Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jan 30, 2020 21:57:20 GMT
Most recently finished episode 8 of Season 6 titled ‘Valhalla Can Wait’.
As you mentioned, HirundoRustica – this episode was directed by Lagertha herself, Katheryn Winnick. That was cool. I’m glad she’s still on set and hope they get her to direct some more.
Here's a video about her directing:
It was sad to see Katheryn Winnick’s name stripped from the opening credits. Now it’s just a bunch of dudes’ names and, honestly, I don’t even know what characters half of them are playing, I only know the ones playing Bjorn, Ubbe and Ivar. I haven’t bothered to learn the name of the actor who plays Hvitserk.
Speaking of that druggie...we were SO CLOSE to being rid of him finally! I might’ve felt a twinge of sympathy for Hvitserk - as his fangirl stated (I *still* don’t know her name), he wasn’t in his right mind/himself when he mistook Lagertha for Ivar - except he wasn’t expressing any real guilt/regret over what he did. He’s still stuck on “She killed our mother!” just like Ivar. While I appreciated Bjorn going off at Hvitserk for murdering the most famous shield-maiden in the world, Alexander Ludwig verged a bit too much into over-the-topness, I thought. He’s always at his weakest, acting-wise, when he tries to imitate Travis Fimmel’s Ragnar. The yelling and arm movements just don’t work so much for him as they did for Fimmel. He should try to do his own thing. Maybe calm, quiet threatening might be the better option next time?
Anyway, I was very angry at first when it appeared sun shining through the clouds was enough to convince Bjorn to spare Hvitserk’s worthless arse. However, once he made clear his reasoning for letting him live (so he wouldn’t get into Valhalla and would live a wretched life/die in a ditch somewhere after being exiled), I thought “Hm, yeah, fair enough.”
Ubbe was actually the most level-headed one, it seemed. When he spoke to Hvitserk before his almost-burning, his brother reminding him that he’d attacked Lagertha at one point and was on the “She killed our mother!” train with the other two, it made clear that although Ubbe had thought that way once, he’d grown as a person and was actually acting mature (unlike Ivar). For this reason, I think Ubbe seems like the best option for King of Kattegat, since Bjorn’s made some dumb decisions previously (and is *still* manwhoring about), Hvitserk’s an exiled druggie and Ivar is...well...Ivar, Ubbe’s looking pretty good in comparison.
Having said that^, I liked Gunnhild standing up for Bjorn when he was doubting himself in front of his people and delivering a speech to rally them behind him (not that he really deserved it). Honestly, if not Ubbe as King, the next best option would be Gunnhild ruling as Queen. She seems like a better leader than Bjorn (her speeches alone). It’s such a disappointment that Bjorn clearly still doesn’t appreciate what a wonderful woman he’s married and hasn’t quit cheating on her. I don’t care that it sounded like he felt a tad guilty about it. It's too bad Lagertha isn't around anymore to slap some sense into him like she did with his father.
I felt so bad for Gunnhild when she caught Bjorn in the act. Most WTF-worthy of all was her proposing the same thing Ragnar proposed between him, Lagertha and Aslaug (nice continuity, remembering that, show). Gunnhild, you’re such an awesome woman, you shouldn’t lower yourself to making such a proposal. You should be kicking Ingrid out of Kattegat and making Bjorn crawl on his hands and knees to kiss your feet. He’s unworthy of your awesome self. Hopefully her plan is that by giving Bjorn her blessing and freeing Ingrid, it’ll take away the ‘fun’ of the cheating and he’ll get bored with Ingrid/dump her arse quickly, whereas forbidding him from seeing her again would’ve just had the opposite effect (this is what I’m hoping, anyway).
There was a weird part with Bjorn earlier on where he was sitting outside, contemplating/remembering and everything was sped up behind him in the background - that looked a bit weird in this show. It works in other ones, but not so sure it works here. There was one good part, though, and that was him remembering back to early Season 2 when his kid self made the right choice to go with Lagertha (I don’t think he’s made too many ‘right’ choices since then).
Ah, the good old days...how I miss them (and the characters from them).
During that brief fight with a bunch of random people, I thought “WTF is going on here?”. It was like we’d entered another episode/show. I’m not fond of wasting so much time on people we don’t even know being offed by other people we don’t know. Yes, it played into Harald’s storyline...but Harald (as well as Olaf) and everything in his storyline bores me, so I really DIDN’T CARE.
I also didn’t care about Oleg breaking his nephew’s puppet. Firstly, that damn thing was fugly/creepy, and secondly...I can’t really blame him for getting annoyed, as it was annoying *me* the whole time the kid was playing with it while the adults were trying to have a conversation. Obviously Oleg went a bit over-the-top (though I was happy he smashed that thing), but as much as they try to make Ivar look like the ‘good guy’ in comparison to him, I’m still never going to buy any sort of ‘redemption’ story for his character (so quit trying to make that happen, show!).
I had to laugh when Ubbe and Torvi were leaving and her goodbye to Bjorn was simply “Farewell, Bjorn.”, while her goodbye to Gunnhild was the far better “Farewell, Gunnhild. You are an astonishing woman.” (suck that, Bjorn!). I also loved Torvi’s glaring after he said she shouldn’t be going on the journey.
