Netflix's 2-Season Historical Masterpiece Is Everything Vikings Should Have Been

Published Oct 2, 2026, 6:30 PM EDT Umair is a contributor for the ScreenRant anime section. He has always been enthusiastic about pop culture. Whether it's anime, movies, TV shows, manga, manhwa, video games, or pop music, he is always tuned in. From the classic Dragon Ball to the underrated Dororo, he has a broad knowledge of the most. When he's not writing, you may find him editing on his favorite anime, movie, or pop star on his Instagram. For its first four seasons, Vikings remained an absolute powerhouse in historical television. Travis Fimmel's Ragnar Lothbrok gave the show a character who could carry an entire series on his back, and watching him go from a curious farmer dreaming about sailing west to one of the most feared Vikings alive was half the fun. His death in the snake pit should have been a huge turning point, but Vikings never quite found the same rhythm afterward. Ragnar's sons had plenty of stories to tell, yet the series kept getting bigger when what made it special in the first place was how personal everything felt. That is exactly where Netflix's currently licensed 2-season series excels. Also built around Vikings, war, revenge, and the search for a better life, Vinland Saga takes the kind of character loss that changed Vikings and makes it the foundation of its entire story. Thorfinn watches his father, Thors, get murdered and spends years chasing the man responsible, turning himself into a weapon along the way. But Vinland Saga isn't interested in keeping him angry forever. The two-season story gradually tears down everything Thorfinn thinks he wants and forces him to figure out what kind of person he actually wants to become. There are plenty of brutal battles, but the real fight is happening inside Thorfinn, and that is where Vinland Saga becomes something much bigger than another Viking war story. Vinland Saga Gives Viking Warfare The Emotional Weight That Vikings Lost Along The Way The similarities between Vikings and Vinland Saga become obvious almost immediately. Both stories begin with a legendary warrior who has grown tired of the endless killing that comes with Viking life. But where Ragnar keeps getting pulled back toward war, Thors has already made his escape. Once one of the strongest Jomsvikings alive, he fakes his death and settles in Iceland, choosing a quiet life with his family. However, that peace doesn't last long. His former commander tracks him down and hires the cunning mercenary Askeladd to assassinate him. Thors knows exactly what is coming and makes the only choice he can to keep his son and crew alive. Young Thorfinn watches his father die, but he doesn't understand Thors' final lesson yet: “You have no enemies.” Instead, revenge takes over his life. He ends up joining Askeladd's band, the very men responsible for his father's death, and spends years fighting alongside the man he wants to kill. That setup alone would make for a great revenge story, but Vinland Saga does something much smarter with it. Season 1 gives Thorfinn plenty of brutal Viking action, yet the violence never feels like the point. Every battle pushes him further away from the person his father wanted him to become. Then season 2 changes the pace completely. Thorfinn is forced to face the life he has created for himself, and the story becomes less about winning battles and more about figuring out what kind of man he wants to be. That's where Vinland Saga does something Vikings often struggled with later on: the violence actually means something. The wars, deaths, and victories leave scars, and the characters have to live with them. Vikings Died With Ragnar, But Vinland Saga Never Needed Non-Stop War To Stay Great Vikings didn't age well as a series, as it eventually lost some of what made its story so special. Ragnar could be chasing England one week and questioning everything about his life the next. His relationship with Athelstan, his obsession with exploring the world, and even his strange relationship with farming gave the character far more going on than simply being a great warrior. After Ragnar was gone, Vikings still had Bjorn, Ivar, Ubbe, and Hvitserk, but the show kept reaching for bigger conflicts instead of finding another character journey with that same pull. Vinland Saga takes that same Viking setting and goes much further with it. The violence isn't there just to make the next battle look cool. Thorfinn has to live with everything he has done, and the story gives that weight. When the fighting slows down, the anime doesn't panic and throw another army at him. It gives the characters room to change. That's the version of a Viking story that Vikings could have kept telling. Not just who conquered what or which son was the strongest, but what all those battles actually left behind. Vinland Saga understands that part better than almost anything in the genre. Release Date 2019 - 2023 Network Netflix Vinland Saga is an adaptation of the historical-action manga series by Makoto Yukimura. Centering around young Thorfinn, the story sees the young man on a quest for revenge following the murder of his father by the mercenary Askeladd. To accomplish this feat, Thorfinn joins Askeladd's company to bide his time and prepare to face him in the future. The story starts around 1002 AD and revolves around fictional accounts of the Danish invasion of London.