History Main / TheExecutioner

If the executioner also carries out the task of judging the culprit personally, this is JudgeJuryAndExecutioner. If he acts without legal sanction then he's a VigilanteMan doing {{Vigilante Execution}}s. Executioners will also overlap with TortureTechnician and ExaltedTorturer, as in medieval Europe, executioners also dealt with torture. Although historical executioners rarely wore hoods, depictions may show them as MalevolentMaskedMen. Sometimes depicted shirtless. Will most likely wield [[AnAxeToGrind an axe]].

* Marvel's ''ComicBook/RobertEHowardsDarkAgnes'', set in 16th century France, starts with Agnes's sidekick Etienne awaiting his PublicExecution for a long list of crimes. His executioner is a silent [[MalevolentMaskedMen Malevolent Masked Man]], hooded, gloved and robed, with a [[AnAxeToGrind huge two-handed axe]]. The executioner's features are completely concealed, with not even his eyes visible. [[spoiler:This is partly because 'he' is actually a disguised Agnes, who goes on to stage a last-second rescue]].

If the executioner also carries out the task of judging the culprit personally, this is JudgeJuryAndExecutioner. If he acts without legal sanction then he's a VigilanteMan doing {{Vigilante Execution}}s. Executioners will also overlap with TortureTechnician and ExaltedTorturer, as in medieval Europe, executioners also dealt with torture. Although historical executioners rarely wore hoods, depictions may show them as MalevolentMaskedMen. Will most likely wield [[AnAxeToGrind an axe]].

See also PublicExecution.

** Theon Greyjoy executes Rodrik Cassel in order to "pay the iron price" for Winterfell as he helped lead Greyjoy forces in taking it. He didn't want to execute Rodrik, but was pressured into it by his own men. This being said, he honors his time as Ned Stark's ward (read, hostage, as he was kept by Ned to make sure his father Balon Greyjoy stayed in line after his attempted rebellion) by choosing to execute Rodrik himself, though to symbolize his conflicted feelings, he botches the execution quite badly.

* ''VideoGame/{{Darksiders}}'': The Keeper of Oblivion is the [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Charred Council's]] executioner. Since anyone who dies gets a shot at {{reincarnation}} through the Dead Kingdom's Well of Souls, his job is to throw anyone the Council deems too great a threat to the cosmic BalanceOfPower into [[CessationOfExistence Oblivion, completely destroying their soul]] and rendering them DeaderThanDead. He's a mixture of the 'Alienated' and 'Professional' archetypes, being both an isolated, [[TheDreaded dreaded figure]] to the rest of Creation and a ConsummateProfessional who refuses to question the Council's orders, with a slight dash of 'Tormented' [[note]]The Keeper explicitly admits he's at least somewhat insane due to the nature of his duties; part of the reason he never questions his orders is because he fears discovering someone he cast into Oblivion wasn't deserving of that would drive him utterly insane from the guilt[[note]].

* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'': [[NoNonsenseNemesis The Lord High Executioner]] from "A Night In Terror Tower" and "Return to Terror Tower" is the chief enforcer of [[TheCaligula King Robert]] tasked by him to execute his nephew and niece (Robert having overthrown their father). A dedicated sociopath, once tasked to kill, [[ImplacableMan nothing will stand in his way of carrying out the sentence]]. His dedication is so great that he flows Sue and Eddie through time itself (when a friendly wizard sends them hundreds of years into the future), outright mocking them for thinking that would enough to stop him.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}: ComicBook/ThePhantomZone'' : Prisoners are beamed into the Phantom Zone (sometimes for eternity) by Cha-Kor, a big man with a black hood. The flashbacks in the epilogue flesh him out more. His sister was one of the people Jax-Ur killed, he feels little sympathy for any of the Phantom Zone prisoners besides his former commanding officer Zod (although not enough to approve of Zod's coup) and wouldn’t mind just killing them, and he sometimes wonders if Jor-El (who he respects) is right about the approaching doom of their civilization.

* The narrator of the Stanley Ellin short story "The Question" takes pains to his horrified son that his secret side job as state "electrocutioner" is simply a necessary function of society, that SomeoneHasToDoIt, and he takes care to do it well. At the end, though, he reflects on everyone he's watched gruesomely die in the electric chair, and concludes, [[spoiler:"My God, how could anyone ''not'' enjoy it?"]]

