Switching allegiance key to survival in 'Game of Thrones': Study

If you are waiting for the "Game of Thrones" season eight, scheduled to air on HBO in April 2019, here are some clues as to which characters are more likely to survive.

Evaluating the deaths of all important "Game of Thrones" characters across seven seasons of the show, a team of researchers has found that characters were more likely to survive if they switched allegiances, such as Tyrion Lannister who switches allegiance between the houses Lannister and Targaryen.

Characters in the popular TV series are more likely to die if they do not switch allegiance, and are male, according to the findings published in the journal Injury Epidemiology.

The researchers at Macquarie University in Australia also found that the risk of death was also greater for characters that were "lowborn" (not a Lord or Lady), compared to those that were "highborn".

"The risk of death is high among characters in Game of Thrones. By the end of the seventh season, more than half of the characters had died -- 186 out of the 330 characters we included in this study -- with violent deaths being the most common by far," said corresponding author of the study Reidar Lystad.

"While these findings may not be surprising for regular viewers, we have identified several factors that may be associated with better or worse survival, which may help us to speculate about who will prevail in the final season," Lystad added.

The most common causes of death were injuries (73.7 per cent), and particularly wounds of the head and neck, including 13 decapitations.

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, operations of war, and legal executions.

The probability of dying within the first hour after first appearing on screen was around 14 per cent, the findings showed.

The researchers collected data on mortality and survival of 330 characters from all 67 episodes from seasons one to seven of "Game of Thrones".

--IANS

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