Vikings Season 4, 1-10
Jun. 19th, 2016 06:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakAmazon Video just put up the first half Vikings, season 4, as the mid season finale was broadcast, and yours truly has marathoned the ten episodes in question during the last week. So, for a change, a half a season review.
As with s3, I had more problems after watching it, thinking about it, than during, which doesn't mean I hadn't problems while watching as well. And yet there's still enough stuff I like that keeps me watching. Though I noticed that my fannish emotional interest has done a complete U-Turn by now from the Vikings to the Christians (Franks and Anglosaxons alike). At the start of the show, the Viking scenes and characters were far more interesting and compelling (and a good thing, too, since they were what the show was about back then) to me, but by now I find the scenes set in England and Frankia to be much more interesting to me than those set in Kattegut.
One big reason why is that Ragnar - both central character and central Viking - basically has a Walter White type of character arc in that he grows more unsympathetic and monstrous by the season, and the show knows it (which, btw, makes it good instead of bad storytelling - in his case, there are other characters who - but I'll get to that). I found it very hard to have sympathy for Ragnar in s3 already, but there were the occasional moments, mostly connected to Athelstan. Who is dead now, so that angle of making Ragnar emotionally accessible is gone. Now early on, you have Ragnar and Floki playing out Odin and Loki post Baldur's death, complete with dripping torment and loyal wife relieving (F)loki's burden, which appealed to my Norse mythology loving heart. And late in the season Ragnar saving Floki's life reminded me that this might just be the one Ragnar relationship I'm still invested in, at least a bit, since they totally deserve each other, and Ragnar neither able to forgive Floki for Athelstan nor to let him die is my kind of messed up. Otoh I had been delighted in s3 when Helga FINALLY told Floki what's what, lost patience with him and kicked him out, so her reverting to loyal wife because Floki is in a tormented (literally) state and staying that way for the rest of the season even after he's back in his usual role did not please me. When I say Ragnar and Floki deserve each other, I don't mean it as a compliment.
Another reason why the Viking side of things has grown less interesting to me is that the Lagertha scenes feel like they're there because Lagertha being a badass is a big reason for people to watch the show, not because she has a character arc, as she used to have. Take the mini subplot of her and what's his name, who stole the Earldom from her and whom she told she would kill even after they had sex. Which she does just when he think she's now totally in love with him, when she's agreed to marry him and is carrying his child. The problem with that plotline is that in order to have Lagertha's action of fulfilling her vow as a shock, all the scenes with that guy are from his pov, and we see him also plotting with Erlunder to signal to the audience he's still a bad 'un. Lagertha falling in love despite herself and yet going through with her vow because honor and power demand it could have been a compelling story, but there is never any sense that Lagertha is torn, because there aren't any Lagertha centric scenes when she's not being a badass. Nor is the actor playing What's his Name charismatic enough to make it believable she is at least in lust and like, if not in love, nor are the stakes high enough that she could have just been biding her time with a man she's NOT interested in. (She could have killed him far earlier if that had been the case.) Nor is the character by himself interesting.
Meanwhile, on the Christian side of things: the show solved one of my s3 problems where I didn't feel like Judith had a discernable personality by giving her one. I don't know whether it was the actress or the writing which improved, but this season I found myself caring for Judith for Judith. Also, her relationship with Ekbert got more layered, by which I don't mean the part where Ekbert develops feelings for her but the part earlier where Judith starts to use the new leverage she has to carve out more freedoms for herself and change the conditions of her marriage to her advantage. And I don't think she's kidding herself that Ekbert has suddenly become a good person; she wasn't surprised at all that he screwed Kwentrith over (really, who was? Only Kwendrith, because the rest of us certainly knew Ekbert would take Mercia for himself as soon as the conditions were right), but he's not only the guarantee for her son's florishing but the key to having the best life she can in her society. (Also it amuses me that he's more nostalgic for Athelstan than she is.) (And that she really wanted to learn how to write and illuminate manuscripts because of her love for beautiful books and creating same, not because of Athelstan mourning, and that we keep seeing her doing that through the seasons.) So I went from squicked to "hm, interestingly messed up" with that relationship.
