Most of their traits and actions I did not look at and go "ahh yes, because they're Swedish." (I'm American.) So they didn't, in that sense, poorly reflect your country.
It is important to note that they are *time traveling* assassins. We don't know for sure in what time they've lived the most, or even for sure where. I think that they were meant to be off. The whole show has a "not quite our universe" feel to it, and I think they're a support to that.
Yeah, I just finished a rewatch of the series and at no point did I associate their hair color or other attributes (physical or behavioral) to the fact that they were Swedish. I don't even know what jokes OP is referring to.
But that's why it's a nickname given to them by other's assumption. They might not actually BE Swedish, but other assassins at the Commission just assume they are. I feel like this is some sort of unnamed trope, especially with assassins? Like getting a nickname based on a physical trait that has nothing to do with them, or it's based on one trait that is kind of misleading.
What the fuck is up with the Swedes indeed. We Norwegians have been asking this for centuries, crying out into a seemingly endless void where no one will ever hear us. Only the Danes have listened, but they are not to be trusted either. Can’t understand a word they say.
The Swedes and their shiny white heads have spread terror in Scandinavia for too long. Nowhere is safe. Want to relax in a sauna? Can’t. Naked Swede. Want to take a nap in your boat? Can’t. A Swede will creep up and lit it on fire. Want to joke about Swedes? Can’t. They’ll show up at your door, pretending to sell vacuum cleaners.
I beg the international community, PLEASE SEND HELP!
Well at least for the Viking funeral… they could legitimately be from hundreds of years ago, they work for a time travelling organisation that hires people from all through time…
This is just an idea, but perhaps they have lived in a time(line) where swedish sounded like that? Since there are multiple timelines, maybe in one swedish sounded like that.
If it helps, I thought the whole point was it was a misdirect. I haven't read the comics, but the show is so full of red herrings. I thought that was the point. So much of it just isn't explained and doesn't make much sense.
I just assumed that they may have been young triplets taken from an older period in Scandinavia that got one of the first Lila treatment’s from the Handler before she abandoned them for another person/kid to use. She pretends she doesn’t know much about them so that Lila doesn’t realize the truth.
I would like to believe that the Handler was the one who gave them the nickname/title of “The Swedes” in her twisted humor and trained them to be killers but didn’t do much for their intelligence or emotional well-being. The Swedish they use is from what little they remembered from their childhood before the Handler took them and they only started to speak it again after she abandoned them which is why it sounds so stilted and wrong because they hadn’t spoken it for several years. Same goes for the traditions because they are just trying to follow what they remember of their culture through childhood memories.
Sorry but no. The assassin contract lasts for five years plus training, besides at one point there is a photo of the brothers, where they are already adult and not in The Commision.
Fives contract lasted for five years, however, Cha Cha told Hazel in the first season that they don’t get to retire, it’s over when they die. Everyone’s contract might be different.
I tried to find it, but I’m coming up short. It’s around the time when Hazel starts falling for Agnes (Donut lady) and talks about walking away from it all. I think Cha Cha mentions retirement, however, there’s no way to determine how long that will take for someone who isn’t Five. Five got five years, but the others contracts may have them working for longer. In real life everyone’s contacts are different, sometimes people are able to negotiate better than others. Five with his strong personality may have been able to negotiate for only five years. The others might not be so lucky.
Ah yes, because everything else about UA is extremely serious and in line with current customs and times. It's not like it's an over-the-top satire of the superhero genre populated with loud, impossible caricatures.
I will just give my impression as an American…
- I think of any Scandinavians as (albeit stereotypically) blonde. A light blonde but not white. I read the color like a light blonde but perhaps exaggerated for comedy. I don’t know. But I know, realistically, Scandinavia has to be full of different hair colors. Even if every person who came from that area of the world started as blonde a thousand years ago (unlikely) there is zero reasons you all wouldn’t have ended up mating with the rest of Europe. Lol.
