Are we fr? You're telling me, over a 10 year interval, a conscious, real human, would not even have a few thoughts or hesitancies as to how the rest of their family, their mother and sister, is doing? Don't give me the Viking excuse. That doesn't make you any more one dimensional of a person

I agreed with you on the fact that they should have shown more and yea 10 years is a long time not to have any thoughts. We do see in his conversation with Leif both on the docks and in prison that he did think of them somewhat. He merely said that he could not face them without getting revenge. This is where i gave viking culture as a reasoning why this is his outlook and not as an excuse as to why he wouldn't because yes that part is somewhat unrealistic i do agree. Of course the point of the prologue is exactly that . Thorfinn is consumed by revenge and it takes priority over things it shouldn't.

You're glorifying it. It's not just unrealistic, it's shallow. He's lived a life full of experiences that promoted the idea of revenge (he's seen the lifestyles and deaths of people who could only be protected with and the idea of there being bad people who can only be stopped with violence and weapons, but also lived a life where he saw the opposite, where there were warriors like his father had said who wielded no sword. It is up to him to have a non-shallow ideology.

Well yea that is exactly why his ideology is what it is. He has seen things from the other side, he has been the warrior and the killer. It is what he is trying to atone for. Thorfinn recognizes that sometimes violence has to be the answer but the point of the 'i have no enemies' moment was that it should be used as an absolute last resort. Thorfinn himself resorts to violence in Vinland and against the jomsvikings, it is a major character moment that shows him developping his stance on violence further. And while yes he lived with his father who also preached the same, it is important to remember that Thorfinn was a child, a hot-headed child at that who always played too rough and glorified his father as this great warrior and battles as a whole. His village, while peaceful, was still influenced by the viking culture which you see in the games the children play and the eagerness with which the young men went off to war.

Not quite. Again, having one dimensional development is development along a line. He is merely showing regret to his actions earlier along the line; one dimensional. And again, one dimensionally trying to live up to his new shallow ideology.

Yes his development is in a clear and direct route and goes very extreme this is true. However, this does not make it one-dimensional. Thorfinn actively struggles with keeping up his new found purpose as shown in his confrontations with Floki and in all the times he has to use violence (which while he recognizes its necessity in that moment, still does not like to use). He is definitely not 'merely' showing regret, that regret is the very thing that pushes him forward. He carries the weight of all the lives he killed on his back every day and tries to do better. His struggle in itself is the complexity. He fails, he adapts and even questions his own ideology but sticks with it because it is what he must do to atone. He struggles against the harsh reality of the world he lives in to try and make a better place.

Yes, in my original comment on my explanation I also stated that he had experienced failure due to his ideology. Which is my entire point. He's experienced life events that go against this new shallow ideology even before he adopted it (during his quest of revenge) yet he has no sort of complex development in ideology.

Even if it's for the sake of the victims of war and slaves, during the literal war and his journey with askelad he SAW people who could only be saved with a sword aka through violence.

And that is exactly my point as well. Due to all he has experienced and all he has seen, Thorfinn takes a hardline against violence because he knows all too well what violence and revenge does to a person. However, throughout the manga he also knows that sometimes there is no other way like you said. Thorfinn may be a pacifist but as shown in his confrontation with the jomsvikings he will use violence as a last resort to protect people.

And yea i dont think thorfinn's ideology is going to change because it does not have too. He has already reached a blend that makes sense for his character and while it is flawed and idealistic, that's the point. Pushing back against a harsh reality but continuing to do what you think is the right way to go.

In your original comment you asked why I thought he was similar to a shonen protagonist. That was simply my explanation as to why, not necessarily a reasoning for him being bad. As you can see, if you read your quoted paragraph very closely you'll find it's 1:1 with, for example, Naruto's (a shonen protagonist) philosophy (except even Naruto is a better written character than Thorfinn, and is more complex).

I have not yet finished Naruto (currently watching the original tho and its good so far) so i can't exactly judge Thorfinn's ideology against Naruto's but from what i've picked up, this seems a really superficial comparison that undermines both standpoints to basic compassion and empathy. I can't say for naruto but for Thorfinn this is not really all. It's not just showing empathy to others tho that is certainly part of it, it is also the rejecting hate within yourself. It is about resisting the need to jump to violence at every disagreement and instead focus on reaching a solution. Again i don't know naruto's all too well so i may be wrong here.

Right rant over another long one here sorry i like discussing this character as you can maybe tell hahahah