Imagine the first story teller of the human race. A group of prehistoric human beings sitting around a crackling fire in the engulfing darkness of the night as the play of light and darkness ignites the sense of mystery and wonder in them. It is an old man with his wrinkles matching his age, narrating the story in an expressive voice. It could have been a story of a hunt or a battle, fuelled by imagination into a tale of unbelievable heroics and bravado. The listeners may or may not have believed the words but the primitive voice held them in a rapt attention. They savoured each moment as the flames danced among the shadows and sounds of the night echoed through the darkness.
Fast forward somewhere around a million years or more into a movie theatre. The audience sits in the darkness as sounds and images from the only light source seem to captivate them. A lot has changed within the human race for better or for worse but even to this day, our innate love for a good story remains intact. This April is significant from that aspect, as two of the most popular stories in two different mediums, come to an end or some form of a conclusion. While Avengers: Endgame releases in theaters on 26th April (It releases on 24th April in China), the last season of Game of Thrones premiers in HBO on 14th April and heads for conclusion in the coming days. With a long running story-line that started in 2008, the MCU movie series is similar to the eight season long Game of Thrones in some ways. Though distinctly different in flavour, both of these have generated tremendous excitement through the years along with phenomenal success.
In terms of grabbing the attention, the MCU has one advantage over HBO; the advantage of darkness. The darkness inside the movie theatre reduces inputs to our most active sense organ and allows us to focus our attention to a rectangular lightened screen. Somehow it does emulate the dark night and the fire to create the right storytelling ambience. But a TV show does not have that advantage and does not offer the same level of escapism. Still, a good tele-series has always been able to hold the attention of viewers through years without fail. The MCU is also more family-friendly than Game of Thrones which earned quite a reputation for its elaborate depiction of sex and violence.
Avengers: Endgame brings closure to the third phase of the MCU and after the cliff-hanger ending of its predecessor Avengers: Infinity War, it is definitely the most anticipated movie of 2019 for many. With Thanos humbling the heroes and wiping out half of the universe, the stage is all set to see the heroes unite for one last stand against him. The Russos might have some tricks up their sleeves to make the viewing experience something more than just a series of confrontations with Thanos and the resurrection of the fallen ones. Marvel has kept the lid tightly closed about the details of the movie trying to enhance the experience of the viewers by making the most impact. Whichever way the plot plays out, Endgame will surely draw some conclusion over the meticulously planned storytelling that started with Iron Man.
In a similar way, Game of Thrones ended its season 7 with the vital event of the wall being broken down by the army of the Night King and since then the series has taken a two year break to craft the final season with perfection. As usual, the fans are waiting with bated breath to see the course of the story reach its final phase. The stage is set for a final battle with the white walkers and the makers have taken their time to ensure an epic showdown. There will be plenty of surprises in store as it will compress a lot of story into just six episodes. With the show’s notorious trend of killing off its characters, it is hard to guess that who will finally sit on the iron throne.
The art of ending a season or one part of a movie with a cliff-hanger is nothing new and the trend is here to stay. Creators and writers have adopted this trend of pushing the plot to a corner where our heroes have their back against the wall at the end of a final episode or the last scene. By then the power of the story has a firm grip on the audience and no matter what they will return to see what happens next even if they have to wait a year or two. No wonder this has always been an effective and creative strategy to keep the audience in tow.
One common aspect of these two behemoths which have crafted screen and television history is that they both have created fantasy worlds with characters who have common human virtues and vices. Honour, valour, greed, vanity, lust, anger and selfishness are rampant among the characters that we see in these imaginary worlds. In Avengers, superheroes with immense powers group together to fight a galaxy hopping sociopathic villain. When it comes to Game of Thrones it is equally fantastical if not more. Dragons, giants and zombies are thrown in a crazy cocktail of politics, sex and violence that boils down to a battle with an undead night king.
Both the MCU and Game of Thrones will rank far down in the reality scale but that has not stopped them from fascinating viewers and creating history. Purists still frown upon the brand of comic book movies that the MCU has created and the impact of superhero movies on Hollywood. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note the amount of power that a well-told story, no matter how tall it is, holds over the entire uneven mass of humanity. With time, the old wrinkled old man who planted the addiction for a tale in our genes eons ago has been replaced by giant media houses.
As these two stories come to an end there will definitely a sense of loss as we will have to bid adieu to some of the characters. But in this age of divisions and segregation, it is a privilege to witness the mass appeal of a good story. As one story ends, we will expect better ones to come up to fill up the vacancy. For now, it is time to sit back and enjoy a golden era of entertainment and a new age for pop culture.
By: Suvajit Banerjee
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