Many sources attest the existence of Ance, executioner of Rochefort and Brest, (his real name was probably "Hans" but it was frenchified to "Ance") was known as an arrogant PrettyBoy and a complete sadistic nutcase with little to no redeeming qualities. This man was a SocialClimber, and supremely arrogant (to the point of refering to himself in third person). He "punished" a convict for being too stoic by, instead of using the guillotine to kill him in one shot, dropped it several times, stopping before it cut the spinal cords. He did so four times before being satisfied. He placed chopped heads in perfect lines just to terrify the condemned. Oh, and he helped to publically disgrace (what he did precisely is not said explicitly, but it probably was something along the lines of necrophile acts or an oddly sexualized dissection) the decapitated corpse of a virgin girl (in an amphitheater, mind you) along with the judge who ordered the sentencing.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Woods John C. Woods]] was tasked with executing Nazi war criminals, including the one sentenced to death during the Nuremberg trials. Although he claimed to have experience before as assistant hangman, he really didn't.

* The 2005 Austrian film ''The Headsman'' (''The Shadow of the Sword'' for international viewing). Former army captain Martin, played by Creator/NikolajCosterWaldau, is given the role of the executioner (after marrying the daughter of the previous executioner) to dispatch religious dissidents in Tyrol at the height of UsefulNotes/TheProtestantReformation. When his childhood friend Georg, who became a monk, is suspected to be one, Martin is given a conflict to either dispatch him or to save his friendship.

** Samuel Vimes' ancestor Suffer-Not-Injustice "Stoneface" Vimes was the only man to step up and execute the last king of Ankh-Morpork Lorenzo the Kind (who is heavily implied to have tortured and raped children to death). [[UngratefulBastard Ankh-Morpork being]] [[FullCircleRevolution what it is]], the citizens soon turned against him, to the point of needing several graves, and is responsible for the Vimes family falling on such hard times until Samuel [[spoiler:became Commander of the City Watch and Duke of Ankh-Morpork.]] One of Vetinari's rewards for Vimes was rehabilitating his ancestor's memory and commissioning a statue of him, it's the only one not graffitied in the city because no one wants to see Vimes' reaction on finding out it was vandalized.

** ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The Primarch of the Space Wolves, Leman Russ, gained the moniker 'The Emperor's Executioner', for his tendency and brutal efficiency in hunting down and punishing rogue Imperials at the Emperor's behest. It's heavily implied, if not outright stated, that he and his Space Wolves were the ones who {{UnPerson}}ed the two forgotten legions.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Reichhart Johann Reichhart]] operated in Bayern from 1924 to 1946, working for Weimar, UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and the the US Military Government.

Many sources attest the existence of Ance, executioner of Rochefort and Brest, (his real name was probably "Hans" but it was frenchified to "Ance") was known as an arrogant PrettyBoy and a complete sadistic nutcase with little to no redeeming qualities. This man was a SocialClimber, and supremely arrogant (to the point of refering to himself in third person). He "punished" a convict for being too stoic by, instead of using the guillotine to kill him in one shot, dropped it several times, stopping before it cut the spinal cords. He did so four times before being satisfied. He placed chopped heads in perfect lines just to terrify the condemned. Oh, and he disgraced (What he did precisely is not said explicitly, but it probably was something along the lines of necrophile acts or an oddly sexualized dissection.) the decapitated corpse of a virgin girl (in an amphitheater, mind you), because she had refused his superior's sexual advances.

* Macnair of ''Literature/HarryPotter'', a former [[BlackShirt Death Eater]], execute dangerous beasts for the Ministry, and Voldemort welcomes him back by saying he would have other victims to execute, this time human beings.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Widdershins}}'': [[https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-7th-2018 George Knott]] is a traveling hangman in a HistoricalFantasy version of Georgian England. He's firm but kind to the condemned, and shows no ill will to his son, who keeps [[https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/october-2nd-2018 finding ways]] to get criminals reprieved. [[spoiler:After a near-fatal MiscarriageOfJustice, he's happy to retire.]]
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[[folder:Web Animation]]
* In the ''WebAnimation/CyanideAndHappiness'' short "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUO7Ef2ZOTY The Execution]]", the executioner is a sanguine type of person appreciates his job and likes to crack jokes make it "less of a dull moment". Said bad pun got him executed by the guard, who in turn was executed by the convict for making an accidental bad pun.
* The Rug Burn series "[[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaR-PbNOgKij4umPAXw0vucnhfk-1r8qs The Executioner]]", starring Creator/BrianPosehn, is about a medieval executioner has been transported to present day Southern California, and has to make a living by setting up his trade of dealing executions and assassinations by his trusty axe.
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