The Truth About The Unluckiest Character On Vikings
History's Vikings is a great show to watch, but let's face it — it wouldn't be too great to live in the day and age of Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) and his offspring.
Apart from the rough living conditions, brutal seafaring, and a high chance of violent death, it seems that many characters on the show are cursed with extremely bad luck. When you take all of that into account, it is hard to pick a Vikings character who isn't incredibly unlucky, at least at some point of their character arc. From poor Floki's (Gustaf Skarsgård) doomed escapades in Iceland to King Harald Finehair's (Peter Franzén) forced fratricide of his younger sibling Halfdan the Black (Jasper Pääkkönen), pretty much everyone on the show has to deal with grievous misfortune on occasion ... even if their tragedies are often of their own making.
Still, there is one particular Vikings character whose entire arc is misfortune. In fact, his rotten luck makes everyone else on the show seem like lottery winners in comparison. Here's who fans think is the unluckiest character on Vikings.
Aethelwulf just can't catch a break
There's one particular Vikings character whose misfortunes are pretty much his defining trait, and that is King Aethelwulf of Wessex and Mercia (Moe Dunford). While he's a fierce and successful warrior-king who genuinely strives to be a good ruler and valiantly fights what, from his point of view, is the Viking threat, he's also a massively unlucky guy. Aethelwulf spends his life ruthlessly manipulated by his father, King Ecbert (Linus Roache), as well as his own wife Judith (Jennie Jacques) — who, incidentally, is also the lover of the monk Athelstan (George Blagden) and King Ecbert — and, of course, also dealing with the Vikings. Even his death is a "sad trombone" moment. Instead of dying on the battlefield, the powerful fighter is unceremoniously killed off in season 5, when he's stung by a bee, and turns out to be deathly allergic.
On one Reddit thread, fans point out just how gigantic poor Aethelwulf's misfortunes are, and how unexpected and random his death is. As user Ghostface1357 wrote, "I didn't like how rushed it was, but it kind of makes sense with his arc throughout the show. He was just constantly f****d over by his father, his wife and the Northmen and then instead dying on a battlefield which we expected, he dies to a bee." Other fans such as user Karinbby, thought the whole thing played out perfectly: "I kinda loved it, everyone dying on the battlefield and dying honourable deaths... And then this man showed the realness of how something innocent could still kill you."
Another fan, ezio640, agreed, and also noted that it fit the character to a tee. "As you can see, it was the perfect ending for him," they wrote. "No glorious deaths on the battlefield for him. Just like everything in his life."