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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent. | „ |
| ~ Judge Holden expressing his desire to know and control all things in existence - also his most iconic quote. |
| “ | Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals and define them. But the trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all. [...] This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one's will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is God. | „ |
| ~ Judge Holden philosophizing his views on war. |
| “ | He wafts his hat and the lunar dome of his skull passes palely under the lamps and he swings about and takes possession of one of the fiddles and he pirouettes and makes a pass, two passes, dancing and fiddling at once. His feet are light and nimble. He never sleeps. He says that he will never die. He dances in light and in shadow and he is a great favorite. He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die. | „ |
| ~ The ending of Blood Meridian. |
Judge Holden is the main antagonist of the late Cormac McCarthy's 1985 anti-Western novel Blood Meridian. He is a polymath who joins a gang of nomadic mercenaries in order to 'help them', only for it to be revealed that he is a deranged sadist with supernatural qualities who enjoys causing as much suffering as he can.
He was voiced by Richard Poe in the audiobook version.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- He was involved in countless crimes on the Wild West, including mass slaughtering of people, robbery, and scalp hunting.
- Whilst he did seem genuinely loyal to Glanton, there is no indication that the Judge ever cared for or even respected him. Rather, he likely only saw him as a means to an end in terms of achieving his own goals, and was even willing to let him die once he had outlived his usefulness.
- To add onto this, while Glanton was already an incredibly vile character, a lot of his worst actions seemed influenced by the Judge in some way, and the Judge even allowed him to die once he no longer needed him, showing that even Glanton was ultimately nothing more than a pawn to the Judge.
- It's heavily implied that he's a pedophilic rapist and a child murderer multiple times throughout the story:
- On one occasion, he filled his pockets with little candy death's heads, and he sat by the door and offered these to children, but they were too scared of him.
- It's heavily implied that he raped a 12-year-old Mexican boy and broke his neck.
- It's heavily implied that he raped and threw a girl over the wall of a town.
- It implied that he raped a 12-year-old girl, as she was naked when the Yumas saw her on the floor, and he was also naked behind them.
- By the end of the story, a little girl is lost, which is possibly because of him, and this causes people to look for her.
- Falsely accused a reverend of raping an 11-years-old girl and having sex with a goat in an attempt to get the priest killed by his congregation. When confronted about how he was aware of that fact, he stated that he never met or saw him in his life and simply destroyed the reverend's life for no good reason.
- When he and the group of nomadic mercenaries encountered the tribe of Apaches, he tricked the Natives by falsely surrendering, only to attack and brutally murder them.
- He was involved in several more conflicts with Natives, including a raid that resulted in the slaughtering of multiple babies and defenseless non-combatants.
- He refused to help Davey Brown pull out an arrow in his leg and even sarcastically joked about stealing his insurance.
- He murdered a Native American child and scalped him. When Toadvine confronted him about this act, he did not show any kind of remorse or guilt.
- He shot a man who stabbed one of the gang members at a bar, which led to a fight between the customers and the gang that resulted in multiple deaths, and then ordered Tobin to kill the fleeing men.
- During the fight, he brutally crushed the skull of a man who attempted to stab him, making him bleed from his ears, before expiring.
- He bought two puppies, only to throw them off a bridge and leave them to drown, and the Vandiemenlander shot them while the boy watched, showing signs of his blatant psychopathy.
- Hunted various specimens of birds because he finds the freedom of birds to be an insult to him. As if this weren't cruel and petty enough, he also says that it would be preferable to keep all birds in a massive zoo, even if it took a lot of time and resources to build it.
- Attempted to corrupt more of the already evil members of the gang with his nihilistic and socially Darwinistic philosophy.
- Implied to be succesful in doing so,with Only the Kid and Tobin not being affected by his influence.
- He refused to turn over the gang member who had murdered the eatinghouse proprietor to Lieutenant Couts.
- He attacked Tobin and the Kid and forced them to go into hiding in order to escape him. During the chase, Tobin was shot in the neck.
- He used the Idiot as a pet while holding him by a leash and forcing him to hold his weapons. He also corrupted the Idiot into becoming his "pupil," to the point that he assisted him in trying to kill the Kid and Tobin and, apparently, in raping a little girl.
- Near the end of the story, it’s revealed that he has an obsession and possibly sexual desire for the Kid since he joined the gang, and later, when he visited him in jail, he creepily told him to come closer to talk to him and touch him; he even said that he would love him like a son if he was close with him since the start.
- Tried to get the Kid executed by framing him responsible for the slaughter of the Glanton gang.
- This also implied that he testified against Toadvine and Brown, resulting in the two of them getting hanged. While both men undoubtedly deserved it given their crimes, it comes off as extremely hypocritical given that Holden was just as guilty as them, if not more so.
- It is implied that he murdered Tobin after the duo escaped.
- He lured the Man into the outhouse, implicitly raping and killing him in a very gruesome manner.
- He is never punished for his crimes and gets away with everything in the end, stating that he never sleeps and will never die due to being a Satanic figure. The narrative even implies that he is ageless, eternally free to commit atrocities and corrupt men while working towards his goal of becoming suzerain of the earth, making him a Karma Houdini.
- Even though he is Satanic in nature, he still has full moral agency due to possessing the capacity to think like a normal individual, even more so as he's extremely intelligent.
Trivia[]
- A theory exists that the Judge's life force - as he is Satanic in nature - is sustained by evil and war. This may explain why he triumphantly dances and states that he will never die at the end of the novel due to all of the atrocities; committed, and to follow.
- It is unknown whether his film counterpart will qualify as Pure Evil. But due to how depraved he is in the book, it can be assumed that he will.
- The book was once considered to be unfilmable due to the immense graphic content featured in the book (meaning its partially Holden's fault the book was deemed this, since he commits the worst of it) dissuading studios from backing an adaptation, which could easily risk an NC-17 rating.
- He has been described as "The most haunting character in all of American literature", which is basically true since he stand out most of other villains.
- To cement his status as "The most haunting character in all of American literature", Cormac McCarthy had literary written every inhumane acts that any human beings in the Wild West of America had done.
- With every vile and depraved actions he had done, he is widely considered to be 'the epitome of evil'.
- The Judge has been compared to several libertine characters in the Marquis de Sade's literature, of powerful and wealthy perverted nihilists indulging every atrocity conceivable that they can, as well as corrupting others with their nihilistic philosophy, but unlike the Judge, cannot be Pure Evil due to the Marquis de Sade's works being exploitation pornography that is also a mouthpiece of his own philosophy.
- Whilst the novel finishes with the Judge gleefully celebrating his atrocities and is a Karma Houdini, Judge Holden's capability to commit atrocities and get away with it is also implied to be at an end due to the upcoming end of the Age of Outlaws, as well as the dissemination of education and better justice systems, which whilst not perfect, will at least impair or inhibit the Judge's ability for evil.
External Links[]
- Judge Holden on the Villains Wiki
- Judge Holden on the Ultimate Evil Wiki
- Judge Holden on the VS Battles Wiki
- Judge Holden on Wikipedia