Vikings series 2

[Captain Blood]

Fair point.
Maybe they indeed saw the Anglo-Saxons in great big wobbly leather helmets... 

[Mason]

I would imagine that's so people can recognise the difference between the two with the target audience not having as much a historical bent as we learned types 

A shame but there we go 

I am very impressed, Bibbles!
That showed some serious restraint, with no reference to the Vikings being hard Northern Barbarians and Saxons being Southern ....you know the rest...

[Malamute]

Does it have boobies and nudie bits like wot Spartacus had?

 

[gamer Mac]

Not so much I am afraid Nick
I am surprised it is an 18 Cert
There are some extras showing the " making of" which are quite good.
The shield wall battle was good apart from I thought the Anglo-Saxon fought in a similar shield wall style or did they learn that from the northmen?
Are the axes the Vikings use not a bit small as well?

[OSHIROmodels]

I am very impressed, Bibbles!
That showed some serious restraint, with no reference to the Vikings being hard Northern Barbarians and Saxons being Southern ....you know the rest...

I've got the flu and would feel a bit wrong saying that sort of thing at the moment 

cheers

James

[axabrax]

Wow, really? I thought the Vikings costumes looked more like Game of a Thrones than anything I've ever seen on a reenactment site or in any Osprey, and Ive looked pretty closely. The complete and total lack of armor for the nobles was also baffling to me. I didn't see proper chainmail at any point in the entire first season. I find the "we can never really know, so it doesn't matter" argument to be a slippery slope in that it seems to ratify artistic license and creative speculation rather than focusing on what little we do know. We certainly know enough about the armor from Scandinavian burials to say that what they are doing in the series is off-base in that regard for the Vikings.

I thought the cultural aspects of the show were spot on however. I think it would be cool at some point if they brought in a berserker character.   

Pretty good for my money, Ged... Feels quite authentic - not that anyone can really know for sure.

I think they've got the Anglo-Saxons a bit wrong though... Very strange look to them, costume and armour-wise. And all portrayed as feeble, effete, pusillanimous idiots - which I'm fairly sure wasn't the case... But apart from that, good stuff...

[Argonor]

Besides the very strange grungy look of the vikings, I think the plot of the first series is very weak.

What is this columbus-nonsense of the vikings not knowing if Britain actually exists ('there's nothing to the west'? And the best seafarers of their age have never navigated down the coast to the Channel, and traversed it? There's lot's of evidence of extensive trade all over Europe up through the Bronze Age, also by ship, if I recall correctly.

And this feudal system that seems to be the order of society... what's the deal with that? The vikings were above all free men, with the right to chose whom to follow. A Hersir, Jarl or King could take oaths, but had to lead from the front and give large gifts to earn the respect of, and gain, followers.

I'm sorry, I really don't like this take on my forebears. It smells too much of 'Vikings are 'in'; we'd better make an epic series about them. Let's mix Lord of the Rings with medieval Europe and add some names from the sagas and make up this typical american maverick as the main protagonist... and let's also make him discover the west, which the vikings have only heard vague rumours about and don't really believe in, to thicken the plot. Then let's add tits and ass, and we have a winner.'

[Slayer]

well if you want a 100% accurate series then this wont be for anyone looking for that . Its a drama/action series and should be treated as just that. I do, and think you'll also find it more enjoyable it viewed like that. But hey each to there own and I know some cant get past inaccurate things like uniforms etc (not having a dig at anyone)

[Furt]

Yes, I think they've shown the Anglo-Saxons as a bunch of useless pansies in funny outfits in order to make the vkings look more butch. But it is a shame, because they've clearly gone to extraordinary lengths to get the vikings looking as authentic as possible - and then treated the Ango-Saxons as kind of pantomime opponents, without any attempt to get their look right... 

Overall though, it's a very good series, so... 

Totally agree about the Anglo-Saxon thing. This actually turned me off the series and I stopped watching after they started appearing in it - really off putting for me.

[Blackwolf]

Totally agree about the Anglo-Saxon thing. This actually turned me off the series and I stopped watching after they started appearing in it - really off putting for me.

