Video: The science of survival on Game of Thrones

Academics do very important things. They research medicines and examine systems of government. They make scientific breakthroughs and investigate ways to create a more equitable society. And if you’re the academics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, they look into demographics surrounding who’s died in Game of Thrones, which I think we can all agree is just as important as all that other stuff.

Watch the video summary of their results below. How does death break down in Westeros?

I like the way the narrator pronounces “television,” but that’s neither here nor there. Some of the findings:

• Of 330 characters, 186 had died by the end of season 7, which is when this study stopped.
• All but two of the deaths were caused by injury, burns, or poisoning. So people die violently here. Color us shocked.
• Survival times of characters ranged from 11 seconds to 57 hours.
• The median survival time is 28 hours and 48 minutes, which is probably around 30 episodes.
• The characters with the best survival probability were high-born females who had switches allegiance during the show.

If you want to learn more, this is a video representation of research the university published some time ago, although I’d think this is more entertaining.

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Anyway, I wonder if Macquarie will do a followup study now that the show is over. Cersei may have survived as a highborn female who switched allegiances for seven seasons, but it had to come to an end sooner or later.

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