard on his mind, from someone who never gave him any reason to do so, and somehow these generic worlds of power corrupting where what haunted him the most?
I don't even think they've chosen the right subjects to tie the events of the story well. Why is Snake, Ketil, Sverkel and friends all so underdeveloped and under explored? When they all are the ones mostly tied to the main events of the story, when they all had so much potential with their backstories and past events, it all just to be wasted and replaced by the Arnheid and Gardar's cursed lovers story, something that was simply stretched too long, to the point i could even made the assumption that their story was actually supposed to be the main story to be told, and everything else was just forced to fit along, rolled around to be named as a Vinland Saga
I don have any other problems with anything else shown in this season other than it doesn't fit what was pre-established about Vinland Saga, i would've had even less problems if it wasn't tied or made as an direct sequel to Vinland Saga. The wait it ended up, this was a disappointment for me, a very mid "sequel" to a highly praised show
