Alright alright alright I finished the base game main quest and I have Sigurd-thoughts, obviously. My only non-ideal choices were punching him and protesting his sentence, so that might have influenced my run a bit.
He starts out wanting to be jarl really badly, to the point that he basically goes rogue after his future kingdom gets sold off for the sake of peace. And with his own clan, he continues as he did before when he was a prince, that is: not being there at all. Seeking glory everywhere, but not actually being with the people it‘s all for. And it's not that he's even bad at it, but it's apparently not what kings do, since even the ones that do go out fighting regularly stay with the majority of their force and don't only do it for goods and a reputation, like Halfdan.
Then THAT gets all thrown out the window when he catches a whiff of the possibility that he could be more than a mere king, but a god. Which he kind of is, even. So he stops caring about his clan even more, which is when the game starts tempting Eivor with chances to do jarl things and directly disobey. Anyway, he mocks the King of England (or smth like that) because he thinks he‘s so much higher than that, but the thing is, before that, he actually worked to earn glory, he worked for his worldly goals, which made him sympathetic. He put in the effort, even if it was misplaced. Being a god thing just came to him, he was born like that. It takes immense pain and the loss of an arm for him to break through and properly realize that, but that isn‘t earning it.
(What does that even get him that Eivor doesn't already have? Does his human side merely get weaker as response to the pain? I have questions.)
THEN, he drags Eivor into „Valhalla“ and feels very much at home there. Partly because it was always the end goal, partly because he has power there above the usual slain warrior. He brings Varin back! Or a version of him, anyway. Like, he‘s SOLD on this being it, this is eternity and it‘s perfect. And then Eivor tells him it‘s not real and kills the Varin-image and Sigurd doesn‘t argue. He trusts Eivor, I‘m assuming even if he did everything in his power to scheme and take Sigurd‘s place. And that trust saves their lives when Basim comes in.
After that, he‘s just a pitiful mortal, he has one arm (a trauma even the machine couldn‘t get him to forget about, apparently), he has distanced himself so much from the idea of rule that he doesn’t want it at all anymore, not divinity nor a crown, but he also doesn‘t want to follow Tyr in his brain anymore. Maybe Tyr‘s shut up? Anyway, if that isn't a full 180 turn.
Eivor's arc over the game seems to be to realize that Odin's offerings of wisdom at any cost isn't worth the loss of his relationships. I wonder if Sigurd learned the same lesson? We don't know because we never hear what we definitely know to be purely Tyr (maybe Valka's vision quests might offer insight, but fuck those). Even Sigurd after rescuing him from Fulke isn't safe in this regard. Going by the scene where he punishes Holger, it may have something to do with speaking law, no matter how it affects the people? And judging by Sigurd's attitude towards power, also rule or royalty or superiority.
I hate his guts so much but he's also so fascinating because that's the only other character like Eivor afaik!! Aside from maybe Basim but idk his lore. Did Sigurd's visions also start in his childhood? Maybe what was Fulke's torture to him was the wolfbite to Eivor, which is disproportionate, but he was also a child back then and did just lose his parents, so does that make it more equal?
What made Sigurd even decide when to finally approach Eivor again after the judgement scene? I returned to him after every region to see if he would at least react but he didn't, and after Wincestre, I get jumpscared by his wanting to talk. Maybe it was that Eivor had close contact with Aelfred, whom Sigurd would presumably have Feelings about.
I really like that, at the end of the day, the moral of the game is that the gods ain't shit. Maybe Svala, but we never even met her before Valhalla, so who knows if she was actually that nice. I wonder if Tyr was just as rude as Odin. Was Sigurd's vision from the Saga Stone his first? Why the FUCK was he so horrible to his dad? Was it just the lingering resentment from having his life upended? When he visited him, Sigurd still valued glory over the lives of others and, at that point, maybe even his own depending on if he was actually aware that "Valhalla" wouldn't actually kill them. And that ended all only because Eivor doubted the reality of Valhalla because, by his own laws (Odin's), Varin couldn't be there. Which is fucking depressing but that does lead to his own breakthrough and him forgiving Varin for choosing peace, like Stybjorn did.
Actually, it's weird that Eivor's fine with Stybjorn's decision, but not Varin's even though they're not very different. But that's a question for another post.
I wish there were just one more cutscene afterwards where the nature of the afterlife is pondered a bit because it was just now very heavily thrown into question. Nobody even asks what the fuck that cave even was.
