History Characters / Vikings

* AmbiguousDisorder: It's not directly implied, unlike with Floki, but Ragnar has some very strange speech patterns that make it seem like he constantly has trouble finding even simple words to express himself, accompanied by several facial tics, and even his anti-social brother is more articulate. If this is tied to a disorder then it casts his friendship with Loki in a new light.

* AmbiguousDisorder: It's not directly implied, unlike with Floki, but Ragnar has some very strange speech patterns that make it seem like he constantly has trouble expressing himself clearly, and not just because his ideas are very out-there by viking standards. If this is indeed tied to a disorder then it casts his friendship with Loki in a new light.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The first time he's seen is in combat training with Ragnar.

* MoralityChain: For Ragnar when he goes with the group to visit Jarl Borg especially when Ragnar sleeps with Aslaug. Ragnar then swears never to let it happen again, and his efforts indicate that this is more for Bjorn's sake than Lagertha's.

* UndyingLoyalty: Like Floki and Rollo, she's not always 100% happy with Ragnar. Nevertheless, like them, she is unwaveringly loyal to him... Until King Horik gives her a better offer. [[spoiler: Turns out she only pretended to defect for Ragnar. In season three, she gives her life saving his sons from drowning in a frozen lake.]]

** Once he discovers that Floki was responsible for Athelstan's murder, Ragnar begins to orchestrate Floki's downfall, all while watching him from afar with silent hatred. When [[TearJerker speaking to Athelstan]] in "To The Gates", he wonders how Floki could even consider that Ragnar wouldn't have his own agenda and seek vengeance against him.

** Once he discovers that Floki was responsible for Athelstan's murder, Ragnar begins to orchestrate Floki's downfall, all while watching him from afar with silent hatred. When speaking to Athelstan in "To The Gates", he wonders how Floki could even consider that MagnificentBastard Ragnar wouldn't have his own agenda and seek vengeance against him.

** Once he discovers that Floki was responsible for Athelstan's murder, Ragnar begins to orchestrate Floki's downfall, all while watching him from afar with silent hatred. When [[TearJerker speaking to Athelstan]] in "To The Gates", he wonders how Floki could even consider that MagnificentBastard Ragnar wouldn't have his own agenda and seek vengeance against him.

** Once he discovers that Floki was responsible for Athelstan's death, Ragnar begins to calmly and patiently orchestrate Floki's downfall, all while watching him from afar with silent hatred.

* BarbarianLonghair: A long, plaited scalp braid. Averted in season 3, where his hair gets progressively shorter until he decides to go for a full-on BaldOfAwesome look after shaving his head in mourning for Athelstan.

** By season 3, although he doesn't use it for murder as much, he has kept the headbutt habit. A single headbutt from him is enough to knock someone down to the ground and give them a black eye.
* HeroicLineage: Much like his historical counterpart, Ragnar believes himself to be a son of Odin. This was actually a fairly common practice amongst nobility (and bastards, Odin had a 'lot' of bastards), but Ragnar does entreat Odin for aid at one point and seems to receive it, fighting his way free of a press of enemies in season one.

** Again when Athelstans truly does die.

* OddFriendship: With Athelstan; one does not expect a raider and a priest to get along so well, and much less so when they're from different countries and cultures. Ragnar reacts very emotionally when Athelstan suggests leaving Kattegat after having rediscovered his Christianity.

* RealMenLoveJesus: He's a norsen pagan so it's more like Real Men Love ''Odin''. He identifies closely with Odin in his aspect as the god of wisdom and in how he represents the curiosity and thirst for knowledge that resides in men. It's worth noting that there's an element of ancestor worship in this since Ragnar believes Odin to be his grandfather.
* RedOniBlueOni: Generally he's the blue to Lagertha's and Rollo's red because he is more cool and stragetic. Though when his blood is up he needs to be restrained by the former two.

-->'''Ragnar''': She is with ''child'', and you still let her come? (slaps Bjorn harsly) She will most likely die, both her and your child inside her. Why? Because you have the strength of a man, but the will of a little girl! I cannot believe you are my son. (hits him again) I can't stand to even look at you.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Takes several from the beginning to the end of season 3. In the first season he is a HappilyMarried devoted husband. By season 3 he is YourCheatingHeart to Aslaug, WouldHurtAChild and WouldHurtAWoman after murdering Horik's daughters.

* VillainProtagonist: It's possible to view him as this, depending on your view of Norse culture and Saxon culture, as well as schemking tendencies on Ragnar's part. As happens in a lot of Norse sagas, the farther along the story goes the farther onto the "villain" side of things he seems to slide, so far in Season 3 he has begun alienating his wife, son and amicable ex-wife by doing things to consolidate his power and fame.

* HannibalLecture: Lagertha gives one of these to a would-be rapist in the season two episode "boneless." He threatens her with a dagger while she has no weapon and is wearing only a towel. She verbally emasculates him and walks away completely unscathed.

