Vikings XI: Aelle's Anaconda don't want none unless you got buns hun [SPOILERS]

[Castel]

23 hours ago, Nictarion said:

Maybe my expectations are lower than they used to be for this show, but I'm really liking 4B so far. I liked pretty much everything in the newest episode other than the Judith scenes. And even those at least have Aelle. The end with Bjorn was weird, but whatever. I'm really starting like Ubbe too. Now at least half of Ragnar's sons by Aslaug are interesting to me. I loved Floki's line about Rollo out shining them all. I'm probably enjoying the show more than I have since S2 honestly.

I'm also interested in how things play out. Ivar and Ubbe are interesting, and we still have the revenge against Aelle to look into.

Lagertha and all her people have been the least interesting but I suppose I can console myself with the fact that she seems headed to her death.

[Slurktan]

On 1/13/2017 at 3:23 PM, RhaenysB said:

Lagertha: 

The show got to the point where I dislike Lagertha. Her storyline makes less sense than Ragnar's magic Chinese herbs storyline. She wants to avenge Aslaug and get back her husband and home. Okay. So why sit around in Hedeby for ten years petting snow owls? Why didn't she go and look for Ragnar? Why didn't she attack Kattegat sooner? Why didn't she kill Aslaug sooner? What was she waiting for? Why now? And why shoot Aslaug? Why in the back? She wanted revenge. Okay. But why did she choose his particular time to take it instead of any other moment in the past ten years? And from her speech about Ragnar's death it seemed to me like she was counting on being Ragnar's queen and not ruling herself. So once again, why wait ten years and not act sooner? 

Why did she choose that particular time?  I thought it obvious.  Bjorn just led all the best warrior folk out of Kattegat on a raid.  Ragnar took the shitty warrior folk for his.  Kattegat is basically empty of warriors who could fight her coup.  it's really not that hard to figure out.

[Corvinus85]

20 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

Why did she choose that particular time?  I thought it obvious.  Bjorn just led all the best warrior folk out of Kattegat on a raid.  Ragnar took the shitty warrior folk for his.  Kattegat is basically empty of warriors who could fight her coup.  it's really not that hard to figure out.

Yes, but 10 years? And Bjorn could have sided with her if she had made some kind of power play.

[RhaenysBee]

3 hours ago, Slurktan said:

Why did she choose that particular time?  I thought it obvious.  Bjorn just led all the best warrior folk out of Kattegat on a raid.  Ragnar took the shitty warrior folk for his.  Kattegat is basically empty of warriors who could fight her coup.  it's really not that hard to figure out.

Because people loyal to Bjorn would have stood in her way? I don't think so. Besides, when they all came back they could have snapped Lagertha's neck, but Bjorn returned and protected her and so none of the fighting men who left with Bjorn fought of attacking their leader's mother.

[Slurktan]

23 hours ago, Corvinus said:

Yes, but 10 years? And Bjorn could have sided with her if she had made some kind of power play.

He could have.  He also could have sided with his brothers and foiled her plans.  What if the two H brothers had sided with Aslaug?  She could have potentially even got Bjorn killed.  From a strategic perspective doing it as she did makes perfect sense, All the warriors were gone, the only two others that would stop her she had imprisoned, it was the perfect time for a coup.  And what does it matter if it was ten years?  Read some history, people have stewed over revenge and made coups after a longer time than that.  Hell it even happens in ASOIAF.

 

20 hours ago, RhaenysB said:

Because people loyal to Bjorn would have stood in her way? I don't think so. Besides, when they all came back they could have snapped Lagertha's neck, but Bjorn returned and protected her and so none of the fighting men who left with Bjorn fought of attacking their leader's mother.

It wasn't just "Bjorn's Men" there.  As said above the H brothers aren't Bjorn's men.  They raid to raid,  What if Aslaug had promised to marry the one who wanted to be King if they killed Bjorn and Lagertha?

[Crazydog7]

On 1/14/2017 at 10:48 AM, Martell Spy said:

 

It could get worse. Harbard could appear and start having sex with them. And then mysteriously appear in England and go after Judith.

Oh god please don't give the writers that idea. 

[SweetPea]

On 2017. 01. 14. at 4:48 PM, Martell Spy said:

 

It could get worse. Harbard could appear and start having sex with them. And then mysteriously appear in England and go after Judith.

And all the while they would be reminiscing about Athelstan and crying over losing him.

[GallowKnight]

1 hour ago, SweetPea said:

And all the while they would be reminiscing about Athelstan and crying over losing him.

And Erlendur is there, creepily watching from the bushes.

