The Romanian Christian People might dispute your characterizing Vlad in that category.
Most of the “impalees” were moslem invaders of his country.
I was going to mention that.
Sometimes it’s necessary to fight evil with evil.
Vlad Dracula in MY mind, and that of many others, is that he was a HERO. Sure, he killed a lot of his own people but, like the (EVIL) editor of the (EVIL) New York Times said about Stalin’s purges and Holdomor “To make an omelette you have to break some eggs.” He stopped the Ottoman Caliphate dead in its tracks, giving Europe time to recoup then resist again.
We consider Romans feeding christians to lions as evil, but for Roman society “Schadenfreude” was high comedic art where watching someone’s suffering at the hands of gladiators was seen as mere entertainment.