Game of Thrones S8 E5 Data Visualization Recap
This is the fifth in a series of recaps I’ll be posting for the final season of Game of Thrones based on work I’ve described in “The Ultimate Game of Thrones Dataset”, “32 Game of Thrones Data Visualizations”, and “19 More Game of Thrones Data Visualizations.”
I miss the gamesmanship and storytelling that once was Game of Thrones. Now it seems like a war of attrition just to see who doesn’t get killed before the final credits roll. All that aside, read on for a data-driven recap of the fifth episode of Game of Thrones’ Season 8, “The Bells”.
If you want to see these visualizations for past episodes, you can check out any episode here. And if you want to see/play with the dataset, it’s on github.
When are characters on screen?
There were actually very few named characters on screen in this episode, partly because there aren’t as many characters left after the recent purge, but also because of the concerted effort to show what the attack on King’s Landing was like “on the ground.” There’s a similar pattern here with other recent episodes: the first third has longer scenes with some set/s of characters, the middle third has characters moving in and out of the scenes (here due to Daenerys flying around on Drogon and the chaos that ensues), and then the last third once again has longer scenes.
Although Daenerys wasn’t actually shown in any scene after the ringing of King’s Landing’s bells, I kept her included since it was implied she was riding Drogon even if you couldn’t see her.
For how long are characters on screen?
I was surprised to see Tyrion toward the top of this list since he’s not really involved in the attack on the city as anything other than a bystander, but I think the time he spends during Varys’s cremation and subsequent one-on-one with Jaime bumped him up in screen time.
Which locations are on screen?
I’ve found myself missing the diversity of locations that was present in earlier episodes/seasons. I know narrative threads are finally weaving together, but it felt more adventurous to explore those less-familiar far-away lands.
The first quarter of the episode was in Dragonstone, and the rest was (the assault) in King’s Landing.
How long is spent in each region?
Yeah, the whole episode was in the Crownlands.
How many words does each character speak?
Tyrion — what a talker. I’ll miss The Hound’s quips and Lord Varys’s sharp tongue.
It’s worth noting here the obvious: the episode was as much about ‘the common people’ and inverting ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ as anything, so it’s not surprising to see a lot of “King’s Landing Man/Woman/Child #”, “Lannister Soldier #” and other generic players filling in a fair bit of background dialogue, especially during the siege. I tended to assume the likelihood of a generic player having consistent lines was pretty low, so even if the closed-captions said “Man #1”, I made a new speaker instead of attributing them to “King’s Landing Man #1”.
How many languages are spoken?
Who knew High Valyrian would be Daenerys’s secret code language to chat with Grey Worm? I-ay et-bay it-ay eats-bay ig-pay atin-lay.
What’s the gender balance on screen?
Arya’s journey with Eleanor and her daughter pushed up the amount of female-only time in this episode, but it’s still largely male-dominated.
What’s the gender balance of words spoken?
The balance of words spoken was also pretty male-dominated in this episode: about 1:3.
For how long is each House on screen?
The White Walkers are gone. The Wildlings went home. And the Greyjoys are (mostly) dead or back on Pyke. Lots of Lannister time in this episode between Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion, which feels fitting for the (near?) end of their House.
Which locations are in the opening sequence?
This was the fifth episode with the same(-ish) opening sequence, but again the light blue tiles of the Army of the Dead had stopped advancing. It looked like the opening sequence added scorpion crossbows to the ramparts, too (but that isn’t captured here). I wonder in what state of disrepair King’s Landing will be next week? Maybe it’ll be smoking like Winterfell was after the Bolton’s took it?
I hope you’ve enjoyed this data-driven description of the episode. Let me know if there are other visualizations you think ought to be included or other data that could be collected in general?
Thanks for reading!
- “Winterfell” (Season 8, Episode 1) Data Visualization Recap
- “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” (Season 8, Episode 2) Data Visualization Recap
- “The Long Night” (Season 8, Episode 3) Data Visualization Recap
- “The Last of the Starks” (Season 8, Episode 4) Data Visualization Recap
- “The Bells” (Season 8, Episode 5) Data Visualization Recap
- “The Iron Throne” (Season 8, Episode 6) Data Visualization Recap
