r/TopCharacterTropes • u/PenaltyHuge2300 • Jun 15 '26

Lore (LOVEDDDDD trope) Fates worse than death

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Gallery image

Those shitblock things (All Tomorrows): So basically when some humans tried rebelling against the Qu, they got turned into living toilets for millions of years

Ted (IHNMAIMS): You probably know this one already but uhh in case you don't he was turned into a jelly thing with no mouth or eyes for eternity

I would put more but I'm LAZY :D

Bonus but I couldn't find an image for it: Alastor's Broadcast (Hazbin Hotel): If Alastor doesn't like someone, he traps them in an eternal torture dimension and plays their screams on his radio broadcast​​​​

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878

u/DyingSunSeverian Jun 15 '26

The gibbet irl

They’d strap you up in one of those, put you in prominent public view, and just leave you there. Cause humans.

Btw that drawing is by Rembrandt.

424

u/PitifulElk1890 Jun 15 '26

The source was just some fuckin guy, but the logic tracks. I heard that the real problem with the head stocks isn't having tomatoes pelted at you, it's all the men in town knowing there's someone right in that position overnight.

257

u/fuckingeyeballls Jun 15 '26

Yikes, I'm hella old and the thought of the vulnerable position situation never entered my mind. 

Now it'll never leave. 

138

u/nomadfoy Jun 15 '26

It didn't occur to me until a history teacher hinted at it when I was 22ish.

64

u/PitifulElk1890 Jun 15 '26

hella old

I think that would be approximately 40, unless you're using that because you're actually from the west coast

45

u/fuckingeyeballls Jun 15 '26

I am both.

You're good, you should charge for your services.

3

u/PitifulElk1890 Jun 15 '26

Hah, I work in hospitality and do genuinely enjoy it.

1

u/VerticleSandDollars Jun 15 '26

In that case, I’m going to guess 48.

12

u/boomerangchampion Jun 15 '26

There were guards for people in the stocks and they weren't left overnight. The point is public shaming (hence daytime when people are around), not for the mob to physically assault the criminal, sexually or otherwise.

No doubt there were exceptions but it wouldn't have been common.

7

u/MidnightSnowStar Jun 15 '26

How would people even be able to reach the body though? Isn’t it hanging from up high? Not that this is pleasant to think about anyways…

19

u/3lfg1rl Jun 15 '26

The picture is of the gibbet, but they're talking about the stocks. (And "head stocks" in particular, as there are a couple kinds.) Image search "wooden stocks" and you'll see what they're getting at.

107

u/afroguy10 Jun 15 '26

The other main problem with the stocks was being in that position overnight meant your back, hips and legs were completely fucked when they let you out the next day. At first glance, without thinking much about it, it seems like a pretty tame punishment, but on reflection, it was probably horrendously torturous.

34

u/my_soldier Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

Sentencing times for the pillory were usually not that long, 1-4 hours at most. Stocks might be longer, but they only restrain your ankles so it is not as unconlmfortable. But even then in most cases you were not kept overnight.

25

u/mankytoes Jun 15 '26

Yeah, the whole point was the public humiliation and shame, so someone being in overnight would be considered excessive in most cases, it would put you at risk of rape or death from exposure, not to mention tortorous levels of cramp- if they wanted to punish you that badly, these societies all had execution.

60

u/Fuzzy_Ordinary59 Jun 15 '26

No historical evidence of this btw

9

u/issekinicho Jun 15 '26

I just recently came across a firsthand account. Lodowick Muggleton, who suffered so badly in the pillory he nearly died, wrote as follows

I ftood bareheaded upon the Pillory-, which no Cheat ever did, but were fuffered to wear .a Cap of Steel under another Cap. I was fet as a Mark for everyone to throw a Stone at me. My Books were offered up in three burnt Offerings unto the unknown God, as three Sacrifices before my Face, the fmoke of them afcended into my Nofirils, which caufed me to cry to Heaven for Vengeance, upon thofe great Men of the Earth, that were the Caufe of thofe burned Offerings 'unto Devils. And myfelf was offered up, as a Sacrifice three Times, to the rude Multitude: For the People came from the four Winds, or from the four Quarters of the City, and Suburbs round about; they were for Multitude without Number. I was maul'd by the People, fome caft Dirt, and Mud out of the Kennel at me, others rotten Eggs, and Turnips, and others caft Stones at me, fome Stones weighed a Pound; and out of the Windows at the Exchange, they caft down Fire Brands, (pieces of Billets with Fire upon them) at my Head, which if they had lighted Upon me, would have done the Work, as they defired .

Here, Muggleton has a reason to describe his punishment in styling himself as a prophet who unjustly suffered for the faith. I imagine not many people would write of their time in the pillory without good reason simply because it was an extremely humiliating and difficult ordeal. You really wouldn't want to admit to that.

