A mega thread on Askeladd from the #anime #vinlandsaga on his complex humanity and genius writing 🔥
Part 1/2:
Part 1/2:
After watching Vinland Saga it’s clear as day that Askeladd is one of animanga’s greatest characters and perhaps one of the best in fiction, he is not the antagonist, an anti-hero, or the protagonist, instead he is comparable to the undefinable grey morality of Jaime Lannister
Intro:
Askeladd is a cunning intellectual with a trained suffocating air of disarming ignorance and idiocy, and god like charisma, a master swordsman who carves hordes of people up like an art form, he is inevitable, and his mysterious past is the key to changing history and >
Askeladd is a cunning intellectual with a trained suffocating air of disarming ignorance and idiocy, and god like charisma, a master swordsman who carves hordes of people up like an art form, he is inevitable, and his mysterious past is the key to changing history and >
< saving a country from the hellish flames of war
Early life: Askeladd grew up in poverty caring for his ill mother, who was one of many slave girls his warrior father had kids with and abandoned, his mother told him the story of a man named Artorious repeatedly until it was >
Early life: Askeladd grew up in poverty caring for his ill mother, who was one of many slave girls his warrior father had kids with and abandoned, his mother told him the story of a man named Artorious repeatedly until it was >
< burned into his head, an old hero who once won hundreds of battles for his people and retired to the warless peaceful Eden known as Vinland, to one day return and free their ppl from war, slavery, and death once more
He witnessed his mother go insane and cry tears of joy to >
He witnessed his mother go insane and cry tears of joy to >
< his father, believing him to be Artorious, and saved her life when his father was about to execute her, he picked up a sword and swung instinctively: it felt natural in his hands
His father, impressed, invited him to train under him with his other favoured sons as a warrior
His father, impressed, invited him to train under him with his other favoured sons as a warrior
He bit his tongue for two years, befriending his brothers and earning the respect of them and his father (“I always showed them respect”) until he killed his father in his sleep with his brother’s sword and framed him, avenging his mother and gaining his fathers house and land
-Spoilers-
Thorfinn Child timeline:
We first meet Askeladd when he’s contracted to kill Thorfinn’s dad Thors, by Floki, the leader of the Jomsvikings who Thors once captained until, worn out, he deserted and faked his own death to live a family life with his wife and daughter
Thorfinn Child timeline:
We first meet Askeladd when he’s contracted to kill Thorfinn’s dad Thors, by Floki, the leader of the Jomsvikings who Thors once captained until, worn out, he deserted and faked his own death to live a family life with his wife and daughter
Floki lies that the king wants Thors dead because honour and the codes of war are hard coded into him with no exception, and so he wants Thors dead personally, Askeladd sees through this but takes the job anyway and acts like an idiot to trick Floki and haggle more money out of >
< him
He observes patiently, smirking, as Thors drops his sword and beats his whole crew bare handed, Thors challenges him to a duel and he agrees upon his honour if he loses he’ll let everyone go, Askeladd fights cleverly cutting the sail of the ship to hide his sneak attack >
He observes patiently, smirking, as Thors drops his sword and beats his whole crew bare handed, Thors challenges him to a duel and he agrees upon his honour if he loses he’ll let everyone go, Askeladd fights cleverly cutting the sail of the ship to hide his sneak attack >
< as he slides underneath it, Thors gets his first cut, Askeladd is a master swordsman; Thors has to use a sword to fight him, he disarms him and Askeladd says “you’re a perfect warrior”, Thors then says “I haven’t mastered it, a true warrior doesn’t need a sword”, Askeladd >
< is stunned, Thors trades his life for his sons’ and his crews’ and Askeladd commands his archers to kill him, Askeladd shows melancholy and anger when one of Thors’ crew wastes it and attacks him, saying “Thors was more of a man than all of you will ever be” after disarming him
This is the first time something more than killing, pillaging, and war, is betrayed about Askeladd’s character by his juxtaposition to the Danes he commands (he leads one of the most prolific Viking bands ever), his deeper more authentic human feelings and purpose, and a more >
< philosophical view on life that will gradually unravel to us