Which also was helpful because it enabled me to going back to enjoying King Ecbert as the best magnificent bastard of the show. (Sorry not sorry, Ragnar.) Linus Roache continues to have a ball with that role, and it provides me with unending joy to see Ecbert scheme and run circles around most people. Since he's seen tutoring little Alfred this season, I look forward to finding out what this resulted in during the next part of the season, after the time jump. I mean, The Last Kingdom already made me itch for the inevitable crossover, because that version of Alfred so could be Ecbert's non-biological grandson, yes. With genuine piety that clearly he got from non-biological dad Aethelwulf. Aethelwulf also gained in layeredness this season, showing some genuine heroism when saving Kwendrith while still being the same self flagellating wannabe punishing husband with Judith (who, as mentioned, will no longer have any of it and succeeds). And he is apparantly holding no Athelstan-related grudge re: little Alfred. Which, btw, is a neat statement re: what makes a parent. Aethelwulf knows now he's not Alfred's bio dad, and it must irk him that not content with having the affair with Judith, his father also is appropriating Alfred, but he's still fatherly and friendly towards the boy.
Meanwhile, in Paris: another of my s3 peeves gets better when it turns out Therese volunteered to be whipped by Count Odo not because she finds him that irresistable but because she and Roland are scheming and using Odo confiding treasonous thoughts to her in order to advance themselves with the Emperor. The dungeon of medieval S/M is still ridiculous, but hey, Therese's got a motive! But the best part of the Paris scenes is that if Ragnar in Kattegut is devolving in his brooding, emotional isolation, abusiveness and drug addictedness, Rollo actually is evolving, and the show does a well executed "arranged marriage" trope with him and Gisla.
Mind you, not that Rollo is suddenly a saint: the season starts out with him arranging a massacre in order to get rid of the remaining Vikings and to prove himself to the Franks. But he sticks to his commitments then, without any self-pitying brooding about his own badness as in the days of yore (he's past that now, it seems and leaves it to Ragnar these days). Said days of yore also come in handy because after all the scorn from everyone in Kattegut in s2, he's got a skin thick enough to take the ridiculing at the Frankish court and Gisla's early hostility and contempt without letting it goad him into doing something stupid. Instead, he doesn't force her to have sex, learns her language, tries to figure out what she wants and provides her with the chance to get out of the marriage while laying the cards on the table why she should give it a shot. As I said, it's a well executed trope, and Gisla warming up to Rollo accordingly was very enjoyable for me. By the mid season finale, they appear to have the type of committed partnership that Ragnar used to have with Lagertha right at the start of the show and now doesn't have with anyone (nor does any of the other Viking characters, unless you count Floki and Helga, which I don't, because Floki). They seem to balance each other; she's seeing through the court intrigues in a way he doesn't, he's using the fighting skill he always had with additional long term thinking he didn't, they confide in each other, and if she sets up a sexual rule according to her taboos that doesn't make sense to him (no sex during pregnancy even early on), he still respects her wishes and abides by it.
Rollo finally beating Ragnar - twice, though if you want to get technical the man-to-man combat in the mid season finale was a draw, but the overall battle was not - was an emotional pay off to four seasons of sibling rivalry and feeling overshadowed, and it makes sense that it finally happens when he's found a new environment and relationships where people don't compare him to Ragnar and which aren't dependent on how he feels about Ragnar. Rollo used to be jealous of Ragnar because he wanted what Ragnar had; now he doesn't anymore, and lo, he finally manages to outthink and outfight him.
(I feel for Björn, though, who as opposed to Ragnar was surprised that Rollo changed sides.) (And despite announced intentions couldn't bring himself to kill him. That arrow was a warning shot.)
(Otoh the Parisians warming up to Rollo as well and cheering him on when he after his big won fight with Ragnar stumbles through the street back to Gisla who is so proud of him was down right heartwarming. This would be the perfect happy ending for Rollo, but I doubt Hirst is going to let him and Gisla go off to Normandy now, never to be seen again. He's not that nice to characters.)
In terms of evolving, Emperor Charles also does that this season; instead of being a spineless nonentity who has none of his daughter's bravery and brains, he's presented as a man who might not be heroic but is able to think for himself and outmaneouvre all the court schemers in a ruthless fashion, while also able to appreciate who is really helpful to his reign. That he's additionally revealed as either gay or bi is a nice bonus. (BTW, was this the show's first on screen m/m pairing? I mean, Ragnar offered a threesome to Athelstan twice, but Athelstan wasn't shown taking him up on it, and while Ecbert certainly had more than platonic feelings for everyone's favourite ex monk, he wasn't shown in bed with a man, either)
(BTW, that bath scene where Ecbert has Lagertha, Athelstan and Judith with him which ends up with Ecbert/Lagertha in retrospect looks even more like a missed opportunity for an orgy, since Ecbert certainly was interested in all three other parties, Lagertha was already willing to try it with Athelstan, and Judith was going to have sex with first Athelstan and later Ecbert in the show future. And as Aslaug says in s2 to Thorfunn, who wouldn't want (to be) Lagertha? That so would have been a plausible orgy.)
