In an interview with Cinema Blend, Hirst told that the early ending of Ragnar and Lagertha's marriage was far from premature — on the contrary, it was absolutely necessary. "The starting point of Vikings was a young farmer, who was happily married, with children, but who was frustrated by his lack of opportunity to sail and explore lands to the west of Scandinavia," he said. "That's when we first meet him. And soon, his ambitions begin to play out – but they bring with them inevitable and sometimes terrible consequences."
One of these is, of course, the ending of Ragnar and Lagertha's days as a happy family, an era which Hirst points out was doomed from the beginning. "I couldn't have spent more time with Ragnar and Lagertha because, even at the point the story began, their domestic and rural idyll was over! It's not unusual to start a drama series at a tipping point, and that's what I did. The world was about to change, and Ragnar and Lagertha changed with it."
Still, despite the fact that necessity dictated the pair's separation so early in the series, they did — in a sense — remain the show's core couple. Ragnar and Lagertha's influence is woven throughout the fabric of Vikings, and in the first half of season 6, the show reminds viewers that they were never really apart. After Lagertha dies at the hands of a delusional Hvitserk (Marco Ilsø), she reunites with Ragnar in the afterlife, and both of them are wearing their humble farm clothes from the days they were the happiest. As such, even though Ragnar's actions and their piling adventures and responsibilities ultimately broke them up, there was always a connection.
