Welp, Ragnar dying is either the point where the series goes downhill or where the younger generation gets interesting, depending on your POV. It's clear which camp I'm in haha.
Either way, it's also the point where Lagertha becomes fucking insufferable because she's clearly Hirst's pet character. It was so disappointing to start actively rooting for her to die when she was one of my favorite characters in the earlier seasons.
and thats all i ask, i loved early seasons ragnar (i played him briefly) but imo his character went off the rails as time went on, i felt like his death scene and all the religious ambiguity was a real return to form
it felt like they never quite knew what to do with her when they finally introduced auslaug (who is thE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE SAGAS) and it just kept spinning out of hand
yeah thats the thing, like i dont find her.... likable as a person? but she works for me as a character and that's why i like her. everything she does makes sense, even if its annoying, and i fucking love her parents so im a little biased
But like she’s just a lot of things I just think she was too smart for I guess idk but I don’t particularly like that they randomly killed off the one character that pointed out her flaws
i agree with you though as far as her actual presentation in the show, its p lacking and unsympathetic while also way too... informed abilities that are never shown. likewise i felt like she got a serious intelligence downgrade as time went on, her answer to ragnar's riddle is supposed to show how incredibly wise she is but
yeah i can defs see your point. i like aslaug but its not in that 'EVERYONE WHO DISLIKES HER ISWRONG' way, i can 100% see why shes not well liked, i just have personal biases that make me tolerate her more
its funny bc the ragnarssona thattr and the volsung saga are notable among norse mythology for having the most active roles for female characters, saga!aslaug is the wisest woman of her age, gundrun fights along her brothers, etc, but hirst like.... eh??????
It’ll be interesting when you get to freydis. I realized just now she’s like a bargain aslaug with more political wits but absolutely zero common sense and foresight
I actually hate her as a whole but it’s because they never actually delve into her motivations where as badly written as it was we had a very in depth understanding of aslaug and why she was the way she way
I feel like you can’t just have a super manipulative morally grey character without actually building who they are and their motives or they just... seem like a pretty prop for sex scenes and character development of others and when they’re pivotal they need to be more than that lol
Like I totally get why people didn't like her character, but I feel like Hirst definitely flip-flopped and didn't exactly know how he wanted to write her character, so her inconsistency wasn't entirely just character driven.
It's the same reason why Hirst doesn't know what to do with little girl characters. Gyda, Angerboda, Tanaruz.......all he knows how to do is basically kill them off for angst points instead of figuring out how a little girl can grow into a woman or contribute meaningfully to the plot.
And Hirst has also kept Lagertha on while killing off other female characters who were interesting like Astrid, so I'm salty right there that she's hanging on when her storyline has been more then wrapped up and how she takes two steps forward and one step back the entire last two seasons in her characterization.
Next season, I'm somehow supposed to take a woman who would be in the "crone" phase of her life at almost sixty years old still being a shieldmaiden? And somehow not slowing down at ALL despite the fact she should be an old woman by the standards of the time period?
Apparently giving a head of grey hair to her is the half-assed attempt at making her "old" .....and then she turns around and gets involved with a guy twenty years younger then she is.
My dad hated that plotline. He was like "What does he see in her??? Her teeth should be falling out. Her hair should be falling out..." I chimed in "Her uterus should be falling out." And he goes, "You said it, not me."
frey blessingnot to mention Heahmund had way more chemistry with Ivar on screen