Vikings; With a Few Words From the Queen.

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Vikings blessed our screens back in 2013 and we certainly haven’t forgotten it since, it's continuously getting more and more successful with every episode, so it’s safe to say there’s an axe in a lot of people’s hands and even more hearts. Michael Hirst, creator of Tudors, pulled another one out of the history hat taking us from one king to another, England to Kattegat and has both entertained and educated us; but remember, those who mention this SO MUCH, it is still a drama, NOT a documentary, the foundations are the history but the walls are the fiction that has kept us go in grossed and in my case, in absolute tears.

Following Ragnar Lothbrok in his rise from farmer to king as well as his comrades, his family and his lovers, we can’t help but love and hate them all. It is an epic that truly captures the figurative and literal bloodshed.

You can’t talk about Vikings without talking about the battle scenes! For lack of better words it has a cinematic perfection to it, with the intruding deep shots, the wide angles and successful representation of being wounded, you can’t help but feel the adrenaline of battle when watching, while also biting your nails praying to Odin that your fav doesn’t die!
A lot of what makes Vikings so entertaining and even jaw dropping is the emotion and the genius behind the characters actions; from honor to riches, there’s always an outcome that can make or break every person involved. With the borderline cliche but unique portrayal of royal and political betrayal there’s a never ending anger and feeling of looking over your shoulder, with those feelings as an audience member, I wanted to know what it was like on set, because behind the scenes it's a hell of a lot of rain, mud, fake blood, and fighting, how does that make the atmosphere within the collaboration of cast and crew? Well, I was lucky enough to find out! Amy Bailey, also known as the devious and beautiful Queen Kwenthrith kindly answered a few of my burning questions about the show and her character and of course I started by asking what it was like on set and this is what she said;

“Vikings is a huge show. The sets are enormous and incredibly detailed, so it's wonderful to feel like you are really "in the scene" when doing it. Our production crew work very very hard and yet are some of the most cheerful people I know. That's the Irish for you. It would be 4am when we arrive on a dark and freezing rain location and yet I'd be greeted by smiles by everyone. That's great morale! I love my cast mates too. It's not always easy to shoot a show far away from friends and family for 6+ months so we all get quite close to each other. I see and/or talk to most of the cast regularly still, even though a lot of us have moved on to other projects around the world”.

The cast of Vikings are widely known to fans, not just for their insanely awesome portrayals, but always the comical and family orientate attendance on social media, where we always them rather laughing together or playing pranks on one another. With this and her general off camera appearance, Amy Bailey is one of the sweetest people on the planet, so how did she end up playing Kwenthrith so well?! The character was crazy, yes brilliant crazy, but crazy AND MURDEROUS nonetheless. I asked Amy what it was like to play Kwenthrith and how she related to her;

“Kwenthrith was a lot of fun to play. When I first joined in Season 2, I wasn't quite sure yet why she was so crazy, and so sexually aggressive. Michael Hirst gave me more to work with in Season 3 when we found out about her long and sad history of being abused as a child. Then it all kind of clicked and I was able to play her with more depth. I enjoyed how she evolved to...becoming a mother and finally experiencing genuine love, but then having a tragic end. It made sense to me. I really grew to like her and have sympathy for her.I related to her most when she went psycho tiger-mom on everybody. I was pregnant with twins in real life during Season 4 so those feelings of fierce protection were quite real for me!”

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Morale of the story, do not mess with a pregnant woman, especially one who's spent a lot of time with Vikings and plotting revenge! Amy’s performance definitely was unforgettable and she made Kwenthrith one the best villains on the show, being manipulative and seductive in a way that made us love and hate her at the same time. It’s great for me as a fan of the show to also watch Kwenthrith playing not only against but also with the other characters, bringing them into the same light that makes you get frustrated at them for their decisions.

Talking of characters, we all have our favourites, so I asked who is Amy’s:

“My favorite character on the show is easily King Ecbert. I found him fascinating and unpredictable. Scary in his geniality. And Linus Roache played him with such grace and subtle menace. That's the best kind of villain...the one who makes you wonder if he'll kiss you or kill you”.

Ahh! King Ecbert! Such a fantastic character, we here at Velvet couldn’t agree with you more Amy! If you look down at their characters from a theory level there was a lot of similarities between Kwenthrith and Ecbert, the only difference was Ecbert was slightly better at hiding his lack of morality when it came to what he wanted.

With Vikings going into it’s fifth season, we’ve seen most of the characters and their families grow from children to men and from young to old and quite recently alive to dead! The show continues to grow more and more unpredictable and with the entrance of Jonathan Rhys Meyers, it’s safe to say that shit is goin’ down this season! So many questions and so many travels, it’s hard to not get restless, but lucky for us Vikings is easily accessible between online streaming and Amazon Video, or like me, buy the DVD’s and excessively watch the special features, at the very least it’s a reminder to never forget dear Athelstan!

I can easily say that what I am looking forward to most in this next season, after all but two of my favourites have now been killed off (DAMN YOU MICHAEL!), is the progression of Ivar the Boneless after the genius and brutal things he did in Season 4b, will he answer for it or will he grow even more ruthless? And let’s not forget the vendetta against Queen Lagertha, like I said, SHIT GOIN’ DOWN! It makes me nervous and excited just thinking about it!

Sorry guys, I’m not entirely sure what the planned release date is for season 5 but if you can follow @historyvikings on Twitter and they also have an Instagram so you can keep updated and see some great behind the scenes photos!

VF.