"The First Method"| VINLAND SAGA | Season 2 Episode 18 

Snake saved Arnheid just like Arnheid saved Snake before somehow.

3:19 yes in the manga there's also this comedic tone... there is even more than that.. unfortunately the anime cut a lot of the comedic scene... like thorfinn and einar dancing happily after they clear their last tree,thorfinn blushing after einar called him "grown up baby" etc..

Happy y'all still one of the few RU-vidrs that stuck to this show. I was waiting for this episode as a manga reader. I think they nailed it and Will is spot on.

Nice guy Ketil, the moment things don't go his way the entire world is against him and everyone is a thief.

Like it was stated in part 1...(I think Wulf said it) cowardly people are unpredictable, and Ketil is one of them

One of the issues with any ideology that values life is what happens when one party is rightfully aggrieved and seeks vengeance over death. As Thorfinn points out, Snake is a principled man, and he is justified in seeking vengeance or justice for the five men that Gardar had slain. You could look at it from Gardar's point of view, that he was just trying to escape slavery, but five men are still dead. So what is Thorfinn to do in such a situation? He decides to fight with no weapon in order to not only save Gardar, but Snake's life. His position is to try to maintain the status quo of everyone still being alive and risks his own life to do it. It is a valiant effort that few would be willing to do, but it also presents its own problems - and that is that it doesn't solve the underlying issue that Snake points out. Thorfinn is looking for a solution to all the violence, and he wants to start from the point of pacifism and work from there. He is willing to put up his own life for these ideals, and this is very admirable, but the truth is that he cannot enact change on the world alone. This is in contrast to Canute, as Canute seeks change through violence (as demonstrated by his hanging the looters) and control over who does that violence. Which also presents its own problems.

Funny seeing yall laugh and snicker until shit got real 😂😂

Ketil is even worse than even his son, in my opinion. Thorgil doesnt see the slaves or even the serf children as human- even if he does, he sees them as a lesser kind of human. For him, its logical to punish them and he at least thinks he's doing the right thing. Ketil can see slaves and those weaker than him as human- he knows that they think, they feel, that their freedom is valuable, you can see this in all the ways he acts because he wants to be 'liked' by people. He knows those things are important to them, so he leads them around by using those things. Even knowing that, when it comes to time to act, he *actively* ignores these facts that he knows, that he has acknowledged, for his own benefit. I would feel way worse if someone who knew my circumstances still didnt even try to help me compared to simply being crushed by the 'system'. He *knows* that this is a morally abhorrent thing to do and still does it to assuage his fucking ego

Sverkel was right... Having a big farm and too much money brings you misfortune

Ketil is a guy who tried to be a good person and saw himself as a savior who lead people in hopeless positions in life towards salvation and then had his life collapse before his eyes and taken away. Only to come back seeking comfort and guidance from one of the people he lead to salvation only to realize that the one person he confided in was trying to abandon him when he's in the most need for people to stand with him. But he finds the opposite and the one he thought would never do such a thing was trying to abandon him. Therefore developing the mindset of I shouldn't have tried to help any of these people it all meant nothing I shouldn't care for any of them. because all they're trying to do is use and exploit me. So the only thing I can do is stop them no matter who they are I won't let any of them exploit me anymore. This series writing is incredible

The juxtaposition between this episode and episode 7 is great. Ketil is a very well written character and you can see a load of setup for this in episode 7 in particular. It shows how weak he is, even though hes in charge hes pressured into beating that kid.

