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How I am going into this: Don't sacrifice Athelstan. Don't sacrifice Athelstan. Don't sacrifice Athelstan.
Also: Athelstan? What have you done to yourself?! Your hair and that beard, that's just - just no. (Also, has enough time elapsed for that? Judging by Ragnar's monologue, it's not yet been a year since Lagertha's miscarriage? Though according to Adam of Bremen, the Uppsala sacrifices took place around the spring equinox, so maybe?)
Random geography thought: Apparently the journey to Uppsala is one that involves crossing mountains, not the sea - right, that's it. Norway.
It amuses me that the temple of Uppsala looks like an old wooden church. From the outside, anyway.
Isn't the statue of Freyr a bit - uhm, lacking - for a fertility god?
And - basically, the Roskilde Festival is a modern day Viking pilgrimage, yes?
Is it just me, or are people overly fond of drugging Athelstan in this show? Mead, strange burning weeds, mushrooms?
The consent vikings seem to have taken a vacation - Athelstan was high on magic mushrooms, and Thyri doesn't sound like she was 100% voluntary either, and dammit show, is that how Athelstan has his first time? Dammit! Please let that not be the first time? That's - I think I need fix-it fic. Massive and massive amounts of fix-it fic. Please? Let's pretend she just washed him, okay. Just washed. No funny business. Dammit, show, dammit. You couldn't even let Ragnar do it? Ragnar who just walked away like that? Dammit.
ETA: Rewatching that scene - we see a drugged Athelstan wandering the orgy, meeting Thyri and going with her. A little later, we see Thyri bathing Athelstan, like the other sacrifices are bathed, and he asks her why she does this, and she answers that she has to. And - I dunno. I mean, considering orgy and considering naked, I suspect we are supposed to think they've had sex. But maybe she's just bathing him, ritually. Maybe. I dunno. I give up. /ETA
Hey, hnefatafl! :-) (What, I take my squees where I can in this episode - most of it is depressing me beyond belief).
Dammit, show, I liked Leif.
Right, I - didn't like this episode. I mean, it's effective - we have the constant building horror for Athelstan, and we can guess what's going to happen. That was a cruel trick, Ragnar played - I wonder if he planned it - a new use for the Christian slave, once his usefulness as a source of information about England was done? Convert him, take him to Uppsala, sacrifice him. And don't tell him.
Although - it was clumsily done, really. I mean, it's made pretty clear that the human sacrifices are volunteers. It's seems odd, if Ragnar really intended for Athelstan to be the sacrifice, that he wouldn't have somehow prepared him, so that he wouldn't come face to face with the shock of it and end up ruining things - unless Ragnar really thought Athelstan was completely converted? And Ragnar doesn't seem particularly upset about Athelstan not being sacrificed - nor that he looses yet another loyal member of his original hird. (I suspect Athelstan's integration into Norse society just took twenty-five steps backwards...) (I might possibly be trying to think of explanations - bortforklaringer.)
Don't get me wrong, Ragnar is a very interesting character. But I am wondering if perhaps I really should reconsider the whole liking him thing. (Who killed Haraldson's sons, anyway?)
Speaking of: I worry about the plotline about Ragnar and his not-yet-born sons - and yes, he needs the sons, Ivar the Boneless and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye and the rest. But I like Lagertha - well...
Actually, thing is - Lagertha. I like her, yes. But. She is a fierce shieldmaiden, a proud warrior. She's scary and smart. I ship Ragnar/Lagertha, yes. But. She is shown to have issues with Knut raping a Saxon woman, but rape was not exactly unusual - why does she care? (My headcanon involves it being because by raping her, Knut breaks Ragnar's oath of nobody getting hurt, but I digress). She has issues with a man potentially leaving his wife or hurting her bastard. She's - how to put it. She is fierce and Old Norse style feminist and that's all well and fine, but I am still missing her story? Is it like in Saxo, complete with the brothel? (At least that would explain several things?)
Anyway, to stop digressing.
I like Lagertha with Ragnar. I like Ragnar with Lagertha. But this obsession with sons. I don't like it. It's ominous. And then we get the preview and there's Kraka - fishnet and dog. Kraka.
I worry about Lagertha, alright?
Right, let's have a cheerier thought: How many think that the other Northmen are gigggling at the bunch from Kattegat behind their backs? On account of the name, you know?
