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comic book connection

If you have studied history, then you know much of the Game of Thrones was borrowed from real history. Even the shape of Westeros itself is a combination of the shapes of England and Ireland. The Wall in GoT is almost in the same spot as Hadrian's wall in northern England. George R.R. Martin also borrows from literature. One legend in his books has a newly-forged sword quenched in the blood of a woman, while Captain Ahab used the blood of his crew to quench newly-forged harpoons in Moby Dick. And if you know anything about GRRM at all then you know he is a fan of comics books. Here is my take on how GRRM borrowed the relationship / competition between Lord Petyr Baelish aka LittleFinger and master of whispers, Lord Varys from Marvel comics.

For two and a half seasons of the hit HBO show there seemed to be an uneasy dislike or competition between Littlefinger and Varys. But it wasn't until episode 6 of season 3 when I realized where their relationship came from. In the scene between the two, Littlefinger makes his mantra known that he believes chaos is a ladder. Varys wants the opposite, he wants peace and justice, law and order. And I believe their relationship was taken from the cosmic entities Lord Chaos and Master Order in Marvel comics.

Chaos and Order are two lesser known cosmic entities who have maybe only appeared in two dozen comics. However, their first appearance was in one of Marvel's most historically important comics, Marvel Two-in-One Annual 2. Two-in-One was a series that starred the Thing from the Fantastic Four and was not all that popular, but Annual 2 was ground shaking.

That MtO annual had the conclusion of the story, which began in Avengers Annual 7, where Thanos was trying to use the soul gems to destroy stars of populated solar systems. Years later these gems would be renamed the infinity gems, and the recent movies call them infinity stones. In the previous comic (Avengers annual 7) Warlock has been killed and the Avengers captured by Thanos.

In MtO annual 2, Chaos and Order watch as Spider-Man enlists the help of the Thing, they hop in a space ship and fly to Thanos' ship. They fight. Spider-Man frees the Avengers. More fighting. Spider-Man causes Warlock to re-animate and he kills Thanos by turning him to stone. Anyone that reads Marvel comics, including GRRM, knows of these comics. Avengers annual 7 and MtO annual 2 are legendary.

First off, there are the visual similarities. Varys is well tanned, like Master Order, and LittleFinger seems to wear purple quite often, as is Lord Chaos' skin. They have similar titles. LittleFinger is a land-owning Lord and his Marvel predecessor is Lord Chaos. Varys is referred to as the Master of Whispers and his Marvel counterpart is Master Order. As stated above, one seeks order, and the other desires chaos. Like Chaos and Order, neither LittleFinger or Varys are very powerful, nor do they act personally in matters. They tend to advise, pull strings, and then watch from the sidelines.

A difference would be each couples' cooperation and goals. In Game of Thrones the two characters work against each other with different desires. LittleFinger only cares about his personal climb to the top, while Varys wants to help the general welfare of all others. In the Marvel comic books the two cosmic entities sometimes bicker but mostly work together for universal balance. And Lord Chaos is certainly not the constant trouble maker that is Littlefinger.



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