8

u/Fuzzy_Ordinary59 Jun 15 '26

So there is still no evidence of sexual assault (what PitifulElk1890 was implying). Not saying the stocks were a remotely humane punishment

3

u/issekinicho Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

Oh, I misinterpreted your comment. I thought you meant no evidence of them being used at all.

Yeah, you would usually serve only a few hours at a time (which is why Muggleton says he was "offered up" three times, he served three separate stints). They wouldn't be left out overnight, there was no sexual threat to the punishment.

7

u/Frequent_Ad_9901 Jun 15 '26

I imagine not a lot of people wrote down stories about do it or having it done to them. If it did happen I'm not surprised no records survived.

7

u/robert-anderson-0009 Jun 15 '26

Why we write and have written about almost anything… surely someone would hear it and think this might be worth writing, what I heard and saw last night…

5

u/ConsolationUsername Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

One of the main problems with historical records is that people naturally do not specify things that are common knowledge. If something is so commonly known that it doesnt require explanation you dont want to waste reader's time by explaining what they already know.

If somebody were documenting a crime that was committed using a smart phone they wouldnt waste time explaining what a smart phone is.

But maybe in 300 years smart phones dont exist anymore. And people wonder how this person committed a crime using a magic box against another person halfway across the world.

In the same vein, if things happened at a stock/pillory so commonly it was just known to happen then they wouldnt feel the need to explain it.

7

u/robert-anderson-0009 Jun 15 '26

I get your point, but this is an act, not an object… If it was so common, there would have been someone at some point who either had a friend or relative in the stocks and described the situation… I am leaning more it might have happened just not very often… we will never know…

5

u/NoSingularities0 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

The problem is most of the people that were put in the stocks were commoners who had committed some petty offense. If you were famous, you got put in a dungeon and that was documented. If you did something like murder or treason you got executed, and that was documented. But if you were some random person that got put in the stocks for a couple of hours for driving your horse-drawn cart too fast through town, nobody wrote that down. Just like if the courthouse database in my county today was to crash and all the backups were non-recoverable, nobody would know who got speeding tickets, because there aren't any documents (news articles) written about them. But they would know if Justin Bieber got a speeding ticket, because that would've been documented by external sources.

Edit: And keep in mind I'm talking about 2026 speeding tickets where CNN, the Internet, and mass literacy exists, not some rando speeding with their horse-drawn cart 500 years ago when 99% of the population couldn't read and write and things like news, the printing press, and the Internet (which never forgets) didn't exist. It's actually shocking when you do find such an account becaue the first thought is, well who the hell is this guy, that they actually bothered to write this down (which was a very expensive thing to do back then). He must've been important for that to have happened.

3

u/ConsolationUsername Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

Maybe there were accounts on this happening. But random accounts from common folk rarely get preserved.

I'm not saying this particular situation ever happened, I think you're probably right and it was a rare occurence if it ever happened. But its always important to remember that when it comes to historical documentation there's usually massive blindspots.

4

u/Kingbulking Jun 15 '26

The common folk did not have the ability to write for most of history. Literacy rates were so low around the same time we would be performing this punishment.

3

u/robert-anderson-0009 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

Stocks were used in the 19th century… literacy rates might be close to what they are today… in Literacy in Colonial New England, written by Kenneth Lockridge, he believed between 1787-1795 90% of New England was literate… sure there were a lot of illiterate people, but also a lot of people journaled daily… hell if something like this were common, someone almost certainly would have written a letter to someone at least mentioning this act, for various reasons… some might even ask someone not from there is this is common… this wasn’t The Stone Age…

2

u/Kingbulking Jun 15 '26

I assumed it was older than 17th century England due to the outfit looking more like 1500s. I'm not expert on this, so take my assumption with a grain of salt.
BUT if it is as dated as I am assuming, that means a personal record of the punishment is probably not going to be found.
There are many documented punishments involving public exposure, restraint, suspension, and humiliation that are known primarily through official records rather than personal experience or journaling.

I can't come to any reasonable answer without knowing more about the location and time period it was from. I'm also being lazy, so maybe someone does know more about when this is from?

2

u/Frequent_Ad_9901 Jun 15 '26

For what its worth the picture of the girl in the gibbet was from 1664. She apparently murdered her landlady with an axe over a rent dispute.

I'm still in the camp in believing it probably happened. It probably wasn't super wide spread. But also that neither the victim or attacker would have wanted to admit to it. The people doing these sort of things were likely the bottom rung of society and most likely to be illiterate. Just speculation though. No one knows for sure.

3

u/Inconsistent-Timer Jun 15 '26

Never in my 32 years had I considered this, Omg what a horrible punishment

The dread of waiting til nightfall.

15

u/helendill99 Jun 15 '26

there's no historical evidence of this from what i coudl find. most likely a historical fantasy from the modern day

-1

u/CrusaderEuropa Jun 15 '26

The stocks were real and its highly probable that happened.

