Valhalla has dropped....

[Mik]

That's funny. I was struck the same way by the trailers. I've seen all this before. Leif is too pretty, as is Sigurdson. A black woman ruling Kattegat? Show me the historical reference for that

[George K]

@Mik

A black woman ruling Kattegat? Show me the historical reference for that

As I edited my post above, Jarl Haakon was not only not black, but a male.

[Mik]

Goofy. I doubt 99.99999% of Vikings ever saw a black person, much less followed one.

[George K]

@Mik said in Valhalla has dropped....:

Goofy. I doubt 99.99999% of Viking ever saw a black person, much less followed one.

Björn Ironside did go to North Africa...

[Mik]

That's one......

[Copper]

@Mik said in Valhalla has dropped....:

A black woman ruling Kattegat? Show me the historical reference for that

In homage to Black History Month, all historical rulers will be black.

Racist.

[Mik]

Worked for Hamilton.

[George K]

@Mik said in Valhalla has dropped....:

That's one......

Well, out of a population of less than 10 million, that is, as a matter of fact, more than 99.99999%, LOL.

[Mik]

"The Pedants are revolting.".

"Yes, disgusting, aren't they?".

Just watched the first episode. I thought they did good job of pulling you into the situations. But I came away from it not liking anyone but Freydis.

[George K]

@Mik said in Valhalla has dropped....:

Just watched the first episode. I thought they did good job of pulling you into the situations. But I came away from it not liking anyone but Freydis.

I got bored with it so quickly that I stopped paying attention. Perhaps tonight, after some (cheap) Scotch I'll do it again, in the interest of giving a fair shake.

And, c'mon, no one has the absolute screen power that Travis Finnel had as Ragnar Löthbrook. Even the original show, though still good, wasn't quite the same after his departure.

[Mik]

Yeah, it's a pale imitation of the original. But it's still fun to see the Vikings again. I'd still be more interested in where else they went, the origins of Russia, the other places in the Mediterranean they went, than seeing them slug it out with the English again.

[George K]

Just watched episode 2.

Better, MUCH better than the introductory episode. I think episode 1 tried too much exposition, and too much irrelevant storyline (the rape story) and introduced too many characters, as I said before.

In episode 2, it's more focused. And though it bounces from arc to arc, there's more cohesion. The journey of Leif to England is well done. The story of Edmund II ascendency to the throne is well done. My only criticism is the "chick" side of the episode. It's all fluff, and (so far) doesn't move the story forward. Also, in that arc, too much woke ("change is good," "embrace differences"). As far as that goes, FOAD.

[George K]

Oh, another thing. Historical trivia follows:

Æthelred the Unready doesn't mean "unprepared."

It means "poorly-advised" which is a pun on his name, which means "well-advised."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Æthelred_the_Unready

I remember listening to some Great Courses lectures on this history, as well as the course on The Vikings.

Fun stuff, and now that I sort of remember what I learned, comparing history to fiction is interesting.

[George K]

I'll retract my 2 star review and increase it to 2 ½ stars. The interplay between C'nut and the English is fun. Leif Erikson is a (so far) not too compelling character, but that might change. Battle scenes are very, very "Vikings", and after a while, get boring.

The whole Freyda goes to Uppsala thread is stupid and a waste of electrons, but, we needz wimmenz doing powerful things, so there's that. I never cared for the "mysticism" parts of the original "Vikings" and my feelings continue to this series.

Not great, not innovative, but not bad. I'll waste a few more hours to finish the series (at 1.25 speed - thanks, Netflix).

[jodi]

I didn’t watch the original. But I’m liking this one.

[George K]

@jodi said in Valhalla has dropped....:

I didn’t watch the original. But I’m liking this one.

The original is MUCH better. It's also, for the most part, historically accurate. Really compelling characters.

Link to video