Game of Thrones’ Writer, George R. R. Martin, is widely known for his conflicting characters and their unexpected deaths. Fans have always wondered about what goes in Martin’s mind when he kills a character that no one could imagine in the wildest of imaginations. No to mention, his bold choices for the traits of his characters. These skills made him one of the best writers of our time and the time to come. And every great writer has an inspiration. But who knew that this inspiration would be legendary comic writer, Stan Lee for Martin?! Keep up with the post to find more about how Game Of Thrones was influenced by Stan Lee.
Game of Thrones, first airing in 2011, quickly rose to global fame because of its constructive world-building and controversial character deaths. We still remember how GoT fans lost it when they killed off Ned Stark in the very first season. His role may have been one of the shorter ones, but he did manage to gather massive popularity. But even if you see his first works, on which GoT is primarily based, A Song Of Ice & Fire, they are filled with many characters like Stark’s. Some are even more complex than him but still universally liked. Please don’t think for one moment that we forgot to mention these characters’ sudden and brutal death.
For instance, the “Red Wedding”, featured in the episode, the Rains Of Castamere, is the most-watched GoT episode. It is immensely popular in pop culture because it featured the deaths of Richard Madden’s Robb Stark and his mother and wife. Fans love the suddenness of these deaths, which caught them completely off guard. And also the brutality after his death, sewing his head to his wolf’s body, who is coming up with stuff like that?! And for the sake of this short description, we shouldn’t even start talking about Aegon the Conqueror’s victims, should we?
WHO INSPIRED GEORGE R R MARTIN TO BE THIS BRUTAL AND SUDDEN WRITER
When a writer kills some of his best characters in the most brutal ways, you are forced to wonder who his inspiration is. And in his recent interview with The Independent, he revealed Stan Lee as his one and true inspiration. He admitted that he felt inspired every time Lee killed someone so unexpectedly that people had to wait for processing it. In particular, he mentioned the way Lee killed off Wonder Man might after he decided to do the right thing. He was planning to betray the Avengers in Avengers #9(1964), turning from a hero to a villain. But in the end, didn’t go through with it.
Anyway, here is what Martin had to say
“That’s all Stan Lee, and you can see it all over my work! Unexpectedly killing characters, characters who are not what they seem, characters who are partly good and partly bad. Grey characters. You don’t know which way they’re going to jump when the moment of crisis comes. Stan Lee’s fingerprints are all over that.”
Here, he stressed how much he liked the characters with an undeveloped moral compass. And if you have read the books, or seen GoT, you would know this perfectly defines many characters. In fact, every character who was on the path of righteousness was almost destined to die. So the key to living in a universe like that of GoT, you have to neither be good nor bad. And every character who lived to see the ending fell in that category. This way of portraying these many ‘grey area’-characters has already immortalized Martin’s writing style.
Did you already know about how Game of Thrones was influenced by Stan Lee? Do let us know in the comments.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter for more content.
Also Watch:
