Where did the archetype of a guy in a black coat with a hat wielding a crossbow come from...

Where did the archetype of a guy in a black coat with a hat wielding a crossbow come from? It's too common to just be a coincidence.

The actual inquisition. Probably.

Hahaha.
HAHAHAHA.
OH WOW.
OH FUCKING WOW.

No.

It looks cool.

Probably the Matrix.

Van Hellsing is my first instinct.

Or Blade.

Maybe cowboy aesthetics shifted back a bit? A guy in a long coat and hat who's all gritty and ready to murder things because of his dark terrible past is pretty common in westerns. Might make sense if witchunters are basically just that IIIIIIN FANTASYYYYYY.

>It looks cool.
This also. Don't underestimate the power of convergent evolution.

He probably meant actual witch finders. And he wasn't wrong.

Like, the spanish inquisition? I wouldn't have expected that.

I'd agree with
about the look. No-one wants to see men in priests robes telling thugs what to do as a main character. Then they need a weapon. Something that can look cool and like a gun without loosing the medieval aspect. So crossbow. It then got crossed with vampires, and the idea, "hey crossbow bolts are like stakes right?"

Nobody does.

Solomon Kane, who's appearance was modeled after actual Puritan witch-finders.
Interestingly, most of those guys were not legal authorities at all and basically were conducting vigilante justice, which had something to do with why Britain got so fucking tired of Puritans that they told them to fuck off to the New World.

I'm not precisely sure that anyone other then Hopkins wore that, but it's probably true that there were more because that particular hat was associated with Puritans even over in the United States.

>when you realize these cucks got to rape and torture "witches" for free unironically and they are now praised as badass thanks to history books.

The more you know.jpg

This is why we now oppress the neckbeard.

>Witch finders are inquisitors xDDdDD!1

Settle down, Spergitus Maximus

>putting witch in sarcastiquotes
user, they did a great service to Christendom by suppressing the practitioners of the dark arts, and the decline in their activities is directly proportional to the growing influence of pagan and Satanic powers over our world.

It's just going for the cowboy archetype without involving actual guns.

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>You will never get to travel from town to town, having your pick of the best qts, torturing, raping and snuffing them and getting rewarded with treasure, prestige and more qts for it.

We were born in the wrong era boys, now i will never fuck a thicc blonde tavern wench's feet while she strangles in the garrote.

wasn't salomon caine hat was like THE guy with hat and black coat fighting evil and stuff ?

I'm not sure anyone considers actual real-life witch finders badass. It's just that they had a snazzy sense of fashion, kinda like the nazis.

My money would be on Solomon Kane. He's not as well known today as some of Robert E Howard's other creations but he was a big deal back in the pulp era and the puritan with a sword and gun look clearly made an impact. Later fantasy artist swapping out the pistol for an anachronistic crossbow because guns and fantasy don't mix

>Solomon Kane
Thank you.