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Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 17: "The Road Home"

Amazing story..., I'm speechless right now, wow!

This and episode 9 were the best of this season so far, the character development and build up to this was so damn perfect.

I thought this episode will all be about Thorfinn and Snake fighting, but it was so much more than that...

And don't get me wrong, I love that fight, the animation and choreography of this fight was so well made. Thank you creators and Mappa!

But the most important thread in this episode was Gardar and Arnheid story..., they are amazing characters that reflect the trauma and loss of a loved one due to war.

Gardar was a great man, a great husband and great father who wanted to protect his family, and Arnheid in the end of the episode just lost everything, really heartbreaking. Such tragic characters.

The music, the directing, the atmosphere was once again magnificent. Vinland saga is cinema.

This episode left me physically sobbing. It was just so emotional.

Recent episodes have just banged, and this sub-arc of the show has been great, from start to finish.

I really could not say that Thorfinn is the main character of Vinland anymore. No one is the main character, we just see the story around where Thorfinn goes and is at that moment in the story. He's really interesting, yes, but episodes like this show he's just one of the infinite things that makes this show good.

I'm not one to usually cry at films or tv shows: this however left me physically sobbing my eyes out. Hell I even sat through the outro, which I never do, just to contemplate the whole thing.

I don't care if this episode was predictable, it's not about that, it's about how Vinland builds things that can make you sob your eyes out this badly.

Overall, a top 3 episode in the show. A top 40 in anime for sure. You need to watch this season, because it may differ from S1 but everything is still equally beautiful.

I can't believe how incredible that episode was! It had everything I could have possibly wanted, from an intense fight to unexpected plot twists and emotional moments that really pulled at my heartstrings. Thorfin and Snake are both such powerful and intriguing characters, and seeing them go head-to-head in battle was a true spectacle. The way the episode ended was just perfect, leaving me feeling completely satisfied and eagerly anticipating the next one. Vinland Saga has truly exceeded all of my expectations and I'm in awe of how well-crafted and impactful it is. The last episode of the first season made it one of the most solid shows I've ever seen, now with this one.. It's definitely my favorite anime of all times.

This season has been in a different level. Even though it started with a hype about thorfin but later half has changed the whole mood. I really wish I could see all the remaining episodes and seasons in one go. What a storytelling masterpiece this is!!

I have been getting tired of some of the anime's and I'm kind of new to this, but this has been a breath of fresh air. I hope this gets a much wider audience. This ought to be in top with many other main stream animes with more promotions. Hope they continue and start the next season soon. I don't write reviews but this episode really made to do this!!

What this show excels at is finding the humanity within its characters and displacing it in the face of inhuman situations. Gardar's story is very much about a man who, in trying to reclaim his life, sacrifices his humanity. He doesn't care who or what gets in his way, even death would fail to stop him. It's a very harrowing story that showcases a lot of what people do in objectifying others - at the end of the day everyone is a human being and can only be so flexible. Gardar, who had lost everything and was flagellated into being a submissive slave, had been carved away at psychologically to the point where his ego had imploded, and, in the face of years of both being denied the things that made him human and overwhelming oppression, lost his sensibility. Ultimately, this is grounds for his psychological inflection point where, even as a subservient slave who would reel at the thought of doing wrong, the fleeting thought of "what-if" passed through his mind and, being as dehumanized as he was, acted on impulse that this was his moment to reclaim everything.

Unfortunately for Gardar, the one thing slave owners love more than slaves is paying other people to make sure their slaves stay enslaved, so when these peoples' proverbial money faucet shuts off, it is no question that they will hunt down the man who turned it off to the ends of the earth. Also unfortunately for Gardar, the person at the other side of this relenting is being watched over by an equally dehumanized man, but also a man who has gained something to protect over the years.

The collision of these two forces, and those caught in their wake was a great conclusion to an already fascinating story, but the fallout was highlight. Arnheid, who had also lost everything, was treated more or less well as a slave, and could not comprehend the depths to which Gardar had sunk, tried to reason with him only to catalyze the collision. Unfortunately for her, Gardar was dead the moment he retaliated and had sacrificed his humanity in the process. However, her actions were not entirely futile as ultimately she and Gardar were able to find closure in their loss. However, that closure came with some of the most heartbreaking moments of the series to date.

What is equally notable, however, is that this sequence of events directly coincides with Ketil and Canute's affair, and the sudden loss and the shock and awe of this botched escape attempt will have dire consequences for the readiness of the farm when Canute unleashes his forces to requisition Ketil's farm. In that sense, this "calm" before the storm was more like a tornado before a hurricane. While the destruction may have been great, it was relatively isolated and of a relatively contained scale, Canute's arrival will bring with it the true calamity this season has been building toward. A truly profound setup that incidentally has both Einar and Thorfinn taking the reigns of their destiny in a major way. Where they end up within the greater ensuing chaos will be a spectacular, I'm sure, but this encounter has already made the journey extremely satisfying and poignant. I am very much looking forward to what comes next. 9.5/10.