The Vikings Fan Theory That Could Explain Othere's Mysterious True Identity
Contains spoilers for Vikings season 6, part 2
The latter half of History's Vikings season 6 wraps up the various storylines of Ragnar Lothbrok's (Travis Fimmel) sons in equally varying ways. Bjorn Ironside (Alexander Ludwig) dies a heroic death. Ivar's (Alex Høgh Andersen) demise in the series finale is more controversial, but at least he earns a modicum of familial bonding by saving his injured brother, Hvitserk (Marco Ilsø). Ubbe (Jordan Patrick Smith) is the only one to get a relatively happy ending in his new Golden Land in the West, which handily teases the upcoming spin-off series Vikings: Valhalla and also unites him with Floki (Gustav Skarsgård), who was last seen in an Iceland cave but survived to head westward.
Another person who makes his way to the Golden Land is Othere (Ray Stevenson), the mysterious wanderer who claims his true identity is an Anglo-Saxon monk called Athelstan. That offers a strange connection to George Blagden's character of the same name; he befriended Ragnar, sired King Alfred (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), and was ultimately killed by Floki. However, some fans think that there's far more to Othere than vague allusions to a character long gone. Here's the Vikings fan theory that could explain Othere's mysterious true identity.
Fans think Othere may be an avatar of Floki
Vikings has teased that Floki might not be entirely human, and fans on Reddit feel that the mysterious Othere might actually be divine and connected to the boat-builder in some way.
"I think Othere could be Floki or some part of him," Redditor u/tunaforthursday suggested. "We've seen hints that Floki could be at least part god — when he has his visions, when the Seer [played by John Kavanagh] licks his hand, and when he seems to be invisible on his way to kill Athelstan." They proposed that Floki's often tormented existence could be explained by the fact that his supernatural part has been separated from him, and Othere might be just that. "This would also explain why Floki seems to trust him and why he says to ask Othere when he doesn't remember what made him come to North America," said u/tunaforthursday.
Othere's backstory is fairly mysterious and inconsistent, so who knows? As u/tunaforthursday theorizes, perhaps he's "a trickster god who takes details of what he's experienced or seen, and twists or even flips them to manipulate the people he's talking to, like Ubbe." Other users agree that there's clearly something strange going on with Othere. "He just knows too much. He knows Floki. Floki knew HIM. It's all just so convenient and so maddening that we never really did figure out his story," u/lifavigrsdottir opined. They also suggested that Othere could actually be Loki, which would handily tie into the older fan theory that Floki is actually the trickster god.
Since Vikings has reached its conclusion, we may never find out the truth about Othere — that is, unless he pops up on Vikings: Valhalla, which reportedly takes place a century after Vikings. If that happens, you can probably be pretty sure that something's up.