Kingdom of Heaven, for me, is one of those films that bordered on being one of the truly greats, if not for some minor things that could have been easily fixed. It had a lot of big factors that could easily make it one of the best ever. Historical setting? Can’t get any more historical than the Christian crusades. Moral ambiguity? The film gives you two sides who are decidedly firm in their belief that their way is the right way. Cast? It’s brimming with A-list actors in the likes of Orlando Bloom, Edward Norton and Liam Neeson to name a few.

But my biggest pet peeve in the whole movie is Balian’s decision to not marry Queen Sibylla. Here’s my reasoning: you know the woman is married, and yet you had no problem sleeping with her. Then when your king officially asked you to marry her in order to control the army and remove her power hungry husband, Guy Lusignan, out of the equation, you refused. Even if it meant that thousands of people will die in the war Guy wanted against Saladin and the Muslims. I don’t know, for me it just reeks of stupidity. He was already doing it with her anyway, why not make it official and save lives in the process? Balian reasoned out that he didn’t go through with it because Guy would be executed had he accepted the marriage offer.

I just think that Balian could have saved everyone a lot of grief if he simply agreed to marry Sybilla. It’s not as if Guy was innocent, he was killing Saracen caravans with his cohorts to further flame hostilities. And know what’s the most annoying part in all this? After the brutal battle which saw countless dead on both Christian and Muslim sides, Balian gets together with Sybilla anyway and he takes her home back to France. For me it just smacks of disrespect to the ones who died.