THORKELL IS A MENACE! First Time Reaction to Vinland Saga EP 1x7 & 1x8 | Tejidotcom 

By the way the carrying the boats is a real event of history, not just made up for this show. Of course they pushed the boat on the land instead of just carrying it

Finally, Knut is here! He is one of the best characters. Askeladd may seem very frivolous at first glance, but his words are very philosophical and profound.

Goosebumps every time I hear "Far to the west". This anime is so damn great and the OST just elevates the show to another level.

I like how everyone went quiet after Askeladd's little speech lol The blonde giant at the end is Thorkell, the same guy who fought alongside Thors in episode 1 Thorfinn is around 16 or 17 and he's short due to malnutrition otherwise, he would be as big as Thors

on episode 8: this one is a really important episode. first of all, from moment one, Askeladd's every action and word is like, scientifically formulated to piss Thorfinn off. the way he's behaving is so relaxed and casual, and he's talking about future plans with his crew... he is 100% not worried that Thorfinn is going to end his life today. not at all. also, note how that kid that Thorfinn bumped into as he was getting off the boat feels so similar to Ari, when we saw him back in Iceland. he's young, cocky, inexperienced, excitable, and all his friends joke about how he's gonna die if he joins Askeladd's crew. and to me, it feels like Askeladd's crew is much more dangerous to a kid like that, because they wouldn't treat his life with any gravity. Thors saved Ari from all his death flags by literally recognizing them too. Askeladd has been toting Thorfinn around since he was 6 years old, and even if he was subtly keeping him from getting killed in his younger years, it's kind of a miracle that he's alive at all. (also, that shot of Thorfinn glaring at the kid might've even been a direct visual parallel to that Jomsviking guy glaring at Ari.) and then we get this line... "it's not the slave's fault that she's useless, you're just bad at using her. you can make use of anyone with the right approach." Askeladd has always, and will always, know exactly what he's doing when it comes to Thorfinn. he's been getting him angry, on purpose, all day. he's put off their duel until after he talked finances with his uncle, to prepare for his crew's future, but he also scheduled it before dinner, which he does intend to be around to eat later. he starts the fight by trying to anecdotally talk about how young Thorfinn was when he started this, and rather than being about the fondness of "you've gotten so big since then," it feels like Askeladd is emphasizing how long it's taken Thorfinn just to get to this point. he knows Thorfinn is impatient. and then, after their little exchange, where Thorfinn knocks away Askeladd's sword, and Askeladd almost grabs him, that's when Askeladd is like "enough is enough" and goes in for the finisher. and the first step, is to pretend he doesn't even remember Thors at all. in fact, you'd almost think he was trying to gaslight Thorfinn by questioning whether he even killed Thors in the first place. Askeladd knows that Thorfinn would never accept that, and this is all just to make him angrier, but there might even be a little bit of public opinion affecting things as well. the people around them know nothing about why this is happening, and they trust Askeladd more than they even know who Thorfinn is. if Askeladd questions this detail in front of a crowd, and Thorfinn lets it slide... what version of the truth is Thorfinn allowing to go on the record? but the only reason why Askeladd can use these tactics in the first place is because he's been watching Thorfinn fight for years. Askeladd might not have expected Thorfinn to make him work as hard as he did in this fight... but Askeladd also knew he could pull out this tactic whenever he wanted. the question was more like... what would make a good show for the audience? how long does the fight really need to be, before Askeladd's had enough of it? Askeladd might've struggled against any other warrior... someone who hasn't grown and developed under his watchful eye. but Thorfinn in particular, will never win. not as long as Askeladd carries such complete knowledge of how he handles himself in battle. Askeladd is playing the long game... he's doing more to ensure that Thorfinn remains stagnant, exactly as he is, than Thorfinn is equipped to understand. and then his line at the end... "you still haven't trained enough, boy." like, he puts the fault right back on Thorfinn. he once again implies that Thorfinn hasn't tried hard enough... surely his fighting skills are the only issue. he suggests that the problem is just Thorfinn's own inadequacy, and that he needs to keep at it. Askeladd has reset the treadmill for who knows how long... Thorfinn isn't going anywhere. Askeladd knows the right approach to use with Thorfinn. and then afterward, when Hordaland drops her tray during dinner, we get to see another slave being publicly beaten by their master. and it's interesting, what Askeladd says here. "look. it's terrible. a guy who's a slave to money holds a whip, and pretends to be the master of the slave he bought with his money. he just doesn't realize it himself. everyone is a slave to something." this quote... and really, this entire episode, is something that'll be worth revisiting. I think Thors appears the way he does, and Thorfinn is even cast back into his younger appearance, because Thorfinn is still stuck the way he was back then. that's the child Thors is really speaking to. now, as much as ever, Thors still doesn't know what to say to that kid. he doesn't know how to condense and express the things he learned throughout his life, in a way that Thorfinn would understand. I see his demeanor here as him accepting that Thorfinn will have to learn the hard way... the same way Thors did. it would've been nice, if Thors could've used the knowledge he'd accumulated in his own life to benefit his son. but the warrior's path still managed to teach Thors what he needed to know. all he can do is trust the process, no matter how painful it may be. and there is still hope for this. Hordaland actually asks some pretty pivotal questions here. she asks Thorfinn if he's a slave as well, and Thorfinn says he's not. he can eat wherever he likes. but if that's true, then why is Thorfinn out here in the cold? surely this isn't entirely his preference. and in general, if Thorfinn is free... if he can go where he likes, and do what he wants, then why is he here in general, amongst people he hates? and then Thorfinn says that if he were her, he'd kill his master, and then kill anyone who came after him. but we just watched as he failed to kill Askeladd. and the truth is, until he kills Askeladd, he doesn't feel like he can leave. rather than it sounding like "freedom is accessible, all you have to do is kill him" it sounds like "freedom is inaccessible, unless he's dead." when Hordaland says she could never kill someone, Thorfinn says "then you'll be a slave for the rest of your life." as if there really isn't any other option. and really, that has been Thorfinn's philosophy with Askeladd this whole time. he thinks it's shameful to run away. everyone is a slave to something. but then that makes it especially significant that Thorfinn remembers the story of Vinland. a story that he heard his father tell to a dying slave, who tried to run. Thors couldn't have anticipated it, but those words were even more worth saying than he knew, because Thorfinn remembers them. they're just as much of a comfort to Thorfinn now... and to anyone whose life has been full of hardship. through the barrier of time, Thors told a story to his son. it's still applicable, now more than ever.

