[Virtos Golly]

Hi, read the main series twice now, then NOK and now ROTCG. Have only just started but a description of the execution of one of the members of the "Old Guard" quite at the beginning of the book dumbfounded me.
It always seemed to me that if there were any exectutions performed within/by the Malazan empire or army that these would be handled in a,let's say,efficient manner. Without any excessive cruelty and torturing. Like e.g. the execution of the Mothers of the Dead seed, it was necessary for them to be dealt with but not with unneccessary or excessive violence. Is it just me, or is having a Denul healer on standby to keep someone standing whilst disembowelling someone and then roasting their innards in front of them... well.... a bit out of character?!

[Andorion]

Virtos Golly, on 04 January 2017 - 04:31 PM, said:

Hi, read the main series twice now, then NOK and now ROTCG. Have only just started but a description of the execution of one of the members of the "Old Guard" quite at the beginning of the book dumbfounded me.
It always seemed to me that if there were any exectutions performed within/by the Malazan empire or army that these would be handled in a,let's say,efficient manner. Without any excessive cruelty and torturing. Like e.g. the execution of the Mothers of the Dead seed, it was necessary for them to be dealt with but not with unneccessary or excessive violence. Is it just me, or is having a Denul healer on standby to keep someone standing whilst disembowelling someone and then roasting their innards in front of them... well.... a bit out of character?!

Not really.

Generally these things would vary with the person in charge.

People like Dassem or Whiskeyjack were stringently anti-cruelty.

There was this snippet - a flashback - how the Claw were torturing a Seven Cities leader and Dassem killed her instantaneously as a mercy.

But Laseen is a wholly different proposition. Also the technique of execution described here is a nod to the method of execution for traitors in Europe. This isn't made up cruelty, I think there was one type of execution like this in France in the 18th Century.

[Gorefest]

Depends what you want to achieve with the executions and who are presiding over them. The executions of the old guard and of various nobles were ordered from the top and were meant to send a signal to the people, whereas for instance the Mothers of the Dead Seed example were battlefield operations where the sensibilities of individual commanders (Dujek) were leading in the decision process. They aren't really comparable situations.

[Kanese S's]

Sort of a show execution versus a battlefield execution.

The first is meant to send a message and also sate the bloodlust of the masses. The second is not.