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dulcepcriculum · 2 years

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* † [ tuppence middleton , she/her + cis woman ] : is that LENNOX FAIRFAX wandering around ? under these neon lights i swore they looked like a DRUID, but in actuality they are a FIXER / PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR. the THIRTY FOUR YEAR OLD is known to be CHAOTIC and MISGUIDED, albeit HEAD STRONG and AMBITIOUS. after spending TEN YEARS in sin city, their favourite song to hum is CLOSER by CLANN, though people often associate them with a harsh street lamp discolouring leaves in the night / blood, ash, and honey smeared over pale lips / flowers blooming from a decayed rib cage, dark ichor still seeping from the bone / blackened fingers digging into white wax.

i. basics.

name: lennox elizabeth fairfax. nickname(s): len, lenny. age/dob: 34 / july 1 1988. birthplace: chelsea, london, england. species: druid. hair color: platinum blonde with a streak of blue. eye color: hazel. height: 5′ 7″. build: slim. gender, pronouns & sexuality: cis woman, she/her, bisexual biromantic. relationship status: single. occupation: fixer / private investigator. spoken language: english, greek, latin (written-based), basic arabic, basic icelandic. summation title: the hellion. traits: (+) ambitious, head-strong, resourceful. (-) chaotic, misguided, mistrusting. character comparisons: jules vaughn (euphoria), floki (vikings), willy wonka (willy wonka & the chocolate factory), fox mulder (the x-files), audrey home (twin peaks), klaus hargreeves ( the umbrella academy), clementine kruczynski (eternal sunshine of the spotless mind), river tam (firefly + serenity), mia wallace (pulp fiction), mystique (x-men), sabrina spellman (chilling adventures of sabrina), powder (arcane).

ii. about.

(tw for death)

neither well off or poor, the fairfax family lead an average life in the eyes of friends and neighbours. lennox and her older brother were average students as good as the next kid, as deviant as the one after, but were connected to the hip when off on their own. maybe it was the large gap in age between the two that brought them closer together--- finn being an only child for so long that when she came along it meant he had someone to show all of his interests to, all of his hobbies and friends. wherever he went, his kid sister was beside him exploring the streets of london.

behind closed doors, however, he was teaching her everything he learned in the ways of magic from their parents and then more, methods and information he picked up on his own. he was the watchful eye to make sure she didn’t do something rash on a playground as well as ensure that despite the druid lineage she remained connected to the outside world and a part of it. while both of their parents were present in the home, did what they could to be involved in their children’s lives, finn was more of a parent to her than either of the taller shadows looming in the background of every memory.

it started with a birthday gift, a film camera that their parents said was too mature for a newly turned seven year old to have without breaking it. the camera was a staple around her neck on every adventure she had with him, any family outing or holiday. she ran out of film constantly, procured more through questionable means (stole) when it wasn’t immediately replenished. it fell once, for the record, by no other cause than pure accident she couldn’t be blamed for. finn went out the next day and replaced the lens without a complaint toward expenses.

the hobby, passion, turned into the beginning of a career. lennox applied to university programmes for photography and photojournalism will a portfolio over a decade in the making, some featuring being who inspired her. by then she had the full support of her family knowing well she couldn’t be separated from her ambition, never could be convinced out of an idea. too many scars and bruises were acquired to get the right shot that to tell her it wasn’t a profitable career meant more bruises would be made, that if it was better to stay close to home she’d sneak away in the night. so with a blessing and an expectation to come back over break, she went to scotland for school.

she was beginning her postgraduate classes when her parents called--- and that should have been enough of a sign to know something was wrong. a part of her wondered if she missed signs in the ether, if her talent with the elements waned from being distracted by the human world. nothing, nothing gave warning that finn was murdered before she heard the words from her mother.

lennox immediately came home. all they knew was he was coming home from work in the city, that he’d been attacked. her parents insisted to let the police handle it but len turned toward spell casting for answers. she was warned in her frantic search that turning to dark magic, that delving into the world of the dead would get her kicked from their home. within a week, the fairfax family lost both of their children.

it didn’t matter the means, lennox eventually found the answers she wanted. they were underwhelming and left more questions to her already shattered and scattered heart. and with no home left to return to, she decided england itself couldn’t be a home either and travelled to the united states instead. death seemed to follow her, already waiting for her in the city crawling with creatures that looked the other way for their own survival or encouraged it with so many loved ones begging for the same answers she was in her time of need. lennox decided to change her profession to getting such answers for anyone who asked.

years of living in las vegas, of being on her own, has made her more understanding to the circumstances of some of the violence within the city, some. it can be necessary at times, unreasonable and for pleasure at worst. because of various sources, lennox has opened her practice for various necessities as well, knowing well that the druids within the city might not understand that discouraged practices are sometimes needed for the best of intentions. she is no longer one to judge, only one to help by whatever means is required.

will be edited as information is discovered through muse or plotting.

iii. possible connections.

clientele: true to the druids of las vegas, lennox offers whatever one might be looking for, but without limitation or warning. the possibilities are limited to one’s imagination ( and physical exertion, of course ) and lennox has no qualms with indulging.

targets: and it’s very possible you didn’t hire her but she’s lingering around more than you’ve seen her before. perhaps a long lost sire wants to keep distance and requested information or someone knows what you’ve been up to and she has a camera ready to confirm it. are you hiding anything important?

associates: even practicing druids need suppliers for their craft and lennox is constantly in need of ingredients more questionable in nature. arrangements can be made, favors to be owned or simply money to be paid. are you willing to supply?

friends: the chaotic mess that she is, lennox is still very sociable and amicable, easy to care for other people who quickly resonate with her. however it is a connection that begins as a thread and must be reinforced over time; she is hesitant to trust even those whom she believes she can. once that reinforcement is settled, there’s nothing breaking that tie.

the hive minds: lennox uses whatever means necessary to achieve what she wants, but her work and methods can and have stepped into the worlds of the various hierarchies. her skill and expertise could be valuable to any of them ( especially to her own kin ) that a whisper in her ear to join might eventually encourage her. might. alternatively, her methods are not kosher or encouraged among many which might bring tensions or enemies to her doorstep. where do you stand?

more to be written...

iv. fun facts.

(tw for illness and injury)

pressing all buttons and pushing boundaries has its drawbacks and some are beginning to physically take a toll on her. it wouldn’t be the first nosebleed lennox had from exertion, or perhaps coughing up questionable colours after indulging in a darker magic. however, the tips of her fingers blackening with necrotic damage is new. only a few digits and barely noticeable for now. for now.

there are artistic photographs hanging around her small office. all of them were a part of her original portfolio when applying to studios.

has a pet skeleton tarantula named tau.

of her various cameras and surveillance equipment, her favorite and most used is her fujifilm x100 camera. if anything should happen to it, dark magic will be dealt.

more to come...

#pandemoniousintro

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donprago · 5 years

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With roughy 10,000 #waterfalls in #iceland #skogafoss is my favorite. And also featured in the #vikings series with infamous explorer #floki who was the first #norseman to intentionally #sail to#iceland #icelandadvice #icelandscape #iceland #icelandtravel #skógafoss #travelphotography #waterfall #europe #southiceland🇮🇸 #adventure #unitedmileageplus #icelandroadtrip #hertzrentacar #samsonite #travelblogger #travelgram #nature #naturephotography #vikings #vik (at Skógafoss, Iceland) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4CEUENJGX9/?igshid=1qypdlxh25u74

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Vikings Season 6: Where in the (New) World are Ubbe and Floki?

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This article contains spoilers for Vikings season 6.

Vikings bowed out on a beautiful scene that evoked both the quiet victory of love and friendship over savage human nature, and the endless, rolling seas of the uncharted future. Floki and Ubbe sat together on a far-flung New World beach – as westward as any two Vikings had ever travelled – reflecting on their lives and lots. They basked in the warmth of each other as much in the glow of the sun, and then watched in enraptured silence as the sun slowly set in the… east? But… they sailed west and disembarked at the shore. So… how can they… And the sun doesn’t set in the east… Wait a minute.

Where exactly in the name of Valhalla were those guys?

Out with the Old, In with the New

In seeking to answer the question of where exactly in North America our titular Vikings ended up, it’s necessary to look at the evidence of where in the New World their real-world historical counterparts tried – and ultimately failed – to gain a foothold.

By the time Norsemen first glimpsed the shores of North America they had already established semi-permanent colonies on both Iceland and Greenland, which wasn’t the case when Ubbe made the same journey, or Floki before him. In the show, Iceland was still a fledgling quasi-camp, while Greenland had only just been discovered. It’s clear, then, that creator Michael Hirst is staking a claim to Floki and Ubbe having been the first ‘Vikings’ ever to have set foot on the continent.

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While it’s implausible that other Vikings unknown to the historical record may have reached America without leaving trail or trace, it’s certainly not impossible. This is largely due to the scarcity and unreliability of much of the available evidence. The bulk of what we know about that place and time comes from the Icelandic and Greenland Sagas, and the Saga of Erik the Red, all of which were written at least two centuries after the events they describe. Furthermore, all of them contain, swimming among the truth, embellishments, flights of fancy and flat-out fake news.

