Awesome / Blood Meridian

• The Kid's Shut Up, Hannibal! to the Judge. Even if it makes no difference in the end, it was still quite bold of him to tell off the towering monster to his face.
  Judge Holden: As war becomes dishonored and its nobility called into question those honorable men who recognize the sanctity of blood will become excluded from the dance, which is the warrior's right, and thereby will the dance become a false dance and the dancers false dancers. And yet there will be one there always who is a true dancer and can you guess who that might be?
  The Kid: You ain't nothin.
  Judge Holden: You speak truer than you know.
• While the Judge is the most deplorable character among a gang filled with the worst humanity has to offer, he has a few moments where he stands out as particularly awesome.
  • Teaching the Glanton Gang to make gunpowder from scratch, specifically from volcanic rock and urine. And it works; the Gang manages to fend off their pursuers.
  • In general, his Hannibal Lectures are this when they aren't Nightmare Fuel. Of note is that much of the Glanton Gang are illiterate and ignorant savages with no other goals in life aside from violence for money and later for its own sake, but he's actually clearly an intelligent, scheming visionary on par with the Devil himself. Unfortunately, though, said vision would be horrible for most everybody else.
  • When the Yuma war band gets to the Judge's quarters he points a howitzer he took from the rampart at them with the fuse ready, the Yumas trip over themselves as they fall back and let him and the idiot go. The fact that he is strong enough to carry a cannon around is one thing but that he had the cannon ready at all either makes him Crazy-Prepared or he knew the Yuma were gonna attack tonight and arranged the massacre.

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