And now for more downsides. Yuti (Yu Ti? Yu Di?) was a character apparantly entirely there so Ragnar could have sex scenes with someone, and then prove how low he's sunk by murdering her for more drugs and discretion. She's a Chinese slave, so of course she has drugs stashed (never mind that she was a slave they got through the sacking of Paris, who certainly would not have been carrying around possessions), and while the show never says in dialogue the drug is opium - it doesn't name it as other than "medicine", it's a godawful cliché I could have done without. The show doesn't even attempt to give her her own story- Ragnar insists that she had to be the Emperor's daughter, not just a merchant's daughter before she was kidnapped, and she eventually tells him she is, but just compare her scenes at Kattegut with Athelstan's when he was the abducted slave in a culture completely different from his own. We saw him from his own pov. Yu Ti is simply Asian mystery woman, provider of sex and drugs and opportunities to feel sorry for himself when he's being terrible for Ragnar. Ugh.
And then there's Aslaug. Remember my s1 and s2 reviews where I was glad the show didn't make Aslaug the evil other woman, didn't demonize her just because she was the trigger that split up the show's primary couple? Hah. This season, we finally do get evil Aslaug. Or should I say, we get the results of Michael Hirst evidently having watched too much Game of Thrones? Because while Ragnar being horrible to Aslaug is presented in a way that makes it his fault, not hers, Aslaug is given several scenes to show her as bad news completely apart from her destroyed relationship with Ragnar and new ambition to rule. First you get the scene where she nurses already too old for this Ivar (I think he's supposed to be three or four years old at this point?) at her breast a la Catelyn's sister, because woman who breastfeeds too old for this male boy = big sign of female instability and evilness. Then she walks and sits around with a cup of wine in her hand a la Cersei. While, for all her new ambition to rule, never shown to do any actual ruling. Hooray for another storyline where a woman who wants to rule is then shown to be incompetent at it or not doing it at all. Instead we get the return of Harbard, who this time around is less ambigous maybe Odin and more a clear Viking version of Rasputin (sex with lots of women in the name of healing, check, helping female ruler with sick kid, check, "I wanted to live like the gods"), which I suppose makes Aslaug the pop culture version of the Czarina Alexandra. (As the real Alexandra certainly had no affair with Rasputin.) And then, Aslaug is given the ultimate signifier of tv's "this is a bad woman" rules by smirking over the death of little Siggy, Björn's daughter named after much missed big Siggy who died to save children last season. "Who cares?" Says little Ivar, set up as a mini psycho while still a kid in his scenes, including this one, though he's at least set up to be a smart psycho, both as a kid and after the time jump in the mid finale episode as an adolescent. Anyway, the saddest thing is that Ivar seems to be right, nobody cares about little Siggy dying; Björn certainly doesn't, he didn't care about her when leaving or returning for Paris both times. Unless the second half of the season offers flashbacks featuring someone asking "whatever became of little Siggy?", nor did Lagertha, first grandchild or not. Compare this to everyone's reaction to Ubbe and Sigurd ALMOST dying last season.
The finale in its last minutes presents us with a time jump (not the first on this show, but the last happened all the way back in early s2) of several years, seven or thereabouts, going by Magnus' age, and Ragnar, after several years of wandering on his lonesome, returning to Kattegut drug addiction free and challenging everyone, his grown up sons included. Kattegut at this point has become a big town full of trade with far off places in Ragnar's absence, is clearly doing well economically, and Aslaug is still ruling as Queen. This could have been such an interesting situation if Aslaug hadn't been evil-ized before, and if she'd been shown making administrative decisions earlier in the season when being regent, instead of having her affair with Harbard. Because then you'd have the audience and sons actually torn in the power struggle clearly to come: a non-evil Aslaug who not just has proven herself as a competent ruler but arguably a better one than Ragnar whose last kingly decisions had all ended in disaster, or their father as Viking tradition demands it? But with Evil!Aslaug, and Björn making it clear that he's not interested in ruling yet, but in exploring and going on another expedition, of course we're supposed to root for Ragnar to reassume power. Bah.
