After following Vinland Saga as a monthly reader for more than two years now I am simply not satisfied with the numerous writing decisions which Yukimura is taking and the way the whole journey is turning towards. This will be my thread on the various criticisms I have for it.

I am content with the first two arcs of the series and rate them fairly highly. They are some of the most beautiful experiences I had back then and I cherish them to this date but my main problem lies with the Baltic Sea Expedition. Yes, I know this has been a hot topic in the-

the community for some time now and I am not alien to the conversation either but after rereading the last few chapters I thought there was a need for me to address some of the issues which have been overbearing for some time now. As a reader, I feel betrayed by how it is now.

To start off, Baltic Sea Arc is supposed to be a test for Thorfinn's ideals of non-violence and being against the ways of Vikings in the early 1000's which I think it did in a very lackluster way along with introducing characters which are either too mid or failing to complete

character arcs of characters like Floki who were just terrible. The entire redemption arc loses its weight if the execution of the testing of Thorfinn's ideals is a mixed bag of such occurrences. I will lay emphasis on the problem in a bit. Another problem which I have is with

the way Yukimura completely changed the tone of the story from a serious and brutal one as we saw in Prologue and Farmland to one with an entirely different atmosphere clouded with absolutely unfunny and out of place jokes during a fucking war while developing a character in the

most unappealing way possible, looking at you Sigurd. Not only does he appear in the background chasing after Thorfinn for stealing his bride while being kidnapped and conveniently meeting him again while even getting involved in a war he has nothing to do with but also adds

fart jokes and comedic appearances during an ongoing war during his infiltration through the well which is just something I banged my head while reading. The entire addition to him while makes him a "developed" character I guess? Doesn't really work till his conversation with his

father at home for me. That was a much more Vinland conversation than anything he did and achieved by chasing his ex-bride or when he leaves Gudrid for Thorfinn. Now, onto the next character. I feel Garm was yet another corny and low-budget character who appeared during the arc

who had no real purpose besides being a fucking meathead and acting as a cheap parallel to old Thorfinn which I think Yukimura did to show the contrast between Thorfinn's old and new self but it fails when it is done with the character having no sense of depth besides being a

ruthless killing machine. Note: Thorfinn had enough backstory for us to say otherwise while Garm doesn't. He magically transports to an entire different stronghold out of nowhere in like 2 chapters after being assigned the task, kills their leader and later chases Thorfinn while

acting all edgy and later threatening the other members of Thorfinn's crew because he wanted a battle with Thorfinn. Such a damn waste of an introduced character just so you can punch in the background of Thors and Askeladd to create the effect of a parallel at the end of the arc

The next character is Hild who is quite the embodiment of a Mary Sue who had a brilliant backstory but the writer forgot to add development to her arc even after the fucking timeskip (i guess it is showing a "bit" now?) but while she was with the crew she did nothing but shove a

bow at Thorfinn's face at every occasion. Yet another character introduced just to challenge his dedication in the cheapest way possible. She has no good interactions which I can say that I liked to suffice for her no change in behavior nor does she even do anything besides

just be another useless edition of his party. Which brings me to my next problem of lack of any contribution by any of the members of his group besides Gudrid at the very end with occasional "wow Thorfinn" moments in the arc. Her relationship with Thorfinn feels very cliche and

has a horrendous way of building throughout the arc. In the ending when she just flat out came out and confessed her feelings to him, it was a very washed out moment for one of the most important developments in the series, as she would help her in the Vinland and act as an

emotional support during the time of need as he would have nothing to lean towards but her. Now for my biggest problem ever of Vinland. I fucking despise how useless Einar is in the arc. I was and am a huge Einar fan and I am SURE he was supposed to act like a brother to Thorfinn

as a fellow mate who has gone through both war and slavery with him and even got Thorfinn out of all the depressing instances during their time at the farm. Remember the iconic Thorfinn-Einar handshake? Yeah that is one of the biggest moments for me and a big fuck you by Yukimura

to the readers for curbing his role so badly and making him completely out of place when he should be the one siding with Thorfinn at every step instead of a girl he just met and randomly fell for him, lol. Such a missed opportunity to write a great supporting character.

The whole war doesn't even feel like one and even is very very toned down compared to the other Vinland settings before when it should be at its very highest to depict the tension. But, Alas not only is the war badly placed and lacks the environment but also makes stupid jokes

to make the whole experience worse. Floki was just another "bad guy" at the end with selfish desires for his child and it feels like the entire way Vinland was written before is foreign to the one now. Hell, I enjoyed side characters like Ketil and Snaked FAR more than any new

ones. The presence of time skips in Vinland to skip character arcs at points has been for a while now and stuck with me before but the time skip for war is so unneeded and an excuse to off screen the whole group's development (which didn't even happen for some btw). I think the

timeskip could have fixed a lot of these problems to some extent but after so long and tedious war was done it became impossible for Yukimura to show Greece as he lacked the time to do it and it came at the cost of falling quality drastically throughout the whole arc.

I have more problems than I mentioned for the current arc but it feels like it would be too much for now and I would give it some time to publish (even though we are past 1/4th of the last segment and it has been the worst part of Vinland Sage till NOW).

Anyways I still have to keep hope and wish for the best. Fingers crossed I want the old Vinland Saga back ASAP.