Board 8 > Most Evil Fictional Character: Morgoth vs. Judge Holden

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Welcome to the 2023 edition of Most Evil Fictional Character, a single-elimination tournament to determine the most evil fictional character of all time!

Here's the bracket:

https://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=477621&tclass=

And here's the discussion topic:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80568652

And here are the rules:

-First and foremost, YOU MUST BOLD YOUR VOTE FOR IT TO COUNT. The reason for this is that these topics encourage a lot of discussion and debate, and it helps me to distinguish a vote from simple discussion if all votes are bolded. So, I state again, ALL VOTES MUST BE BOLDED FOR THEM TO COUNT. I reserve the right to be lenient in early topics if people just aren't getting it, but for the most part, IF YOUR VOTE ISN'T BOLDED, IT WON'T COUNT.

-You must vote for which of the two characters you honestly believe to be the more evil of the two. You can determine this via any method you like, use your own morals and judgement, read all the arguments made to determine your choice, or however you choose to make your pick, but you must only vote for the one you truly believe is the most evil. This isn't a death battle, or a popularity contest. You're voting ONLY for the most evil character out of the two choices presented.

-While on that subject, remember that because this isn't a death battle or a fighting tournament, do your absolute best to consider the two characters as if their power levels were equal (either the weaker character brought up to the level of the strongest, or vice versa, or both if you want to consider both possibilities). Therefore, just because, for example, one of the characters blew up a planet and the other one merely kicked a puppy, doesn't necessarily mean the planet killer is more evil than the puppy kicker. Consider the characters as if they have the exact same capabilities and what they might do in that scenario.

-You can make any arguments, debates, etc. you want in this topic. Discussion is STRONGLY encouraged, a fun debate about which of the two characters is most evil is exactly what these topics are for. Just don't make it personal, no insults or flaming, keep things civil even if you disagree. Also, no vote rallying, if you want to encourage people to vote for your character you need to at least make some semblance of an argument as to why, even if it's just "Character X did (really dastardly thing), I can't believe no one's voting for them!"

-Voting will continue for exactly 24 hours after the post is made. If there's a tie, there will be a new 24 hour topic. This will continue indefinitely until a winner is determined.

-YOU MUST BOLD YOUR VOTE FOR IT TO COUNT.

-

The following write-ups will contain untagged SPOILERS for The Silmarillion and Blood Meridian.

MORGOTH

Morgoth is the primary antagonist of The Silmarillion.

Morgoth, originally Melkor, is the most powerful of the Valar but he turns to darkness and becomes the enemy of Arda. All evil in the world of Middle-earth ultimately stems from him. One of the Maiar of Aul betrays his kind and becomes Morgoth's principal lieutenant and successor, Sauron. Like Sauron, he has a host of other titles: Lord of the Dark, the Dark Power of the North, the Black Hand, and Great Enemy. The Edain, the Men of Nmenor, call him the Dark King and the Dark Power; the Nmenreans corrupted by Sauron call him the Lord of All and the Giver of Freedom. He is called "Master of Lies" by one of the Edain, Melkor holds dominion over Middle-earth from his fortress of Utumno in the North. Melkor captures a number of Elves before the Valar attack him, and he tortures and corrupts them, breeding the first Orcs. His fortress Utumno disperses deathly cold throughout Arda and brings on an endless winter in the north; for the sake of the Elves, the Valar wage a seven-year war with Melkor, defeating him after laying siege to Utumno. Later, he escapes imprisonment. With the aid of Ungoliant, a dark spirit in the form of a monstrous spider, he destroys the Two Trees of Valinor, kills the King of the Noldor, Finw, and steals the three Silmarils, jewels made by Finw's son Fanor, which are filled with the light of the Trees. Fanor thereupon names him Morgoth, "Black Foe", and the Elves know him by this name alone afterwards. Morgoth resumes his rule in the North of Middle-earth. Over the next several decades, Morgoth destroys the remaining Elven kingdoms, reducing their domain to an island in the Bay of Balar to which many refugees flee, and a small settlement at the Mouths of Sirion under the protection of Ulmo. During the War of Wrath, Beleriand and much of the north of Middle-earth is destroyed and reshaped. Morgoth summons many Men to his side during the fifty-year conflict, which becomes the largest, longest, and bloodiest conflict in Arda's history. In the end, Morgoth is utterly defeated, and his armies are almost entirely slaughtered. His evil remains, however, and his will influences all living creatures. Despite his overwhelming might, he was also known to be remarkably cowardly, reluctant to engage in battle himself even when victory was completely assured. Many of his most terrible deeds in Arda were achieved through treachery, manipulation, misdirection, and lies, and he seduced many Maiar to his service with false promises. However, as an utterly pitiless and merciless being, acts of compassion, mercy, or pity were entirely beyond his comprehension.

vs.

JUDGE HOLDEN

Judge Holden is the primary antagonist of the novel Blood Meridian.

Judge Holden is a central character in Cormac McCarthy's 1985 Western novel Blood Meridian. In the novel, he and Glanton are the leaders of a pack of nomadic criminals who rob, rape, torture, and kill across the borderlands between the United States and Mexico. Throughout the novel, Holden brutally murders dozens of people, including children. Holden is a mysterious figure, a cold-blooded killer. Aside from the children he openly kills, he is seen enticing children with sweets, and a child often goes missing when he is in the vicinity. The Judge was involved in several conflicts with Native Americans, including a raid that resulted in the slaughtering of multiple babies and defenseless non-combatants. He falsely accused a priest of being a child murderer and zoophiliac in order to cause mayhem and get him killed and several other people, and when confronted about how he knew that, he said that he never met or saw him in his life and just destroyed the priest's life for his own amusement. 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 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.

Holden

Surprisingly tough choice. Differences in power levels aside, these two have a lot in common. I'm just not sure a weaker Morgoth would be quite as brutal as Holden. Most of Morgoth's evil deeds are carried out by his underlings; it's hard to say how far he would go if was more personally involved.

Judge Holden

I agree that I'm not sure Morgoth brought down to Holden's level would be as bad as Holden, and I think Holden with Morgoth's power would be a lot worse.

Morgoth for me; I get it, Holden is the most depraved sort of monster. But that's just it; he's not really a monster. He's a human. Morgoth is some kind of evil God essence of evil thing. It's not just that he's powerful, it's just that his entire existence is to emboy malice.

This Holden guy has clearly devoted his life to evil. Morgoth IS evil.

But I get it that visceral acts are tough to top emotionally. Still voting Morgoth.

Morgoth just feels like a larger scale.

FakeAccount3000 posted...

I get it, Holden is the most depraved sort of monster. But that's just it; he's not really a monster. He's a human.

That's actually not clear. It's possible, but there's plenty of evidence suggesting that Holden isn't really human.

I feel like being human makes Holden more evil than a being just designated as evil.

Xeybozn posted...

That's actually not clear. It's possible, but there's plenty of evidence suggesting that Holden isn't really human.

I see, was not aware; just gloing off the summary in this topic since that's all I know. Doesn't change my vote, but that's interesting.