 ✓
| ||
|
This Villain was proposed and approved by Villains Wiki's Pure Evil Proposals Thread. Any act of removing this villain from the category without a Removal Proposal shall be considered vandalism (or a futile "heroic" attempt of redemption) and the user will have high chances of being | ||
  |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
| “ | Our biggest mistake was teaching them to read. We won't do that again. | „ |
| ~ Judd describing Jewish people. |
B. Frederick Judd, also known as Commander Judd, is the overarching antagonist of The Handmaid's Tale novel duology.
He is the highest-ranking Commander in the dystopian regime of Gilead, where women are subjugated to the highest degree possible and many are forced to become Handmaid's, breeding slaves for Commander's and their Wives who cannot conceive naturally. He is responsible for the attack on the United States government which allowed Gilead to take over, and was instrumental in the creation of the laws and practices that take place inside Gilead.
Personality[]
Judd is shown to be a cruel and downright psychotic man, being perhaps the most critical individual in the creation of Gilead and responsible for the majority of its horrific practices. Despite his cruelty, he is remarkably intelligent, as he successfully took down the entire United States government and utilized the Aunts as a class or cruel high-ranking women in order to control and subjugate the other women in Gilead. He is shown to not even truly respect the laws of Gilead and only care about his own personal power and gain, as he murders many of his wives in order to marry younger women, despite that going against laws of Gilead that he created. He is shown to work closely with Lydia due to how useful she is to him in gaining control and political power. It's unclear how much he agrees with what Gilead is doing considering he breaks its rules constantly, meaning it is possible he only cares about benefitting himself, although he is shown to be genuinely antisemitic based on his remarks towards Jewish people.
Biography[]
Judd's overall history is not very well known, only that he was an instrumental member of the Sons of Jacob, the organization that would lead to the creation of Gilead. Judd creates a pamphlet which contained instructions of how to take down foreign governments, and later orchestrated the "President's Day Massacre" an event in which the Sons of Jacob infiltrated and attacked the United States government and killed every major official in the country. Judd was likely a member of the United States government himself, allowing him to orchestrate these events, and putting him in perhaps the highest position of power once Gilead was created. Following the regime's creation, Judd went on to create Gilead's anti-immigration policy, which not only sealed the borders of Gilead but also expelled all non-white and Jewish people from Gilead. This would lead to the Gilead National Homelands Genocide, an event in which every Jewish person would be carried out of Gilead on a boat and dumped in the Atlantic ocean where they would drown to death. He also is the person who created the practice of "Particicutions", where Handmaids would beat convicted prisoner's to death. His last known major creation in Gilead is the "Aunts" a class of high-ranking women in the regime who were responsible for training Handmaids into their roles.
Judd is seen in a number of testimonies within The Testaments, particularly the one created by Aunt Lydia, known as "The Ardua Hall Holograph". Lydia met with Judd when Gilead was first founded, learning that he controls the Eyes, the intelligence agency in Gilead, and holds perhaps the greatest power in the entire country. Lydia explains that Judd interviewed her due to her meeting the criteria to become an Aunt, and after she expressed hesitation he locked her in isolation until she complied. Judd later had her and three other Aunts create the laws and regulations to govern Gilead's women. As an Aunt she would meet with Commanders on certain occasions, which often included Judd as he viewed her as extremely valuable in controlling the women of Gilead. During one meeting Lydia explains that she knows he has been discreetly murdering his wives so that he can keep marrying young women. Lydia and him have a discussion about the Pearl Girls, a missionary program of Gilead supporting women in Canada, which aided them in finding operatives of Mayday, the resistance movement against Gilead, who were helping women from escaping the country. Judd ended up taking credit for the Pearl Girls despite it being Lydia's idea for the sake of his political reputation. Lydia's account describes another instance where Judd summoned her for a meeting, where his wife was dying once again. Lydia offered to take his wife to a clinic, but Judd declined, meaning his wife would die and he would be given another young bride.
Judd appears once again in Agnes testimony, who is most likely the daughter of Offred from the original novel. Agnes describes the time in which the Aunts forced her to get married despite her still being a child, giving her the choice between two low-level Commanders and Judd. Despite presenting it as a choice Agnes knows that she will be forced to marry Judd due to his status, and contemplates both suicide and killing Judd on their wedding night. Agnes' feelings of dread eventually catch Aunt Lydia's attention, who convinces her parents Commander Kyle and Paula to sign her over as a Supplicant of the Aunts so she can train to eventually become one. In Agnes' place, a friend of hers named Shunammite marries Judd instead. Shifting back to Lydia's testimony, she meets with Judd in his home and notices that Shunammite looks ill, and convinces Judd to allow his wife to visit the clinic by implying that she will kill her for him, although she does not actually go through with it. Lydia later meets with Judd again after he raids a print shop run by an Aunt, explaining that he was hoping to find evidence of a connection to Mayday operatives as they have been communicating with microdots attached to brochures which he believed came from said print shop. The conversation then shifts to the fact that other Gilead officials are beginning to question Judd's effectiveness, so he then suggests that he should get married to Daisy (the child of Nick and Offred) on public display to save his political reputation. Lydia, who is actually the one helping Mayday, tells Daisy about this, prompting Daisy and Agnes to flee from Gilead with Lydia's help. The two of them are ultimately successful and reunite with their mother Offred in Canada. Judd is last seen in a conversation with Lydia where he states that Daisy was likely a plant by the Canadian government, and warns Lydia that their escape and the doubts around him could lead to their executions by the other Commanders despite his high status. It is ultimately unknown what happened to Judd after this, but Gilead would eventually collapse meaning Judd was either killed or arrested and tried for his crimes against humanity.
Trivia[]
- Despite his importance to the novel duology, no official illustrations or portrayals of Judd exist.
- The page art was created by Stela draws.
- Judd has yet to appear or have any mentions in the Hulu television adaptation of the series, although aspects of his character have been adapted into Warren Putnam.
External Links[]
[]
 Villains
| ||
|
Republic of Gilead Wives Aunts Other | ||