aperfectline:

famous last words

I’ve reblogged this before, but Spartacus just has the most gripping death scenes.

For some reason Barca always gets me here. It’s how he was so strong and deadly, killer of plenty during the season, and an alpha in the ludus, while in fact he was nothing more than a slave with no real choice, no real defense, how he was no more than a bug to be crushed under his dominus’ heel. His situation turned him helpless so quickly.

garbledthoughtprocess:

daensonnet:

Snorts, one can admire Ashur as a character and see that it was about time he got one of those knives he is so fond of sticking into people right back at him. I love me some villain but come on now, he wore out his welcome. He was on the losing side and he has escaped death more times than anyone else on this show. Let him rest in peace and leave Naevia out of it. 

Seriously. Ashur was an amazingly written, incredibly fascinating character, but his death made sense- he’d stabbed so many people in the back that no one was willing to deal with him anymore. There was nothing left for him to do. He deserved that death, he earned it.

(Plus, Ashur’s rape of Lucretia didn’t come ~out of the blue~ to make him ~more villainous~. We’re talking about the dude who arranged for the rape of his “friend” in GotA, and raped Naevia, here.)

YES. I thought he was amazingly written (and acted, I mean, Nick Tarabay, come on) and that includes Vengeance. He was a character I really, really couldn’t stand and I was rooting for his death all along, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a great character. Anyone who was surprised by him being an evil fuck last season… well, they were watching a different show than me. He was always a villain from the start and that’s what made him great - to have one of the slaves be on the wrong side, turning others into victims, made the story so much more complex.

I loved his death scene. It was good for his character because you could see him standing alone with his former “brothers” against him and no support from the Romans or the group low lives he’d formed, but still sharp and dangerous as a snake. Even his last words were a way of leaving wounds behind. And the scene was of course absolutely perfect for Naevia to bring her all the way from the shivering, traumatized victim to the survivor against all odds - and Crixus, too, who is no longer arrogant and needing to be in the spotlight at all times, but instead willing to step aside and let her make her own decisions no matter what it could cost her.

Was every single scene with Ashur perfect in Vengeance? No. I personally would have liked at least one less rape scene because there’s a limit to how much of that I can handle, and perhaps a lighter hand on the whole evil-mastermind-villain bit throughout, but his death scene was perfection.

(Source: shewolves)

The smells are muted. Stale sweat and dust are the strongest, but even those scents are lost in the folds of heavy fabric. They were cast-offs originally. Ashur remembers the day he received them as clear as anything. Yet another article given to him as if it was nothing when it represented everything. The attire was suited to a trusted man, not a gladiator, and he donned every woven inch with pride. And now the clothes are nothing but a faded remnant of the House of Batiatus, smelling faintly of sweat and dust and previous position and smoke and the iron of blood. One day, he might find himself in finer garb, but until then, these would do.

(Source: shewolves)

the romans

I don’t remember your names!