WARNING: the following post contains manga spoilers and should not be read if you have not at least read up to chapter 124 of the manga to be safe.
First of all I don’t hate Hild that much. I understand her story and why she’s here, but I dislike that she was added so early in the story.
So her whole motive is to get revenge on Thorfinn for killing her father and mentor. Sounds familiar. *flashback to season 1* She serves as a comparison to Thorfinn & Askeladd and their methods of getting revenge for their respective loved ones. She is methodical like Askeladd to an extent, but she has more naivety that’s closer to Thorfinn.
Thorfinn and her make a deal that she is allowed to kill Thorfinn if he doesn’t maintain his vow of non-violence. The deal sounds reasonable at first, but as the story progresses you realize how much of a crutch or safety net, she is for Thorfinn and sticking to his vow. Also, Hild was a means to have another skilled offensive people to our main group. A pro that somewhat balances out the “crutch / safety net” con.
When we first see Thorfinn’s vow tested, he fails miserably by helping Einar beat up the farm-hands that trashed their wheat field. But we see him stick to his vow from that when he gets permission to talk to Canute by taking around 100 punches from one of the Jomvikings instead of dueling him. That scene was grueling and gained him great respect and growth in his determination toward his vow.
But then we meet Hild not that long into their journey when they return to the European-side of the world. And with her constantly having an arrow to his back, we don’t get to see his struggle with his vow as he eventually faces situations that challenge that vow. Not to mention that most time that his vow is challenged we see him overcome it without the need of Hild to remind him that she will kill him if he steps out of line. Making her threat seem unnecessary.
Scenario 1: In addition to compromising with Hild through their deal, it would be nice if Thorfinn or someone from the crew tried to actively connect & converse with Hild. Ask her to help out, try to joke with her, or simply appeal to her better nature. Things that would make her ask herself questions similar to what Askeladd asked Thorfinn during his final moments:
· Even if you do kill him, what would you do then?
· What would she do if she concludes that Thorfinn has changed?
· At what point or instance need to occur for her to realize that?
· If he was as much of a menace as she said it was, what makes her revenge more worthy than literally anyone else he had wronged?
· Would the role of murder be flipped if she kills him now that he has a family and others that rely on him?
Scenario 2: What if we saw an example of the crew needing Hild as a crutch/safety net before she is introduced. For example, if they stumbled upon a small raid in progress and Thorfinn gets triggered.
· He sees the violence of innocent people getting hurt, gets filled with regret from his past, and decides to do something different.
· He splits from the crew to go to the town, defend the people from the raid, but in the process, he snaps and couldn’t stop fighting.
· When the crew try to stop him, someone get hurt (i.e. Leif, Gudrid, Bug-Eyes, etc.) and its not until Einar comes and take enough hits to get to him and smother him with a bear hug.
This can reenforce fact that even though Thorfinn has changed but he is still human. And an episode like this can be the beginnings of his PTSD and suppressing it results in the nightmares that we see in ch. 123.
With season 2 in the works, it would be cool to have one of the scenarios above if they decide the diverge from canon. The main point is that as intriguing and needed as Hild is, she is still too static as a main character. And unless they want to have the same criticism as she has in the manga, they’ll have to do something different with her once her initial introduction is over and/or the circumstances of her purpose.