Thorfinn stowaways on Askeladd’s ship seeking revenge, and once on land, after following the fire and death caused by Askeladd’s men’s pillaging, he finds Askeladd asleep, he could slit his throat but doesn’t as >
Thorfinn stowaways on Askeladd’s ship seeking revenge, and once on land, after following the fire and death caused by Askeladd’s men’s pillaging, he finds Askeladd asleep, he could slit his throat but doesn’t as >
< he believes in honour like his father and wants to avenge him in a duel, Askeladd was awake and unbothered if he were to die, telling Thorfinn “you should’ve just slit my throat” the next morning before he beats him in the duel, showing his apathy and lack of care of life and >
< his animalistic senses, ever on edge, sensing danger (a huge contradiction)
Askeladd then, over many years, raises Thorfinn like a son in a sense, the only way he knew how, through tough love and violence, they repeatedly duel and Thorfinn never wins, Askeladd grows >
Askeladd then, over many years, raises Thorfinn like a son in a sense, the only way he knew how, through tough love and violence, they repeatedly duel and Thorfinn never wins, Askeladd grows >
< from manipulating Thorfinn into performing increasingly more suicidal scout missions and war tasks with the promise of a duel, to more and more disappointed that Thorfinn never changes and always loses, going for the neck ineptly, like a wolf with “no thoughts about the future”
Askeladd is bored of violence, war, and murder, and he sees Thorfinn as just another child robbed of a “beautiful” world trapped in that cycle, succumbed to blood lust and revenge, and from his ageing view he is disappointed as a surrogate father, hoping Thorfinn will kill him >
< some day (“I’m getting old… you never change”)
Present Timeline: He sees his killing of the innocent villagers he robs food from in England on his path to fulfil a ‘Grand Dream’ as merciful, he isn’t a sociopath, he’s distant and alone, and living with a heavy, burdening >
Present Timeline: He sees his killing of the innocent villagers he robs food from in England on his path to fulfil a ‘Grand Dream’ as merciful, he isn’t a sociopath, he’s distant and alone, and living with a heavy, burdening >
< secret in his shadow
It’s war; if he’s a monster then so is everyone else fighting and doing the same thing just to live and have food to eat
He tells Thorfinn, on a hill away from everyone else, about the Roman’s, a beautiful civilisation that were more advanced >
It’s war; if he’s a monster then so is everyone else fighting and doing the same thing just to live and have food to eat
He tells Thorfinn, on a hill away from everyone else, about the Roman’s, a beautiful civilisation that were more advanced >
< than the Vikings, and how the cycle of war and conquering built the Roman Empire, then the Saxons destroyed it, and now, they’re destroying the Saxons, as a sunrise blinds up ahead, he says “we’re in the twilight of humanity, isn’t it ironic? The end of the world at dawn…
… Ragnarok, Judgement Day, whatever you call it, it’s in 20 years”
This sets about the reveal of his Grand Dream and his call to change from despicable but all too human villain into a tragic Grecian hero, Artorious from his mother’s stories was a prolific Roman soldier, and >
This sets about the reveal of his Grand Dream and his call to change from despicable but all too human villain into a tragic Grecian hero, Artorious from his mother’s stories was a prolific Roman soldier, and >
< Askeladd is the the last descendant of his line and the Roman Empire’s rulers of Britannia, true heir to all England and Wales, as his mother was Roman and not Danish
He politically manoeuvres the infighting of the Danish court by locating the underdog of the succession >
He politically manoeuvres the infighting of the Danish court by locating the underdog of the succession >
< prince Canute and killing his protector to force him to grow into a stronger man as he was a meek, guarded, feminine person uninterested in war and violence (much like himself), Askeladd claims he knows who any man really is once he sees their face, and after seeing Canute’s >
< face he sides with him instead of Harald, the likely winner
End of Part 1.
Part 2 will explore the rest of Askeladd’s life as he develops further into a ‘good’ man and politically dances through the Danish court in a web of deceit, assassination attempts and opposing views
End of Part 1.
Part 2 will explore the rest of Askeladd’s life as he develops further into a ‘good’ man and politically dances through the Danish court in a web of deceit, assassination attempts and opposing views
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