S05.E01: The Departed (1) / S05.E02: The Departed (2)

[BitterApple]

Seriously, whoever trains Alex deserves an award. Considering how many takes they have to do for all those scenes, his upper body strength must be off the charts.

[jackjill89]

9 hours ago, benteen said:

Ivar's crawling is so creepy and he really does look inhuman when he does it.

Incredibly creepy! When he crawled up to those boys he moved like a fast, menacing lizard -- the way they shot it with him coming up over the rock or whatever -- scary as heck. 

The actor is hugely talented physical actor. When he was walking up to his brothers, the way he straightened up and moved his head -- there was something very powerful about it. He has really committed to this character. 

[JennyMominFL]

On 12/2/2017 at 5:25 PM, magdalene said:

 

I have probably liked Lagertha less than a lot of other people for quite a while now and her raping Harald Finehair did not endear her to me. And I have always loathed Finehair and his icky brother.   I wonder what people would say if a male character on the show raped a tied up female?

I know full well that Lagertha will never be killed off as long as this show is on the air but I would be totally okay if Lagertha was killed off this season.

I cant stand Lagertha and have wanted her dead for a couple of seasons now. She can just go.

[Captanne]

Rollo raped a slave in season one.  If we think raping isn't going on in the pillaging, we're painfully naive.

It's cultural.

What disappoints me (and only me), is that it's Lagertha committing it.  Not that it's done by the Vikings -- to think not would be naive.  But that it's Lagertha.

(Also for an amazing woman-rapes-man scene, I recommend season 4 of Farscape.  Much more powerfully done.  The agony and aftermath are palpable and linger.  I've never forgotten it.  Ben Browder -- the actor -- was unreal he was so good.)

[Lady Iris]

Silly question but did Ivar mean to kill Siggy? I suppose he did mean it since he aimed an axe at his brother's heart but how could the brothers truly believe it was an accident? I'm at a 90% hate Ivar and 10% like Ivar only when he's with Floki.

I wish we could see Rollo again and Ragnar is just sorely missed.

My dvr did something funky and I missed the raiding of York which doesn't necessarily sound like a bad thing with the extra special brand of Ivar violence being perpetrated.

[Son of the Norse]

Ivar claims he didn't mean to.  Hopefully though, the writer sheds some light on if he was sincere or just playing along with what he felt people wanted to hear.

[Babalooie]

23 hours ago, Lady Iris said:

Silly question but did Ivar mean to kill Siggy? I

Maybe this video will answer your question.   Here's the actor's explanation.   SPOILER ALERT

http://www.tvguide.com/news/vikings-mega-spoilers-hvisterk-civil-war/

[cmr2014]

On 12/5/2017 at 5:55 AM, Captanne said:

Rollo raped a slave in season one.  If we think raping isn't going on in the pillaging, we're painfully naive.

It's cultural.

What disappoints me (and only me), is that it's Lagertha committing it.  Not that it's done by the Vikings -- to think not would be naive.  But that it's Lagertha.

(Also for an amazing woman-rapes-man scene, I recommend season 4 of Farscape.  Much more powerfully done.  The agony and aftermath are palpable and linger.  I've never forgotten it.  Ben Browder -- the actor -- was unreal he was so good.)

I think it was out of character for Lagertha. She has killed people before -- with reason -- but has always been portrayed as fair and reasonable. Nothing about this is in her character. Harald tried to kill her, tried to usurp her power, and then spoke of her becoming his sexual property -- Lagertha would have killed him for any of these things, and no one would have blinked. Holding him prisoner and raping him made no sense in the context of her character, her situation, or the culture in which they lived. It was a device to move the story forward and to get Harald out of Kattekat, but it fell flat.

I dislike the new "girl-power" theme that surrounds Lagertha now: the girlfriend and the retinue of shield maidens. It strikes me as more of a male fantasy than as something that a smart and powerful female leader would do.

[BitterApple]

36 minutes ago, cmr2014 said:

 

I dislike the new "girl-power" theme that surrounds Lagertha now: the girlfriend and the retinue of shield maidens. It strikes me as more of a male fantasy than as something that a smart and powerful female leader would do.

I agree. It just screams "fan fiction" to keep the teenage boys happy. It's like the Dark Ages version of Taylor Swift and her Girl Squad, and it's equally as obnoxious. 

[spinxella]

 

This scene was deleted in the US broadcast.

Ivar kills the kids.

[Captanne]

Ivar killing the kids reminds me of Shakespeare's Richard III.

[green]

Thanks, Spinxella, for the deleted scene above.

Interesting they made a point of Ubbe shoving his way out of the crowd and away from the killing of the kids.  He doesn't try to stop it of course just like Ragnar never tried to stop the rape of the nuns or torture by Floki of the bishop since they were Viking "ways".  But, like Ragnar, he wanted nothing to do with it personally.  Ubbe is definitely Ragnar 2.0 in this drama.

[rozen]

Guess I am a bad feminist, because I gave 0 shits about Lagertha doing to Harald exactly what he would have done to her. She's *been* killing fools that want to/have assaulted her, and they just keep on coming. Yea, I can see her finally being like 'I'll give it to one of them and see how they like the idea!'

My guess is that she didn't kill him for exactly the same reason that Ragnar and Ecbert never killed each other, she's bored and needs someone on her level. Her and Ragnarr's dream was to become successful farmers, but the reality is that she spent her whole life in bloody combat*.  And her disdain for  Aslaug made it clear that she thinks peace makes you soft (true in their case). She needs a real and imminent enemy to keep her mind occupied, and to keep the people of Kattegut from becoming complacent. 

This show really does need to bring in some new female characters that are just normal people, bc I swear my 1st thought when they bothered to focus on a woman not being butchered alive (the lady in blue who wanted to get it in with warrior bishop sadist), I was like 'oh, so the sexing begins'. 

I think a major issue of Astrid's character is that she's just too freaking clean. There's never dirt on her, there are not tattoos, no hairs out of place. When Harald grabbed her little Revlon-commercial ready face in his grubby paws, I almost wanted to laugh.

 

*Same for Rollo, who wanted to be a 'great man' his whole life, but when Bjorn came by his castle he jumped at the chance to be himself for a while.

Edited December 17, 2017 by rozen