What do we think

>>82540738
Weak and tiring.

shit sucks, watch real viking kino

What in particular though? The writing, and acting? Like I said, I haven't heard shit all for criticism. My main complaint has to be the accents

>>82540775
Like what?

I couldn't even finish the first episode it was so boring

>>82540863
I'd give it at least a couple episodes. Its built almost entirely on family dynamic and betrayal plots

>>82540738
The problem I had is that there is no premise other than 'they are vikings' which then leads to a lack of plot and a lot of episodes feeling meandering and filler-ish

>>82540834
Idk lol

>>82540834
There is, surprisingly enough, none. I swear to God someone needs to sit down and read the norse king sagas. There's so much history that can be used to make a great series.

>>82540834
valhalla rising

:v)

They killed off all the cool characters and replaced them with shit. All of Ragnars son's are fags except Ivar. It's not worth watching past season 2 maybe 3.

>implying a crippled would ever get that far in life

>>82540738

Show went downhill fast when Athelstan died.

>>82540738
Huge drop in quality after season 3

>>82542866
All them feel like splinters of Ragnar's personality, from Ivar literally imitating Fimmel as an actor to their personalities just being bits and pieces of Ragnar's more interesting sides. Rollo and a couple more characters seem to be getting revamped storylines for season 5, so maybe it can improve

>>82543135
Accurate. The way they dealt with religion was pretty interesting. Especially the whole norse traditions and ceremonies. Shame they got rid of that and the comfy small town feel after about halfway through season 3

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>>82543135
>Show went downhill fast when Athelstan died.

True, though I stuck with it until they killed off Ragnar at the end of last season and now I'm done with this stupid series.

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>>82542866
>All of Ragnars son's are fags except Ivar.

The series will be canceled after this coming season, as there is no way Ivar the Literally Boneless can carry the show.

Bjorn could maybe take over as the star but the writers/directors/producers are too incompetent.

>>82543658
I don't like that he's a cripple but at least he's a good actor and looks interesting. I don't see why Bjorn couldn't carry the show except for the writers.

it was shitty but enjoyable in the first 3 seasons
now its just shit

>>82543658
>Bjorn could maybe take over as the star

Really? He doesn't have the range, that's part of the reason they had to give him so little screen time in season 4

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>>82540738
It's trash. First seasons were pretty good, but it really feels like the writers have no idea what to do with the characters or the setting anymore. Their attempts to increase its scope have only fallen short with laughable attempts at battle scenes, nonsensical intrigue and rivalries, and a quickly diminishing regard for any semblance of historical accuracy.

There's nothing 'viking' about this show. It's as historically accurate as Game of Thrones and far less entertaining.

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>>82543793
>I don't like that he's a cripple but at least he's a good actor and looks interesting.

The guy could be an Oscar winning actor (though he's nowhere near that) but by making the character literally a cripple, the show went full-retard and now with Ragnar dead (and Lagertha likely bailing after this coming season) there is no reason to watch anymore.

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>>82543332
Rollo really is the only one with any sort of a backstory left. Floki also is doing that whole Islam thing, which could either be a duality like Ragnar's spirituality or just Floki-hysterics levels of fucking dumb

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>>82543923
>He doesn't have the range

That's the writers fault for not giving him any kinda decent story to work with.

An actor is an empty vessel until he's given a script and any failings, are usually the writer/director's fault.

>>82543997
>Lagertha
I hate that stupid piece of shit.

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>>82543983
>laughable attempts at battle scenes

And holy shit are they bad!

It's like the director just told the actors to "go out and... you know, fight" and they're randomly ad-libbing the scenes.

Unlike Spartacus, where all the fight scenes were carefully choreographed in detail.

>>82544092
I'd love to hope that with his new quest back into the Mediterranean, Ludwig will be able to fill out his "empty vessel" so to speak, but I don't think he's ever been in anything good enough to prove he could actually act well enough to be a lead character. I hope I'm wrong though

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>>82544275
This season alone had a list of shit that drove me up a wall.

>That battle where several separate groups of infantry somehow manage to outmaneuver a force consisting primarily of cavalry
>That scene where the English advance through a valley and are ambushed by Norse Archers, at which point they decide to... keep moving deeper into the valley and ignore the archers
>That scene where the English charge the Vikings with cavalry through that narrow valley, and the Vikings... charge back
>That scene where the Vikings come to King Ecbert's fort and Bjorn just points at it and yells 'CHARGE'

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>And holy shit are they bad!

...even the shield wall scenes?

>>82544386
Especially the shield wall scenes. That scene is no exception: the English face an extremely rudimentary shield wall, and instead of trying to flank it they just run straight at it.

