Hm. So The Blood And Cheese Thing Felt Kind Of Anticlimactic To Me. It Just Fell Kind Of Flat? It Wasn’t

hm. so the blood and cheese thing felt kind of anticlimactic to me. it just fell kind of flat? it wasn’t helaena’s reaction that ruined it for me—i think she was simply in shock and her actions make sense to me explained that way—but for a few reasons i just didn’t get the emotional impact from the scene that the scene in the book had. maybe i will come up with a more eloquent analysis of why later on but right now these are my thoughts as to why:

1. The characters of Blood and Cheese themselves felt flat and cartoonishly evil, so much so that it broke my suspension of disbelief and at one point during the part where they were sneaking around the tunnels i actually made myself laugh by thinking “this is like some shit out of bbc merlin”

2. The major issue stems from the decision to cut Maelor from the show. Idk about you guys but for me the most fucked up part about that scene in the book was the fact that they made Helaena choose between which of her sons they would kill (and then killed the one she didn’t choose anyway and made sure the one they spared knew she had chosen him to die). That’s the part that really stayed with me. That’s some serious psychological nightmare material. i could see them trying to reference that choice she made by having her point out her son, but it just didn’t pack the same punch as making her actually CHOOSE, and it felt awkward within the scene and just kind of shoehorned in there.

idk. overall i enjoyed the episode, but i expected more punch from that plot point