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 2: The GPS Voyage

It's funny how sometimes a show starts out really simply and then slowly gets bigger and more complex and more produced. You can almost see the behind the scenes conversations as success begins to take root and the producers get bolder or more ratings hungry. Or more likely, network suits come in and tell them to do so. I'm not saying this is necessarily what happened with Vikings season 2, but something changed. It was still good, but there were a few things that kind of took me out of it.

Christian Warrior.

First there was suddenly a more stylized approach to the filming and editing that either wasn't there before or I didn't notice. There is one scene in particular where Ragnar's son and brother, Bjorn and Rollo are sparring on a beach and the camera keeps doing these quick tracking shots from the water. There were also several music video like montages with slow motion for no apparent reason. Rather distracting for a show where the main appeal for me was the simplicity of the lifestyle presented. I think these stylistic turns work well in Peaky Blinders because the setting, industrial revolution era England, is already somewhat jarring in itself. Here, the setting is all natural and outside in these beautiful locations. Just let that be the wow factor instead of showing off.

Another detraction has been some major plot holes and faulty logic. At one point, Ragnar and the others go on a raid to England and they get caught in a major storm, which throws them off course and they wind up landing in the kingdom of Wessex instead of Northumbria, where they were headed. Fine, they decide, and just raid that kingdom instead. No big deal there. Except later on, another ship arrives, headed right for their encampment in Wessex to deliver news of what happened back home since they left. HOW!? Did this ship have GPS and tracking? I honestly couldn't stop thinking about that for the rest of the season. Game of Thrones has so far been very successful in giving us a sense of the vastness of the geography involved when you're traveling by, let's just call it ancient means. When characters in Westeros happen to bump into each other in the wilderness it's usually a big deal that they found each other. But here it's almost like they had called each other and agreed to meet at a certain time sometimes. And while they've more or less addressed the language issue between the Norse and English, there are times it gets a little thin. I mean how quickly did Ragnar learn English? So I guess watching this for this historical consistency might be a mistake. 

The hot viking lady will kill you.

On the other hand, this season had the rise of Lagertha. My only complaint about this excellent storyline is that not enough time is devoted to it. I say scrap the whole Ragnar thing and make the whole show about her. To be honest, by the end of the season, she might be the only reason I'm still into it. Other characters, like Floki, had some iffy motivations throughout the season only to reveal, last minute, that they were only playing along with a deception. Yeah, ok. But Game of Thrones does that WAAAAY better. I get that they have to inject some drama into this but it came off a bit overly drawn out, without any added impact.

Still, I think the show is doing some interesting things here playing with ancient history and extrapolating some details from it. Inconsistencies aside, the show excels when it focuses on the pagan morality. It's not as simple as what we have come to know as an honorable warrior code that we see paralleled in Star Trek's Klingons or even in Game of Throne's Dothraki. It's also not a hippie, witchy nature fest. It's somewhere in the middle and yet neither and yet all of those. It really is its own thing and like I mentioned about season 1, it's weird to find yourself rooting for people when they commit heinous acts, but you do. And you also find yourself respecting the villains when they face death unafraid and true to their code.

By the end of the season it appears this show has gotten much bigger in many ways. Ambition is the driving force for Ragnar, but it's an ambition for knowledge, not power. The power he attains just happens to be what he has figured out is necessary in order to gain the knowledge he seeks of the world beyond. That's all well and good, but if they open next season with more Lagertha, just being a badass and we never get back to Ragnar's quest for knowledge, I'd probably love the show forever.

Told you not to fuck with her.

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. 

Game of Thrones Season 5 Finale

"So it turns out, I really do know nothing."

I wanted to wait a while to let the Game of Thrones finale settle before I wrote about it. It was a strange season and although I still like the show, it wasn't as great as it has been. Then again, it's a long narrative, so there's going to be peaks and valleys while it unfolds. Overall, it just felt a little rushed, particularly the last episode, which could have easily been half a season on it's own.

By now if you haven't seen it and haven't been spoiled, you probably aren't reading this stupid blog either. So, Jon Snow is dead. That's the big thing, so let's get it out of the way. Instantly everyone has been developing fan theories about how he might be resurrected, etc. I say relax. It's a story, let it unfold. But as far as I'm concerned, he's dead. Trying to predict the next chapter is fine to a point, but I think there's more enjoyment in allowing it to surprise you. I'm more concerned with what his death means to the characters that remain.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Arya's story took a turn. It felt rushed, though. That whole assassination may have been cool and in many ways satisfying, but it didn't feel earned. Which could be argued is the point since she then got her punishment for going against the will of the many faced god. But it could have still been developed a little better and the killing itself didn't need to seem like Arya had been training with Tarantino.  I'm curious where this goes next though since Arya has been my favorite character from the start. I had chills when she finally got on that boat last season, feeling like she was finally headed somewhere resembling what she wanted. This season she's wrapped up early and with the prospects not looking good. But something tells me there's more to it. The girl is a fighter. She's not gonna let a little blindness get in her way.

