Revenge can be a tricky story element. As we've seen countless times in storytelling -- whether that's Shakespeare's Hamlet or The Last of Us: Part II -- the delicate balance of feeding into an audience's natural desire for bloodlust and finding humanity in anger is easily tipped. Go too far one way, you're celebrating bloodshed; go too far in the other, the audience will feel unsatisfied.
The Northman does a remarkable job of achieving this balance, though. So much of…