Vikings IX: The Bear Necessities [SPOILERS]

[GallowKnight]

The battle was great, even if the tactics kinda didn't make sense. The battle scenes is generally one of the things the show has been good at so it's nice to see that they are keeping that up. Ragnar's battle plan was really shitty though and it was a little too obious that the whole thing was going to go south for the vikings. Ragnar saving Floki was great. I keep on liking Harald and Halfdan and you could easily see how Harald's influence may grow now that Ragnar is a strung out druggie with shitty plans.

However the rest of the episode was just weird. I don't really understand what's going on with Floki and Auslag. I don't understand waht the fuck is going in Kattegat. And I don't care what's going on in Wessex/Mercia.

5 hours ago, Buckwheat said:

So Ragnar saves Floki and now they are BFFs again. Athelstan is apparently forgotten.

As it should be.

[HexMachina]

1 minute ago, The_Gallows_Knight said:

The battle was great, even if the tactics kinda didn't make sense. The battle scenes is generally one of the things the show has been good at so it's nice to see that they are keeping that up. Ragnar's battle plan was really shitty though and it was a little too obious that the whole thing was going to go south for the vikings. Ragnar saving Floki was great. I keep on liking Harald and Halfdan and you could easily see how Harald's influence may grow now that Ragnar is a strung out druggie with shitty plans.

However the rest of the episode was just weird. I don't really understand what's going on with Floki and Auslag. I don't understand waht the fuck is going in Kattegat. And I don't care what's going on in Wessex/Mercia.

As it should be.

You reminded me that I also liked Harald and Halfdan. like their brotherly bond and battle-mania. Much more potential that Jarl Borg and King Horik ever had.

I watched the trailer for next week too amd I'm already rolling my eyes...

[Veltigar]

I'm twenty minutes in give or take. This battle is horseshit. Stupid fucktards, doesn't anyone scout anymore? The action is pretty nice, performances are great, but outside of Ragnar saving Floki this entire battle is a fucking waste of time. Why are all the Vikings so stupid? And since when are the Franks able to teleport? I hope the rest of the episode is better. 

[HexMachina]

1 minute ago, Veltigar said:

I'm twenty minutes in give or take. This battle is horseshit. Stupid fucktards, doesn't anyone scout anymore? The action is pretty nice, performances are great, but outside of Ragnar saving Floki this entire battle is a fucking waste of time. Why are all the Vikings so stupid? And since when are the Franks able to teleport? I hope the rest of the episode is better.  

 

Oh Veltigar, it's all down hill from here I'm afraid. I rather eagerly anticipate your reactions. And also Rhae's reaction when she gets around to watching.

[RhaenysBee]

I can't find words for how bad and infuriating this was. 

I told you so, I told you so, I told you so. THAT's why you don't take women and children on raids! And WHY is it Helga that has to be mortally wounded? Helga is a good character, she is a lovely person, she's even an okay actress. But no, no, no, Helga gets wounded while bloody Torvi and that horrid Chinese drug dealer wench survive without a scratch. This is so unfair. 

Ragnar why did you drug away your brain? Everything was so obvious. How could he fall for that trap? It's painful to watch him. And nobody notices something is wrong. That's just heartbreaking, it makes me so sad. I so hoped Lagertha would drag him out of this, but of course she has her own problems... Still, I cringe every time she pushes away Ragnar, because #Lagnar and because they really really need each other as friends. 

Which brings us to Floki. I knew Ragnar would jump after him and I can't even say how happy that made me. It's really sad to see Ragnar so alianated and without friends. And now I'm hoping that he and Floki will finally reunite and Floki will drag Ragnar out of his addiction. For example by telling him that he needs to keep his sanity to sail home and throw Aslaug in the sea. 

