Women in the Endgame
By: Rachel Wayne
Tags: Film, Avengers Endgame, Game of Thrones, Feminism

Women in the Endgame

Triumph and Sacrifice in the Land of (Male) Heroes

Warning: Spoilers for Games of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3 (“The Long Night”) and Avengers: Endgame.

.

.

.

I am rolling my eyes at all the men whining that Arya delivered the killing blow to the Night King, pretending that they’re merely concerned about “something something true to the books,” but really just upset that a pint-size FEMALE hero slew one of the series’ most notable villains. Similarly, they’re pissed that female Captain Marvel (a) exists and (b) played a deus ex machina role in Avengers: Endgame. (I am annoyed about [b], but only because I think deux ex machinae are lazy writers’ solutions.)

Despite fanboys’ complaints about “feminism ruining everything,” I found Endgame epic and heartbreaking, and absolutely the best Avengers film. And not at all feminist. However, Game of Thrones, a favorite target of many feminists who bash it for its rape scenes, offers Strong Female Characters for the ages. As a feminist film buff, I found myself torn between two worlds.

Game of Thrones: The show features scenes of horrific rape and misogynistic abuse, and portrays women as manipulative and/or falling in love with their rapists.

Avengers: The first film was directed by Joss Whedon, creator of feminist icon Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and strong women abound.

How could I find Game of Thrones more feminist than the Avengers films?

It all boiled down to their endgames. Game of Thrones suffers a lot of complaints that rape is used for female character development. But this is a simplistic view that ignores the arc of one of the show’s most powerful characters, Arya. Introduced as a fierce, tomboyish, sword-wielding pre-teen, Arya Stark becomes an assassin, training with the Faceless Men. Her sexual journey involves her seduction of Gendry, whose life she saves. Arya makes questionable choices, but exhibits strong loyalty and a relentless fighting spirit. The death of the Night King at her hands is hardly a Mary Sue moment, but rather a culmination of Arya’s character arc. True to character, Arya kills the Night King in order to save her brother Bran (and everyone else).

Avengers: Endgame, despite Captain Marvel’s heroics, is all about the triumph of men. All the Marvel films have this theme. Even strong female characters such as Gamora and Nebula are framed as romantic interests for the (male) heroes or foils for them. While the female Guardians arguably have more interesting stories, their arcs fail to elevate them in Endgame. Gamora is dead, an unwitting victim of the Soul Stone, Nebula is her own worst enemy, and Mantis is…there.

Certainly, Valkyrie is a badass, and Pepper is endlessly charming, but neither play a significant role other than being cute and occasionally pitching in to save the day. Meanwhile, Scarlet Witch, Okoye, and Black Widow are insanely powerful, yet underused in all their films. While the male characters are given the full benefit of the Avengers films’ plots and arcs, stumbling over each other for the winningest position, the female characters are subjugated to support roles. These are ensemble films with a boys’ club mentality.

More importantly, and unlike in Game of Thrones (hello, Daenerys, Cersei, Lyanna…), female characters in Avengers are consistently made to sacrifice rather than win. In Endgame, Black Widow/Natasha and Hawkeye/Clint must battle for the right to sacrifice themself for the Soul Stone. Natasha “wins,” plummeting to her death. It’s a major moment in her character arc, which was admittedly flat prior to this. But it pales in comparison to Tony’s sacrifice that defeats Thanos. I, such a woman, cried for hours at this. I love Tony Stark. But Natasha’s death should have made me cry. It didn’t, because I wasn’t led to invest in her character. The whole moment just felt like a strong woman dying so that a strong man could move forward in his plot. By comparison, in “The Long Night,” I cried at Lyanna’s death, at Jorah’s, at Melisandre’s, at Theon’s… each was given the completion of their arc, each contextualized in their gender yet not subjugated for sake of a male-driven narrative. Jorah died protecting Dany; in an Avengers movie, he would have “grown” due to her death. Lyanna died fighting a giant wight…ever the ball-buster, Lyanna stayed true to her character. In an Avengers movie, she would have died offscreen. Melisandre died after defending Winterfell; her sexuality, such as a defining characteristic for her, literally withered away as her journey, not her body, told the story. That moment would not have been shown in an Avengers film. And finally, former womanizer-turned-eunuch Theon was never a joke as ultra-depressed fat Thor was in Endgame, but rather a sympathetic male character whose treacherous journey brought us to tears as we realized he would sacrifice himself for Bran.

While Endgame nicely concluded the Hero’s Journey, it left its female characters out of the game, relegating them to roles in which they supported the action or helped a male character grow. Even with Avengers’ proliferation of strong women, it is hardly a feminist series, despite what alt-right trolls say on Twitter. It is Game of Thrones that gives equal, heartbreaking weight to men’s and women’s stories, that portrays both as occasionally superhuman forces deserving of their own arcs. Perhaps, then, my fellow feminists should revisit their stance on GoT and appreciate the female characters it provides. Especially Arya Stark.

Rachel Wayne is a writer and artist based in Orlando, FL. She earned her master’s in visual anthropology from the University of Florida and runs the production company DreamQuilt. She is an avid aerial dancer and performance artist, and also dabbles in mixed-media. She writes nonfiction stories about herself and other awesome people, as well as essays on film, feminism, societal violence, mental health, politics, entrepreneurship, and whatever cultural topic strikes her fancy.

Subscribe for more.