Kassandra was the star in Odyssey but on Valhalla male Eivor is the better performance by far. Female Eivor is cringe and one note. After 30 hours with her I couldn't take it anymore and switched. I wish I had played as him from the start.

I saw somebody "liked" this post so thought I would make it clear that I mean no disrespect to the voice actress.
It's not her fault but the way she has been directed.

I think she's cool. She got a brute masculine voice thing going on and while I also enjoyed Kassandra more I think Eivor's cool too. But male Eivor's the better voice actor in my opinion. I will make the playthrough with male Eivor, listen in a bit. Maybe I'll start that today.

Agree. Granted, I didn't give female Eivor much time to win me over. Maybe it got better? But it was like listening to Christian Bale's Batman. Sounded fake and put upon and a little silly. I'm sure she would've been much better if she could've used something closer to her real voice.

I played as Alexios in Odyssey and also loved the way Kassandra was voiced/acted. I started Valhalla as female Eivor and played through the first chapter. But the whole time it felt like the intonation on the lines was not right. As if she was directed to merely read the lines instead of putting emotions in it. Her voice is brutish, and somehow didn't feel right for me. I also tried in another language but the female Eivor had the same type of voice and acting there. Must have been directed to sound just like the original English voice.

After first chapter I tried out male Eivor and stuck with it. The voice sounds more normal and the intonations fit with the emotions displayed. I did another test for some scenes and sometimes the female voice got it right and was amazing. But in other scenes it was just like in chapter 1.

But that is just my personal opinion. I am glad the game offers 2 different genders to play at.

Like many here, I started out playing male Eivor... did a couple playthroughs... then tried female Eivor. At first I hated her, but over time she began to grow on me. For whatever reason, it just feels like the voice actor couldn't get a good resonance with the character in the beginning, but got better over time. I know the whole opening Norway part of the story, her voice kept going softer when the situation should have called for a more menacing voice, and then going menacing when it should have been a bit softer. However, after a bit further along the story, she seems to bring it together a lot better. IMO male Eivor should have been canon, because even though the vikings had females who fought, predominantly they would have been led by men. There has never been any actual 'proof' of a female viking leader (although they have found burial sites that a female was buried like a king) so it could have been covered up by the church, as so many things have been over time. Just like I felt Odyssey should have been a male canon, the Greeks would have never accepted a female in any sort of leadership roll, let alone ask one for help... but Kassandra was such a much better voiced character overall.

I honestly dislike both Eivors. They sound as if they are trying too hard to be hard.

In Oddyssey, Alexios was trying even too hard, to the point of me thinking they were aiming to make a caricature of a vilian.

Kassandra on the other hand was absolutely fantastic, I love her.

I wanted to play as female Eivor because it’s a female name and was meant to be canon, but I couldn’t get past the voice direction, I feel like they wasted a great actress. I can hear her voice under this affectation and it would have been superb without it, Scandinavian authority is quiet and from the diaphragm when loud.

I think she got a cool voice. It's good she's different also. She got a buff masculine thing going on and it's fine, it doesn't disturb me at all. Not in combat and not otherwise. Actually sits cool with me, she's tough for sure.
Kassandra was great, lots of amazing scenes. I feel she got into the part and made an effort with each line, it was brilliant. Eivor is good but there's more to it than Eivor being not as memorable: I got into the family of Kassandra in a whole other way. Most characters in Valhalla has been forgettable in my opinion.

I agree with most of the people here. Female Eivor took getting used to but she is the canon character and the story works better with her instead of the male Eivor.

Sometimes world events also talk to my male Eivor as if he was the female Eivor, e.g. the Gleewoman in Essexe. It's clear throughout the game that Eivor is supposed to be female.