Compilation of Judge Holden's most evil acts and quotes from the 1985 Cormac McCarthy novel Blood Meridian. The audio is from the Blood Meridian audiobook narrated by Richard Poe.
The line " that which exists without my knowledge exists without my consent" is about the most metal thing in literature. I say it quietly to myself when I find Oreos I forgot I still had
He would. And he’d wait for the family to kill each other, then tell whoever was left standing, “I never checked the remote’s batteries. In fact, it seems to be working just fine.” Basically a repeat of “I never met the preacher before today.” The guy just stirs conflict because it’s fun to him.
For me, the real horror is the congregation who violently attack the preacher after nothing more then a few wild claims from a total stranger. It's genius plan, actually. What better place than a church to spin a fictional tale and have everyone blindly believe everything you say?
@@Torgo-and-the-Lucifer-Cat Yea there’s a lot of gnostic themes in the novel, but the archetype is the same. Personally I prefer the idea that Holden is the devil incarnate, the same being who tempted Eve, who tempted Christ, who tortured Job. He plays a fiddle, never sleeps and is always dancing, he is the father of all lies and he will never die, like the devil. He worships the material world and seeks to control all of it, like the Demiurge
@@Stopitpls in an odd way I would have to say that he's not even really evil he is simply the end result of a powerful being with absolutely no morality similar to the sorts of things that Nietzsche talked about that is Will To Power. I always point to the crime case of Leopold and Loeb who read Nietzsche and then ended up murdering a kid to prove they were an Uber man
@Torgo-and-the-Lucifer-Cat I'm kind of in the same boat. Just a massive man with unlimited will power, highly intelligent and absolutely no morals or empathy for others. Just a terrifying combination of traits for a man back in an untamed, near lawless wild frontier.
Yeah when the game came out, but MGR becomes an internet obsession once every couple years at this point so by now everything about Sundowner is memed@@publiusventidiusbassus1232
@@stephen7587both bald and hairless Both about 7 feet tall Both described as childlike Both fans of warcrimes Both abuse children Both have a creepy grin Both think humans in their natural state are good for nothing but war Both state “I’m fucking invincible/I will never die” Both have inhuman strength.
When the Judge says that war was always there and even before man came, war was there waiting for them, I think of the time Glanton's party came across the Judge just sitting on a rock in the middle of the desert, seemingly just waiting for them.
These seem to be clues that the judge is the devil. War existing before man could refer to the war in heaven and Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert. By the end of the book, the judge is dancing around a fire naked, playing a fiddle. It's pretty "on the nose".
the average height around that time for a male was about 5’7 or lower, imagine a huge almost 7’0 albino man almost reaching the top of the tent lmao. terrifying shit
Thats a big burly monster. Almost other worldly. Judge seems like a demon honestly. That's what those times did to ppl's minds. Look at old pictures from that time noone smiles.
@@coreyhall1150Tougher in what sense? And also, no, people will always try to smile and be happy, even at the worst of situations. (And that exposure time is also the reason barely anyone was smiling + it was seen as proof of being a drunk)
I think it can be interpreted many ways and that’s what so intriguing. Glanton knows, doesn’t care and doesn’t regulate him, but it seems as if he does for a moment there.
@@bman1235 Glanton having brief moments where even his humanity surfaces is the most interesting thing to me. He never goes so far as to challenge the judge, but even he has limits to what evil he likes to partake in.
@@m3lk0r83 That could definitely work too, I just think that with the judge asking if anyone else is responsible for the little boy, Glanton probably knows what is going to happen to him and spits out of disgust or shame. It’s also crazy how the real person the judge is based off of did the same thing to kids.
@@roccosimmone1837well in your opinion who was he really based on? I’ve always thought he was an amalgamation of glantons men, sort of combining a bunch or peoples acts and traits to simplify writing and not assert that kind of guilt to a real name.
The most evil one to me was when the Kid said, “Are you Judge Shane Holden?” and the judge replied, “My name’s not Shane, Kid,” when in fact he was named Shane.
You know what I think the Judge deserves? I think he deserves to be trapped somewhere filled with nothing but peace, comfort, laughter, and happiness, where nobody fights, he’s physically incapable of hurting anyone, and vice versa. Why? Because he thrives on war and suffering. The ultimate agony for someone like that is to put them in a place where none of that even exists.
@@FookMi69 Definitely. The guy would be pulling his (nonexistent) hair out, trying to get someone, anyone to fight someone else, but they’d just say, “Nah, I don’t wanna.” Karma at it’s finest.
