Just replied to the main review So might as well here as well.
Yes it had Hollywood “Tic-the-box” wokeism. There should be No Black or Orientals in late 900’s early 1000’s Norse Scandinavia. To be specific 995ish to 1010 at most . I did appreciate they gave a backstory to Jarl Haakon to at least give her a reason to be there and why, more then they normally do.
Yes there were shield maidens at the time Freydis the real life Freydis was a known shield maiden depending on account. And just a couple decades prior there were without doubt and by historical documentation in battle when Sviatoslav I of Kiev 971. Also some reports of them in English skirmishes of the time.
But this was NOT near as bad as many things Hollywoke has done. The story was not that bad, Characters were flawed and made mistakes even getting killed. Even Freydis was shown to have been trained further by other shield maidens and had to pass test. They could have gone Mary-sue and as I said in the main page revue, it was not there, these women were older and in that culture would have had fighting abilities already, and in the show were shown to be being trained more “Freydis” and they clearly died in battle’s.
The Queen of England “Emma” was a very cunning and I would love to see more of her, she is a Historical character and one that the show does not appear to have taken much liberties with if you know the history.
Cnut, was also done very well, and historically he and Emma wielded a lot of power and territory. There is certainly stories here to be told.
Leif was meh, did not do much for me but we will see what they do with him next season.
All in all for an over-all score its a 7.5 to maybe 8. I will rewatch it for sure and do look forward to next season.
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