Math Proves that Tyrion Lannister is the main character of Game of Thrones

One of the major difficulties in bring Game of Thrones to the small screen—other than the dense world building, amounts of CGI needed to render fantasy creatures, and on and on—is the cast. A Song of Ice and Fire begins as the story of one man—Ned Stark, your typical fantasy hero—but he’s dead before the first book is 4/5ths over. By the time readers reach the end of A Dance With Dragons, the story is being told by a melange of characters, who are located all over the world. It’s very difficult to pinpoint a lead character in a world like that, which is why when the actors who play them on TV receive award nominations, it’s never for supporting roles.

It’s also why early proposals to bring the books to the big screen were so wrongheaded. According to Martin, Hollywood producers wanted to shave off a lot of the complexity in favor of highlighting one character—Jon Snow or Daenerys were the most popular choices. But it turns out that neither Jon Snow nor Dany are really the lead characters in the novels. Tyrion Lannister is.

Need proof? Mathematicians have gone through the books and published a paper in MAA’s Math Horizons detailing their proof. Entitled “Network of Thrones,” the study uses an applied graph theory called “network science.” It investigates who is the most interconnected character in the series, and considering his travels from Winterfell to the Wall to the Eyrie to King’s Landing and finally all the way across Essos to Meereen, Tyrion has interacted with the most characters.

As you can see from their data, the world breaks down into seven hubs, seven spheres of influence, as it were. (Seven. It’s a thing in A Song of Ice and Fire.) The authors explain:

The complex structure of our network reflects the interweaving plotlines of the story. Notably, we observe two characteristics found in many real-world networks. First, the network contains multiple denser subnetworks, held together by a sparser global web of edges. Second, it is organized around a subset of highly influential people, both locally and globally.

The network layout and colors in figure 2 clearly identify seven communities: the Lannisters and King’s Landing, Robb’s army, Bran and friends, Arya and companions, Jon Snow and the far North, Stannis’s forces, and Daerenys and the exotic people of Essos. Remarkably, these communities were identified from only the network structure

And here are the authors’ conclusions:

In our network, three characters stand out consistently: Tyrion, Jon, and Sansa. Acting as the Hand of the King, Tyrion is thrust into the center of the political machinations of the capitol city. Our analysis suggests that he is the true protagonist of the book.

But those who think that Jon Snow should be the star of the movies, take hope—you weren’t that far wrong. He comes in as the secondary her, partly because he survived (well, sorta) when Ned and Robb Stark did not.

Meanwhile, Jon Snow is uniquely positioned in the network, with connections to highborn lords, the Night’s Watch militia, and the savage wildlings beyond the Wall.

But the real shock of their findings is that Dany does not even make the list of the top three most interconnected characters. Instead, another prominent female is seen as the major protagonist for the novels: Sansa.

The real surprise may be the prominence of Sansa Stark, a de facto captive in King’s Landing. However, other players are aware of her value as a Stark heir and they repeatedly use her as a pawn in their plays for power. If she can develop her cunning, then she can capitalize on her network importance to dramatic effect.

Let’s hope that Sophie Truner’s suggestions that Sansa is finally coming into her own this season is proof that she’s about to capitalize. Meanwhile, Dany clearly needs to get off herself across the Narrow Sea. She can talk a big game about breaking the wheel, but until she starts expanding her sphere on influence, it’s all talk.

For a more in-depth look at the math used to come to these conclusions, read the full paper.