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Evan Brechtel

Study Identifies The Most Naked And Violent Characters On 'Game of Thrones'

Credit: HBO
Apr. 15, 2019 09:23PM EST

Game Of Thrones is back.

The festival of violence, nudity, magic and intrigue has won more awards than most other television shows could shake a Valyrian sword at.


Now the fire-breathing, sibling-loving, head-chopping, zombie-walking and record-breaking series returns for its eighth and final season.

The previous seven have not been without controversy. Their defenders say the show is set in a fictional version of medieval Europe, complete with the ultra-violence, sexism, prostitution and incest of the age, finished off with a sprinkling of magic.

Its critics argue that medieval morals, where some characters revel in the rape and torture of others, have no place being glorified in the 21st century.

The more shocking moments – a pregnant woman stabbed to death, numerous rape scenes, a man's skull crushed in the hands of another, to name a few – are often paraded as proof for the show's detractors.

But do the numbers bear out the criticism? Did the show's producers listen to their audience? And which characters are the worst culprits?

In time for the eighth season, here are eight things we learned after watching every episode again in great detail.

Men stripped down more than women…


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It may come as a surprise to find that, on the whole, the level of male nudity outweighed female nudity throughout the series by two to one, when giving male and female toplessness equal credence.

Of all the named characters across the seven seasons, it is Theon Greyjoy who spends most time with his clothes off. Despite the poor lad's reputation for, er, swordsmanship, most of this time comes as he spends a season getting splayed, spayed and tortured by the psychopathic Ramsay Bolton.

Of the female characters it is Melisandre, who spends the most time nude. Her devotion to the Lord of Light is apparently only relevant if she exhibits it in various states of undress.

…but female nudity was more likely to be sexualized.


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Some 93% of the male nudity was composed of men baring their chests, yet this was largely on the field of battle or in some state of distress.

Viewers were often treated to long scenes where men forego clothing but in a completely unsexualized manner: the High Septon's prolonged walk of shame through the streets of King's Landing, Jorah's agonizing surgery for greyscale and Theon Greyjoy strapped to a cross and tortured for almost an entire season to mention just a few. Not to mention the Dothraki, who wouldn't know a shirt if one hit them in the face.

Take that proportion of male nudity away, however, and there is 10 times more female nudity than there is for men, the vast majority of which is included, for want of a better word, as titillation. What's more, just under a third of the naked women are unnamed sex workers whose role is to entertain male characters and, one assumes, the male viewers.

A strikingly handsome exception to the rule would be Olyvar, who never seems to venture outside of the brothels of King's Landing, whether because he is responsible for their business or on sale himself.

Levels of violence dramatically overtook nudity.


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In the early seasons, there was often twice the level of screen time devoted to nudity than there was to violence.

In fact, it wasn't until the Battle of the Blackwater – season two's action-packed penultimate episode – that levels of violence overtook nudity for the first time. It then took until the fourth episode of season three to go a full episode without so much as a nipple, rear end or miscellaneous dangly bit in sight.

Nudity briefly gained the upper hand again when Melisandre seduced Gendry for his king's blood, but once the horrific Red Wedding reached its grisly denouement, violence was always the bigger feature.

Jon Snow was the most violent character.


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Wildlings, whitewalkers, watchmen, warriors, all have fallen to the wolf-pommelled sword of Valyrian steel which Jon Snow calls Longclaw. In terms of screen time engaged in violence, it is Ned Stark's favorite bastard who has been the most prolific.

Brienne of Tarth, the towering female knight from the Sapphire Isle, comes in second, lending her sword and her honor to whichever high born lord or lady demands it.

Jaime Lannister may be the Kingslayer, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard and one of the most feared and skillful warriors in Westeros, but his fighting days were fairly limited. Losing a hand early in season three not only slowed him down but forced him to retrain and pushed him further from the action.

Widely known as the man without honor, it is maybe not surprising that he clocked up one of the highest murder counts, in terms of screen time committing the act, than any other character. All except one.

Arya spent the most time murdering.

She may be the youngest daughter of a house in decline but Arya Stark's training as an assassin and her long list of victims-to-be put her in good stead for reaching the top of the murder charts. Losing most of your family to various ruthless dictators can have that effect.

