#Chapter 207

[misquoted-ranma]

[mismatched-ideas]

I knew they'd be okay but there's was a part of me that wouldn't believe it until I saw them. And love how cute the reunion was...

Okay, I know I said I wanted characters to be affected by and talk about trauma, but I've changed my mind.

[wajjs]

random ranryo edit idk

[ms-t]

[every-usami]

[every-nikaidou]

[shinigami-mistress]

Something interesting struck me about the cover of 207.

Images of food and particularly domed lids and serving trays are certainly not uncommon. There are pictures of O!Ciel on such trays (symbolic of his soul one day being devoured) or being offered food as, for now, he is the one doing the devouring. There are also pictures of Sebastian with such trays, usually offering the food, as he often does for now, or showing it off.

Artie is doing neither. He's not under the lid or directly on the tray. He is NOT food to be devoured. He's also not offering anything or showing what is under the lid.

Him sitting on the lid is protecting the food underneath from any hungry hands.

Or he's keeping the true contents a secret.

Thoughts?

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Manga Update 252 Raw and Translation

Both came out very quickly!

Raw: https://tonarinoyj.jp/episode/2550912964824837057

Translation: https://cubari.moe/read/gist/OPM/207/1/

[tinykuroshitsujipics]

[stari-hun]

Megose pulling out her hair in front of Leonard during a casual convo:

Leonard:

Dunn: I think it’s time I tell you my tragic backstory…

Leonard who has to watch Megose:

[i-have-no-enemies]

If you hurt Gudrid I will sue for emotional damages

[cosmicjoke]

Ooookay, chapter 207 of "Vinland Saga"!

Ohh man, another amazing chapter. All of Thorfinn's worst fears realized.

But I think what stands out to me most here, and what I appreciate most, is the realism of how this situation with the Lnu is unfolding. Thorfinn's pacifism is an ideal worth striving for, always, but it's an ideal nonetheless, and we see once again how reality has an ugly way of intruding on that ideal. That pacifist ideal can't always, and often doesn't, account for other people and their warring nature.

We finally see Thorfinn forced to fight, for the first time in I don't even know how many chapters. Since well before the current arc, since before leaving for Vinland, since before returning to Iceland, even.

What I like about this is that the story once again isn't hiding from the complicated reality of war, and violence, and how sometimes, no matter how much we might wish it, or strive for it, peace and passivity isn't always an option. Sometimes we really are backed into a corner and violence is the only way out, and it isn't really a failing on our part, but just a reality of the world we live in.

Still, given Thorfinn's recent vow's never to resort to violence again, seeing how easily that vow was put to an impassable test, I wonder how that will affect his philosophy and world view from here on out. He selflessly sacrifices himself by jumping in front of Einar and Bug-Eyes to take the arrow the Lnu shot at them, and it's interesting to see how quickly his own instincts kicked in afterward, the way he so quickly took down the three pursuers with Hild's assistance. He hasn't had to kill anyone, yet, but I wonder if he'll really be able to hold to that pledge, given what's going on back at Arnheid's village.

Before I get to that though, I want to talk a little about what's happening to Thorfinn's relationship with Einar.

It seems like there's serious and potentially permanent erosion being done to their once unbreakable bond, and the tragedy of that erosion being instigated by war and violence isn't lost on me. There's the possibility that their friendship will be forever altered, and maybe even destroyed, depending on how things play out here, which is a devastating thought, given Einar is Thorfinn's first and truly best friend.

