Vikings tv show -- what is the appeal?

[Thorgalaeg]

I think a warrior of ancient times would be smaller and lighter than most of us, but with every muscle and bone perfectly worked due to a hard life walking and running loaded with lots of weight, not knowing what a pillow or a couch is. They would look extremely fit but not very muscled and lightly framed due to deficient nutrition, in any case very strong for his weight, quick and hard like iron nails. Wouldn't like to risk a hand to hand combat with such guy.

 

[EgonSpengler]

My girlfriend also chimed on behalf of the female viewership, proposing that the question is best answered with a picture:

So, there's that too.

And of course it ain't just the men:

Bodybuilding old-times guys is always such an immersion-destroyer for me. Nice round bodybuilding muscles are just so to the opposite of lifestyle and (survival-depending!) need.
Like the Iceland guy who took over the Mountain role in GoT (a whole nother league muscle-wise than that guy, but to illustrate) literally said in an interview that he his always tired due to his enormous muscles. In any actual battle he would die while gasping for air.
Of course a mighty warrior can spot some nice muscle texture. But it would be very lean and natural-looking. Not scream fitness-studio, power-sets and protein shakes. Only misses the solarium tan in the mix for complete immersion destruction.
/rant

It's true, the successful mixed martial arts fighters today are moving away from the muscle-bound look (as testing for PEDs gets better, unsurprisingly, but not only for that reason).

 

[Traitorfish]

Bodybuilding old-times guys is always such an immersion-destroyer for me. Nice round bodybuilding muscles are just so to the opposite of lifestyle and (survival-depending!) need.
Like the Iceland guy who took over the Mountain role in GoT (a whole nother league muscle-wise than that guy, but to illustrate) literally said in an interview that he his always tired due to his enormous muscles. In any actual battle he would die while gasping for air.
Of course a mighty warrior can spot some nice muscle texture. But it would be very lean and natural-looking. Not scream fitness-studio, power-sets and protein shakes. Only misses the solarium tan in the mix for complete immersion destruction.
/rant

I don't think that Clive Standen is unrealistically sculpted. I think that a person living in the ninth century would struggle to achieve that particular combination of muscle-mass and low body fat, but it's far from fourth wall-shattering. Besides, there are only two characters with that sort of physique; most of the cast have exactly the sorts of physique you describe.

 

[Kyriakos]

I don't think that Clive Standen is unrealistically sculpted. I think that a person living in the ninth century would struggle to achieve that particular combination of muscle-mass and low body fat, but it's far from fourth wall-shattering. Besides, there are only two characters with that sort of physique; most of the cast have exactly the sorts of physique you describe.

King Aelle has a nice 21st century physique ^^

 

[Gen.Mannerheim]

I don't think that Clive Standen is unrealistically sculpted. I think that a person living in the ninth century would struggle to achieve that particular combination of muscle-mass and low body fat, but it's far from fourth wall-shattering. Besides, there are only two characters with that sort of physique; most of the cast have exactly the sorts of physique you describe.

Exactly, his crime is that he's probably too sharply toned for the time period, as there wasn't a Gold's Gym in Early Medieval Scania for core work.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Sorry guys but you just don't have the eye for it. The arms are particularly ridiculious. But also that pumped chest is plainly cartoonish, by realistic standards.
But I am used to finding that others aren't even aware of it. Hence my mission to spread the truth.

 

[Leifmk]

I think a warrior of ancient times would be smaller and lighter than most of us, but with every muscle and bone perfectly worked due to a hard life walking and running loaded with lots of weight, not knowing what a pillow or a couch is. They would look extremely fit but not very muscled and lightly framed due to deficient nutrition, in any case very strong for his weight, quick and hard like iron nails. Wouldn't like to risk a hand to hand combat with such guy.

The nutrition thing would vary depending on culture, social class, location and period. For example protein deficiency would be less of an issue among the Norse than in mainland Europe largely thanks to a diet with a lot of fish in it. (The well-off warrior classes of feudal Europe might also have more access to meat than the average peasants.)

 

[Traitorfish]

Sorry guys but you just don't have the eye for it. The arms are particularly ridiculious. But also that pumped chest is plainly cartoonish, by realistic standards.
But I am used to finding that others aren't even aware of it. Hence my mission to spread the truth.

An eye for what? How many ninth-century Scandinavians have you seen in the flesh?