Neither of the most sadistic characters came to their demise at the end of Arya's Needle, however.

The amount of sexual violence was a regular criticism leveled at the show, and Joffrey Baratheon, poisoned by his mother-in-law and perhaps the most despicable character of the bunch, spent 90% of his violent acts engaged in it, entirely in one harrowing scene.

Only Ramsay Bolton spent more time assaulting or raping other characters, leading to one of Sansa Stark's few acts of violence when she gets her grizzly revenge.

'I drink and I know things.'



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In news that will not surprise the more ardent viewers, Tyrion Lannister was the drunkest character by a Westerosi country mile, drowning his sorrows or priming his pump with whatever he could lay his hands on.

Not only did he pour or drink more alcohol than anyone else across both the seven kingdoms and the seven seasons, he drank almost three times more than his boozy and broken sister Cersei.

A life on the road

Jon Snow and Jorah Mormont are in the most traveling scenes, but while Jon's journey was a voyage of discovery, Jorah had only one aim in mind: the service of his queen.

Jon receives his marching orders in the second episode of season one and never really stops. First he heads to the wall to join the Night's Watch and not long later he's headed further north into wildling territory, spending the rest of the time fighting and walking his way between the two.

Despite sticking by Daenerys' side throughout the early seasons, Jorah Mormont's treachery gets him banished. Neither necrotic disease nor aging bones could stop his journey around the lands over the Narrow Sea, but he couldn't quite match Jon for travel time.

As the budgets increased, so did the spectacle

While the first season averaged between five and six million dollars to produce, according to industry reports, this increased to a whopping ten million per episode for season seven.

As such, the show's producers cranked up the big battles and CGI as the fight for the Iron Throne intensified. And as Dany's dragons grew they were put to increasing use flaming her enemies or as a speedy, if scaly, mode of transport.

The prevalence of the walking dead also increased dramatically as the tension rose, allowing everyone who spent the early seasons warning that "Winter is coming" a satisfactory "told you so" as things got cold.

Season eight has a reported budget of $15 million per episode, understood to be the highest budget of any English-language TV show ever, meaning all the more opportunity crank up the wow factor.

The final series of Game Of Thrones can be seen on HBO.

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24-Year-Old Woman With Terminal Breast Cancer Reveals Her Poignant Final Wish

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One of the youngest women in the UK to have terminal stage four breast cancer has spoken candidly about her wishes to buy the horse of her dreams and get married in a castle "like a fairy tale princess."

Told in March that the breast cancer she was first diagnosed with in 2016 had returned and was now terminal, having spread to her spine, Vicki Turner, 24, of Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, had just one question: "Am I going to die?"


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Shockingly, one of only 31 people under 24 to be diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK – accounting for just 0.056 per cent of the 55,000 annual cases across all age groups, according to Cancer Research – Vicki said doctors told her she could survive for anything from three to 30 years.

Facing an uncertain future, rather than cracking under the pressure, the HR auditor, who has had a double mastectomy, set-up a GoFundMe page, which has already smashed the £10,000 target she set to buy and keep a horse, saying: "Horses have always been my therapy.

"I want a male gelding, maybe a warmblood Hanoverian. I'm going to get him settled at the stable, groom him and give him lots of carrots, and then start having lessons and work towards taking him out.


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"The diagnosis drives me to do things more rapidly. That's why I started my horse fund in March, just after my latest surgery."


She continued: "It's already raised £11,000, which is totally amazing. It makes me feel like I'm being hugged 1,000 times by 1,000 people. It's unbelievable. I truly never expected it to get this far."

But Vicki, whose dream is to marry her compliance engineer fiancé Simon Eastaugh, 25, in 2020 in the magnificent Leeds Castle near Maidstone, Kent, is no stranger to adversity.

She was just three-years-old when she was diagnosed with a Wilms' tumor, a type of kidney cancer, affecting about 70 children under the age of five each year in the UK with a 90 per cent survival rate, according to the NHS.

In September 1998 Vicki had a stage three tumor "the size of a grapefruit" removed along with her right kidney, followed by 19 rounds of radiotherapy, 17 rounds of chemotherapy and 15 blood transfusions over the course of a year.


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Left bald and with a weakened heart, she recalled: "At primary school I was bald as an egg. The kids in my year looked after me, but I remember getting called a boy a lot by older kids, which at that age isn't very fun."

