Staying loyal leads characters of the popular TV series 'Game of Thrones' to an early death, say scientists who analysed over 300 deaths in the show to decode who is more likely to survive the next season.
The research, published in the journal Injury Epidemiology, shows that characters were more likely to survive if they switched their allegiance.
For example, Tyrion Lannister avoids death by switching allegiances between the houses Lannister and Targaryen.
Researchers at Macquarie University in Australia, evaluated the deaths of all important Game of Thrones characters across seven seasons of the show.
The risk of death was also greater for characters that were ‘lowborn’ (not a Lord or Lady), compared to those that were ‘highborn’.
Only two deaths from natural causes occurred across the seven seasons of the show: Maester Aemon and Old Nan, who both died of old age.
The remainder of deaths were from burns (11.8 per cent) or poisonings (4.8 per cent).
The most common circumstances of deaths were assault (63.0 per cent), operations of war (24.4 per cent), and legal executions (5.4 per cent).
The probability of dying within the first hour after first appearing on screen was around 14 per cent.
The survival time of characters ranged from 11 seconds to 57 hours and 15 minutes. The median survival time was estimated to be 28 hours and 48 minutes.
The researchers collected data on mortality and survival of 330 characters from all 67 episodes from seasons one to seven of Game of Thrones.
They recorded data on the sociodemographic status of the characters, including their sex, social status, type of occupation, religious affiliation, and allegiance, alongside their survival time, and the circumstances of their death.
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