There’s something so horrific in the combination of both his stature and intelligence. I know a 21st century-Holden type who is 6ft 7 and over 120kg and heard stories of him being stabbed over 30 times and not dying. Only to find he got his retribution. A man who has plagued my home town since he was a kid. I could not imagine if he was also hyper intelligent to go along with his brutality. That’s Judge Holden. What a character. It’s scary as there have probably been many of his kind throughout the world: intelligent, but also MASSIVE. Instilling the purest , deep-seated fear into people.
@@JH-lb3kcit’s true guns made all men equal, but firearms are illegal in my country without a strict license, and if you did shoot someone like this man, you’re going to prison for at least 20-25 years, where you’ll meet his kind over and over again. Where they’ll torture, rape or kill you. Or fight you every single day until you commit suicide. I’d rather pick my battles and avoid people like this altogether, especially if they have nothing to lose, or have no fear of prison.
It's interesting comparing Holden to Chigurh. Holden says he'll never die and you kind of believe him. He may not be human as we understand it. Chigurh will die one day, and violently. He limps away injured at the end. He's the scariest man in the narrative, but he is a man, and men die senseless deaths, just like Moss did. They're both monstrous characters who wax poetic and don't always make sense, but Holden doesn't even seem like a person. It makes narrative sense that Chigurh lives through the book. He has to at least outlive Llewelyn and Carla Jean , it would fail as a tragedy if he didn't. But it still seems like he's mortal because 1) the text calls attention to it and 2) the expendability of life is part of the point. In contrast, it only makes narrative sense if Holden keeps living forever. He's too emblematic of evil as a concept to actually die. I always think of the line where the Kid says "You ain't nothin" and Holden replies "You speak truer than you know". If evil is the absence of God, maybe Holden is Nothing, a void where goodness can't reach. How could such a thing die?
Holden's characterization has unnerved me like no other before or after. Saying he's the devil or a personification of evil always seemed like such a lacking, insufficient description. He's like a black dot in space, without a start or an end yet still irradiates a terrible permanence and familiarity, like a memory you can't recall but still know to exist. There's this sense of disturbing vastness to his presence but also a very tactile, earthly individuality to his existence. I honestly can't even put to words half the emotionas it elicits out of me, he's one of the biggest testaments to McCarthy's titanic literary skill.
@TCovenantunbeliever Chigurh won't die because he never existed in the first place. He's a stand in for the cartel. Chigurh is how Sheriff Bell sees the cartel, as a single man that he failed to stop, but "that's vanity". In reality, Shigurh is an entire criminal organization and much like Holden no man can ever defeat him, just oppose him. Evil is pervasive, Good must therefore be persistent.
I've heard the devil take a million times, But I am really liking the horseman of war theory. It makes a ton of sense with the gunpowder story, his diatribes of war as more of a personification...etc. Good stuff
I saw another analysis that he's a manifestation of The Enlightenment's overall effect on the Wild West or really any wild lands left in the world and the kid is the West itself. He's powerful, violent particularly to the innocent, educated and long-winded, and has no regard for human life. He is only interested in dominating all other life, categorizing it, and labeling it by any means necessary.
Maybe he represents the violence and chaos one had to embrace to survive in that era? Like... the brutality involved in survival, because survival is always at the expense of some other living thing? I'm still mulling it over honestly, his significance seems like it would be obvious but it somehow isn't to me. (Currently reading it for the 2nd time)
This reader is extraordinary, he was meant to read this book. The characters come to life through it, especially the judge. I love reading but some audio books are so much better in capturing atmosphere, even more so with Cormac McCarthy writing style, the monologue is just magnificent. I mean I'm a massive Tolkien and Stephen King fan and his books Carrie, the Green Mile, Stand by Me, The Shinning and Shawshank Redemption list goes on, all top tier books but no book of his has such powerful monologue like this. The writing is like Tolkien in it's beauty whereby the judge is the opposite of a Gandalf, like if Saron/Morgoth wrote a memoir. Especially when the judge says Binds Them. Like one ring to rule them all into the darkness bind them. McCarthy was truly brilliant.
This manifestation of evil was unchained from the mind of a single individual and released into our worlds, our minds, our thoughts, and sometimes, even our dreams.
