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Violence is a physical force used to hurt or kill other people, and that’s, by default, seen as immoral. It isn’t a specific ideology. It’s a tool that everyone can use, with fists, swords, or guns. But its perception can be mixed in media, especially regarding heroes that usually solve problems through violence. For one, when we say violence is wrong, we typically refer to violence being used against innocent people. It’s effortless to write a story about that.
But innocent people can use violence to defend themselves. And that’s justified, right? But what if an innocent person hurts someone who wronged them for the sake of it? This story deals with when violence feels good because the target has hurt someone. And yet, still, it opposes harming other people. No matter what.
When revenge hurts innocent people
This moral lesson is the most obvious one in the story because this is Thorfinn’s entire character. Askeladd used a powerless child to force his father into a duel with rules that Askeladd violated.
Thorfinn went through such extreme trauma that he dedicated his entire life to getting revenge. It was all he ever thought of, repeating the same event in his head and acting like a broken record. He refused Leif’s offer to return home to his family, who were still alive and had to grieve two members, to avenge his already dead father, who would’ve hated what he was doing. Thorfinn followed everything Askeladd said, not realizing Askeladd was playing him like a fiddle. He didn’t even care about his own father’s words.
But the worst part is he dragged other people into this cycle of hatred and revenge.
An older woman took in Thorfinn, cared for him, and saw him as a child even though he’d killed the defenders of her home. And she was implied to have indirectly died because of Thorfinn. Even if he tried to convince himself that he didn’t care, he remembered her face but kept killing. He murdered Hild’s father and mocked her for being weak, even though Askeladd did the same for him.
Does Askeladd deserve to be killed? If we agree to “an eye for an eye,” yes. But what if this anger doesn’t just direct itself to Askeladd? Would Thorfinn destroy innocent people for the chance to feel good about killing someone who hurt him? Will he repeat the cycle of revenge when his victims do the same thing to him?
When revenge solves nothing
The farmhands were cruel. They destroyed the fields of enslaved people trying to earn their freedom, ones that they worked so hard to make. This action didn’t benefit them, nor had Einar or Thorfinn wronged them. Thorfinn’s punch was satisfying because it was against a bunch of assholes who “had it coming to them.”
But revenge is not a moral act. Revenge is the act of hurting someone for a moment of satisfaction, causing more pain to the other person than fixing what happened. Fighting the farmhands wouldn’t repel them from further abuse. Thorfinn was the one who used violence first. Thorfinn and Einar were enslaved, so they would’ve likely been punished if Pater wasn’t there. Besides, Thorfinn didn’t have a right to take revenge when Thorfinn had committed far graver atrocities. In our perspective, Thorfinn may be the main character we’re rooting a redemption arc for, but to others, he’s a pillaging, murdering, vile piece of shit. If the farmhands were already awful, then Thorfinn deserves far worse.
The story used that moment to condemn violence. That moment was a relapse of Thorfinn’s desire for revenge that dragged him to examine his mental psyche and remind him of the people he’d hurt in pursuit of that goal. This fight led to Thorfinn’s vow never to hurt anyone again.
What solved the situation wasn’t violence. It was Pater examining the fields, finding clues that could point to the culprit, and getting justice for the awful actions committed against Thorfinn and Einar.
When revenge is directed at someone who’s changed
Hild is an essential character for the themes of Vinland Saga. Many people would call her a carbon copy of young Thorfinn. I say this with my whole heart. Absolutely not. They have their similarities. That’s the point, after all. But their fundamental difference is the person they were waging vengeance against is still alive and trading.
Thorfinn killed her innocent father right in front of her eyes. Someone innocent, who’s supported her for her entire life, was murdered by a young raider. But later, she meets him as a changed person.
People around her tell her to give up her vengeance, to forgive. How could she possibly forgive him?
But Thorfinn was sold into slavery, confronted his past, took a hundred hits for the unlikely chance to negotiate peace on Ketil’s farm, saved Ketil’s family, prevented Einar from taking revenge, raised money to build a colony where people tired of war can run to, took in an infant and a dog without a home because of war, and broke the cycle of vengeance by snapping a sword that he could’ve used to kill the man who ordered his father’s death.
It can’t be that simple, just forgiving someone who killed so many people. He caused so much harm and can never bring back all the happiness he took. All for the chance to make himself feel good for killing the same person he followed into the battlefield. He feels awful about it. So what? He can’t bring her family back. He’s helping other people now. So? He didn’t help all those innocent civilians who died because of his actions. He’s a father now. So? He’s killed hundreds of other fathers like hers.
But what else is Thorfinn supposed to do? He’s suffered. He’s trying to atone for his sins and move forward despite that.
It takes time, empathy, and understanding, which is so hard to give to someone who hurt her so badly. But in the end, it’s just that simple. Even if it’s not satisfying or doesn’t go with what her anger wants her to do. Forgive.
Conclusion
Condemning revenge isn’t about whether the person deserves it; it’s learning to grow out of it. Vinland Saga is an incredibly empathetic story that understands every side of why violence happens. It makes every character understandable in their anger. But it is so emotionally mature when it deals with what we’d consider morally awful people. It takes a lot of balls to write an anti-revenge story that condemns it, no matter how satisfied the reader/viewer feels when we get it. And it’s so hopeful with its message for moving forward and dealing with redemption. Even when most people consider Thorfinn’s actions unforgivable, people change.
Final Message from the Author
I don't think anyone here has killed a hundred people and indirectly led to a thousand other deaths in war-torn England to avenge their former Viking father. But everyone, and I mean everyone here, has done shitty things that have hurt other people. We all wish we could take them back. That's who Vinland Saga is for. Here's what I'm going to say.
No matter who you are or what you've done, as long as you're alive and as long as there are people in this world, you will always find opportunities to be kind.