Analysis of GOT series

Author

Reto Deuber

Abstract

In the grand tapestry of Game of Thrones, power is not only wielded through steel and whispers but also through presence—the precious minutes spent under the unforgiving gaze of the screen. This study embarks on an odyssey through the shifting allegiances of narrative weight, quantifying and analyzing the screentime of the series’ vast ensemble. From the meteoric rise of Daenerys Targaryen to the quiet resilience of Sansa Stark, we explore how screen presence correlates with thematic significance, audience perception, and ultimate fate. Utilizing statistical models and data visualization, we reveal patterns of ascendance and decline, uncovering the hidden logic behind the show’s narrative focus. Does screentime predict survival? Does power in Westeros translate to prominence on screen (see Frankel (2014))? As we sift through the ashes of fallen houses and lost protagonists, this paper sheds light on how the dance of dragons is not merely fought on the battlefield, but in the very frames that bring Westeros to life.

1 Genesis

First, there were the necessary R-packages.

library("readr")
library("ggplot2")
library("dplyr")
library("ggrepel")
library("knitr")

2 Prometheus

As the packages were terribly bored after Genesis (see Section 1), the almighty R provided them with some data to play with.

screentimes <- read_csv("GOT_screentimes_1.csv")

3 Babylon

The R-Packages rejoiced and started playing with the data. They began by extracting rows with the top ten characters measured by screentime (see Table 1). House Baratheon (see Figure 1 (a)) was well represented in the sample.

screentimes_high <- top_n(screentimes, 10, screentime)

kable(screentimes_high[, c(1,3,4)] )

Table 1: Characters

name	screentime	episodes
Tyrion Lannister	293.30	54
Jon Snow	268.15	49
Daenerys Targaryen	221.30	49
Cersei Lannister	201.45	52
Sansa Stark	199.30	47
Arya Stark	189.15	47
Jaime Lannister	162.30	43
Theon Greyjoy	123.30	39
Samwell Tarly	121.45	37
Jorah Mormont	117.30	42

4 Maslow

Soon, the packages developed a desire for self fulfillment and drew a beautiful graph, mapping screentime of the characters against the number of episodes (see Figure 2).

ggplot(screentimes, aes(screentime, episodes)) +
  geom_point() +
  geom_text_repel(data = screentimes_high,aes(label = name),min.segment.length = 0)

Warning: Removed 15 rows containing missing values or values outside the scale range
(`geom_point()`).

Figure 2: Screentimes against number of episodes

References

Frankel, V. E. 2014. Women in Game of Thrones: Power, Conformity and Resistance. EBL Ebooks Online. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. https://books.google.ch/books?id=HkdXAwAAQBAJ.