Quote:
Originally Posted by Looger
i'm no expert on vlad dracule but on a learning channel / discovery documentary it was claimed that when he was imprisoned by the turks early in his life as a hostage for a peace treaty, he was repeatedly shown executions, including impalements, probably as a ploy to muck him up as a future leader of a potential enemy.
i guess it backfired, as after he rose to power he was pretty effective against said turks, who afterwards referred to him as the prince of darkness, impaling his path to victory...
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There is a point to that, but you have to remember that he was vastly outnumbered by his enemies, and the reason for the hideous impalements was very similar to what the English used to do by putting the heads of thier enemies on a pike on the castle wall. It was intimidation against a superior foe.
Imagine your riding into battle against this guy, and all you see is miles of corpses impaled on sharpened sticks. It would certainly reduce my moral.
Was he evil, sure by todays standards, he was a murderer and a butcher, but at the time, he did what was neccessary in the face of some pretty terrible odds. Also according to his biography he was a man with a deeply seated and absolute sense of justice. He didn't send what he perceived to be innocent people to the sticks, but only people that he felt were either enemy soldiers, or people who committed criminal acts against god.
An interesting character, but a large stretch to the fictional Dracula.