The Most Popular ‘Game Of Thrones’ Character Shouldn’t Be A Surprise After Looking At The Data From All Six Seasons

If you weren’t sure that Tyrion Lannister was the top character on Game Of Thrones, there’s some data you’re going to want to see that supports that claim. It’s no secret that folks love Peter Dinklage’s wine-loving member of Westero’s richest family, mostly for his wit, cunning, and his taste in women, but Looker has gifted fans with some clear-cut evidence from across the first six seasons of the show. By looking at the screen time and episode appearances by each character, Tyrion Lannister leads the pack by appearing in a total of 54 episodes with around 293 minutes of screen time. That’s 25 minutes more than Jon Snow and a full hour more than Daenerys Targaryen, the next two on the list.

Cersei Lannister drops in at the fourth spot with 52 episodes and 201 minutes of screen time. As i09 points out, this elevates Cersei’s appearances in the book and shows how the series takes a different approach to the storytelling than the books by George R.R. Martin. As we enter territory that the book has not covered, this might end up being even clearer within the show’s universe. While Cersei’s story has translated to the screen intact, her appearances allow those actions to carry a little more weight.

Another interesting point is how Eddard Stark manages to come in at #12 with only 16 episodes under his belt. The show does offer some flashbacks that give him a boost, but really shows just how meaningful his character was to the first season and how his eventual death garnered the reaction it did from fans. We spent a lot of time with the guy and some folks were legitimately sad to see him go. Still, he’s got a ways to go to catch up with Tyrion, especially with moments like this under his belt:

Looker also compiled the deaths on the show by season, giving us a less bloody way of keeping tabs on just how cruel this show can be to its characters. While season three is the least violent in terms of named characters killed, it does feature the most violent scene in the show with The Red Wedding. They also find that most seasons average above five deaths, with the last three seasons ticking far above ten characters killed per season. Season six is the deadliest by far, with the total rising above 20 thanks to Cersei’s push for the throne.

They also looked at when the show likes to kill most of its characters, finding that the season finale still seems to be the one to provide a higher body count than other episodes in the season. This seems odd given how the major battles and events seem to take place in the episodes leading into the finale, but that is not the case. Looker also notes a spike in episode five deaths, giving the show a little boost mid-season to set us in motion for the climax.

The difficulty here is applying data to a creative work and hoping it works out. Most people don’t need data and trends to know that a character is popular because they already like that character and can see how fans react to that character. Still, there are worse things you could crunch numbers about in this world. Westeros is a better topic than however many apples Johnny has taken from a basket.

(Via Looker / i09)

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