Vikings: Season 3
Sep. 4th, 2015 01:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakHm. I was captivated while watching, but the more I think about it, the more problems I have with this season.
No, really, the occasional howler like that is fine by me. I mean, I notice, and also, because I'm a nerdy nitpicker like that, I can't help mentioning them, but I don't really mind if the story and the characters themselves sweep me away enough. Last season, my favourite howler was that the Bishop had Athelstan crucified for his apostasy, complete with thorn crown, which would have been a horrible blasphemy for an early medieval bishop (or a late medieval bishop, or any bishop) to committ, not to mention that bishops, if they weren't explicitly ruling prince bishops (and this one wasn't), didn't have the authority. This season, I can't decide between Gothic Notre Dame in the Paris of Charles the Bald (who has his hair, because it's not like his nickname would have anything to do with that, isn't it?) and Aethelwulf after killing the Norse settlers helpfully, in case we haven't realised already he and his village destroying followers are supposed to be murderous bigots, burning a cross and praying in front of it. (Again: blasphemy. The Ku Klux Clan may not care, but I assure you early medieval Christianas did. A lot. That kind of thing could get you punished nastily.) (What I'd also like to know is: where in the settlement, which was a pagan Vikings settlement only, did that big cross come from?) Outside winner overtaking both: Torfunn and Aslaug in conversation talking about themselves as Vikings. Repeat after me, kids: the term "Viking" didn't exist back then. The show is usually good about this and has the Saxons refer to "the Northmen", but evidently Hirst couldn't resist anymore, he just had to use the term in dialogue.
But like I said: none of this is what I'm having problems with. No, it's not Athelstan's death, either. That was the one thing I was spoiled for, due to everybody and their sock posting about it above lj cut back when the season was broadcast. In context, it works for me. Floki had fixated on Athelstan as the embodiment of his issues with Christianity from Day 1, and it grew ever worse the closer Athelstan and Ragnar got because Floki was also madly jealous. Also, between Ragnar claiming descent from Odin, Floki worshipping Loki and Athelstan getting the stigmata, it became clear Athelstan was getting set up not just as a Christ avatar but for the Baldur role. (If you take Loki murdering Baldur as what retrospectively ends the Odin and Loki bloodbrothership.)
Sidenote: and between Ragnar asking Athelstan in the opening episode whether he'd still say no to a threesome with him and Lagertha and Ragnar later, mid season when Athelstan wants to leave, says Athelstan can't because "I love you", and Floki when he thinks Ragnar is dead declaring he loved Ragnar more than Athelstan ever did, you certainly have more than enough canon to see this as a toxic love triangle as well.
Mind you, if Ragnar is steadfastly devoted to Athelstan, he's rotten to almost everyone else. My sympathies were entirely with Aslaug in the disintegration of their marriage. And giving Floki enough rope to hang himself is all very well, but seriously, if Ragnar can't come up with a better plan to avenge himself on Floki than one that counts on hundreds of his own people dying as the result of the Floki failure he's enabling, then it's past time he gets replaced as leader. We still haven't arrived at my problems, btw, because that's all plausible character development, plus the chat between Ragnar and Ecbert that concludes about how they're both corrupt earlier reassures me Hirst is aware what he's doing re: Ragnar. I didn't mind this season's big con/reveal climax, either, not because I seriously thought Ragnar was dead (no snakes of cancellation in sight = no dead Ragnar), but because as opposed to least season, when the Floki-as-double-agent con grated because it was drawn out for half a season and because no one would seriously believe Floki would desert Ragnar for the likes of Horik anyway, this season's Ragnar con was in as much ic in that the season had emphasized how important Athelstan had become for Ragnar in his increasing emotional isolation, so that "I'm dying, I want to be baptized so I'll see Athelstan again in the Christian afterlife" didn't feel like something the character would never do.
However. This was a bad season for the female characters, all in all. Siggy, who was my favourite of the women, was killed off a third into the season. (Given that one consistent Siggy trait has been her concern for children, the fact that she died saving kids was in character, but that didn't me feel less grieving.) Lagertha lost her earldom, and while I'm on board in principle with her telling the man who took it she's still going to kill him later but they can have sex now, the actor who plays Kalf just doesn't have any charisma and is blandly pretty instead, so that I don't buy the physical attraction. (Otoh, I totally bought the Lagertha/Ecbert fling. That was great. She had his number and went for it eyes open, and Linus Roache as Ecbert certainly is charismatic and charming enough to make it clear why.) (Another Ecbert relationship was A PROBLEM, but more about that in a second.) Torfunn descending into depression over her facial injury despite everyone supporting her and leaving made me feel torn, because on the one hand depression is like that, plus Rollo had several seasons to brood, why not a female character? Otoh, it means that in a series where the male characters cope with more serious physical injuries, the one time it happens to a female character it destroys her, and, um. Aslaug's marriage to Ragnar imploding for various reasons (but none that Ragnar was pining with Lagertha or that Aslaug turned evil) I was okay with (if on Aslaug's side), but I wish we'd seen more of her as ruler of the village in Ragnar's absence as we did in the season finale. A mystical fling with Odin himself isn't the same type of character display.
