Methodology: This was a hand-stitched process. The 10-episode third season added up to 8 hours and 43 minutes in total, excluding opening and closing credits. I re-watched it twice, and timed each scene from beginning to end and noted the characters within. If a character entered mid-scene, I counted them as being in the whole thing (the actor was on set that day, and was key to it, after all). There are scenes in which a character or characters are in the background (Tyrion and Sansa's wedding springs to mind) and the actors don't have any lines (or have one or two), but I counted those for the same reason — better to round up. I rounded way up with the dragons; there are scenes when they aren't pivotal, but are in the distance, flying behind Dany. But who am I to say that the Mother of Dragons was not using her children effectively in those scenes to intimidate her foes? So, I counted them. When I had all of the times for each character clocked and added up, I sent the numbers to BuzzFeed's art director, John Gara, who conceived of and created the graphic.

Two thoughts: I embarked on this project with the same obsessive spirit as Ahab pursuing Moby Dick — there's no real explanation. Many things delighted me along the way, and I hope Game of Thrones fans can find their own surprises within. I will share two of mine. While I went in guessing that Peter Dinklage would be on screen more than anyone else, I was interested to see that the gap between him and the rest of the main characters/actors was so large. On the other end of things, considering what an important character Mance is in the books, seeing how little Ciarán Hinds was in Season 3 underlined how Game of Thrones hasn't (yet?) established him — which is a loss to me.

Please share your own observations in the comments!