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It's a legend. Way before my time. Of a demon brought forth to rid the earth of the plague of humanity. To separate the righteous from the wicked... And burn the righteous down. They called him the Judge.
Angel[src]

The Judge was an ancient and powerful demon sent to wipe out the human race with his unique power of burning the humanity out of his victims. Centuries later, Drusilla and Spike reassembled the Judge and brought him to life.[1]

Biography[]

Origins[]

The Judge was an ancient and legendary demon brought forth to the dimension of Earth to rid of the plague of humanity. He was named the Judge for he had arrived to separate the righteous from the wicked, and burn the righteous down.[1]

An army was sent against the Judge. Although most of the warriors died, the army was finally able to dismember the Judge, but not to kill him. The pieces were placed in iron boxes and scattered to be buried "in every corner of the Earth." For hundreds of years, he remained aware of his status.[1] 

Return[]

To celebrate Drusilla's return to health in 1998, Spike had all the pieces of the Judge brought to Sunnydale as a present for his sire's coming out party. Drusilla planned to reassemble the Judge and unleash Armageddon. Spike's minions succeed in reuniting all the pieces and taking them to Spike and Dru's lair, except for one of the arms, which Dalton lost to Buffy Summers. At the Bronze, Buffy opened the box and the Judge's arm immediately attacked her.[1]

Fearing that the Judge would be too dangerous to fight, Angel decided to take a ship to hide the arm in Nepal, thus leaving the Judge incomplete, which would have ended Dru's plot to reawaken the demon. However, Dalton and Spike's minions managed to steal the arm back from Buffy and Angel.[1]

Judgeawaken

The Judge's reawakening.

With the pieces complete, the Judge was reassembled before an ecstatic Drusilla. The Judge showed contempt for her and Spike as the two vampires shared affection, a quality considered by the Judge to be human. The Judge wanted to kill them until Spike reminded him that he and Dru had brought him back. Deeming them helpful for his purposes, the Judge agreed to leave the two unharmed. The Judge then turned on their minion Dalton, whom the Judge also deemed "full of feeling" due to Dalton's love for knowledge. As he had just been awakened, the Judge wasn't at his full power and needed to touch his victims to incinerate them, as he demonstrated on Dalton, much to Drusilla's delight.[1]

Buffy and Angel found themselves in mortal danger when they went to the vampires' lair in the Bric & Broc factory, only to find the Judge already assembled and aware of their presence. Buffy and Angel barely escaped, Buffy having already felt the Judge's deadly power when she kicked the demon. The two hid in Angel's apartment, where they shared an intimate encounter, which caused Angel to lose his soul. Meanwhile, the Judge rested, waiting for his powers to return to full strength.[1]

The then soulless Angel returned to the factory, where the Judge attempted to incinerate him. Although, he was unable to do so, as Angel was "clean of humanity."[2] While it had been established that vampires were capable of having some humanity in them, the Judge's powers did not work on Angel, as he was incapable of feeling love or affection (unlike Spike and Dru or Dalton)[1] and was a true creature of evil.[2] 

Destruction[]

What's that do?
―The Judge's last words, on a rocket launcher[src]
Judgedeath

Angel and Drusilla leap as the Judge is blown apart

With his powers restored, the Judge was escorted by Angel and Dru to start a massacre at a local mall. With a mere gesture, the Judge incinerated a man and then attacked a large number of people. The Judge's power bounced from one human to the next, creating a web of victims.[2]

Before the victims could die, Buffy struck the Judge with a crossbow bolt. The Judge reminded Buffy that no weapon forged could hurt him, prompting Buffy to equip a rocket launcher and fire it at him. Unfamiliar with modern weaponry, the Judge merely stood as the rocket flew towards him. Angel and Dru escaped, while the Judge was blown apart. The pieces of the Judge were then picked up by the Scoobies, who proceeded to dispose of them, taking care to keep them separate.[2]

Appearance[]

Not the prettiest man in town.
―Buffy Summers[src]

The Judge was a tall, muscular and lumbering humanoid demon with blue skin and solid black eyes. His body was covered by a metallic armor and the back of his head bore three bone crests. Angel sarcastically called his appearance "spiffy."[2]

Personality and traits[]

The Judge bore a disgust for humanity and feelings, outright telling Spike and Drusilla that they "stink" of it, and later letting out a disgusted groan after seeing them kiss.[1]

Powers and abilities[]

His touch can literally burn the humanity out of you. A true creature of evil can survive the process. No human ever has.
Rupert Giles[src]
Judge

The Judge killing his victim

The Judge's main power was to "burn the humanity" out of an individual. The "humanity" in question wasn't their human status or the presence of a soul in the victim, but the emotional capacity of the Judge's target. While Spike and Drusilla were vulnerable because they shared affection for each other,[1] Angel wasn't, as he was truly wicked, incapable of love, "clean" before the Judge's eyes.[2]

After being reassembled, the Judge has not yet reached his full potential. He was limited by physical contact in order to incinerate his victims. Despite this, he was still strong and his power proved to be dangerous even to the Slayer Buffy, who remarked that just kicking him felt like a "sudden fever" and was glad the Judge didn't actually touch her with his hands.[1]

The Judge mentioned that the act of killing allowed him to be stronger,[1] although he would naturally grow stronger over time. This proved to be true as after a day, the Judge grew powerful enough to kill with a single gesture, and was even capable of making his power bounce from one victim to the next, allowing the Judge to eliminate several beings simultaneously. However, for this to work, he had to concentrate as shown when his attack failed when his concentration was broken by a crossbow bolt fired by Buffy. According to Giles, he would eventually grow powerful enough to incinerate humans by simply looking at them, though Buffy managed to destroy him before he reached that point.[2]

The Judge was also capable of sensing the emotions and feelings of others, as proven by the fact that he instantly sensed that Spike and Dru were lovers and that Dalton had a love for reading and knowledge. He could also sense that Angel and Buffy were hiding in the same room before alerting everyone to their presence.[1]

Finally, the Judge was impervious to wounds caused by forged weapons, though an explosion caused by a rocket launcher (a weapon that did not exist in the Judge's original time period) managed to blast him to pieces. Buffy and the Scooby Gang were unclear if this truly killed him, though, with Buffy remarking that they "can't be sure" that he was dead.[2]

Behind the scenes[]

  • He was portrayed by Brian Thompson, who portrayed Luke in the beginning of the series.
  • A Buffy the Vampire Slayer bust was made based on the Judge, as well as an unreleased action figure. Additionally, he was the pawns in the Chess Set.
  • The Judge holds many similarities with the Angel villain The Beast:
    • both are known only by title, rather than name;
    • both are connected to Angel losing his soul;
    • both are initially considered to be utterly unstoppable;
    • it can be argued that both are defeated by their own arrogance (the Judge assumed that no weapon could possibly defeat him, and the Beast never considered that anyone would dare use his own weapon against him, or perhaps believed the dagger forged of his bone could not penetrate his flesh).

Appearances[]

Canonical[]

Other[]

References[]

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