But we see something like resentment starting to bleed into Einar's regard for Thorfinn. Where before, he had understandable and reasonable disagreements with Thorfinn's approach, it being logical why he wouldn't want to just give up the land they'd cultivated and go back to Iceland, giving up on their dream on Throfinn's say-so, here, we see him start to accuse Thorfinn of acting as their master, with everyone else being his underlings. He's beginning to mistake Thorfinn's desire to protect everyone for Throfinn acting as some kind of dictator. When Thorfinn calls out to Einar, just before he and Bug-Eyes finally leave the scene, trying one last time to explain that he only wants to withdraw from Vinland to avoid war, we see Einar look back at him with what I can only describe as real anger and, yes, again, resentment. I can see this suddenly and rapidly widening rift between them spinning out of control, and it may lead somewhere truly ugly. I think that's especially a possibility when Einar and Bug-Eyes make it back to the village, and see what's going on there, that the Natives are already attacking the villagers. I wouldn't be surprised if some sort of scenario unfolds in which Einar takes up sides with the men like Ivar that want to go to war with the Natives to fight for the land, etc... If that happens, then it could mean an end to his and Thorfinn's friendship.

Again, this is really brilliantly executed, for the ways in which it demonstrates the tragedy of war and the things lost to war. Throfinn's and Einar's friendship would be a heavy loss, if it were to dissolve because of what's happening now.

So, back to what's going on in the village. This is bad. Really, REALLY bad.

First of all, poor Cordelia. I feel so bad for her. She tried to take up arms against the attacking Natives, and I'm sure some people wanted to see her open up a can of whoop-ass on them. But what actually happens is much more realistic. Cordelia might have Thorkill's size and strength, but she doesn't have any of his fighting skill. To expect her to actually put up a real fight against a bunch of experienced warriors wasn't fair. But it was absolutely horrifying to see Cordelia get shot full of arrows, and to see her start crying out for Thorfinn to save her.

I wonder if Cordelia is going to be the first real casualty of this war, meaning if she's the first character we've grown attached to who's going to actually die. And if that does happen, I wonder further still what that's going to do to Throfinn, and how he'll react.

He's determined right now not to kill anybody, still grasping to the hope that he can get away with simply injuring their attackers. But if he makes it back to the village and sees his own people have been slaughtered, will he be able to maintain that stance? Especially if anyone he's close to ends up dying?

It would only be natural for Thorfinn to relinquish his vow to not kill in that scenario. But no doubt it would come at a great, personal cost to him too.

"Vinland Saga" has definitely found its mojo again, and I think this entire arc has been the best since probably before Thorfinn and co. returned to Iceland the second time. I'm both extremely excited and extremely nervous about how things are going to go from here. Things aren't good. War's already broken out, so there's no avoiding the violence and loss that comes with it, only stemming the tide of it, if possible.

Bravo all around. I just adore this series.

[dailyvinland-sagapanels]

[every-usami]

[sebadztian]

Read chapter 207

SPOILER ALERT

I'm so torn right now...

I don't believe that Snake is gone. I don't believe it.

But now that Finny has left him, I don't want Snake to wake up to find that his boyfriend has left him to die 😭

And no, I do not want him to return as a BD. I would rather he died as a good man than coming back as a zombie. But with Doll there and more staff coming, I've a feeling that this won't be the last that we see of Snake. The reunion would be painful.

Now, let's talk about Artie, a.k.a. the lovechild of Sebastian Michaelis & William Moriarty. Like I said in my previous post, he must've killed before and since he and Theo have apparently known each other even before F. O. L., I assume that they both were streetkids who were forced to fend for themselves. Like Mey-Rin before she joined o!Ciel.

His words about knowing when adults are about to kill make me think that he's been abused before, by a parental figure, whom he then killed.

Oh, dear god... What if we'll be getting flashbacks about the children instead of Snake or Finny?? 😨

This arc turns out to be more intense & creepier compared to Mey's & Bard's. Finny is no stranger to death and destruction, but this one hits especially harder. He has always believed that he can protect the people whom he cares about (the Phantomfam) with his strength, but now, Snake is dying right in front of him and there's nothing that he can do to save him.

[kelolololol]

NOOOOO YUKIMURA YOU CANT INTRODUCE A QUERR CHARACTER AND KWORD HER FORTY CHAPTERS LATER NAWWWWWWWW