Vikings Season 3: Bizarre Love Triangle

Disappointingly, season 3 of Vikings was not subtitled Lagertha: Queen of the Viking World.  She remains a badass, but also a supporting character. Still, the season was much better, overall, than season 2. The filming and editing was either less stylized or I got used to it, but given the rate at which we went through the entire series to date, I don't think I had enough time to not notice any over the top flourishes. 

SEXY!

Looking at it now, a whole lot more happened in this season than the previous two. And yet, it didn't feel too rushed, like the last season of Game of Thrones did. Ragnar is now king, after the events of last season's finale. He leads a voyage back to Wessex, but this time, not to raid. They are there to claim what King Ecbert promised them and the whole time you're waiting for the treachery to unfold. Ecbert is one of the great slimy characters that manages to fool you for short periods of time with his charm, but you can always feel his sleaze just itching to come up again. He winds up taking an interest in Lagertha, and who can blame him. But she ultimately sees right through him, proving yet again why she's a badass, even though she may not have necessarily predicted how far he was planning on going.  But he did go far and I can't wait to see how Ragnar gets his revenge and I hope Lagertha is a big part of it.

The season also saw a major death (actually 2, but one was really more important than the other) that rocks Ragnar to his core and leads to the big twist of the finale. This show has had a sort of underlying theme of the battle of religions which was somehow combined with an exploration of friendship/love between men that may or may not be homoerotic. There's a lot of talk about love and it's often hard to distinguish between romantic and platonic. Hell, right after he captures Athelstan in season 1, he invites him to a threesome with him and Lagertha, so even though it hasn't been explicitly explored, I get the sense sexuality is very fluid in this world. The fact is there was a love triangle going on between Ragnar, Floki and Athelstan. Maybe it was a battle for Ragnar's soul and maybe it was for his body. But maybe, the fact that Floki ultimately wins the physical battle but loses the spiritual one is telling. I've never seen this level of love portrayed between men in this way and it's been a major strength of the show. 

And then there's the siege of Frankia. This plot, where Ragnar lets Floki take the lead in this raid on Paris, knowing full well he will fail was entertaining, thrilling and tense. We know Ragnar has a purpose here but we're never quite sure what it is. And while it's hard to imagine that he would have had all the details worked out to know exactly what would happen or that he would selfishly put his people in such danger just for his own selfish ends, you do get the sense that his motivations have evolved past that of his countrymen considerably. He's always been motivated by the search for knowledge and now there was something else as well. Or was there? How much of what he did was a ruse? Where in season 2 the ruse seemed after the fact, here it was always barely visible so it was much closer to believable once it unfolded. It was even expected to be honest. Still, some things didn't make a whole lot of sense, but this show is not perfect and I can forgive it.

So now we're all caught up, just waiting for the next season sometime next year. Great, another show to get anxious about. Maybe season 4 will be the Lagertha: Warrior Princess show that must happen. 

I was.

Vikings Season 1: The Binge Begins

Once we were about 3 episodes in to the first season of Vikings, on Amazon Prime, my wife found out that the version we were watching was the edited American version, not the original from Canada. We were both instantly disappointed but too deep inside to turn back. If you watch it on The History Channel, you're seeing this version as well. So, less blood and no titties for us, I guess. We'll just have to double up on Game of Thrones.

This guy!

Anyway, the show is interesting because I guess it's supposed to be somewhat historically accurate, I mean it's on The History Channel, after all (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!) Seriously though, it seems accurate. Nobody's running around in a horned helmet or anything. Instead our main character, Ragnar (who reminds me of Charlie Hunam's Jax from Sons of Anarchy), is just a simple guy who dreams of more, because the fucking beautiful, vast land by the water and mountains that he lives on just isn't enough. So he defies his leader and sails west to discover/raid England for the first time. And that act changes the path of history. And of course as things get bigger they get more complicated. It's not quite Westeros, but it's still intriguing. 

There's something very weird about finding yourself in a position where you want to root for characters who are raiding and pillaging innocent people. It's easy to say they are reprehensible and the show doesn't pull (m)any punches in how it depicts their willingness to kill and otherwise terrorize the nameless peasants. But we spend so much time seeing their humanity that by the time we get to the raids, this is our team. At the same time, we're dealing with a society that is much less patriarchal than you'd think. Women go on raids with the men and can be warriors as well. This society does not treat them as property, though there are slaves and prostitutes and arranged marriages. But a strong woman is still honored and respected. And that leads to the best character on the show, by far: Ragnar's wife, Lagertha. I could give a few examples, but basically, she is not to be fucked with and at the end of the day, the main reason to watch the show. I suggest discovering for yourself if you haven't already. I'm late to the party, though, so no spoilers.

Do not fuck with her. 

The end of season 1 leaves us at a cliffhanger and a crossroads that I won't spoil. We have actually seen the first episode of the second season and can tell you that while that cliffhanger is resolved pretty quickly, the crossroads was very real and the show is headed in a very different direction for all the characters. In particular I sense huge things for Lagertha, which is fine with me. If we were in too deep by episode 3, there's absolutely no turning back now. I'm all in.