Scientists have figured out who is most likely to die in ‘game of thrones’
Tech Explorist: When you play a game of thrones, there are only two outcomes: you either win or you die.
The question is, who amongst us has the iron dice stacked in their favour?
If you are a male of low birth with a penchant for unwavering loyalty and an insistence on living, you will probably have your work cut out for you.
After hours of viewing, this is the verdict of two injury epidemiologists, who carefully researched what it actually takes to survive in a medieval world like Game of Thrones (GOT).
Of course, this was only one of their goals; the other was far less selfless.
“The secondary aim was to give the authors an excuse to re-watch the first seven seasons before the final season reaches television screens worldwide,” admit the authors, who are both affiliated with Macquarie University in Sydney. With the final season of HBO’s hit television series just around the corner, the new research offers a tempting glimpse into the life and death of our favourite characters.
Tracking the fate of the show’s most important human players, the researchers have offered some compelling new theories.
Their study included a total of 330 characters, the majority of which were male and lowborn with ‘boiled-leather-collar jobs’.
By the end of the seventh season, more than half of these characters had met their end, and this was usually brought about by violent means, such as fatal war injuries, executions, burns or poisonings.
In all 67 episodes, only two natural deaths were recorded. That’s hardly a comforting statistic for the remaining characters, and judging by the show’s current trajectory, these violent ends are only likely to multiply.
Taking into account as many variables as possible, the researchers were able to make some keen predictions about which characters might outlive the final and, in all likelihood, brutal eighth season.
By far the two most important factors for survival were how prominently the characters were featured in the show and whether they had a history of switching sides.
While GOT is known for its unpredictable deaths, the probability of dying within the first hour of being introduced on screen was only about 14 percent. This means that most of the deaths have so far occurred among characters whom we have known for at least an episode.
Compared to characters who offer little to the plot, the researchers found that those with leading roles were roughly 2.5 times more likely to die. Plus, in contrast to moderately prominent characters, these stars were 6.5 times more likely to meet a gruesome end.
This doesn’t bode well for many audience favourites, although it doesn’t have to be a death wish. Switching sides appears to reduce a character’s chances of being killed, which means that those who are blindly loyal are only making their doom more likely.
In the end, the authors argue that continued survival is hardest for those who are male, lowborn and fiercely loyal to their allegiances.
This means that because Sansa and Arya Stark are both highborn women with very little allegiance to anyone other than themselves, they have better chances of survival than many of the other characters.
While it’s true these young women remain loyal to the House of Stark, they have both switched sides on different occasions: Arya when she went to train with the Many-Faced God, and Sansa when she married Joffrey Baratheon.