Researchers from five universities teamed up to use data science and network theory in unraveling the secrets behind the cultural phenomenon "Game of Thrones."
The new study attempts to understand what sets the "Game of Thrones" apart from other fantasy stories, and how its immensely political and complicated narrative drew millions in both the books and the TV adaptation. A team of physicists, psychologists, and mathematicians from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Limerick, Warwick, and Coventry collaborated in an analysis of George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire," the books from which the HBO series was based on.
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Researchers published the analysis of the franchise in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, November 2.
A Series of Character Deaths
Researchers logged over 2,000 named characters in the book series, and found over 41,000 interactions between them. Studying how the characters in the novel interact compared to people in real life. Additionally, while the important characters are popularly killed off as the story progresses, the study reveals that it was not as random as it appeared - finding factors that would preempt the death of the beloved characters.
Analyzing the interactions between characters in "A Song of Ice and Fire" at a chapter level reveals that the sheer volume of these character to character encounters outnumber the average possible interactions in real life. The study notes that the series' most central characters - such as those who present the vantage points in narrating the story - posted an average of 150 other characters they should look out for. This matches Dunbar's number: a suggested cognitive limit to how many people we can maintain stable relationships.
The study also addresses that while a mathematical approach to mapping character relationships should lead to a narrow and restricted script. However, George R.R. Martin keeps interest and suspense by killing characters in an apparently random pattern. However, chronologically mapping the deaths of the characters revealed that are not as random as it seemed. It basically follows how similar events spread out in the real world, minus most of the killing.
Carefully Crafted Story
Game of Thrones has inspired a wide range of comparisons and analysis, with its combination of myth and history. Fans and academics analyzed how its plotlines shared more similarities with Icelandic sagas like "The Story of Hrafnkell, Frey's Priest" over England's "Beowulf" or Ireland's "Táin Bó Cúailnge."
Researchers noted that two important, though conflicting, requirements are successfully combined in George R.R. Martin's work. First is that the novel keeps its readers' attention by the seemingly random series of significant events, which "encourage page turning to find out why something happened or what happens next." The second is that the novel keeps the events grounded and natural.
It led the multidisciplinary team to suggest that despite the large scale of "A Song of Ice and Fire," it is actually "very carefully structured" to maintain its realism and unpredictability, staying within what is perceived as "the natural cognitive capacities" of the readers.
Check out more news and information on Game of Thrones in Science Times.
