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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent. | „ |
| ~ Holden expressing his desire to know and control all things in existence - also his most famous 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. |
Judge Holden is the main antagonist of the late Cormac McCarthy's 1985 epic historical 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.
In the audiobook, he was voiced by Richard Poe.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- He is involved in countless crimes in the Wild West, including mass slaughters, robbery, and scalp hunting.
- Despite being Glanton's second-in-command, he is never truly loyal to him, as he only views him as a pawn in his ultimate goals. It's also heavily implied that the Judge allows Glanton to die once he no longer needs him, possibly even planning his death.
- Furthermore, while Glanton certainly deserves it, it's heavily implied that many of Glanton's worst actions were influenced by manipulation from Holden in some way.
- There's also no indication that he cared for anyone in the gang, and if he did, it was only out of pragmatism.
- He's a child molester, rapist, and murderer:
- On one occasion, he fills his pockets with little candy death's heads, and he sits by the door and offers these to children to put them more on edge, but they are too scared of him.
- He rapes and kills 3 children.
- 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 accuses a reverend of raping an 11-year-old girl and having sex with a goat in an attempt to get the priest killed by his congregation. When confronted about how he is aware of that fact, he states that he never actually 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 encounter the tribe of Apaches, he tricks the Natives by falsely surrendering, only to attack and brutally murder them.
- He is involved in several more conflicts with Natives, including a raid that results in the slaughtering of multiple babies and defenseless non-combatants.
- He refuses to help Davey Brown pull out an arrow in his leg and even sarcastically jokes about stealing his insurance.
- He murders a Native American child and scalps them (and implicitly molests them before). When Toadvine confronts him about this act, he does not show any kind of remorse or guilt.
- He shoots a man who stabbed one of the gang members at a bar, which leads to a fight between the customers and the gang that results in multiple deaths, and then orders Tobin to kill the fleeing men.
- During the fight, he brutally crushes the skull of a man who attempts to stab him, making him bleed from his ears, before expiring.
- He buys two puppies, only to throw them off a bridge and leave them to drown, and the Vandiemenlander shoots them while the Kid watches, showing signs of his blatant psychopathy.
- Hunts 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.
- Attempts to corrupt more of the already evil members of the gang with his nihilistic and social darwinistic philosophy.
- Implied to be successful in doing so, with only the Kid and Tobin implicitly not being affected by his influence.
- He refuses to turn over the gang member who had murdered the eating house proprietor to Lieutenant Couts.
- He attacks Tobin and the Kid and forces them to go into hiding in order to escape him. During the chase, he shoots Tobin in the neck.
- He uses the Idiot as a pet while holding him by a leash and forcing him to hold his weapons. He also corrupts the Idiot into becoming his "pupil," to the point that he assists 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 visits him in jail, he creepily tells him to come closer to talk to him and touch him; he even says that he would love him like a son if he was close with him since the start.
- Tries to get the Kid executed by framing him for the slaughter of the Glanton gang.
- This also implies that he testified against Toadvine and Brown, resulting in the two of them getting hanged. While both men undoubtedly deserve it given their crimes, it comes off as extremely hypocritical given that Holden is just as guilty as them, if not more so.
- It is implied that he murders Tobin after the duo escapes.
- It is heavily implied in the ending of the book that he either rapes and/or murders the Kid (now the Man) in a way so gruesome that the book doesn’t describe how awful it is, or has corrupted him and had gotten him to rape the missing girl and adapt his philosophy.
- At the end, he is shown to have gotten away with all his crimes. He exclaims that “He never sleeps” and that “He will never die”, while playing the fiddle and dancing naked with the townsfolk at the local tavern, implying that he will continue his crime spree forever.
Trivia[]
- He, alongside Anton Chigurh, are the only two Cormac McCarthy villains to be Pure Evil.
- 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 it’s 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 stands out a lot compared to other villains.
- To cement his status as "The most haunting character in all of American literature", Cormac McCarthy had written every inhumane act that any human being in the Wild West of America had done.
- With every vile and depraved action 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.
External Links[]
- Judge Holden on the Ultimate Evil Wiki
- Judge Holden on the Villains Wiki
- Judge Holden on the Blood Meridian Wiki