“It was hard watching that cycle of violence”
I agree and I personally think that was the point. On night 2, I said aloud, “When will enough BE ENOUGH?” Then I thought that this is what extreme hate can do. When “to get even” takes over every bit of soul and cell in oneself.. it becomes a cancer of sorts. Well, that is what I got out of it. Maybe I read too deeply into things....
Devil Anse and Randall McCoy outlived it by 30+ years, but they had to watch their Sons and Daughters get killed because of their hate.
That thought went through my mind many times during the episodes. For two families who were led by relatively intelligent adults, they became completely unreasonable and seemed to lose all rationality when it came to the feud.
In an attempt to empathize, just consider the blind, raw, emotional, hatred some have over the upcoming election. We see those sort of emotions (not the murderous kind, thankfully) that seem to control the decision making process of some of the posters here on FR whenever any of the candidates are discussed - especially Romney. Not to say right or wrong, but just to point out how some folks tend to allow more emotion into their decision making process than others.