Canute

One of the main characters in Vinland Saga Seasons 1 and 2.

As I mentioned in the Askeladd character analysis, Vinland Saga should be on your watch list if it isn't already. This is the second account (perhaps the weakest, which isn't saying much) of mind-blowing character writing. Once again I will refrain from diving into story praise and details as much as possible because that is forthcoming in a few weeks. Once again, this analysis wouldn't be true to its purpose if I didn't provide examples and discuss story events. Therefore, it will be rife with spoilers so if you wish to avoid them I advise you to consume what there is to consume and come back when you are done.

I'm going to run Canute through the same process I did Askeladd and will do for all characters going forward. This consists of the Character Pipeline which will analyze and evaluate the key components of Canute as a character and allow us to strip back the layers and see what makes him tick. Not only does this contribute to his relatability as a character but also the quality of the story in general. After this, I will talk about some unique aspects of Canute that made him pop out of the screen. This whole discussion will lead to a brief touch on character arcs which will have been mostly picked apart by that point. Subsequently, a statement of themes and lessons will conclude the analysis as a whole.

Without further ado let's jump into the first step of the pipeline: the backstory. It is revealed to us in the second half of Season 1 (when Canute begins to be a more integral character) that he was mostly disregarded by his father Sweyn in favor of his brother Harald. Later, in Season 2, we find out that Harald spent the time he could with Canute and treated him as the little brother he was. During his childhood, however, we know that Ragnar was the closest thing to a father Canute had and chose to raise him mostly detached from the royal court. This was done because Ragnar felt that it was a dangerous environment for a child. All of this combined with a natural tendency towards being this way led Canute to be mostly modest, quiet, and passive through to the death of Ragnar in Season 1. Not much more is known about Canute's life between his younger years in the Danish court and his arrival in England but it is fair to assume it was much of the same until then. What can be gathered from this and confirmed by the current version of his identity is that he learned to be an excellent observer and learner in his time as a child. It is also more than fair to say that his desire for a restructuring of the violent Viking society was born out of this period in his life and perpetuated later on.

As I already began doing, we can pull handicaps, limitations, and flaws out of the backstory.

He is not physically or mentally handicapped in any apparent way as he has proved himself to be as physically capable as the average man and more than mentally capable to lead both England and Denmark.

A limitation of Canute that becomes more apparent in his conversation with Thorfinn at the end of Season 2 is that the scope of his ideals and goals is limited to the Viking people. For what reason, is not entirely clear at the moment. My thought is that he is simply not idealistic enough to believe that he can save everyone. He understands his range of influence and how far that goes as well as what it would take to expand it which would run counterintuitive to his goal of not needing violence anymore (I will jump into this idea further in the decisions section). All of that is to say that he is possibly limited by a lack of idealism that his counterpart Thorfinn is not lacking. I see this as significant because this fundamental difference is clearly done on purpose and is a key component in how the two interact with each other. You could also argue that he is limited, in some scenarios, by his thought processes, in that he often finds himself waiting for the perfect solution where another one may be better at present (another idea I will go into further detail on later).

Lastly, there are flaws, which can mostly be found in his demeanor which changes between Seasons 1 and 2 but are still just as apparent. For the majority, if not all, of Season 1 he is the same as he was in his young life, modest, shy, and reserved, qualities that are not typically respected or appreciated in noble children. These further contribute to his father's dismissal of him as a son and to the lack of true support he has from his followers aside from his royal blood. All of these qualities make it difficult for him to be taken seriously as a leader. In Season 2, he is quite the opposite. He is cold-blooded on many occasions and will do what he must to achieve his goal. A flaw that is contrary to his Season 1 flaws but makes perfect sense as he has tried to correct one extreme with another (a theme we will see again). This flaw runs him into relationship issues with potential allies as they are afraid of his backstabbing and secretive methods. It also slightly factors into him getting put in situations he shouldn't be in if he were different (examples forthcoming in the decisions section).

From here we can simplify those three things into core motivations that drive his decision-making and moral compass. I brushed over some of them in the previous section when I mentioned the eradication of the need for violence. His young life in the royal court of Denmark was rife with political violence as Ragnar mentioned when discussing Canute's young life. Alongside that, he was an outlier in the Viking culture which is very much aggressive, outspoken, and extroverted. All of these qualities are in stark contrast to Canute's demeanor. Those two ideas alongside the fact that he was mostly kicked to the wayside in this culture combine to build his motivation of changing Viking culture to get rid of the need for violence. An adjacency that you could build out of this is that he simply wants to be noticed and taken seriously which I believe is one of his core motivations in Season 1. Being noticed and taken seriously is quickly satisfied and resolved at the end of Season 1 so it dissolves just as quickly as it appeared. The idea of cultural change expands into the larger idea of paradise that he expresses in Seasons 1 and 2. A lot, if not all, of his actions can be applied to his pursuit of paradise and he focuses on little else with his power which is why the list of motivations has been left to one item.