Vicki, whose brother Ali, 21, is a car salesman, had no further dramatic health problems – apart from having her appendix removed at 14 – until she reached 19, when she was put on blood thinners for a cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.

This is a blood clot in the dural venous sinuses, which drain blood from the brain, and was diagnosed following a week of severe migraines.

She said: "I was taking the contraceptive pill at the time, which doctors thought might have caused it."


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"A nurse said to me that I have been unlucky, but I think I've been extremely lucky. I could have died when I had my first cancer, I could have had a stroke when I had my blood clot, but I didn't."

One of the mainstays of Vicki's childhood, through good times and bad, was her love of horses.

She had riding lessons from the age of eight, developing a talent for dressage and winning several competitions as a teenager on a horse called Toby that she rented with a friend.

Then, turning 21 in January 2016, it looked set to be the best year of her life, with her meeting her fiancé in the unlikely setting of her nail technician mum Helen's 'H-themed' fancy dress party, for her 50th birthday, at Hertfordshire's Chipperfield Cricket Club.

Recalling how she was dressed as a Hell's Angel at the 23 July bash, Vicki said: "He plays cricket for that team and was still there with some of his mates getting a bit p****d when we arrived, so they joined the party, although not in fancy dress.

"My mum went over, dressed as Helen of Troy, and interrogated him, asking why he hadn't met me. It was so funny!
"I couldn't have met anyone more perfect for me. He's so positive and he just lifts me up and makes everything fine."

Life was great for the couple until November 2016 when Vicki found a lump in her left breast.


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She continued: "We were getting ready to go out and I'd just had a shower and I remember watching a video that advised women to check our breasts in the shower.


"When I felt mine, I found a lump. I showed Simon and he told me to talk to my mum, which I did."

When Vicki saw her GP she was given an emergency referral to the St Albans City Hospital breast clinic for a biopsy and mammogram.


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A few days later on 17 November she was called back to St Albans and given the devastating news that she had Grade 3 breast cancer.


She recalled: "Mum was with me and while I was totally shocked, I think she'd had her suspicions."

She continued: "Still, we both just cried and cried and cried."

On 8 December 2016 she had a double mastectomy, to stop the cancer from spreading to the other breast – a procedure that is only performed on 50 women under 30 a year in the UK, according to the NHS – and reconstructive surgery.

After her operation at north west London's Royal Free Hospital, Vicki – who has no family history of breast cancer – also had six rounds of chemotherapy and was given hormone repression treatment, to "kill anything floating around."

Speaking about her treatment, she said: "Every time I get taken down to surgery I cry.

"I've been having operations since childhood but I never get used to them. I can't quite get the hang of being brave when it comes to going into surgery.

"But the most difficult ordeal was the chemotherapy. It's the hardest thing that I have ever had to endure. You lose your hair and your confidence."

She continued: "I lost the ability to physically do what I wanted. I got tired going up the stairs and while it saves lives it's a massively destructive path to go down in order to save your life."


Before starting her six-month course of chemotherapy in January 2017, Vicki tried, unsuccessfully to harvest her eggs, with a view to having children in the future.


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She explained: "Initially there was potential for four eggs and then it gradually went down to one and it was a phantom egg. So that's kaput for my eggs."

She added: "To be fair, I was first told this was likely when I was 12, so, for years I have been pondering the other options, like adoption or egg donation."

With her chemo finally over at the end of June, 2017, Vicki started looking to the future. Her hair grew back and she and Simon went traveling.

Vicki said: "We travelled around South East Asia from February to June 2018, going to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and a bit of Western Australia, which was wonderful."

She continued: "Then we worked for a few months and went around Europe from August to October, before going skiing with my family in Bulgaria over New Year."


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But then during a routine checkup on 20 February 2019 her breast doctor found another lump where the cancer had been before on her left breast and said that looked like scar tissue.

Vicki said: "It grew between the skin and the silicon and saline implant, so I could feel it below the nipple."

Doctors acted quickly and on 25 February Vicki had a biopsy which, on 6 March led to catastrophic news.

She said: "A nurse asked me to come in to the hospital and I thought 'I don't like this'. I asked why and made them tell me on the phone. Something in me wanted to hear it and my first question was 'Am I going to die?'

