Vinland Saga Author Drew Slave Era Thorfinn After 10 Years With A New Perspective
After looking at him more closely, Makoto Yukimura feels Thorfinn wasn’t worn out from his hard labour and has been eating sufficiently.
Makoto Yukimura, the author of Vinland Saga, shared a piece of artwork of Thorfinn via his Twitter on Dec 12, 2023. What’s so special about this artwork is that he drew Thorfinn during the Slave arc while working on Ketil‘s farm in Season 2 of the anime.
Eventhough that season of the anime concluded relatively recently, the manga is already way past the slave arc back in 2013. In fact, the final chapter of the arc titled “Departure” was released on November 25, 2013.
So basically, Yukimura has drawn this version of Thorfinn after 10 years!
(Makoto Yukimura’s artwork of slave arc Thorfinn in adulthood)
In regards to the artwork, Yukimura-sensei comments that this is the first time he had drawn slave arc Thorfinn after a long time. But after looking at him more closely, he feels Thorfinn wasn’t worn out from his hard labor in working at the land and has been eating sufficiently.
“I was asked to draw Thorfinn when he was a slave. But it’s been a while since I drew him, and I don’t get the feeling that he’s worn out from the hard labour of those days. I feel refreshed. It’s as if he’s been eating something good.”
What Yukimura is essentially saying that Ketil has been treating his slaves well, unlike the other slave owners. That is until, he started beating the crap out of Arnheid…
About Vinland Saga:
Vinland Saga is a Japanese historical manga series written and illustrated by Makoto Yukimura. The series is published by Kodansha, and was first serialized in the boys-targeted manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine before moving to the monthly manga magazine Monthly Afternoon, aimed at young adult men. As of June 2023, its chapters have been collected in 27 tankōbon volumes.
Vinland Saga Season 2 premiered on January 9, 2023, in Japan, and is now available for streaming on platforms like Netflix and Crunchyroll outside of Japan.
The second season has 24 episodes, and although the animation studio responsible for its production changed from WIT to MAPPA, the team working on the anime remains the same as in Season 1.
Kodansha describes the overall plot of Vinland Saga as follows:
As a child, Thorfinn sat at the feet of the great Leif Ericson and thrilled to wild tales of a land far to the west. But his youthful fantasies were shattered by a mercenary raid. Raised by the Vikings who murdered his family, Thorfinn became a terrifying warrior, forever seeking to kill the band’s leader, Askeladd, and avenge his father.
Sustaining Thorfinn through his ordeal are his pride in his family and his dreams of a fertile westward land, a land without war or slavery… the land Leif called Vinland.
