To cite an example ‘flaying’ the accused were skinned alive and while men were given punishments involving bloodshed women, on the other hand, were generally publicly humiliated by being stripped naked or raped by masses, etc. And one such was the ‘walk of shame’ (though a gender-neutral punishment it was largely sentenced to women) that inspired Game of Thrones ‘walk of atonement’ of Cersei Lannister in season 5. The portrayal was a real-life depiction of the ‘atonement’ of Jane Shore who was one of the many mistresses of King Edward IV in the 1400s. When in 1483 his son Edward V died under mysterious circumstances, the king’s brother-King Richard III slyly ascended to the throne.

Immediately after his crowning he sentenced Jane and two others for witchcraft, sorcery and conspiring against him. And when enough evidence could not be gathered, the woman was instead punished for immorality. She was paraded through the town almost undraped with people yelling and shaming her. There were sharply stoned laid down her path that tore her bare feet. Unlike Cersei, her troubles didn’t end with just the walk and she wasn’t pulled to safety instead she was put into the Ludgate Prison until Thomas Lynom, king’s solicitor general proposed to her. She was later pardoned and spent the rest of her life in anonymity, unlike Cersei.

Lena Headey said that it was tough, she was vulnerable which is not like her character. What was even more painful for Cersei is the fact that people whom she once ruled and frowned upon now had the authority to shame her. “When you’ve confessed, you have nothing to hide or be ashamed of. The ‘walk of atonement’ is done to bring the confessor into their most natural form implying that they are now close the Gods” added David Nutter.

As they say, let bygones be bygones and there is a good solid reason why we moved past such heinous and torturous methods and so things like these must be avoided to go on air.

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