It was so gruesome, in fact, that AC: Valhalla, already an M-rated game, still uses various bowdlerizing tactics such as panning away during some parts, and silhouettes in others. For a form of torture to be censored in such a way in an M-rated game is evidential of just how violent and stomach-turning Ivarr's Blood Eagle was.

That's potentially also a visual design decision that might not be "we can't show this" as much as "this makes the scene a lot more impactful".

I mean, you see something super super violent and it almost desensitizes you. If you see the shadow of it in a cool way, it forces you to imagine it, and it can almost be more horrifying, where you just think it was brutal as fuck and your mind draws it out instead.

Some things are so much gore that it almost tells the story better to just hint at the gore and make your mind fill in the blanks imo