It took me quite some time of gaping before I realized that Floki does not have some suppressed obsession with Aslaug, he is only seeing the scene through Harbard's eyes. Now, while this is a cool and handy skill, I fail to see the point. It is no news to anybody that Aslaug cheated on Ragnar with this dude. Floki already knows, Ragnar already knows too. I guess it was just supposed to be another reason to make Floki talk to Ragnar. 

Harbard though. What the fuck is this person? I have high hopes for Baby Ragnar no.3 to smash Harbard's skull in his sleep with an axe. It would be such a beautiful touch. See, when Baby Ragnar no.3 walked in on Aslaug what did you think was going to happen? I thought he was going to catch her having sex. But it turned out to be just Ivar. This episode however we did see him catch Aslaug making out with Harbard. And there's Ivar who smashed that poor little boy's skull with an axe. Murderous child alert. I feel like it would tie all this together very beautifully if BabyR no3 killed Harbard. But then, I know I'm just making this up because I hate Harbard. 

So when will a random dude show up in a park in a cave and offer to write my thesis because his family took away his own thesis and tore it to pieces and burned it, not ask anything in return and get out of the way so I can hand in the thesis he wrote and graduate instead of him? Because obviously stuff like this happens. 

Lists. 

Stuff I liked: Ragnar saving Floki. Ragnar and his boys. Rollo still loves Lagertha. Bjorn actually saying out loud that the defeat was Ragnar's fault. Rollo's beautiful ghd commercial curls. Nobody mentioned/cried after/hallucinated about Athelstan. 

Stuff I disliked: Linus Roach trot. Bjorn Erlendur confrontation over the ring. Bows and crossbows everywhere. Harbard going through half Kattegat. 

King Joffrey. Queen Cersei. The Hound. Harbard. Erlendur. Aslaug. Gisla. Torvi. The Emperor. Yiddu. 

 

[Martini Sigil]

29 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

I'm twenty minutes in give or take. This battle is horseshit. Stupid fucktards, doesn't anyone scout anymore? The action is pretty nice, performances are great, but outside of Ragnar saving Floki this entire battle is a fucking waste of time. Why are all the Vikings so stupid? And since when are the Franks able to teleport? I hope the rest of the episode is better. 

The reason why they're so stupid - -from my perspective-- is that Ragnar is a meth head... and those other two dopey jizzbags who wanted to be in the first boat are in way over their heads...

[HexMachina]

10 minutes ago, BB-Rhae said:

I can't find words for how bad and infuriating this was. 

I told you so, I told you so, I told you so. THAT's why you don't take women and children on raids! And WHY is it Helga that has to be mortally wounded? Helga is a good character, she is a lovely person, she's even an okay actress. But no, no, no, Helga gets wounded while bloody Torvi and that horrid Chinese drug dealer wench survive without a scratch. This is so unfair. 

Ragnar why did you drug away your brain? Everything was so obvious. How could he fall for that trap? It's painful to watch him. And nobody notices something is wrong. That's just heartbreaking, it makes me so sad. I so hoped Lagertha would drag him out of this, but of course she has her own problems... Still, I cringe every time she pushes away Ragnar, because #Lagnar and because they really really need each other as friends. 

Which brings us to Floki. I knew Ragnar would jump after him and I can't even say how happy that made me. It's really sad to see Ragnar so alianated and without friends. And now I'm hoping that he and Floki will finally reunite and Floki will drag Ragnar out of his addiction. For example by telling him that he needs to keep his sanity to sail home and throw Aslaug in the sea. 

It took me quite some time of gaping before I realized that Floki does not have some suppressed obsession with Aslaug, he is only seeing the scene through Harbard's eyes. Now, while this is a cool and handy skill, I fail to see the point. It is no news to anybody that Aslaug cheated on Ragnar with this dude. Floki already knows, Ragnar already knows too. I guess it was just supposed to be another reason to make Floki talk to Ragnar. 

