[ SECRET POST #2350 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2350 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 135 secrets from Secret Submission Post #336.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 2 3 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[oftheark]

I can understand both sides here. But seriously, let's keep Vikings fandom small. It's already crazy enough as it is.

[(Anonymous)]

Vikings fandom is crazy? I'm signed up to a few lj comms and tbh it seems pretty dead. Where is everyone? D:

[oftheark]

I haven't checked anywhere recently, but when the series was airing there was a lot of stupidity and craziness.

[(Anonymous)]

Hmmm. I did see a fair amount of character-bashing written towards the end of the series...

[oftheark]

You mean all the Ragnar fangirls raging because omg how dare he cheat on Lagertha!!? Yeah. There was also a lot of idiocy from many male fans because they can't accept Lagertha as a shieldmaiden and can't handle the idea of mmf threesomes.

[deadtree]

oh I don't even count the latter group of people as part of the fandom lol

[oftheark]

Heh.

Then there's the Lagertha/Athelstan shippers who can be more than a little off-putting.

[deadtree]

really?? Sometimes I wonder if I DO see people being assclowns and just don't register it. I've got several L/A shippers on my dash and they seem pretty good. But then I'm pretty sure they all have roots in the OT3. Is it just the ones who eschew Ragnar entirely who are terrible?

[oftheark]

They seem to be the most vocal ones, sadly. I think I'm also put off by the idea that Lagertha needs a man at all (I've also seen some Lagertha/Rollo shippers and as much as I begrudgingly adore Rollo, just...no) since she's pretty damn self-sufficient in the source material.

[deadtree]

the beautiful thing about Lagertha is that she *doesn't* need a man, so yeah I can see how that would be off-putting. Most of the L/A shippers I know are shipping less from the point of view that Lagertha needs a man and more from the angle that Athelstan needs someone to take care of him, but now that Ragnar has gone off the rails he no longer qualifies.

[deadtree]

really? Where? I'm pretty active in the fandom and I haven't come across it. I mean there were some weird inter-fandom fights that weren't related much to the show, but other than that... well I guess Aslaug got a lot of shit but I mean, who wasn't expecting that?

Just about everyone I know in the fandom is super friendly.

[iceyred]

I love your icon. Why didn't their characters hook up? We were teased with a threesome, but it never came to fruition. :(

If there's crazy in the fandom, I haven't seen it. There was some character-bashing, but the characters being bashed sucked stale twinkie cream, so no bawwwing from me.

[deadtree]

ugh I knooow D: And Travis and George have so much chemistry together, too. Now the series has broken the OT3 :(

Yeah the only characters I have ever seen bashed by the fandom are Ragnar (who... well again, he kind of deserves it sometimes) and Aslaug, who we know almost nothing about other than she really wants to sleep with Ragnar for an unknown reason.
Sometimes people talk shit about Rollo for being a rapist, and Athelstan for being... not a Viking, I guess...
but for the most part it's a pretty sunshiny fandom

[iceyred]

Yeah, like who wants to read/watch a sexual relationship where one party tried to sacrifice the other to Odin? Talk about a buzzkill.

Athelstan was the most interesting character in the show, I thought. His growth and development was great (until the last couple of episodes at least). He was my favorite!

[deadtree]

not to mention Lagertha and Ragnar are going to have some major issues to work out between them. Basically we can't have the threeway (and have it be consensual and enjoyable for all parties) without a looooot of TLC between these three. Which I mean, I would watch the shit out of.

Athelstan is hands-down my favourite too. But he gets a lot of hate from non-fandom-fans (=people who like the show enough to comment on mainstream articles/youtube/facebook, but not enough to join the fandom), especially male fans, I've noticed. Their key complaints are that he's too pretty, he's too wimpy, he doesn't fight, etc. I think they missed the point of his character.
I will give it to them that he's weirdly gorgeous though. But I'd never hold it against him ;)
(But yeah his characterization took the biggest hit in the last couple of eps when the pacing got thrown out the window. But also a lot of his scenes, even early on, were cut from the US broadcast)

sorry for the word-vomit, I just have lots of feelings about this show

[iceyred]

Oh, no, you're fine. My feelings about this show are lengthy too. I gots opinions!

I can kinda see L and R coming back together, but it would take a lot of couple's therapy and trust building exercises. They were a great couple (one of my favorites on tv before all the terrible happened) and watching them rebuild their relationship would be hella interesting.

