This post contains spoilers from the end of the Viking series. I give my opinion about the end of the series.
Vikings, reached its last ten episodes, closing this epic television series, which although the last seasons were not as perfect as the first four, is an important part of the excellent television series that have marked the last years.
It was in 2013 when the History channel, venturing into historical fiction, premiered Vikings, managing to satisfy the taste of viewers for this Viking saga, who became passionate followers of the series. It was the time when Game of Thrones was the most important series.
Michael Hirst, known for being the scriptwriter of the two films about Queen Elizabeth, one in 1998 and the sequel in 2007, had already had success with the historical series. Between 2007 and 2010 he was the main responsible for the adventures of King Henry VIII, with the series The Tudors, broadcasted by the Showtime channel, with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers playing the king who would change the history of England and before embarking on the adventures of the Vikings, Hirst was the producer of another great series, The Borgias.
Those previous series were excellent quality productions, but it would be with the Vikings that he would achieve the greatest success. For many it was easy to fall in love with the incredible characters.
Although Michael Hirts has always stated that his intention was to tell the story of Ragnar Lodbrok and his children, it is impossible not to make comparisons between the two stages of the series.
The first four seasons are about Ragnar Lodbrok, although there were subplots and other increasingly important characters, everything revolved around Ragnar. He was such an incredible character that his death, which occurred in the fourth season, marked a before and after.
I thought that with Ragnar's death, it was the ideal moment to end the series. His four seasons were intense, with a devilish pace, there was a lot of stuff and the story advanced in each episode, besides that the incredible battles that Ragnar, Lagherta, Rollo, Bjorn and Floki starred in were exciting. I will always remember the episode of the siege of the kingdom of France, one of the most exciting battles, made with great quality and acceptable special effects to be a television product.
With Ragnar's death, the series becomes more choral and all the protagonism falls on all the other characters, especially his son Ivar The Boneless. But without Ragnar, things began to change in the series, and although there were still Floki , Bjorn and Lagherta , the series began to suffer and wear out. Not even the assignment of a character to actor Jonathan Rhys-Meyers could compensate for the absence of Raganar from Travis Fimmel.
I love this series, but I must be honest in saying that many of the subplots of Ragnar's sons did not have the impact. To all this, I must say that lengthening the episodes of the seasons, dividing them into two parts each season, made the rhythm of the story change, lengthening some plots, filling in with unnecessary scenes or adventures with little emotion.
I think that this was a decision made by the television network, which seeing the great success of the series, with a solid base of followers, was something that had to be taken advantage of to the maximum, no matter how much the story was damaged.
It was still exciting and I looked forward to each season. Above all because there were still characters that mattered to me, and although some of their plots were pushed to the limit of incoherence, in particular Floki and Lagherta, that didn't take away my desire to continue enjoying the series.
The first part of the sixth season, the final season, was 10 episodes that ended up removing the characters that most viewers loved. Floki had disappeared into a cave in Iceland, where he had found traces of Christians and we knew nothing of his fate. Was he dead? Lagherta was killed by Hvitserk, a son of Ragnar, as had been prophesied. This was a very hard blow to history and to the fans. Lagherta's death hurt us more than Ragnar's.
After that, I lost a lot of emotion for the series. Lagherta was one of the characters that I liked most in the series, although I knew that her fate would be death, I hoped that it would be at the end of the series. And to finish the first part of the sixth season, Ivar would pierce Bjorn's body with a sword. Although he was not dead, we only had to wait for the beginning of the last ten episodes, so that the character would be taken away from us again.
Bjorn obtained a heroic ending, worthy of the gods, commanding the battle that would expel the Russian army, with an Ivar impressed by his brother's conviction to defend the Kattegat, dying as a true Viking, being received in Valhalla by the gods. Now we were saying goodbye to the last great character of the first seasons.
The last season was very irregular, with subplots that bored me, especially everything related to Ivar and the Rus. They spent a lot of time on the whole thing, prolonging the episode. It would have been better if the action had moved to Wessex much earlier.
Also, Ubbe's trip, first to Greenland, became very repetitive, similar to Floki's trip to Iceland. Then, they extended the whole odyssey that would take them to that new world. A journey in which they would be on the verge of death, but fortunately for the gods (the Viking gods and the Christian god) they managed to reach Vinland.
The arrival of a son of Ragnar to America, was the way the creator of the series said long ago, that he wanted to finish the series. That has fulfilled it and we already knew that Ubbe would come to these new lands, even showed us the first contact with the natives.
To encourage the followers, a character that we used to give to pro death, appears again. The madman, as the natives call him, Floki has arrived before anyone else to Vinland and is living his last days, remembering the adventures he lived. How did he get there? How did he escape from the collapse in Iceland? None of this is explained, only Floki, the only survivor of the original cast of the series, appears alongside Ubbe in the epilogue of the series.
The fact that it is not explained how Floki was able to save himself and reach those lands is proof that the screenwriters were unable to give coherence to many things that happened in these last seasons. That makes me feel a little uncomfortable, but at the same time I'm glad that Floki was there for the end.
There were many battles, blood and emotion, the feeling was not the same as before. The feeling was not the same as before, because none of the new characters that were gaining relevance were to my liking, nor could they fill the void left by the old ones.
Gunnhild, the last great warrior, Bjorn's wife and a character I liked, made a sad and terrible decision. Creating more emptiness in the subplot that takes place in Kattegat, where the conflict between Bjorn's other wife, Ingrid, who marries King Harald and is left reigning together with Erik, who turns out not to be Erik the Red. This whole part of the story seemed boring to me, you could say they didn't know what to make up.
Fortunately the last three episodes take us to England, where Ivar, Harald and Hvitserk would find their final destination. Excellent battles to finish the story. King Harald, finally travelling to his desired Valhalla, to meet his brother again. With Ivar the Boneless going down in history as one of the most bloodthirsty Vikings, leaving a descendant in the lands of the Rus and with his remains resting in the same kingdom where his father is. Finally, Hvitserk, Ragnar's son who has suffered the most, finds peace by renouncing his gods and converting to Christianity.
Hvitserk's conversion is an important detail, which marks the end of an era. The King Alfred assigns him a new name; now he will be called Athelstan. According to the series, the true father of the King Alfred is Athelstan, this character that was captured by Ragnar during his first raids on those lands, first making him his slave, and later they would establish a friendship. In a short sequence, Hvitserk's face becomes Athelstan. The end of the pagan era begins.
The last sequence is the conversation between Ubbe and Floki, by the sea, in the new world. Is that the end? asks Ubbe. For us, the viewers, it is the end of this great journey that has lasted seven years. We enjoyed great adventures, battles, rituals, sex, blood and were moved by this story inspired by the Viking saga of Ragnar.
Am I satisfied with the ending? I was such a fan of this series and it gave me such exciting moments, that I forgive all the inconsistencies that abounded in these last seasons. Another series that will become part of my best series ever is leaving.
One stage has ended, but the creator is already preparing another new series, set one hundred years after the events of the Vikings. The series will be called Valhalla, because there are still many stories about the Vikings, a culture that had great influence in much of Europe.
Ragnar, Lagherta, Bjorn, Ivar and all the other characters who made us enjoy the series so much, drink from the golden horns, accompanied by the gods Odin, Thor and Freya, in Valhalla.
Trailer - Final Season Part 2
POSTER