Harbard though. What the fuck is this person? I have high hopes for Baby Ragnar no.3 to smash Harbard's skull in his sleep with an axe. It would be such a beautiful touch. See, when Baby Ragnar no.3 walked in on Aslaug what did you think was going to happen? I thought he was going to catch her having sex. But it turned out to be just Ivar. This episode however we did see him catch Aslaug making out with Harbard. And there's Ivar who smashed that poor little boy's skull with an axe. Murderous child alert. I feel like it would tie all this together very beautifully if BabyR no3 killed Harbard. But then, I know I'm just making this up because I hate Harbard. 

So when will a random dude show up in a park in a cave and offer to write my thesis because his family took away his own thesis and tore it to pieces and burned it, not ask anything in return and get out of the way so I can hand in the thesis he wrote and graduate instead of him? Because obviously stuff like this happens. 

Lists. 

Stuff I liked: Ragnar saving Floki. Ragnar and his boys. Rollo still loves Lagertha. Bjorn actually saying out loud that the defeat was Ragnar's fault. Rollo's beautiful ghd commercial curls. Nobody mentioned/cried after/hallucinated about Athelstan. 

Stuff I disliked: Linus Roach trot. Bjorn Erlendur confrontation over the ring. Bows and crossbows everywhere. Harbard going through half Kattegat. 

King Joffrey. Queen Cersei. The Hound. Harbard. Erlendur. Aslaug. Gisla. Torvi. The Emperor. Yiddu. 

 

I think I watch this show at the minute purely for your weekly summary  Keep up the good work  

[Veltigar]

This episode was probably the second worst episode of the season based purely on the writing. I enjoyed the action, Fimmel's performance (he singlehandedly keeps this show afloat) and some of the atmospheric touches (really liked Ragnar's bloody lips, his insults to Rollo, sitting in the rain, etc. basically I liked Ragnar). All the rest was crap of the smelliest kind.

Clearly, Hirst wanted to make Rollo the BAMF supreme. Instead of showing us that Rollo is a great general though, he just made everyone else absolutely fucking stupid. I really can't stand it when a writer does that, it's just so insulting to the intelligence of the audience and above all, very, very lazy.

This problem extends beyone the Vikings by the way. Histoire d'Odo is a shit character, but last season he was competent in his own right. He was portrayed like a guy who was surprised and held back by a whimpy emperor, but still very competent. Now he's basically Rollo's fanclub. If Rollo wanted him to suck his dick, I'm pretty sure he would. And what happened to Princess Polanski? She used to be an intriguing character, but it's like she reverted to Sansa Stark (before Eddards head rolled) levels of stupidity. When she said,  'Oh, my so many women... bla bla bla' I couldn't help but think that THEY WERE THERE LAST SEASON AS WELL nWHEN THEY SCALED THE WALLS OF FUCKING PARIS WHILE YOU WERE FUCKING WATCHING. ARE YOU SUFFERING FROM FUCKING AMNESIA? The whole I-want-to-meat-Lagertha thing was also completely out of (her very thin) character.

Wessex was stupid. Who the fuck is this Prince Wiglaf? Terrible way to insert that character. And why the fuck would Egbert take him up on his offer? I thought the whole reason for the Kwentrith deal was that the Mercians wanted to be ruled by one of them. If they were just going to roll over and accept Eckbert, then why has he bothered with Kwentrith in the first place. He also seems to forget that King Aelle might have different ideas about who should rule Mercia. 

Kattegat was horrible. I hope Sigurd kills Herbart the Pervert. Otherwise this is a waste of time. How are all these women all of a sudden floating established moral norms by kissing and fucking Herbert the Pervert in broad daylight? And that blonde chick that gave that speech to him, how awful was the writing there. Especially since we have yet to see a single scene of Harbert earning all the praise and honours that are bestowed on him. Bad writing, just really bad writing. 

 

44 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

 

Oh Veltigar, it's all down hill from here I'm afraid. I rather eagerly anticipate your reactions. And also Rhae's reaction when she gets around to watching.