Now with his single established motivation, we can analyze some of his most important decisions in order to map out the identity changes that occur over the course of his story. Some of the most noteworthy decisions that I believe play the biggest part in defining and subsequently redefining who Canute is are when he decides to join Askeladd in overthrowing his own father for the English throne, to poison his brother so he can obtain the throne of Denmark, and lastly the two decisions he makes revolving the confiscating (or not) of Ketil's farm.

Beginning with what's really the catalyst decision for everything after this, his choice to join Askeladd in overthrowing King Sweyn for the English throne. This decision comes on the heels of Ragnar's death at the hands of Askeladd, although Canute doesn't know that at this point. The death of Ragnar was Askeladd's plan for propelling Canute forward to a place where he might use him to get at King Sweyn. Askeladd's idea clearly worked because we are now here discussing Canute's decision to join Askeladd. With all that being said and the context put in place, I can confidently say that this decision is what decided Canute's fate for the rest of the story. He decided to step up to the demands of his royal blood and to stand up for what he thinks is right. Through the sequence of events that ensues after the two characters join up, Canute eventually becomes King of England and is largely indifferent to his father's death. These decisions exemplify the steep changes that Canute is both somewhat forced to go through and chooses to go through, symbolizing his freedom in choosing to be a new person.

The next keynote decision comes around in Season 2 when he poisons his brother to obtain the throne of Denmark. Preceding this, we see Canute using similar or the same methods on many of his opponents. In addition to this new reputation, we are shown a scene of Harald playing a ball game with Canute which is the first time we see someone other than Ragnar caring for him in his young life. This definitely has an impact on the viewer and many are now suddenly thinking that Canute and Harald will work together but that is quickly undercut in a conversation with Sweyn's spirit through the crown. Canute's reasoning is that his brother's existence on the throne of Denmark would only cause trouble in the end for Canute's plan to unite the nations under one rule. Aside from him burning down all of Mercia to get what he wants, this is the first time we see Canute in this new light. Even then, poisoning and blackmailing your enemies is one thing but your own brother is a whole other. As I mentioned before, we now see Canute at a new extreme, he will stop at nothing to reach his goals. Again, this is totally opposite of his Season 1 self, leaving the viewer (I know this happened to me) confused.

The last set of decisions comes around at the end of Season 2. Canute finds himself in a difficult situation where they are running short on supplies and can either requisition farms from his own people or pull his standing army out of England to cut back on resource consumption. He comes to the conclusion that pulling his troops out of England would essentially result in the loss of England as the people would quickly rebel and retake their land. Therefore, he chooses to go after the land within his own realm. Another option that came to my mind was to simply conquer more land and take their supplies but I will get to that in a moment. This leads him to Ketil's farm where he is met with resistance. Once they land, he tries to negotiate for peace but that fails and he quickly mobilizes his small army to take the land by force. The decision to take from his own people as opposed to cutting back on supply consumption or even raiding or pillaging other lands is another puzzling decision, however, the pieces start to fall into place. Canute has said before that he despises Viking culture and wants to deliver them from the perpetual violence they find (and put) themselves in. He doesn't want this culture to harm others which is why he turns away from raiding, pillaging, or conquering. He also understands that allowing an English revolution to occur would again only lead to more violence. You could also argue that he decides to take from his own people because he despises their culture but I get the sense that he is proud to be a Norseman and doesn't view his own people that way. He believes that culture and tradition have made them this way and that they are a tragic people in need of deliverance.

After fighting and very nearly winning he is confronted by Thorfinn, the man who left him with the scar on his cheek and is only known to him as a jumble of rage and violence. Initially, he declines the opportunity to speak with Thorfinn, but upon hearing that Thorfinn survived one hundred punches from one of the strongest men in Canute's army without fighting back, he relents. Thorfinn comes to him a changed man (the subject of the next character analysis) and describes his own idea of paradise that he wishes to create in Vinland. At this moment, the similarities and contrasts between the two characters are made abundantly clear. It is a mirror effect that has been building since the beginning of Season 1 and is now public to all. Both characters (and even Askeladd) want a paradise of some kind and both of their ideas are largely similar. The differences come around when you begin to look at their methods. Canute will do whatever it takes to create this space, essentially shouldering all of the evil deeds necessary for achieving a plan of this caliber. Canute is under the impression that doing so peacefully would never work because the world is a violent place which is probably a more realistic view than Thorfinn's to be honest. Meanwhile, Thorfinn just displayed to him that a whole conflict can be settled without him needing to throw a punch and then explains this very concept to him. Canute is made aware in this moment, that a peaceful solution is possible, accentuated by the image that he had of Thorfinn before this encounter. That image was the object of Canute's hatred but now he sees that shattered right before him and not only shattered but pieced back together into something peaceful and beautiful. At the end of this conversation, he chooses to pull his troops out of Ketil's farm and allow them to keep it, opting to instead disband the standing army in England which ironically worked out well.

