Vikings has been named a feminist series by many. But is it? While the show does highlight many powerful female leads that challenge conventional ideas of women, it's possible that the strength of these characters distracts many from the fact that the characters are so few in number.
As the series went on, it definitely began to feature more women as a rule, and all of them refreshingly complex. Yet, as impressive as these steps are, they are just that--small steps into the doorway of male-dominated television. Fans would do well to celebrate the brilliance that Viking's female characters demonstrate--but also to be mindful of how the writing of these characters falls short.
Why The Sudden Shift In Porunn's Character?
Porrun emerges as a character with agency. She is a woman who begins as a slave but knows her worth despite her upbringing. She takes it upon herself to learn to be a shieldmaiden, and she refuses to settle for Bjorn once she is freed to having her pick of people. It's inconsistent for her character to lose heart completely when she suffers her injury, then.
Why would the creators build such a strong character just to have her falter and disappear?
Why Was Aslaug Traveling When She Found Ragnar?
Ragnar comes upon Aslaug because his men accidentally view her bathing. She insists that their master must apologize to her as a result, and so begins the story of Aslaug and Ragnar.
Why, though, was Aslaug hanging about in the woods in the first place? It's as if she knew Ragnar would be nearby.
Why Did Helga Let The Boys Run Away?
The scene where Ragnar's young boys run outside and nearly die in a lake is framed in a way that obviously sets Helga as a witness to the boys' escape.
Siggy only walks into the other room to calm Ivar's crying for a few seconds, and in the meantime Helga is sitting by watching the boys leave, saying and doing nothing. Yet nobody ever calls her out for this and she never mentions it.
Would Shield Maidens Have Been So Skinny?
The show can't be completely historically accurate. People do not have hard evidence of every aspect of Viking lives, after all, and on top of this, some things must be altered in order to keep the attention of a wider audience.
One might wonder, though, if it's true that shield maidens would have been so slender and delicate of body as most are on the show. If they live the same lives as the men, it would make sense for them to be more robust.
Why Did Siggy Sleep With King Horik?
Siggy continuously sneaks her way into King Horik's life. Whenever he is in Kattegat, she makes a point of placing herself in his favor. When she sleeps with him for the first time, it is her idea, and later when he begins manipulating her she could somewhat easily call for help or bring it to Rollo's attention.
However, she doesn't put up a fight and goes on playing the game--only to prove her allegiance to his enemies in the end. What was the point?
Why Didn't Lagertha Demand An Apology?
Lagertha leaves Ragnar with no doubts as to why. He betrayed her when he slept with Aslaug and then suggested that Lagertha easily go along with becoming one of two wives, and as a result, Lagertha put her foot down and left him.
She goes back on this firm demonstration when she so easily returns to his side, acting as a loyal friend with not so much as a reminder of what he did or who he used to be to her.
Why Did Siggy Trick The Commoner?
At the beginning of the series when Siggy is still wife to the ruling Earl of the time, she proves herself to be just as corrupt as he is.
Siggy willingly goes along with the Earl's plan when he sees a common man looking at her, and then tricks him into thinking that Siggy wants to sleep with him, just for the man to arrive and be murdered. Siggy is a difficult character to peg down, but she ultimately proves herself to be kind and reasonable--which completely defies her early behavior.
Why Keep Killing The Female Characters?
There are very few female characters to begin with in the show, and then the writers go on to kill female characters while only adding more males. Both Siggy and Lagertha's daughters were young girls in their teen years who would soon have the easy opportunity to develop into substantial characters for the show.
Yet, during the same time that Ragnar is preoccupied with having more sons, the shows kills off these young girls, as if aligning itself with Ragnar's valuing of males over females.
Why Would Judith Sleep With Athelstan?
Judith isn't an unintelligent character. This is exemplified in the scene where King Ecbert unsufferably monologues at Judith and she impatiently, but subtly, refuses to humor him, unimpressed with his philosophizing.
Someone with such smarts would have been wiser than to so obviously flirt with Athelstan in front of the father of her husband knowing that it could get her killed--nevermind sleeping with him.
Why Not More Shieldmaidens?
The show clearly demonstrates that shieldmaidens assisted the men on raids, but the show fails to include many of such maidens until far later in the series when they suddenly start cropping up during fight scenes, such as when Lagertha and a group of women break past the walls of Paris.
If the show intended to acknowledge that such female roles existed, why not include more of them earlier rather than having such a male-centric show?