Dont get me wrong I really like this show but... is the plot doomed to be propelled by pointlessly dickish villians? If i were the heathen Brad Pitt i would have bailed on Alfred in the marshes. Like oh you value me now but if there were still a Wessex you would be plotting to have me dead or severely in debt. What dickish ruse should i face next?
I mean the appeal of Vikings was Ragnar made mistakes and no one was completely dickish.
Posted Feb 11, 2018, 12:02 AM UTC · edited
Are you saying that Alfred is a villain?
No... but he allowed himself to be manipulated by other dicks who were. Up until the marshes he kind of was though. Maybe that is two different issues comically dickish villians vs kings that like to fuck the heathen brad pitt over in dickish ways and the heathen brad pitt never sees it coming. Its potentially repetitious in two seasons theres already been 3 or 4 sets of dickish villians if Alfred wasnt one. The dickish villians and hot girlfriends tend to come in sets.
Ironically he's kinda portrayed that way in the books.
I've watched the first two seasons and read the first two books (season one), and my sense is that the plot, or Uhtred's decisions, are driven by his lack of agency. His main goal is to reclaim Bebbanburg as his own, but in order to do that he needs money and men; he does not have enough of either. He's pretty transparent about his goal and tends to act impulsively, so other men (especially Alfred) are able to play him easily.
So why not go to the Danes? In The Pale Horseman Ragnar offers that opportunity and Uhtred explains his refusal to the reader:
"I was bound to Alfred by an oath, and before I gave that oath I had wanted to bind myself to Ragnar, but now I felt affronted that he had even asked me. ... I was reluctant to make an oath to an equal. The oath-giver is subservient to the man who accepts the oath. ... If I gave him an oath, then he would be generous but I would be expected to show gratitude, and I could only ever hold Bebbanburg because he allowed me to hold it. ... I understood that among the Danes I was as important as my friends, and without friends I was just another landless, masterless warrior. But among the Saxons I was another Saxon, and among the Saxons I did not need another man's generosity." (Cornwell 229-230)
He accepts that it is his inexorable fate to be at the whim of Alfred in the hopes that he will one day find his way clear to return to Northumbria without being the puppet of another man.
The villains get a lot more respectable, sadly you’re always going to have to deal with a pompous grip of priests/monks harrying the pagans entire journey.
He eventually wins this “cold war” of sorts but it takes like 6 books.
You also have to remember the significance of an oath during this period of history. Even if authored wants to leave he believes that being an oath breaker is worse than working for what is best for him.
Nah, there is really only one villain and that’s Uhtred’s uncIe. Uhtred has a goal - take back Bamburgh (Bebbanburgh). The problem is he is just a poor guy with no army. He must decide which side will work best for his end goal. Yes, he hates Alfred, but at the same time no one else is more likely to help Uhtred take back the castle.
As for him being a dick? No, he was raised to be a king - blessed by the pope. An extremely religious man that wants nothing more then to rid the island of the heathen - which Uthred is. Alfred despises Uhtred just as much as Uhtred despises Alfred. Unfortunately, they need each other.
As to not spoil anything, I highly recommend the books. Alfred is a hard headed tactician. One who has an army and can grant land, titles, money. Uhtred is also a hard headed tactician but has no land, hence no real title, no money and no army.
Tricking someone that helped you defeat the danes into owing the church 2000 pounds of silver is a pretty dick move on Alfreds part. Then he has that guy with the scar on his face executed when he gave him pretty good advice... you dont always have to follow advice but it was a sound option. This is what advisors are supposed to do. He would inspire no loyalty with these universally dick moves. There are several villians but i dont want to spend hours looking up their names.
Alfred wanted to do a few things: Teach Uhtred that there is always a higher power - politically and spiritually. You want land? Fine, but I want you to learn that you bow to me and the church. Next, had Uhtred been free to do what he wanted, Alfred would have lost his best military commander. Uhtred is still heathen in a Christian land. Alfred’s wife was the real dick.
Everyone is out for themselves. Priests, soldiers, lords. They all do what they feel they must to get what they want. Does that make them dicks?
There are plenty of “dicks” in Vikings. All the lords, ladies, priests, Danes, Swedes, Franks - all of them are dicks.
Thats a curious motive to put a man in severe debt so that he does not run off. Uhtred has every incintive to leave him in the marshes. Compare how Rollo was treated. There was not a character in vikings that was completely dickish like Odda the Younger, one of the abbots Ealdred? The second king that sold him into slavery. Arguably Ivar was the most dickish character in Vikings.