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The Last Kingdom - new season out today


The Young Maester

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I did not like the changes they made around Sigtrygr and Stiorra. Much preferred the books version for them. Writing quality definitely dipped in seasons 4 and 5. 

On 3/23/2022 at 7:34 PM, Spockydog said:

I wish we'd got Finan's complete backstory.

Yeah honestly he was pretty annoying on the show. Constant quips even when the situation didn’t call for it. 

Spoiler

I forget which episode but I enjoyed when he made a remark to Edward and Edward had his guards beat him down lol

Leofric in season one was a way better character  

also idk what they did to Osferth but he doesn’t resemble his book version at all and he was one of my favorites in the books. Totally forgettable on the show imo

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On 3/23/2022 at 11:15 PM, Corvinus85 said:

Lets just say she has a Vader-like reconciliation. Just watch it at your own pace. I personally thought the last few episode were good.

Watching it at my own pace probably means never XD 

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One thing I dislike about this show is how people just disappear without explanation. Whatever happened to kings Guthrum and Guthred?

Edit:

Spoiler

Brida's kid's death was some contrived bullshit. There had to be a better way to do that. I don't want to keep comparing it to Game of thrones but was there a scene I missed establishing that she loved climbing stuff? 

 

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On 3/29/2022 at 2:46 PM, RumHam said:

One thing I dislike about this show is how people just disappear without explanation. Whatever happened to kings Guthrum and Guthred?

Edit:

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Brida's kid's death was some contrived bullshit. There had to be a better way to do that. I don't want to keep comparing it to Game of thrones but was there a scene I missed establishing that she loved climbing stuff? 

 

Spoiler

I didn't get the impression that we were supposed to believe she liked to climb. She was in the middle of a battle, she got scared and tried to seek safety high up. I got the impression she was frightened of Uhtred. And ultimately, she listened to Brida who said she would catch her.

 

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Finally getting around to watching season four.

Why the fuck do people keep leaving Haesten alive?  Uhtred should have killed him the second he told him what he needed to know after they dueled, and predictably it came back to bite him in the ass that he didn't.

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Finished season 5 last night and really enjoyed it.  I think it's the best one since season 2.  My major issue with the last 2 seasons has been Edward.  He was fine as a boy in season 3.  He was... ok as a young naive king in season 4, but really they should have recast him to someone actually older.  In season 5 with his obviously fake beard trying to play someone quite a bit older, with children that are obviously within 5 years of his actual age, just did not work at all.  It's most painful to watch when next to the Scottish king, whose presence just oozed power and command.  Between him and the mustache twirling father-in-law, I could see why the entire season could be easily written off as "bad".  But beyond those two, and maybe a few too many deaths that seemed unnecessary given the last 4 seasons, I thought the season was pretty strong

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On 3/30/2022 at 11:14 AM, Mark Antony said:

Books are like that as well tbf. Characters who were kinda prominent get half a sentence saying they’re dead. 

Interesting, I thought maybe the actors didn't want to return. Guthrem was one thing, but bringing back Utred's King brother-in-law who sold him into slavery seemed like a no-brainer. 

On 3/30/2022 at 12:05 PM, Corvinus85 said:
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I didn't get the impression that we were supposed to believe she liked to climb. She was in the middle of a battle, she got scared and tried to seek safety high up. I got the impression she was frightened of Uhtred. And ultimately, she listened to Brida who said she would catch her.

 

Spoiler

Maybe I'm just giving kids her age too much credit? If someone told me "go hide" I would not climb a building. I'd look for a closet or something. As soon as I saw her up there I was like "oh shit she's doomed, why on earth would she go up there!?"

Also she was a seer! I feel like she should have seen that coming! It's a little weird that the show treats that kinda stuff as real.

I've given up on asking "why didn't X kill Y?" Season four has maybe the worse instance so far. Some real Bond Villian level shit.

Spoiler

Heston has Utred, Heston wants the glory of killing Utred. Heston leaves Utred & company tied upside-down to a tree guarded by two men. Like there's a way to hang a guy from a tree and have him actually die, and it's not hanging him by his feet.

