Vikings 4.11.
Dec. 1st, 2016 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakWent from Munich to Bamberg, signed about a hundred Christmas letters with no end in sight, rewarded self with 45 minutes of fiction. The second half of Vikings season 4 has started, Amazon Prime puts up an episode a week, which means for the first time I could watch it when broadcast. More or less.
To recapitulate: during the first half of s4, I got to thoroughly despise Ragnar, was annoyed that Lagertha hasn’t got arcs anymore as much as a series of situations where she gets to be badass, felt really let down that that Aslaug got demonized because I had appreciated the show avoiding just this in seasons 1 and 2, and enjoyed the Paris and England parts of the show more than the Vikings ones. So you might say the first episode of the second season half, which is set totally in Kattegut with no Paris or Mercia scene in sight, with a main plot around Ragnar’s return, had a lot to prove to me. But lo, it did. I even warmed up somewhat to Ragnar again, just in time, I suppose, for his impending doom. This was accomplished by him not behaving as an abusive jerk in complete emotional isolation but actually reaching out to people and giving them something: Floki, at long last, gets to hear “I love you” from Ragnar (and says it in return), Lagertha gets an apology (and a clear expression of his continuing feelings as well, but as opposed to Floki, Lagertha didn’t need the later, she already knew that, whereas the apology was overdue), and Ivar gets messed up father-son bonding. (More about Ivar in a moment.) In between, Ragnar tries to kill himself, and being an Odin avatar, he of course does it by hanging himself from a tree, but no dice, Ravens come to his aid, and he survives.
(As with Floki getting the Loki iconic moments in the first half of the season complete with dripping in his face and Helga playing Sigyn, it is mythologically satisfying that the show is consistent in which gods it aligns its characters to. Ragnar hanging from a tree equals Odin’s hanging from a tree to gain wisdom and understand the mysteries of life (he also discovered the runes this way, more here), so now I’m waiting for Ragnar to lose an eye next.)
Sidenote: Ragnar tells Floki he’s not sure he’ll go to Valhalla; still hoping to find Athelstan in the Christian heaven, I suppose, but kind enough not to mention this to Floki on his farewell visit.
The Ragnar-Lagertha encounter was a worthy final meeting, if that's what it was, with Lagertha not pretending that Ragnar didn't screw up a lot (both politically and personally) but also owning her own decisions, and her life. I have no opinion yet on her relationship with Astrid, because we've only just met Astrid, other than being amused at the 70s sex scene soft camera focus; the show never was so coy before in its sex scenes.
Meanwhile, the episode also had the job of familiarizing the audience with the adult versions of Ragnar’s sons by Aslaug. Or, to be more precise, with Ivar and Ubbe, who were the ones truly fleshed out. (Addendum: given Ubba is a prominent character in the first season of The Last Kingdom, I’m just waiting for someone to finally write that crossover. Not that the personalities match so far, given that Vikings!Ubba is the only Ragnarson so far who thinks slaves should be asked before having sex with them. Last Kingdom!Ubba would never bother.)
With Ivar I was ready to growl “we already got that you’re setting him up as the clever psychopath in the last episode of the first season half, show, you don’t have to let him kill the slave girl to rub it in”, but then, lo and behold, the scene with the slave girl didn’t end as another gratitious death of a woman to underscore in what bad state a man is in (no, show, I haven’t forgotten Ragnar killing Yu Ti), nor was it resolved by Ivar suddenly falling in love, or the slave girl, Margret, for that matter. Instead, she saved herself by cleverness and deduction of what the core of Ivar’s problem is, which isn’t that he can’t have sex, and by pointing him towards a way of how he can deal with it. Ivar, too, became more interesting than “okay, he’s the clever evil son”, and the final scene with Ragnar, in which he becomes the only son to volunteer to go with Ragnar (but not until Ragnar actually asked him) actually made me look forward to watch how their relationship will develop. Moreover, the show so far found a credible way of letting Ivar have martial skills despite his inability to use the lower half of his body, and highlights the incredible willpower it takes to live in a society that has no patience for people with serious physical handicaps.