Also: Athelstan? What have you done to yourself?! Your hair and that beard, that's just - just no. (Also, has enough time elapsed for that? Judging by Ragnar's monologue, it's not yet been a year since Lagertha's miscarriage? Though according to Adam of Bremen, the Uppsala sacrifices took place around the spring equinox, so maybe?)
Random geography thought: Apparently the journey to Uppsala is one that involves crossing mountains, not the sea - right, that's it. Norway.
It amuses me that the temple of Uppsala looks like an old wooden church. From the outside, anyway.
Isn't the statue of Freyr a bit - uhm, lacking - for a fertility god?
And - basically, the Roskilde Festival is a modern day Viking pilgrimage, yes?
Is it just me, or are people overly fond of drugging Athelstan in this show? Mead, strange burning weeds, mushrooms?
The consent vikings seem to have taken a vacation - Athelstan was high on magic mushrooms, and Thyri doesn't sound like she was 100% voluntary either, and dammit show, is that how Athelstan has his first time? Dammit! Please let that not be the first time? That's - I think I need fix-it fic. Massive and massive amounts of fix-it fic. Please? Let's pretend she just washed him, okay. Just washed. No funny business. Dammit, show, dammit. You couldn't even let Ragnar do it? Ragnar who just walked away like that? Dammit.
ETA: Rewatching that scene - we see a drugged Athelstan wandering the orgy, meeting Thyri and going with her. A little later, we see Thyri bathing Athelstan, like the other sacrifices are bathed, and he asks her why she does this, and she answers that she has to. And - I dunno. I mean, considering orgy and considering naked, I suspect we are supposed to think they've had sex. But maybe she's just bathing him, ritually. Maybe. I dunno. I give up. /ETA
Hey, hnefatafl! :-) (What, I take my squees where I can in this episode - most of it is depressing me beyond belief).
Dammit, show, I liked Leif.
Right, I - didn't like this episode. I mean, it's effective - we have the constant building horror for Athelstan, and we can guess what's going to happen. That was a cruel trick, Ragnar played - I wonder if he planned it - a new use for the Christian slave, once his usefulness as a source of information about England was done? Convert him, take him to Uppsala, sacrifice him. And don't tell him.
Although - it was clumsily done, really. I mean, it's made pretty clear that the human sacrifices are volunteers. It's seems odd, if Ragnar really intended for Athelstan to be the sacrifice, that he wouldn't have somehow prepared him, so that he wouldn't come face to face with the shock of it and end up ruining things - unless Ragnar really thought Athelstan was completely converted? And Ragnar doesn't seem particularly upset about Athelstan not being sacrificed - nor that he looses yet another loyal member of his original hird. (I suspect Athelstan's integration into Norse society just took twenty-five steps backwards...) (I might possibly be trying to think of explanations - bortforklaringer.)
Don't get me wrong, Ragnar is a very interesting character. But I am wondering if perhaps I really should reconsider the whole liking him thing. (Who killed Haraldson's sons, anyway?)
Speaking of: I worry about the plotline about Ragnar and his not-yet-born sons - and yes, he needs the sons, Ivar the Boneless and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye and the rest. But I like Lagertha - well...
Actually, thing is - Lagertha. I like her, yes. But. She is a fierce shieldmaiden, a proud warrior. She's scary and smart. I ship Ragnar/Lagertha, yes. But. She is shown to have issues with Knut raping a Saxon woman, but rape was not exactly unusual - why does she care? (My headcanon involves it being because by raping her, Knut breaks Ragnar's oath of nobody getting hurt, but I digress). She has issues with a man potentially leaving his wife or hurting her bastard. She's - how to put it. She is fierce and Old Norse style feminist and that's all well and fine, but I am still missing her story? Is it like in Saxo, complete with the brothel? (At least that would explain several things?)
Anyway, to stop digressing.
I like Lagertha with Ragnar. I like Ragnar with Lagertha. But this obsession with sons. I don't like it. It's ominous. And then we get the preview and there's Kraka - fishnet and dog. Kraka.
I worry about Lagertha, alright?
Right, let's have a cheerier thought: How many think that the other Northmen are gigggling at the bunch from Kattegat behind their backs? On account of the name, you know?