That’s worth bearing in mind as we meet some of the real-life Vikings who blazed that westward trail.

Finding Greeland

In the show, the pattern of westward discovery begins with a beleaguered Floki surrendering himself to the winds of fate and discovering Iceland. He believes he’s found Asgard, and hurries back to Norway to gather up settlers. Despite much bloodshed, and the apparent death of Floki in the bowels of a crumbling volcano, the colony takes root. A traveller by the name of Othere arrives in Iceland and tells tales of a lush and verdant land to the west, which excites the imaginations of Kjetil Flatnose, Ubbe and Torvi, who set off to find it.

They find Greenland instead, a barren, inhospitable land that promises little but bleakness and death. Indeed, a dispute over territory and food culminates in a massacre atop and around the remains of a beached whale – precipitated and presided over by the psychotic Kjetil – prompting Ubbe, Torvi and Othere to gather up their survivors, rush to their boats and flee westward once more.

In the middle of the uncharted ocean, holding out little hope of survival, the remaining Vikings are overjoyed finally to discover the lands of which Othere spoke. There they find Skraelings (Skraelings was the less than complimentary Norse name for foreigners, meaning something like ‘savages’ – and, miraculously, Floki. Relations with the Skraelings are warm, and even survive an act of unsanctioned violence that at first threatens to place the Vikings and Skraelings at each other’s throats. All is well.

The story of how Greenland and North America were discovered by real-life Scandinavians is also characterised by accident, destiny and criminal behaviour, but takes many different turns.

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We begin in Norway, with a man named Thorvald Asvaldsson. Thorvald was banished to Iceland for the crime of manslaughter (making Iceland very much the sub-zero Australia of its day). Thorvald took his family with him, including his soon-to-be-famous son, Erik Thorvaldsson – more famously known as Erik the Red – of whom sagas would one day be written. Though Erik would help colonize Greenland, he would not be the one to discover it.

That honor goes to Gunnbjörn Ulfsson, who discovered Greenland entirely by accident when his boat was blown off course on the journey from Norway to Iceland. Years later, Erik decided to take heed of Ulfsson’s account and investigate this mysterious land to the west. It was not only his intrepid nature that propelled this journey, but also necessity, as Erik had proved the old adage about the apple never falling far from the tree by getting himself banished from Iceland. Criminal history not-with-standing, the colony Erik founded in Greenland would prevail for five hundred years. He chose the island’s rather misleading name in a bid to entice more settlers to its desolate shores, figuring correctly that IcyWasteland wouldn’t have had quite the same draw.

Erik’s peripatetic ambitions rested there, but were passed on to his sons, especially Leif Eriksson, whose adventurous spirit would lead the Vikings to North America. Again… by accident.

But not Leif’s accident. In a move that presaged the great need for all Scandinavian vessels to be fitted with SatNavs, a man named Bjarni Herjolfsson took a wrong turn on a voyage from Norway to Iceland, and was the first European to glimpse the North American coastline. Leif would remember this.

The Final Westward Journey of the Vikings

The son of Erik the Red lived through a time of great upheaval in Norse society. The network of earldoms had largely vanished, leaving monarchy in its place (the show establishes a lot of this in its fifth and sixth seasons). Christianity had almost completely replaced paganism (again, this ideological battle runs through the spine of the show), to the point where even the King of Norway was a Christian. Leif converted to Christianity while visiting Norway, and was thereafter tasked by the King with spreading the word of God westwards to Iceland and Greenland.

Nobody knows if he set sail to Herjolfsson’s promised land full of missionary zeal, or whether he was simply following the family tradition of exploration. Whatever the motivation, Leif and his brother, Thorvald, set off into the great unknown with a modest fleet and a motley crew of Vikings.

They charted three distinct lands: Helluland, meaning land of flat stones, believed to be modern day Baffin Island; Markland, meaning land of forests, believed to be the southern part of modern Labrador; and, Vinland, meaning land of wine (though this meaning has been argued among scholars). Nobody knows exactly where Vinland is on the modern map. All we know for sure is that the Vikings went there, and it was reputedly a land of salmon, berries, and wine – much as it appeared on the show, in fact.

It was also a land of Skraelings. Thorvald’s first encounter with them went rather less well than it did for Ubbe. Thorvald captured and killed a number of the native peoples, earning him in return a fatal arrow to his armpit.

So Where Was Vinland?

In the 1960s Helge Marcus Ingstad and his archaeologist wife Anne Stine Ingstad chartered a boat and tried to retrace the steps of those early Viking explorers, searching for evidence of settlements or colonies, using the sagas, and a crude, ancient map (the Skálholt Map), as their guide. They finally struck it lucky on Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula, where they discovered, at L’Anse aux Meadows, the first and to date only evidence of a Viking settlement in the New World. Cast-iron confirmation came when excavation of the site revealed identical tools to those that had been used by the Vikings in Iceland. Could Newfoundland, then, be the mythical Vinland; Ubbe’s land of plenty?

Not likely. Even adjusting for climate variation over the past millennium, Newfoundland has never been blessed with the soil or weather conditions to support the growing of grapes. Wild grapes are to be found far south-west of Newfoundland: in Chaleur Bay, New Brunswick and, further south, in modern-day New England. Scholars think it more likely that the settlement at Newfoundland was more of a bustling way station, or a distribution hub for New World timber being sent back to Greenland.

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The ‘Skraelings’ described in the sagas, and as depicted in the show, were a good match for the Beothuk people, who were natives of Newfoundland. However, it is more likely that Ubbe and his Vikings met the Mi’kmaq, a similarly daubed yet ceaselessly peripatetic tribe whose large territory incorporated Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, among many others.

It’s worth hazarding a guess, then, that the Vinland beach Ubbe and Floki sat upon in the closing moments of the show’s finale was somewhere on the south-west coast of Nova Scotia. It’s likely they watched the sun set on the western horizon, with the coast of Maine hidden somewhere far beyond it. The flora, fauna and local tribes all match this location, too.

The real history of the Vikings’ westward journey adds a rather more somber note to that final scene. Unless Ubbe and Floki exist in some parallel universe, other Vikings will walk where they’ve walked yet find no trace of their existence, nor will any word reach Norway and Iceland of the places Ubbe and Floki found or the people they met. Which means that their dreams of peace and hope will end with death at the hands of the Skraelings, or else in the mighty embrace of the ocean as they try to return home with tales of the New World in the West. But that hope still existed, and for one blessed moment they savoured it.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Perhaps Vinland isn’t a place, but a state of mind.

The post Vikings Season 6: Where in the (New) World are Ubbe and Floki? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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ceies · 5 years

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Thorfinn - Where he came from and where to go?

I’ve watched Vinland Saga last week and started giving my opinion on the show recently. Since it’s all still on the forefront of my mind, I like to talk a little bit about my first impression of these characters. So “First impression” because I only watched Vinland Saga once, but I’ve rewatched certain clips, read a few short YouTube-comments and … spoken with people about it (mostly fawning over Askeladd tbh :D). So, this is not just my first impression after watching the show, but it is also influenced a little bit by the ideas of other people. However, as I haven’t actually gone and read any other characterizations before… there may be a lot that I’ve missed there may be a lot of questions I have that are long answered within the fandom or there may be some interpretations of these characters, that are not shared in maybe more thought-out and well-researched Characterizations.

So Spoiler Alert!

Synopsis:

In the first episode Thorfinn is just six years old. He lives with his father, mother and older sister in a small village on Iceland. His father is former and now retired warrior and as such admired by the whole village. He is in many ways what not just Thorfinn but many kids and young adults in the village aspire to be. Thors’ friend Leif is a sailor who has traveled all the way to “Vinland” (essentially Canada, I think) and tells inspiring stories to Thorfinn and the other kids. Thus, Thorfinn grew up dreaming to become a warrior like his father, traveling to the fabled “Vinland”, conquering the seas and going out on his own adventures.

The chance for an adventure comes sooner than expected, when Thors old comrade Floki and his Jomsvikings come to Iceland to demand that Thors joins the war between Denmark and England. Thors who has little choice in the matter agrees and thus, the whole village breaks out in excitement for the upcoming war. A war Thorfinn, intends to join.

When Thorfinn finds his father’s old weapons and draws the dagger being enraptured by it’s “Beauty”, his father talks to him about “Killing”.

“You have no enemies. Nobody has enemies. There is no one who it’s okay to kill.”

Thorfinn doesn’t understand these words, yet, and the next day he sneaks out onto his father’s ship to join the journey to Norway and possibly the war in England. However, before they ever reach Norway, they are attacked by a band of Vikings. Thors being the “larger than life” powerful warrior that he is, fights the pirates/Vikings with his bare hands, then challenges Askeladd, the leader, to a duel demanding that in case of his victory all of his men go free. Despite Thors easily overpowering Askeladd, the pirates don’t honor the duel and Thorfinn is promptly taken hostage.

To protect his son and men, Thors gives his life and dies in front of Thorfinn. Some of his last words were:

“A true warrior does not need a sword.”

Thorfinn is devastated by that loss. He does not understand how his father who was so much more powerful could die. He doesn’t understand why his father refused to kill and is now dead himself. What he does understand, is that his father’s murderer Askeladd still lives. Disregarding or simply not understanding his father’s words, the young child swears vengeance against Askeladd, sneaks upon his father’s ship that the pirates take as spoils and screams his intention at the enemy.

Shortly after the Pirates land in England, Thorfinn gets his first chance at revenge. He stands over a supposedly sleeping Askeladd, sword raised over his head… and then he hesitates, steps back, and leaves. The next morning, he challenges Askeladd to an honorable duel, stating that as his father’s son, he would go the honorable way.

Of course, young Thorfinn stands no chance against Askeladd, but after another few encounters between Thorfinn and the band of Vikings Askeladd offers the boy to join his men, proof himself on the battlefield and then duel him again as often as he liked.

In the following years, Askeladd puts Thorfinn to use. He sends him on increasingly more difficult tasks, many of which could have easily ended in the boy’s death. Slowly killing his way through England, Thorfinn grows up into a teenager. By the time he is sixteen he’s a much changed and stronger warrior and he finally gets another chance to duel Askeladd……..

The Father, and the Father’s Killer

Thorfinn grows up from a six-year-old bright and happy child full of dreams of adventure, with a loving family, and a peaceful home to a teenager obsessed with hatred and vengeance, growing up on the battlefield while drowning in guilt.

What is very apparent early on is that, while Thorfinn focuses his rage on Askeladd who murdered his father, in his most desperate moments he also and maybe even to a greater extent blames himself for his father’s death. He was taken hostage when his father was all but winning the duel. He had snuck onto the ship against his parents’ wishes. Had he not been there, maybe his father would have lived. Another aspect that he feels guilt over – although this is hardly addressed until midway through the season – is that he left his family behind. While his father is dead, his mother and sister still live on Iceland. A slightly older Thorfinn has a dream of his father, telling him to come home and protect his family, only for the dream to turn into a nightmare when the village and is attacked and his father is killed all over again, while Thorfinn is powerless.

He often dreams of Thors. In these dreams he always turns into a child again. His father gives advice that is very true to Thors’ actual character. It is quite obvious from this that Thorfinn knows his father would not want him to pursue revenge and kill Askeladd. It’s something he has known from the beginning, even if he does not understand exactly why his father is like that or what it means to be a “true warrior”. Thorfinn listens to his father, but ultimately, he does not follow. There are some things even dream-Thors does not tell his son. Things he “has to learn himself”. As those dreams in my opinion are just that: dreams and not otherworldly visions, this seems to suggest that there in fact are many things Thorfinn does not know about his father even subconsciously. He knows his father would not want him to pursue revenge, but he does not understand why. The fact that Thorfinn always reverts to his six-year-old self in those dreams I think means that he never grew up from that moment. He might have physically aged, gotten a lot stronger and a bit smarter, but he is internally still that same small child devastated by his father’s death. In ten years, he never moved on, he never got to properly mourn.

Instead he focuses all his hatred on Askeladd, obsessed with revenge – which seems to be the very reason he is never able to move forward as a character. Over the years, and at the end of the show this is painfully apparent: Thorfinn did not grow. He got more badass, but he never changed. He is the same angry boy, only maybe with every year a little bit angrier a little bit more lost in the darkness.

When Leif finds him years later, he does not even recognize the happy and bright young boy within the hateful teenager he meets.

To Thorfinn Thors is an anchor. He is his idol, who he aspires to be. It is his father he thinks about when he imagines a warrior, a true warrior or the concept of honor. It is because of his father that he decides to seak revenge the “honorable” way in a fair duel instead of a dagger in the dark. In many ways Thors is a bright beacon in Thorfinn’s life. He is his idol and it is him whom he turns to in his dreams. However, Thors is not just the Anchor he can rely on… maybe more so he is an anchor to drag him down further into the darkness. Because it is Thors death that Thorfinn focuses on more than his lectures. It’s his pursuit of revenge that he will disregard even Thors most fundamental ideas for.

Thorfinn knows, his father would not want him to kill… and yet he kills left and right. Thorfinn knows his father would want him to go back home, and yet he spent 11 years growing up in war. And all of that happens because of Thors even more so than “in spite” of Thors.

This show very much explores the idea of “Killing the Father”. And Thorfinn is stuck in stasis: His father is dead, but he cannot let go. (This is in stark contrast to Canute, who can let go of Ragnar.)

The other relationship that is most important in exploring Thorfinn’s character is Askeladd. Askeladd is for almost the entirety of the season Thorfinn’s sole focus of his hatred. While in the beginning, he still shows anger and resentment against characters like Bjorn – who were very much also responsible for the way his father died – at the end of the day, it seems to be just Askeladd who he is obsessed with.

Askeladd at this point is an adult, and a lot stronger than Thorfinn, so of course this young kid is no threat to him. But smart, conniving and pragmatic bastard that he is, he knew immediately how to use this revenge-obsessed boy to his advantage. Thorfinn is essentially willing to do everything to get Askeladd to agree to a duel. He also seems to have little concern for his own safety, while simultaneously being a crafty and increasingly strong warrior. Askeladd can use this kid to his maximum potential and soon Thorfinn grows into the most effective and powerful weapon Askeladd has at his disposal – short of his own intellect.

Thorfinn… is somewhat aware of the fact, that Askeladd uses him, but until the very end he never quite understands how much he is using him. Thorfinn does all these things, because he truly believes it will lead to his vengeance. But Askeladd goes along, because he knows for a fact, it never will – or only in many, many years when Askeladd is already old and weak.

To Askeladd Thorfinn’s revenge is a ridiculous game. It’s something that is quite obvious in the Anime from the start, but it hits even harder when Askeladd finally spells it out for Thorfinn:

Thorfinn is a slave to his revenge. And thus, he is a slave to Askeladd. And that without even really knowing.

Because physically there is nothing hindering him from just leaving Askeladd and going home. But he can’t. The weirdest situation is when Thorfinn talks to a slave girl about how he is no slave – when he very much is in that meaning of the word – but if he were he would kill his slaver – which he is very much trying to do… at least that’s what I thought at first. Later Askeladd spells it out: He is in fact a slave to his vengeance, a slave to Askeladd… but he never really tried to kill him. Because if he had, Askeladd would be long dead. All Thorfinn is doing, is playing a ridiculous game because he is terrified of “liberating himself” as that would force him to finally acknowledge his own guilt.

Apart from that hatred, ultimately, there’s another deeper relationship between Askeladd and Thorfinn. This is something the show, as well as both characters involved try to hide and deny for the longest time, but also the type of relationship you know has to be there. Askeladd essentially raised Thorfinn for 11 years. He did that through the harshest means, demanding traumatizing and horrendous things of him, turning him into a murderer, ridiculing him, beating him to a pulp and readily abandoning him on the battlefield. But he still raised him, he spent 11 with this boy watching him grow up from child to man. Thorfinn grew up with Askeladd as his closest and really only relationship, as an adult to learn from. He did that kicking and screaming, spewing hatred and anger… but he did spend 11 years growing up under Askeladd.

Of course, between the two, eventually a relationship would form that went deeper than just superficial pragmatism on one side and deep-rooted anger on the other. Ultimately, they would grow to care for each other. This is of course something both denied, even to themselves. There are a few moments like when Askeladd looks at Thorfinn and suddenly realizes how much he had grown, that seem to hint at that growing relationship, but it is well-hidden within these characters. As long as Thorfinn is obsessed with revenge he can not let himself care for Askeladd and as long as Askeladd sees such a useful tool in Thorfinn he cannot quite acknowledge that he would regret his death.

Shortly before Askeladd’s death Thorfinn can finally let go of his pursuit of vengeance. There is a short scene when Thorfinn stands in Leif’s boat staring at a bird. This is one of the scenes that I’ve been thinking about the most. It reminds me a little bit of a scene in Episode 7 when the war was put on halt and upon questioned what to do now, Askeladd said they would “do what the birds do”. So maybe, I thought, it meant that with Thorfinn having given up on his revenge and no real purpose where to go, staring at the bird take flight made Thorfinn remember that moment and “take flight himself.” I don’t know… if somebody has a good interpretation of that scene: Help me out!

I don’t think Thorfinn went to find Askeladd. Instead, I think that Thorfinn upon wandering through the town heard the commotion and realized something was happening. However, when he saw Askeladd die in front of him, it was obvious that he cared. There is still part of him, that I think is attributing the pain that he feels upon the loss of his “mentor” to his now forever lost chance at revenge. But it is telling, that Askeladd even somewhat needs to remind him that they are supposed to be enemies.

When Askeladd dies Thorfinn not just ultimately loses his purpose that had kept him going for the last 11 years but he also loses a person that was quite close to him, even if he utterly hated him. Thorfinn is devastated.

I think it’s interesting to mention at this point, that consistent with his character so far, the first reaction he jumps to after Askeladd died was again revenge, attacking Canute. After that however, the moment when he is dragged away from Askeladd’s body, he in his last act of the season let’s go of his dagger.

This is so important, because while I assume it means that at this point, he finally let go of his revenge- because it is ultimately lost to him – and the last 11 years… He also let go of the last momentum of his father So, maybe this is a way of him saying that he can let go of Thors now.

As this is supposed to be a characterization of Thorfinn not Askeladd, and since it’s already very long I won’t go into detail about Askeladd’s relationship with Thorfinn (so the other way around) nor what Askeladd maybe thought when he saw Thorfinn in the finale nor what he maybe meant with his words… that will all be part of a possible later, and possibly even longer Askeladd-post… But I want to finish this trying to guess where Thorfinn may go from here:

So… Thorfinn I think is at this point ready to properly mourn his father. He never did this, because he was never really willing to accept his death. I see him letting go of the dagger, not just as him letting go of his hatred and vengeance, but also him slowly getting ready to let go of his father. Finally, 11 years after his death. That said, that probably won’t be easy. I don’t really know that much about the process of mourning, but I’ve heard about the “five Stages of Grief” and if this is in anyway like that… he has been stuck in the “Anger” phase for the longest time. So, I think it’s possible that in a second season he may be stuck for a while in the bargaining and/or depression stage… And I think, we will probably have to go through the same process now, regarding Askeladd.

The way Askeladd died was in a way similar to how Thors died, as in “he seemed to do fine in battle, then Thorfinn appeared, creating an opening for the killer”. So, I don’t think he will be stuck on “Anger” the way he did for Thors’ death, because I think he is old enough to ultimately understand what has happened and why. He did have a short outbreak of anger here, and he may not like Canute anymore – if he ever did… but ultimately, I don’t think he will stay angry at Canute. However, I think in the next season Guilt might be a rather unfortunate companion, even if again he probably knows intellectually that it’s not his fault. This fits because it also is what he has to now deal with in regard to Thors’ death.

If I understand my (very shallow and quick) google search on the Five Stages of Grief correctly, that would be part of the “Bargaining” stage.

Askeladd’s last words were more or less:

“How do you want to live your life? Don’t stay here forever. Go ahead, Son of Thors. Go beyond. Become a true warrior, that is your real fight.”

The way Thorfinn looked in this scene, the question “what to do after Askeladd’s death” never crossed his mind. So even when he joined Leif…it wasn’t really so much a conscious decision of “this is what I want to do” but rather… just following Leif around.

So, because the show is called Vinland Saga… I do think, that ultimately, he will join Leif to get to Vinland or explore some new ocean. But… not now. At the moment, I think he has to do some soul searching which… so far he wasn’t the quickest in developing and growing internally, the guilt for Thors’ and Askeladd’s deaths will probably further drag him down – so I think it will be a while until he makes the decision what he wants to do. If this decision will then be going to Vinland or whether he first decides to do something else entirely I do not know… But the way I’ve come to know Thorfinn I would not be surprised if he needed a big junk if not the entirety of season two trying to just overcome his guilt and finding a new path forward.

That said, even if he now still wanted to go with Leif… which I assume maybe he would want to do that, just because it’s the only option he has and the only person in the town he really cares for… I think that would be difficult because he just attacked Prince/King Canute. So… he’s not going to die… but I’m pretty sure this will have consequences and he will be punished in some way… I’m kind of… unsure what punishment that would be, but as I have spoiled myself a little bit by seeing a picture for the second season where he was in chains – I assume the punishment will be slavery. Everything else doesn’t make much sense anyway, I guess unless they want to mutilate him… which… would be unfortunate since we spent so much time building him up as this badass duel-wielding warrior.

Thorfinn as a Main Character:

The funny thing about Thorfinn in his role of main character is, that through long stretches of the first season he doesn’t feel like the Protagonist. Don’t get me wrong, the Anime makes it quite clear that he IS in fact the main character, but since he does not change much at all between episodes 5 and 22, he seems somewhat “less exciting to follow around” as a character. While I was always hyped to see him fight somebody, midway through the season Canute and Askeladd stole the show. They seemed so much more exciting and so much more interesting to follow around. Both characters were also far more active in the story, while Thorfinn was just lagging behind. Not just in terms of character development but also in terms of the plot that was now unfolding. For the most part – excluding the emotional highlight of Thorfinn’s breakdown over Askeladd’s death – story wise Thorfinn wasn’t needed for the finale. Overall it felt like Thorfinn got less and less relevant for the actual plot the closer we got to the end of the show. Of course, he had moments in between, and especially the last three episodes did wonders for his character development, but still during these episodes I felt like the story didn’t care about him. It wasn’t about him. And the part oft the plot that he cared about (the revenge arc) was something nobody else – not even Askeladd really cared about.

This is difficult to put into words because… Thorfinn still got a lot of shine even in the last episodes. He was always a focal point in the show. But it’s like Thorfinn follows a character-centric story, that focuses entirely on his development and how he processes his father’s death, how he learns to let go of his pursuit for revenge, how he grows up and becomes an adult… while everybody else and the rest of the world follow a very plot-driven story of “We need to decide the succession of the Danish throne”. And this is a plot in which Thorfinn as the main character has no investment in whatsoever…

The one character that brings and holds these two separate stories together is Askeladd. So, I feel like over the course of this Saga we will probably watch Thorfinn grow from young child to old age and follow him through whatever development he goes through in that time. In that sense, he is the main character. But it also feels like what happens around him, is not always or maybe even not at all about him and the individual arcs or seasons may prominently feature other characters as a second “seasonal main character”. In that sense, “Thorfinn is the main character of the Vinland Saga, but this is Askeladd’s Arc… or maybe even Canute’s Arc”.

Of course, it could be that I’m wrong and this is only the case for the prologue, because it is a prologue and Thorfinn is still young and once he is older and more powerful and has a new agenda, he will be able to shape events more actively himself.

Over the course of the Season there were a few times where I did not particularly like him as a character, where I found frustrating or even a bit annoying, but I always understood his anger. As far as main characters with revenge-arcs go (which is not a character-arc I normally care about), I think this is my favorite handling of this particular character type. What I also really appreciate is how while in this season this character is stuck on revenge and he is stuck on revenge for a long time, it is also obvious at the end, that this will change. And since this is the Prologue, I have high hopes that maybe in the future we will see more of a “redemption type” story unfold. As normally if there is a main character in pursuit of revenge, it seems like moving past that and giving up on it is the major thing the story is about. Here with Thorfinn, him giving up on revenge is already happening in the Prologue. So maybe I’m too optimistic about where this story will unfold, but I’m looking forward to following a character who has already given up on his revenge before the main story is even really starting.

#vinland saga #thorfinn #son of thor #thorfinn karlsefni #spoilers #vinland saga season 1 #charcterization

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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Vinland Saga – 03 – It’ll Pull You In

Askeladd immediately shows both Floki and us what kind of dudes we’re dealing with, as he manages to double the bounty for Thors’ head from five to ten pounds of gold. Floki is a very shrewd man with good instincts, but he also has a solid right-hand-man in Bjorn, who spears a Jomsviking who was hiding behind a tapestry and passes it off as an innocent accident.

As for Thors, he doesn’t leave at the break of dawn, but is seen off by the whole village. Before they leave, all five of the young men he’s bringing along have designs on asking Ylva for her hand in marriage upon their return and presenting her with spoils of war; all Ylva wants is a little more shuteye.

When a young lass who likes Ari (one of the guys who tried to propose to Ylva) is cruelly rebuffed, Leif assures her none of the five greenhorn lads will come to any harm; Thors will see to it they’re dumped off in Norway before they see any battle, and Leif promises he’ll ship them back to Iceland, disappointed, but with their organs still very much internal.

Seemingly the only member of the village not seeing them off is Thorfinn, who is nowhere to be found and presumed by both Thors and Ylva to still be off skulking, angry about being scolded. We get a little more comedy when the five guys line up on one side of the boat, while Thors is on the other side all on his own with one hell of a huge oar. Leif bangs out the pace on the drum, and the ships are off.

It isn’t until they’re already out in the open sea that Thorfinn reveals he stowed away. While peeing over the side (he really needed to pee) he suddenly notices where he is, and his smile is so wide and bright, Thors can’t help but smile back, despite the fact his son just ruined his plans to try to keep him safe.

He later paints Finn’s back door red for his insolence (pretty tame discipline from a viking in the 11th century), as the gears turn in Askeladd’s head. He chats with Bjorn about the bounty deal not seeming quite right; he’s quite sure Floki reached out to them independently and his superior didn’t order Thors’ execution.