The whole Uncle Dad scene between Jaime and Myrcella was odd. I guess it was touching to see Jaime (a character that I think in light of his layers being uncovered, was never a true villain no matter what he did), have that moment with his daughter niece. But then, it's still disturbing that it's couched in a "love cannot be denied" conversation about his sister.  And then the twist of having that moment only to immediately have the daughter succumb to poison was a blow to this guy that I'm not sure he can take at this point. I bet Cersei will lose her shit. Speaking of which. . .

Justice? I don't know.

The parade of shame. That was a long, odd moment. I can see how people would say it was too long and unnecessary and it was just for the sake of some perverse titillation. I can see that, but I don't agree. I think the scene works because it does something this show does very well. It plays with how you feel about characters. This is usually because the characters and situations are so complex that you can find yourself hating them and agreeing with them at the same time. In this case, I think many of us have come to hate Cersei above all others on the show. Joffrey deserved his choking death and it was satisfying to see, but she was the one that not only enabled his sociopathy, but she encouraged it. She took real joy in watching him torture others. And there's everything she's done since. But still, by having this moment of her walking, humiliated, naked, vulnerable and in danger as the masses ridicule and spit and throw excrement at her, it starts to make you wonder if maybe it's too much. IS it justice? Or is it vengeance? Not so much that she doesn't deserve it, but that maybe taking satisfaction in it makes us too much like her. There's the added level that the people responsible for her comeuppance really symbolize some of the worst religious fanaticism that actually exists in our world. It's no secret how anti-religious I am, so I'm sure that plays into it for me, even if she's the one that brought them into power in the first place.

The movie Irreversible, by Gaspar Noe, opens with one of the most horrendous murders I've ever seen on film. It's presented in graphic detail as a man's face is literally bashed in for no apparent reason. It's senseless and shocking. And then you realize the movie is told backwards and as we slowly realize this was an act of vengeance. But then what could possibly deserve vengeance of this magnitude? Eventually we get to the horrendous rape scene, also presented in graphic and painful detail, that lead to the revenge murder. And now you're questioning whether that truly justifies the opening. Are you left with "well this is not as horrible" or are you left with "well, yeah, then that guy totally had that shit coming"? I don't know. There are no easy answers. And I kind of got that feeling from Cersei's parade. Yeah, she didn't change and if anything, she's now more determined to get her vengeance, but it's more about our reaction. And I would suggest that Arya's moment is tied to this.

And so is Stannis's story. He quickly realized, in the most rushed part of the whole episode, that everything he sacrificed, such as his daughter, was for nothing. Was it worth it for him?  Clearly not. And in his case it wasn't even about revenge, but about ambition, no matter how much he told himself it was something else. But more importantly, Brianne's need for vengeance makes her a complete failure as a knight.

Leap of faith desperation.

And that's that, for a year, I guess. Is Daenerys going to be made a slave by that Dothraki horde? There's no way they are going to just accept her. Did Sansa and Theon make that jump? And where the hell is Little Finger? I'm sure there will be more complexities next season and more controversy and more fan outcry about deaths. I'm looking forward to all of it.

Unforgiven and Unforgivable

It was good.

I'm not sure how it happened, but until last week, I had never seen The Unforgiven. I grew up watching westerns with my dad and anything with Clint Eastwood in it was practically on in the background at all times. From the Man with No Name Trilogy to Pale Rider and everything else. So this should have been something I would have run to. But somehow, I didn't. I know over the years I started to watch it a couple of times and would get interrupted and never get back to it. Just one of those things.

I like this better.

Anyway, I watched it and I get it now. It really is a deconstruction of the whole genre and that badass character he played all those years in all those unrelated movies. Westerns are about archetypes almost more so than any other genre. As much as we like to think superheroes are our modern mythology, they are just a replacement for the western. I liked the movie. It works because it's not so focused on the deconstruction that it ends up coming off pretentious. It's supposed to be mythology, not a lecture. Maybe too much time has passed, but I'm not sure I'd go with all the hype it received. I don't know, I liked it fine, I guess. But I've seen better modern westerns. Off the top of my head, I remember really liking Appaloosa, directed by Ed "The Man" Harris, starring Harris and Viggo Mortensen. I'm sure that's sacrilege to a lot of people, but I liked it better.

I also grew up watching cheesy 80s b movies we'd rent at the local video store. I can't remember most of them, but things like the Ninja movies with Sho Kasugi come to mind. The basic feel of these things is pretty well summed up in Kung Fury, which is now available in full on YouTube, for free . It's pitch perfect, for the most part, and at 30 minutes, it's just long enough so the joke doesn't completely wear out. Although, I found it lost a little steam near the end, it's still pretty fun and batshit crazy. Give it a look.

The new power couple.

Speaking of unforgiven, I recently posted about my choice of king for the seven kingdoms and after this week's episode of Game of Thrones, I have to retract that choice. Obviously. So, fuck Stannis. Daenerys was always my gut choice and now with Tyrion advising her, she'll be more than just an idealist. So, my choice is as it always should have been, Daenerys Storm Born, etc. Until she winds up stomping on puppies or some shit. This world is harsh. 