[RhaenysBee]

10 hours ago, Slurktan said:

He could have.  He also could have sided with his brothers and foiled her plans.  What if the two H brothers had sided with Aslaug?  She could have potentially even got Bjorn killed.  From a strategic perspective doing it as she did makes perfect sense, All the warriors were gone, the only two others that would stop her she had imprisoned, it was the perfect time for a coup.  And what does it matter if it was ten years?  Read some history, people have stewed over revenge and made coups after a longer time than that.  Hell it even happens in ASOIAF.

 

It wasn't just "Bjorn's Men" there.  As said above the H brothers aren't Bjorn's men.  They raid to raid,  What if Aslaug had promised to marry the one who wanted to be King if they killed Bjorn and Lagertha?

Aslaug was still married to Ragnar and I'm sure that every single Ragnar son would have had something to say about such promise. 

But okay, the empty Kattegat is a fair point, still, this is the first time in TEN years that Kattegat is empty. This gets me back to another question of mine: what were all these people doing for ten years? 

[Corvinus85]

I liked the episode more than most others from 4B.

I wish the sacrifice scene hadn't been spoiled by Bjorn and Astrid. Talk about parallel scenes of penetration.  Also, what happened to the cutting of the throat and the collecting of the blood in a bowl? 

I also wish Hirst had thought of something else do to with the Lothbrooks' lovelife. All it did in this episode is take time that could have been better used for more of the invasion stuff.

I shall miss Aella. He was a good, well-acted character. I knew how he was going to die, but it was still terrible to watch. But did he seriously only bring like a hundred men to the battle? Yes, he was arrogant, but apparently he was also stupid. No scouts? And what was the surprise he intended for the Lothbrooks? The guy that gave him the news of the Viking arrival could have also given him an approximate estimate of the Viking numbers. 

Surprisingly, my favorite scene this episode was in Wessex, mainly because Aethlwulf showed once again why he is the best character there, and finally confronted his dad for all the bullshit that was handed to him.

[Astromech]

The ending was excellent. That felt vintage Vikings. I wish Hirst would include more such scenes.

I was massively disappointed we didn't get to see the battle. And Aelle should really learn to employ scouts. That was ridiculous. What a chump.

What makes the lack of the battle more frustrating is we get more poor sex scenes instead. The juxtaposition of the two penetrations as Corvinus wrote above, was so heavy-handed as to be comical. Eliminate the Ubbe-Margrite(sp?) wedding night shenanigans and give us the battle. Poor choice there.

Harald and Halfdan continue to grow on me. They are being fleshed out more(well, Harald more than Halfdan). I enjoyed his encounter with Alissa(again, sp?) We know what Harald's future holds, but the journey is interesting.

The man sacrificed was Earl Jurgenson. The same Earl Jurgenson Egil mentioned last week?

Yes, Wessex is shit. Aethelwulf has gone from a dolt to the only individual in Wessex who has a clue. But now he finally speaks up about his father pissing on him his whole life? And it comes down to "daddy didn't love me"? Hirst has completely butchered Ecbert.

 

[GallowKnight]

I generally liked this episode. But there is still stuff that is very bad and just doesn't make sense. The sacrifice and the blood eagle were pretty good but they both pale in comparison to the sacrifice and blood eagle from season 1 and 2. And having the sacrifice run parallel with Bjorn and Astrid fucking was not a great choice. On the other hand I can't really say that I am missing Ragnar that much.

The love triangles overall are not especially engaging and has never ever been on this show. . The whole thing with Margerete and the brothers is just awful. Why even marry her if you're just going to share her with your brothers? Kinda in relation to this, I liked some of the little things they did with Hvitserk on the raid, but now that he is with his brothers again he feels a bit superfluous and unnecessary. Right now he definitly feels like the least developed and interesting and most disposable of the Ragnarsons.

I liked that they actually gave a little bit more character to Harald and gave him at least some emotional things to play with rather than just anger and untrustworthiness. Of course it mostly just came back to anger and killing but it at least showed a little depth. But I really hope they continue with this and make them better and stronger characters, since it seems like they will stick around a while. Their scheming is a little bit tiresome though. Since the H-bros and all their men clearly went to England it seems a bit obvious that scarface isn't going to be very successful in whatever attempt he is going to do at Kattegat, so I find it hard to care. Hopefully they might manage to kill Torvi though.       

Floki remains great, doubly so in Furiosa facepaint.

Athelwulf calling out Ecbert was great and well deserved. Great acting from both Linus Roache and Moe Dunford.

I always liked Aella so it was a bit of a shame to see him go. But is was hardly unexpected considering the sagas. But he must truly be the worst commander of all time to not have anyone find out him the actual size of the Viking army, for not using any scouts and for choosing a battlefield that was hilly and where he could not actually see the entire field. Plus, I would think that he might at least have made some effort to retreat or save himself, since he was on a horse and most of the northmen were on foot.

