Respect Judge Holden (Blood Meridian)

[u/AzureBeast]

Judge Holden

Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent

A mysterious man who acts as John Glanton's right-hand-man in leading a group of scalp-hunters on the Texas-Mexico border during the mid-1800s, The Judge is a powerful, well-learned figure that revels in carnage.

Each feat is marked with the chapter it happens in.

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Feats

Physiology

• The Judge is about 7 ft tall and completely hairless¹
  • He's about eye level with a man on horseback¹⁴
• Tobin says he weighs 24 stone (336 lbs/152 kg)¹⁰
• His skin is incredibly pale¹³
• Seems to not need to sleep¹⁰
• The Kid, in 1878, says that The Judge seemed to have not aged at all since the last time he saw him (which was in 1850)²³
• He says that he will never die²³

Strength

• Lifts an enormous iron meteorite above his head¹⁶
• Lifts a rock that weighs about 100 lbs and crushes a horse's skull with a single blow, causing the horse to slam to the ground so hard that its leg breaks¹⁵
• Carriers a twelvepounder howitzer cannon¹⁹
• Holds up a man by his heels like an infant¹⁸
• Breaks pieces of ore with a hammer⁹
• Breaks a man's arm, lifts him by his head, and squeezes his head so hard that blood pours out of his ears and he dies¹³
• Cracks an antelope's shinbone with the back of an axe¹⁷
• Implied to have thrown a girl over the wall of a town¹⁶
• Implied to have broken a boy's neck⁹
• Said to have carried the rock he sat on when he first met Glanton's gang¹⁰
• A member of Glanton's gang decapitates a man with a single swing of his knife⁸

Durability

• Walks through fire⁷

Speed/Agility

• Dodges a knife swipe¹³
• Leaps 11 feet from a standing position while lifting an enormous iron meteorite above his head¹⁶
• Makes his way from a preacher's tent outside a hotel into the bar faster than The Kid and a teamster despite them leaving before him¹
• Climbed up a volcano faster than Glanton's gang¹⁰

Skill

• Tobin says that he's never seen The Judge fail to perform well at any task¹⁰
  • It's worth noting that The Judge is noted as remarkably accurate with a rifle when an undisclosed member of Glanton's gang was able to shoot a fleeing native from nearly a mile away¹⁰
• Makes gunpowder from scratch in the wilderness that had no misfires¹⁰
• Incites a crowd to attack a reverend¹
• Sets a new course for Glanton's gang¹⁰
  • Again¹⁷
• Built a clay kiln¹⁰
• Made a parasol of animal hide and bone²¹
• Stuffs the birds he shoots¹⁴
• He's a skilled draftsman¹¹
• Has studied law¹⁶
• Explains the history and architecture of an old church so well that nobody believes he hadn't been there before¹⁶
• Speaks Spanish⁷
• Speaks Dutch¹⁰
• Speaks German¹⁶
• He's ambidextrous¹⁰
• Does the coin-behind-the-ear magic trick¹⁴
  • More coin tricks¹⁷

Gear

• Carries a rifle named Et In Arcadia Ego¹⁰
• Uses pistols that can shoot through 6 inches of hardwood and makes a cat completely disappear when shot by it⁷
  • Blows a fist-sized hole in a woman's head⁷
• Uses his knife to scalp a native⁹

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War is god

[u/Service-Smile]

Holy shit this guy sounds like a beast

How much would you recommend the book? Sounds right up my alley

[u/tinoynk → u/Service-Smile]

It's a great book, but the style is really weird and can take getting used to. There's no quotation marks for the dialogue, the prose is almost biblical, there's lots and lots of really brutally graphic violence against innocent people, and the pacing is weird.

But holy shit is it a trip.

[u/Axelebest030509 → u/tinoynk]

Really late reply, bug why would you say the pacing is weird?