@Porcelainpot:
So I started reading Vinland saga. I'm up to chapter 20, and I'm loving, it, especially the art style. But I heard a lot of bad things about the latest arc, the farmland saga, that was apparently meant to be boring and tedious. Is this true? Is Vinland saga consistently good or has it taken a recent bad turn?
Yeah, the farmland arc, while it has some REALLY good points, towards the end with the STUPID subplot turns out to be just retarded, and ends with some B.S. cliffhanger at the end of chapter 94. . .The arc should have been over but he obviously has been trying to drag it out instead of moving on already.
So while I would recommend reading for the sake of. . .Vikings, and awesome manly stuff, towards the end, especially the whole farmland arc (pretty much the second half) focuses on certain characters letting the "pretty girl" ruin nearly everything (I really hate subplots like that, makes men look increasingly retarded and women look evil and manipulative; getting into anothe rwoman's business, instead of letting her take care of her own problems and stayign out of it).
The manga is called "Vinland Saga" and has pretty much set up Thorfin to go to there (after visiting his family he hadn't seen in 14 years who thought he was dead at age 6) apparently some stupid woman and her saga is more important.
The manga's name should have been changed to "friend zone saga" becuase that's what it turned into.
I'd say read untill the end of Askeladds ahole arc (around chapter 70?) then drop it; the farmland arc really was a waste of time. . .
There is some nice character development with thorfinn, but It's not with slogging through the Author's bad writting (i.e. needlessly prolonging the story just to keep himself a job) to get there. There's other piece of literature/stories/etc that do character developement, and character studies a LOT better.
Besides, thorfins development is not like some GROUNDBREAKING subject that has never been done to death 87234986423 times.
It's simply not worth it after the askladd arc.
The cock teases about vinland will drive you mad.(they never even START the journey.)
if you DO decide to read it, Chapter 94 will make you want to drop the story. I did. Don't say I didn't warn you.
It's pretty clear that this guy intends to make this story his life's work (i.e. keeps him employed untill he dies of old age) so unless you want to wait that long just to get a finished story, it probably would be better to just read some Vonnegut or Asimov haha.
On a simlar subject, there has been a trned for mangaka's to needlessly drag out stories - one piece is an exception, becuase he at least plans stuff,and his whole manga, also the arcs are not arcs that last for years for each arc. He knows how to provide enough material to keep the story goin, knows how to keep his arcs just long enough to keep us intersted and not drag out too much.
Im talking other mangas like:
CLAYMORE (<–-the worst offender)
D. Gray Man
Naruto& bleach
Fairy Tail
The list goes on.
Ive gotten fairly easy at spotting when a Mangaka has decided to drag his manga out.
some of the major signs are:
-Introducing plot induced stupidity to the characters (<---#1 red flag)
this right here is a BIG red flag, when you see this, be prepared to drop it, because the manga can't figure out how to make the story progress along without using stupidity to do it. . .now of course that isnt THAT bad, but when characters just keep doing stupid shit over and over and over (einar is a GREAT example of this) and it starts to infect the major casts who usually DOESN'T do stupid shit (thorfinn falls prety to this also to some extent snake) Or when a series of characters does stupid thing in a succession in order to drive the story (pretty much everyone in the farmland arc except for leif) this is a clear sign that the writter has run out of ideas, and you should pick up some other story.
-
Looong fights.
These are fights that are so long that you pretty much forget what the hell is going on
(Claymore for the past 5 years) at this point, the manga is done and you need to find something else, the Author has given up and is just trying to milk money (nothing wrong with that by the way) out of his story. Best not waste your time any further. naruto is in this trap as well
-
Cock-teasing
"Vinland saga" "we're goin to go to Vinland a land of milk and honey blah blah blah" pretty much being dropped for 4 years straight having near misses with the main character meeting certain key characters that is instrumental with the main goal laid out.(protip for writters: if you're going to cock tease. . .don't it pisses off yoru readers the more you do it. If you don't plan to do something, . . .don't tease your readers whispering itmakesthemgoreadsomethignelseandthinkyouarebadatwriting/don'tknowwhatthehellyou'redoingwhispering)
Vinland saga does this
SnK does this
Bleach probably does this, it breaks every other rule in the book
I could go on but TL:DR amirite. Get to the point right?
Pretty much,.
Ill sayu that this is one reasons why Manhas(korean version of manga) is infintely better. Korean readers KNOW when a writter is bullshitting, and the LET THAT WRITTER KNOW. That writter basically has to get his shit together, or lose hie readers. A great example is Tower of God. This is pretty much the sole reason why that manhwa(sp?) is so great, he tries to AVOID these issues as much as he can. It's something that I'd recommend you to read after reading untill the end of the Askeladd arc in Vinland saga.
Oh, I'll probably get flamed for those opinions but oh well, I've said the same thing about other mangas (Claymore, Magi, probably some others I can't remember) and WAAAAY later on I've been proven right after getting flamed so I just don't worry about that anymore heh.