Me too mate.

[Argonor]

I forgot to mention the ridiculous '3 shields wide shieldwall' in the fight on the beach. The saxons, outnumbering the vikings, just ran into it from the front and died, instead of some of them going 2 steps to the side and attacking the foes in the side/rear. Even my 7 year old daughter could have figured that out.

well if you want a 100% accurate series then this wont be for anyone looking for that . Its a drama/action series and should be treated as just that. I do, and think you'll also find it more enjoyable it viewed like that. But hey each to there own and I know some cant get past inaccurate things like uniforms etc (not having a dig at anyone)

This tastes a lot like the dicussion I just had over one of Sarissas supposedly 'viking' buildings. Who's to say what would be 100% correct? But at least doing a LITTLE actual research and basing the output somewhat on archaeological findings and many years of research and experiments by dedicated scholars wouldn't hurt THAT much, now, would it?

[Atheling]

I forgot to mention the ridiculous '3 shields wide shieldwall' in the fight on the beach. The saxons, outnumbering the vikings, just ran into it from the front and died, instead of some of them going 2 steps to the side and attacking the foes in the side/rear. Even my 7 year old daughter could have figured that out.

This tastes a lot like the dicussion I just had over one of Sarissas supposedly 'viking' buildings. Who's to say what would be 100% correct? But at least doing a LITTLE actual research and basing the output somewhat on archaeological findings and many years of research and experiments by dedicated scholars wouldn't hurt THAT much, now, would it?

Well, we do know quite a lot from one particularly well known source,  The Bayeux Tapestry(!!). OK, it's Late Eleventh Century but warfare and equipment didn't change very much in the so called 'Dark Ages' (no such thing IMHO).

There are other sources too such as the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, various Viking Saga's (that must have contained a grain of truth despite being written in the 13th C) just to mention a few of the better known.

Darrell.

[Gibby]

Besides the very strange grungy look of the vikings, I think the plot of the first series is very weak.

What is this columbus-nonsense of the vikings not knowing if Britain actually exists ('there's nothing to the west'? And the best seafarers of their age have never navigated down the coast to the Channel, and traversed it? There's lot's of evidence of extensive trade all over Europe up through the Bronze Age, also by ship, if I recall correctly.

And this feudal system that seems to be the order of society... what's the deal with that? The vikings were above all free men, with the right to chose whom to follow. A Hersir, Jarl or King could take oaths, but had to lead from the front and give large gifts to earn the respect of, and gain, followers.

I'm sorry, I really don't like this take on my forebears. It smells too much of 'Vikings are 'in'; we'd better make an epic series about them. Let's mix Lord of the Rings with medieval Europe and add some names from the sagas and make up this typical american maverick as the main protagonist... and let's also make him discover the west, which the vikings have only heard vague rumours about and don't really believe in, to thicken the plot. Then let's add tits and ass, and we have a winner.'

I agree with all of this, totally, at which point I began to look at this series like I did the film 300. It's just pure comic book nonsense, and if you sit back and switch off then it can be enjoyable enough. It is a shame that the entertainment industry think that realism and entertainment are mutually exclusive, but it is what it is I suppose.

The portrayal of the Saxons did my fecking head in, too. It's a decent series but you have to push through all the nonsense.

[LeadAsbestos]

Button counting like this belongs on TMP. I thought this forum is where the fun people came to hang out...

Vikings, the show, makes me want to play SAGA, the game, to have fun. Tiny metals toys on a tabletop aren't real either, boys.

Not that I didn't raise my fists in anger at that Clive Owen travesty, King Arthur!

[Argonor]

Button counting like this belongs on TMP. I thought this forum is where the fun people came to hang out...

Vikings, the show, makes me want to play SAGA, the game, to have fun. Tiny metals toys on a tabletop aren't real either, boys.

Not that I didn't raise my fists in anger at that Clive Owen travesty, King Arthur!

Easy for you to say, it's not your cultural heritage they are messing with.