You weren't kidding 

20 hours ago, Astromech said:

And they leave all the women and children behind with just Ubbe and Hvitserk to protect them. What could possibly go wrong? I hope Helga survives. I'm not sure what to think of Floki's vision. Were the gods revealing Aslaug's infidelity to him?

Fuck the women and the children, they left their supplies unguarded! They are raiding a thousand kilometers from home and they have nothing to protect their weapons, food, earlier loot, supply stuff and shit. Ragnar's army realistically speaking is dead now. They shouldn't have anything to eat left and they can't go foraging up river because of the forts.

19 hours ago, wolverine said:

Those forts were pretty unimpressive.  They looked like they had 12 guys that somehow shot a 100 bolts per second each. 

Those guys averaged more headshots from a greater distance than the cast of The Walking Dead. Those forts were also far to removed from the water to be effective imo.

Quote

Seems like they could just beach their ships and attack the tiny forts with a larger force overcoming them easily. 

Christ yes! And what makes this even worse is that Ragnar already won a battle like this in season three, when Kwentrith and he managed to kill that guy from Game of Thrones. Utterly baffling choice.

 

6 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

If one of Hirst's daughgers had to be taken out of comission WHY was it not Torvi?

I was almost literally screaming 'No, not the good one! Please, have mercy.' Her dialogue about Erlendur's ring was awful early on.

6 hours ago, Buckwheat said:

I think Sigurd hates Harbard and is going to tell it all to dad and the older brothers once they come back. I am rather liking Sigurd, though he does not really speak much for now.

The only possibility that seems interesting to me is that Sigurd kills Herbert the pervert. IIRC Sigurd was particularly close to Ragnar in the sagas, so that would be a great way to salvage something from this catastrophe.

 

5 hours ago, Corvinus said:

Whose head was that at the end?

Some random extra. 

4 hours ago, Zorral said:

Others here also are wondering how Lagertha wouldn't have scouted before leading an attack on the back of the -- what? fort? I dunno what they call that thing that looks like a piece of stage scenery left over from The Tudors' masques from the early seasons.

Yeah, they looked really fake. That's a very good comparison you make. 

22 minutes ago, Martini Sigil said:

The reason why they're so stupid - -from my perspective-- is that Ragnar is a meth head... and those other two dopey jizzbags who wanted to be in the first boat are in way over their heads...

That's just finding excuses not to blame Hirst for being incompetent. If Ragnar had been outmanoeuvred during the battle, perhaps that would have been a solid explanation. However, Ragnar has never been alone in his army. In all his previous campaigns, Lagertha and his allies had some autonomy. So, if Ragnar hadn't bother to scout the terrain (really doubtful, but okay let us assume he didn't) someone should have. I mean, these people are professional raiders, they should do better than a four-year-old in a chessmatch. 

Plus, it doesn't explain all the other weird stuff. You know not leaving guards for the supply train, crossbows with incredible rate of fire and range, fire catapults out of nowhere, dingy fortress' that are too far from the river and each other and best of all teleporting Frankish supersoldiers who appear out of nowhere where it is most disastrous to our heroes. 

[HexMachina]

Wasn't Odo plotting to kill Rollo last episode? I admit I haven't really paid too much attention to anything Paris but I'm sure he was telling Madame Bondage before he whipped her.

I thought the same about the shield women being there last season too. But then I thought; consistency and logic? Hahahahahaha, don't be naive  

My heart was a little (a lot) crushed when Torvi appeared unscathed. Her brief bit just after Bjorn showed Erlendur the ring. *sigh* "he's lying" well no shit Sherlock, I'm glad you are here to keep us all right...

Wessex was as ever a complete mess and it only looks like it will get worse based on the trailer for next week.

I don't care about Harbard or Aslaug or Inch High Snake in the Eye. Basically Kattegat is awful once Ragnar leaves.

