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           JokerCoringaPalhaco

This Villain was Headlined on January, 2024.

           KeyLocker

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 terminated blocked. You cannot make said Removal Proposal without permission from an admin first.
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Villain Overview

Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.
~ Judge Holden's 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. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god.
~ Judge Holden.
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 horror/thriller, crime and anti-Western epic novel Blood Meridian. He is inspired by an alleged real-life man whom committed atrocities just like Holden and wore a hat as well too

Biography[]

The novel is vague about the origins of the Judge to the point where there is nothing known about them. It is only known that the Judge is active around the Mexico–United States border in the 19th century, and seems to be a possibly middle-aged man. He is first seen entering a revival to falsely accuse a priest of being an imposter, as well as an illiterate, zoophilic criminal wanted for pedophilia, agitating the people in attendance of his service to the point where they kill the priest on the spot.

The Judge later met a group of nomadic mercenary scalp hunters who were out of gunpowder and at risk of being overtaken by a group of Apaches. They encountered Holden sitting on an enormous boulder in the middle of the desert, as if he had been waiting for them, even though there was no way he could have known that they were coming.

The Judge climbed a mountain with them, and collected coal while he was there (amongst many other scientific pursuits). The Judge later lead them to a small area of volcanic activity, while Apaches were following them closely. When they arrived he collected sulfur, then mixed that with the coal, urine, and other minerals, producing functional gunpowder. The Judge than created a false surrender against the Apaches. However, when the natives approached the mercenaries, Holden and his fellow men brutally killed them all. Shortly after, the Judge formed a partnership with the captain of the gang, a small dark-haired man named Joel John Glanton.

The Judge was involved in several more conflicts with natives, including a raid that resulted in the slaughtering of multiple babies and defenseless non-combatants. After a year, Glanton and most of his gang were slaughtered in a conflict with Quechan Native Americans. Holden was one of the few that managed to survive. The other four remaining members of the Glanton Gang (the Kid, Benjamin Tobin, Davvy Brown, and Louis Toadvine) encounter the Judge after the Glanton Massacre. After Davvy Brown and Toadvine leave, Holden suddenly attacks Tobin and the Kid, stalking them across a field before the duo is forced into hiding in order to escape him. The duo manages to get into San Francisco, but Tobin goes missing. His ultimate fate remains unknown.

The Kid encounters Holden decades later within a saloon, although the Judge has apparently not aged at all. Holden describes the Kid as a disappointment, stating that he held in his heart "clemency for the heathen". He then follows the Kid into an outhouse, dragging him into a stall with a little girl who was also present in the saloon. After this event, two men approach the outhouse and another man walking back to the saloons tells them that they should not go near the place. They open the door and are confused and horrified by what they see.

What happens to the Kid is unknown. One theory is that Holden rapes and kills the Kid. Another is that the Kid is tempted by Holden to rape the girl. The latter is supported by the fact that an unknown man was walking away from the outhouse and told the other men to not approach. This may have been the Kid walking away from his own actions. The Judge has attempted to corrupt the Kid throughout their acquaintance and make him commit acts of evil. However, the Kid already has committed many sins, and killed a 15 year old boy in the previous chapter (albeit in self-defense), so the Judge may have simply come to end his life.

The Judge is last seen dancing in the dance hall attached to the saloon. He is completely naked and has enchanted the crowd. He says that he never sleeps and he claims that he will never die.

Personality[]

Judge Holden is an extremely ruthless, vile, depraved, perverted, abusive, sadistic but also very intelligent individual. He often teaches lessons about the world to his fellow mercenaries and philosophizes to them. He tends to avoid personal confrontation, but is perfectly willing to murder or rape people in the most brutal ways imaginable if they are his enemies. The Judge is perennially calm, and expresses few emotions over the course of the novel.

He was an immensely cruel being, demonstrating his love for cruelty such as buying two puppies just so he can throw them off a bridge to their deaths. The Judge is a child molester/murderer, luring children into his clutches with sweets. A child goes missing in nearly every town that he visits, and he is, on several occasions, seen with a naked child in his room.

Appearance[]

The Judge is a man of strange appearance. He has an enormous frame and is close to 7 feet in height. His skin is extremely pale, to the point of being described as fluorescent and purely white in coloration, his lack of pigmentation is possibly the result of albinism, as exposure to direct sunlight is painful to him, evidenced by how desperate he was to purchase a hat from Toadvine to protect himself from the harsh sunlight of the desert, according to Tobin he weights 150kg.

He also lacks any hair, including eyebrows, facial hair and body hair, raising the possibility that he suffers from an autoimmune disorder such as alopecia universalis that has caused him to lose all his hair. Physically, Holden is very strong, being capable of lifting a Howitzer with ease, and using a large rock to kill a mule in a single blow. In contrast to his apparent age and strong features, the Judge has a strangely childlike element to his appearance, having hands and feet that are small in proportion to the rest of his body, and possessing a childish aspect to his face.

The Judge is often partially or entirely nude, but (when clothed) will tend to wear clothing typical of his era; such as long coats, linen shirts, boots, and wide-brimmed hats. Often, the Judge can be seen smoking a cigarillo.

In Samuel Chamberlain's autobiography My Confession: Recollections of a Rogue, Holden's appearance is described identically to that of his fictional counterpart:

He stood six foot six in his moccasins, had a large, fleshy frame, a dull, tallow-colored face destitute of hair and all expression, always cool and collected.

Powers & Abilities[]

The Judge is extraordinarily strong and durable. He is able to hold a heavy howitzer under one arm, break an arm with ease, and crush a man's head so hard that he started to bleed from his ears. Holden also has incredible stamina, being capable of walking vast stretches of desert without ill effect. His large size betrays his capacity for stealth, and he often appears and disappears like a phantom without anyone noticing. It is these traits that suggest the judge is not in fact human, but a demon of some sorts.

Judge is an appointed judge of law and enjoys all the privileges that come with such a position, including the ability to negotiate for the pardoning of criminals. While his jurisdiction is not known, he can cite the word of the law from several jurisdictions from memory. He has extensive knowledge of many branches of science, including geology, botany, history, chemistry and archaeology, and is able to draw lifelike portraits of people and objects (so lifelike he frightened a superstitious Indian by drawing a portrait of him).

He is skilled at hiding his atrocities and never leaves behind any evidence. He is able to speak several secondary languages, including Spanish and Dutch. He possesses great strategical and tactical prowess, so much so it causes Tobin to believe he cannot be overcome in battle.

External Links[]

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