Vikings season 3

Wait, what?  Have I been watching 10 episodes of Game of Thrones?  The kill ratio of supporting characters (Thorsten, Sigi) and main characters (Athelstan) sure looks like it.  Not to mention `Porrun Lanister`...

It`s also the 10th series I`ve watched from my `to see` list, so that is one goal I can scrape of my list hehe.

Never the less, this was a season that felt different from the one before.  There is a great diversity of political powershifts this season mark the route to be followed by King Ragnar.

The betrayal for the settlement in Wessex, the manner how Lagerrrrrrrtha loses her earldom to Kalf, and the brutal way how Paris was invaded... to be creamed off in the finale`s last moments with Rollo `doing it` again in order to come out of his brother`s shadow.

Now, I`m still not wild about the character Ragnar.  There is something in his `way` that just reaches me, but this season it was at least clearer how his (political) decisions lead him to where he is and who he became.  For me, Rollo is more about what the books taught us what a Viking was...

While King Ecbert in his ways to expand his kingdom brings the vikings in the fold, it is Athelstan who actually would mean their downfall in the end.  Not because of him being killed by Floki as there is a growing chasm in religions, Ragnar converting to christianity even due to it, but because he unknowingly fathered the child that would (historically) defeat the vikings in england.  That and the fact the divine play a significant role this year, did Odin visit or not in Kattegat?

It wasn`t a bad year (heck, it remains a more than decent series) but I`m sceptical on the plans for season 4, which will count double the number of episodes and which will have a `summer split` in the middle to boot.  I hope quantity won`t be taking over from quality...