Got a backlog myself and I wasn't planning on rewatching but I was feeling hazy on the first season and then I just kept binging.
It's crazy, if dude wasn't so fukkin' pious him and Uhtred could have been the best of homies. The real nikkas in his cirlce like Odda, Leofric, Beocca, and even the non-conflicted goon Steapa cosign Uhtred but Alfred always trying to hoe Uhtred and act like he can't trust him.
Alfred's faith would never allow him to fully accept Uhtred. And it had to be that way. Alfred had to be noncompromising to his vision of England - a Christian England. His goal from day one was to convert the Danes to Christianity. To him, that's how the war between Saxon and Dane would end. By the Danes accepting the god of the Saxons, making them brothers in Christ.
He was doing a good job at converting them too. After all, he converted Guthrum.
Everything Alfred did was for his God and his England.
If Uthred had accepted Christianity, then he and Alfred would have been tighter than tight. That's what he always hoped would happen. He thought that over time, Uhtred being close to him and being within the confines of Wessex surrounded by christian saxons would change his heart, and he would eventually accept Christianity.
As time went on, he realized it was a pipe dream, and he treated Uhtred accordingly.
Beocca accepted Uhtred because he knew what he had been through. And he knew that if Uhtred's father had never been killed, that Uhtred would have been a Christian. In fact, in his mind, Uhtred was a christian. After all, he had baptized him twice himself.
Odda was a man's man, and he initially disliked Uhtred, but he came to see how honorable he was and how committed he was to Wessex, and that was all he needed.
Leofric was half a step from being a heathen himself
, he didn't care about the church. He was committed to the crown and once he saw that Uthred was too, that was allhe needed.
Steappa definitely didn't care. He was committed to Alfred and when he saw that Uthred was too (proven to him by being on the battlefield next to him), he was down with Uhtred.
Alfred was never trying to hoe Uhtred. He respected Uhtred more than anybody else in Wessex. He even said that he would rather wield Uhtred's sword than fight him, cause he knew that Uhtred could beat him if they were on opposite sides.
But the b*stard thinks. He knew that he needed Uhtred to win, and so he did every single thing he could do to keep Uhtred in his service, getting grimy when he needed to. But it wasn't to hoe Uhtred out. It was because he needed Uhtred - for England.
Apologies to the brehs that thought the thread bump was an update to S5
about the plan and Alfred says that Wold's father would have done the same.
and says if Wold wasn't a disappointment he may have had him killed. 
Was Alfred fukking with him or did he imply he was always gonna take the throne?
cause I thought we was byke.
