Apr 08, 2016 by Sarah Moffatt
I never gave much thought to just how exhausting it must’ve been to be a Viking. You’re always angry, always scheming, always fighting, and always having to do incredibly difficult things without the luxury of the machines and technology we have today. It’s a spoiled life we lead.
After their first raid on Paris went south, a lot of Ragnar’s followers were pretty upset about the outcome. Even brothers King Harald Finehair and Halfdan the Black were skeptical of the stories they heard about Ragnar and began to question following him into battle in the first place.
But as is his wont, Ragnar comes up with a last-minute plan that’s just crazy enough to work: he asks Floki to build a contraption that can raise the boats out... Read More
Apr 01, 2016 by Sarah Moffatt
“This is how you repay my love?!” Ragnar screams as he watches his warriors being sniped one by one and his boats swallowed by flames around him. The irony is not lost – the vikings willingly came to their own viking funeral.
We’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for Ragnar to invade Paris, and this week it finally happened: Ragnar finally came face-to-face with his traitorous brother, Rollo. In what was sort of promised to be an epic battle scene, the long-awaited battle of the viking brothers was a little lackluster after the seemingly never-ending build up this season.
To outthink Rollo, who easily predicts what Ragnar will do in his attack, Ragnar instructs his warriors to continue their attack by sea but Lagartha volunteers to lead... Read More
Mar 25, 2016 by Sarah Moffatt
This week was all about the raids on Paris – the moment when Ragnar and Rollo saw each other for the first time since Rollo abandoned his Viking life for that of a Christian.
But, before we get to the first sighting, let’s backtrack to the beginning of the journey.
After killing Kalf, Lagartha has kept her promise of fighting with Ragnar in the raids against Paris. She and her merry band of badass women have packed up shop and headed out along with Erlander, who claims he wants to fight in the raids, but we know better. We know Erlander is still butthurt after having Bjorn takes his wife away – something he makes apparent when he sees Tolvi for the first time since she chose to leave... Read More
Mar 18, 2016 by Sarah Moffatt
Holy Smokes. Did I or did I not say this season seemed to be all about the women and their rise to power?
This week’s episode starts and ends with Lagartha being a badass. While Kalf is busy doing who knows what, she’s training an elite group of other badass women to be boss fighters like her. She casually tells Kalf she’s pregnant, which they both seem to be pretty pumped about. Heck, he proposes to her on the spot. It’s pretty sweet how much he seems to love her, but things aren’t always what they seem, are they? We don’t see much of these two the entire episodes, just flashes of her preparing for her (third) wedding day. Here I am thinking, maybe this’ll be the one... Read More
Mar 10, 2016 by Sarah Moffatt
This week gave us several pivotal moments for pretty much every character we’re truly invested in. From Floki to Rollo to Bjorn, we’re starting to see the winds change and the season four ship turn for its intended destination.
Ragnar is still playing the “poor, pitiful me, I survived and I’m king and I never asked for either of those things” card. I admit, I had grown tired of his moping about getting to keep his lavish (by those time’s standards) life, but now I’m really interested in his weird mindset that he now has a partner in Yidu to share it with. “I’m torn between the compulsion to either kill myself or everyone around me” is a strange way to begin a new romance, but I’m sort of... Read More
Mar 03, 2016 by Sarah Moffatt
Poor Floki. Just when things couldn’t get any worse for the guy – his best friend (aka the king) turned on him and now he’s being tortured for doing what he thought was the right thing – it gets much, much worse.
I have to hand it to Helga. She is a very loving and loyal wife in a time where the idea loyalty in a marriage seems to be open to interpretation. You can’t help but feel bad for her as she holds the bowl over Floki’s head to collect the water constantly dripping on his head and slowly driving him crazy. It’s hard to imagine a water drip really being torture; couldn’t he just ignore it? But, then I think about how annoyed I get when someone starts... Read More
Feb 24, 2016 by Sarah Moffatt
If Ragnar is going to spend all of season four pouting over Floki saving his life, it’s going to be a long season.
Since Ragnar woke up, he’s been nothing but pissy to pretty much everyone he encounters, particularly Floki. Oddly enough, one of those rare exceptions is Floki’s wife, Helga, even though she freed Floki from his towncenter shackles to make a run for it. Ragnar can’t be bothered to hunt Floki down, however, so he sends his second eldest son, Ubbe – who is, like, ten – to lead a search party. Despite his flaring temper these days, Ragnar is gentle with Helga and tells her he doesn’t blame her for setting Floki free. But when Aslaug, his wife and mother of most of his children, mentions that... Read More
Feb 19, 2016 by Sarah Moffatt
Vikings has returned for its fourth season and three words can sum it up so far: women, power and revenge.
It was made extremely clear in this first episode that season four will be the season of the women. With Ragnar incapacitated from the Paris raids and Rollo staying behind, Bjorn and Queen Aslaug are left in charge. Aslaug pays a visit to the seer to ask if she’ll rule the kingdom someday, but the seer does not give her a definitive answer. Then, after Ragnar comes back from the brink of death – something most wives would be pumped about – Aslaug seems rather disappointed her husband has survived.
Ragnar’s son Bjorn was made acting king in Ragnar’s absence, and his first order of business is to... Read More
Feb 17, 2016 by Sarah Moffatt
A great perk of my job is getting exposure to shows not only before they are released, but to shows I may not normally watch on my own. History Channel’s Vikings is one of those shows. I was in the same boat as a lot of people I’ve talked to since watching the first four episodes of season four: I heard it was good and I wanted to watch it, but needed a final push to sit down and do it. And now that I have, I have to say I’m hooked.
Vikings is often compared to Game of Thrones, and even though both shows take place in vastly different times, a lot of the rules and themes are the same: do whatever it takes for power, land and wealth.... Read More
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