on episode 7: oh, Askeladd is _absolutely_ a manipulator, and he'll use every trick in the book. Thorfinn is much older now than when he made the initial deal with Askeladd, and in all this time, Askeladd still hasn't granted him another duel. his prompt of "accomplish something great" was open-ended, on purpose, so he could keep denying Thorfinn based purely on the implication that Thorfinn still isn't good enough to be worth the time. and it's Thorfinn's shame that really drives him. he constantly feels like he's still only a step removed from that helpless child that could only watch while his dad died. and so, he is constantly demanding to be taken seriously, constantly struggling for validation... he's measuring his progress against Askeladd's reaction to him. and Askeladd is constantly rejecting any evidence of his growth, on the grounds that Thorfinn doesn't deserve acknowledgement yet. and the constant drive to "earn it" means that Askeladd could get Thorfinn to do just about anything. "bring me a head with a helmet" is the first concrete goal that Askeladd has let Thorfinn have. it took years, but he finally set a condition in stone, and explicitly agreed to the duel as a reward. and this is not at all about whether Askeladd thinks Thorfinn can do it... the man is not taking Thorfinn seriously, even now. like, he's still pulling manipulative tactics within this framework. once they had their treasure, he acted on the assumption that Thorfinn had died, right away, and was ready to just immediately leave, with zero effort to confirm that at all. he was just that confident that Thorfinn had failed... or at least, that's what he consciously wants Thorfinn to notice. Askeladd is subtly reiterating to Thorfinn that he has no faith in his capabilities whatsoever. also, the stuff they were pouring over the fort walls was likely boiling hot oil. that was common when a fort was trying to repel invaders... I think some forts would even set their entrances into corridors, so that if an invading army was trying to bludgeon the door down with a battering ram, they could just flank the corridor and dump hot oil on them in an enclosed space. also 9:36 I'm glad you caught that! that was definitely a Thors type of move.

I'm pretty sure the time gap between young Thorfinn and now is about 10-11 years.

[SPOILERS FOR LATE SEASON 1 BELOW] also, once you know about Lydia, watching the way that Askeladd speaks about slaves in this episode is insane. Hordaland even looks exactly like a young version of Lydia, and her backstory is very similar... an upper class girl whose noble family fell to ruin after an invasion, who was then sold into slavery... it's insane the way Askeladd talks about her, given his past. Askeladd has sacrificed a lot of himself in order to live this way. including things that he probably never should've lost. and that's why it's so interesting to me that Thorfinn is the one who comforts her with the legend of a place, far to the west, across the sea. Thorfinn may be a walking contradiction, but he still has something that Askeladd lost a long time ago, and it makes up the true difference between them.

one more small observation... if you pay attention to Bjorn, there are all these subtle implications that his talents are WASTED as a berserker. he seems like one of the only men on the crew that can keep pace with the way Askeladd thinks. like, based on the way he was reading the fight between Askeladd and Thorfinn, he sees more of the strategy than most people. and I also think he's relatively chill with Thorfinn because none of this was ever anything personal to him. he's not about to apologize for kidnapping Thorfinn... it was the smart move at the time, and if he had it to do again, he probably wouldn't change his actions. but he wasn't trying to kill Thors because he hated him or anything, and it's not like he doesn't understand why Thorfinn is mad. whatever beef exists between Askeladd and Thorfinn is clearly different than the general resentment that Thorfinn holds for the rest of the crew. and I think Thorfinn could've hated Bjorn just as much if Bjorn wasn't so damn chill in comparison to Askeladd. Thorfinn hates Askeladd because the guy keeps baiting him, and antagonizing him, and acting like a scumbag. it's not that Bjorn is morally better... he's just straightforward. but I also think that's why he kind of knows that Askeladd isn't being straightforward. he can tell what's going on in the fight, and he knows how frustrated Thorfinn must be by the end. Bjorn is probably one of the more intelligent and observant people Askeladd has with him, and his main fighting style is to eat a magic mushroom and go in mindless.

this is the first time I've seen anyone propose the thought of Thorfinn becoming the leader of the group lol, he pretty clearly doesn't actually have a desire to do the things him and the rest of askeladd's men do and even when it comes to if he wants to kill the others, ultimately he still sees askeladd as the one responsible so the other men are pretty inconsequential to him tbh. All that is in thorfinn's brain is killing askeladd in an honorable way and whatever he needs to get there, that's it. He's not at a stage in his life where he's very introspective or thoughtful.

I love you guys's reactions! Could you maybe react to Bury the light? DMC Vergil

Normanni = North man/men from the north. The region of France known as Normandy got that name because part of the territory was given to a Norse warlord named Rollo, on the condition that he now had to defend it against other Norse raiders. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollo