Having just finished re-reading the last volume, I wanted to write my thoughts on the ending and the series as a whole. A lot of e-ink has been spilled on both so this is going to be more personal musings than anything. 

Ending spoilers ahead.

The last few volumes of the story bring a real challenge to Thorfinn’s pacifistic ideals. The ending was, of course, unavoidable. This is true in the historical sense in that the colony is doomed, but also in that Thorfinn’s philosophy must win out in the eyes of the reader. He is our hero and Yukimura (the author) has written this whole work around this philosophy.

There is nothing wrong with having works trying to communicate ideas or ideologies. In fact, I’d venture to say we lack works with a core central ideology in popular culture. In the realm of manga they are few and far between, mostly satisfied with telling a good story or at most espousing a general idea of how people should be nice (e.g. shounen).

I believe that most readers of Vinland Saga would say that they support Thorfinn’s ideals. When pressed, they might say that some adjustments will be required and complete pacifism is impractical. Others may say that they were completely resistant to this naive ideology from the start but are sympathetic to its objectives.

In the collapse of the Vinland colony, we see within the story a rebuttal to Thorfinn’s ideology. You cannot control everything, and not every situation can have a win-win solution. When a disease befalls the Lnu, they decide driving out the Nords is the solution. They also feel the Nords are taking their land and impinging on their way of life. Another undercurrent is the simple greed, desiring the Nords’ material goods.

How does Thorfinn respond to this aggression? With non-aggression, of course. He decides to run. For as long as there is a place to run to, he will not fight - just as he told Canute all that time ago. In this case, he is running back to where he ran from.

Thorfinn’s project has failed completely, ending in war and abandonment of the colony. However, the story tells us, his ideals have not yet failed. As told by Thorfinn’s son, one raised in a culture of peace rather than the culture of war his father grew up in, there are many things they could have done differently. That even if today they did not succeed, they owe it to themselves to keep attempting and to continue on this thousand-year journey.

A thousand years have passed since Thorfinn, but most would say that we are no closer to vanquishing violence than we were in his time (I’m not sure I’d agree but that’s a story for another time).

I have spoken to some who found this unsatisfactory, regardless of their enjoyment of the story. The story offers no solution and no real resolution. Yukimura’s previous work, “Planetes”, similarly ended after offering aphorisms to try to resolve the central idealistic conflict. 

Personally, I found this to be quite powerful. For one thing, Yukimura does not claim to have a solution to all of humankind’s problems. If he did, he wouldn’t be just a manga author. He simply raises issues and ideas, presenting them in a way that can bring out a lot of empathy and discussion (first having the story go through Thorfinn’s warring years, and the abject failure of the Vinland project).

The idea that resonated with me most is that of the last resort. That violence is a last resort is an oft-repeated idea that is rarely exercised in practice. When conflict occurs, physical violence is immediately on the shortlist of solutions. It is at least threatened if not immediately applied. 

Being patient, and attempting other solutions, slowly going down the list before reaching this “last resort” is exceedingly rare. This is, in my opinion, not only because of a brand of machismo only cosmetically different from that of the vikings’, but because it is difficult. It is difficult to do and it is difficult to sell. Other solutions may fail. They require sacrifice. If people end up hurt on “your” end because of a non-violent solution, the populace will not take it lying down. Other solutions may feel like giving up to your chosen enemy, like having them gain something over you. Choosing other solutions is hard and painful; it is not as glorious or simple as choosing violence.

As every child knows, violence begets violence. So while the road to peace requires sacrifice, it is, in the end, the only true final one. 

While situations wherein violence is absolutely necessary are not unimaginable to me, it should always stay away from the forefront of one’s mind. A long way down the list. For that to occur we can follow Thorfinn’s teachings and treat no one as our enemy. To allow ourselves to sacrifice even if we appear to lose out from it at first, at most the other will gain from it, but as they are not our enemy it is of little importance.

We will fail miserably along the way, but we must keep trying, even if it takes another thousand years.