>>82544414
>>82544386
Granted that's not so big a deal with a small skirmish like that one, but shit just gets worse the bigger the battles get.

>>82544376
>That scene where the English charge the Vikings with cavalry through that narrow valley
is that the scene where the Vikings magiaclly disappear and reappear?

>>82540834
The Last Kingdom (well, season 1 anyway...) does a pretty good job with viking shit, albeit from a different perspective.

>>82540738
I love Vikings. Even my dad loved it when I showed it to him.

>>82540738
I really liked season 1-2.

>>82544376
I'm in no way sure, but don't some of these battles have historical undertones? Like for example that one scene when they travel upriver and find the two idiotic English armies separated?

>>82540738
>quality rolled off at season 2
>show went with Athelstan
>completely peaked with sacrifice

>>82544480
No, I think that's the one before it.

That reminds me of something else: when the English start getting shot at from the woods they all lap their shields, and as soon as they stop getting shot at Aethelwulf (their commander) walks completely outside of the English shield wall, with no helmet or shield of his own, and just walks straight up to the forest they were being shot from and looks into it the same way a retarded kid looks down a fireworks mortar to see if the fuse was lit.

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>>82544295
>I don't think he's ever been in anything good enough to prove he could actually act well enough to be a lead character.

The guy is only 25 and Vikings is his first real role (outside of kiddy movies) but like I said, I'm guessing the series will be canceled after this coming season, as nobody wants Ivar the Literally Boneless as the star of the show.

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Eh, I loved it. I've been bitching about the slow (but sure) decline in quality since season 2, but pic related kept it together and kept it interesting.

I've a feeling the writers focused mainly on Ragnar and Ecbert when it comes to writing (as in, fleshing out their personalities and motives), whilst only giving secondary attention to the rest. This not to say there weren't some great characters in the show aswell, but they pale in comparison to the two mentioned.

Show died with Ragnar for me, so fuck whatever else they have lined up.

>I really liked season 1-2

Me too man, me too. A good character driven story with what felt like fairly fleshed out villians

I love Ivarr. I hope the writers will forget about history and put magic in it and make Ivarr walk again

>>82544634
That one was based on a historical battle, but I think the only historical foundation was just that: how both armies were split across either bank of the river

This most recent season's battle scenes were just pants-on-head retarded- it's like if I asked a six year old to narrate me a battle between two armies. For fuck's sake, there's a scene where cavalry is charging a formation of infantry, and the infantry fucking charge back and start running towards the horsemen.

>>82544667
same
probably gonna watch a couple of episodes of the next season because that guy from the tudors is there but it'll certainly dip in quality even more

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>>82544376
>This season alone had a list of shit that drove me up a [shield] wall.

Don’t forget the plywood “forts” Rollo built and his half-ass “catapults” made out of sticks and twine and a chain, that somehow cause the longboats to… roll over?

>>82544790

The chains were a decent (albeit gimmicky) idea. Par for the course for this show, it was just executed horribly.

How about the French boats and their retarded eagle-heads that take up the entire bow?

>>82544667
They wrote quite a bit about based Borg but finished him off too quickly. GOAT antagonist in my opinion.

>>82544667
>>82544754

Jonathan Rhys Meyers has got to at least make it a bit better, or at least worth watching until we figure out where they're taking it. And I think now that Ragnar & Ecbert are gone, they'll make the other characters interesting. If not, I guess there is always GoT

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I really enjoyed seasons 1-3. It sucks because it really felt like the writers had no real plan as to what to do after Ragnar. They spent little to no time developing a successor for the lead character, villain and overall plot so now it feels like we're walking into what will likely be a mess of season 5. This is especially a shame because they essentially wasted the extra episodes they were given for season 4.

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>>82544867

How much more could they have done with the dude tho?

>>82545031
He could have escaped and returned later after Ragnar & Friends have been weakened by some internal strife.

>>82544932
They should've given more attention to Bjorn and that Harald guy instead of focusing on Ivar. I like him but the whole cripple angle is damaging to his credibility. Can't root for a cripple, impotent guy especially because that's not how he was historically. I think there are some tales calling him a great warrior and what not.
>>82545031
Maybe escape and let Horik have his fate and then show up later to raid with Ragnar putting it all behind them. But Ragnar wasn't a forgiving dude so there's that.

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>>82544854
>The chains were a decent (albeit gimmicky) idea.

The chain was historically accurate but no boat is going to suddenly flip over because it bumped into a chain at 5mph.

