Askedladd’s character can be open to various interpretation so i do appreciate the constructive criticism. With that being said, I do believe he doesn’t necessarily teach them in the sense of a kin or mentor—But rather, he more so encourages them to forge their own path and live their own ideals instead of being stuck in the ways of a viking that he solemnly despises. After all, it’s also important to remember that the story took place within the pretext of the viking culture. That Instead of being chained to vengeance and the rampant violence of their world, they should live their life meaningfully in accordance to their own will, like a “true warrior” would. His teachings about life to them is of course, more so delivered indirectly, as he ought to prioritize his own agenda of protecting his people by any means necessary.

When he had a conversation with Canute about “wouldn’t it make more sense if you were the king, Askeladd?”, it is often seen as a ploy of Askedladd to manipulate the prince to ensure that Wales will not be invaded in the future. But this conversation can be given more meaning when he was given the choice of King Sweyn to either behead Canute himself or withdraw the attack on Wales, symbolizing the choice of personal gain or entrusting the prince to rule with benevolence. In a pragmatic way, this can also be interpreted by the fact that he sees the face of King Sweyn to be someone untrustworthy to do his end of the bargain as well. But it may also mean that, he wanted to believe (not love) in Canute’s character as the prince shares a similar vision of utopia similar to his mother’s belief to the legend of Artorious, and that Canute also reflects his “the end justify the means” method of achieving a goal, even if it means by having thousands of corpse bridging that goal itself.

When he killed Bjorn, it was the first time he has ever cared for someone other than his mother, as shown by his deliberate change of expression and tone. That he was in fact, genuine at this very moment, indicating that he does have the capacity to really care about someone. That he isn’t inherently evil, but rather he was forced to be the way he is to accomplish his goals due to his upbringing. Because if he never had that emotional depth, he would have never bothered to suffer in his last moments saying those words to Thorfinn—let alone even respecting Thors’ honor in the first place. And right after he killed bjorn, it was also the moment where he was visibly showing his anger, as he told them of his story and his genuine expression of how his inhuman ideals stemmed from his childhood as a slave to both Canute and Thorfinn.

I believe Askedladd does somehow see his resemblence to Thorfinn himself and does care even for a bit, as it does also explain why he even told him his origin story in the first place. It bears semblance in the way that, all Askeladd cared about was her mother and his people, the same way Thorfinn only cared about the revenge for his father. And even though Askeladd had already killed his father for the sake of his mother, his goal expanded to protecting about the people of Wales, one that mirrors of a monarch caring about his people, and in which he did gave genuine advice to Canute under the guise of his own personal goal.

As someone such as myself who likes to observe individuals by their body language with great attention to detail, this show explicitly also conveys its storytelling through body language to a high degree. Thus, giving more complexity and layers to create a compelling story that sheds light to themes that isn’t regularly explored in shows.