Hanging Scene POV

[Scales]

I have found long drop hanging takes 15 or 20 minutes. What would Hideyoshi be feeling or would he be still aware?

“Use the Wielding Iron Fang respectfully, Gai — Woorak.” Hideyoshi closes his eyes and embraces his last moment, imaging the wolf mastering the technique and Kumiko growing up to - a clank of wood crashes and his world ceases to exist.

That sounds to quick.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I'm sorry but I don't understand what's going on in your excerpt, or what question you're asking....

 

[Nihal]

I couldn't understand it either. Is he literally falling?

Anyway, if imagining these things is all he did, don't summarize it. You're telling, not showing. Feel the blade (or whatever you use to master the said technique), see Kumiko, picture the place she has been and might go, wonder how she'll look like, the people she'll meet, develop these thoughts.

This short paragraph by no means reflects 15 minutes. I don't know how to explain it properly and with the right terms (someone help me there! xD), but...

1. Shorter sentences reflect shorter intervals of time.

2. Longer, more elaborated sentences with more details, painting a bigger picture of the situation as if you had time to look around instead of merely focus on the immediate action in the front of your face; with more pauses to breathe, followed by more sentences like this building a calm paragraph that takes its time to tell what you wished to tell... reflect a longer passage of time.

Can you see what I did there? :x

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Ok, first things first - long drop hanging only takes 15 to 20 minutes if the drop doesn't snap the neck. If your character is a big man chances are good that his neck will snap. If he's overweight it might tear his head off.

I saw in another thread that your work is Imperial Japanese inspired. Heian or Shogunate? It sounds like your character has a named weapon, which under a Shogun would make him a samurai (correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a few years since I researched this information). In that case he would not be hanged, he would be ordered to commit ritual suicide. If you're pulling from the Heian era then I'm a little less sure.

 

[Scales]

I'm sorry but I don't understand what's going on in your excerpt, or what question you're asking....

Hideyoshi gave himself up to the ragnaröks* to protect his country's emperor. They decided to hang him to wreck the other dragon riders' morale into surrendering their dragons back to them. Hideyoshi is also a war criminal in the ragnaröks' eyes. Hideyoshi is getting his last thoughts in before the platform falls and the rope kills him.

Would his vision be fading or blackened out?

* A orc/bird like creature.

 

[Scales]

Ok, first things first - long drop hanging only takes 15 to 20 minutes if the drop doesn't snap the neck. If your character is a big man chances are good that his neck will snap. If he's overweight it might tear his head off.

I saw in another thread that your work is Imperial Japanese inspired. Heian or Shogunate? It sounds like your character has a named weapon, which under a Shogun would make him a samurai (correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a few years since I researched this information). In that case he would not be hanged, he would be ordered to commit ritual suicide. If you're pulling from the Heian era then I'm a little less sure.

The Zipangu Trilogy is set in 1940s Japan. The seven dragon riders are wolves, Hideyoshi is their general and he has a lean build. He taught the main protagonist, Woorak his signature attack, the Wielding Iron Fang which is a forward spinning strike. Kumiko is Hideyoshi's granddaughter.

I could not put the second quote in my first post.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Having the neck break is still a viable option if you want to go with it, and is what your passage describes. If not here's a basic overview of what happens -

Hideyoshi drops and feels a powerful jerk and pinch as his weight is caught by the noose and the rope tightens. Air and circulation are mostly off - I say mostly because blood is still able to get in a little, but not get out. The noose is high on the neck so it is unlikely to crush his windpipe. Now he's strangling. The reptile brain takes over fighting for survival - no one hangs without struggling. He is not thinking elegant thoughts or composing his death poem. His face becomes violently red, then purple and horrifically swollen as the blood builds up. His tongue swells and protrudes, blood vessels in his eyes burst and the eyes themselves bulge out. Within several minutes he passes out and goes limp. The rest of the time is spent waiting for his body to realize it is dead.

From the outside this is an extremely ugly way to die. From the inside it is a horrific blind nightmare that lasts an eternity and only ends in death.

 

[Scales]

You mean lupine brain?

 

[A. E. Lowan]

You mean lupine brain?

Yeah, that too. I was thinking the amygdala, the hind brain or the lizard brain that controls our primitive responses such as fight or flight.

 

[Scales]

I thought you mistook him as a dragon.

 

[Scales]

Would his tongue hang out after the execution?

 

[Scales]

I liked the description.

 

[Abbas-Al-Morim]

The whole point of a long drop hanging is to snap the neck. The chance of him surviving the drop is very little since they calculate the length of the rope to make sure your neck snaps. In fact, there's more chance of you being decapitated by the rope if they miscalculate. If you want someone to suffer you want a short drop hanging. There's also standard drop hanging which also serves to snap the neck but they use a standard length. So there's more chance of him choking there.

Also -- and you might not want to include this -- apparently choking to death results in a priapism.

(Looked these things up on wikipedia.)