“Vinland Saga Reaction” – Season 2 Episode 11 – The King And The Sword

Early gang

lets go

For those who are interested in reading along with the manga, this episode adapted the entirety of chapters 75-76 (the last five pages of chapter 73 and all of chapter 74 appear to be getting rearranged in when/where the anime will adapt them).

Wulf, the Captain of the Guard (also known by the Norse term “Head Thegn” in the manga) that Canute spars with, is likely based on the real-life Ulf Thorgilsson, commonly known as Ulf Jarl. Who in real-life ended up becoming Canute’s brother-in-law by way of marriage to Canute’s sister Estrid (who we see at the beginning of this episode as well).

Man I love y’all reactions and breakdowns, I think the farm will be attacked and thorfinn gonna try to be peaceful until they mess with his new bro einar then he finna knock mfs out lol but yea I don’t think he’ll be killing for a good while but the way this show go he may black on the farm lol . But I genuinely think the story is going as Thorfinn vs. Canute for the throne (especially after thorfinns statement about ending war last episode) and this is all set up for it and if that’s the case I’m really excited.

Bug-eyes name really is thorfinn he was a slave Leif found searching for our thorfinn, in his search he just found another guy who was a slave with the same description and name as thorfinn, so he decided to adopt him I suppose 😂

Make sure y’all hit the like button frfr y’all

Olmar undid the whole Iron Fist Ketil legacy in less than a minute… a haki pig would have saved him some dignity😅

Not the Haki pig 😆😂🤣

The rumor that Canute orchestrated poison and used underhanded tactics, in this fight, to win doesn't seem masculine enough for this type of audience to accept(Think of the warriors that didn't want Boji winning using dodging tactics and not fighting "straight up" bc a KING SHOULD NOT WIN that way). I assume Danish Warriors are held at a higher standard and seen even more masculine than the average man at that time, so it is hard for me to believe that most of the Danish warriors would accept this dude using feminine tactics (Poison is seen as a woman's weapon) to win.

The Canute vs Wulf scene reminded me of the "pretend" battle between King Soo-won vs Geun-Tae in the name anime, Akatsuki no Yona. Soo-won was perceived like Canute but Soo-won overtly and intentionally wanted to be seen as weaker, an airhead, feminine(He was a pretty boy), and Geun-tae was like Thors or Thorkell, someone who was renowned and feared by their battle prowess.

Geun-tae thought Soo-won was a rabbit or a squirell, a harmless, little, cute creature, but faintly sensed a danger about him due to Geun-tae's "sixth sense". The pretend battle involved a king, royal soldiers, and commoners, they placed small plates on their heads and they used sticks instead of swords and to kill someone they had to break the small plates that was placed on each combatant's head (The atmosphere was lighthearted and seen as a show for the common people and it was held in a small stadium; everybody was there bc they loved their famous and renowned leader, Geun-tae).

The rules were very interesting bc the King can kill both the opposing, royal soldiers and the opposing King but can't kill the commoners, the royal soldiers can kill both the commoners and opposing royal soldiers, but not the King, and the commoners can kill both the royal soldiers and the King.

In a nut shell, Soo-won played Geun-tae's impression of him and used that to his advantage, bc at first he ran away and acted like a coward, and as the battle continued and Geun-tae had the most bodies, he ended up by himself surrounded by Soow-won and couple of men, there was some inner-dialogue that showed Geun-tae realizing that Soo-won is a strategic genius like Shikamaru, Light, L, Armin, Lelouch and Geun-tae noticed a different and frightening aura around Soo-won as opposed to the helpless creature that he saw at the start of the battle and Geun-tae basically saw a giant, white eagle in Soo-won (Geun-tae was seen as a ferocious tiger). Also, I skipped discussing about the main battle (it was very interesting and comical), but in summary, Geun-tae slowly started to notice that every action and decision Soo-won made was extremely calculated.

Soo-won was in Geun-tae's territory so basically Soo-won was the Away Team, while Geun-tae had home-court advantage….. Soo-won didn't want to embarrased Geun-tae, so Soo-won proposed him a deal where he keeps his dignity and saves face in front of his ppl…. he asked him if he wanted to start over bc if this pretend battle was real, Geun-Tae would have lost…… then he gave a heroic speech of how leaders and great men should be and basically gave off that Stain/All Might charisma, where everybody fell in love…. Geun-tae declined Soo-won's offer to restart bc men in a real battle can't come back to life, so he immediately started rushing towards Soo-won trying fighting him 1v1 before Soo-won's men can back him up, and as Geun-tae fought him, he noticed that Soo-won had some techniques as well and that he wasn't just a strategic genius, he was also competent fighter as well, but before Soo-won made his move, he tripped and Geun-tae broke his plate and Geun-tae ended up winning and Soo-won went back to playing the helpless, airhead creature with his bubbly personality.

Soo-won's goal was to recruit Geun-tae for the war to come… Geun-tae ended up being one of Soo-won's advisers

Great reaction and discussion 👍