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TV TATTLE

From Avengers: Endgame to the Battle of Winterfell, is this weekend the apotheosis of geek culture?

  • Vox

    "Even though I don’t expect us to abruptly move on from our current obsession with geek culture, it’s hard to imagine another week that will have this much conclusive weight to it," says Todd VanDerWerff of this weekend's finale to Marvel's Infinity Saga and Game of Thrones' Battle of Winterfell. "It feels like this whole pop culture moment has nowhere to go but down from here, like we’ll overdose on all of these big finales and need to start casting about for something else entirely. That combination of huge dramatic stakes, two major properties approaching their endings, and the sense of something having reached its height might be why we’re so focused on who’s going to die." VanDerWerff wonders if there is a greater significance to Game of Thrones and Marvel Cinematic Universe both being fascinated with death, as if they mirror our own existential angst on some levels: "Watch the first couple of episodes of Game of Thrones’ final season and Avengers: Endgame in rapid succession (as I did) and you’ll find yourself steeped in stories about characters who can see death coming — or have even seen death — and long not for glory or honor, but simply survival. These stories resonate with us in an era when saving the world increasingly feels like it might really require larger-than-life heroes...The Marvel films and Game of Thrones have vastly different answers to these questions, but that they’re both broadly centered on these sorts of themes — and attract such massive audiences at the same time — suggests they scratch an itch for viewers that isn’t being scratched elsewhere. There will inevitably come a time when this sort of geek-friendly pop culture slips out of the mainstream. And even if that’s years and years from now, it’s hard to see another release period quite topping this one for massive mainstream geeky success."

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    TOPICS: Game of Thrones, HBO, Gwendoline Christie, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe