Captain America and the Unraveling of Game of Thrones
How HBO’s hit show is on the precipice of going “full Marvel”
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Game of Thrones, the Captain America movies, and the Civil War comic book.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: comic book movies are ruining the entertainment industry.
Much like disaster flicks, white messiahs, and the Inception noise overcorrections that came before it, the entertainment industry is learning all the wrong lessons from Marvel’s $19 billion universe — trading away believability for the sake of chasing the hottest market trend.
We’ve seen it bleed into movies for a few years now, but it appears at long last that the superhero phenomenon has finally caught up to America’s favorite (only) fantasy show.
For the first four seasons, fans of A Song of Fire and Ice were able to take delight in watching as their non-book reading friends experience Martin’s expertly crafted twists for the first time. Personally, as a non-book reader, I never wanted the show to catch up to the books. But as season five of Game of Thrones crept closer, it became increasingly clear that author George R.R. Martin wouldn’t have The Winds of Winter, his sixth installment, ready in time for the show.
And so HBO showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were forced into uncharted territory. Left with enough of the original source material to crank out a turbulent, if not massively successful fifth season — they wrapped up production with a fitting, final shot of Jon Snow betrayed and bleeding out at Castle Black.
When it came to the question of Snow’s death, it had never been about “will they or won’t they”, but “why”? Why would a show that went through such great lengths to prove to us that death was permanent toss out all future tension for one (albeit important) main character?
Three episodes later, they’ve resurrected Jon (at a glacial pace), and still we’re no closer to the answer. And after a weekend spent reluctantly watching Captain America: Civil War, I can’t shake the feeling that Game of Thrones is setting up to play out just like another Marvel movie.
Martin and the Marvel Connection
It’s no small secret the influence that the Marvel universe had on George R.R. Martin growing up. As a young teenager, Martin frequently wrote letters to Stan Lee and Don Heck praising them for their work on the Fantastic Four and Avengers series. For Martin, Marvel introduced the idea of conflict to comic books, a far cry from the then-dominant DC universe in which plotlines never really moved forward.
“The Marvel characters were constantly changing. Important things were happening. The lineup of the Avengers was constantly changing. People would quit and they would have fights and all of that, as opposed to DC, where everybody got along and it was all very nice, and of course all the heroes liked each other. None of this was happening.
So really, Stan Lee introduced the whole concept of characterization to comic books, and conflict, and maybe even a touch of gray in some of the characters. And boy, looking back at it now, I can see that it probably was a bigger influence on my own work than I would have dreamed.”
Upon closer examination between the two worlds, it’s hard not to see parallel characters. At the end of the first Captain America, Rogers crashes Red Skull’s plane into the Arctic to prevent a nuclear disaster — a scene that serves to temporarily “trick” the audience into believing he’s dead. Moments later, Captain America finds himself in sprawling Manhattan, preserved by ice and unwilling to fight for this new 21st century world — a theme that frequently reoccurs throughout his three movie arc.
Along the same lines, Jon Snow frequently questions authority throughout Thrones and lacking an appetite for the combat that dominated his past life. By the end of last week’s episode, Snow ultimately gives up the position of Lord Commander, leaving on his own terms.
It’s not difficult to build other connections between the two worlds, with Tyrion as the sarcastic yet brilliant Tony Stark — who uses his brains to make up for his physical constraints. Jaime Lannister to Marvel’s Thor, who both have fathers that want to teach them some humility. And doesn’t Arya Stark’s blind training montages feel an awful lot like Daredevil?
And as book readers will point out, the show isn’t the only place where death “fake outs” take place. But all that isn’t to say that Martin purposely crafted A Song of Fire and Ice after the Marvel universe, far from it. Can we blame him for these similarities when so many of them only really become noticeable during the show’s most recent seasons?
The Allure of Comic Book Tropes
Without the guidance of George R.R. Martin’s original work, the execution of the past two Game of Thrones seasons has left a lot to be desired. As many critics have noted, bringing characters back to life is a device that should best be left for the world of comic books.
If there’s one rule that the world of superheroes adheres to, it’s the idea that death is never permanent. Take the 2007 comic book that Captain America: Civil War is based off as a prime example. During the epilogue, Captain America ends up getting assassinated by Crossbones, only to be revived three years later thanks to a time machine.
And granted, that’s part of the appeal — you never have to worry about your favorite characters dying. But when this concept bleeds into a show like Game of Thrones, that’s made a name off killing Sean Bean — how are we supposed to fear for Jon Snow’s life when he’s been granted plot armor?
But going beyond the concept of death, villains in Thrones that were beloved in the books for their hyper-complex machinations have been reduced to Ramsay — an omnipotent character that is wildly out of place in this realm.
They want the throne like everyone else, but they’re evil.
Or in the case of Ellaria and the Sand Snakes, do I even need to say more?
Martin himself has called out Marvel in the past for giving villains the same powers as the superheroes.
In Thrones, the villains that remain are simply hollow, one-dimensional copies of the “heroes” that only serve to perform grotesque acts of violence.
More importantly, by giving Jon Snow a comic book style revival, it’s becoming a lot easier to speculate on how the remainder of Game of Thrones will play out.
The Kind of Ending We Deserve (And Want)
“You read that certain kind of fiction where the guy will always get the girl and the good guys win and it reaffirms to you that life is fair. We all want that at times. There’s a certain vicarious release to that. So I’m not dismissive of people who want that. But that’s not the kind of fiction I write.” — George R.R. Martin
Between heartbreaking direwolf killings and the Red Wedding, the past five seasons have been dedicated to tearing down the world of Westeros and forcing our heroes to endure the harshest of adversities. If Thrones were to continue down a comic book inspired path — now’s the time where hope is interjected and we see everyone pick up the pieces.
Maybe Jon Snow reunites with assassin Arya and they battle the White Walkers with the help of Daenerys (hello Avengers!) Or maybe they all end up claiming the Iron Throne with Tyrion and ruling out their peaceful lives.
Or they could all just die horrifically. But between Martin’s subconscious influence of Marvel and HBO’s last couple of seasons looking more and more like a product of the environment — fans have to be expecting a happy, if not “bittersweet” ending.
And is this necessarily a bad thing? We hate when our entertainment doesn’t end with happiness for at least a few characters. It’s why Civil War ends with a note from Captain America reaffirming his friendship with Tony Stark, or why the Dark Knight trilogy ends with Bruce Wayne surviving a bomb detonation.
It remains to be seen how the remainder of Game of Thrones plays out, and while the series may still have it’s fair share of unexpected twists — Jon Snow’s second life all but guarantees we’ve seen this story before.