On the bright side, Helga, who until then had had little more to do than to be Floki's ever understanding cheerful love interest finally was fleshed out more, and got to give him the boot. I cheered. He more than had it coming. I wish she'd have done it at the start of the season when he was all "I can't be happy! Must totally leave, it's because I care!" than at the end, but hey.
Back to the dark side: Judith, Mercian Princess with Name I can't Spell, Lady in Paris (not princess Gisla, more about her in the plus columm). The Princess had been introduced last season as a somewhat crazy nymphomaniac with backstory rape by older brother trauma. This season, the backstory got additional horror (her uncle raped her, too, from her early childhood onwards, and his men), and she got some non-sexual scenes, but the character still felt clichéd, and the childhood rapes part of an overall pattern. The only consensual and mutually enjoyed Christian/Christian sex was the brief liason between Judith and Athelstan, which has to win some prices for least convincingly written romantic relationship of the show. What with her falling for him apparantly on sight (he's pretty, but not THAT pretty), and Athelstan, who has reason to know how very very dangerous adultery is for a woman in their society, and who doesn't know Judith much longer, either, going for it.
As it turned out, there was a narrative point to their affair, but it wasn't about Judith (or Athelstan). It was the admittedly neat invention/historical irony of thus making Athelstan the biological father of Alfred the Great, about whom even yours truly, whose period this century is not, knows he will defeat the Vikings and expell them from England. (Which means Floki's constant "Athelstan is going to ruin us, just like the Christian God will!" becomes true not just re: Christianity ending the Viking way of life but also because Athelstan has doomed their English ambitions via his genes.) Judith never gets developed as more as a plot device to say something about the male characters, in contrast to most of the other women. And no, it's not a matter of familiarity, or Viking women versus Christian ones. Gisla shows up only in three episodes at the end of the season, but you immediately get a sense of her personality, who she is, what she wants from life, how she thinks. It's been an entire season, and I can't tell really tell who Judith is. I can fanwank and say she goes from romantic shy princess to more clever survivor, but the later is showcased by the fact she knows she has to put up with her father-in-law blackmailing her into sex by the end of the season because if she antagonizes him, she's dust. And this was a subplot I really could have done without. Admittedly also because Ecbert was my favourite male character last season, and here my personal standard for magnificent bastards kicked in; I can deal with them organizing massacres for ruthless political reasons, but if they blackmail someone into sex, we're through. Alas. (Because Ecbert is still the sole antagonist so far whom the show has positioned in a way that doesn't make his defeat by Ragnar invevitable; they are on a similar level of smarts and ruthlessness, with the show's only way of making Ragnar morally superior being that he loves his children.)
So, we've had raped children (not on screen, thankfully, just referred to in dialogue as backstory), and sex due to non too subtle blackmail which was sans physical violence but due to blackmail also counts as rape. What's missing? Evidently S/M, which we get when Count Odo, defender of Paris and unrequitedly in love with Gisla, is hit upon by a Parisian lady. On the plus side: not only is she the one to suggest sex but after informing her of his preferences (which is him whipping her), he also makes it clear that it's up to her if she wants to go through with it, and that they can stop at any time she doesn't want to proceed, she only has to tell him. On the minus side: this scene is also where he reveals that what he wants to do with Princess Gisla is to "break her", which sounds far less consensual. On the hilarious side: Odo's dungeon of chains and whips is so over the top, and the Parisian lady, after undressing, displays her perfectly shaven body (besieged by Vikings Paris clearly still offering shaving opportunities for the medieval woman) as if she's seen a movie poster for a de Sade based film; it's hard to take this seriously.
Oh, and then there's Aethelwulf, who flogs himself rather than having any sex at all but keeps calling his wife a Jezebel etc. Because in case you haven't noticed, while Vikings are sexually liberated (yet have only wholesome het sex on screen - for all of Ragnar's offers, the only f/m/m threesome we actually know someone has had happens in s1 between Floki, Helga and Thorsten, and we only see the before, not the during), Christians are a repressed and perverse lot. (Except for Athelstan.) And majorly into rape.
