Game of Thrones was a television series known for the high frequency of violent acts committed by, and upon, its many characters. Lystad and Brown (2019) tallied the fates of all 359 characters over the complete eight seasons to measure their survival rates and determine the variables predicting mortality. The Kaplan–Meier plot below estimates survival probability of male and female characters in relation to the time (in viewing hours) since they appeared on the show. Shaded areas depict 95% confidence intervals for survival probability. Censored observations (indicated by vertical ticks: “|”) are individuals who hadn’t died but vanished from the show mid-series or at the end of eight seasons after the indicated number of hours since their first appearance.

a. Characters of which gender had the highest probability of surviving?

b. Which gender had the earlier median time until death? How did you judge this?

c. The survival curve for females undergoes a relatively marked decline at about 62 hours. What does this decline indicate: an episode of high mortality of female characters appearing for the first time late in the series or a high mortality of female characters who first appeared close to the beginning of the series?