"I think my breast care nurse just said something to console me."

She continued: "I just didn't think it was my turn to go through it all again. I had thought that it might come back but not until I was 30 or later."

As Vicki and her family prepared for yet another battle, Simon took a step towards making one of her dreams a reality.

She said: "Simon proposed on 19 March. I'm a massive Anne Boleyn fan and he proposed in the chapel of the Tower of London where her body was buried."

But, a day later on 20 March, at a scheduled appointment following a routine CT scan at Watford General Hospital, Vicki was horrified to be told doctors had seen "a speck" on two of her spinal vertebrae.


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They explained that her breast cancer was now stage four, it had spread and she also had spinal tumors that were inoperable.
Vicki remembers seeing her builder dad, Dave, 55, cry for the first time, when they told him and her brother what had happened.

She said: "I'd never seen Dad cry before, but we're very close and normally pretty good at receiving bad news, so it was a shock."

Giving her anywhere between three and 30 years to live, they said they could not be more precise until they see the results of an MRI scan on 10 April, which she is expecting any day, due to the aggressive nature of breast cancer in young people.

Still, Vicki, who is also waiting for a new treatment plan, went ahead with a lumpectomy on 28 March at St Albans to remove her breast tumor below the nipple on her left breast.

She said: "I'm terrified of what my medical team will say next, to be honest. I said to my oncologist I thought everything would go back to normal but it didn't.

"This cancer will never be out of me now. There's nothing I can do. I eat healthily, I don't smoke, there's literally no reason for me to have been dealt this card."

"I'm most scared of not being around to watch my family grow old."

She added: "And I want to get married and have children, or even see my friends and brother have children and get married. I'd like to look after my parents when they get old too."

But, despite her fears, Vicki – who returned to work a week after her lumpectomy – is still determined to give herself incentives to carry on, the most important of which will be to buy a horse of her own.

She continued: "Being with horses is my escape from the anxiety, fear and sadness of the cancer that lives in me and how it's going to affect my life."

She said: "I even have list of horse names, that's how sad I am! Simon told me to call it Lord Elrond and I thought of Thor, so that's the short list at the moment.

"My dream is becoming a reality and I said to myself 'You can have your dream horse' and it takes away the fear."
To donate to Vicki's horse fund at www.gofundme.com/vick039s-wish


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The company behind the Assassin’s Creed video games has pledged 500,000 euros (around $564,900 USD) to help restore Notre Dame Cathedral.

French publisher Ubisoft featured a painstaking recreation of the landmark in its 2014 game Assassin’s Creed Unity, which is set in Paris during the French Revolution.

Now, after fire ripped through the 850-year-old building earlier this week, the company is vowing to help with its reconstruction.

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Game players are able to climb up the outside of the building and explore the intricate detail of the interior.

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“It is important to keep in mind that what we did for the game was not a scientific reconstruction but rather an artistic vision,” the spokesperson said. “While we wanted to be very precise with details, there are some differences in terms of scale and with some elements. That being said, we would be more than happy to lend our expertise in any way that we can to help with these efforts.”


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Unity will be available for free to PC users for the next week in a move Ubisoft says will “give everyone the chance to experience the majesty and beauty of Notre Dame”.

“Video games can enable us to explore places in ways we never could have otherwise imagined,” Ubisoft said. “We hope, with this small gesture, we can provide everyone an opportunity to appreciate our virtual homage to this monumental piece of architecture.”

Also contributing to the efforts to restore the cathedral was Disney, who produced an animated version of Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback Of Notre Dame in 1996. They announced a five million US dollars contribution.

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Woman Credits Being Suspended From Metal Hooks For Helping Her Combat Anorexia

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TW: Eating Disorder and triggering images.

Breanna Cornell enjoys being suspended by her skin from metal hooks and running 100 mile ultra-marathons, has spoken of the "immense sense of joy and feeling of achievement" provided by her hobbies. Which have helped her combat anorexia and body dysmorphia.

Cornell said both activities involved pushing her body to the limit and, while having sharp objects threaded into her skin was initially uncomfortable, the fear and excitement was also thrilling.


