HBO
The 8th and final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones is coming next Spring and that means we can expect a fair amount of tragedy, death, and some sense of finality as the show wraps up. There are some potential spoilers ahead if you’re not caught up on HBO’s Game of Thrones because we’ll have to talk about previous deaths on the show.
The recent scientific study was published in the journal Injury Epidemiology by author Reidar Lystad who crunched the data on every death so far in HBO’s Game of Thrones to map out patterns as a means to predict which characters might die in the show’s final season.
Over half of the characters on the show have died so far, 186 out of 330. That’s a whole lot of death. It’s come in spurts like we saw with the infamous Red Wedding or other notable battles. We KNOW there are some crazy showdowns on the horizon in the final season, we know this because one of our editors recently interviewed ‘The Mountain’ who shard some key details. But what does this study say about how’s going to die?
Some key takeaways via IFL Science:
Following the researchers’ key indicators, Daenerys Targaryen could be in some seriously hot water. That’s because characters most likely to survive were ones who had switched allegiance at least once.
Apparently, sticking true to your convictions is a surefire way to get nixed.
However, strong females were more likely to make it than their male counterparts, as were highborns, which could mean the fickle-minded backstabbing current queen of Westeros, Cersei Lannister, could be in for quite the season.For our guys, this could mean good things for Tyrion Lannister and the breathtaking (disclaimer: this writer may be biased) bastard son Jon Snow, who both took a knee for the Mother of Dragons. Similarly, Jaime Lannister put the odds in his favor by disavowing his sister (also lover) at the end of last season.
One in seven main characters were found to have died within the first hour of being introduced, though some lasted more than 57 hours and others a measly 11 seconds. The average character, however, spent just under 29 hours on the screen. Injuries accounted for nearly three-quarters of all deaths, in particular, wounds of the head and neck, including 13 decapitations. Only two deaths were from natural causes, with the remainder resulting from burns, poisonings, assault, and war. (via)
HBO
Key takeaways:
— Characters who have switched allegiance are more likely to die than others. So basically anyone with the last name Lannister or who has ever been employed by the Lannisters falls into this category.
— The deaths we’ll see will most likely be gruesome. I predict that in the long-rumored Clegane Bowl we’ll be treated to some of the most bloody sights we’ve ever seen in the show. They’ve hyped this up for so long that the show won’t let us down on that front.
Other takeaways from the study include 14% of characters die within the first hour of appearing on camera. Females and Highborns are more likely to survive which bodes well for the living Stark girls.
For more on this study, you can click here to visit IFL Science.