Game of Thrones: Choosing a King

That's about as close as she'll get, I think.

The easy choice for ruler of Westeros has always been Daenerys. The journey of the Mother of Dragons, from crawling out of her brother's abusive thumb to proving herself as leader of the lost Dothraki tribe after Drogo's death to freeing slaves along the way has been tailor made for cheering on. On the one hand she ceases empowerment from the clutches of male opression. On the it doesn't hurt that she's sexy. But the reality becomes clear this season, that she is way out of her element when it comes to actually ruling. She's come dangerously close to losing what she's attained because she doesn't have as much self assuredness as she would think. And this latest episode indirectly told us exactly what her biggest problem is.

Things to come. . .

In a scene where Jon Snow is about to make a decision as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch that he knows he must make, he seeks the advice of Maester Aemon who bluntly tells him half the men hate him anyway and that he already knows what he has to do, so he just do it. "Kill the boy, Jon Snow, and let the man live," he tells him. Interestingly, by episode's end, Missandei gives Daenerys similar advice, but in her case, I think it might be too late. At the end of the day, though, what the advice does, what these unpopular decisions highlight, is that the true best ruler has been there all along and his name is Stannis Baratheon.

Raise the banner high!

Stannis was never popular. He was always the sullen Baratheon. Too serious. Too stern. Too humorless. But was he too harsh? No. He's never been anything but fair and measured. Every scene he's been in this season has clearly demonstrated that he's a true leader, willing to listen and even when he doesn't necessarily like a decision, he knows when it is the right one. Hence his support of Jon Snow's journey to bring the wildlings south of the wall. He thinks long term. It's really him that Varys should be seeking to assist for the good of the realm.

Father and daughter.

On a personal note I think my turn to Stannis has come because of two things. One, the fact that he was always the outcast and misunderstood hits close to home. My social awkwardness is legendary and while I'm not a megalomaniac that thinks he should be king, I do recognize the righteous indignation Stannis must feel because of this. The other thing is that Stannis is at heart a good father. His talk with his daughter a couple of episodes back is one of the most human moments in the whole series, and when you contrast that with scenes between Tyrion and Tywin Lannister and Roose and Ramsey Bolton, it's a stark (pun not intended) difference, even if Stannis seems cold. Again, he's an awkward and reserved man, but he's a human being. 

Varys may be seeking Daenerys because he wants to bring back the old glory to the realm, but at the end of the day, that old glory got them where they are now. Those old stories don't end well, as Sansa has learned first hand. What the realm needs is an even hand. A just hand. A tempered hand, not obsessed with power and status. That is Stannis. Your King.

Restarting

What's in the box?

So this here used to be the home of my old comics blog, Not Just Otaku. I hadn't posted anything here since 2012, but on a whim checked on it and noticed it was still being viewed by people doing various searches. So I started reading some of the old stuff, and was surprised to see I had gotten fairly ok at writing about comics and other related things before I decided to try merging it all into Tumblr. Anyway, a while back I relaunched the music blog because Tumblr was a waste of time but I keep finding I want to write about other things that don't fit in over at Sound Affects. So I'm relaunching this here thing, but I'm renaming it. I changed the URL and everything, which I'm sure I did wrong and lost like one potential person that may have been watching the old URL, but whatever.

Strange Orphan Boxes is the new name. These are the boxes in which I will put my thoughts on TV, movies, books or whatever doesn't fit into my music blog. I honestly don't have much of a plan for this beyond that. Let's just see what happens. You'll see all my old comics reviews and stuff are still here, because why not. Soon, I'll have a good first post back type thing. So keep an eye out. In the meantime, some quick notes.

If you go back just a couple of posts, you'll see the last official post on here was a review of the first Avengers movie, so it's interesting that Age of Ultron will be out in a few days. We'll see how I feel about it.

I'm on episode 10 of Netflix's Daredevil and it's great.I have to say my only complaint is the guy playing Foggy Nelson. He just sticks out like a sore thumb that can't act.

Probably the best scene of the season.

Mad Men is wrapping up and it looks like it is going to end on a high note so far. I have a feeling most people won't like the ending, but I think they may be missing the point of the show. I'll likely go into detail on this one at some point.

Sexy spy shit that is ultimately not that sexy.

The Americans. You should be watching this show. That is all.

Finally caught up on last season of Louie, and it might be the greatest thing ever. I find myself getting choked up constantly watching this show, instead of laughing but that's exactly why it's so great. On top of everything else, Louie is also an amazing actor. This is the most real show ever made.

I haven't read a comic in almost a year, now. Maybe longer. I just don't have the time or energy to read anymore. If I get a few minutes, I wind up drifting off to sleep mid sentence. I had been reading the Game of Thrones books, but I think I'm ready to admit to myself that I've given up on that. I was halfway through the second book, but that was more than 6 months ago. The show is better anyway (come get me book loyalists!)