If you don’t think Drogon and Dany raining fire onto the Lannister army is exhilarating, you might want to check your pulse.
However, after checking the respective pulses of 300 viewers and sifting through 2.3 million measurements, the developers of the Cardiogram app found that it’s not only the violence in Game Of Thrones that gets the heart racing — four out of the top five most pulse-pounding moments from season 7 have come from scenes largely involving dialogue and dramatic tension.
“The data confirms that drama rather than action is what makes Game of Thrones viewers’ heart rate race,” Brandon Ballinger, Cardiogram co-developer, said in a recent interview.
Ballinger’s started tracking heart rates during Thrones episodes in 2015. Participants were asked to start tracking 15 minutes before the episode began to set a base rate and the app did the rest, tracking the rate every five seconds for the duration of the episode.
For a 2017 follow-up, Ballinger found more of the same. He tracked heart rates for the first four episodes of season 7 and found that the five most exciting scenes for viewers were heavy on the action and relatively light on action. Number five was Daenerys’ interrogation of Varys in episode 1, which got the audience’s heart rate up to 76 bpm on average; numbers four and three were a tie, with Euron Greyjoy’s proposal to Cersei in episode 1 and Jon and Davos pleading for Dany’s help against the Night King in episode 3, both of which got up to 83 bpm; and second was the opening scene from episode 1, when Arya takes her revenge on House Frey, ratcheting up to 83.2 bpm.
The top pulse-pounding moment, however, was heavy on the action, with Jaime Lannister’s charge toward Dany and Drogon spiking viewers’ heart rates all the way up to 91 bpm.
“This is the one action scene in the top five,” Ballinger said, but he added that it did rely on the character conflicts that had already been established.
“True to principle, it focuses on a conflict between two main characters on opposite sides of a battle: Jaime Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen, immediately preceded by a scene showing Tyrion Lannister’s internal conflict at seeing his family’s army set aflame,” he said.
The full details, with a link to Ballinger’s 2015 data, can be found here.
I can believe it, I am way more caught up in the dynamics of the characters than the battles. Thanks for posting this, very interesting!
Jon!
OMG, as a scientist, all around dork, and GoT superfan I love that this exists so much.
It’s almost as good as this study using network analysis of to determine who is the central character of a song of ice and fire…
Heavy on the drama?
Every episode, Annie Pooh is all, “Mom, you aren’t going to scream this episode, right?” And I’m all, “Of course not.” And then I’m all, “CHAOS IS A LADDER!!!!” “JON IS A TARGARYEN!!!”
QueenofThrones,
Oh, yeah! That article was published by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA)! I loved that research.
Hah! Just what I’ve been contending all along. Overall, the human drama is much more gripping than the CGI. I’ll bet anything that my highest pulse rate spike came after Tyrion’s big speech at his trial in Season 4.
I’m not sure where to ask this, Have any of you guys seen the season 8 leaks? not gonna spoil it for anyone, but it was very detailed, I saw it on youtube, do you think it’s legit? does it make sense for script leaks to be out so early? I’ll appreciate anyone or any of the mods to say what they think of this.
These results are totally contradicted by those of Qyburn Phrenology Corp., which found that heart rates quicken the most during scenes featuring Qyburn.
Stoneheart,
Fake. There are some things from the last two eisodes that make those leaks impossible.
There is not that much action in GoT, when you consider this is epic fantasy. But I think every big action scene was really about the characters or themes of this story. I don’t think that we ever got mindless action for the sake of action.
My view is that Jaime’s no1 because he’s still a fan favourite and in that scene audiences got worried that he would die.
By the way, does anyone else have trouble posting? It is very difficult for me since yesterday.
mau,
Oh good to know, there were some horrible things in it,thanks for responding!
Ginevra,
hahahahahahaha!
This reminds me of an interview with Alfred Hitchcock in which he said what most brought an audience to the edge of their seats wasn’t a big exciting set piece, but the reaction on the face of a character in peril that the audience liked. “Psycho,” for instance, is chock-full of scenes that prove his theory.
Ginevra,
:))
Not buying it – Sam’s poop montage surely must be ranked the highest!
Well do ya know! This may actually prove why the majority of fans finds it rather annoying when the regular few you-know-who hogs the comments sections with endless criticism about dragonsizes and water depths etc?? 😀 😀 …Drama is what makes the GoT-wheel spin!
Catspaw Assassin:
Hahahaa nice one….You’re not holiday-drinkin’ again are you?! 😛
Probably best to mention it is in the quarantine section of the forums. I’m avoiding any leaks like the plague – I’d guess the leaks were out early if they are legitimate because of the recent hack on HBO. The leakers really annoy me. I can’t avoid the internet entirely for the next year (and possibly more) but will just have to try and avoid GoT related spoilers.
Stoneheart,
There no season 8 leaks. People are just making silly shit up.
But any and all leak discussion needs to stay in the Quarantine forum. Thanks.
QueenofThrones,
Seconded! As a scientist, I too love that this exists. Great to read any and all scientific analysis of what makes this series work.
Stoneheart,
I’m pretty sure Sue confirm the S8 “leaks” on 4chan were fake. That said, I’m resigned to the fact that leaks are going to happen and I suspect the ending will be out there before the end of this year. At the moment other than GRRm, the writers and production staff I doubt anyone knows the ending but next month the actors will get the scripts and a whole lot more production staff as filming starts so it becomes only a matter of time.
Now back to the original topic. The problem now is people feel safe on Thrones, when was the last time a major character was in any real danger?