It feels like it’s been a loooong time coming, but we are now just a short time away from the premiere of Vikings: Valhalla Season 2! Everyone with a Netflix subscription will get to have at least some of our Season 1 questions answered when the historical hit returns on January 12, 2023, which means that excitement is once again building for the continued adventures of Freydís, Harald, Leif and their many assorted friends and enemies.
There are quite a few things that I simply cannot wait to see when the action-packed drama returns, so here’s my list of eight things I’m really excited to see in the second season!
Old Testament Leif
One of the things that I loved about Leif in the first season was that the man was an absolute beast in battle (skilled, seemingly fearless, the whole bit…), but during his down time, he was incredibly gentle, thoughtful, loving, loyal to his friends and family, and basically seemed like a regular dude.
He’d expressed a fear that he would become like his notoriously bloody-minded father, but we didn’t see any hints of that until the Vikings: Valhalla Season 1 ending, when Leif watched as his love and fellow Greenlander, Liv, died in his arms after being stabbed in battle. Boy, did that man’s disposition ever turn on a dime. Now, we’ve been promised that we’re going to see an “old testament Leif,” which I’m guessing means he’s gonna be all about doling out life-ending punishments whenever he deems them necessary, and I am here for it, especially if he can get back at Olaf for killing Liv!
Freydís And Harald Together In The Aftermath Of Kattegat’s Fall
It did not take long for these two to, uh, find some common ground after Freydís and the other Greenlanders arrived in Kattegat. And, yes, by “common ground” I do mean the bed where they got busy, seemingly mere minutes after Freydís had finished that long, difficult journey.
Here’s the thing, though. That turned out not to be a simple slaking of each of their physical needs, as while each of them had separate adventures during Season 1, they were still hot for one another when they were able to meet up again. Freydís managed to survive the emotional battle for Kattegat unscathed, and got herself and a badly wounded Harald outta Dodge, and the trailer for the new season makes it look like they’ll continue to be a strong couple who respect and care for one another despite many extreme challenges, while also banging it out whenever possible. Don’t you just love love?
Our Vikings Traveling Outside Of Scandinavia
In Season 1, our heroes definitely got around and adventured away from their physical comfort zones quite a bit. However, most of that travel involved characters going back and forth between different parts of Scandinavia and England. The new season has been promised to change that, with there being more travel to unique locales.
Seeing as how we know that Vikings loved getting on their longships and exploring the wider world (and frequently doing much more than sightseeing or trading with the new people they came into contact with), it’s going to mean not just seeing them in different locations with a whole host of new characters and many different types of people, but also getting into trouble. And, we looooove watching them get into and out of trouble!
More Of Married Queen Emma And King Canute
Look, I’m not on board, at all, with how Canute treated Ælfgifu, ok? But, I will say that I also really loved Emma and Canute together. Maybe it’s just because we never even got to see the new king of England and his first wife together to have any kind of real attachment to them as a couple, but, for real? Emma and Canute are hot stuff!
She is, obviously, trying to stay alive and make sure her kids are safe, and knows that partnering with Canute is now the best way to do that, but she also seems to genuinely like him. And, Canute did his part, by not being a dick to her, and actually listening to her ideas and respecting the inside knowledge she had to offer. I don’t know what’s going to happen to Ælfgifu in the second season, but I’m definitely on board the Emnute ship for the time being!
Any New Characters They Can Throw At Us
By the end of the first season, we’d lost some very cool characters to any number of battles. I will dearly miss Jarl Haakon and Greenlander Liv, but that doesn’t mean I’m not eager to see who Leif and the gang mix it up with in Season 2! While only four new characters have been confirmed, we can tell just from the trailer that they’re going to make things very interesting (in good and bad ways, probably) for all of our favorites.
Queen Ælfgifu, Hopefully Surviving To Scheme For Many More Days
Alright, I might be rooting for the (illegal?) marriage of Canute and Emma to survive and thrive for quite a while, but that doesn’t totally mean that I want Vikings: Valhalla to get rid of good ol’ Queen Ælfgifu! I don’t generally love a schemer, but I really do appreciate that she was at home doing the dutiful, patiently-waiting-my-husband-to-return-from-conquering-England thing, found out he’d abandoned her and their children to marry the English queen, and said, “Fuck this guy! How can I get revenge?”
Sure, Ælfgifu was quickly found out and her situation did not look good at the end of Season 1, but I love the gumption, willingness to not sit back and take poor treatment by her husband of many years, and ability to plot. She’s a schemer whose motives I can actually get behind, and when you have a series full of people plotting and planning for less than admirable goals, that’s not nothing!
More Godwin Double-Crossing…Hopefully
Well, here’s another schemer, right? In a world where there are a lot of people who are willing to do very bad things so that they can amass as much power as possible, though, Godwin simply seems to be concerned with staying alive, which I also admire. So far, he’s been very good at choosing which of the big players to double cross and managed to jump from one boss to another with little problem.
While I can only imagine that pretty much everyone knows he’s loyal only as long as he believes you can help him keep his head, I’m hoping he gets to stick around, because I do enjoy watching someone who seems to have no real interest in gaining status. It’s hard to be that mad at a guy for just wanting to live, right?
Bloody Battles Galore
It would probably be fair to say that this is a large part of what many of us have come to this show for. After all, what’s a show about the notoriously fight-happy Vikings without several scenes of them warring against both each other and unsuspecting coastal folk?
It’s not exactly fun to watch people die horrible deaths in bloody battles, but I can’t deny that this show knows what it’s doing when it comes to crafting those scenes and making sure that viewers get an impressive eyeful of excitement whenever characters engage in a combat to the death. Who will live? Who will die? No one knows yet, and I say bring. It. ON!
The historical drama returns for Season 2 on January 12, and until then you can revisit the first season (opens in new tab) on Netflix or watch any number of shows like Vikings: Valhalla.