Let's set our disgust, empathy and sadness aside for a second. What Ketil did to Arnheid was horrific (we can all agree on that). Now if we were to look at that from today's modern world perspective, yes it's cruel and disgusting. However if we were to look at it from the perspective of the time period Vinland Saga takes place in, it's considered normal ("normal" being slaves getting punished badly for disobeying their master). As for Ketil, throughout the entire series we've seen he treated his slaves far better then any average slave owner. He treated then with kindness and gave them the basic of necessities like food, water and shelter (which some slaves were even lucky to receive tbh). Does this make Ketil a good man? Honest answer would be no. Yes the way he treated his slaves wasn't cruel but at the end of the day, he still owns slaves who are actual people whose freedoms were taken away from them. The whole concept of slavery is to take away someone's freedom which morally is wrong no matter which time period (even if it was a common and normal thing in the societies of those days). Ketil wasn't stupid to not know this yet he still did it. That doesn't make him any better then the ones who are cruel to their slaves. Another thing would be that Ketil was a fragile man. He was mentally weak as we've seen other people including his sons step over him all the time. His "kindness" towards slaves is what made most people think he was weak including his own workers on the farm. He knew this very well. How he coped with it was through greed, selfishness and possessiveness. He kept Arnheid around not because of kindness or feeling sorry for her but because he felt sorry for himself (regarding his past with his lover) so in order to feel loved again, he kept Arnheid very close with him and even chose to have a child with her despite very well knowing it was wrong to force himself on Arnheid. He kept Thorfinn and Einar around because he very well knew they were the only ones who would listen to his orders as their master and not disobey him (plus not make fun of him due to his "kindness" unlike everyone is else). These things were his ways of trying to be superior and strong when it reality it made him weak. What made Ketil break wasn't just his incident with King Canute but all the negative things before it which pilled on top of each other and finally broke him. The last straw was Arnheid trying to escape with Gardar which broke his coping mechanism and his mind just snapped. He took all that anger out on Arnheid to cope harder on his fragile mind. This is where we saw for the very first time the real Ketil. The "kind" man facade broke here. How you may say? He said "I will not sell Arnheid as that women belongs to me" when Leif tried to buy her from him. He looked at her as his property, not as a livable human being. This is why Ketil can be considered one of the worst characters in Vinland Saga because of his fake kindness behind that mask of his. He still a human being with flaws and may not be the absolute worse but he's not that good of a man either. He was always a weak and fragile man mentally who used his greed, selfishness and possessiveness over those who didn't deserve it. At the end of the day, what he did to Arnheid was wrong 100% and his past and weak nature doesn't give him the right to do something this horrific. We can all rightfully agree on this. (Sc: Vinland Saga S2)

His lifestyle isn't what Ketil really cares. He is a coward man that feels secure having everything in control but he doesn't really enjoy anything. He didn't even started the farm... it was his father. So it was sum of both Canute's menace plus losing the girl he "thought" to love (he doesn't really love her) but pushed him over the edge. (Plus he is a slave owner in first place so his morals were questionable from the beginning)

I remember getting the biggest pit in my stomach when reading this when Ketil's wife tells him what Arnheid's been up to. They might have sensored it here but he closes his fist and states, "that bitch". I don't think a lot of people expected it.

Moral of the story: some people are nice out of strength and courage (Thors, Thorfinn), others nice are nice out of cowardice (Ketil).

Favorite word- Kusoくそ (damn!)

Horrible, horrible, horrible. Ketil is a cautionary tale to keep control of yourself even when you feel like you’re losing everything. He made a terrible decision that he should be held accountable for, violence against the weak is the worst kind of violence. Arnheid deserved better. There’s a lot of discourse about skipping Leif and Thorfinn’s reunion. The author clarified that it was to avoid tonal whiplash. I imagine they will talk more in the next episode, but Leif (being a selfless person) wants Thorfinn to see his friend Arnheid first as her life is hanging in the balance.

The reunion being somewhat nonexistent, makes sense giving what was going on with Arnheid. I would just wait till next one. It's a common criticism (somewhat fair, I just disagree). It's kind of hard to have a happy reunion when your close friend has been beaten into a coma.

10:34 sounded like Caleb just ripping @$$ 😂🤣

yeah the manga has plenty of a lot of comedic moments, some readers even complain the show doesn't have enough comedy

I almost forgot about the fact that Arnheid didn't tell ketil about the baby sooner She only said that she planned to inform him but didn't do so yet and that was during Ketil's trip to visit Canute

3:29 YES it showed in manga

i think will nailed it in the discussion, ketil really has lost it

anyone got a chub after ketilcarnheid scene?

Fun ep

Ketils squeaky voice has been hilarious at times but here it quickly turned scary.