Spartacus Victory Review

Spartacus is over, wow that's a sad thought isn't it? its been 4 seasons of blood, violence, drama, love and..well a lot of naked women but all of that is over now and it feels so weird to think that this show which started out quite weak to be honest, has come so far to produce an episode that is truly amazing.

From the start we see that the rebel army has spread out a little into small groups attacking homes to free slaves and the commander of each group claims to be Spartacus and while this is obviously a plan made by the rebel leader it also shows that Spartacus is not really a person anymore but an idea now, Spartacus means freedom and it doesn't matter who holds the name so long as people believe in the idea.

The main focus of the episode of course is the final battle between Crassiues and Spartacus but before that we spend a lot of time seeing the both sides prepare and I loved seeing the emotional scenes between everyone involved.
Agron and Nasir

Surprisingly Agron lived past episode 8 and seeing him broken and unable to even hold a sword was really sad, Agron is the only person left from the ludus apart from Spartacus himself and seeing him with holes in his hands was just sad.

I loved seeing the weapon Nasir fashioned for him, a shield with blades through it is genius but what was better was seeing their relationship together, its rare to see a gay relationship portrayed so positively and I'm glad we see it here.

 Gannicus and Spartacus

Since the first episode of this season Gannicus has been reluctant to become a leader but this season has focused a lot on his character growth, when we first saw him Gannicus was really a very simple man who was good with a sword, even the start of this season saw him just a man who enjoyed sex and violence and he ends it as a leader of a part of a rebel army and with actual feelings for a woman.

His talk with Spartacus proved his character growth in the end, though Spartacus himself showed that he isnt the same man he was before either, I loved how he defines victory as not the death of his enemies but in the life of others he cares about which is really something to think about, a person who only aims to destroy others is a monster, the saint is the person who improves and helps others.

" an old argument spartacus"

Marcus Crassiues.

I end this season completely unsure of how I feel about Crassiues, he shows many conflicting sides of himself that in the end leave him feeling like a half-baked character, particularly in his relationship with his son who he thinks is a mirror of himself and after finding out what his son did to Kora Marcus cant bear to look into his own mirror without feeling disgusted.

Probably one of the most conflicted people on this show.

Don't get me wrong he's a very interesting person to watch, but its hard to figure out what his motives really are, he loves his son but is willing to risk his death, he loves Kora but is willing to kill her as an example to others, he joined this war to gain more power and he did but it cost him everything else he cared about in the end, was it really worth it?
The battle

Of course since this is the final episode this has to be the biggest battle of all, there's too much action here to talk about since its all chaos anyways.

What I did enjoy were the two private battles, Gannicus against Caeser and Spartacus vs Crassius.

Its hard to argue which is better, both fights were expected for a long time, since the season started we knew Spartacus would engage Crassius but having both the right hand men hate each other was a good bonus, especially since they had already fought earlier in the show.

oh Naevia dies...sorry.

Gannicus's fall in battle was heart wrenching, While I enjoy Caeser, his smug look made him seem like quite a monster, or perhaps I'm just bias towards Gannicus.

Spartacus's battle was a lot more focused though, after killing all of the Imperator's guards ( and getting injured in the process) he faces him in a very personal 1 on 1 fight and I've always been a sucker for those.

The fight seems mostly even, both men are tired and injured which balances out the scales between them, yet remembering how many people he loved died because of the romans gives Spartacus the temporary boost he needs to overpower Crassiues, and just when he is about to deal the fatal blow we see Crassius use the same move he used back in episode one to kill Hector.

Do either of these men know how to grab a sword?

Sadly, getting speared 3 times stops Spartacus from completing his "kill Crassius" plan.

The Aftermath

Spartacus manages to escape thanks to Agron but the damage is done, every slave has been caught and killed apart from a small group which Spartacus escapes with, Crassius gets no glory for his accomplishments due to the appearance of Pompey who claims he killed Spartacus elsewhere in the mountains, everyone caught is crucified and while seeing Gannicus in such a state and dying was heartbreaking, the more surprising image was that Kora suffered the same fate.

Still, the death of the title character is definitely the saddest part of this conclusion, I enjoy bad endings, when the hero doesn't always win yet the victory here was so one-sided for the villains its just depressing to think of.

You had a good run.

Spartacus is over and with it a lot of time has just freed up for a lot of people, a show like this is rare and while not everyone's cup of tea I enjoyed it immensely, thanks Spartacus for all the good times.