‘Vikings’ Season 6B: Fans Weigh in on the Surprising Way Things Ended in Kattegat
The hit series Vikings has concluded after premiering the final episodes on Amazon Prime Video ahead of its premiere on History. Of course, with the end of any series, not all fans are going to be completely thrilled with the outcome of major events, and that’s certainly the case with Vikings. Fans recently weighed in on the surprising ending in Kattegat. What are they saying?
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from ‘Vikings’]
Ingrid rules Kattegat as Queen
After Bjorn Ironside (Alexander Ludwig) dies in battle after sacrificing himself in a plan to save his country, his wives compete to be the next Queen of Kattegat. However, Ingrid (Lucy Martin) and Gunnhild (Ragga Ragnars) don’t expect King Harald (Peter Franzén) to return after escaping the Rus. He plans to marry them both, but Gunnhild decides to die by suicide. She believes she will go to Valhalla to be with Bjorn. Ingrid chooses to marry Harald, despite the fact that he sexually assaulted her before the first battle with the Rus. She’s now pregnant and it’s unclear if the father is Bjorn or Harald.
Harald travels to Wessex with Ivar (Alex Høgh Andersen) and Hvitserk (Marco Ilsø), and it’s there that he is killed by a soldier of Wessex. He leaves Ingrid and Erik the Red (Eric Johnson) jointly in charge of Kattegat, but Erik has treacherous intentions and wants to rule as King and Queen with Ingrid. Erik actually sold Ingrid into slavery previously, so he’s considered her enemy from the very beginning.
Ingrid, now revealed to be a witch, curses Erik and uses magic to make him go blind. Erik tries to have a servant named Orlyg (Tim Creed) kill Ingrid, but she’s already one step ahead of him. Another servant, Nissa (Victoire Dauxerre), gets Orlyg to tell her the truth of the matter, and she plays both sides, telling him she’ll keep Eric away while Orlyg kills Ingrid. But Nissa kills Erik with a pitchfork and has already informed Ingrid of what’s going on. It turns out Erik had sold Nissa as a slave just like he did to Ingrid before. When Orlyg goes to kill Ingrid, she confronts him, and he confesses to everything. She has him killed, and when word reaches her that Harald and Ivar have died in Wessex, she rules unopposed as the Queen of Kattegat with Nissa as her companion.
Fans weigh in on the surprising way things ended in Kattegat
Fans recently spoke about the situation on Reddit. “[Spoilers] about Kattegat,” the post is titled. “Anyone disappointed on how they handled Kattegat?? A nobody is a Queen there. Out of all legendary warriors….We get Ingrid.”
One fan mentions that they “hate it,” but they think it was intentionally done. The show has made it clear that the Golden Age of the Vikings is no more. Gunnhild even mentions it at one point. The people that come after these legendary figures of the past won’t be able to live up to these great heroes.
“I hate it, but I’m not disappointed because I feel it was intentional,” the fan pointed out. “It’s no secret that the time of the Vikings is coming to an end, all the characters we loved are dead or gone, so it makes sense that Kattegat loses that sense of familiarity and home to us too, and the magic/power of it. The time of legends is gone and now it’s just going to be ordinary, unworthy people who can never fill the shoes of those who came before them. And that’s sad, but I do believe it was a conscious decision on their part.”
Another fan would have liked to see Erik made the king of Kattegat instead, or Gunnhild could have ruled, as Kattegat “needed her.” It seemed like she was set on ruling as Queen until Harald returned and asked her to be his bride.
“Kinda wish they’d have redeemed Erik and made him a king,” the fan said. “Or wish Gunnhild never killed herself…Kattegat needed her.” While another fan thinks Gunnhild “should’ve been queen.”
A fan thinks Gunnhild “deserved” the role of Queen of Kattegat more, and she certainly was Bjorn’s first queen and confidant for years. She already had the skills of a leader and experience in governing with her husband.
“Imo, Gunnhild deserved the throne more,” the fan said. “Any other solution would’ve required the writers to plan something out several seasons ago.”
One fan says they “like to imagine” that Ubbe returned to take the throne. But we’ll never know if this is the case or not, since it doesn’t end that way.
However, a Reddit user points out that Ragnar was a farmer with no experience governing before he became an Earl and eventually the King of Kattegat. It’s unclear how Ingrid will rule on her own, and she might be more than capable in the end.
“Everyone forgets that Ragnar rose from a nobody to be the king,” they said.
Fans have a lot of opinions when it comes to how Vikings concluded in Kattegat.