[Astromech]

33 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

Clearly, Hirst wanted to make Rollo the BAMF supreme. Instead of showing us that Rollo is a great general though, he just made everyone else absolutely fucking stupid. I really can't stand it when a writer does that, it's just so insulting to the intelligence of the audience and above all, very, very lazy.

This is a massive pet peeve of mine and it is extremely prevalent. Few writers are able to showcase a characters intelligence and cleverness in such a way as to not simply show everyone else as morons. It's selective brilliance and stupidity.

[Alia of the knife]

In all seriousness, I'm lost now.

In real history, Rollo did keep his word to the emperor, and defend Paris, but it was for his ambition.

And is Harbard a Viking Rasputin, or are We led to believe he is Loki making mischief ?

Finally, two people I didn't need to see having  metaphysical sex was Aslaug and Floki.

 

[Buckwheat]

This thread is so overly negative, but I am pretty sure in two seasons I will be reading "this show has become such shit, do y'all remember season 4 when it was sooooo cool?"

9 hours ago, The_Gallows_Knight said:

As it should be.

8 hours ago, BB-Rhae said:

I told you so, I told you so, I told you so. THAT's why you don't take women and children on raids! And WHY is it Helga that has to be mortally wounded? Helga is a good character, she is a lovely person, she's even an okay actress. But no, no, no, Helga gets wounded while bloody Torvi and that horrid Chinese drug dealer wench survive without a scratch. This is so unfair. 

I think they do not take women on usual raids, but they do take them and civilians along when they want to establish a colony? Like they already did last season near Paris (do they know Rollo killed all those people already, or are they not that far upriver yet?) - maybe some of those people wanted to move permanently to Frankia and they took their wives along.

Helga was at the Paris battlefield last year too.

8 hours ago, BB-Rhae said:

Harbard though. What the fuck is this person? I have high hopes for Baby Ragnar no.3 to smash Harbard's skull in his sleep with an axe. It would be such a beautiful touch. See, when Baby Ragnar no.3 walked in on Aslaug what did you think was going to happen? I thought he was going to catch her having sex. But it turned out to be just Ivar. This episode however we did see him catch Aslaug making out with Harbard. And there's Ivar who smashed that poor little boy's skull with an axe. Murderous child alert. I feel like it would tie all this together very beautifully if BabyR no3 killed Harbard. But then, I know I'm just making this up because I hate Harbard.

I think it would be better to have Ivar killing Harbard, maybe it would give Aslaug a pause to realise she might have made a slight mistake raising that one. And poor people of Kattegat would only have to be on the lookout for one crazy murderous killing child, not two.

8 hours ago, BB-Rhae said:

King Joffrey. Queen Cersei. The Hound. Harbard. Erlendur. Aslaug. Gisla. Torvi. The Emperor. Yiddu. 

Are you not forgetting Count Odo?

I am more forgiving, for me it is just: Erlendur. Yidu. Count Odo. Princes Kwen. Floki, Floki, Floki. Harbard can just leave and never come back, and so can Erlendur.

8 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I think I watch this show at the minute purely for your weekly summary  Keep up the good work  

Do you remember Florina's posts? I wonder where she is this season.

[Floke]

9 hours ago, Veltigar said:

I'm twenty minutes in give or take. This battle is horseshit. Stupid fucktards, doesn't anyone scout anymore? The action is pretty nice, performances are great, but outside of Ragnar saving Floki this entire battle is a fucking waste of time. Why are all the Vikings so stupid? And since when are the Franks able to teleport? I hope the rest of the episode is better. 

I think it was well established that vikings don't need scouting or tactics. They just charge headlong into the enemy and win because of superior Norse power. Unless the plot requires them to lose, in which case they die by the hundreds.

Anyway, Hirst must have a crossbow boner this season. I can't believe none of those crossbowmen on the ground got hit at least once (or that they were able to shoot more than one arrow per minute). Those forts looked like they were made of paper.

