Favourite characters, favourite survivors

A great deal of theoretical work, notably from media psychology and cognitive film theory, has addressed the ways that audiences relate to characters within fictional works. This chapter reviews the main tendencies within this work, before testing some of its main claims by close examination of the ways that the project’s respondents chose, and talked about, their favourite characters and favourite survivors (notably Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, Arya Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, Jaime Lannister, Sansa Stark, Petyr Baelish, Lord Varys, and Cersei Lannister). The results reveal the very complex ways that audiences affiliate with characters, doing so in highly patterned but also selective ways (sidelining uncomfortable features).