What I was neutral about: did I mention last season that they've stepped up the visions factor? S3 steps it up even more, and this time makes the step of confirming there are actual supernatural goings on, not just in the minds of the people. I mean, I suppose it's still possible Harbard (spelling?) wasn't really Odin, but Aslaug, Helga and Siggy having identitical dreams, all the same time, is a bit hard to explain otherwise. However, showing up, dealing out healing and death both, telling stories, messing with everyone's minds and seducing the local beauty before vanishing again is a very Odin thing to do.
(Athelstan having a stigmata experience, otoh, is explainable in a psychosomatic way. Aided by the fact he actually has the scars in question anyway and has been emotionally navigating between Jesus and Odin for eons, with Jesus winning in the end. Of course he starts to bleed.)
Lastly, the sacking of Paris: from my very vague knowledge, they combined three different Viking raids here, but never mind. It was an impressive sight, suspensfully executed, with the narration having sympathy for everyone, while also letting no one off the hook. Gisla is both brave and arrogant in her privilege, and I'm looking forward to see what she and Rollo will make of each other. (As long as it doesn't involve any "breaking"; don't disappoint me, Rollo. So far, you've displayed many flaws, but browbeating or forcing women has not been among them, and your romantic track record, i.e. Lagertha and Siggy, speaks of your taste.)
In conclusion: I'm mixed up re: how I feel about the season. Will continue to watch, but with some misgivings.
No, really, the occasional howler like that is fine by me. I mean, I notice, and also, because I'm a nerdy nitpicker like that, I can't help mentioning them, but I don't really mind if the story and the characters themselves sweep me away enough. Last season, my favourite howler was that the Bishop had Athelstan crucified for his apostasy, complete with thorn crown, which would have been a horrible blasphemy for an early medieval bishop (or a late medieval bishop, or any bishop) to committ, not to mention that bishops, if they weren't explicitly ruling prince bishops (and this one wasn't), didn't have the authority. This season, I can't decide between Gothic Notre Dame in the Paris of Charles the Bald (who has his hair, because it's not like his nickname would have anything to do with that, isn't it?) and Aethelwulf after killing the Norse settlers helpfully, in case we haven't realised already he and his village destroying followers are supposed to be murderous bigots, burning a cross and praying in front of it. (Again: blasphemy. The Ku Klux Clan may not care, but I assure you early medieval Christianas did. A lot. That kind of thing could get you punished nastily.) (What I'd also like to know is: where in the settlement, which was a pagan Vikings settlement only, did that big cross come from?) Outside winner overtaking both: Torfunn and Aslaug in conversation talking about themselves as Vikings. Repeat after me, kids: the term "Viking" didn't exist back then. The show is usually good about this and has the Saxons refer to "the Northmen", but evidently Hirst couldn't resist anymore, he just had to use the term in dialogue.
But like I said: none of this is what I'm having problems with. No, it's not Athelstan's death, either. That was the one thing I was spoiled for, due to everybody and their sock posting about it above lj cut back when the season was broadcast. In context, it works for me. Floki had fixated on Athelstan as the embodiment of his issues with Christianity from Day 1, and it grew ever worse the closer Athelstan and Ragnar got because Floki was also madly jealous. Also, between Ragnar claiming descent from Odin, Floki worshipping Loki and Athelstan getting the stigmata, it became clear Athelstan was getting set up not just as a Christ avatar but for the Baldur role. (If you take Loki murdering Baldur as what retrospectively ends the Odin and Loki bloodbrothership.)
Sidenote: and between Ragnar asking Athelstan in the opening episode whether he'd still say no to a threesome with him and Lagertha and Ragnar later, mid season when Athelstan wants to leave, says Athelstan can't because "I love you", and Floki when he thinks Ragnar is dead declaring he loved Ragnar more than Athelstan ever did, you certainly have more than enough canon to see this as a toxic love triangle as well.
Mind you, if Ragnar is steadfastly devoted to Athelstan, he's rotten to almost everyone else. My sympathies were entirely with Aslaug in the disintegration of their marriage. And giving Floki enough rope to hang himself is all very well, but seriously, if Ragnar can't come up with a better plan to avenge himself on Floki than one that counts on hundreds of his own people dying as the result of the Floki failure he's enabling, then it's past time he gets replaced as leader. We still haven't arrived at my problems, btw, because that's all plausible character development, plus the chat between Ragnar and Ecbert that concludes about how they're both corrupt earlier reassures me Hirst is aware what he's doing re: Ragnar. I didn't mind this season's big con/reveal climax, either, not because I seriously thought Ragnar was dead (no snakes of cancellation in sight = no dead Ragnar), but because as opposed to least season, when the Floki-as-double-agent con grated because it was drawn out for half a season and because no one would seriously believe Floki would desert Ragnar for the likes of Horik anyway, this season's Ragnar con was in as much ic in that the season had emphasized how important Athelstan had become for Ragnar in his increasing emotional isolation, so that "I'm dying, I want to be baptized so I'll see Athelstan again in the Christian afterlife" didn't feel like something the character would never do.
