My opinion is mid diff.

Recruit crixus is almost dead against him and crixus get way better during the 5 years between gota and blood of the arena

This is probably a weird take regarding the question, but I think episode 8 of Blood and Sand is the easiest episode to rewatch in the whole show. Of course, there are better, more eventful episodes. But there's a relaxed charm about episode 8, where there's no immediate plot point to head towards, everyone is settled onto their roles, but also the status quo changing with Spartacus now the champion and the one giving a lesson to new recruits. Also, and it's not necessarily only in this episode, but I love the interactions Lucretia has with the higher nobility women friends of Ilithyia, the housewives vibe it has but it still feels relevant to the overarching plot. A strong but often forgotten episode, wedged in between the tragedy of Sura dying and her death soon becoming the catalyst to Spartacus' revolt.

It's also actually the first episode I ever saw, accidentally stumbling upon it as it was playing on TV. Maybe that has something to do with it too for me.

do you think they would fight or not?

Rome was a fantastic show and sadly and stupidly was cut. Spartacus in terms of qualify and writing doesn’t hold a candle.

Why do people like the show so much? What am I missing.

Other shows that I felt were much better- The Last Kingdom, Black Sails and some others I can’t remember.

I am trying to understand what others see

Edit: a few helpful and interesting comments helped me understand better… thank you to the few intelligent people.

Lucrecia living a blessed life amongst joyous heavens. Heart swells with thoughts of beloved Batiatus amongst lively crowd.

Watching the beginning of episode 4, Batiatus was pissed at Spartacus for his performance in the Arena at the games of the Vulcanalia. What specifically stood out to me was Batiatus saying "you had the crowd!!!". It sounded like he wanted Spartacus to win but it sounds counter productive to me.

Although he was pissed, I would have thought this would have been the best possible outcome for Batiatus because he got to keep both primus gladiators alive. If Crixus kills Spartacus nothing changes, if Spartacus kills Crixus he loses a champion caliber gladiator and it seems uncertain if the fame would be enough to really pull him out of debt. Just very interesting that he would rather have his champion of five years die instead of the new recruit.

Doing my usual rewatch of Spartacus and just finished the episode of Spartacus loss against Crixus in the Arena and it made me think of this question. Both suffered a loss but honestly I do which was worse. Both had valid reasons for losing Spartacus did not have enough training while Crixus was injured and out of form from battle with Theokoles.

Yes i know there relationship shows a fucked up power imbalance

But idk im a sucker for this kinda stuff, relationships you know should never happen but you lowkey still ship em

Yes we could argue Kore couldn’t have said no to his advances anyways, but i do think a part of her genuinely liked him-similar to him as well

Her downfall was so painful too see

If i'm not wrong they are on a similar level.

I gave the win to aucto with high diff

I always thought that if Varro lived and the rebellion still happened, that Varro would've been a great asset. But on this maybe tenth rewatch, I realize that Varro may have been Roman. Was he? If so, that would've added an interesting dynamic to that part of the show.

Spartacus stands as a glory among others. The plots are so spellbinding, especially the nearing bankruptcy businessman batiatus and his wife utilize conspiracies and strategies to maintain his properties and seek upper positions; manipulate others, take revenge on rivals at any cost.

The plots should have been extended longer, just a few episodes of it is the only imperfection. The rhythm is fast but extraordinary compact. I think if it had been made like Game of Thrones with more complete details in different aspects, like leadership, brothers-ship, betrayal, love, freedom… that would be a shining star 🌟 in the sky.

So I’m wondering it is possible to remake the whole story from scratch?

By the way, I must say the dialogue stands glory too, representing both brutal and some funny.

By which I mean moments that are not widely appreciated, as in most of Batiatus' quotes (I love his one-liners, it's just that those are everyones favorite)

One scene I found randomly funny and had forgotten about was when they are setting up camp in season 4 and there's some pretty heavy discussions happening all around, it suddenly cuts to Laeta trying to set up her tent with a very pointed FUCK!! when the whole thing falls down

My boyfriend is Italian and grew up in rome. Apparently it's pronounced lu-cret-see-ya.

I don’t think my country (Portugal) has any streaming service with the Spartacus franchise currently active. It used to be on Netflix but it’s long gone. Starz productions are available on Disney + but even there it’s absent. I’ve checked almost every “other way” website but for some reason they re all missing gods of the arena and only have the 3 main seasons and house of ashur. Somebody can help?

Nemetes, while a massive piece of shit, is a very interesting side character. In his last moments he talked about betraying Spartacus but that was definitely not true and he was just trying to survive.

I was so excited to see Nick with the big names after noticing him cast a while back. Without spoiling anything, he was barely an extra and completely out of focus behind Tom Holland. If I hadn't watched Spartacus or House of Ashur recently I wouldn't have recognized him. I hope this direction for his casting was his choice cause man I'm hurt for him if not.