Why Choosing the Right People to Die is What Places Game of Thrones Over Walking Dead

Lead characters dying in movies has been a fad in TV series the past couple decades.  Some credit Breaking Bad as what broke that new ground, others credit the Sopranos... It really dates back to V in the 1980s, which would kill off main characters in the blink of a laser blast.

While this is shocking and certainly makes things unpredictable, the wise show runner is going to realize that killing off characters is not what makes your story worth watching.  In fact, it can work against you if you don't do it right.

The perfect example of these two extremes is The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

Walking Dead seemed to fall more in love with the concept of killing off its characters than it was with the characters themselves.  By season five, the writers had clearly run out of ideas on how to continue the series without repeating themselves, so they started killing off main characters arbitrarily.  They would introduce new story-lines only to cut them off by killing off the characters in that story-line.  This was a pity because, despite zombies seeming like they'd be a redundant antagonist, the idea of an apocalypse brings with it many concepts that could be explored in very interesting and entertaining ways.  It's a pity the producers decided not to do that.

The final straw for most viewers, me included, was the death of Glenn.  This may seem odd, because in a show where no one should be safe from being killed off, why should we turn on the show when it kills a beloved character like that?  For me, part of the reason was because the lead villain who killed him was so annoying.  Neegan was interesting when he was just a name that everyone rallied behind; an idea.  When we learned he was just a preachy cliché whose bat stood in for any real character depth, the show already dipped.  When he killed Glenn, we found that we would be losing characters that interested us and they'd be replaced with characters that annoyed us.

But in re-watching Game of Thrones I'm realizing there's more to it than that.  In this series, characters were killed off in such shocking ways, we were all taken by surprise and thought it was almost random who died.  But when you pay attention to the flow of the overall story, you can see that it's all carefully crafted.  Everyone who enters the story has a role to play, and when they fulfill that role, they can be dropped from the story either from death or from banishment.  But NO ONE leaves without their own journey, and their purpose in the story, being fulfilled.

For instance, when the Red Wedding happened, I actually wasn't surprised.  There was no way that the Starks could defeat the Lannisters at this point in the story.  It would be over then, and there were at least four more seasons to do.  The war they were waging would have to end with one or the other winning, and they couldn't keep the war going for that many years; it would be redundant.  So, they cut off the two heads of the family (pun slightly intended) and it becomes a revenge story.  In fact, if you look at it from the point of view of a classic novel, it would begin just after the Red Wedding.  The other Stark family members are scattered, and they've sworn revenge on the ones who murdered their parents and brother.  THAT is classic story-telling.

At the Battle of Winterfell I was so afraid they were going to kill off Aria, not because I like the character so much, (though I do,) but because doing so would have had the same effect as when Glenn was killed.  She has a character arc that has been developed.  We all spent hours, years even, watching her go through this journey.  We want to see that journey pay off.  Even though she's killed bad guys, she hadn't actually used what she had spent so much time training and learning.  Until she fulfills that arc, we will be waiting for it; and if they kill her off before she's able to, we will feel unsatisfied.

When a writer kills off a character, it's not just a surprise, it closes off potential story-lines.  Marvel became famous for not killing off characters, and as such they left doors open they were able to explore.  Breaking Bad killed off major characters, but in retrospect, one can see they no longer had anything important to contribute to the overall story-line.  They were sometimes in the middle of something, but they never had yet to fulfill their part of the story.

Walking Dead revels in killing off characters arbitrarily, citing that in real life, people die who had more to contribute to life.  That may be true, but if I wanted strictly real life, I'd watch security camera footage.  Something can be realistic while still having meaning.

The lack of the producers at Walking Dead understanding this, and the fact that those at Game of Thrones do is the reason the former is doing so poorly in the ratings, and the latter is doing so well.

#GameofThrones #GoT #WalkingDead #TheWalkingDead #HBO #AMC #Killingcharacters

Avengers: Endgame is at the Top, and Fairly Won

Avengers: Endgame has come at last, and its accolades and success are fairly won.  This series deserves nothing short of absolute praise.

For 11 years they've not only entertained us, but they've surprised us.  They could have just told cliché stories of superheroes and fed the comic book fandom with what they'd already seen; but they determined to do more.  They had an ongoing story that broke into multiple paths of films and TV shows, and each one had its own unique feel to it.  You had the obvious action stories, like the first Avengers movie, you had dramas like Jessica Jones, you had wild comedies like Thor: Ragnarok, you had team stories, like Agents of Shield, you had political intrigue in Captain America, you had social commentary in Luke Cage, and on and on and on.  And through it all, they had an ongoing story-line that everything led toward in addition to their own individual story-lines and character arcs.

There were also more subtle unique elements to each story, as well as subtle references to one another.  Some might call this nostalgic fan service, but in my view, these references were like glue holding it all together and reminding us that this was one large universe where everything connected.

Others have been trying to emulate Marvel, but like Hollywood so often does, they missed the one most important aspect: Marvel succeeded because it took a risk on treading new ground.  One cannot, by definition, follow this formula.  The only way to emulate the Marvel formula to success is by taking those same risks in a new direction.  It was that originality that we've all respected.  To be clear, yes, these were based off of comic books with a fan base and a long history.  However, the filmmakers researched these books thoroughly to have a complete understanding of them, and they took the characters and stories in new directions.

I watched many of the MCU movies with a comic book crowd, the ones at Emerald Knights.  They knew the stories, but they were still surprised and pleased with the way these stories were altered because it was respectful to the source material, and it added to it rather than rebuilt it.  The new Star Wars films have completely missed this concept, with Force Awakens being a copy of the originals, and Last Jedi being empty undermining of expectations without reason.

The MUC movies were daring in the way they portrayed these characters and situations in ways that honored the source material, but still found new ways to tell them.  THAT'S how they were original.

I personally watched all the movies and shows as they came out.  I've never been much of a superhero fan; definitely not of these characters.  But they did such a great job of making us care about them that I had to see how their journeys weaved through each other.  The characters altered as they went.  The filmmakers weren't afraid to change them from their iconic looks and make massive changes to their environments.  And they weren't afraid to swap the characters in and out of the stories of other characters, thus making the world more complete.

But the accomplishment is even more than that.  Anyone who has tried to get a film made knows how espically difficult it is.  Most films never get made.  In this case, they made 22 films over 11 years... with a new company.  That accomplishment is unheard of.  I'm sure the Academy Awards and other awards shows will ignore this while honoring other films that accomplished far, far less.  But those who realize what they did, and how difficult it was to do it successfully, will always know how monumental this achievement was.  They deserve every penny of what they've made.

#Endgame #Avengers #AvengersEndgame #TheAvengers #Marvel #MCU #MarvelCinematicUniverse