Athelstan's character arc was from wimpy and bookish priest, to Stockholm Syndrome sufferer, to someone who realized that he was surrounded by dangerous people who did not love him or care about him. The writing wasn't the best, but he's still a unique and interesting character. And it's not like he's just a piece of set decoration. He saved R from drowning.

What other scenes got cut? I saw the one with Gyda where he told her about his family. Were there any others? (Do you happen to know if there were any with Leif and Arne? I thought those two characters got the short end of the stick development-wise.)

[deadtree]

Yeah, I don't think the show has patience for trust building exercises :P They'll probably be getting their divorce pretty quickly. I just wonder who gets Athelstan!

But yeah poor Athelstan! Anyway I personally side with the popular fan opinion that Ragnar chose Athelstan as an honor: the one he trusted to take his message to the Gods. Just they should have talked about it :\ Because who knows if Athelstan really *understood* the implications of being a sacrifice, in the end? There are so many things that they didn't tell us that we need to know!!
But yeah he DID have a more active role during the middle of the season, before he was shuffled off from character to character as a plot device.

There were a few scenes of him in town, like when he first arrived and the Vikings were gawking at them and Ragnar told them basically to piss off, things like that; and the extended scene of his bathing before the sacrifice suggests pretty clearly that Thyri at least attempted to have sex with him (though I honest to god don't think that could have happened without him having a mental breakdown afterward when you combine it with his almost-being-sacrificed).

*oh, and I don't remember there being anything extra with Leif and Arne... but I didn't really pay attention to them :x

[iceyred]

One gets Athelstan, the other gets Bjorn. They can switch on weekends. I'm hoping they work through it. The actors had good chemistry, and the characters worked well together. If R permanently throws away his marriage for teh *~sexi~* I will be very upset.

That's a good theory and it would have been awesome if they had shown it to us. The fallout from miscommunication and cultural differences like that would be really interesting to watch. They could still salvage it by having R explain why he wanted A to be sacrificed. "You wanted freedom. You wanted to belong to a god. I wanted to make you happy." It's a step towards a repaired relationship and it would put the ball in A's court. How does he respond?

Thryi was another awesome character who got shafted. :( That would have been another interesting pairing. Why would she choose a slave and a foreigner to bring to her bed? How would he respond? Would they last? All that potential gone to waste. A mental breakdown would have been interesting!

Honestly, the way they wrote it makes me think something happened during filming and they had to re-write half the series. I'm cautiously optimistic that they'll salvage the series next season.

[deadtree]

hahaha good plan ;) If we're going by history we kinda can predict what will happen between Lagertha and Ragnar...

They still *could* show us what happened after the sacrifice (I'd be fine with a flashback) but I'm not optimistic we'll get it. I have a feeling they're going to want to charge ahead with the story ASAP in season 2.

I hated Thyri, I can't lie xD I feel bad about it, but she just grated on me as a character and it only got worse when she was randomly selected as Athelstan's plot-required partner. I know part of it is that I'm mad that she broke up my ships, but another part is that I just don't like her. And I don't particularly like Siggy either, oops :x (Though I did LOVE the scene where Siggy killed Thyri's husband) So I wasn't sad when she kicked the bucket.

Actually, they DID have to rewrite it later on; when they first started, it was going to be a miniseries, apparently with 13 episodes or something like that; when they were taken on as a series, they ended up only having 9 episodes but with the potential of having more seasons; and then midway through season 1 they were renewed. So I can't blame the writers for having to scramble to create a coherent story.

[iceyred]

I can understand why Thyri might not be everybody's cup of tea. I personally felt for her and thought she was understandable and sympathetic. Part of it is, again, the wasted potential. You have this character who suffered horribly. How does she grow now that that's over and she's surrounded by strong and intelligent women? How does she function in a society without therapy or much understanding of the trauma of marital rape? Could she become a shield maiden? Policy advisor to L and R? That would be cool. Oh, we're just going to kill her off? Dammit.

And her going after A made sense. If you get out of a terrible rapetastic marriage, you're going to want to make your own choices. And I would guess you would be attracted to a genuinely nice guy, which A is. They're not my OTP ('cause it's not like we got many scenes of them together) but they could've been good together.

Siggy wasn't a favorite of mine either. The backstabbing got tiresome.

Huh. I didn't know all of that. Guess that explains some of the confusion.