Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Dec 27, 2018 13:58:19 GMT
Episode 5.15, ‘Hell’.
**spoilers below**
Hvitserk's onto you, Ivar. He knows you offed the Seer (I was glad to see Ivar looked rattled by that).
Look at Judith, getting her torture on! She's certainly changed over the years (I guess losing an ear will do that to you). And now Alfred knows his bro was gonna betray him. We'll see how that plays out.
Can't say I was sad about not seeing what was going on in Floki-land this week.
All I could think when seeing the serious braid Torvi was sporting was that it didn't seem very practical. It was virtually begging for someone to grab it in battle to pull her head back and that'd be her undoing. Then again, Ubbe has one too (though his isn't as impressive as Torvi's), most of the vikings seem to...so I guess supplying the enemy with a 'handle' to grab hasn't ever really occurred to them.
The most interesting part of the episode, of course, was the battle at the end. It certainly looked like they put a lot of work into that (one impressive shot of it was like something from a movie).
Gunnhild (played by, I've found out, an actress named Ragga Ragnars - which is kind of awesome) was so much better than her hubby (who died quickly). Hell, she was better than most of people on her side, it seemed (she even had to rally them to stay and fight). And trust Bjorn to think with his downstairs brain when he had the opportunity to kill her. I wonder whether, now that she's captured, he's going get with her? I really do think she has some similarities to Þorunn, who he was previously with back in Seasons 2 and 3.
It was somewhat of an 'abstract' way of doing the battle - with us seeing Alfred giving his victory speech as we were still watching the action play out. Made it interesting, though, as I was left wondering who lived/died. Turns out it was Bishop Heahmund's time to go. I guess his vision of Hell that he told Lagertha about earlier on should've be the first indicator he was a goner...but I was too busy worrying about Lagertha (as I have every episode this season and will continue to for the remainder of it). That was certainly a gnarly version of Hell he saw, but I liked it (better than some other far more boring versions of Hell I've seen in other certain long-running shows).
What I didn't like was the fact that they've reduced Lagertha to being someone who'd get upset that Headmund loved his religion/God more than her. After she watched him get taken out Boromir-style, she miraculously 'disappeared' and no one could find her (I could've sworn there was a show in the promos for this half of the season which showed Lagertha falling in battle...but maybe that's yet to come? I guess there's bound to be another battle at some point. I was just relieved she didn't bite the dust in this episode. If Lagertha's going to go out, I want her to get some proper focus in her final episode just as Ragnar did in his).
I sure hope we're not going to catch up with her after a time jump and find she's gone off to wallow, after losing Heahmund, and has given up her reason to fight/will to live or some other such rubbish. We know that losing a battle last time caused her to go grey. I suppose that means losing Headmund will cause all the years people have complained she's not visibly showing to catch up with her suddenly? The next time we see Lagertha, is she going to be as old as she 'should' look by now? If so...then Lagertha ages weirdly, it seems. The alternative is that Harald got a hold of her and has her stashed on his escape boat...but I would've thought they'd have shown us if that was the case - it'd be a heck of a cliffhanger.
At this stage, I'm pretty much expecting Lagertha to bite it by the end of this season. If this indeed does happen (though I keep praying it doesn't), can they at the very least have her go out as the kick-arse shield-maiden she once was? I think Michael Hirst owes the character (and Katheryn Winnick) that much, at least.
**spoilers below**
Hvitserk's onto you, Ivar. He knows you offed the Seer (I was glad to see Ivar looked rattled by that).
Look at Judith, getting her torture on! She's certainly changed over the years (I guess losing an ear will do that to you). And now Alfred knows his bro was gonna betray him. We'll see how that plays out.
Can't say I was sad about not seeing what was going on in Floki-land this week.
All I could think when seeing the serious braid Torvi was sporting was that it didn't seem very practical. It was virtually begging for someone to grab it in battle to pull her head back and that'd be her undoing. Then again, Ubbe has one too (though his isn't as impressive as Torvi's), most of the vikings seem to...so I guess supplying the enemy with a 'handle' to grab hasn't ever really occurred to them.
The most interesting part of the episode, of course, was the battle at the end. It certainly looked like they put a lot of work into that (one impressive shot of it was like something from a movie).
Gunnhild (played by, I've found out, an actress named Ragga Ragnars - which is kind of awesome) was so much better than her hubby (who died quickly). Hell, she was better than most of people on her side, it seemed (she even had to rally them to stay and fight). And trust Bjorn to think with his downstairs brain when he had the opportunity to kill her. I wonder whether, now that she's captured, he's going get with her? I really do think she has some similarities to Þorunn, who he was previously with back in Seasons 2 and 3.
It was somewhat of an 'abstract' way of doing the battle - with us seeing Alfred giving his victory speech as we were still watching the action play out. Made it interesting, though, as I was left wondering who lived/died. Turns out it was Bishop Heahmund's time to go. I guess his vision of Hell that he told Lagertha about earlier on should've be the first indicator he was a goner...but I was too busy worrying about Lagertha (as I have every episode this season and will continue to for the remainder of it). That was certainly a gnarly version of Hell he saw, but I liked it (better than some other far more boring versions of Hell I've seen in other certain long-running shows).
What I didn't like was the fact that they've reduced Lagertha to being someone who'd get upset that Headmund loved his religion/God more than her. After she watched him get taken out Boromir-style, she miraculously 'disappeared' and no one could find her (I could've sworn there was a show in the promos for this half of the season which showed Lagertha falling in battle...but maybe that's yet to come? I guess there's bound to be another battle at some point. I was just relieved she didn't bite the dust in this episode. If Lagertha's going to go out, I want her to get some proper focus in her final episode just as Ragnar did in his).
I sure hope we're not going to catch up with her after a time jump and find she's gone off to wallow, after losing Heahmund, and has given up her reason to fight/will to live or some other such rubbish. We know that losing a battle last time caused her to go grey. I suppose that means losing Headmund will cause all the years people have complained she's not visibly showing to catch up with her suddenly? The next time we see Lagertha, is she going to be as old as she 'should' look by now? If so...then Lagertha ages weirdly, it seems. The alternative is that Harald got a hold of her and has her stashed on his escape boat...but I would've thought they'd have shown us if that was the case - it'd be a heck of a cliffhanger.
At this stage, I'm pretty much expecting Lagertha to bite it by the end of this season. If this indeed does happen (though I keep praying it doesn't), can they at the very least have her go out as the kick-arse shield-maiden she once was? I think Michael Hirst owes the character (and Katheryn Winnick) that much, at least.