So all in all: I enjoyed the episode. Bring on the rest of the season!
To recapitulate: during the first half of s4, I got to thoroughly despise Ragnar, was annoyed that Lagertha hasn’t got arcs anymore as much as a series of situations where she gets to be badass, felt really let down that that Aslaug got demonized because I had appreciated the show avoiding just this in seasons 1 and 2, and enjoyed the Paris and England parts of the show more than the Vikings ones. So you might say the first episode of the second season half, which is set totally in Kattegut with no Paris or Mercia scene in sight, with a main plot around Ragnar’s return, had a lot to prove to me. But lo, it did. I even warmed up somewhat to Ragnar again, just in time, I suppose, for his impending doom. This was accomplished by him not behaving as an abusive jerk in complete emotional isolation but actually reaching out to people and giving them something: Floki, at long last, gets to hear “I love you” from Ragnar (and says it in return), Lagertha gets an apology (and a clear expression of his continuing feelings as well, but as opposed to Floki, Lagertha didn’t need the later, she already knew that, whereas the apology was overdue), and Ivar gets messed up father-son bonding. (More about Ivar in a moment.) In between, Ragnar tries to kill himself, and being an Odin avatar, he of course does it by hanging himself from a tree, but no dice, Ravens come to his aid, and he survives.
(As with Floki getting the Loki iconic moments in the first half of the season complete with dripping in his face and Helga playing Sigyn, it is mythologically satisfying that the show is consistent in which gods it aligns its characters to. Ragnar hanging from a tree equals Odin’s hanging from a tree to gain wisdom and understand the mysteries of life (he also discovered the runes this way, more here), so now I’m waiting for Ragnar to lose an eye next.)
Sidenote: Ragnar tells Floki he’s not sure he’ll go to Valhalla; still hoping to find Athelstan in the Christian heaven, I suppose, but kind enough not to mention this to Floki on his farewell visit.
The Ragnar-Lagertha encounter was a worthy final meeting, if that's what it was, with Lagertha not pretending that Ragnar didn't screw up a lot (both politically and personally) but also owning her own decisions, and her life. I have no opinion yet on her relationship with Astrid, because we've only just met Astrid, other than being amused at the 70s sex scene soft camera focus; the show never was so coy before in its sex scenes.
Meanwhile, the episode also had the job of familiarizing the audience with the adult versions of Ragnar’s sons by Aslaug. Or, to be more precise, with Ivar and Ubbe, who were the ones truly fleshed out. (Addendum: given Ubba is a prominent character in the first season of The Last Kingdom, I’m just waiting for someone to finally write that crossover. Not that the personalities match so far, given that Vikings!Ubba is the only Ragnarson so far who thinks slaves should be asked before having sex with them. Last Kingdom!Ubba would never bother.)
With Ivar I was ready to growl “we already got that you’re setting him up as the clever psychopath in the last episode of the first season half, show, you don’t have to let him kill the slave girl to rub it in”, but then, lo and behold, the scene with the slave girl didn’t end as another gratitious death of a woman to underscore in what bad state a man is in (no, show, I haven’t forgotten Ragnar killing Yu Ti), nor was it resolved by Ivar suddenly falling in love, or the slave girl, Margret, for that matter. Instead, she saved herself by cleverness and deduction of what the core of Ivar’s problem is, which isn’t that he can’t have sex, and by pointing him towards a way of how he can deal with it. Ivar, too, became more interesting than “okay, he’s the clever evil son”, and the final scene with Ragnar, in which he becomes the only son to volunteer to go with Ragnar (but not until Ragnar actually asked him) actually made me look forward to watch how their relationship will develop. Moreover, the show so far found a credible way of letting Ivar have martial skills despite his inability to use the lower half of his body, and highlights the incredible willpower it takes to live in a society that has no patience for people with serious physical handicaps.
So all in all: I enjoyed the episode. Bring on the rest of the season!