That scene with Harbard the Viking Sex Guru was unreal. I mean, the whole town, including men, was watching. Why did nobody say a thing? At least he's wearing dyed wool and not leather like the rest of the gang.

For me the worst part is still Ragnar's arc. Hirst is trying really hard to foreshadow his downfall and death, and I'm okay with that, but why must it be because of Chinese drugs? Why can't it be just loneliness and old age? Or jealousy and old age like it was in the sagas? I have the impression he wants us to believe only a really bad addiction could bring down otherwise invincible Ragnar.

Also: WHAT'S WITH THE BREASTPLATES! Gisla's was bad enough, but the one worn by Ecbert was too much to bear.

 

[Pliskin]

I'm confused, what corpse was that at the end of the episode?

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

1 hour ago, Floke said:

I think it was well established that vikings don't need scouting or tactics. They just charge headlong into the enemy and win because of superior Norse power. Unless the plot requires them to lose, in which case they die by the hundreds.

Anyway, Hirst must have a crossbow boner this season. I can't believe none of those crossbowmen on the ground got hit at least once (or that they were able to shoot more than one arrow per minute). Those forts looked like they were made of paper.

That scene with Harbard the Viking Sex Guru was unreal. I mean, the whole town, including men, was watching. Why did nobody say a thing? At least he's wearing dyed wool and not leather like the rest of the gang.

For me the worst part is still Ragnar's arc. Hirst is trying really hard to foreshadow his downfall and death, and I'm okay with that, but why must it be because of Chinese drugs? Why can't it be just loneliness and old age? Or jealousy and old age like it was in the sagas? I have the impression he wants us to believe only a really bad addiction could bring down otherwise invincible Ragnar.

Also: WHAT'S WITH THE BREASTPLATES! Gisla's was bad enough, but the one worn by Ecbert was too much to bear.

 

Really I think most of the battles in Vikings are ridiculous and always have been. From the very first episode on the beaches on England where the Norsemen managed to destory a bunch of English soldiers, almost as if none of the English had held a sword before. I'm sure it enabled to story to move forward in the way they wanted but it was pretty insulting to my intelligence. 

I did like the Paris battle however.

[Astromech]

7 hours ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

Really I think most of the battles in Vikings are ridiculous and always have been. From the very first episode on the beaches on England where the Norsemen managed to destory a bunch of English soldiers, almost as if none of the English had held a sword before. I'm sure it enabled to story to move forward in the way they wanted but it was pretty insulting to my intelligence. 

I did like the Paris battle however.

My least favorite battle has always been season 2 when Rollo joins Jarl Borg to fight against his brother and friends. Every shot was of someone jumping over the shield wall with a damn axe. It was some bizarre Norse Wuxia.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

Just now, Astromech said:

My least favorite battle has always been season 2 when Rollo joins Jarl Borg to fight against his brother and friends. Every shot was of someone jumping over the shield wall with a damn axe. It was some bizarre Norse Wushu.

Yeah I was thinking the same. I know there were beserkers and stuff at the time... supposedly... but you wouldn't come out of that fight alive doing stuff like that.A shield wall works like that for a reason.. you can't really jump over it.

[Mladen]

This show has gone from awesome, to watchable and now plainly dull. It is moving to my summer roster the moment I finish this half of the season. Drug addict Ragnar coming with awful plans, Floki and Aslaug, Ragnar and Floki behaving like preschools... I had a minor seizure every time Floki would go "My friends"... I think that kids in sand box have more maturity...

[RhaenysBee]

20 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I think I watch this show at the minute purely for your weekly summary  Keep up the good work  

Thank you, that's very nice

20 hours ago, Veltigar said:

This episode was probably the second worst episode of the season based purely on the writing. I enjoyed the action, Fimmel's performance (he singlehandedly keeps this show afloat) and some of the atmospheric touches (really liked Ragnar's bloody lips, his insults to Rollo, sitting in the rain, etc. basically I liked Ragnar). All the rest was crap of the smelliest kind.