Otoh: there's Ragnar's mythological ending awaiting, which isn't triumphant. So we're supposed to root for the kids, I guess, and against both Ragnar and Aslaug. Which I can live with, but I still wish Aslaug hadn't been demonized.
As with s3, I had more problems after watching it, thinking about it, than during, which doesn't mean I hadn't problems while watching as well. And yet there's still enough stuff I like that keeps me watching. Though I noticed that my fannish emotional interest has done a complete U-Turn by now from the Vikings to the Christians (Franks and Anglosaxons alike). At the start of the show, the Viking scenes and characters were far more interesting and compelling (and a good thing, too, since they were what the show was about back then) to me, but by now I find the scenes set in England and Frankia to be much more interesting to me than those set in Kattegut.
One big reason why is that Ragnar - both central character and central Viking - basically has a Walter White type of character arc in that he grows more unsympathetic and monstrous by the season, and the show knows it (which, btw, makes it good instead of bad storytelling - in his case, there are other characters who - but I'll get to that). I found it very hard to have sympathy for Ragnar in s3 already, but there were the occasional moments, mostly connected to Athelstan. Who is dead now, so that angle of making Ragnar emotionally accessible is gone. Now early on, you have Ragnar and Floki playing out Odin and Loki post Baldur's death, complete with dripping torment and loyal wife relieving (F)loki's burden, which appealed to my Norse mythology loving heart. And late in the season Ragnar saving Floki's life reminded me that this might just be the one Ragnar relationship I'm still invested in, at least a bit, since they totally deserve each other, and Ragnar neither able to forgive Floki for Athelstan nor to let him die is my kind of messed up. Otoh I had been delighted in s3 when Helga FINALLY told Floki what's what, lost patience with him and kicked him out, so her reverting to loyal wife because Floki is in a tormented (literally) state and staying that way for the rest of the season even after he's back in his usual role did not please me. When I say Ragnar and Floki deserve each other, I don't mean it as a compliment.
Another reason why the Viking side of things has grown less interesting to me is that the Lagertha scenes feel like they're there because Lagertha being a badass is a big reason for people to watch the show, not because she has a character arc, as she used to have. Take the mini subplot of her and what's his name, who stole the Earldom from her and whom she told she would kill even after they had sex. Which she does just when he think she's now totally in love with him, when she's agreed to marry him and is carrying his child. The problem with that plotline is that in order to have Lagertha's action of fulfilling her vow as a shock, all the scenes with that guy are from his pov, and we see him also plotting with Erlunder to signal to the audience he's still a bad 'un. Lagertha falling in love despite herself and yet going through with her vow because honor and power demand it could have been a compelling story, but there is never any sense that Lagertha is torn, because there aren't any Lagertha centric scenes when she's not being a badass. Nor is the actor playing What's his Name charismatic enough to make it believable she is at least in lust and like, if not in love, nor are the stakes high enough that she could have just been biding her time with a man she's NOT interested in. (She could have killed him far earlier if that had been the case.) Nor is the character by himself interesting.
Meanwhile, on the Christian side of things: the show solved one of my s3 problems where I didn't feel like Judith had a discernable personality by giving her one. I don't know whether it was the actress or the writing which improved, but this season I found myself caring for Judith for Judith. Also, her relationship with Ekbert got more layered, by which I don't mean the part where Ekbert develops feelings for her but the part earlier where Judith starts to use the new leverage she has to carve out more freedoms for herself and change the conditions of her marriage to her advantage. And I don't think she's kidding herself that Ekbert has suddenly become a good person; she wasn't surprised at all that he screwed Kwentrith over (really, who was? Only Kwendrith, because the rest of us certainly knew Ekbert would take Mercia for himself as soon as the conditions were right), but he's not only the guarantee for her son's florishing but the key to having the best life she can in her society. (Also it amuses me that he's more nostalgic for Athelstan than she is.) (And that she really wanted to learn how to write and illuminate manuscripts because of her love for beautiful books and creating same, not because of Athelstan mourning, and that we keep seeing her doing that through the seasons.) So I went from squicked to "hm, interestingly messed up" with that relationship.
