I really like this one, people say it is the worst one of the season but I thought it was insightful of old religious ways and how Christianity is a progression from these old customs. Don't worry I'm not promoting religion. From the beginning of vikings we see old customs of superstition and interpretation of events expressions of God's and fate. Sacrifices of animals and humans was common and sad to see in the name of religion. It made me think how when Christianity came to the nations although it brought a lot of bad it taught that christ was the final sacrifice for all times. It was interesting to watch and wonder what the priest from lindisfarne might be thinking as he almost abandons his old faith and loves and hates things of the new. I loved the magic 🍄 scenes and how it was normal on these occasions and experienced by all. Form me it was an insightful history lesson and producers did it justice. After all Rognor doesn't have to be kicking ass and swashbuckling in every episode
Add a Review
-
mickygee-3648815 December 2018
-
amongpixels8 January 2021"Sacrifice" kept me thoroughly unnerved throughout the episode as they toyed with Athelstan's fate, while also effectively capturing the Norse religious beliefs in all their beautiful, unsettling and trippy nature. In terms of overall development in the story and characters, there isn't a lot, but it is still a decent watch overall.
-
GraXXoR15 March 2021This episode raises the important question.
How many people has religion killed? How many people have died needlessly for the thousands of superstitions and cults, several of the larger which still survive to this day at the expense (quite literally in many cases) of their followers.
This is the 21st century and yet we still follow these ridiculous patterns handed down to us from our ignorant forebears.
We should be aghast at ourselves for to still believe in unfounded tales of olde whilst wistfully searching for the imaginary and ephemeral instead of recognising and understanding the absolute reality and magnificence of the universe and the limitless wonders contained herein.
The fact that so much of this show rings true today, 1200 years later is a tragic testament to our lack of advancement as a species and the shame is all ours.
Still, a bloody good watch, though, aye? -
claudio_carvalho27 September 2017Ragnar travels to Uppsala with his family and friends to thank and offer sacrifices to the gods. Athelstan travels with them and learns that there will be sacrifices of animals and humans in number of nine each. They feast, drink, have sex and eat magic mushrooms and Athelstan learns that he is one that will be sacrificed. Meanwhile Ragnar meets King Horik and he promises fealty to him. What will be the fate of Athelstan?
"Sacrifice" is the eighth and weakest episode of "Vikings" so far. The tribute of Ragnar and his pagan people has a little tension since Athelstan will be one of the human sacrifice. The ambitious Rollo is as usual poisoned against his brother. But indeed nothing happens in this episode but the agreement of Ragnar with King Horik. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Sacrifice" -
pitas-934688 August 2019My favourite episode so far, the mysticism and the atmosphere plus the music.
-
itsame_kaia3 February 2018"Sacrifice" is the eighth episode of the first season of Vikings and narrowly beats the pilot for being the worst so far. It's not terrible by any means, but other than the development of Athelstan and the introduction of King Hokir, the episode has nothing to offer in the way of the season's story.
It's always interesting to see the Vikings' culture and rituals play out on screen, but we certainly didn't need an entire episode dedicated to it. Again, other then some development for Athelstan, a character I do not particularly care for, and the introduction of Hokir, this episode has nothing to offer and could almost be skipped if it wasn't for the scene between Ragnar and Hokir that sets up the next episode. Rollo and Siggy reaffirm their goals and we don't learn much from them, other than that Siggy doesn't like Rollo sleeping around, for some reason.
The scene where Athelstan drunkenly wanders through the camp is bizarre and poorly executed, which is made worse by the fact that it goes on for a while. The actual sacrifice at the end of the episode goes on for nearly five minutes and pretty much displays the exact same footage over and over again, just in a slightly different context each time.
On the bright side, this episode introduced us to Donal Logue as Hokir, who does a good job with his performance and fits into the cast nicely. I'm unsure how long he'll be around for but I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more of him in the future.
7.5/10. -
jonesray15 August 2021Such an interesting and visually stunning episode. I always look forward to this episode every rewatch.
-
Abdulxoxo25 January 2021This feels very calm for a prenultimate episode. I had hope for the Athelstan character in the beginning, as i thought he was going to be an integral part of plot. I don't like what they're doing with the character. He just ask daft questions and does basically nothing. Tho there's a slight development for him in this episode. I just hope he will be utilized in a way that's very relevant to the story in the future. The episode is basically just people praying and calling gods name. While I enjoyed it and we get to see some weird Viking's traditions but I find it to be way overplayed at this point. We've had enough of that already. That being said, there's actually interesting part that involves Ragnar pledging fealty to King Horik, I'm sure this is going to play a vital role in the coming episode. I liked that Rollo part as well.
-
svenvrys23 April 2020This episode has it all,the vibe @ the holy festival is so damn realistic <3 This is television in his purest form!
-
metallifan-6225928 January 2021Is anyone going to say anything about them killing Leif Eriksson? You know, the famed explorer and son of Erik the Red who was killed in an earlier episode? Just wondered.
-
Wirefan1226 May 2015Ragnar and the crew head to Uppsala for the annual festival of sacrifice(s). Ragnar is mad at the gods for the death of his unborn son and one cannot help but feel sorry for the gods if Ragnar gets hold of them!
At Uppsala Ragnar meets the King and swears fealty to him, of course with that ever-present smirk that annoys to no end. I could not help but feel that the King was the underling here.
Rollo and his mistress have some words and we can see that he is going to have some kind of confrontation with Ragnar down the road as he bristles at having to take orders, etc.
We end with a sacrifice of animals and humans but I just could not seem to care at all. At least the Saxons got a week off from getting pummeled. -
haidarkanaan6 January 2019Nothing Happened except 30 mins of blood and killing disgusting and disturbing
-
elvenwarrior-6355020 March 2017Not really spoilers? They have a festival...there's shrooms, and sex...and that's about it. Okay, they meet one important character for latter, but if you skip to the next episode it's all in the "previously" segment. You won't miss anything. It's kind of like the writers had enough material for seven episodes or so and then realized they needed to fill time til the end of the season. Boring. Utterly boring with no story development to speak of.
-
ian-2437628 February 2021As the series has progressed I've been feeling more and more like this is just over-hyped and over-rated, then this episode comes along and pretty much ruins the whole show for me. The original theme seems to have gone, and we're just left with hallucinogens, witchcraft and blood sacrifice. No thanks.
-
wtbqynzyfak14 May 2021Nothing important happened
One point for Ragnar's dialogue with the King and half a point for Ragnar's brother's conversation with his wife
but I give this episode 2.