This was an incredible weekend for cultural milestones of art, as two of the most beloved, most commonly shared pieces of entertainment, simultaneously hit ridiculous highs of importance. Avengers: Endgame on the way to shattering all time box office records. Game of Thrones ushering iin on of their most anticipated episodes, and battle conflicts, of all time. Both were interesting, both were fan-service-ey, but in very different ways. Ways that ultimately made me feel way more connected to the MCU, and more upset, or at the very least confused, by Game of Thrones.
Granted, the comparison is a bit unfair given that we haven't seen how Game of Thrones ends, but this was seen as a monumental episode, one that would have the living and the dead finally fight - something taht was teased in literally the first scene of the show in season 1. Of course, that fight is now, seemingly, over (the living won!). Personally I'm happy the final few episodes of this classic show will focus on the human interactions that have long been the best part of the show (no matter how many epic battles they film). But that said, I was left with a feeling of 'what the hell was the point of it all' with the White Walkers. On the other hand, I can see the point of every decision made in Endgame.
Now, both pieces of entertainment strained reality (for what 'reality' is worth) way too much. For Endgame, it was the entire idea of time-travel, which was explained away way too quickly, and though they made fun of the common pitfalls of time travel shows, they faced some of the same challenges. For Game of Thrones, it was the convenience of basically only ten characters surviving the battle all being the people we care about - with Jaime, Brienne and the rest literally fighting off true death in increasingly ridiculous ways. But plot contrivances have never not been there in both shows/series.
No, what gets me about Game of Thrones is that I have a sinking thought that the entire White Walker plot was kind of useless. The only purpose it seems to have truly servcd was to (1) bring a disparate group together behind a common enemy and (2) weaken that disparate group to make the fight vs. Cersei (basically going at it alone) a fair fight. But that's not what the White Walkers was supposed to be.
Ironically, I never cared about teh White Walkers because we never learned their desires, their history, their damn reason for being, until like two episodes ago - but that said we invested a lot of time in them. All the actions of the last two seasons, when the human players were increasingly dying, it seemed like the overarchign story of the show. Instead, it is all preamble.
I don't know at this point if Game of Thrones will stick the landing, and how much of their playbook these last ~2 seasons deviates from what George RR Martin would want to do. There are parts of the show taht are still incredible. They still do spectacle way better than any other show maybe ever, but the plot has, sadly, gone to relative shit after the source material went away. That can be seen as a criticism of Benioff & Weiss, but in reality they signed up to this thinking they'll have source material the whole time, not be led by simple plot notes in their attempt to stick the landing.
For the MCU, however, my word did they stick the landing. Yes, there was a whole lot of fan service in that movie, but given I am a fan, I loved all of it. I loved the trips back to past movies, all the little moments like Cap in the elevator, Rene Russo's appearance shining some light on the seemingly agreed upon worst MCU movie, even a return to maybe the MCU's pinnacle in the fight for New York. It was all well done. Yes, there are a , that moment didn't feel as earned. lot of questions around the plot even outside of time travel (like why is Spiderman & Co still high-schoolers, and is every present-day MCU installment going to live on with the idea half the population disappeared for five years?). Yes, it was weird to see the effects of a snap seemingyl change at random. But at a high level, it was a perfect way to end eleven years of cinematic history.
It was a love letter to these movies, and more than that, the characters that made them. It allowed us to see Cap dance with Peggy, to see Tony reprise his 'I am Iron Man' line in the most dramatic way, to see the whole entire gang there at Tony's funeral. It was amazing to see them steer even further into the idea that Thor is way better as a comedic character than dramatic one (and sign me the eff up for the idea of a Thor + Guardians movie). The movie was about as good as I could have ever imagined it to be.
Everything they did, with maybe the exception of how strangely under-utilized Captain Marvel was, was note perfect. Their short 'Leftovers' type 30-minutes or so was gripping. The moments on Vormir, making people care about Hawkeye for likely the first time, was great. That moment when the snapped characters all come abck en-masse through Dr. Strange's worm-holes gave me chills like no Marvel scene in a long-long time.
That might be the best comparison point, really. Game of Thrones had their cheer-inducing moment, when Arya slays the Night King. While I applaud GoT on theri choice of using Arya for that, that moment didn't feel as earned, didn't feel as special. Yes, it's nice the living won, but it shouldn't have been that easy. The dying returning to the living the Avengers was perfect on the other hand.
