"The Last Kingdom" is my favorite show on Netflix right now. I have been watching the show on and off since 2015 and I don't watch the show in moderation. It's one of those shows that I binge an entire season in two days, even while working nine to five. A historical fiction show about Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a man sitting in between two warring groups of 9th century England, the show is dramatic, engaging, and the character development is excellent.

While men like Alfred and Uhtred tend to be the stars and steal the show in "The Last Kingdom," women are often pushed to the backdrop. They are forced to exert their power behind the scenes and use 9th century England's patriarchal expectations at their disposal: their ability to rear children, have kids, and be objectified for the male gaze.

However, throughout the show, the more traditional Saxons are constantly at wear and pitted against the Danes, who have a more free-spirit and wilder lifestyle.

The show has two characters who are forced to play at the juxtaposition between the two worlds of Saxon and Dane: Uhtred, the protagonist, and Brida. Both were Saxon slaves who are raised by the Dane Earl Ragnar, and both occupied the two worlds as adopted children of Ragnar. They are raised believing in Norse Gods and the Norse version of Heaven in Valhalla -- and both throughout the show have a disdain for Christianity.

For a long period of time in the first season of "The Last Kingdom," Uhtred and Brida are together. The two of them were raised together with Dane values of independence and a respect for women that seem to be absent from Saxon society.

Throughout the show, Uhtred saves several women from the threat of sexual assault: Earl Ragnar's daughter, Thyra, and Hilde, a priestess. Uhtred maintains close and platonic relationships with Thyra and Hilde despite his womanizing tendencies and many relationships within the show.

The show starts very early on in season 1 with the death of Uhtred and Brida's adopted father, Earl Ragnar. Uhtred is falsely accused of killing Earl Ragnar. Thyra is captured, and Uhtred and Brida seek the assistance of the Saxons in avenging Ragnar. While Uhtred pledges his sword to the Saxons, Brida is clearly uncomfortable in her time with the Saxons, constantly being catcalled by drunk men, spat on, doubted as a warrior. The first time she meets Uhtred's childhood priest, Father Beocca, Beocca is bewildered that Brida wields a sword and has a gaze of disappointment that Uhtred has not followed Christian purity standards.

"She doesn't believe that women are worth less than men," Actress Emily Cox says about Brida. "What people loves about Viking society is that it's really wild. People can just take what they wants. She knows that with the Saxons, she will never be taken seriously and she will never find a home."

Perhaps Brida is unique in that she is a cunning warrior and plays a warrior's role. The only women with power in Saxon society are usually those with high birth, as the daughters of nobles or kings. Most of the prominent women in the most recent season, including Aelswith and Aethelflaed, have some relation to the King. Brida, as a common-born woman who was raised as a slave and daughter to Danes, recognizes her lack of potential mobility within Saxon society. The Saxon women like Aelswith and Aethelflaed often need to pull at their husbands' motives from behind the scenes to exert their power, meaning they rarely receive recognition for their efforts.

Saxon characters like Aelswith and Alfred constantly use their faith as Christians as evidence for their superiority to Danes. To them, Danes are barbaric heathens and pagans, and yet Danes treat their women with much greater respect than Saxons.

While Danes follow a leader in the show, their rule is shown to be significantly more egalitarian than the Saxons, who serve a king and a royal family. Uhtred's loyal followers follow the Danish military model much more than the Saxon one -- while most fighters and members of the army are still predominantly male, Uhtred and the Danes allow women to fight alongside them.

The Danes, to be clear, are no less religious than the Christians. They believe in women who can grant curses in almost a witch-like manner. In season 3, we are introduced to a Dane woman named Skade who people fear and hold to high status due to fear of her cursing capabilities. Multiple men fight over allegiance with Skade and her powers throughout the third season.

Cox describes how Saxon women function as second class citizens in Saxon society who are encouraged to hide their opinions and play a subservient role to men. Brida expresses a lot of conflicting opinions with Saxon leaders. She believes that if you want wealth, you don't wait for it -- you take it, whereas Saxons were more tied to the idea that Dane-occupied lands were stolen from the Saxons.

When Brida and Uhtred first visit Winchester, the capital of Wessex and stronghold for the Saxons, the Saxons cage Uhtred and Brida and put them in a prison cell. Beocca asks Brida to remain silent, not act so uncouth, and implores her to "contemplate her improvement."

"I won't become a Saxon woman!" Brida says. "I won't wash, work the fields until I drop and cook. That won't be my life."

Until season 4, no woman takes a position of leadership in a Saxon kingdom, and yet Brida takes a position of leadership among the Danes due to her fighting capacity and cunningness as a strategist. For the Saxons, Brida was a devil on the shoulder of Uhtred and seen as a hindrance. For the Danes, Brida is seen as a valuable general, leader, and warrior. She achieves much more respect and honor as a Dane than she ever would have as a Saxon.

The Saxons are depicted as the civilized side while the Danes are not -- and our protagonist, Uhtred, mostly fights on the side of the Saxons. Both sides rape and pillage as they fight and conquer, so neither are are picturesque in their treatment of women, but the society of the Danes has a greater place for women.

The difference between Uhtred and Brida may well have been their genders. Uhtred finds acceptance within Saxon society and politics, but especially early on, Brida tries to get as far away from Winchester as possible. Alfred takes on Uhtred as an advisor -- and yet he would never have taken on Brida. Alfred also blackmails Uhtred to serve him or else give him away to his Dane enemies.

Brida demonstrates no patience for Saxon ceremony like the coronation of Alfred by a priest. During this moment, she and Uhtred make love in a hidden cellar, and passionately at that. Brida is extremely unhappy in Saxon society, and once she has the opportunity to leave the Saxons, she takes it.

You can't blame Brida at all -- and maybe the creators of the show had to send a message. Christianity can all too often perpetuate the patriarchy -- and I'm saying this as a devout evangelical Christian who reads his Bible daily, who takes stock in the fact that women were the first to witness Jesus resurrected.

What does it say about how people use Christ to subjugate women that "heathens" like the Danes of "The Last Kingdom" treat, respect, and prioritize women than the Saxons could ever do themselves.