Vikings

So History channel has brought back the "Vikings" and no not the ones from Minnesota.

Season 2 has started. Gotta love the way it started...

Is it just me or does Rollo look like Gunner from Impact Wrestling.

I don't currently watch this show, but I've heard good things about it.

I'm off work until Thursday, so maybe I'll go and watch Season 1 and get caught up.

This series was a great to watch. Wasn't sure how I would like it when it first started, but got sucked in to it.

I don't want to play out any spoilers or talk about anything until you've had a chance to catch up.

Today I watched 6 of the 9 episodes of Season 1.  I will watch the remainder tomorrow, as well as the first episode of Season 2, and then I'll be all caught up.

Ragnar is one cocky sonofagun.  I'm at the part in Season 1 now where Ragnar defeated Earl Haraldson in their duel, they had Haraldson's funeral and burial, and Ragnar is the new Earl.  I'm assuming Rollo is up to no good since he asked Haraldson's wife how she would like being married to an Earl again -- himself!     

With that said, Floki is my favo character.  He's cray cray!    

This show is sooooo good. I'm all caught up now, and it's gettin' juicy!   

I love Floki. You can tell he's not playing with a full deck but at the same time his wits are fully about him.

There are a lot of characters that play well off each other and that brings this show together.

I enjoyed this week's episode.

They set it up nicely (4 years later) for Ragnar and his eldest son to duel.

I felt badly for Rollo when Ragnar wouldn't let him go on the raid, but he's a hot mess.    

I missed this week's episode. For some reason my DVR didn't work.

Got caught up yesterday. This past week's show was amazing.

With the new raids west, and Rollo - stuck back at home - not going on them. His wife sleeping with the king. Oh my gosh...so many rabbit trails right now.

Ragnard's (new) wife giving the prophesy of his son having dragon eyes.....wwwwwwwwwhhhhhhuuut?!

Did you watch this week's episode yet, stlrtruck?

Oh yeah, I'm all up to date.

I'm excited to see what happens with Bjorn and his mom. If they return to Ragnar or if Bjorn will become a leader elsewhere.

I can't wait to see the fall out from the attack on Ragnar's people. I wish these shows were 2 hour episodes so they could pack more action and not leave me hanging so often.

This past week's episode was exceptional, in my opinion.  The near crucifixion of Athelstan was something I was totally not expecting, and played nicely into this Easter season.

Ragnar, Lagertha and Bjorn finally back together again.  I hope they kick some ass!    

Lady Steel wrote:

This past week's episode was exceptional, in my opinion.  The near crucifixion of Athelstan was something I was totally not expecting, and played nicely into this Easter season.

Ragnar, Lagertha and Bjorn finally back together again.  I hope they kick some ass!    

I'm waiting to see Bjorn in action. I know there is going to be some drama between Lagertha and Ragnar's new wife, but that'll be secondary compared to Lagertha's fighting next to his side.

And yes the near curcifixion of Athelstan was an excellent surprise this week. Unbelievable. Waiting to see how this all plays out with the new lands vs. old homes.

Finished watching the latest episode:

1. Bjorn looks like he has his uncle's lust for blood
2. Lagertha is an awesome shield maiden
3. Rollo is back where he belongs, with Ragnar
4. Can't to see what happens with The Priest
5. King Ecbert (sp) is about to get the surprise beating of his life (imo)

Looking forward to next weeks' episode

Just finished watching Season 1. I like it a lot. Although I can't be the only one who thinks that Vikings is kind of like Sons of Anarchy, only on boats instead of motorcycles.

Aside from kind of looking alike, there are quite a few similarities between the main characters on Vikings and Sons, Ragnar and Jax.

1. They're both antiheroes.
2. Both have strong wives who they can't stay faithful to.
3. Both are controlled and held back by a ruthless leader.
4. After the death of their respective leaders, both take over as leaders.
5. Both want to change things up to better the lives of their family and friends.

There are more similarities between the characters of Ragnar and Jax, but those are the ones I thought of off the top of my head. After the first few episodes of Vikings, I was concerned that Ragnar was going to be too much like Jax. But there are enough differences to set the characters apart. The big difference is that Jax is a good guy who occasionally does bad, and trouble always seems to find him. On the other hand, Ragnar is a bad guy who occasionally does good, and he always goes looking for trouble. Regardless, they're both bad-ass antiheroes. Sons, which is my favorite show still on TV, will be entering its final season in the fall, so Jax's story is coming to a close. Ragnar is a suitable replacement to fill that bad-ass antihero role.





HAHA ... just found this mashup of Jax and Ragnar:

Love the show. And IMO, Ragnar is a leader looking to better his people To him, this means stragetic attacks and planning. Not sure about the Jax guy as I don't watch the show. However, there is something about Ragnar that is enticing, and promising.

Time to get back to this series too.

Only 2 shows left in the season....I love the mixture of fighting and human purpose found amongst the characters.

Wallace108 wrote:

Just finished watching Season 1. I like it a lot. Although I can't be the only one who thinks that Vikings is kind of like Sons of Anarchy, only on boats instead of motorcycles.

Aside from kind of looking alike, there are quite a few similarities between the main characters on Vikings and Sons, Ragnar and Jax.