Which also was helpful because it enabled me to going back to enjoying King Ecbert as the best magnificent bastard of the show. (Sorry not sorry, Ragnar.) Linus Roache continues to have a ball with that role, and it provides me with unending joy to see Ecbert scheme and run circles around most people. Since he's seen tutoring little Alfred this season, I look forward to finding out what this resulted in during the next part of the season, after the time jump. I mean, The Last Kingdom already made me itch for the inevitable crossover, because that version of Alfred so could be Ecbert's non-biological grandson, yes. With genuine piety that clearly he got from non-biological dad Aethelwulf. Aethelwulf also gained in layeredness this season, showing some genuine heroism when saving Kwendrith while still being the same self flagellating wannabe punishing husband with Judith (who, as mentioned, will no longer have any of it and succeeds). And he is apparantly holding no Athelstan-related grudge re: little Alfred. Which, btw, is a neat statement re: what makes a parent. Aethelwulf knows now he's not Alfred's bio dad, and it must irk him that not content with having the affair with Judith, his father also is appropriating Alfred, but he's still fatherly and friendly towards the boy.
Meanwhile, in Paris: another of my s3 peeves gets better when it turns out Therese volunteered to be whipped by Count Odo not because she finds him that irresistable but because she and Roland are scheming and using Odo confiding treasonous thoughts to her in order to advance themselves with the Emperor. The dungeon of medieval S/M is still ridiculous, but hey, Therese's got a motive! But the best part of the Paris scenes is that if Ragnar in Kattegut is devolving in his brooding, emotional isolation, abusiveness and drug addictedness, Rollo actually is evolving, and the show does a well executed "arranged marriage" trope with him and Gisla.
Mind you, not that Rollo is suddenly a saint: the season starts out with him arranging a massacre in order to get rid of the remaining Vikings and to prove himself to the Franks. But he sticks to his commitments then, without any self-pitying brooding about his own badness as in the days of yore (he's past that now, it seems and leaves it to Ragnar these days). Said days of yore also come in handy because after all the scorn from everyone in Kattegut in s2, he's got a skin thick enough to take the ridiculing at the Frankish court and Gisla's early hostility and contempt without letting it goad him into doing something stupid. Instead, he doesn't force her to have sex, learns her language, tries to figure out what she wants and provides her with the chance to get out of the marriage while laying the cards on the table why she should give it a shot. As I said, it's a well executed trope, and Gisla warming up to Rollo accordingly was very enjoyable for me. By the mid season finale, they appear to have the type of committed partnership that Ragnar used to have with Lagertha right at the start of the show and now doesn't have with anyone (nor does any of the other Viking characters, unless you count Floki and Helga, which I don't, because Floki). They seem to balance each other; she's seeing through the court intrigues in a way he doesn't, he's using the fighting skill he always had with additional long term thinking he didn't, they confide in each other, and if she sets up a sexual rule according to her taboos that doesn't make sense to him (no sex during pregnancy even early on), he still respects her wishes and abides by it.
Rollo finally beating Ragnar - twice, though if you want to get technical the man-to-man combat in the mid season finale was a draw, but the overall battle was not - was an emotional pay off to four seasons of sibling rivalry and feeling overshadowed, and it makes sense that it finally happens when he's found a new environment and relationships where people don't compare him to Ragnar and which aren't dependent on how he feels about Ragnar. Rollo used to be jealous of Ragnar because he wanted what Ragnar had; now he doesn't anymore, and lo, he finally manages to outthink and outfight him.
(I feel for Björn, though, who as opposed to Ragnar was surprised that Rollo changed sides.) (And despite announced intentions couldn't bring himself to kill him. That arrow was a warning shot.)
(Otoh the Parisians warming up to Rollo as well and cheering him on when he after his big won fight with Ragnar stumbles through the street back to Gisla who is so proud of him was down right heartwarming. This would be the perfect happy ending for Rollo, but I doubt Hirst is going to let him and Gisla go off to Normandy now, never to be seen again. He's not that nice to characters.)
In terms of evolving, Emperor Charles also does that this season; instead of being a spineless nonentity who has none of his daughter's bravery and brains, he's presented as a man who might not be heroic but is able to think for himself and outmaneouvre all the court schemers in a ruthless fashion, while also able to appreciate who is really helpful to his reign. That he's additionally revealed as either gay or bi is a nice bonus. (BTW, was this the show's first on screen m/m pairing? I mean, Ragnar offered a threesome to Athelstan twice, but Athelstan wasn't shown taking him up on it, and while Ecbert certainly had more than platonic feelings for everyone's favourite ex monk, he wasn't shown in bed with a man, either)
(BTW, that bath scene where Ecbert has Lagertha, Athelstan and Judith with him which ends up with Ecbert/Lagertha in retrospect looks even more like a missed opportunity for an orgy, since Ecbert certainly was interested in all three other parties, Lagertha was already willing to try it with Athelstan, and Judith was going to have sex with first Athelstan and later Ecbert in the show future. And as Aslaug says in s2 to Thorfunn, who wouldn't want (to be) Lagertha? That so would have been a plausible orgy.)
