This paper presents a historical analysis of Legendary Axe II (Victor Musical Industries, 1990) and its seemingly nonsensical ending where the player’s avatar is put to death. Through historical contextualization that highlights the interactions between technological evolution, commercial imperatives and the rewarding dynamics in games, the meaning of this execution is better understood: the game seems to offer a critique of male-centered and heteronormative power fantasies that were acted out on video game screens at the turn of the 1990s.