This isn't a way just to play up my previously establish view that the MCU is a greater achievement than Game of Thrones - and that I woudl rather watch Endgame than the final season of Game of Thrones if forced to make the choice. That's all true, but more than anything, when it comes to facing and fighting strange alien beasts, the MCU has that locked down.
Granted, the comparison is a bit unfair given that we haven't seen how Game of Thrones ends, but this was seen as a monumental episode, one that would have the living and the dead finally fight - something taht was teased in literally the first scene of the show in season 1. Of course, that fight is now, seemingly, over (the living won!). Personally I'm happy the final few episodes of this classic show will focus on the human interactions that have long been the best part of the show (no matter how many epic battles they film). But that said, I was left with a feeling of 'what the hell was the point of it all' with the White Walkers. On the other hand, I can see the point of every decision made in Endgame.
Now, both pieces of entertainment strained reality (for what 'reality' is worth) way too much. For Endgame, it was the entire idea of time-travel, which was explained away way too quickly, and though they made fun of the common pitfalls of time travel shows, they faced some of the same challenges. For Game of Thrones, it was the convenience of basically only ten characters surviving the battle all being the people we care about - with Jaime, Brienne and the rest literally fighting off true death in increasingly ridiculous ways. But plot contrivances have never not been there in both shows/series.
No, what gets me about Game of Thrones is that I have a sinking thought that the entire White Walker plot was kind of useless. The only purpose it seems to have truly servcd was to (1) bring a disparate group together behind a common enemy and (2) weaken that disparate group to make the fight vs. Cersei (basically going at it alone) a fair fight. But that's not what the White Walkers was supposed to be.
Ironically, I never cared about teh White Walkers because we never learned their desires, their history, their damn reason for being, until like two episodes ago - but that said we invested a lot of time in them. All the actions of the last two seasons, when the human players were increasingly dying, it seemed like the overarchign story of the show. Instead, it is all preamble.
I don't know at this point if Game of Thrones will stick the landing, and how much of their playbook these last ~2 seasons deviates from what George RR Martin would want to do. There are parts of the show taht are still incredible. They still do spectacle way better than any other show maybe ever, but the plot has, sadly, gone to relative shit after the source material went away. That can be seen as a criticism of Benioff & Weiss, but in reality they signed up to this thinking they'll have source material the whole time, not be led by simple plot notes in their attempt to stick the landing.
For the MCU, however, my word did they stick the landing. Yes, there was a whole lot of fan service in that movie, but given I am a fan, I loved all of it. I loved the trips back to past movies, all the little moments like Cap in the elevator, Rene Russo's appearance shining some light on the seemingly agreed upon worst MCU movie, even a return to maybe the MCU's pinnacle in the fight for New York. It was all well done. Yes, there are a , that moment didn't feel as earned. lot of questions around the plot even outside of time travel (like why is Spiderman & Co still high-schoolers, and is every present-day MCU installment going to live on with the idea half the population disappeared for five years?). Yes, it was weird to see the effects of a snap seemingyl change at random. But at a high level, it was a perfect way to end eleven years of cinematic history.
It was a love letter to these movies, and more than that, the characters that made them. It allowed us to see Cap dance with Peggy, to see Tony reprise his 'I am Iron Man' line in the most dramatic way, to see the whole entire gang there at Tony's funeral. It was amazing to see them steer even further into the idea that Thor is way better as a comedic character than dramatic one (and sign me the eff up for the idea of a Thor + Guardians movie). The movie was about as good as I could have ever imagined it to be.
Everything they did, with maybe the exception of how strangely under-utilized Captain Marvel was, was note perfect. Their short 'Leftovers' type 30-minutes or so was gripping. The moments on Vormir, making people care about Hawkeye for likely the first time, was great. That moment when the snapped characters all come abck en-masse through Dr. Strange's worm-holes gave me chills like no Marvel scene in a long-long time.
That might be the best comparison point, really. Game of Thrones had their cheer-inducing moment, when Arya slays the Night King. While I applaud GoT on theri choice of using Arya for that, that moment didn't feel as earned, didn't feel as special. Yes, it's nice the living won, but it shouldn't have been that easy. The dying returning to the living the Avengers was perfect on the other hand.
This isn't a way just to play up my previously establish view that the MCU is a greater achievement than Game of Thrones - and that I woudl rather watch Endgame than the final season of Game of Thrones if forced to make the choice. That's all true, but more than anything, when it comes to facing and fighting strange alien beasts, the MCU has that locked down.
