Last Kingdom thoughts

I just watched the final episode of The Last Kingdom. A couple years back, I stumbled upon the show and watched the first five seasons in about a week. Sometime in the last year or so, the final season was released, but as I don't watch much TV these days, it slipped through the cracks. I remembered it a few days ago and finished what I started.

The premise of the show revolves around the 11th century Saxon peoples aiming to unite all the kingdoms into England. Along with a game of thrones, they struggle taming the barbaric Danes throughout the realm. There is a great warrior, born a Christian but raised a Dane, who fights to do the most Right he can to achieve harmony amongst the two ways of life.

To me, there are a few themes that stuck out, some obvious in the first watching and others only now. I think my spotting of these things was heavily influenced by my own status while viewing.

Earlier, the tension between a savage way of life and a proto-modern way stood out. The Saxons, along with their undying belief in one true god, benefitted from great scholarship. Priests and chroniclers play a big role, interpreting the history of the world and formulating grand visions for their own storybooks. They'd also developed military technologies that helped them fight off the unorganized Danes.

The Last Kingdom, without saying it aloud, demonstrates the power of certainty. The Saxons created a sophisticated order which could anticipate and respond to chaos. They always had the Danes on their heals, so much so that the savages would foresake their many gods and swear to both the king and the Christian god. This is a story about will against destiny.

And that's what is so striking now. All but a single woman believes in fate; in one true path for everyone. The Kings believe that it is their destiny to build god's empire. Their lackeys and soldiers believe in the divinity of the king. And of course, the clergy surrounding all of this believe in embodying the word of god.

The main character and his Danish pals also believe in the sway of their own gods. They are merely carrying out the destiny of their ancestors who set out to settle on fertile lands. And their witches are a gateway to the gods, who will surely steer them the right way.

Throughout the show, and especially the final season, Utred, the Saxon-Dane warrior of a main character, struggles with his destiny. It is only when he runs into his long warrior-nun friend that he realizes he has free will. Her name was Hild, and in a cast of great characters, she was quiet and understated, but left a mark on me.

I think it's because she was both a woman of god, but had also fought and killed. She understood that faith must be protected; that if you believe in something you will eventually have to fight for it. Her message to Utred was: you have been on this path, and while you may have a fated future, you can't be sure if that time is now. You can only exert agency and believe that you're capable of fulfilling your dreams.