Mycroft's reaction to the director dying

 (Sherlock meta by enigmaticpenguinofdeath)

Anonymous: I don't think Mycroft's reaction to the director dying was too far off. "But he was fine in Serbia!" I'd say that's because he had control in that situation. Probably had everything planned down to the letter, and they got in and out without anyone dying. "But he didn't freak when Sherlock shot Magnussen!" He wasn't the one that pulled the trigger. And he did seem affected by it. "But he was willing to shoot the clown!" A clown that he assumed was threatening to kill him with a sword. Anonymous

enigmaticpenguinofdeath: I don’t disagree with you, Anon! His differing levels of response to gore etc might be a case of wobbly character consistency or it might equally be a case of, as you say, the context of the encounter. I think most meta/thoughts I’ve come across on the subject acknowledges that.

If he was super-dooper squeamish I doubt he’d have been so unconcerned at seeing “Irene”‘s bashed-up corpse at the morgue, or hanging out on a plane of corpses for dramatic entrance purposes, or indeed witnessing his brother being tortured. But as you point out, control of the situation might be a factor. And he knew the governor personally, as well as probably feeling responsible for what just happened.

I think it’s best that everyone mentally prepares themselves to stab/shoot a killer clown, just in case the epidemic from last year comes back.