The Judge


Alternate Titles: Advocate

Not ordinarily the most active of characters, the Judge is a character whose quest exists primarily in the mind. His powers of discernment are absolutely impeccable -- unless you are looking at a particularly dark example of the type, his judgements are always accurate and his ability to size up other people is astounding. He is not, however, the sort to jump to hasty conclusions, or to dismiss someone on first glance -- if someone is innocent, he will generally know it at once, even if all of the evidence points against them. If someone is guilty, on the other hand, he will not utter a word of accusion until he is absolutely certain, and he will say nothing publicly until he has incontrovertable proof. Slander is not his game.
Nor, for that matter, is condemnation. Although he is absolutely firm in his moral principles, and utterly opposed to allowing the truly guilty to go unpunished, most judges are extremely lenient and forgiving towards those who commit minor sins -- especially sins of weakness. The prostitute, the petty thief and the drug addict can open up to him with impunity; he is after the man who kills, and particularly the man who kills for the sake of his own pride.
When he is not investigating a crime, or advocating for the innocent, the Judge will be engaged in his own quest for perfection, often in a spiritual or artistic line. Although to the lay man he looks as if he has already attained every possible virtue or accomplishment, he is even more profoundly aware of his own faults than those of others, and he is not willing to settle for "good enough." He will tolerate a certain amount of foolishness in his underlings, providing they are willing to take his teasing with humility. When confronted by the puffed up and the self-important, he is rarely able to bite his tongue.

Examples:

Big Daddy  --  Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Porfiry Petrovitch  --  Crime and Punishment
Hercule Poirot  --  Agatha Christie
Inspector Maigret  --  Georges Simenon
Horace Rumpole  --  John Mortimer
Rupert Cadell  --  Rope
Saint Simeon Stylites  -- Simon of the Desert
Columbo  --  Columbo
John Drake  --  Danger Man
Fitz  --  Cracker
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Theophanes the Greek  --  Andrei Rublev
Ferdinand the Bull  --  Ferdinand
Grommit  --  Wallace and Grommit
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Archetypal Events: Bluff, Smoke, Keep Vigil, Question, Revelation, Implication, Vacation

Common Judge Plots: Murder Mystery, Defend the Innocent,

Resonances: Magus, Priest
 Shadows: Usurper, Sun King

Home: Appartment
Supply: ?

The Judge's Box

The Judge's puts things into his box to keep them safe, use them later, move them somewhere else or to trap them. If it is a physical box it will have absurd magical properties like Cole Hauling's Box of Delights or Doctor Who's TARDIS. Abstracted it becomes something like Poirot's 'little grey cells' or the witness 'box' in the case of Judge characters who practice law. In modern works it is often a camera. When this symbol is borrowed by the evil characters on the white square it becomes very sinister and frequently contains a corpse.

Clothing: Coat
Prize: Proof
Monument: ?
Minor Symbols: Pipe


Judge

 Sidekick: Fool
 Lover: Crone
Lieutenant: Cripple
 *
 Hapless Love: Simpleton

Enemy: Accuser
Ball & Chain: Mule
Nemesis: Witch


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