Askeladd also believes Floki is afraid of incurring a great loss of his own men, and so hired someone else. This tells Askeladd that this Thors fellow shouldn’t be a pushover, even if Floki says he’s “not a warrior” anymore.

As night falls, Thors warns Ari not to stare at the moon in the sea, lest it “pull him in,” a common nautical hazard. As Thorfinn dozes contently in his lap, Thors tells Ari more about his first child, the woman Ari says he’s in love with.

It was a difficult birth for Helga, the daughter of the leader of the Jomsvikings, but Thors was about to head out on another mission, and was annoyed he got a daughter instead of a son. He’s about to leave when Helga asks him to name her.

He says he’s “busy”, but Helga insists—the first time he ever saw her truly angry. So he named her Ylva, after his mother. And that, he tells Ari, was the first time he started to feel afraid of battle…which makes sense, as dying in battle meant abandoning his newborn child and wife to an uncertain future.

The next day they arrive at the Faroe Islands—the usual rest stop between Iceland and Scandinavia. They row into a cove that leads to a trading village, but the high walls immediately spell foreboding, and Leif notes that there are fewer structures in the village itself.

By the time they start rowing out of the cove, it’s to late—Askeladd’s men start dumping huge piles of debris onto their ships, blocking their only exit. Then another drum can be heard: the drum of Askeladd’s two ships rowing towards them.

Ari and the other men bristle and claim to be ready for battle, but Thors knows better; the boys will be no match for these hardened foes. So he takes a deep, “I’m getting too old for this shit” breath, pulls out his sword, and hands his dagger to Thorfinn, warning him only to use it in time of absolute need.

Before Askeladd’s men know it, Thors has leapt onto one of their ships. He takes out the first man with one punch, two others with two more, and then three with three; six skilled men downed without even drawing his sword. It’s then that Bjorn and Askeladd know: they’re going to have to work their asses off to earn every ounce of that gold.

Each of the first three Vinland Sagas have been very different affairs—from an introduction to Thors and Thorfinn and live in Iceland, to the arrival of a new old threat, to the swashbuckling adventure that begins in this episode. But all three of kicked all kinds of ass in their own way.

Like Thors himself, it doesn’t glamorize violence or killing, and Ari and his four hotshot friends are presented as the naive fools they are. As for Thorfinn, he may not have pissed himself while hiding in that barrel, but yeah…he’s now somewhere that’s absolutely no place for a six-year-old. I just can’t see how this ends well for anyone…but nor dare I look away.

By: braverade

#Anime #News #RABUJOI – An Anime Blog

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goldentailedmermaids · 7 years

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I'm with that this whole civil war-bro vs. bro thing is just Hirst repeating old storylines. It's obvious he's running out of creative material for the show. The only storyline that peaks my interest is Floki's journey & settlement into Iceland. Thank the gods for DVR, because I'll will definitely be skipping the boring/repetitive parts in s5.

Oh boy yes! Repetition brings boredom and you are right wanting to skip boring parts to keep you entertained. And it is true that Floki’s Icelandic adventures sounds interesting (if only Helga and Boda had lived! They could have founded a family there!) and some of the shots of the landscape and boats sailing are truly great and appealing. I am just so sad this is all wasted for some uneccessary drama and shock value.

#vikings #Anonymous #ask

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museelo · 7 years

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Floki + scenery in The Plan

#historyvikings #vkfloki #vikinks #vikingsedit #vikings #floki #vikings spoilers #mine3 #floki's adventures in iceland

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philomaela · 8 years

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BTW, a synopsis for Vikings season 5 was released and it revealed some interesting points:

Sigurd’s death officially divides and starts a war between the brothers

Aethelwulf will work with Bishop Heahmund to try and expel the vikings from the land given to them by Ecbert.

However, Aethelred and Alfred will not share their father’s opinions in regards to the Vikings.

Floki sets off in a boat alone on his Iceland adventure.

Lagertha is still Queen of Kattegat however that position is threatened.

I bolded the points that are new information, but it’s safe to say that these will be the main storylines of s5.

#vikings #text #news #vk s5

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the-common-columbus-blog · 7 years

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“There was a man by the name of Floki Vilgerðarson. He was a great Viking.” Floki was the second Norseman to arrive in Iceland. Following a raven he landed in Vatnsfjörður. His cattle died over the winter and he cursed the cold country! After seeing ice drifting in the fjord he decided to name the country Ísland. ❤️🇮🇸💙 #travelblog #travelblogger #travelblogger #tourist #tourism #adventure #adventurer #wanderlust #wanderer #exploretheworld #travel #travelbug #addictedtotravel #instatravel #travel #floki #viking #commoncolumbus #iceland #🇮🇸 (at Sögusafnið / Saga Museum)

#adventurer #adventure #iceland #viking #addictedtotravel #wanderer #travelbug #tourist #🇮🇸#tourism #travelblog #exploretheworld #travel #floki #instatravel #travelblogger #commoncolumbus #wanderlust

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lilspookyone · 5 years

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Unit 5 and 7 Task 3 Evaluation

Inspiration

My main inspiration for my level design was World of Warcraft because I wanted to make a quest-based game. From the beginning I knew I wanted to create a dark forest theme, so I started by playing WoW and going to Darkshire, as I knew this location was based around a forest area. After going here, I decided to screenshot some images to later use as inspiration for my level and the assets in it. Personally, I prefer either RPG’s or FPS games so I knew I wanted to base mine around something like that. As my knowledge of Unity is not strong I decided to go with an RPG as I thought this would be easier as a starting game. My second source of inspiration came from the Viking era and Norse Mythology, as I have a passion for this and wanted to incorporate it into my game. The title of my game refers to Floki who was the first Norseman to sail to Iceland. I felt like this would be a good name for my main character as you have to experience an adventure with him as you complete the quests. I also wanted to add a portal into the game which would have had runes engraved into the stones around it. Due to my knowledge of Maya being quite little and having software issues, made it hard to create this so I will add it to my FMP. This means I can spend more time perfecting it.

Planning and Designs

From the beginning of the planning stage I thought of an idea and stuck to that as close as possible. I had saved reference images for similar levels designs I wanted to make, and certain materials I wanted to use on my terrain. I found the design stage quite hard as I am artistically challenged and struggled to represent my ideas through drawings. It was easier for me to just go with it and change parts of the game if needed. With me using a first-person camera it allowed me to skip out on having to design a character which is beneficial to me as it allowed me to spend more time creating my level. I had originally planned to have skulls as a quest item, however with Maya being down and not having enough knowledge to create this asset I decided to go with mushrooms from the asset store. Going into this design stage I already knew I wanted to use this level in my FMP, so I had predesigned what I was going to add in the later stages of development. I knew I wanted to add a portal into the level however, I wanted to spend more time perfecting it and creating a world for it to go to and knew I would not finish it in time for the first deadline. Finally, I had planned to create an NPC wisp that would give you quests, and then you would have to hand items back into him once you have found them. However, like my portal design I did not receive much help when trying to create the wisp therefore had to keep this a blank cylinder that I can later change when I have learned how to create my desired character.

Scripts

I had previously saved some scripts from when we had messed around with Unity to get used to the software in the first few weeks of the course. This helped when creating my level as I already had some scripts to hand. However, there was a lot of script I had not seen before, so I had to ask for help when trying to code certain movements. In my game I wanted my character to pick up mushrooms so I had to ask for help coding this. The teacher explained the code to me and I then saved it for future reference to use in future projects. I wanted to create a menu for my game and I knew that one of my peers had already done this. I asked them how they coded it and they helped me create my menu with added code to open and close the game.

Time Management

My time management was not great at the beginning of task 3 as I was not used to the software, so I spent a few lessons just messing around to create the floor plan I wanted. To begin with I struggled as I could not visualize my game with the blank canvas I had. However, as I began to add more textures and assets I was able to picture it better. Everything started coming together with the game and I was able to get it done in the time I had. Due to having software issues with unity we were given an extension so we could get our levels completed to a better standard. This helped a lot as it removed some stress of not getting it completed on time. Overall my time management was a lot better towards the end of my task 3 deadline and I was able to hand everything in at a good standard before it was due.

Issues Faced

The first issue I faced when creating my game was that the software was down meaning I was unable to physically create my game without the software. During this time I just collected reference images and did some small sketch ideas of what I wanted to add in my game. Another issue I faced was that some of the assets I wanted to use were not on the asset store. This led to me changing some of my ideas as I am not confident enough using Maya to create my own assets. The main ideas stayed the same it was just background details I was unable to add. When I feel more confident using modelling software I can add signposts and other assets I could not find. A final issue I faced was that the player was unable to look up or down. I had checked the script and could not find an issue so had to ask for help fixing this. It was easily fixed by the teacher removing and re-adding the script so in future if I face a similar problem I know how to fix it.