[...]

Plus, it doesn't explain all the other weird stuff. You know not leaving guards for the supply train, crossbows with incredible rate of fire and range, fire catapults out of nowhere, dingy fortress' that are too far from the river and each other and best of all teleporting Frankish supersoldiers who appear out of nowhere where it is most disastrous to our heroes. 

That has been season 4 so far. I like Ragnar. Full stop. The rest is crap. 

Now I know why the battle scene felt off. I know close to nothing about warfare and siege tactics and weapons, so I deliberately did not start criticising the battle. But what it felt like was the Franks knew everything and the Vikings nothing. When, imo, it should have been the other way around, since Ragnar is the brains, the king of raids, the military mastermind, and the Franks are just a bunch of unprepared idiots who shit themselves at the sight of a Viking boat plus Rollo. And Rollo is NOT the brains. He is many things, but brains ain't one of them. And even if he knows Ragnar and can more or less predict Viking strategy, there is no way he could trick any semi-battle seasoned leader, let alone Ragnar, on so many levels.

Laic thoughts on weaponry. It is really really weird that the viking's only weapon seems to be a small axe, while the Franks' only weapon seems to be a crossbow. The vikings didn't even get to fight, because they were shot down from distance and the Franks never approached them closely enough that they could even initiate an attack. And when they are shooting at the vikings out and about, don't they ever run out of arrows and have to sport another weapon? Are they fcking Legolas? For the record, even Legolas used his knives at the battle of Helm's Deep. Along the same lines, do the vikings ever think of using something more effective at distance than a hammer sized axe? I have a hard time believing that's how uncreative they both are.

12 hours ago, Buckwheat said:

This thread is so overly negative, but I am pretty sure in two seasons I will be reading "this show has become such shit, do y'all remember season 4 when it was sooooo cool?"

I think they do not take women on usual raids, but they do take them and civilians along when they want to establish a colony? Like they already did last season near Paris (do they know Rollo killed all those people already, or are they not that far upriver yet?) - maybe some of those people wanted to move permanently to Frankia and they took their wives along.

Helga was at the Paris battlefield last year too.

I think it would be better to have Ivar killing Harbard, maybe it would give Aslaug a pause to realise she might have made a slight mistake raising that one. And poor people of Kattegat would only have to be on the lookout for one crazy murderous killing child, not two.

Are you not forgetting Count Odo?

I am more forgiving, for me it is just: Erlendur. Yidu. Count Odo. Princes Kwen. Floki, Floki, Floki. Harbard can just leave and never come back, and so can Erlendur.

That's how humans work. Everything is great in retrospect. 

I think they would need to conquer the place first, or at least reach an agreement like they did with Ecbert for anybody to want to permanently move to the land of the enemy or establish a colony. They sail every spring. It would only make sense, at least to me, to secre the place first and when the circumstances so favor, go back for one's family. 

She was? That's weird. I will have to check back. 

I don't see the reality of Ivar killing Harbard. The other kid has both the necessairy motive and physical qualities to be able to kill a big strong dude like Harbard. I don't see how Ivar could physically kill Harbard on purpose. And Harbard is a grown man which makes it also quite impossible for a 4 year old cripple to kill by accident. 

No, I can do with Count Odo. He's a pervert bastard, but also the only character with any kind of plot potential in Frankia. 

Oh no, please not Floki, he is a core character. I know, I know, you can't forgive him Athelstan, but Floki is important... If Ragnar is the heart of the show, he's like an artery or something... we needz Floki.   As for Kwen, I find her thorougly entertaining. She's basically book Cersei.

[RhaenysBee]

Okay, double post, sorry, I know you're sick of my shit, but I watched the preview. I have only two questions.

Spoiler

Who is Ragnar trying to drown?

"How does it feel to be so close to the intellect of a donkey?" 

My god... King Aelle, your time has come.