Is Vikings turning into fantasy?

[JD]

Vikings has always kind veered into almost fantasy material when it comes to their seer, who does seem to often honestly predict the future. But now this season we've got shared dreams, and a character who might be Odin. So does anybody else wonder if they're actually going to go that way, and have Habard actually be Odin, and turn the show into a true fantasy?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Vikings has always kind veered into almost fantasy material when it comes to their seer, who does seem to often honestly predict the future. But now this season we've got shared dreams, and a character who might be Odin. So does anybody else wonder if they're actually going to go that way, and have Habard actually be Odin, and turn the show into a true fantasy?

I think Vikings has always skirted the edge of the fantastic. If I remember correctly, did we not see Odin (or at least his presence was strongly hinted at) in the very first scene of the first episode?

Ragnar is mythical/semi-historical. So is Auslaug. Rollo, on the other hand, is historical.

I'm okay with this. I feel it's authentic to the pre-Christian Norse and how they viewed the world.

 

[JD]

Yeah, Ragnar did see Odin in Season 1. They did bring Kevin Durand on as a regular so I'm assuming we'll see more of Habard before the end of the season. I kind of hope they either have him actually be Odin or at least leave it vague. I don't necissarily want to show to go full on Thor or GoT, but I think it would be fun if they work some more fantasy elements into the show.

 

[Albertese]

The commentary tracks on the DVDs shed some light on this. The creator's intent has been since the beginning to show the world as the Norse saw it in those days. And to them and their culture, the gods and the mythical were just as real and "everyday" to them as the facts we take for granted in our world. So things like seers and sometimes seeing the spirits of the dead rising with Valkyries on their way to Valhalla and so on are manifestations that are made "real" for us (the audience) so we can feel what the old Norse people would have believed was actually going on.

I don't have cable, so I've only seen the show on DVD ... so just the first two seasons. I can't speak to Season 3, but the first two adhere to this "they-beleive-the-myth-is-real" motif very closely.

--Alex

 

[The Old Mixer]

I'm not sure this needs its own thread apart from the season discussion thread in the other forum...but I'd say that the fantasy element is subtle and implied...not blatant and demonstrative. I don't think we're going to be seeing trolls or fireball-throwing wizards.

 

[Unicron]

Give them time... More seriously, I agree with you. And I don't think it's necessarily a bad direction to take.

 

[N-121973]

Give them time... More seriously, I agree with you. And I don't think it's necessarily a bad direction to take.

Imagine if Anthony Hopkins, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston all appeared in costume?

 

[Dixie Flatline]

I hate the mysticism stuff when it's portrayed as actually having genuine, objective power. The Habard bits were dull as hell.

I hope it gets toned down next season.

 

[JD]

Give them time... More seriously, I agree with you. And I don't think it's necessarily a bad direction to take.

Imagine if Anthony Hopkins, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston all appeared in costume?

That would be hilarious.

 

[Wadjda]

It was high on the spirit of the dark ages and low on the chronologic accuracy since it started. It was nice to see the Viking trader husband. I hate that Vikings are always portrayed as Klingon warriors.

 

[Mach5]

How 'bout a SPOILER warning in the thread title?

 

[Gov Kodos]

Vikings has always kind veered into almost fantasy material when it comes to their seer, who does seem to often honestly predict the future. But now this season we've got shared dreams, and a character who might be Odin. So does anybody else wonder if they're actually going to go that way, and have Habard actually be Odin, and turn the show into a true fantasy?

No. The seer is just good at being vague, the rest is people assigning events to his sayings much the way folks will with Nostrodamus and his vague mutterings.

I hate the mysticism stuff when it's portrayed as actually having genuine, objective power. The Habard bits were dull as hell.

Good thing they didn't do that. Habard just told stories and quieted the kid down and much of that was right in line with Auslaug getting attention and laid. Others can mention Siggy's visions in the lake, but cold and shock would explain her visions of her daughter and Habard looking mystical just as well. His wandering off is just the same, lost from Helga's vision in the smoke and fog. She attributed that to him disappearing. The dreams, three women missing their husbands imagine a wandering man in their dreams and their morning conversation creates a confirmation bias- their wanting this to be meaningful and their culture that holds multiple people having the same dream being a sign from the gods providing the impetus to imagine they had the same dream from ill remembered memories of their dreams.

Albertese is spot on with what's happening. We're seeing the Viking world as they see it. There's nothing happening in any magical, mystical sense. Everything is quite explanatory in physical terms, we are just seeing how folks can see the real world from completely different perspectives from our own.

 

[Dixie Flatline]

Mmmm, I don't think so. The seer made prediction that have come true, without the writers making it ambiguous.

I hope they put it on the back burner. Human psychology is far more interesting to me.

 

[N-121973]

Give them time... More seriously, I agree with you. And I don't think it's necessarily a bad direction to take.

Imagine if Anthony Hopkins, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston all appeared in costume?

That would be hilarious.

I've only ever seen part of an episode so I'm curious why it would be hilarious, of course you may be right. Though from what I understand about Norse mythology Thor had red hair and a bushy red beard, whilst the Marvel Thor is a blonde with either no beard or a vestigial one (I'm basing that on the age of Ultron poster) so leaving aside the Bifrost depositing them in the Vikings midst, how would they recognise him?.

 

[JD]

I didn't mean anything specific when I said it would be hilarious, other than the idea of three actors who play Norse gods in one franchise showing up in an unrelated show about Vikings.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I didn't mean anything specific when I said it would be hilarious, other than the idea of three actors who play Norse gods in one franchise showing up in an unrelated show about Vikings.

I dunno, if the carved wooden statues of Thor, Odin, and Freya in the temple of Uppsala in the first season had resembled Hemsworth, Hopkins, and Rene Russo, that would've been pretty cool.

I liked the representation of the temple of Uppsala. A few centuries later, that style was used for the stave churches of Scandinavia.

 

[N-121973]

I didn't mean anything specific when I said it would be hilarious, other than the idea of three actors who play Norse gods in one franchise showing up in an unrelated show about Vikings.

Ah I get you :-).