mmmmm, unwashed masses.
To ensure that none of us goes into some sort of awesomeness-related shock as a result of watching the premiere (February 18th) with no warm up, I wanted to get us all back into the fandom game by talking about my two favorite subjects: Vikings on History and ME! So gather around children while I channel my inner Harbard and tell the story of Vikings at Comic Con – A Fandom Diary.
First a confession: During Comic Con 2014 I won a Vikings contest to be among the first to go through the “Vikings Experience,” even though I HAD NEVER SEEN THE SHOW. I know right? I would totally want to Blood Eagle myself too!
But I completely fell in love with my fellow contest winners/Vikings enthusiasts, among whom were members of the Guardians of Midgard – a SoCal Vikings reenactment group. What I learned from this experience (in addition to the fact that “viking” is a verb, not a noun) is that the Norsemen and their fans are a tough people, and no one knows that better than Vikings on History. Vikings put on a Comic Con to test our limits, and gave us fans a chance to show what we’re made of! But we overcame all the obstacles, due to the presence of these crucial Vikings Norseman characteristics:
1. Endurance
The Vikings-lympics began with a contest to win a spot on a Vikings cruise with the cast. Sounds simple, right? It would be, except that there was no information about when the contest began, what you needed to do to enter the contest or when the cruise would even take place! So I set twitter alerts for the show and every conceivable person connected to the show, and, hell, while I was at it, everyone in Scandinavia (including the Swedish chef and ABBA) to make sure I wouldn’t miss the details.
Imagine my surprise/distress when I emerged from 1 hour of no phone service in the Indigo Room to find 6,000 tweets alerting individual fans that they won a chance to enter the drawing – W.T.F.! It turns out that entry forms were distributed to those tweeting pics of themselves with their Vikings on History beer horn. You know, the beer horn I had left in my hotel room that morning. Shit.
So I set off like a maniac in search of the “long boat” (or “boat-bus”) that was cruising around the Gas Lamp giving out the horns, plowing down cosplayers, fire and brimstone preachers and little old ladies in the process. Prior to this moment, I had always thought the only thing the Strava app was good for was planning your penis-shaped running route, like thus:
Somebody is super-excited about Brighton!
However, I would love to see what my terror-fueled path through downtown San Diego looked like! I’m pretty sure it either spelled out “son of a b*&%h,” or perhaps perfectly replicated Edward Munch’s The Scream.
That’s about right.
Long story made unbearable: after losing half my body weight in sweat and bugging the crap out of the poor guy manning the @HistoryVikings dm, I got the entry form and cleared the first Vikings hurdle!
#achievementunlocked
2. Dedication
The next day was Vikings panel day!!! As a relatively equitable medieval society, the Norsemen would not have approved of any fans getting special treatment. In other words: Vikings fans don’t need no stinkin’ press passes! I lined up for room 6A with all the other fans at 11:20 am for a 3:30 pm panel so we could all sit through whatever-the-hell was happening there before Ragnar & Co. showed up. As it turned out, hordes of Vikings cosplayers were interspersed among throngs of eager 8 year-olds for a panel on Teen Titans. The culmination of the panel was a half- children, half-bearded dudes in full Vikings regalia participating in a sing-a-long of this traditional Norse battle cry:
You are on alert, other fandoms: the bar has been raised.
After sitting through nearly 4 hours of random programming, nibbling on pages of our programs for sustenance, and limiting fluids to avoid bathroom breaks, you would think we Vikings fans would have nothing left to give. Oh you would be so wrong! The panel was an epic feel-good story of fantastic chronicled here. Please review this information thoroughly before moving on. Go ahead, we’ll wait.
3.Enthusiasm
My half-day romp after the Vikings longboat paid off big time when I won a spot on the evening Vikings duck-boat cruise with everyone’s favorite bearded Australian!
No, not that one silly – this one:
I believe his name was Paul
Okay, so my boat-mates and I did not win the big prize of a cruise with the cast, but we vikinged it up anyway! Two of the winners were members of The Guardians of Midgard and led us in a rousing chorus of “all hail Vikings” throughout the ride through downtown SD, startling senior citizens and small animals. Once on the water, we knew we traveled with Odin when a magical Selkie joined us on our journey.
No, that is not just a seal thank you very little for asking.
I had a great time mingling with my fellow enthusiasts, and interspersed lively conversation with attempts to ninja pic “Not Travis Fimmel” for my beard-and-tat obsessed tweeps FOR SCIENCE. (Note: “Not Travis Fimmel” seemed to have some sort of “ninja phone picture” alert system that resulted in him glaring at me every time I even touched my phone.) We took turns posing with the Guardians, and, of course talked about our favorite show – VIKINGS!
And as we came to the magnificent shores of the lands known as San Diego, we realized that through the magic of Vikings our ragged band of travelers had transformed from this:
into this:
Despite our viking imperative to pillage the riches of this new land, we realized that we were quite sleepy after a long day. We chose instead to retire to a pub and triangulate cast instagrams in an effort to crash the bar they were hanging out in, vowing to raid another day!
All in all Vikings on History put on a great SDCC 2015, testing the mettle of their fans through feats of stamina, strength and unparalleled willingness to belt out odes to breakfast foods. We bid a belated farewell to SDCC 2015, as we set our sights on the adventure that will be Vikings season 4! Skol!
I’m sorry, did I wake you?
NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!
In order to properly outfit TN Vikings fans for the season 4 raid, That’s Normal is giving away official Vikings on History beer horns!!
Vikings on History Beer Horns Giveaway!
Good luck, and may the gods be with you!
Vikings season 3 premieres Thursday, February 18th at 10p/9c on the History Channel!
Catch all of our Vikings coverage here!
All Vikings images courtesy of the History Channel.
