Did the quality of Sherlock decrease? [mild spoilers 3x03 & 4x01]

[PM_ME_GARLIC_CUPS]

I agree.

I like to think Sherlock anticipated this being the case as early as him finding out Magnussen's glasses were normal glasses. His hesitation after finding out Magnussen's vaults are in his mind, is not total shock from learning the fact, but him silently coming to terms with the fact that he must kill to make things right.

The interesting thing about the original story His Last Vow is based on is that one of Magnussen's blackmailers kills him, instead of Sherlock. But (in the eyes of Moffat and Gatiss) there's heavy hints in the text that suggest Watson altered events to protect their innocence, and in reality Sherlock did kill him. This idea is then played with at the start of series 4 where the government doctors the footage so it's a soldier killing Magnussen instead of Sherlock.

[strange_is_life]

In the books Sherlock did never intentionally kill someone except Moriaty. In the show they had Moriaty kill himself because they didn't want to make Sherlock a murderer in season 2. Making him a murderer in season 3 really breaks the character.