For a while now, fansite Watchers on the Wall has been posting the results of a survey it conducted of the Game of Thrones fandom. How do fans rate the effectiveness of various plotlines from over the years? Does it make a difference if they’d read George R.R. Martin’s books? How do they rank the episodes from worst to best? It’s a treasure trove of data, all of it complete with gorgeous charts.
Today, let’s go over some of the demographic data. Are there plotlines that women tended to enjoy more than men, or vice versa? What about differences in political orientation? Sexual orientation? Race?
At the end of the day, we shouldn’t put too much weight on demographic data — correlation does not equal causation, as the ancient wisdom goes — but this is interesting stuff.
Let’s dive in, starting with a look at differences in how men and women interpret the show:
Watchers is giving us the answers that had the starkest differences in responses. So over half of male fans thought that Jaime’s poisoning of Olenna was a justified act, while under half of female fans did. By the same token, over half of the men were pleased when Stannis defeated the wildling army, while less than half of the women were.
At the risk of doing what I just said I shouldn’t do, if I were to draw a sweeping conclusion from this, it seems like female fans were more likely than the men to disapprove or find unjustified acts of violence. The exception is Brienne’s victory over the Hound in season 4; more men than women were “displeased” by that, although neither gender was too put out by it.
Next up, differences in sexual orientation:
Unsurprisingly, LGBTQA+ respondents were more likely than other fans to see Loras’ arrest by the Faith Militant as unjustified. Also, less than half of LGBTQA+ fans surveyed have a positive view of the Brotherhood Without Banners as led by Beric Dondarrion; not sure what to make of that.
It looks like LGBTQA+ fans have a better opinion of Shae than the general population, but they’re less likely to characterize the Hound as a “good” character. Finally, that Brienne-Hound split comes back; 65% of LGBTQA+ fans were “pleased by” Brienne’s victory, while only 51% of the rest of the fans were.
Let’s move on: how does age affect viewing?
These results are pretty easy to interpret. The older you are, the more likely you are to dislike House Lannister, to have been pleased by Daenerys’ victory in the Loot Train attack, and to like the Night’s Watch. On the flip side, the less likely you are to like Oberyn Martell or to approve of Cersei blowing up the Sept of Baelor.
What does all that mean? No idea. Let’s move on to race:
Watchers notes that this data was difficult to parse because 1) some respondents checked more than one racial box; and 2) a “large majority” of respondents identified as white, meaning fans of other races aren’t well-represented in the survey.
That said, I think the most interesting takeaway from this chart is that black fans seem to have a more favorable view of some of Daenerys Targaryen’s controversial decisions (crucifying the masters, burning the khals, executing the Tarlys, entombing Xaro Xhoan Daxos) than other fans.
Let’s keep the good times rolling with a chart that breaks responses down by political affiliation:
It’s interesting how the same events seem to crop up a lot in these charts. For example, this is the third time Tyrion’s murder of Shae has come up. In this case, the more to the right you are politically, the more likely you are to think Tyrion was justified in doing what he did. You’re also more likely to consider Bronn a “good” character and to approve of various executions depicted over the years.
You can head to Watchers on the Wall to see even more charts! Feel free to discuss it in the comments, although keep in mind that note about over-interpreting demographic data.
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