Numlock Sunday: December 16, 2018

By Walt Hickey

Welcome to the Numlock Sunday edition. This week, I spoke to Reidar Lystad, who along with Benjamin T. Brown published a wonderful study “Death is certain, the time is not: mortality and survival in Game of Thrones” in the journal Injury Epidemiology. Here’s what I wrote:

A groundbreaking new analysis found that 14 percent of characters on the show Game of Thrones die within the first hour of appearing on screen, which is a hell of a way to send a message. The analysis — published in no less than the journal Injury Epidemiology — found that the median survival time on the show is 28 hours and 38 minutes of screen time. There are some factors that give people a higher likelihood of not being stabbed with the pointy end, such as being a highborn woman who keeps a low profile and switches allegiances when it comes to it.

This interview has been condensed and edited. 

What prompted you to look into this fascinating topic of how quickly it takes somebody to die on Game of Thrones