Science

Everyone Who Will Die on Game of Thrones, Predicted by A.I.

When in doubt, assume everybody dies.

HBO

“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die,” Cersei Lannister warned way back in the show’s first season. And that has proven terrifyingly true, so much so it’s a small miracle there’s anyone left after seven seasons who could still win the iron throne. It feels almost cruel to kill off characters after they made it this long, but hey — Game of Thrones is nothing if not cruel, so let’s get to the killing.

To predict who would die in the show’s final season, Inverse partnered with Unanimous A.I. to enlist a swarm of 50 Game of Thrones fans. This use of so-called swarm intelligence has produced some scarily accurate results in the past, so let’s take a quick look at how it works. As you can see in the animation below, each participant controlled a little golden magnet and used it to drag the puck toward the answer they thought was the most likely outcome. Also, the closer a user puts the magnet to the puck, the greater the pulling force. This is where our swarm of users began to form a hive-mind. As the user sees the puck move toward an outcome, it triggers a psychological response. The user starts to readjust their decision-making, building toward a consensus.

To read more about how Unanimous A.I. uses “swarm intelligence” to reach scarily accurate predictions, check out our previous article on how Unanimous A.I. uses “swarm intelligence” to make predictions.

Let’s start with an all-important question: Are the dragons going to make it?

Will the dragons make it?

For a second there, the swarm showed a bloodlust that would do George R.R. Martin proud, as the consensus appeared headed toward all three dragons dying. But then the hive-mind relented, shifting toward at least a single dragon surviving. Now how about their queen?

Will Daenerys Targaryen Die?

Spoiler alert: Nobody should ever feel that confident about anyone surviving on Game of Thrones. But Daenerys is as good a pick as any to last beyond the end of the series finale, considering she’s one of the most popular characters and an obvious favorite of showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Unless the show is looking to end on the bleakest down note it can, expect Daenerys to survive one way or another.

Who Will Kill Cersei Lannister?

For Cersei, on the other hand, it was barely worth considering the possibility she would make it out alive. Far better to consider which character will finally get the privilege of killing her. And really, who could it possibly be but her own twin brother, love of her life, and father of her children, Jaime Lannister? He made his reputation by murdering one monarch, so he might as well keep doing what he’s best at.

Who Will Win “Cleganebowl?”

Fans have been demanding the face-off between the brothers Clegane, the Hound and the Mountain, for years now, and word is the show will finally make with the goods and give us Cleganebowl in the series finale. The hive-mind favors the plucky underdog in this contest, who would be a plucky underdog against literally nobody else except his colossal brother.

Is Tormund Still Alive?

Tormund Giantsbane was last seen trapped atop a remnant of the destroyed Wall as the White Walkers began their march into Westeros. By Game of Thrones standards, that’s nothing. He’ll be back.

Will Jon Show Die (Again)?

Jon Snow already died once, so it would be frankly a bit greedy for him to get killed all over again. We’ve got plenty more on Jon’s fate in a separate post.

Will Tyrion Lannister Die?

This question was so ridiculously hard for the swarm to answer that we needed to devote an entire post to figuring out what happened.

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