** Deconstructed. Lagertha is a brave and ferocious warrior with an unbreakable code of honour, but she's also very impulsive and prone to poor decision making. Her knee-jerk reaction to Ragnar taking a second wife as a personal insult to her leads her to becoming trapped in an abusive relationship with Earl Sigvard, who was apparently insane. This eventually culminates in her murdering Sigvard in front of the entire hall, after one abuse too many. So far so good, she's Earl now and a power in her own right. However, whatever Sigvard was, Lagertha murdered Hedeby's chieftain, her lawful husband, in front of his oath-sworn warriors. Whatever she did afterwards, in an honour-bound society that takes fidelity to its lord quite seriously, Lagertha was always going to be unpopular after that. This eventually culminates in season 3, where Lagertha is quite easily usurped as Earl of Hedeby and literally has nothing left to do but live with Ragnar anyway.

* KlingonPromotion: In season two, her second husband the Earl of Hedeby sends men into her bedchamber to beat her after she aids Ragnar without his permission. After that, the Earl of Hedeby tries to humiliate Lagertha by exposing her breasts to his entire royal court, but she finally snaps and stabs him in the eye with a dagger. The Earl is then beheaded by one of his own retainers. The next time we see Lagertha, ''she'' is the Earl.

* RagsToRiches: As a by-product of Ragnar's success. However, after the timeskip and death of her second husband, Lagertha proves that she is fully capable of this trope all by herself, too. Then she went back to rags, since she was usurped by her steward Kalf in season 3.

* AnimalMotifs: The Bear. In the script for the first episode, he is initially referred to as "Bear Man" and the Seer even says "the bear will marry a princess" or something along those lines in season 3.

* AmbiguousDisorder: He definitely has ''some'' sort of undiagnosed mental illness - on some level he's aware of it, at one point fearing that any children he fathers will be like him.

** Throughout Season 3 he continually tries to convince Ragnar to stop taking Athelstan's counsel so seriously, in fear that Athelstan is not loyal to the other Northmen and that the gods will rain down punishment on them for being so accepting of a Christian.

* AudienceSurrogate: He zigzags on this trope. During Season 1 he possessed a moral outlook broadly compatible with 21st century television viewers. In Season 2, he's embraced Norse culture and accepted Odin as his god. Then he becomes even more of a surrogate later in the season, as he is now shown to have a wider religious outlook than previously, and while still predominantly Christian, he is starting to appreciate other cultures and their religions in a way that resembles modern multiculturalism. King Ecbert puts his Roman relics in Athelstan's care because unlike his other subjects, he wouldn't consider them unholy.

* TookALevelInDumbass: Upon Aslaug's introduction, she was witty and intelligent enough to match Ragnar. Come season two, all that had changed, from her utter lack of social awareness and skill (her hamhanded and unsuccessful attempts to connect with both Lagertha and Bjorn come to mind) to her lack of common sense (unlike Rollo and Siggy, she didn't seem to realize that, being refugees wanted by a powerful warlord like Jarl Borg, keeping a low profile was necessary to survive).

Lagertha’s second-in-command at Hedeby, he is left in charge when she goes to England in season 3

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: In comparison to Borg, Horik, Ragnar and Lagertha, each of whom while good rulers are often blinded by vengeance, pride, jealousy, ambition and anger, Kalf seems to be the only ruler who truly has his role in perspective with the bigger picture (well, aside from Ragnar) and his logic on his being a better claim to the earldom due to actually being a son of Hedeby is pretty much unassailable. [[spoiler:He also cold-cocks Lagertha in order to save her during one of her LeeroyJenkins modes, having correctly anticipated the Franks leading them into a trap.]]

* AmazonChaser: In the second season he sleeps with Princess Kwenthrith, who is seemingly more bloodthirsty and noticeably more open sexually than all the other Saxon women shown in series, then quickly becomes infatuated with Lagertha in the third season - a lot of the reasons he enumerates have to do with how badass she is.

* BiTheWay: Nothing ambiguous about the way she kisses Lagertha in a season three deleted scene. She also clearly admits to being attracted to her.

* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Kwenthrith claims he is Ragnar's son but, as Aethelwulf is quick to point out, given her rampant promiscuity the child could be anyone's - and Aethelwulf even questions whether he's really Kwenthrith's, noting that the Wessex nobles left in her court never reported that she was pregnant.

* BabiesMakesEverythingBetter: Subverted. She faces lots of opposition from Floki over the matter of settling down.

** After being informed by Prince Aethelwulf through words and the tangible proof of his arm ring that Athelstan is alive, Ragnar reacts with an icy glare and grim face, all of it aimed at Horik, who Ragnar now knows was lying about what happened in Wessex. The anger continues to fester throughout the remainder of the season, and then it finally explodes in the season finale when Ragnar calmly deals with Horik's attack on Kattegut and his family... and then beats him to death with his own head and a shield. The fact he barely says a word before the trap is sprung makes it all the more terrifying.

* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: [[spoiler: Somewhat and inverted. At the beginning of the episode, his son (he doesn't know of) is born. At the end of the episode, he dies.]]

* AntiVillain: It’s hard to see him as the villain when the protagonists are laying siege to his capital for no reason other than glory and greed.

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* AmbiguouslyBi: He has a threesome with Floki and his wife Helga.

* {{BabiesMakesEverythingBetter:}} Subverted. She faces lots of opposition from Floki over the matter of settling down.

* [[BabiesMakesEverythingBetter:]] Subverted. She faces lots of opposition from Floki over the matter of settling down.

* [[BabiesMakesEverythingBetter]]: Subverted. She faces lots of opposition from Floki over the matter of settling down.