comment by #4zA - #savethedonkeys (U19575)
posted 2 days, 19 hours ago
i hink things move a little too fast now, need to slow down a little like in s1-3
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I think it's because they opened up too many subplots and minor character feuds without daring to kill others off.

They've ended up with far too many stories not really going anywhere and minor rivalries that need solving. I've watched the whole thing and last week they were giving scenes to characters they were killing off who I couldn't even remember 2 lines of dialogue from - e.g. that bird of Bjorn's. Harald's brother's character never really developed, his devotion to Bjorn hugely unconvincing, his death bland as heck...

And there's the re-edition of the priest story with this new one who wants in Lagertha's knickers, another total mess as he was supposedly meant tobe a fascination for Ivar (in itself a completely unconvincing story line too).

There's Floki and his story off in Iceland which I doubt many viewers can give much of a f*ck about any more (and he used to be my favourite character in the whole show! .)

Then there's the whole Alfred the Great story dragging along in time over in England, while Roll-on appears out of the blue for no clear purpose, need or reason...

The brothers need to kill each other off, Lagertha needs to die, Harald needs to become king and it's all taking an absolute age of nothing really interesting going on...

It's just all got very silly and pointless, imo. Have grown so disappointed with the series during this season. Just about clinging on to it now to see where it goes, but no real expectation or looking forward to the next episode (which I presume actually aired last weekend).

Is that too much spoiling? Delete if necessary.

i guess we watch for different things

i love the general depiction of viking society and the slower they go the more i get to see of that

also i really found Ivar intriguing

nah this the spoiler thread for a reason IOAG

I suppose we can disagree Blarms. I used to find Ivar a lot more interesting, but it's almost as if he tries too hard now. I also like the depiction of Viking society, but I don't find it adds much more to that nowadays either.

The series certainly has tickled my interest and led me to read up a fair bit on those times, but the series just hasn't been cutting it for me recently.

they arent writing the saxon storyline as well as they used to

frankly we should see more of the franks, which maybe we will now

so i did a history degree

they used to refer to the period as part of the dark ages but given the amount of histories that were written in monasteries this is actually a silly label and we're better at researching/preserving now

have you read any of the sagas? pretty interesting

I liked the idea of mixing history and legend (which is more or less what the sagas do I think), but even while it was always a pretty 'free' interpretation, the impression I get is that they've strayed pretty wildly now.

i mean floki and rollo was a bit wild

Alfred being the son of a monk and everyone was aware of it - beyond straying

Couple of things that really annoyed me because they needlessly shut down cool storylines from history

Introducing Aellas daughter then killing her future husband Sigurd

Introducing Guthrum as Jarl Borgs son and Bjorns adopted but then also killing that character when he could have been the historical Gurthrum

Also Egil

As I said, they just kickstarted more stories than they could properly handle ... the different locations don't help much either, but I don't think that's been the biggest problem.

Who was that wife/lover of Bjorn's who got killed last episode I watched, I swear I couldn't even remember her - was she that Laplandish-type one? What did she have, like 5 or 6 minutes of screen time? Why bother introducing the character in the first place?

It was more like they were teasing people though

Saying you might want this but we only care about Ivar and Bjorn

I only just remembered who she was Honestly didn't have a clue who she was when she came up in that last episode.

If the character isnt Ivar, Bjorn, Lagertha or Rollo expect nothing from them

Which is stupid because Viking era was about a huge amount of different people trying to become famous - whole point of their warrior culture

Finished S5 last night, well up to the break anyway.

Glad I carried on, as I wasn't really looking forward to the series after 4. Mainly because I had little interest or care for any of Ragnars sons. Enjoyed it though and it improved as it went on, set up nicely for part 2.

Nice to see Rollo back too, wonder what his angle will be.

The Floki side story was a bit of a drag though at times, which is a shame as he used to be one of my favourite characters.

My brothers in arms

Anyone else caught up with the last season?

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

I'll start... so Floki is alive and well after all.

Even though he fking shouldnt be and the cross sh't never got explained

Ivar's death was fking weird

But i enjoyed the chat he and Alfred had

Im not sure based on the stuff shown in the show why Ivar is supposed to be viewed as the most famous viking. Arguably Bjorn did a lot more

Yeah, Floki surviving being trapped in an erupting volcano was silly. I found most of the Iceland storyline to be boring and a complete waste of time.

Agree about Ivar.

Bjorn's death was beautifully done, though I don't get why he was supposed to be considered greater than Ragnar? He lost several battles, raided one town in the Mediterranean and lost the election.

Ragnar managed to go from farmer to king, carried out the first raids on England and surely would have left a better legacy.