I realize I'm coming off really negative about the show, but I do really enjoy it and will be sad when I run out of episodes.

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2 hours ago, aceluby said:

  I think it's the best one since season 2

:agree: pretty much.  That age thing is just about my only substantive criticism.  It's something we see a lot, across genre and drama too: kids and parents looking the same age, for instance. 

As for Aelswith -- however it happened, she was actually funny, which I enjoyed a whole lot, because her being funny was something entirely unknown to her character, and the way she was funny grew plausibly from the character she's always been.

Those scenes with Uhtred and the Lady of Mercia, were among the very best of all seasons' set pieces -- even though they was neither battle nor fight. :thumbsup:  The plotting and intrigue around the seats of power were, if anything, not even as bloody as they were historically, and I really liked how they handled that.

Aedith was a welcome continuity from last season, just as Hild has been in all the seasons.

Of course there was only one Alfred and we miss him.

Books and show hold no relationship for me -- but mv on this, certainly.

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On 3/31/2022 at 12:51 PM, Zorral said:

Destiny has need for Haesten.  Really!  You'll see!  :cheers:  :rofl:

Guess you were right.

Although that was a very late-career face turn for Lord Haesten. 

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4 minutes ago, briantw said:

Guess you were right.

Although that was a very late-career face turn for Lord Haesten. 

Ya, but wasn't it fun to see him counting, o, I dunno what it was, some objects of his trade.  :rofl:

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Why? The Scandinavians were always at least as much about trade as raiding. And had been long before invading Britain. It was usual for the same fellows to raid, to trade, and to farm too.  They liked getting rich even more than fighting, generally.  Dragons on hoards of gold were part of nordic and germanic lore for Reasons, probably.

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6 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Why? The Scandinavians were always at least as much about trade as raiding. And had been long before invading Britain. It was usual for the same fellows to raid, to trade, and to farm too.  They liked getting rich even more than fighting, generally.  Dragons on hoards of gold were part of nordic and germanic lore for Reasons, probably.

Huh? I’m talking about the completely OOC way 

Spoiler

he went out. 

 

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On 3/29/2022 at 8:46 PM, RumHam said:

One thing I dislike about this show is how people just disappear without explanation. Whatever happened to kings Guthrum and Guthred?

Guthrum died 20 years before the events of Season 5, Guthred about 15 years before.

The books have these immense timeskips which they kind of make sense with Uhtred feeling/being older in the next book etc, but the TV show with its immortal characters really doesn't make it work at all.

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All in all, I enjoyed the last two seasons of the show.  The fifth season had a couple of absurdly stupid moments.  I laughed out loud twice because of how dumb the show was in season five.  But it delivered a competent enough ending.

They definitely should have recast Edward, though. 

Spoiler

The two laugh out loud moments were when Brida's daughter inexplicably climbs a damn building when told to hide and then predictably falls to her death and when Aelswith kills that dude and is acting all cocky and then the other guy just grabs her granddaughter and takes off.

Also, am I the only one who wanted to see Uhtred and Aelswith fuck?

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Just finished season 5 (after rewatching the entire series over the last two weeks). Overall I really enjoyed how it ended, though Edward was a tiring idiot for all of season 5. Just stupid king all around. I get that they needed Uhtred to be able to step forward to lead Wessex to victory again, but Edward made it harder than it should've. The unity shown at the end was almost worth it, though.

Can someone explain:

Spoiler

Who the boy is that Hild shows up with at the end? Gisela's son she died giving birth to? Why would he be kept hidden all those years? And by who?

Book spoilers welcome. I read the first three, but never read past. They've been spending 10 episodes to cover two books so far. Is the story that thin that we just need a two-hour movie to cover the last 3 books?

Also, in Episode 10 when Uhtred rode out for his plan:

Spoiler

I joked that Hild was going to magically appear as a nun in the north. Then she did... Really? She just happens to take a new job up north within miles of Uhtred's life long goal? While I love the character, her popping into the story like that was even worse than Haestan being int he right place at the right time.

Those bits and occasional pacing issues aside, the show was well done from beginning to end. I'm glad they were able to finish out to this point. It was fun reliving the character journeys these past few week. Destiny was all.

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