And now for more downsides. Yuti (Yu Ti? Yu Di?) was a character apparantly entirely there so Ragnar could have sex scenes with someone, and then prove how low he's sunk by murdering her for more drugs and discretion. She's a Chinese slave, so of course she has drugs stashed (never mind that she was a slave they got through the sacking of Paris, who certainly would not have been carrying around possessions), and while the show never says in dialogue the drug is opium - it doesn't name it as other than "medicine", it's a godawful cliché I could have done without. The show doesn't even attempt to give her her own story- Ragnar insists that she had to be the Emperor's daughter, not just a merchant's daughter before she was kidnapped, and she eventually tells him she is, but just compare her scenes at Kattegut with Athelstan's when he was the abducted slave in a culture completely different from his own. We saw him from his own pov. Yu Ti is simply Asian mystery woman, provider of sex and drugs and opportunities to feel sorry for himself when he's being terrible for Ragnar. Ugh.
And then there's Aslaug. Remember my s1 and s2 reviews where I was glad the show didn't make Aslaug the evil other woman, didn't demonize her just because she was the trigger that split up the show's primary couple? Hah. This season, we finally do get evil Aslaug. Or should I say, we get the results of Michael Hirst evidently having watched too much Game of Thrones? Because while Ragnar being horrible to Aslaug is presented in a way that makes it his fault, not hers, Aslaug is given several scenes to show her as bad news completely apart from her destroyed relationship with Ragnar and new ambition to rule. First you get the scene where she nurses already too old for this Ivar (I think he's supposed to be three or four years old at this point?) at her breast a la Catelyn's sister, because woman who breastfeeds too old for this male boy = big sign of female instability and evilness. Then she walks and sits around with a cup of wine in her hand a la Cersei. While, for all her new ambition to rule, never shown to do any actual ruling. Hooray for another storyline where a woman who wants to rule is then shown to be incompetent at it or not doing it at all. Instead we get the return of Harbard, who this time around is less ambigous maybe Odin and more a clear Viking version of Rasputin (sex with lots of women in the name of healing, check, helping female ruler with sick kid, check, "I wanted to live like the gods"), which I suppose makes Aslaug the pop culture version of the Czarina Alexandra. (As the real Alexandra certainly had no affair with Rasputin.) And then, Aslaug is given the ultimate signifier of tv's "this is a bad woman" rules by smirking over the death of little Siggy, Björn's daughter named after much missed big Siggy who died to save children last season. "Who cares?" Says little Ivar, set up as a mini psycho while still a kid in his scenes, including this one, though he's at least set up to be a smart psycho, both as a kid and after the time jump in the mid finale episode as an adolescent. Anyway, the saddest thing is that Ivar seems to be right, nobody cares about little Siggy dying; Björn certainly doesn't, he didn't care about her when leaving or returning for Paris both times. Unless the second half of the season offers flashbacks featuring someone asking "whatever became of little Siggy?", nor did Lagertha, first grandchild or not. Compare this to everyone's reaction to Ubbe and Sigurd ALMOST dying last season.
The finale in its last minutes presents us with a time jump (not the first on this show, but the last happened all the way back in early s2) of several years, seven or thereabouts, going by Magnus' age, and Ragnar, after several years of wandering on his lonesome, returning to Kattegut drug addiction free and challenging everyone, his grown up sons included. Kattegut at this point has become a big town full of trade with far off places in Ragnar's absence, is clearly doing well economically, and Aslaug is still ruling as Queen. This could have been such an interesting situation if Aslaug hadn't been evil-ized before, and if she'd been shown making administrative decisions earlier in the season when being regent, instead of having her affair with Harbard. Because then you'd have the audience and sons actually torn in the power struggle clearly to come: a non-evil Aslaug who not just has proven herself as a competent ruler but arguably a better one than Ragnar whose last kingly decisions had all ended in disaster, or their father as Viking tradition demands it? But with Evil!Aslaug, and Björn making it clear that he's not interested in ruling yet, but in exploring and going on another expedition, of course we're supposed to root for Ragnar to reassume power. Bah.
Otoh: there's Ragnar's mythological ending awaiting, which isn't triumphant. So we're supposed to root for the kids, I guess, and against both Ragnar and Aslaug. Which I can live with, but I still wish Aslaug hadn't been demonized.