1. They're both antiheroes.
2. Both have strong wives who they can't stay faithful to.
3. Both are controlled and held back by a ruthless leader.
4. After the death of their respective leaders, both take over as leaders.
5. Both want to change things up to better the lives of their family and friends.

There are more similarities between the characters of Ragnar and Jax, but those are the ones I thought of off the top of my head. After the first few episodes of Vikings, I was concerned that Ragnar was going to be too much like Jax. But there are enough differences to set the characters apart. The big difference is that Jax is a good guy who occasionally does bad, and trouble always seems to find him. On the other hand, Ragnar is a bad guy who occasionally does good, and he always goes looking for trouble. Regardless, they're both bad-ass antiheroes. Sons, which is my favorite show still on TV, will be entering its final season in the fall, so Jax's story is coming to a close. Ragnar is a suitable replacement to fill that bad-ass antihero role.





HAHA ... just found this mashup of Jax and Ragnar:

You're not the only one who saw similarities in Jax and Ragnar. I saw them too early on. I even had to check the credits to make sure Charlie Hunnam wasn't playing Ragnar on the show because they looked so much alike!

I wasn't sure how I'd like the show either at first, but I dove in head first by buying the 1st season on Blu-Ray last year and the wife and I got hooked immediately. It helps to fill the Sons void for us. We like a lot of period piece type shows/movies like "Game of Thrones", "Spartacus", "Peaky Blinders", "Deadwood", and "Carnivale".

Speaking of which, if anyone here hasn't seen "Peaky Blinders" yet, and you enjoy Irish mobster stories, this show is great! It's set in 1920s Birmingham, England and is about an Irish gang that runs an illegal horse gambling ring. It's a Netflix original series so if you don't have that you're out of luck, but the show is great.

Buddha Bus wrote:

I even had to check the credits to make sure Charlie Hunnam wasn't playing Ragnar on the show because they looked so much alike!  

Me and my mother-in-law got into an argument over that. I commented on how much Jax and Ragnar looked alike, and she said it's because it's the same actor. I tried, and tried, and tried to convince her that it wasn't the same actor. Thank God for the Internet. Although I'm still not sure she believes me. You can't believe everything you read on the Interwebs.
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In my opinion, Vikings faces the same challenge as Walking Dead ... the storylines are pretty much always going to be the same. It's hard to keep a show like that fresh. Walking Dead has always been a character-driven show, so what's happening isn't as important as how the characters respond to what's happening. To continue to stay fresh, Vikings needs to be very much a character-driven show as well. And that's been my one and only complaint about the show ... they haven't done a great job developing many of the characters. Now that they've killed off Athelstan, we've got Ragnar, Floki, Lagertha, and Rollo. And they're starting to develop Bjorn a little bit. Beyond that, I really don't care about any other character on the show, and I'm not sure I can name more than two or three more. In a show where the scenery, action, and storylines don't change a whole lot, we need some great characters to care about to keep the show going strong for another 3, 4, or 5 seasons. So hopefully they start giving more depth to more characters next season.

Floki = dead

stlrtruck wrote:

Floki = dead

I'd hate to see Floki go at this point. Not only do I like him as a character, but like I said in my last post, they haven't developed enough characters to keep killing off the main ones.

Wallace108 wrote:

stlrtruck wrote:

Floki = dead

I'd hate to see Floki go at this point. Not only do I like him as a character, but like I said in my last post, they haven't developed enough characters to keep killing off the main ones.

It may not happen before the season finale, although they usually save the season finale for killing off at least one main character or throwing out a twist for the next season.

So here's what I see in the last two episodes:
Floki dies
Vikings take France

Next season:
Rolo takes the French Princess as a slave (possibly a wife)
Lagartha gets back her Earldom
Bjorn becomes an Earl

stlrtruck wrote:

Floki dies

While they're definitely making us think that Floki's death is inevitable, I'm not so sure. Ragnar could have killed him at any point. They don't see death as a punishment, so I think Ragnar is choosing to make him suffer ... first with the thought that the gods abandoned him. We're seeing Ragnar do things a bit differently, which I think represents the affect Althestan had on him. Or I could be wrong and Floki meets Odin in the finale.

Wallace108 wrote:

stlrtruck wrote:

Floki dies

While they're definitely making us think that Floki's death is inevitable, I'm not so sure. Ragnar could have killed him at any point. They don't see death as a punishment, so I think Ragnar is choosing to make him suffer ... first with the thought that the gods abandoned him. We're seeing Ragnar do things a bit differently, which I think represents the affect Althestan had on him. Or I could be wrong and Floki meets Odin in the finale.

I never said Ragnar would kill him. I just said he would die. He's crazy enough to commit suicide. Or at least throw himself into harm's way so he can die a Viking's death and get to Valhalla.

You're right about Ragnar, but I think he was that way before Athelstan. He's more calculating now then he was in the first season. Which shows his growth as a leader. I think he kept Athelstan around because he enjoyed the contradicting views.

Vikings season 4 starts Feb. 18. The first 3 seasons had no more than 10 episodes per season. Season 4 will have 20 episodes, but it's going to be a split season, with 10 episodes airing early in the year and 10 airing later (fall?)