And lets not even get into the retarded scene where Legertha leads a group of vikings overland to attack the (plywood) forts from behind and instead of sneaking thru the woods, (that go right up to the fucking forts!) they all walk out in the open and form a SHIELD WALL!…. then just stand there and get gunned down by the full-automatic AK-47 crossbows that everybody had in the Middle Ages.

>>82545178
Let it all out, man.

Know what else pisses me off? All this shit with Harald Fine-Hair.

>Hey Ragnar, I aspire to be king of all Norway. That includes your territory for some reason, even though you're in Denmark.
>So you're saying you're going to attack me at some point?
>Yeah, definitely. Can I still raid with you and hang out at your place, though?
>Sure.
>I'm still gonna attack you later on because we have conflicting interests, though.
>Yeah I get you.

LATER ON

>Kattegat is attacked by Scarface, who was supported by an army he normally wouldn't be able to gather or fund
>Lagertha spends an episode wondering who funded him

>>82544667
>>Show died with Ragnar
Amen. BARELY brought myself to watch the next 5 episodes. Fucking barely.

>>82541513

there really isn't

i mean, last kingdom is pretty good and the 70s movie with kurt whatever his name is, but have YOU read the viking sagas, because they are not as cool as you think they are. you would have to make like a marvel movie or a lotr type of movie for it to work because all of the "cool" stories are about ragnar lothbrok slaying a fucking dragon, but all the real ones are like "helga killed ragnar" "ragnar didnt like bjorn". i actually have not read a lot of it but my mom has and she said snorre was the most boring shit she ever read

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Also, what the fuck was up with Harbard? Like can anyone explain what his purpose was? Was it just so they could have a story back at Kattegat? Was it just to show the divide between Aslaug and Ragnar growing?

>>82545341
If you go into the Sagas expecting exciting prose you'll be let down. However, there's still plenty of interesting stories and drama to be had in the stories themselves.

What about the Story of the People of Laxardal? The one where two foster-brothers come to a feud that consumes both of their families? Foster-brother A is forced by his family to help ambush B. A doesn't want to fight B but is goaded into it by his family members, who are getting their asses kicked by B. Finally, A confronts B, and B admits he can't kill A, and lays down his arms. A kills him immediately, then drops his weapon, picks up B's corpse, and just starts weeping.

I wish I could do it justice but there were so many names I don't remember and I read it so long ago. All I remember is how horribly gripping it all was, and I couldn't understand why Vikings couldn't be more like that.

>>82544018
He's on Taken now, his story is done.

As for Floki, only fucking idiots picked up him 'doing an Islam thing' from how he acted during that raid. He didn't and doesn't give two shits about Islam as a religion, he was just floored at how they didn't try and run and hide the way Christians did when facing certain death. Their faith and fearlessness impressed him, not their religion or their god.

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>>82545478
pic related
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laxd%C3%A6la_saga

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>>82545511

Floki in the previous seasons usually gets into a rut of thinking spurred on by some world altering thing he discovers, which is what I meant by "Islam Thing". Plus I figured the writers would need a new way to re-introduce religion back into things. Now that you mention how he was impressed by their fearlessness, I realize that might be it. Maybe he'll be the new Seer who knows

I'd be down if they showed Floki making his newest super boat and sailing to Iceland like the real Floki. Perhaps split the show into that, Bjorn's journey and whatever the fuck Harald is up to

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Any expectations of a spin off? It seems they're back in the mainstream with GOT getting a bunch, Fear the Walking Dead and BCS. Would you guys watch a Vikings spin off?

>>82546264
GoT is getting a spinoff?

>>82546346
It's getting 4 brah.

>>82546520
Please tell me none of them include the teenage mutant ninja sand snakes

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>>82545341
>have YOU read the viking sagas, because they are not as cool as you think they are.

There’s more than enough going on with the actual historically proven events and personages for a top-notch _historically accurate_ tv series, with plenty of room for characterizations and sub-plots that could have happened but for which there are no records.

There was no need to bring in retarded shit like a drug dealing Chinese slave girl, then randomly kill her off for no fucking reason…

Vikings is just another example of the now unfortunately all too common Hollywood practice of luring viewers in with a good first season, then going full-retard and cheapening out on the production afterward.

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>>82546547
Imagine a show for each of them

I dropped this show when Floki fell in love with Islam. Is the Great Heathen Army storyline any good?

>>82540738
needs more muslims in order to accurately portray medieval england

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>>82540738
I think it's never been more than just an okay, 3 star, B show. It's poorly written more often than not and characters turn from great to frustrating at the drop of a hat.

Though I do enjoy the grim visuals, casting is usually great and for some reason, I'm dedicated to watching every episode no matter how lacklustre.