Vikings and my Inner Feminist
WARNING: SPOILERS AHOY FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T WATCHED VIKINGS SEASON ONE AND TWO
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So I started watching Vikings with my boyfriend earlier this year – he loves that kind of thing, and so do I, plus hot men! – and for the first few episodes I was really excited about Ragnar's story. He's a compelling hero, and I liked his relationship with his wife, his children and his quest to conquer what was essentially parts of England and France. He's precisely the type of hero I like watching, wondering at his character evolution. I was fully expecting this to be all full of bro-love and how cool these men are (and I don't mind that at all), but the series has taken an unexpected turn for me.
Halfway through Season One I started paying more attention to his wife, Lagertha. Here's this woman, a viking shield maiden who can kick some serious ass (oh, be still my heart!), is a good mother and wife, kind, clever… basically all things cool. And viking society being what it is, Ragnar accidentally gets another woman pregnant, as he wants children more than he wants Lagertha. My romance writer heart was devastated, and I was thinking oh no, here it comes, the bitch fighting etc.
But the script writers were way ahead of me there. Lagertha isn't the type of woman to slap down another woman. She supports her, even when the other woman bears a crippled son, and sticks up for her. I HATED the other woman for a long time, but I'm starting to think the relationship between these two women is probably the most fascinating part of the show for me now, especially the path that Lagertha is taking. Does she just sit there and let her husband take two wives? Hell, no. Ragnar loves them both and expects to keep them both, but Lagertha is all “I'm going to be your equal”. She rides off into the sunset, gets herself another husband (an abusive bastard, at that, but then she doesn't take his shit for long either), earns the respect of his men, becomes a female earl/jarl, and comes back and saves the day when Ragnar desperately needs an ally. Men respect her, some of them love her, and even the other women are all, “I want to be like Lagertha.” There's one moment where some man holds a knife to her throat, and she literally stares him down, pushes the knife aside and tells him why he won't rape/hurt her. As for the second wife, Aslaug, I've gotten over Ragnar's betrayal. It's clear that she knows how cool Lagertha is, both respects her and envies her (I think she wants to be like Lagertha too), but I also like how she's trying to do her best, especially when life throws her some challenges. She's really growing on me, and I love how they both push their sons to know each other and their father. I expected Vikings to be all brutish fight scenes ala 300, but the complex relationships are totally winning the show.
For the first time, I don't want the man to get the girl (or both of them in this case). Ragnar's pretty, but he's no longer the main reason I'm watching this show. And he cheated on his wife after she miscarried, and also after their daughter died of illness. I'm hoping she sticks to her guns and doesn't take him back, but I respect her for still having a relationship with him and his new family.
I have a girl crush and I'm not afraid to admit it.*
*Please excuse my over-excited rambling. Is there a point to this post? Possibly. I'm just getting excited about all of the strong female characters we're starting to see on film. Hollywood may be a little behind when it comes to movies, but I'm liking how TV shows are almost the forerunner here. Other shows where my inner feminist is waving flags or can't wait to watch? Peggy Carter, Agents of S.H.I.EL.D, Vampire Diaries, Game of Thrones, Buffy, Sons of Anarchy, NCIS (my other girl crush Ziva), Spartacus… Yes, some bad things happen to women on these shows, sometimes they make mistakes, sometimes they do bad things, but I like how the women in all these shows transform themselves from this and how the men respect them for their mad skills – also, I love that sometimes the female characters can be just as dangerous as their male counterparts, if not more so. Case in point – Gemma Teller from SOA, Lucretia and Ilithyia from Spartacus, Katherine from Vampire Diaries.
