YMMV / The Last Kingdom

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Ingilmundr has a lot of this, as the fast pace of the movie doesn't leave a lot of opportunities to explore his character, and the little that is shown turns out to be a facade halfway through. Specifically, was his false religious Gayngst actually sincere on some level? Ingilmundr turns out to not be a Christian, but he does prove to be a devout Norse pagan as he chooses to reach for his sword when it seems he is about to die rather than keep his beliefs concealed - and "ergi" was just as taboo in pre-Christian Norse culture as "sodomy" was in medieval Christian culture. So, when Ingilmundr argued to Aethelstan that they could redeem themselves for their "sin" by conquering Britain in the name of their faith, is it possible that was based on something he actually believed, only about himself and his role in conquering Britain in the name of the Aesir?
• Aluminium Christmas Trees: While the presence of forests on Iceland might seem strange from a modern perspective, the series is set before excessive deforestation to make ships, creation of grazing grounds, and climate change made Iceland the largely tree-less island it is today.
• Broken Base: Inevitably, opinions were divided when the first shots of Uhtred from the TV series were released. Some think Dreymon looks good as a youthful Uhtred, while others say he doesn't look tough enough. Others object to his hair being black rather than blond (the opposite of what happened to Sharpe) while others don't mind.
• Catharsis Factor: Given what an absolutely loathsome scumbag Æthelwold is, it was absolutely satisfying to see Uhtred kill him.
• Complete Monster:
  • Season 3: Skade is a Danish seer, or witch, who is introduced torturing a man by removing his eyes and tongue while murdering him for the crime of looking upon her. Returning to her lover Sigurd Bloodhair, Skade tells him of the vision she has of Sigurd killing King Alfred of Wessex, helping to spur on a brutal Danish invasion of England with many slain, all while Skade, for fun, agonizingly tortures the priests she finds. Cursing Uhtred himself, Skade intends to make him hers and have him start a new war to rule England, happily poisoning her own lover Sigurd before murdering him herself when his usefulness to her is expended.
  • Season 2 episodes 2 & 3: Sverri is an Icelandic slaver notorious for working and torturing his slaves to death. Having his slaves row to Iceland for days without food, Sverri forces them to fight over an apple he's already taken a bite out of. After recapturing Uhtred and Halig after their failed escape attempt, Sverri has the latter bound to the prow of his ship and forces Uhtred and the other slaves to row the roaring seas, slowly killing Halig.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Æthelwold's speech:
  Æthelwold: Oh, Lord, I am a sinner! I am a sinner, Lord, as big a sinner as you will ever see! I have known women, Lord, lots and lots of women! Women of all sizes. The big tits, the small tits. I have squeezed and kissed them all. I have rested my head on the bosoms of beautiful, but bad, bad women, Lord. Forgive me! I have lost count of the number of women I have had, but I know it is exactly half the number of tits I have caressed. Oh, God, I love tits! Send me an angel, Lord!
  Man in crowd: So you can hump her?!
  Æthelwold: A... A titless angel to guide me! No more servant girls in my bedchamber, Lord! Please, I beg you! (flops down on the ground, to cheers and applause)
• Creepy Awesome:
  • Skorpa, for killing people with his teeth. Added to that is the fact that his teeth are permanently stained red with blood.
  • Thyra has become this when we see her again. Although she is locked in a cell, she is surrounded by wolfhounds that she can apparently control, and Sven flees in terror after spending just a few moments in her presence.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Vikings, due to both series being action period dramas taking place around the same time period and regions of northern Europe.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Whenever Alfred is unsure of himself and speculates about how he is going to be remembered, other characters (Ælswith, mostly) are quick to reassure him. Given how he is remembered even today, they often turn out to be completely right.
  Ælswith: God is great. As is Alfred. That is how you will be remembered.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The Vikings issue of the 1960's comic book series "The World Around Us" featured an Alfred the Great who bore an uncanny resemblance to David Dawson, who portrays Alfred here.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Uhtred, son of Uhtred, was a Saxon taken in by the Danish Earl Ragnar and raised as his own son. Framed for Ragnar's death, Uhtred becomes a warrior in service to the Saxon King Alfred, with whom he often clashes. Uhtred proves his value by leading expert raids, even facing and slaying the great Dane warlord Ubba. Saving Alfred's life, Uhtred continues on campaigns to help unify Wessex while using his wits and charisma to perform covert operations to weaken the enemy and rescue valuable hostages such as Alfred's daughter, Lady Aethelflaed, when she is held hostage by Danes. When cursed by the sorceress Skade, Uhtred breaks her curse by drowning Skade, killing her without a drop of bloodshed. Uhtred lures a powerful enemy army into a trap by faking the murder of the leader's sons and continues his service after Alfred's death. Later saving the lives of King Edward's forces by infiltrating an enemy fortress and taking it from the inside, Uhtred brokers a peace with the enemy Scots by ensuring Northumbria's independence under his leadership, reclaiming his ancestral home of Bebbanburg in the process. Growing and maturing over decades of pain, love and loss, Uhtred ends the series by reasserting his one true belief: that destiny is all.
  • Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, has a dream to unite the British continent and lets little stand in his way. Upon meeting the Dane-raised Pagan Saxon Uhtred, Alfred performs a show of goodwill by marrying him to a noble Saxon woman but neglects to inform Uhtred he takes on her family's debts to bind Uhtred to him further. A brilliant commander, Alfred leads daring defeats of the Danes and establishes Wessex as a true power and constantly plays through the ruthless political court of Wessex. Even manipulating his own son Edward to make him a better ruler when Alfred is dead, Alfred plays him into giving up his first marriage and children, then halts his forces giving aid to an estranged Uhtred on the field to force Edward to make a true decision as a King. Even upon his deathbed, Alfred makes a final peace with Uhtred, but makes certain to show him the written history of Wessex so he will forever know Uhtred will be invested in seeing Alfred's dream through.
  • Earl Guthrum of the Danes is an intelligent man who lures three Saxon armies into a trap to annihilate them. The right-hand of Ubba Ragnarson, the closest man the Danes have to a true king, Guthrum is the one who handles most of the strategy, arranging for the overthrow of kingdoms. A true threat to even Wessex, Guthrum leads the capture of Winchester abbey and attempts to use Alfred's scheming nephew Aethelwold to assassinate the King. Upon his defeat, Guthrum believes that the Christians' god is truly with them and submits to be baptized and renamed Aethelstan, honored by Alfred for choosing peace over war in the end.
  • Sigtryggr Ivarson is a Norse-Gaelic Warlord introduced overrun Wales and killing its King Hywel to rescue the captured Dane Brida, the lover of Sigtryggr's late cousin Cnut. Learning of Wessex's riches, Sigtryggr leads a number of brutal, daring raids through villages along the way to capture Winchester and hold a standoff against King Edward, even playing Edward by offering one of his sons as a hostage but making him choose which boy, before he accepts Uhtred as a hostage instead. Sigtryggr then uses his leverage to secure land for himself and his people, getting everything he wants while also leaving with one hostage: Uhtred's daughter Stiorra whom he has grown to develop a caring and mutual romance with.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Æthelwold crosses it with his cowardly murder of Ragnar.
  • If Brida didn't cross it when she castrated Uhtred's son, she crosses it when she leads a genocidal purge of Danish Christians, gloating how she is "returning them to the gods."
• Narm: The show keeps to Cornwell's earthy style, which results in lines like, "We should hump tonight," and badass warriors calling their mortal enemies "turds."
• One-Scene Wonder: Cool Old Guy Ceolwulf, the "father of Mercia", who, better than anyone else before or after, sees straight through Alfred's schemes and calls him out, before proceeding to die of anger-induced heart failure.
• Spiritual Licensee:
  • Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is essentially The Last Kingdom: The Video Game complete with King Alfred the Great as a major antagonist, similar time period and characters. Even the male version of Eivor is voiced by Magnus Bruun, Cnut's actor from the show.
  • Alternatively, if you want to have Real-Time Strategy adaptation of the series there's always Thrones of Britannia: A Total War Saga which takes place in the same time period complete with the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the Vikings as playable factions.
• Squick: Uhtred defeats Ubba by cutting both his Achilles' tendons.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Season 1 Big Bad Guthrum undergoes a Heel–Faith Turn, but is never again seen afterwards. It would have been interesting to observe whether his newfound interest in Christianity is genuine, and which struggles are faced by someone having grown up with an entirely different, Norse, worldview.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The protagonist's constant apologism for and idealizing nostalgia towards the Danes over the local Christian Anglo-Saxons can come across somewhat grating considering how just about every viking shown who isn't a member of his immediate family circle or household (and some who are!) is depicted either as a gleeful raider, eager to murder and rape the innocent and defenseless, or at least supportive of this attitude.
• The Woobie: Mildrith.
  • Poor, poor Thyra. For a kindhearted Pollyanna with very little screen time, her story is sure heartbreaking and full of Nightmare Fuel. As a child, she has her shirt torn off by Sven, a perverted Stalker with a Crush who believes he is Entitled To Have Her, and is only saved from further assault by Uhtred. When she grows up, she's happily engaged to be married, but her family is massacred in front of her by Sven and his father. She has a brief Hope Spot when she sees Uhtred sneak onto the property, but, unfortunately, he doesn't see her. The last we see of her is when Sven vows that she will endure endless sexual torture before dragging her away. Years later, Uhtred learns that she's still alive and being held prisoner, though Skorpa's blunt and vulgar remark about her is one of the most disturbing moments in the series. She's later rescued, but only gains a few years of happiness with Beocca before she's assaulted and burned alive by a bigoted Saxon.

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