What I’d Change/Add

The first thing I would add to my level is a portal as I had already started creating this asset. I was unable to texture it without help and this was not given prior to the deadline date so I will be using this in my FMP. I would like to script this so it takes you to another part of the map and I think this could be possible to do from my own knowledge, as I feel more confident with code now I have some saved for reference. I would also like thorns around the map which would hurt the player if walked into. I already have reference images and a rough idea of what I want these to look like. I would have to ask how to code this as I have not been taught how to remove health from a player. Another thing I would like to change is that the NPC cylinder was changed to the wisp I wanted to create. I have previously mentioned how I did not receive the help so hopefully by my FMP deadline I will have the knowledge to be able to do this. I would also like to add mobs to the map to add a sense of danger to the game. I am unsure of what mobs I would use so it is something I will think about so they can be added to a future project. Finally, I would like to add an abandoned village near the well to show life used to be in the forest and show an insight into the wisp’s lives. It would also make the map seem less empty if I added more assets to the game. These are all ideas I will try to change and add to my final project.

#James

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Vikings: Valhalla – What The Timeline Reveals

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This article contains spoilers for the final season of Vikings.

In its final season Vikings tied up the story of Ragnar and his sons, and ended with a pitch-perfect, almost poetic, coda. Ragnar, however, was just the beginning of the Vikings’ story.

Later this year, Netflix will bring us the saga’s concluding chapter, Vikings: Valhalla. Set more than 150 years after the events of its parent show, Vikings: Valhalla charts the Vikings’ last glorious push as a cultural force with which to be reckoned, while chronicling some of the early 11th century’s most intrepid, influential and powerful figures.

Based on the latest casting announcement, expect to encounter such historical luminaries as Leif Eriksson (Sam Corlett) and Freydis Eriksdotter (Frida Gustavsson), the children of Erik the Red; the ambitious and politically astute Emily of Normandy (Laura Berlin); the slippery Earl Godwin (David Oakes); the infamous King Cnut (Bradley Freegard) one of Europe’s most seminal and successful monarchs (and scourge of spell-checkers everywhere, henceforth to be referred to by his more Anglicised name of King Canute, for reasons of decency); and William the Conqueror, whose name and reputation very much speaks for itself. That last role has yet to be cast, for reasons that will become apparent.

What, then, can this roster of characters tell us about the timeframe, and thus the possible narrative and thematic thrust of the show?

Let’s take a look.

The Danes take the Reins

It’s often assumed that the Vikings were a homogenous force. They weren’t (not to mention that there is considerable academic pushback on what precisely constitutes a Viking). Although they were culturally similar, there was wide variation between the peoples of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, each of whom had their own breeds of roamers, adventurers, and conquerors. The Danish Vikings were by far the most successful. Indeed, up until the last portion of the 10th century much of modern-day Northern and Eastern Britain had been known as the Danelaw, a territory within which Anglo-Saxon laws, customs and sometimes even language were subordinate to those of Denmark and the Danes.

At the beginning of the 11th Century, after an uneasy period of flux, fighting, then peace – during which Anglo Saxon autonomy was seemingly restored – Danish Vikings again resumed their attacks on the British coastline. King Ethelred the Unready at first responded to these repeated incursions by appeasing the invaders with coin, a strategy that only further incentivised their efforts. Ethelred’s follow-up strategy arguably was even less successful: he ordered the massacre of all Danes living in England; a feat that was impossible to achieve, though not for the lack of trying.

Vikings Season 6 Part One Recap: Making Kings, a Kattegat Killing, and the Rus Threat

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Unsurprisingly, this act precipitated great geo-political turbulence, not to mention counter-strikes and violence, all of which led to King Ethelred fleeing England for Normandy, and the Danes re-invading, and seizing the reins of power. Eventually, Canute, a Danish prince, succeeded his departed father, Sweyn Forkbeard, and became King of England.

The blurb for Vikings: Valhalla tells us that, in the show, King Canute is already King of Denmark. In history, Canute became King of England in 1016, and King of Denmark two years later. We can be reasonably sure, then, that the story begins sometime in, or not long after, 1018.

King Canute married Emma of Normandy in 1017. This union appears to have been forged with wider concerns than mere romance, as Emma previously had been married to King Ethelred, and had borne him two sons, both of whom had been – until the latest invasion – heirs to the English throne. Emma’s second marriage not only helped her hold on to power and influence, but also arguably saved the lives of her children. This political and familial jostling should make for an interesting dynamic as the show hurtles through the years.

And hurtle the show must, if William the Conqueror is to feature in its narrative, given that the man behind the Norman Conquest of England wasn’t born until 1028, the same year that King Canute added Norway to his collection of kingdoms. 1066 will doubtless be a key date, given that it was not only the beginning of William’s conquering, but also the official end of the era of the Vikings.

Interestingly, or perhaps confusingly, William the Conqueror was a descendant of Rollo, whom you might remember from a little show called Vikings? – although the character was more of a semi-mythical mish-mash than a faithfully depicted historical figure.

Way out Norway

Vikings: Valhalla isn’t going to forget about Norway, or the descendants of the Norwegian Vikings who first settled Iceland and then set off westward in search of adventure and riches.

Greenland is now an established Viking colony, and there we’ll meet Leif and Freydis. As they hailing from a fiercely pagan family, their story and dynamic will put a spotlight on how Viking society is adjusting to, and struggling against, the inexorable erosion of the old ways and Gods; as will a focus on Kattegat, where its ruler, Jarl Haakon (Caroline Henderson), isn’t quite ready to let Odin go gentle into that good night.

Vikings Season 6 Episode 20 Review: The Last Act

By Dave Vitagliano

Vikings Season 6 Episode 19 Review: The Lord Giveth . . .

By Dave Vitagliano

Leif and Freydis will, of course, lead us to the New World, where our erstwhile Viking adventurers, Ubbe and Floki, once tread. While Leif is the person whom the sagas afford the lion’s share of the fame and credit for ‘discovering’ the western reaches of North America, Freydis’ real-world ‘history’ indicates that she will be the more fun character to watch. The sagas reveal a woman who was intrepid, brave, and fearless, but almost supernaturally sociopathic. Just ask the Skraelings…

The Final Countdown

RIP the Vikings: 793 – 1066.

But long live Vikings: Valhalla. Because before twilight sets on history’s favorite raiders, we still have 48 years’ worth of blood, battles, bargaining, intrigue, injury, invasion, life, death, love and war upon which to feast.

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The post Vikings: Valhalla – What The Timeline Reveals appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3r1bRPs

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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ceies · 5 years

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The Struggle of the Hufflepuff Primary in Vinland Saga

Whenever I finish watching a story I start going back to my roots. My roots are the Harry Potter Fandom and a few years ago a good friend of mine showed me the hogwarts house system of @sortinghatchats / @sortinghatchats-deactivated. Give their system a look, it’s really interesting and well-thought out!

I’ve recently finished watching Vinland Saga, and I really loved it... So, let’s do this! My first sorting I want to publish on Tumblr and as I am unable to put all my thoughts into a single Tumblr post I try to keep it as short as possibe while still dedicating enough time to the important characters.

So what is the Sortinghatchats Sorting system?

With this system characters are placed into two Hogwarts houses. “WHY do they act?” For example, do they act out of loyalty -> Slytherin, or Hufflepuff or do they follow an ideology -> Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. That is the Primary House. The Secondary House is based on “HOW do they act?” (Secondary House). If you want to know more about the details head over and read their posts on the matter. Recently, they also have a quiz that can help you sort yourself if you’re interested.

The Characters of Vinland Saga

Placing Vinland Saga characters more than ever I had the problem, that the characters often undergo such a fundamental character evolution that their primary motivation over great parts of their lives can suddenly change. It also seems to be very much a ‘coming of age’ story for the younger characters such as Thorfinn and Canute. So I decided to – in many situation – treat this evolution of the character’s motivation as some sort of “Awakening“ of the Primary House. So, just keep in mind that some of the actions of a character before that “Awakening” may not always fit with the primary I assign to them.

I have called this Post the “Struggle of the Hufflepuff Primary” after I realized that a big junk of the show seems to address a very Hufflepuff-ish mindset that is almost doomed to burn in a world as wartorn and brutal as the Viking era. The desire to simply HELP people in a world where not focusing on your own interest may get you and your loved ones killed. This is a struggle that we will see again and again with many of the themes and characters in the show.

In any case, feel free to agree, disagree and discuss this to your heart’s content.

Thors

Thors is a Hufflepuff Primary. This could be hardly any more obvious. I’ve thought a bit about whether there is maybe a Gryffindor in him, as his broad almost “constitutional” declarations sound idealistic, but I decided that the specific wording was far too Hufflepuff to put my money on anything other than that. The most telling part is when he tells Thorfinn that “There is nobody you can kill. Nobody is you’re enemy. Nobody has enemies.” While at the end of the day it makes no difference whether you tell somebody “You cannot kill” or “There is nobody for you to kill” the wording seems to put specific emphasis on people more so than even the general prohibition of killing. It’s not so much “you cannot kill” and more “there are no PEOPLE you can kill. There is not a single PERSON that is your enemy.” In many ways Thors doesn’t tell Thorfinn not to kill, he tells him not to have enemies, or in other words he tells him to LOVE everybody. So this seems to be a loyalty Thors feels for humans in general. And it’s not limited to a specific circle of people. At one point he sells eight sheep to free an already dying slave. And even when the slave died shortly after, he did not regret it.

Thors more than anybody is one of those “awakened” characters. Before said awakening he spent most of his life fighting, killing without any empathy, or really emotions of his own. He was a killing machine. It was only his daughter – and not even so much the birth of his daughter but rather the act of NAMING her – that made him fear battle. He feared leaving his family behind. That sounds rather Slytherin-ish, but it seemed to have almost immediately evolved into a general empathy for all people.

About his Secondary he seems to be rather passive during his time on Iceland. That may be due to a general satisfaction with his quiet life – something his son for example doesn’t share. He seems to have come to the conclusion that to not hurt anybody it is best for him to move away from crisis to an isolated island where he can raise his family in a peaceful environment. He is not going out to actually do something against the cruelty in this world which makes it really difficult to decide on his secondary. Mostly he seems to be reactionary, meaning we can only see his reactions to plans other characters put into motion. The only thing I can really exclude here is the Slytherin. He is very honest and Askeladd essentially defeated him just by being dishonest. Overall it seems like other characters like Floki and Askeladd are quite effectively scheming their way around Thors in a way that the best Thors can really do is protecting the people around him while giving these people what they want. There is some strategical thinking to his actions in how he planned to safe his men both from war and later from Askeladd, and while he did charge at Askeladd’s men jumping into action quickly, he did so mostly out of necessity. So, I’m kind of split between a Gryffindor and a Ravenclaw secondary. Ultimately, I choose the Gryffindor Secondary because of how honest and direct he is in his approach even calling upon his enemy’s honor to try and safe his men.

Thorfinn:

Thorfinn’s single minded and stubborn pursuit for revenge is very Gryffindor. Here we have a prime example for a Gryffindor Secondary. However as far as the prologue goes his Primary is very jumbled and garbled together. It’s very obvious that this is a boy who wanted to go on an adventure and see the world and then utterly lost his way. His pursuit of revenge could just be a surface motivation hiding away his true purpose in life, which makes it difficult to judge what he is about or what he will do in the future. However just looking at what we see, his pursuit of revenge seems to be motivated by a Slytherin Primary (possibly a very strong Slytherin Primary model). He seeks revenge for his father’s death because he can’t live with the idea that his Dad’s murderer might still run free. It is something he does for his father even though he knows his father would not want this. Even the way he goes about it – doing it the honorable way – is in loyalty to his father because he does not want to dishonor him by being a dishonorable son. This also makes Askeladd’s death in the finale very hard for him to accept, because Askeladd somehow over time snuck his way into Thorfinn’s inner circle. As I said, it’s very possible that this is just a model that he may strip in the next few seasons, but it could also be his actual primary.

Leif:

Although Leif did not appear that much in the story, I wanted to include him, because I think he is a very important character, but there’s not really much to go by. I think he is a Ravenclaw Primary. That fits very well with his role of being a very established explorer of the sea. At times he acts a little bit like a Slytherin who acts out of loyalty for his friends, but there seem to be moments when that is refuted. While he absolutely loved and adored both Thors and Thorfinn, ultimately, he goes to look for Thorfinn not so much out of loyalty for these characters themselves, but because he owes Thors. It’s something he does more because of honor than loyalty. There is also this story he tells about when all six of his comrades died on Greenland, which seems to me an experience that would utterly devastate a Slytherin but to him, while surely traumatizing at the time, he tells it more like the successful story of his own survival. As I said we don’t have much about him yet in the Anime, so I’m waiting for season 2, but for now I’m assuming he is a Ravenclaw Primary/Hufflepuff Secondary. Hufflepuff because he seems to have friends everywhere.

Floki

Again, a character we have not seen much about. So far, he seems to be a very sneaky character who first lures Thors out of his home and then sets an assassin on his tail. So, this looks rather like a Slytherin Secondary but he’s missing a certain aspect that makes a Slytherin a Slytherin. He doesn’t improvise, and if he does not very well. This is seen most effectively when he ultimately clashes with Askeladd. So, he’s either a very bad Slytherin, or not a Slytherin at all. So, I’m putting him as a Ravenclaw Secondary who moves his pieces across the board but is really shocked whenever one of those pieces suddenly appears where he did not see them coming. I don’t want to talk too much about his primary, as it is very much in the air as long as we don’t know why he wanted Thors dead. Was it in fact because of the (perceived) “code” of the Jomsvikings that Thors broke – then he would be Ravenclaw – or was it out of purely personal dislike – than he’d likely be a Slytherin? We cannot quite deduce that from the story. For now, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he acts out of his own ideal version of honor, what it means to be a Jomsviking and a servant to his king. As I said I am willing to accept a Slytherin/Slytherin for him, but for now, I go with Ravenclaw/Ravenclaw.

Askeladd

So… My favorite character. Also, likely the most complex and most difficult to place of the main characters in the show. Askeladd wants to protect his homeland Wales, he hates pretty much everybody, but especially Danes, Saxons, Vikings, Warriors in general, Christians, stupid people, weak people and himself. So… just about everybody and then some. But he loves Wales. He is firmly loyal to Canute – which is a loyalty which seems to come out of nowhere but is actually really complex in how it came to be. He was waiting for a fabled king for decades that he wanted to serve, and when that king did not come, he essentially took a young and weak Prince with some potential and “made” him into his perfect king. He’s very judgmental, meaning he essentially looks at people and immediately know what they are about. He’s very much faking his personality, putting on the mask of a nonchalant, careless, and really cruel Viking leader – which even at the end we can never be quite sure about how much of that was fake. And he’s extremely intelligent! So… That’s just the briefest overview of his character. Let’s talk about this.

Let’s begin with the Secondary: Here we really have to make our choice between the Ravenclaw and the Slytherin. Askeladd is at his best, when he is using his mind. He is willing to lie and scheme and gamble and play shrewd games to get to his destination. He uses and manipulates people around him to his liking. He also is very much willing to just take the spoils with minimal effort. Compared to people like Thorfinn or Thors he even goes so far as to mock there more Gryffindorish ways to handle situations. While he has a lot of respect for Thors, he also thinks he’s stupid for having died the way he did. This to me makes it clear that he is clearly not a Hufflepuff or Gryffindor Secondary – and that he even has a bit of a dislike for Gryffindor secondaries in general. So at this point the question is only, Slytherin or Ravenclaw? He proved time and time again that he is a planner, a strategist. He plans fifty steps ahead of everybody else, and he’s doing it so well that he dances circles around his enemies. However, when those plans failed, he also proved how adept at improvising he was. While this was not his preferred situation and he was suddenly forced to sacrifice things, he wasn’t really willing to sacrifice going into the situation, he still managed to turn an impossible situation “in his favor”. So, as he seems to be both a magnificent Ravenclaw and a magnificent Slytherin let’s look at the nature of his actions and plans to distinguish what is at his core:

When Askeladd decided to take Canute from Throkell’s army all the other characters were expecting a battle, they couldn’t hope to win. But instead of fighting Thorkell, Askeladd waited for a different army to approach Thorkell, and while they got slaughtered, he put the forest on fire and sent a kid he didn’t really care about into the flames to find the prince. The prince could have died, but then at least nobody would have been able to proof it was Askeladd. This of course is a very smart plan, but it’s also kind of uncommon, as it seems almost cowardly. Immoral, as he is gambling both Thorfinn’s and even Canute’s life on this plan. There is also the way he mocks the more honest warriors, saying it’s a fool’s errand to try and kill somebody in a fair battle, when a dagger in the night has the same effect. The plan of how he murdered his father was full of lies and schemes and playing a huge charade, even faking love for his father. And when he talks about it, he doesn’t feel bad about these lies or acts. He feels even somewhat elated, accomplished. Even in the end he’s pretty much lying his way to death and seems almost satisfied with that end. So he obviously lies, and he doesn’t feel bad about it, which seems to be a clear sign for a Slytherin… Or is it? One thing, that I think I have to mention here, is that he doesn’t always lie. There seems to be a difference to when he swears a pledge on his father’s name compared to when he swears a pledge on his ancestor’s name. It’s almost as if he knows and feels, like a lie would sully the name of whatever person he swears it on, but he just doesn’t care…or maybe even enjoys sullying Olaf’s name. Overall, there are also many situations where he is surprisingly sencere. So, there seems to be at least a part of him, that realizes that lying is wrong. However I think that part is more rooted in his primary, than his secondary. So, he seems to be very clearly Slytherin Secondary, although I think he models a Ravenclaw, because he is just so good at it and it’s so useful to him, that he realized it’s his easiest way to success. Most of the time he behaves rather careless, nonchalant, as if nothing really faces him, laughing loudly, even being a bit flirtatious and acting for seemingly material gains. He purposefully hides his own skills with the sword to be underestimated until the time for him to strike comes. However, it seems quite clear that this is only a performance if at all – though maybe one he quite enjoys putting on. This is a Slytherin Performance.

His primary is just as complicated. At first, to me, he looked a lot like a Slytherin Primary, making him a Slytherin/Slytherin. His motivation for big parts of the show, seemed rather selfish. Later we find out, that his primary goal is to protect his home and his people in Wales. While this still made him look like a Slytherin at first, I think, it’s far more fitting to describe him as a Hufflepuff. The Welsh are his community, in many ways they are tied to the soil of Britain, which gives fuel to Askeladd’s hatred for the Anglo-saxons who robbed his people of their home over 500 years ago. His people’s history is very important to him. Another thing that makes him look Hufflepuff rather than Slytherin is that he does not really have a personal connection to most welsh people apart from his blood. He did not grow up in Wales, he doesn’t have family in Wales and none of the people he travels with or seemed to care about during the course of the show are Welsh. In fact it seems like the only two welsh people he has any sort of personal connection to are his mother and Gratianus. It’s more his mother’s people than it is his own, yet he loves it and the country deeply. I think it would be strange for a Slytherin to feel such deep devotion to a country, place, culture, history and people that he has so few actual connections too. It would be far more likely for a Slytherin to ultimately value the well-being of their friends, comrades, brother’s in arms or the boy he essentially (though somewhat reluctantly) raised over the well-being of a country and people he never really knew.

Then there is his loyalty to Prince Canute, who he himself raised to the throne. This however, again does not seem to be a sort of loyalty born out of love for Canute as person, but rather a deep-rooted believe, that Canute will be a good king and not just protect Wales but maybe even be a good king to the Danish, the island of Britain and on an even broader perspective. In Canute he somewhat sees the chance for a better and freed Britain – the same as he had expected of the fabled Artorius in the past and was ultimately disappointed. With Canute he puts somebody on the throne, who seems to be a rather peaceful yet strong ruler. In an odd way, Askeladd helps not just his people (the Welsh) to maybe find a period of peace but also his other people (the much hated Danes) to gain a ruler who would value his subordinates lives and is not a killer. Ultimately, he also tells Thorfinn to become a “True Warrior” similar to his father. As we’ve already mentioned, Thors father was a Hufflepuff, valuing human life. And it seems fitting for a Hufflepuff like Askeladd to tell a young and confused kid to lern “valuing life like his father”.

Askeladd overall showed great contempt for warriors because – as I believe – he sees them as nothing but killers. That seems somewhat hypocritical as he is one himself and a very ruthless one at that, but it makes sense, once we factor in how much Askeladd hates himself. Askeladd is the kind of Hufflepuff who excluded most people and himself from his community. As I mentioned before, Askeladd hates just about everybody with a passion. That makes him surprisingly similar to Thors who loves everybody. He’s like the other side of the same coin. This hatred is very much based on attributes that he gives people – often when he first sees them (Danes, Saxons, Warriors…). The interesting aspect of this however is, that while he hates Danes with a passion – all danes at that, as well vikigs and warriors - the closest and most important people in his life, all fall into these categories. So, in a way, he hates all of them. He hates Bjorn, he hates Thorfinn, he hates Canute, he hates his men, he hates Thors. Yet, in the more quite moments it’s quite obvious that while he does hate them for being Danes he also cares for them. Like with some of Torgrims and Atli’s last moments in the show, it is quite obvious that Askeladd does feel a lot of empathy for them, cares for them and even helps them out in the end.

I would say that Askeladd is very much tiptoeing the line between a rather hateful Hufflepuff and an already buned Hufflepuff. It fits, that he does exclude himself from his community. His community are the welsh, but he does not live among them. Instead, most of the time, he just hides that part of himself and lives as a Danish Viking among Vikings – an identity that utterly disgusts him. There are many things about him that just scream burned Hufflepuff. But I don’t think he is quite burned yet… He’s tiptoeing that line, but there seems to be too much purpose to his actions for a burned Hufflepuff. Maybe it was seeing Thors, that saved him from burning, or maybe he was just always like that. Because, while there seems to be a lot of self-hatred, there does not seem to be that cynicism that often goes along with the burned Hufflepuff. While he is a point where he pretty much pushed everybody and himself out of his community – his community is still fairly huge, it’s an entire country. And despite everything he had to suffer and all the hardship his people had to go through, he seems genuinely determined and hopeful that it is possible to protect them.

So to put it all together: Askladd is a Hufflepuff / Slytherin with a Ravenclaw secondary model and a Slytherin Performance.

Canute

A very comlex character, but surprisingly easy to sort: Canute is one of those characters who grow up in the show and have their awakening. Like many of the main characters so far, he is another example of a Hufflepuff Primary. And in his case a very textbook Hufflepuff who loves all humans equally. He even arrived at a point where he as willing to forgive his “father’s” murderer. The only exception to his love for all, might be his actual father, the King, but this seems to be mostly out of necessity. Like he feels this is the best for the country.

He is a Gryffindor Secondary, who – after getting over his initial shyness is very forthright in saying what he wants to a point where other more sneaky characters tell him that he may want to act a bit more careful.

Ragnar:

Ragnar is a Slyhterin Primary who’s love, and loyalty is to Prince Canute. I think he’s also a Gryffindor Secondary, and maybe Canute learned it from him. But he’s much less effective. He says and does what feels right to him, but he ultimately often lacks good arguments in any given situation to persuade somebody like Askeladd to … I don’t know; not kill an entire village? However, he does feel very bad about it – I would even say that of all the characters who showed remorse for the act, Ragnar’s remorse lasted pretty much to the end of his life, as he saw himself as partly to blame for what happened. It also fits to his Gryffindor, that when he learned he had to raise the prince, he did it with all his heart, trying to make the king happy, rather than follow the schemes of the court, which seem to be something he utterly despises, as it hurts Canute.

Willybald:

Willybald is a bit of an exception. While he has a similar outlook on life and motivation as many of the Hufflepuff primary characters, to him this was not something that came naturally, nor was it something he just suddenly realized. Instead he was seeking for this for a long time and only when he heard of Thors did his concept of “Love” manifest. It is his explanation of that concept, that first triggers Canute’s “Awakening as a Hufflepuff”. But Willybald himself is not a Hufflepuff but rather a Ravenclaw Primary. Fitting to his role as a priest I would say that he is a Hufflepuff Secondray, although I could be convinced otherwise.

Bjorn:

Bjorn is fiercely loyal to Askeladd which makes him a Slytherin Primary. He also seems to be a very straight forward character in terms of his actions, making him a Gryffindor Secodnary.

Thorkell:

Thorkell is a very brutish, almost oafish Gryffindor Secondary. There is not much thought he puts into his actions beyond just doing what feels right for him. He’s however not stupid. He’s very honest in how he goes about his life and honors the framework of a duel. He’s a warrior and a rather straight forward character. His Primary however, is more complicated, as I seem to be equally split between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. I don’t think he acts out of any loyalty, as he has no qualms whatsoever to kill his own grandnephew and son of his best friend, or to betray his country and people and fight against them purely for the thrill of it. However, I’m not sure if his driving motivation is a hedonistic lifestyle in a more gryffindorish sense, or the search for what it means to be a true warrior. Most of the show he spent just wishing for a great fight. His wish to find out what a true warrior is, seems to lie beneath that. However, it is difficult to say, whether he wants to be a true warrior, because he just enjoys being a warrior that much and he wants to be the best at it, or whether that missing piece actually leaves a whole in his heart. As his hedonistic behavior does not change, after his acknowledgement of the search for the True Warior, I feel more inclined to put him into Gryffindor.

King Sweyn:

Sweyn I think is a Ravenclaw/Ravenclaw. His actions in regards to Canute seemed either very selfish or in a misguided loyalty to his country. However later we find out, that it was actually neither, and instead the “Will of the Crown”. This seems to me to be a constructed system of values, morals and duties, that does not come naturally. It’s the power of the crown that corrupts. And I think that will of the crown is ultimately artificial and a Ravenclaw Primary. I also think he is a Ravenclaw Primary s he is scheming and planning ahead a lot, although not always to his advantage.

tl;dr:

Thors: Hufflepuff / Gryffindor

Thorfinn: XX? (Slytherin or Slytherin Model)/ Gryffindor

Leif: Ravenclaw / Hufflepuff

Floki: Ravenclaw (?)/ Ravenclaw

Askeladd: Hufflepuff / Slytherin (Ravenclaw model, Slythein Performance)

Canute: Hufflepuff / Gryffindor

Ragnar: Slytherin / Gryffindor

Willybald: Ravenclaw / Hufflepuff

Bjorn: Slytherin / Gryffindor

Thorkell: Gryffindor / Gryffindor

Prince Sweyn: Ravenclaw / Ravenclaw

#vinland saga #vinland saga characters #sortinghatchats #hogwarts house sortings

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