5. The fans kick-ass!
I’m going to talk about this more in a separate post, but Vikings fans are the best! The fans in the hall were wearing amazing costumes, the energy was overwhelming and people even brought Vikings horns so we could bellow out our war cries! Vikings did a very cool thing to celebrate their fans, and put together a little video love letter:
4. The cast is a bunch of goofs
This cast members have proven that they have fantastic chemistry IRL as well as on screen, and they brought it for this panel!
Travis Fimmel is known as the official set prankster, as evidenced by this SDCC interview moment:
So Alexander Ludwig started the panel off right with a little revenge prank:
He was so damn smooth about it, I didn’t even notice until Travis disappeared behind the table! The rest of the cast clearly reveled in Travis getting a dose of his own medicine!
During audience questions, Kathryn Winnick was asked who she thinks has the best beard, which led to a hilarious moment when Clive mugged for her while Kathryn stroked his beard, Travis did the thing with his chin that makes his beard dance around, while poor Alexander claimed “size isn’t everything.” (Nice try, Alexander)
She totally punted by pointing out that between the hair extensions and beards, she is thankful to be the one who spends the least amount of time in the make-up chair.
There was also a great moment after Travis totally flustered an audience member who was trying to ask a question, when he walked out into the audience and gave her a hug. Which actually isn’t all that nice when you think about it, because she could have easily died from that! Which is what I would have done. Ded.
3. SDCC volunteers who take their jobs reallllllly seriously
Anyone who has spent time in a line at SDCC knows that the core purpose of the event volunteers is to be alternately extraordinarily helpful and insufferably inflexible. It’s just the nature of the gig. However, the question monitor for the Vikings panel took this out-of-control officiousness to a new level, making for a very entertaining and extremely second-hand embarrassing panel moment.
It began after Clive Standen, pumped on fan energy and wanting to show appreciation, threw a t-shirt to an audience member, and it went down a little like this:
Clive: “Here’s a t-shirt!” (throws t-shirt)
Monitor-guy (puts on “angry eyes” and waves arms wildly): “Don’t throw t-shirts! Don’t throw t-shirts!”
Clive (leaning into the mic like a boss): “Did you just tell Rollo to not throw t-shirts?”
Monitor-guy (unaware of his impending doom): “Do not throw t-shirts!”
Clive (hucking shirts rapid-fire into the audience):
You get a t-shirt! And you get a t-shirt! And you get a t-shirt!
Fans (going totally insane for t-shirts): “WTH is with this monitor-guy? That is Rollo-fucking-Lothbrok, and if he want to throw mother-effing t-shirts, then he is going to throw mother-effing t-shirts!”
It was so surreal that I am of half a mind that it was some kind of prearranged Andy-Kaufman-esque absurdist theater. Whatever it was, congratulations monitor-guy, you have officially earned the moniker “the Percy Weasley of room 6A.”
2. Clive Standen is all of the awesome
I really, really love the entire cast of Vikings, but it is no secret that Clive is my super-mega favorite.
If you have seen this season’s finale, you will recognize the sheer perfection of this shirt. If you haven’t, GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW! (You can find our recap here.)
Then there was the story about filming Rollo’s fall off of the castle, when he jumped out too far and the camera crane basically just shot his crotch the whole way down:
To which all the ladies in the audience were like “how do I get a copy of that?”
He also had some hilarious interactions with the rest of the cast (including a Seer Pop figurine), and he stayed after to interact with fans!
Now, I was pretty disappointed that I did not win a spot on the Vikings cruise with the cast, as I wanted to reprise my photo with Clive from last year – a photo I have posted about 14,000 times on this site, so I will just post it super-small ‘cuz I know y’all are sick of seeing it:
There we are!
But Clive was able to totally hook me up when he hopped up on the table and took a selfie with the crowd (which probably gave the monitor-guy a flat-out coronary):
No zoom here, folks
As you can see, I am totally in this shot! Well, mostly my cleavage is, BUT I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU SAY THIS TOTALLY COUNTS:
Woohoo! I got another picture with Clive Standen!!!! Score me!!!!
And lastly, I learned that
1. Season 4 is gonna be great!
We got to see the trailer for season four, and in the words of the Seer, it is going to have us “dancing naked on the beach”!
Gawddddddddd! So many chills – where to even start? Floki gets busted! Lagertha does some castrating! Ragnar goes after Rollo! Bjorn gets all king-like! And this fabulous moment:
Hahahahaha! I love Gisla so much! And the look on Rollo’s face? Priceless! I cannot wait to see how this relationship plays out!!!!!! 2016 are you here yet?!!!!!!!!!
If you are having serious Vikings withdrawals, tough crap. The cast is in a bunch of upcoming stuff (Clive Standen – Patient Zero, Travis Fimmel – Warcraft, Kathryn Winnick – Geostorm) but none of it drops before the new season of Vikings begins. You can catch Alexander Ludwig in Final Girl opening later this summer.
See you in 2016!
