Source: HBO
There’s going to be a lot of things to unpack in the final season of Game of Thrones, but one of the biggest questions concerns the fate of our favorite characters. For a show notorious for killing off even the most important characters, nobody is safe as we enter the final stretch. But what are the chances that Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) suffers a tragic death before the end?
Season 7 of Game of Thrones concluded with Daenerys and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) taking their respective armies north to fight the Night King and the White Walkers. Fighting the undead isn’t going to be easy.
Seasons 6 and 7 of #GameofThrones were filmed in ~170 to 180 days. We are now on the 204th day of filming for Season 8 pic.twitter.com/rRLwu57KUc
— Game of Thrones Facts (@thronesfacts) May 15, 2018
There is a strong chance that a lot of characters will meet their end in the war with the undead. Producers have kept a tight lid on spoilers, so we don’t know who will make it out alive, but a new study may have all the answers.
According to Entertainment Weekly, a research group based in Boston created an algorithm to predict which Game of Thrones characters will die in the final season. The data scientists examined over 2,000 characters from George R.R. Martin’s world and looked at several different traits to determine the odds.
"While avoiding any spoilers for the final season of Game of Thrones, Coster-Waldau is able to produce three words to describe Season 8: “Surprising. Enormous. Heartbreaking.” He thinks for a moment before coming up with three more, “satisfying, shocking and heartbreaking again.” pic.twitter.com/cDe53Ls5jc
— Oathkeepers ?⚔️ (@Jaime_Brienne) May 18, 2018
This includes gender (female characters live longer in A Song of Ice and Fire), house (some houses have a lot of deaths), age, the number of living relatives and status of nobility. With these traits in mind, the algorithm used previous events in Westeros to figure out which characters are more likely to die by the series finale.
Daenerys surprisingly came out on top as the most likely character to die (83% chance of dying). Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) came in second at 72%, followed by Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) at 70%, Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) at 66%, and Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) at 60%. Jon Snow was next on the list with a 58% chance of dying.
Game Of Thrones Season 8 is coming! #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/aJdo3NSsIL
— Game Of Thrones (@TronoDiSpade_it) May 15, 2018
These results, of course, are not definitive and it’s anyone’s guess who will come out on top once all of the dust settles. Many fans believe that Daenerys and Jon will be the ones sitting on the Iron Throne once the war with the Night King is over. But this is Game of Thrones, and it’s very likely that Martin has a few twists in store before it’s all over.
HBO has not announced an official premiere date for Season 8 of Game of Thrones, which is expected to air sometime in 2019.