That right there is terrifying. I suppose everytime we read the book or talk about him he lives again. The judge will be immortal more so than Cormac could have imagined. I suppose anything that exists without his knowledge exists without his consent right? Edit spelling
Apparently Holden was based on a real man of the same name. Samuel Chamberlain's autobiography was the basis of Blood Meridian, detailing the real life escapades of the Glanton gang. And according to Chamberlain's account, the real Judge holden was just as smart and evil as the book paints him out to be.
I love how judge Holden straddles that line of does he have supernatural abilities or doesnt he!!! Hes so well written because the only thing scarier than him actully being a demon is him being a human you could mistake as one!!!
"That which exists without my knowledge exists without my consent" is a *haunting* line, because if anyone else said it, it would be arrogant, but with how deceptive, intelligent, and brutally unforgiving Holden is, and how much control he has over everything, you know that if anything is out there that Holden doesn't hold to standard, it's never a matter of if Holden will exterminate and defile it, just when.
He was embodiment of evil, Heart of Darkness incarnate. There were many subtle references hinting he's The Devil, AKA the guy that invented sin itself. He relishes in tainting and corrupting God's work, making Man fall into sin and apathy for one another, to sustain their selfish desires. In the end, he won. For what more could we provide, that he hadn't asked for?
@@Aryan-qv5qk Ironically, God let Lucifer live for a reason, otherwise the latter would face Annihilation (which is God itself destroying ones very soul).
The thumbnail is how I imagine him looking when watching something horrible. I imagine he silently laughs like with the fortune telling, his head bobbing up and down but no sound coming out. I always felt there to be a cartoon goofiness to the judge so clear in my mind and the thumbnail face fits it so well
Steven tries making the Judge stop with his usual spiel of saying he’s hurting people, but the Judge would just place his hand on Steven’s shoulder and you’d just see the Judge grin as it cuts to black.
Whenever Holden talks I kind of imagine Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin. He was intelligent and sophisticated but also so brutal and immensely stronger than everyone.
upon reading the latter part of this book(last like 6 chapters) i became somewhat obsessive over it to the point where it was most of what i thought about, reading parts like the siege on the yuma tribe and judge scalping the little boy in the same day actually made me feel like i was going insane, the horror permeated me and i couldn’t feel anything but dread and stress. This book is pure evil
Yes after awhile it's just a total deluge of innocent bloodshed. I was nervous everytime they entered a new encampment. Like... can't we just skip this one Cormac Mccarthy?
I love McCarthy. His prose is so wonderful when it needs to be, and yet his work is brutal and gives an illusion of a dry world… sucked dry by humanity. Blood meridian is my favorite of all his work because of the judge character.
Dude’s inability to use punctuation and dependence on run on sentences makes me think he is a poor writer. Though much can be said for movies adapted from his books.
Wait up, here "his hands are small" , But on the part about the child who was seemingly grabbed by a large hand in the neck, the judge is the main suspect, because he's the only one with hands THAT big????
The first description of small hands comes from McCarthy’s book, the second is from the memoirs that inspired Blood Meridian. The real man that the character Judge Holden is based on was alleged to have murdered a child because of how her wounds matched the size of his large hands.
His shape seems to shift throughout the book. His hands may be small, but on a child’s neck they probably appear larger than usual. Or maybe he is a demon brought into human form
Honestly if they ever make a character who is a God of War, they need to use Holden's speech. An eloquent monster who destroys armies and commits unspeakable brutality while spouting philosophy on War.
Holden becoming a “literally me” character is something that I dread but that the pessimist in me says is inevitable. Guy speaks too deeply about the evil of humanity for people not to say, “You know, he has a point.” Basically, the same thing people did with the Joker and his “One Bad Day” monologue from “The Killing Joke” or his “social experiment” in “The Dark Knight”, ignoring that he was proven wrong on both counts.
It's rather chilling to imagine the judge leading real people astray like he did with Glanton's men and eventually the kid. Not even his unreality can contain his corrupting influence.
You know, every time I think I find a villain that will truly take the title of the most evil in all of fiction another one pops up out of nowhere. I haven’t seen a character that can top the judge, and I dread the day when it comes.
