Vinland Saga Chapter 218 Discussion

YES! He deserves it ...

@UaEfAlCoN83 wut lol einar killed one but thorfinn killed hundreds

@deg It is not about how many ...

Thorfinn was very young and he "repented" and changed
He moved to Vinland to create a peaceful land and he kept telling others how killing is wrong.

Einar followed his desires and didn't weigh things right just because he idolized his lover and named the village after her. He became very emotional despite being an adult and forgot the main purpose of the village. He didn't want a truce not until he killed a person ...

He had a choice but he kept bitching about not having a choice ...

@UaEfAlCoN83 there is a reason mass murder has higher punishment than a simple murder the law does not agree with you

@deg I don't care about law ... I just said he deserves it

I didn't even bring up Thorfinn to begin with you mentioned him so I told you the difference ...

Also law is established by humans ... there are many BS laws and many laws changed over the past 500 years. And different countries have different set of laws.

Mass murder mostly now is punished with jail when I believe murder is supposed to be punished with murder whether you killed 1 or 4000.

So you cannot enforce your opinion with the "law" argument because it is a human thing that changes. Humans only agreed that killing is bad.

My opinion is not solely based on "he murdered a guy so he deserves it" ... the Lnu started it so this is the price to pay. I am talking about his entire attitude as soon as the conflict started.

He reaped what he sowed.

It is funny that you immediately thought I meant Einar ... maybe I was talking about Styrk. So you probably agree with me deep inside you (;

The gist of it I believe all of them deserve what they got: Einar, Styrk, and Ivar.

They all played an important role in this conflict: Styrk was a sly; Ivar was arrogant and rebellious and made things worse by brining the sword and attacking the elder; Einar -- who is supposed to be one of the leaders of the village -- was hasty and selfish because he valued his "hardwork" and the village named after his idolized lover over the safety of people when they didn't even have weapons! And then after killing he kept seeking for an excuse by saying "tell me I had no choice tell me I was right?" instead of admitting his mistake like Thorfinn dead.

It is not about killing for me ...

You can believe otherwise it is fine in the end right and wrong cannot be declared by humans alone because they ban what is "right" when it is against them and allow what is "wrong" when it benefits them.

will einar really die? damn hope not

@deg I don't see him surviving this, the amount of blood he lost in what seems to be a few seconds and the way he strugled to speek... This is the end for Einar...

@UaEfAlCoN83 youre tripping

it's easy for us as the reader to criticise einars actions, but those actions are a product of war. What else could he do, die?

war induces fear in people. if you were in his situation, you'd be just as skeptical about the validity of thorfinns peaceful approach.
not everyone is like thorfinn. in fact, NOBODY is like thorfinn in the story. if there was a way to always deal with conflict in a pacifist manner, we'd see it in our world today, but we don't.

einar and styrk didn't choose violence out of bloodthirst, they saw it as the only way they could survive. Styrk couldn't envision a future for the Nords if they gave up there and then. That isn't because he's a horrible person, it's a product of his situation.

Thorfinn is great, but the only reason he can even take the approach he does is because he's strong. If he hadn't used force against garm, or snake, or the characters he dueled after his changed outlook, the Vinland expedition wouldn't even have existed.

Einar realised his mistakes, and they probably weigh more on him than that stab wound ever will, so if you're unwilling to forgive him for his actions, you should be unwilling to forgive Thorfinn too.

@UaEfAlCoN83 "Murder should be punished with murder" What world are you living in? The world does not function according to Hammurabi's code anymore. Your logic defends Thorfinn, since 'he was sincere', however Einar never got the chance to 'be sincere' an yet you say he deserved it?

This chapter is Einar's redemption. The author, with this, wants to say that everyone can be overwhelmed by emotion and choose war over peace: war is deeply rooted in human nature.

In the end, Einar felt the weight of the war when he finally killed a man, that was his moment of revelation.

With this chapter, Einar understood what Throfinn's always said and felt, acknowledging he was a "true warrior". After this moment of realization, Einar chose peace following Thorfinn's teachments.

Before dying, he completed his redemption by saving another man's life (an enemy) to prove that his nature was changed to the one of a "true warrior".