A quite good season, they managed to keep things interesting despite not having Ragnar anymore. Needless to say that production is always top quality anyway. The places (specially with iceland in this season), the looks and costumes, the battles, the filming, everything is as good as usual.
As is usual there are some temporality issues with the travels and timelines of people in different places. Sometimes it seems like months have passed for some, while just days for others. This makes some of the storylines a little chaotic and (almost) everything is fast forwarded to the action parts. That's fine when skipping travel and battle preparation, a little disturbing when it totally changes some characters relationships (Lagertha + Haemund for instance).
Greatest moments are clearly the battles. Several big ones here, some on a pretty big scale. Ivar is a genius strategist and his battle in cities, be it as attacker or defender, are on a whole other level.
Good storylines: :arrow_double_up:Ivar Still very annoying, but his success and his increasing madness (up to godhood) is interesting to watch. As mentioned above if not a great warrior, he is a great strategist. His not quite love story with Freydis and the reaction to his child's birth also gives slightly more dimension on top of his eternal megalomaniac inferiority complex.
:arrow_double_up:Haemund Less than Ivar but he's a bit annoying too, with his incessant prayers in the beginning, but mainly for his constant batman voice.But he certainly has one of the most colourful path.
:arrow_up:Judith The whole Wessex storyline is very boring in the beginning (except for the battles of York), but once Judith starts working for Alfred's power, she's quite good. Up to her shocking poisoning of her own son!
:arrow_up:Alfred Turns out much more interesting than expected
:arrow_up:Ubbe He finds his own path in this season. Some interesting choices, some great moments and the final realization of Ragnar's dream.
:ok:Bjorn His desert adventure in the beginning is a nice change. Too bad it's cut short for no reason and leads nowhere. After that he basically only has his use in battles.
:ok:Lagertha Good when she's in power, but it's really down after that. She even disappears for several episodes without any reason.
:ok:Harald, Aethelred, Torvi, Gunnhild
Could have been better: :arrow_right:Margrethe There was a concept with her desire for power, but it never turned into something concrete. In the beginning she badmouths Lagertha (with more or less reason), suggesting treason to several people, then gets told off by Lagertha and runs away crying. And then... the exact same cycle for the next episodes. That's a bit weird. She could have stopped, or be executed, or become more virulent, or more discreet. But in the end just nothing.
:arrow_right:Freydis Great possibilities, she seemed to be the one person able to manipulate Ivar for her own interests, but ending seems to show that she actually believed what she told and couldn't see his madness until it affected her personally. That's very disappointing. But at least she contributed to
:arrow_right:Harald The character itself is great. He has his dreams of conquests, we see him in his domain where he seems to be loved, he's always drunk at parties and very unlucky in love. He has his thing with Astrid that is sadly taken away from him, the same day he kills his own brother.
But he is underexploited in storylines, he's only the token army that everyone goes to when they want to attack somewhere, be it England or Kattegat, that's it. Like Bjorn tells him, he would just like to be Ragnar but can't understand why he can't.
Useless ones: 0⃣Hvitserk He's just Ivar's little bitch the whole season and is used as justification to bring an army to help Bjorn in the end.
0⃣Magnus Absolutely nothing would have changed if he wasn't there, and we didn't even see him interact meaningfully with other characters.
0⃣Aethelwulf
Shitty ones: :arrow_double_down:Floki The whole Iceland arc is useless, empty and slow. Floki's joy at finding the god's land, his religious fervor, his tries to make humans behave in a better way, his half madness, are really good. The actor has probably one of the best performance of the season. Floki itself is not the issue. But the story around just plain sucks. It could have been done in half an episode, yet things that you know are going to happen since the beginning take 13 episodes to happen. The total separation with the others does not help.
Review by FLYVIP 2BlockedParent2021-02-03T00:09:35Z
A quite good season, they managed to keep things interesting despite not having Ragnar anymore.
Needless to say that production is always top quality anyway. The places (specially with iceland in this season), the looks and costumes, the battles, the filming, everything is as good as usual.
As is usual there are some temporality issues with the travels and timelines of people in different places. Sometimes it seems like months have passed for some, while just days for others. This makes some of the storylines a little chaotic and (almost) everything is fast forwarded to the action parts. That's fine when skipping travel and battle preparation, a little disturbing when it totally changes some characters relationships (Lagertha + Haemund for instance).
Greatest moments are clearly the battles. Several big ones here, some on a pretty big scale. Ivar is a genius strategist and his battle in cities, be it as attacker or defender, are on a whole other level.
Good storylines:
:arrow_double_up:Ivar
Still very annoying, but his success and his increasing madness (up to godhood) is interesting to watch. As mentioned above if not a great warrior, he is a great strategist. His not quite love story with Freydis and the reaction to his child's birth also gives slightly more dimension on top of his eternal megalomaniac inferiority complex.
:arrow_double_up:Haemund
Less than Ivar but he's a bit annoying too, with his incessant prayers in the beginning, but mainly for his constant batman voice.But he certainly has one of the most colourful path.
:arrow_up:Judith
The whole Wessex storyline is very boring in the beginning (except for the battles of York), but once Judith starts working for Alfred's power, she's quite good. Up to her shocking poisoning of her own son!
:arrow_up:Alfred
Turns out much more interesting than expected
:arrow_up:Ubbe
He finds his own path in this season. Some interesting choices, some great moments and the final realization of Ragnar's dream.
:ok:Bjorn
His desert adventure in the beginning is a nice change. Too bad it's cut short for no reason and leads nowhere. After that he basically only has his use in battles.
:ok:Lagertha
Good when she's in power, but it's really down after that. She even disappears for several episodes without any reason.
:ok:Harald, Aethelred, Torvi, Gunnhild
Could have been better:
:arrow_right:Margrethe
There was a concept with her desire for power, but it never turned into something concrete. In the beginning she badmouths Lagertha (with more or less reason), suggesting treason to several people, then gets told off by Lagertha and runs away crying. And then... the exact same cycle for the next episodes. That's a bit weird. She could have stopped, or be executed, or become more virulent, or more discreet. But in the end just nothing.
:arrow_right:Freydis
Great possibilities, she seemed to be the one person able to manipulate Ivar for her own interests, but ending seems to show that she actually believed what she told and couldn't see his madness until it affected her personally. That's very disappointing. But at least she contributed to
:arrow_right:Harald
The character itself is great. He has his dreams of conquests, we see him in his domain where he seems to be loved, he's always drunk at parties and very unlucky in love. He has his thing with Astrid that is sadly taken away from him, the same day he kills his own brother.
But he is underexploited in storylines, he's only the token army that everyone goes to when they want to attack somewhere, be it England or Kattegat, that's it. Like Bjorn tells him, he would just like to be Ragnar but can't understand why he can't.
Useless ones:
0⃣Hvitserk
He's just Ivar's little bitch the whole season and is used as justification to bring an army to help Bjorn in the end.
0⃣Magnus
Absolutely nothing would have changed if he wasn't there, and we didn't even see him interact meaningfully with other characters.
0⃣Aethelwulf
Shitty ones:
:arrow_double_down:Floki
The whole Iceland arc is useless, empty and slow. Floki's joy at finding the god's land, his religious fervor, his tries to make humans behave in a better way, his half madness, are really good. The actor has probably one of the best performance of the season. Floki itself is not the issue. But the story around just plain sucks. It could have been done in half an episode, yet things that you know are going to happen since the beginning take 13 episodes to happen. The total separation with the others does not help.