However. This was a bad season for the female characters, all in all. Siggy, who was my favourite of the women, was killed off a third into the season. (Given that one consistent Siggy trait has been her concern for children, the fact that she died saving kids was in character, but that didn't me feel less grieving.) Lagertha lost her earldom, and while I'm on board in principle with her telling the man who took it she's still going to kill him later but they can have sex now, the actor who plays Kalf just doesn't have any charisma and is blandly pretty instead, so that I don't buy the physical attraction. (Otoh, I totally bought the Lagertha/Ecbert fling. That was great. She had his number and went for it eyes open, and Linus Roache as Ecbert certainly is charismatic and charming enough to make it clear why.) (Another Ecbert relationship was A PROBLEM, but more about that in a second.) Torfunn descending into depression over her facial injury despite everyone supporting her and leaving made me feel torn, because on the one hand depression is like that, plus Rollo had several seasons to brood, why not a female character? Otoh, it means that in a series where the male characters cope with more serious physical injuries, the one time it happens to a female character it destroys her, and, um. Aslaug's marriage to Ragnar imploding for various reasons (but none that Ragnar was pining with Lagertha or that Aslaug turned evil) I was okay with (if on Aslaug's side), but I wish we'd seen more of her as ruler of the village in Ragnar's absence as we did in the season finale. A mystical fling with Odin himself isn't the same type of character display.
On the bright side, Helga, who until then had had little more to do than to be Floki's ever understanding cheerful love interest finally was fleshed out more, and got to give him the boot. I cheered. He more than had it coming. I wish she'd have done it at the start of the season when he was all "I can't be happy! Must totally leave, it's because I care!" than at the end, but hey.
Back to the dark side: Judith, Mercian Princess with Name I can't Spell, Lady in Paris (not princess Gisla, more about her in the plus columm). The Princess had been introduced last season as a somewhat crazy nymphomaniac with backstory rape by older brother trauma. This season, the backstory got additional horror (her uncle raped her, too, from her early childhood onwards, and his men), and she got some non-sexual scenes, but the character still felt clichéd, and the childhood rapes part of an overall pattern. The only consensual and mutually enjoyed Christian/Christian sex was the brief liason between Judith and Athelstan, which has to win some prices for least convincingly written romantic relationship of the show. What with her falling for him apparantly on sight (he's pretty, but not THAT pretty), and Athelstan, who has reason to know how very very dangerous adultery is for a woman in their society, and who doesn't know Judith much longer, either, going for it.
As it turned out, there was a narrative point to their affair, but it wasn't about Judith (or Athelstan). It was the admittedly neat invention/historical irony of thus making Athelstan the biological father of Alfred the Great, about whom even yours truly, whose period this century is not, knows he will defeat the Vikings and expell them from England. (Which means Floki's constant "Athelstan is going to ruin us, just like the Christian God will!" becomes true not just re: Christianity ending the Viking way of life but also because Athelstan has doomed their English ambitions via his genes.) Judith never gets developed as more as a plot device to say something about the male characters, in contrast to most of the other women. And no, it's not a matter of familiarity, or Viking women versus Christian ones. Gisla shows up only in three episodes at the end of the season, but you immediately get a sense of her personality, who she is, what she wants from life, how she thinks. It's been an entire season, and I can't tell really tell who Judith is. I can fanwank and say she goes from romantic shy princess to more clever survivor, but the later is showcased by the fact she knows she has to put up with her father-in-law blackmailing her into sex by the end of the season because if she antagonizes him, she's dust. And this was a subplot I really could have done without. Admittedly also because Ecbert was my favourite male character last season, and here my personal standard for magnificent bastards kicked in; I can deal with them organizing massacres for ruthless political reasons, but if they blackmail someone into sex, we're through. Alas. (Because Ecbert is still the sole antagonist so far whom the show has positioned in a way that doesn't make his defeat by Ragnar invevitable; they are on a similar level of smarts and ruthlessness, with the show's only way of making Ragnar morally superior being that he loves his children.)