Cornell lives in Coconino County, Arizona – where suspension is illegal, since it is not considered a medical procedure unless it is carried out by a doctor. Nevertheless, Cornell has taken part in the practice 12 times, since being introduced to it by her then boyfriend, two-and-a-half years ago.


"There is certainly a connection for me between long-distance running and suspending that accounts for why I enjoy them both so much," she said. "There is that feeling of fear and adrenaline at the start that then becomes an almost calm-like meditation once you get going, and then the overwhelming feeling of achievement at the end."


Despite the inevitable pain experienced by hook suspension, Cornell insists she is not a masochist, seeing the pastime more as an artistic and emotional expression, while admitting that she does enjoy challenging her body.


PA REAL LIFE - Breanna Cornell

Hook suspension has been practiced by Native Americans for hundreds of years.


"I wouldn't say that I derive my pleasure in suspending – or marathon running for that matter – from the pain, but I would certainly say that I like being able to push my body to its limits, which does involve some amount of pain," Cornell said. "For thousands of years, humans have endured pain as part of daily life, but in the modern world we have been able to live pain free. This seems to me to make us lacking at a genetic level as pain is an essential element of human existence and I, for one, couldn't do without it."



PA REAL LIFE - Breanna Cornell

A long-distance runner since childhood, Cornell completed her first marathon just after leaving school in 2010, but soon set her sights on greater goals than 26.2 miles and in 2012 was competing in ultra-marathons in Africa.


Around the same time she developed a penchant for body modification, having her first tattoo, a wing on her foot, aged 18, followed by a series of piercings on her ears and nose.


"Growing up, I had had a lot of problems with anorexia and body dysmorphia, where you have a very negative perception of your body," Cornell added. "I liked getting piercings and tattoos of drawings that I had made, because it allowed me to look at my body and focus on them instead of the way I looked."



PA REAL LIFE - Breanna Cornell

At this point hook suspending was not yet on her radar, although she was aware of it, but viewed it as "gory and unpleasant."
That changed in April 2016 when she joined her then boyfriend, a suspension enthusiast, at an event.


Watching him being strung up by a professional piercing artist at a studio in Phoenix, Arizona – where suspension is legal – she was fascinated.


PA REAL LIFE - Breanna Cornell


"Up until that point, I didn't think it was for me at all. It looked very scary and frankly quite gory," she explained. "But then, as soon as I saw it for myself, I knew immediately that this was something I wanted to do."


She would have to wait another six months, however, before she could be hooked up herself. But in October 2016, she arranged a session with the same piercing artist in Phoenix, costing $100.



PA REAL LIFE - Breanna Cornell

"I was really, really nervous beforehand and was sick twice because there was so much adrenaline pumping through me," she said. "I was put in the 'suicide' position, so called because it looks like a person hanging as the hooks are through the skin at the top of your back, and there was a lot of fear to overcome, as I lifted my final toe off the ground, as it feels so unnatural. But once I was up there, suspended five feet off the ground, I had a rush of immense joy and it felt as though I was weightless and floating."



PA REAL LIFE - Breanna Cornell

Staying suspended for half an hour, Cornell knew as soon as she was eventually let down that she would have to do it again – she was, literally, hooked. So, six months later, she returned – this time being rigged up in a 'superman' position, flying forwards with 10 hooks along her back and legs.


Having now been suspended 12 times, or roughly every six months, Cornell says her hobby provides her with an outlet for her emotions.


PA REAL LIFE - Breanna Cornell

"My response to each suspension really varies on my mood. If I am happy then I will have a lot of fun and swing around a bit," she explained, adding that she also chooses her position according to her mood. "But if I am feeling a bit stressed then it can be really nice to get into a more static position like the hammock – where you are sitting into the suspension with your knees and shoulders hooked. That way, I can sit comfortably for hours and just relax."


Despite its long history and growing popularity around the world, hook suspension is not without its detractors, some of whom Cornell has encountered.


PA REAL LIFE - Breanna Cornell

"I realize that not everyone will understand the appeal. One person I know said it was 'appalling.' But that's why I often try to compare it with marathon running – a much less maligned pastime," she said. "There is just as much pain involved in running long distances, but you don't necessarily do it for that reason – you do it for the satisfaction of having pushed your body. And that, for me, is one of life's greatest joys."



PA REAL LIFE - Breanna Cornell