Have you ever heard of Vukmir from “A Serbian Film”? Vukmir is essentially Holden but even worse. You know how Holden grapes kids? Vukmir does the same… *BUT TO LITERAL NEWBORN BABIES.* He also makes snuff films about it, and even called his acts towards infants *”ART”!!!*
I went into the book thinking that the judge being the devil was just a metaphor for how evil he is but then as I read I went "nah he's definitely the devil crawled up from hell in the ugly shape of a human"
@@jonathanbell8887 That’s a pretty interesting idea. Both are massive, bald, and strong. Holden is unnaturally stark white Coffey is a black man with nothing outwardly unnatural about him Holden is a ruthless, sadistic monster Coffey is a gentle soul and a healer Coffey is a prisoner Holden is a judge, which sentences prisoners They’re like shadows of each other
I think of him as more like just chaos. Helping (when he helped the mercenaries exterminate the natives) but also doing damage (literally everything else he does)
@@greywalker505 John seems to me more like redemption then anything, so the embodiment of good to me would be a normal sized preacher, who's face,hands,feet, and body are constantly covered and we never know his race or his face, and he be the only thing to scare Holden cause I imagine when he comes around to places like the fort, shit gets biblical real fast, i'm talking huge swarms of bugs flying in out of nowhere, diseases and storms and just darkness signaling that the preacher is approaching, and unlike Holden who rides a horse the preacher just walks, but the judge can never truly escape him, wherever the judge goes, the preacher follows and heals in his wake, that would be Holden's opposite
This book has been seared into my mind since I read it several years back. The most gruesome, disturbing piece of literature I’ve come across. A masterpiece of writing.
There are people exactly like the judge alive and well today in our society and the only difference between the judge and them is the judge dosen't hide his nature and they do.
Judge Holden is like somebody got the CROSSED infection but they kept their cognitive skills fully intact. But also make them brilliant so every neuron firing in that galaxy brain is dedicated to plotting the most depraved acts imaginable. And humanity is locked in a cage with this thing.
@@Mike_Oxlong07 Yes. That is what made it the scariest "Zombie" style apocalypse. They keep their intellect. Later in the series they were ejaculating semen onto the bullets and blades they used because they knew it would change anyone who got mildly wounded into one of them.
@@Cajaquarius they do it early in the series too. I think it comes up again in the "Wish you were here" arc also dolphin grape. But i could be wrong. I've got the full physical collection around here somewhere. I'll check later. I'm pretty sure they do "hotloads" more than once though. But apparently they know everything they knew before turning, but most lack the sanity to use said knowledge.
judge holden makes me think that maybe the joker isn't so bad at least the joker is completely insane, holden isn't he is lucid and meticulous he knows consciously what it is he does and does it anyways. he is the true embodiment of evil and may be the devil in flesh
My favorite part of the book is when Glanton says "we'll camp near that small moon." and then the Judge says "thats no moon, its a space station.." gives me chills every time
This is excellent. Judge Holden is high on my list of the best characters in American literature. So are a couple of the other characters in "Blood Meridian'.
The judge isn't the devil. The judge is the literal manifestation of all the evil that exists in man. The judge scares us because he is us, he is us without repercussions or consequences or restraint. He will never die because the evil inside man will never die
Those two things would go hand in hand though, apart from the reason he says he’ll never die. The devil would seemingly be the source of all sin that man adopted, and if he’s a manifestation then he’d be the exact same thing, just in reverse. But I think the many references to the satan would indicate that it was actually one of mcarthys ideas when writing holden
I read the book a few years ago and if Hollywood thinks it feasible - the film would be just as stand alone awesome as the rest of his work, if made into film.
There are several other videos on RU-vid speculating about making a film based on 'Blood Meridian'. I recently read that they are trying again. It is certainly filmable by the right director(s), but I think today's more 'sensitive' audiences might be 'offended'. Having said that, 'Oppenheimer' was the best film of this year, and one of the best of the last 10 years, and it is long and its subject matter grisly, but not nearly so grisly as any serious adaptation of BM could conceivably be.
This book is almost undaptable, the way the prose flows, the way is written, the brutality of it all is just....even if it was a good film it will never be as great as the book, it will loose something.
I think the thing I really loved about this book and I'm not religious but it was that it raises a question to us all and that's what would you do if the devil himself was standing right in front of you?
Why would i harm you?My secret is i do not interfere with humans what better way to prove god wrong than to let it fail on it's own😊The real devil was my "dad" the whole time.
@@commercialairliner well in this hypothetical, would you ask him the how and why of everything? I'd be curious the nature of this god and if indeed the devil is his opposition
@@dandanz7877definitely not. The kid growing into the man is the bridge, metaphorically, of his psyche/character maturing and developing into an individual who seeks to merge with his surroundings, give witness and allowance to nature. The Judge on the other hand seeks only to obtain and possess and control, subjugating nature to bend to his desire. The judge swims against the current while the kid rides it down following its own natural force.