I have touched a lot on the memories and experiences that these decisions create in the previous paragraphs so I will refrain from going into depth again. The four decisions listed above made and remade Canute's character into something new each time. However, each of them had a common theme of pushing back against the violent culture of the Norsemen. Although his overall motive didn't change, his methods drastically changed over time, and are currently in a state of leveling out after his conversation with Thorfinn.

From everything above we can pull out his morals and ideals. Canute is a strange case because of the drastic changes he has undergone alongside how quickly he can change, therefore it is hard to pinpoint some things. I think the idea of his character is that he is still young and impressionable and isn't quite sure exactly how he wishes to go about things. Nonetheless, we can see that an ideal of his is a Viking/Norsemen paradise where the culture cannot harm outsiders or insiders and they can live peacefully. From that, we can see that he understands, in an ideal world, that nobody should be getting hurt in general. You would think that would cause him to not hurt others to achieve his goals but it is the opposite with his character. I believe that this is the point of his character though, it is to say that, there is no morality in contradicting the idea in order to achieve it.

All of that combined creates his overall identity, which is a bit cluttered at the moment without seeing where he heads after his seemingly thought-provoking conversation with Thorfinn. With the information we currently have we can say that he is both ruthless but kind and caring in his intent, again a contradictory idea. Contradictions seem to be the trope in his current identity and are what speak the most volumes for it. Being a young man with more power than any man his age could ever conceive of having, there are factors at play that only a select few could understand. However, I would imagine that the formative years of identity that occur near his current age are what plague his character, and I also think that that's intentional. Portraying a flawed young king is the goal here and it is being executed masterfully, utilizing acts of good and evil to stretch his personality in both directions before it snaps back into equilibrium when he discovers his true self.

With the character pipeline finished we can discuss the unique aspects of his character, the first branching off of the identity I just finished talking about. It is not often that we see as many flawed characters as we do in Vinland Saga, especially among the characters that we find ourselves rooting for. As the audience, being able to see where he came from allows us to be more sympathetic and excuse what he does more often (a technique at play with other characters as well). Therefore, I think it is, at least in scale, largely unique to this story, especially with Canute, that we find ourselves rooting for deeply flawed characters. We are made to agree with him on an ideals level because he has his head in the right place which gives us more moral leeway when it comes to justifying his decisions. Yet, if you go back and watch or read the decisions I mentioned above, there is nothing moral about anything he does until the last decision. This contradiction that is occurring in our brains goes hand in hand with the contradictions he has in his own brain and makes him feel more relatable, even if we may not want to see ourselves doing that. Therefore, I can say that he has villain tendencies when it comes to methods and there is no reason, in any other story, he wouldn't be deemed the villain. All of this is to say that Canute has been made into both a protagonist and an antagonist right in front of our eyes, a paradoxical idea in and of itself. I hate to bring it up yet again but that is the theme we have seen over and over again.

Another subliminal message that I can see beginning to form is exactly as King Sweyn said it would be: the crown corrupts the wearer until they can't bear it anymore. At the end of the day, Canute has done all of these thing in pursuit of power or while in power. This idea of power corruption is even highlighted by the appearance of King Sweyn's head to Canute when there is a pressing matter on his mind. This is not even nearly close to a new theme though, we have seen this in so many other works of media. The reason I bring it up is because we know Canute has good intentions and that I feel is the new twist on the classic theme. Often times we see characters with good methods and intentions get into power but then both aspects flip. With Canute, we only have half of this and it feeds the idea of him being both an antagonist and a protagonist at the same time. He continues to have good intentions, yet he lets the intricacies of being in power and the benefits that come with it warp his methods. Both this and the idea of him being both an antagonist and a protagonist harken back to the theme I mentioned in the morals section: there is no morality in contradicting the idea in order to achieve it.

The character arcs have been dissected and pieced back together throughout the preceding paragraphs and sections so I will refrain from diving into them and instead move onto themes. Themes have also been discussed but I will bring them down here to both emphasize them and organize them. The secondary theme that is yet to bear all of its teeth is that power corrupts people in wicked and often unforeseen or unexpected ways. In this case, that means that the path to achieving noble goals becomes dark and violent with the introduction of power. The primary theme is born from the massive levels of contradiction in his character and it is as I have stated twice already. There is no morality in contradicting the idea in order to achieve it.