In a really insightful video essay that looks at both Avengers: Endgame and the final season of Game of Thrones, vloggers Debra Minoff and Susannah McCullough of The Take examine how the two long-running series were essentially different tellings of the very same story with very similar characters playing similar roles within the dynamic of each similar group.
The only place where the two stories diverged, however, was at their respective conclusions. Where The Avengers maintained the themes within the previous films of the franchise, Game of Thrones very quickly departed from those themes, seemingly rushing through the story in order to see it through to the end.
One of these years-long epics closed its latest chapter in victory because it continued in its own voice… and it built on the structure it had spent many earlier chapters establishing. The other epic was harshly criticized because it stopped trusting its original voice, abandoned its mission to challenge viewers, and tried to morph into something it expected would please and impress.