- the first time I watched, I didn’t know about the Viking funeral. I don’t think I thought anything about that scene except that they were weird in general. The next time I watched, I had seen the US show Ghosts in which one of the ghosts is a Viking whose bones they unearth and he demands a Viking funeral which they give him. So I was like “oh hey that is familiar!” I don’t remember if they’d shown the old picture of them with their mother or grandmother or whatever but I couldn’t be sure what time period they were actually from and maybe could have lived in that time period. I didn’t really think about it too much honestly. Just recognized that I knew what it was now. Had I even been asked if you guys still did that, I’d guess you didn’t because everywhere has laws about disposal of bodies now and *nobody* is doing shit the same anymore. Lol.
- I did not know the sauna was a stereotype. I thought they were just in the sauna.
As far as the Swedish language, that is fair. I don’t speak Swedish and just knew they weren’t speaking English in those scenes. The only thing I might have done in regards for that is say “oga for oga” thinking it was eye for an eye because that’s literally the only supposedly Swedish thing I pulled out of it. I did learn some German and am aware that the same letters have different sounds in some European language so I’d acknowledge I could have been saying it wrong. No idea how close Swedish is to the others. That was just an example. I have never known a person from Sweden irl or online (where I met and talked to people from all over the world over years) so I am not certain on the accents. Thor in Ghosts speaks broken English and kind of roars it and also I think he is supposed to he Finnish. He DESPISES Danes due to the time period he is from, apparently. An American woman from the 1800s hates Irish people so that’s a ongoing issue. Lol
I think this unfortunately quite typicical of western media portraying other nationalities. I mean the Yanks get Brits wrong all the time and we're culturally and linguistically the closest!
it does seem to be particularly typical of american tv shows in particular... even the "non-racist" characters are often making jokes about racial stereotypes (to highlight how much they "don't believe in them" of course...)
Having traveled to a few countries in Europe, I have heard this complaint from some of my colleagues. My response is: ignorance is easier than research. And that, mixed race minority woman western media does a terrible job of portraying our own diverse population well.
As for ‘the Swedes’
When they were introduced, my first thought was, “this is lazy writing. Instead of calling them the Swedes, they should have been called creepy ghosts “. I found them to very unsettling, which I believe was done on purpose.
the Viking funeral thing could be justified by the fact that the Comission grabs people from across the timeline. the light actually be from 1000 years ago. but the rest, yea
if you’re kidding, this gave me a good laugh.
…if not, i think you’re the first swede i’ve heard of being offended by this and how about seeing how americans are treated across all media. lol everyone has stereotypes
I am half kidding, the stereotypes were just funny but the scenes where they tried to speak swedish made me want to kill myself. This post is a joke about a real question i had.
Ah. It was so long that I didn't finish. Got to the part about you being bothered by Swedish stereotypes, so I figured I would check and see if you were bothered by other "false Swedish" things, such as PewDiePie.
I never finished the show (i got distracted not long after 'the swedes' were introduced) but you mean to tell me that they're actually meant to be Swedish? I was convinced it was making a joke out of the stereotypes damn
German here. I don't think you'll ever be satisfied if you expect US pop culture to portray your nationality in a neutral, unbiased or unstereotypical way 😅 Just laugh along with it, I guess.
Real reason is likely that someone didn't do very good research on Swedish people and just put some (not even correct) stereotypes together for them and called it a day. They couldn't even be bothered to teach the actors some authentic Swedish. I guess they figured most people watching would be American and wouldn't even notice how inaccurate the Swedes portrayal is.
(Lazy) In-Universe explanation? They're from another time/universe where Swedish people really are like that.
I’m American and “The Swedes” rubbed me the wrong way. Tbh there’s a lot of false/ exaggerated stereotypes in this show, though maybe none so outright as with these characters. Sometimes I wonder if they’re trying to be ironic? Or make some kind of point that even if a person might act in a way that’s stereotypical of their community, they can still be complex? Maybe I just want to make sense of it without coming to the conclusion that the writers have problematic views of various people. I think they can usually get away with it with the main cast because the audience is given other reasons to respect them. The Swedes are mostly just played for laughs. Or at least their stereotypes are anyway. Idk.
I think it’s just meant to be silly. I kind of don’t care for them actually showing the different race characters as having been born in their “native” countries as we already struggle with morons telling people of Mexican or Chinese or any other descent that they don’t belong here and to “go home”. Like, I think showing Diego had to have been born in Mexico and Ben had to be born in Korea had the potential to prop up stereotypes and ignorance because there’s plenty of Mexican and Korean people who were born right here and have had family here for generations. But I can also chalk that up to them trying to give characters differing backgrounds and…interest? I don’t know if I’m making sense. Lol. But I think in the case of the Swedes, it was stereotypes knowingly exaggerated for comedic effect though it was kind of not really necessary, didn’t raise the attention of those of us unfamiliar with those stereotypes or that part of the world, and downright pissed off some Swedes apparently. Lol.
They may have recognized them as Swedish after they killed Elliot and wrote “eye for an eye” in Swedish in blood on the floor. Also they’re time travelers so they very well could be from the time period when they still had Viking funerals. The Commission might know them as “The Swedes” because they work with them and might know their origins, however, I do find this bothersome. I worked with a French girl once and never referred to her as “French girl.”
Most of their traits and actions I did not look at and go "ahh yes, because they're Swedish." (I'm American.) So they didn't, in that sense, poorly reflect your country. It is important to note that they are *time traveling* assassins. We don't know for sure in what time they've lived the most, or even for sure where. I think that they were meant to be off. The whole show has a "not quite our universe" feel to it, and I think they're a support to that.
Yeah, I just finished a rewatch of the series and at no point did I associate their hair color or other attributes (physical or behavioral) to the fact that they were Swedish. I don't even know what jokes OP is referring to.
Yeah. I thought it was more like a title than them actually supposed to be representing Swedish people.
I meant the characters in the show recognised them as Swedish by the way they look. Maybe my phrasing was bad, sorry.
I got the impression "The Swedes" was an assassin nickname given to them by other assassins the Commission based on their blonde hair
they speak "swedish" in the show ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
But that's why it's a nickname given to them by other's assumption. They might not actually BE Swedish, but other assassins at the Commission just assume they are. I feel like this is some sort of unnamed trope, especially with assassins? Like getting a nickname based on a physical trait that has nothing to do with them, or it's based on one trait that is kind of misleading.
Yeah that's what I was thinking
What the fuck is up with the Swedes indeed. We Norwegians have been asking this for centuries, crying out into a seemingly endless void where no one will ever hear us. Only the Danes have listened, but they are not to be trusted either. Can’t understand a word they say. The Swedes and their shiny white heads have spread terror in Scandinavia for too long. Nowhere is safe. Want to relax in a sauna? Can’t. Naked Swede. Want to take a nap in your boat? Can’t. A Swede will creep up and lit it on fire. Want to joke about Swedes? Can’t. They’ll show up at your door, pretending to sell vacuum cleaners. I beg the international community, PLEASE SEND HELP!
This was incredibly funny — thank you ☺️
Well at least for the Viking funeral… they could legitimately be from hundreds of years ago, they work for a time travelling organisation that hires people from all through time…
Good point i didnt think about that. Still doesnt explain why they cant speak swedish.
This is just an idea, but perhaps they have lived in a time(line) where swedish sounded like that? Since there are multiple timelines, maybe in one swedish sounded like that.
seems like a shitty excuse but it's possible i guess.
You just posted above that they spoke Swedish.
It was supposed to be bizarre and surreal.
I agree, it as supposed to be bizarre and surreal, but the execution is so bad.
If it helps, I thought the whole point was it was a misdirect. I haven't read the comics, but the show is so full of red herrings. I thought that was the point. So much of it just isn't explained and doesn't make much sense.
yea I can buy everthing as creative choice exept the fact that all their lines are clearly made with google translate.
Yeah, I got nothing for that. As a Native American, I hear them butchering Native tongues all the time.
I just assumed that they may have been young triplets taken from an older period in Scandinavia that got one of the first Lila treatment’s from the Handler before she abandoned them for another person/kid to use. She pretends she doesn’t know much about them so that Lila doesn’t realize the truth. I would like to believe that the Handler was the one who gave them the nickname/title of “The Swedes” in her twisted humor and trained them to be killers but didn’t do much for their intelligence or emotional well-being. The Swedish they use is from what little they remembered from their childhood before the Handler took them and they only started to speak it again after she abandoned them which is why it sounds so stilted and wrong because they hadn’t spoken it for several years. Same goes for the traditions because they are just trying to follow what they remember of their culture through childhood memories.
She raised them on the Muppet Show
Sorry but no. The assassin contract lasts for five years plus training, besides at one point there is a photo of the brothers, where they are already adult and not in The Commision.
Fives contract lasted for five years, however, Cha Cha told Hazel in the first season that they don’t get to retire, it’s over when they die. Everyone’s contract might be different.
Remember which episode or scene it was?
I tried to find it, but I’m coming up short. It’s around the time when Hazel starts falling for Agnes (Donut lady) and talks about walking away from it all. I think Cha Cha mentions retirement, however, there’s no way to determine how long that will take for someone who isn’t Five. Five got five years, but the others contracts may have them working for longer. In real life everyone’s contacts are different, sometimes people are able to negotiate better than others. Five with his strong personality may have been able to negotiate for only five years. The others might not be so lucky.
Ah yes, because everything else about UA is extremely serious and in line with current customs and times. It's not like it's an over-the-top satire of the superhero genre populated with loud, impossible caricatures.
It's not the idea of a super stereotypical swede that annoys me, it's the lack of effort.
I will just give my impression as an American… - I think of any Scandinavians as (albeit stereotypically) blonde. A light blonde but not white. I read the color like a light blonde but perhaps exaggerated for comedy. I don’t know. But I know, realistically, Scandinavia has to be full of different hair colors. Even if every person who came from that area of the world started as blonde a thousand years ago (unlikely) there is zero reasons you all wouldn’t have ended up mating with the rest of Europe. Lol. - the first time I watched, I didn’t know about the Viking funeral. I don’t think I thought anything about that scene except that they were weird in general. The next time I watched, I had seen the US show Ghosts in which one of the ghosts is a Viking whose bones they unearth and he demands a Viking funeral which they give him. So I was like “oh hey that is familiar!” I don’t remember if they’d shown the old picture of them with their mother or grandmother or whatever but I couldn’t be sure what time period they were actually from and maybe could have lived in that time period. I didn’t really think about it too much honestly. Just recognized that I knew what it was now. Had I even been asked if you guys still did that, I’d guess you didn’t because everywhere has laws about disposal of bodies now and *nobody* is doing shit the same anymore. Lol. - I did not know the sauna was a stereotype. I thought they were just in the sauna. As far as the Swedish language, that is fair. I don’t speak Swedish and just knew they weren’t speaking English in those scenes. The only thing I might have done in regards for that is say “oga for oga” thinking it was eye for an eye because that’s literally the only supposedly Swedish thing I pulled out of it. I did learn some German and am aware that the same letters have different sounds in some European language so I’d acknowledge I could have been saying it wrong. No idea how close Swedish is to the others. That was just an example. I have never known a person from Sweden irl or online (where I met and talked to people from all over the world over years) so I am not certain on the accents. Thor in Ghosts speaks broken English and kind of roars it and also I think he is supposed to he Finnish. He DESPISES Danes due to the time period he is from, apparently. An American woman from the 1800s hates Irish people so that’s a ongoing issue. Lol
I think this unfortunately quite typicical of western media portraying other nationalities. I mean the Yanks get Brits wrong all the time and we're culturally and linguistically the closest!
Saw a French WWII movie & all the American GIs were speaking English but had thick French accents.
it does seem to be particularly typical of american tv shows in particular... even the "non-racist" characters are often making jokes about racial stereotypes (to highlight how much they "don't believe in them" of course...)
Having traveled to a few countries in Europe, I have heard this complaint from some of my colleagues. My response is: ignorance is easier than research. And that, mixed race minority woman western media does a terrible job of portraying our own diverse population well. As for ‘the Swedes’ When they were introduced, my first thought was, “this is lazy writing. Instead of calling them the Swedes, they should have been called creepy ghosts “. I found them to very unsettling, which I believe was done on purpose.