I also would have liked to see an actual battle, because so far 4b has been very light on battles that weren't disappointing.

That pigges line has seriously gotten overused. And I kind of wish that people stopped referring to themselves as Vikings, it just sounds weird. And I think it is a bit silly to actually call the army "The Great Heathen Army",

Lastly, Bjorn continues to disappoint. It is like Alexander Ludwig turned off all the charm he used to have and just decided to go for a very one-note performance. The temper tantrum he threw at Ivar and his insistence that he should lead and make all the plans, was lame and just made the character look silly, even if he does have some merit to what he was saying. And of course the Astrid business isn't doing him any favours at all. I wonder If Torvi doesn't wish she had crossbowed him in France instead. Torvi still sucks though.

[Jen'ari]

Aella was mistaken about a great many things, he was a Christian fool and he was destroyed.

[Corvinus85]

11 minutes ago, Lord Sidious said:

Aella was mistaken about a great many things, he was a Christian fool and he was destroyed.

You do realize that Aella is you as a parallel? His overconfidence was his weakness. 

[Einheri]

5 hours ago, Astromech said:

Harald and Halfdan continue to grow on me. They are being fleshed out more(well, Harald more than Halfdan). I enjoyed his encounter with Alissa(again, sp?) We know what Harald's future holds, but the journey is interesting.

 

It's interesting that they've decided to include more elements from Harald Fairhair's saga, like that he went on a war of conquest because he wanted to win Gyda’s (or Elisef on the show) favor. Yeah, Snorre essentially turned Norway’s unification into a kind of rags to riches love story. Although the ‘love’ part is probably a bit one sided since Gyda acts like the very definition of a gold digger who doesn’t want anything to do with Harald until he had enough power and wealth. That said, she does actually wait for Harald in the sagas unlike Elisef on the show.

Now while I'm okay with them making some changes to this story, I only wish that they had made Elisef tell Harald that she wasn’t actually being serious when she told him she’d marry him if he conquered Norway, i.e. that she basically told him the equivalent of “I will go out with you... when pig flies” and he simply failed to take the hint. Because let’s face it, if you asked someone out, and they told you they’d go out with you but only after you've become say... world emperor... well, they’re probably not interested. 

[Astromech]

I actually appreciated that encounter between Harald and Elisef (thanks for the correction) and his reply to Halfdan afterwards about his two loves and nobody touching Elisef. It humanizes Harald a little and provides a little depth to his character. However, had she flat out mocked Harald he may have plunged that knife  

 

[Jen'ari]

13 hours ago, Corvinus said:

You do realize that Aella is you as a parallel? His overconfidence was his weakness. 

On his part I'd not say it was overconfidence, more like complete stupidity.

I'd have taken on the army single handed, stormtroopers would just get in the way plus they'd miss.

[Corvinus85]

9 hours ago, Astromech said:

I actually appreciated that encounter between Harald and Elisef (thanks for the correction) and his reply to Halfdan afterwards about his two loves and nobody touching Elisef. It humanizes Harald a little and provides a little depth to his character. However, had she flat out mocked Harald he may have plunged that knife  

 

I would have had a problem with that no matter the reason. What happened to Viking laws? He may call himself a king, but can he kill a princess who is married to another nobleman, in public, and just get away with it?

[dbunting]

I didn't care for this episode much. Seemed way too rushed. In this one episode we saw a sacrifice in Kattegat, the love interest of Harald, the army traveled all the way to England, the battle, blood eagle, and Ecbert get confronted by his son for a lifetime of crap.

As to Aelles' plans, no idea what he was thinking? Did he think that little group of people was enough? Did he not understand just how many were coming?

With scarface, do we really always have to have drama back in Kattegat every time the warriors leave? Also, from the looks of it almost every able bodied man went to avenge Ragnar, so who the hell is left to attack Kattegat anyway?

[Einheri]

1 hour ago, Corvinus said:

I would have had a problem with that no matter the reason. What happened to Viking laws? He may call himself a king, but can he kill a princess who is married to another nobleman, in public, and just get away with it?

If he was honest about it, he probably could get away with it. 

Honor was extremely important to people in the Viking Age Scandinavia, and in this case Elisef has not only dishonored herself by breaking her word to Harald, but she has also kind of dishonored him by marrying someone with less status than him. For those reasons a lot people would no doubt regard Harald as justified in killing her.

That said, Elisef’s husband would also be expected to either seek vengeance for the death of his wife or at least claim some form of compensation (money, goods etc.) from Harald.