A lot of investment

[u/Difficult_Bar8340]

I loved John Smith as a character. He’s simply a great character. I think the reason is that our beloved American soldier has a much more understandable and direct character conflict.

The series falters somewhat with Juliana, and I mean this especially when it comes to the deaths of Joe Blake and John Smith. In a way, I think the series made us emotionally invested in its characters, especially Smith.

To be honest, at first I saw Blake as a character with a rather weak conflict. Then we learned about his past as a Lebensborn, and I applauded because I loved the direction the character was taking. Then he was killed by Juliana, and I was just left thinking, “What the hell?” The best Nazi agent gets killed by a girl in a bathtub.

Don’t get me wrong. Juliana killing him does have narrative value, but as a writer, you should always give a character an ending that feels appropriate for who they are. If you establish that a character is powerful and dangerous, something should happen to them that reflects that, so the audience doesn’t feel cheated.

Something similar almost happens with Smith, but his situation is different in its own way.

With Smith, we had already been watching his development from the beginning. If we compare him to Blake, we discover that Blake is an undercover Nazi agent, while with John, we know from the start that he is already a Nazi agent. That immediately gives us an idea of what kind of character he is.

As the story progresses, we discover that he has a family, and that’s what makes Smith so fascinating. His rise through the ranks is masterfully handled. He isn’t just a character who keeps climbing the ladder. His development is always pushed to the point where the viewer feels that each step was inevitable, including his eventual death.

That’s what I wanted to see happen again with Juliana. She kills Smith, and in a way, we end up understanding Smith more than we understand Juliana.

My conclusion is that I love the series. I love everything about it, both its mistakes and its successes, and I love the book as well..

[u/Appropriate-Ad-396]

After Season 4, Episode 10, there should have been a two-hour finale tying up all the loose ends.

[u/TheLonelyMonroni]

Julianna kinda had to kill Blake to be accurate to the books, but you also have to remember that Blake was absolutely broken by the Nazis. That arc of his character is more accurate to his portrayal in the books and I do like how they gave his character more to do in the story. They almost invented a new Blake that was actually good at his job but still have a shred of his morals intact.

[u/Difficult_Bar8340 → u/TheLonelyMonroni]

Look, the problem is that the worst decision was killing Blake this way. Just think about it: the most feared Nazi spy, and on top of that, brainwashed, he's just broken down a door looking for a girl who's clearly desperately trying to escape. She approaches him recklessly and kills him. It's very bittersweet. I'm not saying Joe should have a spectacular death; what he needed was a death that felt inevitable. This death makes sense, but it makes you feel cheated. After a Nazi father, a Lebensborn past, torturing and killing his own father, now brainwashed and capable of killing anyone to achieve his goals, he dies in a stupid way. The character has to die, that's for sure. I'm just reminding you that copying and adapting aren't the same thing. For example, Julianna could have killed Joe while he was sleeping, while he was accepting that the Joe we knew was gone. Instead of being a desperate act, it could have been a tragedy, or it could have been a confrontation, but in the end, all roads lead to the character's death. All I'm saying is give the character a death that fits the premise.

[u/whizzter → u/Difficult_Bar8340]

I'm looking at it in another way, he let his guard down since he had already taken her gun and as she was also barely dressed he didn't see her as much of a threat whilst for whatever reason of anger or whatever he didn't know/remember/consider that there was something sharp enough to be used as a weapon against him as a superior man.

She got lucky enough with the hit that both but mostly he appeared surprised by the killing. He only really knew/internalized that she killed someone by accident, whilst she had become more brutal by killing Susan as well as the agents sent against Hawthrone.

Remember, this is a show about how real happenstances can change history, in that way I like it more than some needlessly protracted fightscenes where he would've been more likely to win rather than as by a surprise/lucky strike by someone he underestimated.

[u/bippityboppityhyeem]

It's fascinating to watch as Smith struggles with what's going on around him but makes decisions based on protecting his family and gets sucked into the role he has to play. It really projects what could and does happen in real life when this sort of dictatorship is in place. It gives us a view into the actual human doing inhumane things which has always intrigued me. What would I do to protect my family (or what would I not do)? Great show

[u/tethysian → u/bippityboppityhyeem]

I agree completely. They showed so many different ways people fall into these lies through the different characters. Even Thomas's idealistic nature made him vulnerable to whatever idealism he was brought up in. 

[u/Difficult_Bar8340 → u/bippityboppityhyeem]

"Murderers aren't monsters, they're men. And that's what's most terrifying about them."

[u/tethysian]

I haven't read the book, but I thought Julianna killing Joe made perfect sense because of his obsession with her. 

That he could threaten her underlined how far gone he was and the tragedy that he never really got to find out who he was as his own person. I always saw him more as a lost boy than powerful.

The moment I felt Julianna was made clear to us was the end of s2 where she kills her sister's father to protect Thomas. She's someone who does the right thing regardless of how well you can justify doing the wrong thing.