This is the public statements. I'm hoping they got the "right" ones executed.

Now to hear the private statements.

The Emperor wouldn't preside over a public execution with the wrong ones. Since the Special Branch "doesn't exist", elements can disappear without notice.

Wrong for him? No. Wrong ones to us the reading audience? Hm.

Damn.

In my novels, treason is also punished by decapitation, but the ax is wielded by the head of the state religion. Very well done of your ruler to give his justifications for the executions.

and the importance to personally attend the act.

Absolutely.

As put by the science fiction writer Robert Heinlein;

“If it has to be done, a man—a real man—shoots his own dog himself; he doesn’t hire a proxy who may bungle it.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

Also found among the sayings of Lazarus Long.

Heinlein wrote Laz Long's "sayings"

I know.

RE... Heads of families...on a plate!!! Now what??????

Nice maybe I missed something you seem to miss 3-19

The page previously marked as imperial palace

Ouch, but stuff happens...

I could see one of the rabbits being named "Buck" Cheney...

Amputation of a diseased portion of the body politic. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of sadistic psychopaths.

Beheading by sword, or axe?
First panel looks like a katana or other curved sword. But the third panel appears to be an axe?

I assumed it would be a sword, based on previous comments about the Empire making excellent blades.
Plus the apparent story inspiration looking quasi-Japanese in many ways.

-Badger-

more of an axe

Given the text of this page, dare I suggest...
Illsutrated: A cure for modern ills.

The dead don't talk.

Imprisonment and solitary confinement will get you more answers and names.

You can always kill them later if justified.

Public executions are not so much for those executed, but a shock and awe warning for others similarly inclined and a reasurance for the the rest of the population that the Empire is on top of things.

Still. Revenge can be counter productive.

What does it matter if you die quickly or 5 years from now?

Exactly this:

Let you talk freely and you will eventually tell me something I do not know.

Hell I will give you email!

If we had done that after WW2 we probably could have caught Dr. Mengle.

And he would not have died of old age.

I do understand revenge and public execution for political theater.

But, sometimes you have to let some of the bastards live to find the real bastards.

I read his entire speech in Alex Jones voice...

I'm disappointed that you'd take it that way- especially as he is a total nut burger

Whether you intended it or not, His Majesty's speech was a dead ringer for Jone's hyperbole, only lacking a reference to a False Flag operation.

With so much crazy out there, the truth gets drowned out, likely the real reason for the crazy in the first place. But I can't but wonder if the mouthpieces are true believers or closer to script-readers?

Truth is less important than the version of events that makes you FEEL good. I'm astonished at how
easily (and quickly) the conspiracy card is tossed out, with no thought as to whether or not it even
makes any sense. Both ends of the political spectrum do it, and NO amount of evidence to the contrary
changes any minds; flapdoodle fills some deep need to support a personal world view...

"A gristly hour later"

A necessarily gristly hour, if any of those attended still think that wars are nasty little events to be viewed at a distance.

Strictly Business...Not Personal...

In the words of Voltaire, "... it is thought well to shoot an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others." Of course, it was the Admiral's report that prompted the Noble's executions, but the idea is sound. Grisly indeed, but cleansing isn't always pretty.

There is treason and then conspiracy to comment treason. You axe only one Traitor easily ignores the possibility and almost certain reality of a large cabal of persons whose interests and goals are not in line with those of the government or the people it serves.

The execution of one person is really an act to placate the public. To appear as if "we are doing something". But the process of identifying, locating, and correcting or eliminating rogue elements is almost never public, or else those with cause and ability to fight or flee will. The people will never know if everyone does their jobs and does them correctly.

In this case, there were a large number who got the public axe as well as a vastly larger number who's social, economic, and political status were undone. Further, large sections of the Special Branch, an already largely secret organization, was simply "disappeared".