So, we've had raped children (not on screen, thankfully, just referred to in dialogue as backstory), and sex due to non too subtle blackmail which was sans physical violence but due to blackmail also counts as rape. What's missing? Evidently S/M, which we get when Count Odo, defender of Paris and unrequitedly in love with Gisla, is hit upon by a Parisian lady. On the plus side: not only is she the one to suggest sex but after informing her of his preferences (which is him whipping her), he also makes it clear that it's up to her if she wants to go through with it, and that they can stop at any time she doesn't want to proceed, she only has to tell him. On the minus side: this scene is also where he reveals that what he wants to do with Princess Gisla is to "break her", which sounds far less consensual. On the hilarious side: Odo's dungeon of chains and whips is so over the top, and the Parisian lady, after undressing, displays her perfectly shaven body (besieged by Vikings Paris clearly still offering shaving opportunities for the medieval woman) as if she's seen a movie poster for a de Sade based film; it's hard to take this seriously.
Oh, and then there's Aethelwulf, who flogs himself rather than having any sex at all but keeps calling his wife a Jezebel etc. Because in case you haven't noticed, while Vikings are sexually liberated (yet have only wholesome het sex on screen - for all of Ragnar's offers, the only f/m/m threesome we actually know someone has had happens in s1 between Floki, Helga and Thorsten, and we only see the before, not the during), Christians are a repressed and perverse lot. (Except for Athelstan.) And majorly into rape.
What I was neutral about: did I mention last season that they've stepped up the visions factor? S3 steps it up even more, and this time makes the step of confirming there are actual supernatural goings on, not just in the minds of the people. I mean, I suppose it's still possible Harbard (spelling?) wasn't really Odin, but Aslaug, Helga and Siggy having identitical dreams, all the same time, is a bit hard to explain otherwise. However, showing up, dealing out healing and death both, telling stories, messing with everyone's minds and seducing the local beauty before vanishing again is a very Odin thing to do.
(Athelstan having a stigmata experience, otoh, is explainable in a psychosomatic way. Aided by the fact he actually has the scars in question anyway and has been emotionally navigating between Jesus and Odin for eons, with Jesus winning in the end. Of course he starts to bleed.)
Lastly, the sacking of Paris: from my very vague knowledge, they combined three different Viking raids here, but never mind. It was an impressive sight, suspensfully executed, with the narration having sympathy for everyone, while also letting no one off the hook. Gisla is both brave and arrogant in her privilege, and I'm looking forward to see what she and Rollo will make of each other. (As long as it doesn't involve any "breaking"; don't disappoint me, Rollo. So far, you've displayed many flaws, but browbeating or forcing women has not been among them, and your romantic track record, i.e. Lagertha and Siggy, speaks of your taste.)
In conclusion: I'm mixed up re: how I feel about the season. Will continue to watch, but with some misgivings.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-04 01:24 pm (UTC)Also, Rollo did rape a slave girl in S1 which is why I've always somewhat despised him. I am, however, looking forward to his role as Count of Normandy and eventual ancestor of William the Conqueror. Let's just hope it isn't a complete rehash of his past conflict with Ragnar.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-04 03:00 pm (UTC)I had forgotten that S1 rape (it's been a while)! Word on the hope to avoid a rehash. One way of avoiding it seems to me that Ragnar won't be back next year for another raid after all, because he'll have to go to England instead. He can't keep the truth about the settlement quiet forever, and their code will demand an invasion of vengeance, so he'll have to prioritize that, which gives Rollo time to found Normandy and establish himself somewhere where he won't be in his brother's shadow and compared to him.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-04 03:13 pm (UTC)Kwenthrith: her backstory irritated me the more I heard of it, and they kept piling on the clichés. You'd think an Anglo-Saxon princess can hate her family and want to have lots of sex without having rape and incest in her past. What kind of outdated psychological profiling is this?
Judith: I don't know if this is part of the reason she seems so slight as a character, but they did change the actress between seasons; Sarah Greene, who played her in S2, went on to play Hecate Pole on Penny Dreadful. Maybe that threw the writers.
Harbard, Odin or not: Let's put it that way, there is one of those stories where Odin is in disguise, and he uses that very name; I'd be really astonished if he's not Odin.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-04 03:39 pm (UTC)Kwendrith: especially since she's the only female leader on the Christian side. Though who knows, maybe Judith will get an arc fleshing her out where she ends up as Queen Regent for some years after Ecbert and Aethelwulf are both dead.
I hadn't noticed s2 Judith was played by the same actress as Hecate, or that they changed actresses, but then basically the only s2 scene I remember Judith being in was her wedding, which was intercut with Floki's.