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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 serial killer with supernatural qualities who enjoys causing as much suffering as he can.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- He was involved in countless crimes on the Wild West, including mass slaughtering of people, robbery, and scalp hunting.
- 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.
- It's heavily implied that he's a pedophlic rapist and a child murder 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, and people are looking for her.
- Even though he doesn’t have any redeeming qualities, he does show some mitigating factors that can be disproved:
- The first one is that he played a coin trick on a boy, and later he gave a gold coin to a young boy selling dogs that were worth much more than such dogs. This was done, possibly because he wanted the boy to keep quiet as the boy saw him throwing the dogs.
- While he did save the Idiot from drowning, it’s only because he's probably useful to him, and overall, he treats him like a pet.
- While conceding that the Anasazi are more than just primitive savages, he also recognizes their advancement. It doesn't stop him from supporting his colleagues in wiping them out, but that's more because he wants to enable all terrible activities than because he dislikes them.
- 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.
- 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.
- He 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.
- 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.
Trivia[]
- Due to the sheer depravity of his actions, Judge Holden is widely considered to be one of the most evil characters in all of fiction, alongside AM and Qu.
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