Speaking of Torvi and Ubbe leaving with that a-hole, Kjetill (WHY is he still alive?! I hope that’s rectified soon)...are we REALLY returning to Flokiland (though I guess now it’d be ex-Flokiland)?? Because that storyline was so compelling last season.
Speaking of that druggie...we were SO CLOSE to being rid of him finally! I might’ve felt a twinge of sympathy for Hvitserk - as his fangirl stated (I *still* don’t know her name), he wasn’t in his right mind/himself when he mistook Lagertha for Ivar - except he wasn’t expressing any real guilt/regret over what he did. He’s still stuck on “She killed our mother!” just like Ivar. While I appreciated Bjorn going off at Hvitserk for murdering the most famous shield-maiden in the world, Alexander Ludwig verged a bit too much into over-the-topness, I thought. He’s always at his weakest, acting-wise, when he tries to imitate Travis Fimmel’s Ragnar. The yelling and arm movements just don’t work so much for him as they did for Fimmel. He should try to do his own thing. Maybe calm, quiet threatening might be the better option next time?
Anyway, I was very angry at first when it appeared sun shining through the clouds was enough to convince Bjorn to spare Hvitserk’s worthless arse. However, once he made clear his reasoning for letting him live (so he wouldn’t get into Valhalla and would live a wretched life/die in a ditch somewhere after being exiled), I thought “Hm, yeah, fair enough.”
Ubbe was actually the most level-headed one, it seemed. When he spoke to Hvitserk before his almost-burning, his brother reminding him that he’d attacked Lagertha at one point and was on the “She killed our mother!” train with the other two, it made clear that although Ubbe had thought that way once, he’d grown as a person and was actually acting mature (unlike Ivar). For this reason, I think Ubbe seems like the best option for King of Kattegat, since Bjorn’s made some dumb decisions previously (and is *still* manwhoring about), Hvitserk’s an exiled druggie and Ivar is...well...Ivar, Ubbe’s looking pretty good in comparison.
Having said that^, I liked Gunnhild standing up for Bjorn when he was doubting himself in front of his people and delivering a speech to rally them behind him (not that he really deserved it). Honestly, if not Ubbe as King, the next best option would be Gunnhild ruling as Queen. She seems like a better leader than Bjorn (her speeches alone). It’s such a disappointment that Bjorn clearly still doesn’t appreciate what a wonderful woman he’s married and hasn’t quit cheating on her. I don’t care that it sounded like he felt a tad guilty about it. It's too bad Lagertha isn't around anymore to slap some sense into him like she did with his father.
I felt so bad for Gunnhild when she caught Bjorn in the act. Most WTF-worthy of all was her proposing the same thing Ragnar proposed between him, Lagertha and Aslaug (nice continuity, remembering that, show). Gunnhild, you’re such an awesome woman, you shouldn’t lower yourself to making such a proposal. You should be kicking Ingrid out of Kattegat and making Bjorn crawl on his hands and knees to kiss your feet. He’s unworthy of your awesome self. Hopefully her plan is that by giving Bjorn her blessing and freeing Ingrid, it’ll take away the ‘fun’ of the cheating and he’ll get bored with Ingrid/dump her arse quickly, whereas forbidding him from seeing her again would’ve just had the opposite effect (this is what I’m hoping, anyway).
There was a weird part with Bjorn earlier on where he was sitting outside, contemplating/remembering and everything was sped up behind him in the background - that looked a bit weird in this show. It works in other ones, but not so sure it works here. There was one good part, though, and that was him remembering back to early Season 2 when his kid self made the right choice to go with Lagertha (I don’t think he’s made too many ‘right’ choices since then).
Ah, the good old days...how I miss them (and the characters from them).
During that brief fight with a bunch of random people, I thought “WTF is going on here?”. It was like we’d entered another episode/show. I’m not fond of wasting so much time on people we don’t even know being offed by other people we don’t know. Yes, it played into Harald’s storyline...but Harald (as well as Olaf) and everything in his storyline bores me, so I really DIDN’T CARE.
I also didn’t care about Oleg breaking his nephew’s puppet. Firstly, that damn thing was fugly/creepy, and secondly...I can’t really blame him for getting annoyed, as it was annoying *me* the whole time the kid was playing with it while the adults were trying to have a conversation. Obviously Oleg went a bit over-the-top (though I was happy he smashed that thing), but as much as they try to make Ivar look like the ‘good guy’ in comparison to him, I’m still never going to buy any sort of ‘redemption’ story for his character (so quit trying to make that happen, show!).
I had to laugh when Ubbe and Torvi were leaving and her goodbye to Bjorn was simply “Farewell, Bjorn.”, while her goodbye to Gunnhild was the far better “Farewell, Gunnhild. You are an astonishing woman.” (suck that, Bjorn!). I also loved Torvi’s glaring after he said she shouldn’t be going on the journey.
Speaking of Torvi and Ubbe leaving with that a-hole, Kjetill (WHY is he still alive?! I hope that’s rectified soon)...are we REALLY returning to Flokiland (though I guess now it’d be ex-Flokiland)?? Because that storyline was so compelling last season.
As you mentioned, HirundoRustica – this episode was directed by Lagertha herself, Katheryn Winnick. That was cool. I’m glad she’s still on set and hope they get her to direct some more.
Here's a video about her directing: