Vikings’ fifth season started last Wednesday, and we’re covering it here at WiC. Star Clive Standen, who plays Viking warlord-turned-Duke of Normandy Rollo, talked to Fox News about it and came up against a persistent comparison. Although they’re both set in medieval milieus, Standen thinks that relating Vikings to Game of Thrones are “a bit unfair really.” For example, he pointed out that, unlike Jon Snow, fan-favorite Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) isn’t returning to the show. “Vikings isn’t Game of Thrones. You know, this is history. In history, everybody dies. When you’re dead, dead means dead.”
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Standen’s not wrong, although we should point out Ragnar likely never really existed and was a creation of Viking Age sagas and Old Norse poetry. And while we’re at it, while writer Michael Hirst may have written Rollo and Ragnar as brothers, in reality, they didn’t exist during the same time period or in the same part of the world, if Ragnar existed all. And what’s with that creepy blind seer guy who can tell the future?
But I digress. Let’s get back to Clive Standen telling us how the two shows differ:
"Game of Thrones is a fantasy show. It has dragons and things. It all comes from the imagination of one man’s mind. Whereas Vikings is a historical drama. It’s documented in history. It’s a very, very broad spectrum of history. But… these are all real characters that lived and breathed and walked the earth. They’re all worthy of the history books. Michael Hirst obviously spins his writing imagination to kind of put it all into one TV show. We’re not going to have flying dragons around."
Again, Standen’s not wrong that there are no dragons in Vikings, but I think it’s still very possible to compare the two shows. Dragons or not, they’re about people jockeying for power in medieval worlds, and although Vikings is based on real life, it’s still historical fiction. George R.R. Martin drew on historical events like the War of the Roses when writing A Song of Ice and Fire, so it’s also inspired by history.
And it’s not like nothing fantastical happens on Vikings. Ragnar claimed to be the son of the god Odin, so there’s that. And Ragnar’s second wife, Princess Aslaug (another creation of Norse mythology) claimed she could see the future. Standen argues that these elements are more grounded on his show. “With the type of people that Vikings are, I suppose with their gods and monsters and the pagan religion, it does seem quite fantastical at times,” he said. “This is what this race of people really did believe in. They believed the gods walked the earth with them.”
Is Standen coming across as a little defensive? He also said he thinks this show is “the first time that the Viking history has been done justice. It’s been looked at from the inside out.” The Last Kingdom might like a word with him about that, but we like the passion.
Moving away from Game of Thrones, Standen also teased what’s coming on Vikings a little more generally. His character is older now, and “dealing with his own mortality.”
"That’s where he is in his life. This is the later years. He’s starting to think where he ends up in the afterlife. Is he going to go to Valhalla with the gods that he’s worshipped his whole life, or is he maybe going to end up in heaven with the new Christian God that he’s had to embrace with the people of Francia?"
Standen is one of the few original cast members whose character has stayed alive for the whole stretch of the show. By the sound of it, that’s only brought he and the few other survivors closer together:
"I think with this cast, it’s been quite special. We’ve really kind of bonded in a strange way. We’re a bunch of eclectic morons when you put us all together. We kind of gel. It’s been six years now we’ve all worked together. Katheryn Winnick and I, and Gustaf Skarsgard are the only ones left in the show, from the beginning really. It’s fantastic… Rollo and Lagertha have quite some fiery scenes in this season."
Vikings continues this Wednesday night at 9:00 pm EST on History.
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