The kid, if anything, showcases the ability of an individual, even defeated and cynical, over exposed and burnt out, to reject their beginnings and roots, their trained social and economic behaviors. The kid/man doesn’t pursue control over others ever, just wants control of himself. That confidence and assurance the Judge always saw and marked him out.
I've been around an evil man working in a remote camp the weird thing is no one did anything about him and I quit because no one was willing to do anything about it
They’ve tried to make this a movie a few times but the producers always pull out because it’s too dark. The Judge would fit right in with some of the Global Executives in the world today.
I think the implication that the judge is mystical or the personification of the devil is terrifying, but the idea that he was just a mortal man is much, much scarier imo
I’m sure that Cormac (probably wasn’t a fan) but I have to admit that the description (and behavior) of Judge Holden is almost like a villain out of the Dark Tower (or the Stand) especially when he was described as “he bald as a stone... and was close on to seven feet in height” just sounds so much like early Stephen King (all due respect, of course!)
I automatically though of randall flagg/the man in black The type of man that is so evil and skilled that borderlines with being paranormal A bringer of chaos and pain in the big and small ways A perversive influence that sets father against son and brother against brother
He's more symilar to Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now in both apperance, character and actions as well as being representstions of war itself. McCarthy was most likely inspired by it
@@goosebumpsgaming4404Good luck finding any theatre that will show it. Blood Meridian makes every NC-17 film look like the Clangers. EDIT: I’m referring to these guys in case anyone doesn’t get the reference - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MFp7yOZ8lLo.htmlfeature=shared
@@lowrider81hd That could be interesting. He can do dialogue. Lighthouse vibe in the psychedelic, bloody southwest with the Glanton Gang. That could work.
The face in the thumbnail looks a lot like the lady who killed her workers and fed them to her pigs. She also shit herself in the interrogation room at the police station. Where she stewed in her muck for the remaining interview.
Judge Holden could represent action without consequence. From his introduction when he dooms the priest, we are shown that even when he fully confesses his lies, no one cares. Those few who chastise Holden for his actions have no way of forcing change or punishment on the man, and are forced to withdraw or are killed outright. The Judge lives a life free of internal or external law. Death and domination are his laws, and he as the Judge dispenses this justice according to his twisted ideology. It's interesting if you think of him as a devil as his lawful evil alignment lines up with the m.o. of some supernatural evil. I think he's just a man. Bigger, smarter and wealthier than those around him, he wears the cape of modern-day billionaires. Enslaving, exploiting and killing those deemed as unimportant is paired with a zero chance of fighting back. Exerting will against evil forces simply draws their attention. The judge is a personification of those same ideals. He acts without consideration of others because he has no fear of reprisal. He is the representation of our lack of control in the face of savage selfish impulsiveness being wielded by a superior force.
Judge Holden is the type of guy that knocks on people's doors then runs away. He is the type that puts pineaple on pizza. He is the type of guy that says bad morning to his teacher. He is the type of guy that ninja loots in online RPG's. He is the type of guy that wakes people up just to tell them he's going to sleep.
I'm not trying to question a book everyone regards as a literary classic, but who in the _HELL_ would take Holden's words over the reverend's, considering he looks like an actual demon? Unless Holden had some kind of legitimate supernatural influence over the crowd, I just can't buy it.
Or maybe he was just the more authoritative and charismatic of them both and realised it. I really like the ambiguity of not really knowing what Judge Holden is.
didnt read the book, but his characters intrigued me - Judge's charismatic, elegant and highly intelligent personality remind the tales of our supernatural elders, the Fae from germanic folklore, Trow from nordic folklore... fae/alfar mean "fair, bright, sun", and the albino condition said to be one of the inspiration for the fay, and his habit to dance naked and play violin remind the water-elf the Nacken.
I’d love to see an onscreen depiction of the judge. It probably will never happen tho sadly. I feel if blood meridian was made into a film it would’ve already happened and really can’t see it happen
Marlon Brando would have been Perfect for the role considering how McCarthy most likely Drew inspiration from Brando's portrayal of Colonel Kurtz when making the Judge. unfortunately Brando is dead now
The sad thing is that as I was reading the book and imagining the scenes in my head as they played out, I couldn't help but install Phillip Seymour Hoffman into the role of the judge, and it saddens me that that is a thing that won't ever be.
I think he was more than a representation of the Devil. I think he was the embodiment of the idea of Manifest Destiny, which played a large part in the virulent racism and violence in the story and that time of history.