11-30-2015, 05:37 PM
(11-30-2015, 02:30 PM)michaelsean Wrote: OK end of the season. I liked seeing the time period in more than my mind. I did not like Uhtred very much. He wasn't big enough and he had an annoying voice. Alfred fit what I pictured in my mind quite well. I keep telling myself I'm going to read a biography on him because he seems like a fascinating person. Probably among the physically weakest of the English kings, he is the only one known as the "The Great". Brida was annoying. Don't remember her in any shield walls but it's been a while since I've read the earlier books.
All in all I thought they did a really good job.
So the season encompassed the first two books and in so doing crunched a lot of stuff together and shortened some time frames. All in all, I think it was good, but yeah, Uhtred was like the emo version of the character. Not to be too blunt about it, but he seemed like a whiny little ***** in comparison to the Uhtred of the books. And it isn't just personality, it's looks as well.
Some of the character combinations that occurred I was not happy with. I already mentioned the blacksmith before, but using his comrade Leofric in the fight instead of Steapa was a bad move as well. I mean, he plays no small role in later stories. There were probably others that cropped up, but that was the most noticeable to me. It's inevitable that you have to pare down the number of characters for television, but it seems like they did not make the wisest decisions in that regard.
As for Alfred (not the only "the Great", BTW, can't forget Cnut), I don't know if he was physically the weakest. I know he was afflicted by an illness. Some suggest he suffered from Crohn's disease. Even if he was physically weak he still did some tremendous things and was a great military mind.
And yes, Brida was annoying as all hell.
