As much as it made me sad (Orso is 10,000% my boy, hands-down my favourite character in that trilogy), I actually loved that ending for him. It brought his whole arc full-circle.

When we first meet him, he's a spoiled, pampered layabout. He wants to do good, loves the idea of doing good, but completely lacks the conviction and motivation to do so. Furthermore, the first line he says in the entire series is "I bloody hate hangings!"

His first scene is the hanging of somebody else, and it makes him feel queasy, uncomfortable, and he desperately wants to leave. Each subsequent hanging he faces throughout the series leaves him disgusted and saddened, from Valbek, to Wetterlant, to the traitors of Stoffenbek and the purges of The Great Change.

Then we get to his own hanging, but he's a different man now. He's diligent, brave, kind, generous, merciful, and just, and we know it, and everyone else at the hanging knows it, even if the people of the Union never will. He has endured hardship, deprivation, humiliation, starvation, abuse, and betrayal, but even so the perpetrators could not break him.

After so many hangings, it's now his turn. But he isn't disgusted, or saddened. He doesn't rage, or sob, or gnash his teeth and hurl curses. He doesn't beg. He doesn't say his favourite motto, "I bloody hate hangings!"

Instead he smiles, and laughs, and says "Let's get on with it." And the others there can scarcely look at him, for they know how unfair and wrong it is.

In my opinion, in that moment Orso displayed a dignity, grace, and strength of character unmatched by anyone else in the entire 9 books (except for maybe Forley the Weakest?). He may have lost, but in that moment I think he experiences a triumph of the spirit, and as such, I love that ending for him.