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{{trope}}
<!-- [[File:Jack_Bauer_7087.jpg|link=24|frame| Putting the "terror" in interrogation so much he made [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique|his own torture trope]]. ]] -->
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The
▲The [[Exalted Torturer]] is someone who uses the [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]] as if it's just fine and great, [[Perp Sweating]] to the degree of outright [[Police Brutality]], war crimes and similar atrocities, and/or other forms of behavior that qualify him or her as a torturer and sadistic person. The [[Exalted Torturer]] is above and/or outside the law he claims to uphold. He is ''almost'' [[Always Male]] (because [[Double Standard|a woman torturing people in such a way would always be a villain]] or ''at best'' portrayed as [[Ax Crazy]] or a [[Tsundere]] or [[Yandere]]), and possibly out for nothing but [[Fetish|the gratification that torture and inflicting pain brings him or the viewers]], as he takes all [[Acceptable Targets]] to the pain and he should, by almost any standard, be considered a [[Complete Monster]]....
Except he's not. He's the [[Designated Hero]] either by [[Author Avatar|the]] [[Author Appeal|author]], or even if the author doesn't ''originally'' intend to somehow make him heroic and a Real Man (tm), [[Misaimed Fandom]] causes the writer to [[Flanderization|play up his torture and abuse as "good" or heroic.]] He's on the [[Black and White Morality|"side of good"]] not just in his fictional world, but he can also possibly become a cause celebre for [[Real Life]] defenders of torture and/or police brutality or whatever form of atrocity he's inflicting upon his victims, either because they are [[Acceptable Targets]] or because he's the [[Designated Hero]], or both.
An
* Viewed as [[Designated Hero|heroic]] and admirable (''not'' an [[Anti-Hero]] or [[Villain Protagonist]]) when his actions are more in line with being a [[Complete Monster]] acting [[For the Evulz]], doing things that would make "villains" or "antagonists" flinch at the idea.
* Using [[Cold-Blooded Torture]], [[Rape as Redemption|rape]], the [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]], the [[Maximum Fun Chamber]], [[Police Brutality]], extreme [[Perp Sweating]], and/or some combination thereof to achieve his goals.
* As such, the combination of the [[Designated Hero]] with elements of the [[Torture Technician]], wrapped up in a [[The Hero]] [[Knight in Shining Armor]] package, and stuck on the "white" side of [[Black and White Morality]].
Compare [[Path of Inspiration]] for an institutional example: something that is made to look "good" and "heroic" and has a ton of good publicity, but is, in reality, nothing of the sort.
Compare and contrast [[Cowboy Cop]], [[Moral Dissonance]], [[Values Dissonance]], and especially the [[Torture Technician]] (when the torturer isn't specifically defined within his story as a heroic or "good" character and is only glorified as a result of [[Misaimed Fandom]] or [[Fan Dumb]], he is a [[Torture Technician]] and ''not'' this trope). [[Fridge Horror]] may exist when [[Writer on Board]] is in effect from the beginning (as in at least one of the examples below).
{{examples}}
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* Teal'c from ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' used to be the [[Big Bad|Big Bad's]] [[Torture Technician]] while doubling as [[The Mole]], while his previous methods are never shown, occasional his skills are needed by the heroes, the kicker is that he never even touches them.
* Jarrod from ''[[The Pretender]]'' does some pretty dark things to the people who hurt the blameless victim of the week.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' has Starbuck in her interrogation of Leoben.
* Guerrero from ''[[Human Target]]'', whose torture of enemies is occasionally even [[Played for Laughs]].
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* [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in Gene Wolfe's ''[[Book of the New Sun]]'', [[Designated Hero|Severian]] at first believes this, but then comes to later realize that [[Cold-Blooded Torture|torture]] [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|is]] '''bad'''.
* Depending on who you ask, [[God]] or [[Satan]] ([[Take a Third Option|or both]]) in [[The Bible]]. The book of Job is an example, where an innocent victim is tortured solely to prove his faithfulness.
* In the ''[[Left Behind]]'' series, it's God who's propped up as the
{{quote|"Like My Father, with whom I am One, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but justice must be served, and death is your sentence."}}
* While no details are given as to what exactly Butcher Brakespeare of the ''[[Flora Segunda]]'' books did during the war, her reputation as her country's greatest war criminal makes it clear that it was not very nice. But apparently she thought very hard about it and while it was difficult for her to do, it was the only way. So ''that's'' all right then. (Meanwhile, the other side's equally-vague war crimes are treated as completely unjustified and horrible.)
* In the ''[[Lensman]]'' universe, Worsel of Velantia and Nadreck of Palain VII both unleash the torture instruments of the Delgonian Overlords upon their former masters in the search for vital information. In Worsel's case, the other Lensmen let him do it because his own species was for countless centuries subject to the Overlords' depredations (basically a combination of [[Mind Rape]], torture and a kind of telepathic sadism, and concluding with snuff and the consumption of the dying victim's life energies), while Nadreck is a member of a species which literally cannot comprehend such concepts as suffering without years of study, and even then can't ''feel'' it.
* Pulp detective character [[Mike Hammer]] did a fair amount of beating and killing perps. Notably, while this was depicted as praiseworthy in the novels, one of the notable films based on the series, ''Kiss Me Deadly'' is something of a [[Stealth Parody]] making him a [[Villain Protagonist]].
* ''[[Dune]]'' have the pain test. In a twist, it ''relies on'' the desire to get back at the source of suffering later as well as on knowing that failure is instant death. The Bene Gesserit seem to rely on the same self control to not get backstabbed by the passing apprentice the moment opportunity arises, since it also serves the long-term necessity, but administering it to non-members lacks this safeguard - Paul began sassing back the moment it ended, and later explicitly compared the new setup to the do-or-die test while informing his examiner as to who is in control now, and to what exactly degree.
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''
** D&D 3.5 ''Book of Exalted Deeds'' got some... ''interesting'' options - for example "ravages" and "afflictions", that is, good old poisons and diseases, only alignment-selective - intended to torture or drive obsessively or violently insane (no way this may end in harm to third party?), without endangering good alignment. For some reason, the splatbook in question occasionally referred conflated with its counterpart into "Book of Exalted/Vile Deeds" (order and slash are optional).
** D&D 3.5 ''Complete Scoundrel'' introduced the Gray Guard [[Prestige Class]], supposed to allow paladins to go all [[Dirty Harry]] on potential perpetrators without losing their alignment, and generally diminish even mechanical penalties for transgressions as long as it's all done "in the name of their faith".
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* A [[Karma Meter|Renegade]] Commander Shepard in ''[[Mass Effect]]''.
** Hell, sometimes even [[Good Is Not Nice|Paragon Shepard.]]
* A ''[[Dragon Age 2]]'' example. During the quest "Inside Job", [[Player Character|Hawke]] can torture a miner and have him killed. In his/her own home.
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is a special case. While most of the torturers in game (Torturer Lecraft and such) are
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[Sonichu]]'' and Christian Weston Chandler's self-insertions.
== Real Life ==
* In post-9/11 America, this is what the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] wants people to think its interrogators are, when it's not busy denying that what they do really "counts" as torture.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Truth in Television]]
[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]
[[Category:
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