Vikings Season 4 Finale
Feb. 3rd, 2017 09:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which things come to an end more or less as I expected for the character featured in this finale I was most invested in. As for everyone else, well...
Ave atque vale, Ecbert. They kept the paralleling between Ragnar and Ecbert up till the death, with Ecbert using his weak position and death to trick his enemies and set up the success of the next generation. You'd think Björn would know better than to accept land gifts from King Ecbert, but noooo. Mind you, Ecbert, like Ragnar, didn't lie to trick, he used the truth: he did care for Ragnar, Ragnar wanted the land-for-farmers etc.. He just neglected to mention a few facts, like the key one that he'd taken care to resign his crown and all titles, making Aethelwulf king in an emergency coronation, and thus his authorization of the land donation to the Vikings was legally worthless. Another Ragnar/Ecbert parallel was that they both knew their own death was inevitable, not least because alive they'd never get anywhere near the support their successors could get, plus in Ecbert's case he knew the sons of Ragnar wouldn't have stopped chasing after him anyway. So he stayed, tricked the Vikings one last time and got to choose the manner of his death. Said manner was so very Ecbert that I should have guessed, but I didn't until they showed us the Roman bath, and then I slapped my forehead because of course he would. Dying, Roman-style, by opening your veins in a hot bath - and the very one where you spent many enjoyable hours seducing and confusing people - was Ecbert summed up, a magnificent bastard to the end.
While the Ecbert storyline was thus brought to a great conclusion, I've mixed feelings about the rest. Oh, not the immediate fallout between the sons, that was always on the horizon, and of course the fratricide would happen between Ivar and Sigurd, with taunting Sigurd set up as the boo-hiss figure among the brothers anyway, with no smarts or kindness to make up for his his schoolyard mean boy act. Otoh Helga dying robs us of another female regular character, which leaves us with solely two remaining established ones - Lagertha and Judith - , with newbie Astrid so far not yet either likeable or interesting or both, and Gisla possibly gone as well unless the show finds a way to continue Rollo's storyline. (Which could happen, I suppose, but basically his story looks told to me - his conflict with his brother is over, he's won his realm, he's done one last Viking outing and returned to his new life, and he's sired the children from which all British royalty will descend.) Like I said in the last review, I suspect Judith's scene with her family in earlier eps was partly so it her sister could get introduced as a character, and she might became a recurring one next season, but we've barely caught a glimpse of her so it's impossible to tell whether she'll be a good one.
Mind you: I'm not angry about Helga's death per se, because I was sort of hoping at least one captive would not take to the Viking life style and wouldn't get over the fact that her entire family and everyone she knew was slaughtered by these people. And the way Helga insisted on immediate adoption and love declarations was not a little creepy - she didn't even know the girl, beyond wanting a replacement daughter. Though if Tanaruz instead of killing herself afterwards had killed Floki instead it would have been preferable to me. I wasn't actively rooting for Floki's death anymore the way I was in season 3, but my sympathies are more than limited.
Speaking of sympathies, as with the mid season finale, I finish the season finale very much in the Saxon corner emotionally. Despite the introduction of Hirst favourite Jonathan Rhys Meyer in the tag scene complete with inevitable sex scene. Hirst, I know you must have suffered when Henry in the last season of the Tudors FINALLY had to gain some weight just before his death and couldn't get any sex scenes anymore, but must you show your pining so openly? Anyway, I do want to find out what Judith and Aethelwulf will now make of each other, how they'll raise the boys in their diminished kingdom and deal with rampaging Ivar, so I'll be back for s5. But the show might as well be called Saxons now for me.
Ave atque vale, Ecbert. They kept the paralleling between Ragnar and Ecbert up till the death, with Ecbert using his weak position and death to trick his enemies and set up the success of the next generation. You'd think Björn would know better than to accept land gifts from King Ecbert, but noooo. Mind you, Ecbert, like Ragnar, didn't lie to trick, he used the truth: he did care for Ragnar, Ragnar wanted the land-for-farmers etc.. He just neglected to mention a few facts, like the key one that he'd taken care to resign his crown and all titles, making Aethelwulf king in an emergency coronation, and thus his authorization of the land donation to the Vikings was legally worthless. Another Ragnar/Ecbert parallel was that they both knew their own death was inevitable, not least because alive they'd never get anywhere near the support their successors could get, plus in Ecbert's case he knew the sons of Ragnar wouldn't have stopped chasing after him anyway. So he stayed, tricked the Vikings one last time and got to choose the manner of his death. Said manner was so very Ecbert that I should have guessed, but I didn't until they showed us the Roman bath, and then I slapped my forehead because of course he would. Dying, Roman-style, by opening your veins in a hot bath - and the very one where you spent many enjoyable hours seducing and confusing people - was Ecbert summed up, a magnificent bastard to the end.
While the Ecbert storyline was thus brought to a great conclusion, I've mixed feelings about the rest. Oh, not the immediate fallout between the sons, that was always on the horizon, and of course the fratricide would happen between Ivar and Sigurd, with taunting Sigurd set up as the boo-hiss figure among the brothers anyway, with no smarts or kindness to make up for his his schoolyard mean boy act. Otoh Helga dying robs us of another female regular character, which leaves us with solely two remaining established ones - Lagertha and Judith - , with newbie Astrid so far not yet either likeable or interesting or both, and Gisla possibly gone as well unless the show finds a way to continue Rollo's storyline. (Which could happen, I suppose, but basically his story looks told to me - his conflict with his brother is over, he's won his realm, he's done one last Viking outing and returned to his new life, and he's sired the children from which all British royalty will descend.) Like I said in the last review, I suspect Judith's scene with her family in earlier eps was partly so it her sister could get introduced as a character, and she might became a recurring one next season, but we've barely caught a glimpse of her so it's impossible to tell whether she'll be a good one.
Mind you: I'm not angry about Helga's death per se, because I was sort of hoping at least one captive would not take to the Viking life style and wouldn't get over the fact that her entire family and everyone she knew was slaughtered by these people. And the way Helga insisted on immediate adoption and love declarations was not a little creepy - she didn't even know the girl, beyond wanting a replacement daughter. Though if Tanaruz instead of killing herself afterwards had killed Floki instead it would have been preferable to me. I wasn't actively rooting for Floki's death anymore the way I was in season 3, but my sympathies are more than limited.
Speaking of sympathies, as with the mid season finale, I finish the season finale very much in the Saxon corner emotionally. Despite the introduction of Hirst favourite Jonathan Rhys Meyer in the tag scene complete with inevitable sex scene. Hirst, I know you must have suffered when Henry in the last season of the Tudors FINALLY had to gain some weight just before his death and couldn't get any sex scenes anymore, but must you show your pining so openly? Anyway, I do want to find out what Judith and Aethelwulf will now make of each other, how they'll raise the boys in their diminished kingdom and deal with rampaging Ivar, so I'll be back for s5. But the show might as well be called Saxons now for me.