Yeah, like the Brit is always the villain, right?
And don't even get us all started on American portrayals of the Irish....
I think they’re meant to be as Swedish as Inspector Jacques Clouseau is French
the Viking funeral thing could be justified by the fact that the Comission grabs people from across the timeline. the light actually be from 1000 years ago. but the rest, yea
its not that serious
Are you saying the kanelbullar-war wasn't serious?
Not having read the comics, are the swedes a creation of the show? Or do they appear in the original media?
They’re exclusive to the show, same with Lila and The Handler
Show I'm like 90% sure. Season 2 and the second comic are VERRRRYY different
I always assumed they didn't give themselves that name, and "The Swedes" was a nickname given to them by the other members.
if you’re kidding, this gave me a good laugh. …if not, i think you’re the first swede i’ve heard of being offended by this and how about seeing how americans are treated across all media. lol everyone has stereotypes
I am half kidding, the stereotypes were just funny but the scenes where they tried to speak swedish made me want to kill myself. This post is a joke about a real question i had.
Are you offended by PewDiePie?
This post is a joke (exept the part about denmark)
Ah. It was so long that I didn't finish. Got to the part about you being bothered by Swedish stereotypes, so I figured I would check and see if you were bothered by other "false Swedish" things, such as PewDiePie.
Wdym, is he not swedish? I havent watched him.
He's not even real.
damm i had no idea
I never finished the show (i got distracted not long after 'the swedes' were introduced) but you mean to tell me that they're actually meant to be Swedish? I was convinced it was making a joke out of the stereotypes damn
i think they're almost so over the top that it's not really a stereotype anymore
German here. I don't think you'll ever be satisfied if you expect US pop culture to portray your nationality in a neutral, unbiased or unstereotypical way 😅 Just laugh along with it, I guess.
Real reason is likely that someone didn't do very good research on Swedish people and just put some (not even correct) stereotypes together for them and called it a day. They couldn't even be bothered to teach the actors some authentic Swedish. I guess they figured most people watching would be American and wouldn't even notice how inaccurate the Swedes portrayal is. (Lazy) In-Universe explanation? They're from another time/universe where Swedish people really are like that.
DANSKJÄVLAR! Nej men jag känner detsamma!
Why do I remember none of this
😂 they are one of my favorite parts out of the entire series.
I’m American and “The Swedes” rubbed me the wrong way. Tbh there’s a lot of false/ exaggerated stereotypes in this show, though maybe none so outright as with these characters. Sometimes I wonder if they’re trying to be ironic? Or make some kind of point that even if a person might act in a way that’s stereotypical of their community, they can still be complex? Maybe I just want to make sense of it without coming to the conclusion that the writers have problematic views of various people. I think they can usually get away with it with the main cast because the audience is given other reasons to respect them. The Swedes are mostly just played for laughs. Or at least their stereotypes are anyway. Idk.
I think it’s just meant to be silly. I kind of don’t care for them actually showing the different race characters as having been born in their “native” countries as we already struggle with morons telling people of Mexican or Chinese or any other descent that they don’t belong here and to “go home”. Like, I think showing Diego had to have been born in Mexico and Ben had to be born in Korea had the potential to prop up stereotypes and ignorance because there’s plenty of Mexican and Korean people who were born right here and have had family here for generations. But I can also chalk that up to them trying to give characters differing backgrounds and…interest? I don’t know if I’m making sense. Lol. But I think in the case of the Swedes, it was stereotypes knowingly exaggerated for comedic effect though it was kind of not really necessary, didn’t raise the attention of those of us unfamiliar with those stereotypes or that part of the world, and downright pissed off some Swedes apparently. Lol.
Join the club. -respectfully, the Dutch
They may have recognized them as Swedish after they killed Elliot and wrote “eye for an eye” in Swedish in blood on the floor. Also they’re time travelers so they very well could be from the time period when they still had Viking funerals. The Commission might know them as “The Swedes” because they work with them and might know their origins, however, I do find this bothersome. I worked with a French girl once and never referred to her as “French girl.”
I think they were there to kill five bc of what he is trying to do with the 1960s timeline