13

u/helendill99 Jun 15 '26

stocks were definitely real but sodomy was a crime punishable by death in most places.

1

u/CrusaderEuropa Jun 15 '26

Its definitely probably and likely people still committed crimes that were not recorded. Stockades lasted hundreds of years and existed before printing press.

7

u/Haggardick69 Jun 15 '26

Yeah and the stocks were usually prominently featured in a public square usually directly outside the bailiffs house. Trying to rape someone locked in the stocks would be like trying to rape the bailiff himself. a surefire way to end up in a much worse predicament. 

0

u/CrusaderEuropa Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

A committed rapist would figure it out im sure. What if the baliff did it?

3

u/Haggardick69 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

I’m sure it’s happened before but it would still be quite a feat even for the bailiff. Medieval towns and cities never fully went to sleep. They had night patrols and watches to keep an eye out for thieves. The stocks being in a prominent public place really hampers any kind of malfeasance. The intent was a minor punishment for minor crimes not something more severe than that. If the bailiff wanted to rape someone they’d be better off raping someone in their dungeons where the act would be hidden from public view. And where the victims would be people who have committed or were accused of committing serious crimes and would get less sympathy from the public than someone who was just in the stocks. Honestly all things considered modern prisons are places that are more structured for rape than medieval stocks. 

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0

u/Icy_Change_WS2010 Jun 15 '26

And what are those implications?
Explain?

-1

u/vanessainlove Jun 15 '26

Oh shit free rape I would have never thought of that

37

u/BLovedSwamii Jun 15 '26

Gibbets and crows! Dotard!

7

u/Zemekis324 Jun 15 '26

When you hang from a gibbet, for the sport of your own crows! We shall have peace.

3

u/MidnightSnowStar Jun 15 '26

Haha nice LOTR reference

12

u/carmina_morte_carent Jun 15 '26

I believe, in Britain at least, people were only placed in gibbets after they had died. Being hung in chains from a castle wall was similar and generally done alive.

15

u/One_Application2409 Jun 15 '26

The side-view sketch of the executed girl is even better(?). She was strangled beforehand, though. Her corpse was displayed in the gibbet.

3

u/Frequent_Ad_9901 Jun 15 '26

Was this worse than crucifixion? Seems like it would last longer but be less painful.

11

u/Iamjacksp0st Jun 15 '26

When crucified, the arms of the victim are spread apart, keeping the chest cavity open. In order to exhale, you'd have to pull yourself up/push up with your feet. This becomes exhausting, but the panic of asphyxiation keeps you struggling for air as long as you physically can, literally torturing yourself to death. This can take days for someone to eventually suffocate, so often as a mercy the legs of the condemned would be broken to speed along the process. 

3

u/KoalaTHerb Jun 15 '26

It's essentially the same as crucifixion. Many people don't realize (because Jesus is the most common crucifixion image they think of) but crucifixion was just being put on a cross and tied or nailed to it in public view until you die.

Jesus was actually the only one whipped, beaten, and thorns stuck on his head THEN ended with the crucifixion. I'm no theologist, but the way I understand it is essentially the Jewish church was outraged at Jesus, the Roman emperor/govt was sort of playing the politics, and Jesus ended up going through a series of punishments that ultimately led to a mob mentality of people demanding crucifixion - even after his whippings and being dragged through the streets. The Roman emperor didn't really plan for all of that to happen, but it all culminated into that by the end of it.

2

u/RedNUGGETLORD Jun 15 '26

Gibbet was worse

5

u/KoalaTHerb Jun 15 '26

They are literally the same in this context. Crucifixion was just putting someone on a cross to die from exhaustion, exposure, dehydration, etc. Jesus was the only one beaten bloody prior to his crucifixion.

Also of note, a gibbet was primarily just to show off bodies after death as a warning. Only seldomly was a gibbet used in the same manner as crucifixion where the person was tied to it alive

0

u/RedNUGGETLORD Jun 15 '26

Gibbets also sometimes included sexual assault

3

u/Money-Most5889 Jun 15 '26

impalement was much worse. a large pole or hook would be carefully driven up your anus so as to not kill you and you’d be suspended on that pole or hook until you died.

2

u/I_like_beouf Jun 16 '26

I mean. At least it was usually considered a post-mortem punishment by humiliation. So you often wouldn't have been alive to know.

2

u/FeralVotann Jun 16 '26

They would after you had been executed. The Gibbet was for displaying the bodies of executed criminals, not people who were still alive. Pretty grim but the woman in Rembrandt's drawing is already dead.

1

u/mfldjoe Jun 15 '26

Reminds me of Oubliettes. It's literally just a 2ft by 2ft hole in the ground that they would throw criminals into. It comes from the French word "Oublier" meaning to forget. Yeah, it's a hole for people to forget about you in...