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The last kingdom


Mr Rational

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  • 2 weeks later...

Enjoyable first season, some crackin characters. The guy playing Alfred does a brilliant job of making him a followable and inspirational king, despite being a wee skinny fucker with a shoegaze hairdo.

Bets on how many women Uthred is going to become enamored with by the end? Three already in one season, some boi.

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I'm hinting like mad for the new book for my Christmas. Anyone read it yet?

I've been a massive Bernard Cornwell fan since I was a teenager and love his books. However, I've not read any of the Uhtred series since giving up half way through The Burning Land (book 5) a few years ago. They get a bit repetitive, and my dad, who still reads them, bemoans the fact there's no sign of the story concluding any time soon.

All Cornwell's heroes are essentially the same character having the same sort of adventure, which isn't a bad thing in itself, but it does mean it's very easy to overdose on his books. I've done the same with Sharpe before too. I'll need to pick up Uhtred again sometime though.

As for the series, it's been great so far. Perhaps a little rushed trying to cram two books in to one series, but that's ensured it's been exciting throughout.

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Alfred in the books comes across like a limp bit of lettuce. Cunning as a weasel, but definitely not a warrior which the series has.

I've started listening to the audiobooks again, I'm a bit into sword song. Much better in the car than some generic X-factor shite radio station.

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what a sad end for such a tidy piece-what a waste!

what happened to no mercy

who was he riding off with at the end?the former nun looked like 1

Hild.

in the books they travel north and uthred gets captured and sold into slavery, hild travels back to Alfred who releases Ragnar to go and get him back

Edited by bennett
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Hild.

in the books they travel north and uthred gets captured and sold into slavery, hild travels back to Alfred who releases Ragnar to go and get him back

There were 3 of them riding off at the end. The two he was with were total randoms. Uhtred nae pals after that last battle scene.

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There was the nun who, funnily enough, knew how to fight, and I think the other guy was Aethelwold.

I thought it was Hild and that Wolfrik's (sp?) man. Could well of been Aethelwold. Neither being portrayed as especially big buddies of Uthred. I suppose if you've just lost your best pal, girlfriend and baby, you can't be to picky.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finally managed to catch up on the final episode of this last night. Loved it. I'm really glad it's been renewed for a second season. My only complaint is that it felt a little rushed. With an extra episode (or even two) they could have developed the story and characters a bit further and created a greater emotional resonance with the fallout from the final battle. If they're going to cover two books next season again, hopefully they get the budget to push the series a little longer.

Because of the cultural dominance of Game of Thrones, this has obviously been compared to it a lot, which isn't entirely fair as they're very different shows. But to draw yet another comparison, an equivalent battle would have been in the penultimate episode of GoT rather than the final one. I think TLK could have benefitted from doing that too. The final episode could then have focussed on the aftermath of the battle. Guthrum's conversion to Christianity is a very significant event but it, and the peace that was negotiated as part of it could have formed another episode along with Uhtred coming to terms with his loss before heading off in to the sunset.

So if there had been one more episode developing the story and another dealing with the aftermath of Alfred's victory then I would have been even happier.

As for the two figures Uhtred rode off with at the end, one was definitely Hild. I thought the other was the guy who looked after Wulfric's horses rather than Aetholwold.

Bennett mentioned Sharpe. I wish they would give that the same treatment as the Uhtred novels. Sean Bean was iconic as Sharpe in the 90s, but looking back on those shows they've really not aged well at all. I watched Sharpe's Siege again recently, just after reading the book so I could do a comparison, and in order to fit it in to two episodes they stripped the story back so far that it was barely recognisable. And it was hardly a complex story to begin with. You could make some brilliant TV out of those stories with the budgets and technology available now.

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  • 1 year later...

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