The world is eagerly awaiting the last season of Game of Thrones.
Now scientists have written a study which might help you work out what’s going to happen to your favourite characters in Season 8.
Researchers wanted to find out which people were most likely to die, so closely analysed all the deaths throughout the previous seven seasons.
They found out that male characters were most prone to shuffling off this mortal coil, as were those who switched allegiances such as Tyrion Lannister, who turned traitor on the houses of Lannister and Targaryen.
The risk of death was also greater for characters that were ‘lowborn’ which means they are not a Lord or Lady, compared to those that were ‘highborn’.
Dr Reidar Lystad, an injury epidemiologist at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation and corresponding author of the study, said: ‘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.’
‘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.’
Some 80% of deaths occurred in Westeros, with the majority of killings taking place in victims’ homes.
The most common cause of death was a traumatic injury, with ‘wounds of the head and neck, including 13 decapitations’ blamed for the majority of fatalities.
Just 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%) or poisonings (4.8%). The most common circumstances of deaths were assault (63.0%), war (24.4%), and legal executions (5.4%).
The probability of dying within the first hour after first appearing on screen was around 14%. 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.