I mean, of all the things in the show to claim ruin your suspension of disbelief- it's not as if there's a shortage- this one is just weird.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

An eye for how useful muscles develop under natural stress and how they develop when pumped for useless and entirely aesthetic reasons. That transforms the "great warrior" into a modern male beauty queen, from my POV. He may as well manicure his nails and cream his body with nivea body lotion. Or, as said, visit the Viking sunning studio. The kind of training you need to do to get his body is essentially on the same level. And it plainly shows. The muscles have a very round and, simply, pumped up physique. That happens when you constantly do extremely stiff i.e. unnatural or constructed movements with a lot of weight for few repeats. Also known as: weight lifting.
And that kind of exercise as well as the resulting muscle structure is about the opposite of useful. Plus it is pretty exclusive a phenomena of new beauty ideas within the last few decades.

I can simply see all that in an instant when looking at the guy. You can't because you do not have an eye for it. And because it is so visual, it can harm my immersion more than stuff I do not see outright but would have to know a bit about the area or connect a thought or two. This, however, just hits me.

Btw - I do weight-lifting myself, so this doesn't stem from a general disdain of it on my part. But it may help me to have the eye for it.

 

[Traitorfish]

This is a really weird thing to be pedantic about in a show which depicts Anglo-Saxon huscarls wearing renaissance-era Spanish helmets and Russian plated-mail.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Not really. I edited my post to explain before I saw your new one just now.

 

[Gen.Mannerheim]

This is a really weird thing to be pedantic about in a show which depicts Anglo-Saxon huscarls wearing renaissance-era Spanish helmets and Russian plated-mail.

That's what I think is the biggest problem with these historical dramas, not the actors body masses. The Saxon's weird coat-of-plates armor is also a bit off putting. Just like on the Last Kingdom where they gave the Saxon's these rectangular "Roman" shields and the preponderance of shoulder scabbards.

 

[Ajidica]

I think a warrior of ancient times would be smaller and lighter than most of us, but with every muscle and bone perfectly worked due to a hard life walking and running loaded with lots of weight, not knowing what a pillow or a couch is. They would look extremely fit but not very muscled and lightly framed due to deficient nutrition, in any case very strong for his weight, quick and hard like iron nails. Wouldn't like to risk a hand to hand combat with such guy.

FWIW, the most likely body shape for a knight/huscarl would be like a rugby/American football player. Big and relatively bulky but strong. A diet largely consisting of beer, grains, and meat lends itself to that body type. The extra mass comes in handy when in hand to hand combat (which is largely based around wrestling and using the sword as a crowbar for leverage).

 

[Kyriakos]

So, given they are condensing stuff so much (and ludicrously so ) will the next season show any Byzantine Empire?

Not that it would make sense for vikings to arrive there themselves, at least prior to the battle of Hastings. First huscarl used in the Byz Empire in any number were the Rus Druzhina gifted by a christened prince of Kiev to Basil II, so as to fight the civil war (yes, another civil war, as usual ). That would have been at the very early part of the 11nth century AD, i suppose around 1000 AD?

 

[trader/warrior]

A Norwegian parody series that will apparently be called Norsemen in English has been aquired by netflix, it was made in both Norwegian and English language. It's a pretty interesting contrast to the Vikings series, it actually has a set date (790) and location it tries to portray, but is a completely fictional narrative as opposed to the mixing in of historical bits in Vikings.

It shows many interesting small jarring details of Viking culture you wouldn't get in the Vikings show, like in the beginning of the first episode starts with a situation of old infirm men at the top of a waterfall discussing killing themselves for the benefit of the community. It makes a lot of jokes around these things that might almost be seen as insensitive towards things like womens position in viking society, or rape as a part of the whole "pillage and rape" thing. Or the slaves, with one thing being the "institutionalized thrall" who can't imagine any other existence than that of a slave and is happy with it. One of the best Norwegian comedy actors who was also in Lilyhammer as the sidekick to Steven Van Zandt plays the role of the newly made thrall from Rome who experiences viking slavery.

Overall funny show, especially if you've seen a bit of Vikings, if quite low budget. Don't know exactly how good the English language version will be though.

 

[Kyriakos]

^I'll be honest, the above doesn't look good at all

 

[Hygro]

Vikings is a fantastic show and if you're a cerebral fetish driven person for whom this isn't your fetish you won't like it so why bother? If you're able to get into it and see how well they examine motivations given context it's a brilliant show.

 

[Leifmk]

^I'll be honest, the above doesn't look good at all

It's altogether a comedy show. It can be allowed to look cheap and/or anachronistic at times.

Apparently they made it in both English and Norwegian simply by filming all scenes twice, so it's its own remake.