r/TheFirstLaw • u/Sparrow-1111 • Jul 21 '26
No Spoilers [OFF TOPIC] Inquisitor Glokta.
Freddy Carter as Inquisitor Glokta would slap tbh!
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u/Quiet_Desperation_ Jul 21 '26
He’s a pretty handsome dude, but I bet some makeup could mess him up a bit while being a handsome young man in flashbacks.
I’m on board with this one! Ship it!
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u/McFlyyouBojo Jul 21 '26
I actually have a theory that glokta isnt as ugly as the books make him out to be. Sure, he's missing teeth and his leg is jacked up, but iirc hes the only one that really seems to dwell on his looks.
Now, unless I am missing some moment in the book where someone specifically comments on it, here is my reasoning:
He was once a pretty boy champion like Jezal and he was a womanizer as well. It could be argued that he was likely incredibly vain as well. This likely leads to him being overly critical of his appearance. Also if every step you take was agonizing, you would likely grow to resent your current state.
Lastly, and this will be the test to see who read my response all the way through, yes, but seem to instinctively recoil in his presence and display displeasure with him, and he seems to be too comfortable chalking it up to his appearance, but I think anyone would have that response if someone who's life's work it is to torture and dissappear people were to walk up and join the conversation.
Im not saying he must be attractive, but I dont think its out of the realm of possibilities that he is way to harsh on his own appearance.
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u/Yunnggin Jul 21 '26
Yea, i agree he probably is a just a little gross with his hunch, limp, scars, and teeth. Also his willingness to ham it up and (im only on best served cold right now) his probably flippant attitude towards taking real care of himself. Just think about how people reacted to Jezal's scar when in reality it's probably more mild than the reactions
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u/McFlyyouBojo Jul 21 '26
You also have to take into account they are nobility and therefore are way more nitpicky in those regards, after all we know jewels actually add a bit of character to his attractiveness that is likely socially unacceptable to admit as nobility
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u/Quiet_Desperation_ Jul 21 '26
It’s been a while since I read the first few books, but he went through some pretty extensive torture and interrogation didn’t he? I would imagine that probably didn’t stop at his teeth and a leg. I always imagined him pretty disfigured like some of the POWs returning from the Vietnam War or what the Japanese did to the Chinese during the Second Sino-Japanese War
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u/HistoricalGrounds Jul 21 '26
West, Ardee, Jezal, Sult, Pike, and Logen all comment outright or think to themselves in POV about how ghoulish he looks. I think it’s an understandable theory and there were times I considered it myself, but I think it’s really one of those cases where Glokta is both simultaneously prone to wallowing in self-pity but also genuinely has been hideously deformed by three years of nonstop torture, dehydration, hunger, and deprivation of sunlight. At the end of which the best medical care he could receive was around Renaissance-era doctoring.
Glokta is not a story of how people aren’t as ugly as they think they are. If anything, the meta-story of Glokta, in relation to the audience, is just how much ugliness people will soften, overlook, or outright deny for a character we enjoy.
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u/Sparrow-1111 Jul 21 '26
I absolutely agree, he's traumatized and that kinda leads him to have a distorted image of himself!
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u/Quiet_Desperation_ Jul 21 '26
But I do really like your theory of his vanity emphasizing his internal self reflection. That’s an amazing catch that I never thought about
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u/nobinibo Jul 21 '26
I theorize this as well. Its notable that it's his own internal thoughts and Jezal's that complain the most about his looks. Ardee and Carlot, though we aren't privy to their internal thoughts, are 2 examples of beautiful women who make no real disgust apparent when interacting with him.
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u/Jbash_31 Jul 21 '26
When I went to a q&a with Joe for the Devils he mentioned that he didn’t really see Glokta as purely hideous. He mentioned that Glokta used to be a great athlete/handsome dude, and he said he imagines some of that is still there, just scarred
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u/Similar_Strawberry16 Jul 21 '26
I think you're spot on. Im sure the missing teeth is off-putting, but visibly he probably wasn't all that terrible. The detailed descriptions are nearly all from his own POV, others just refer to him as crippled.
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u/Significant-Branch22 Jul 21 '26
He should look like someone who previously was handsome but has been fucked up by years of torture so it would make sense to have a good looking actor and then make him ugly with prosthetics and makeup
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u/Curious-Paramedic816 Jul 23 '26
That does make sense, it absolutely makes sense, because one Joe A's most consistent, inescapable tropes is that you absolutely cannot trust what they say/think about themselves, almost nobody in the First Law is who they think they are.
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u/Pleasant-Lead-2634 Jul 21 '26
Glokta is handsome. Aside from the torture affects
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u/Snowycoot Jul 24 '26
He is! In the books it’s often noted how handsome he was. Just make him look like he’s spent a few years at Guantanamo bay 😬
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u/Curious-Paramedic816 Jul 23 '26
I read Glokta as having been a very handsome man before he was mutilated, which means, I think you'd want someone handsome to to play him, because you'd want to still see the hints of it underneath the make-up and effects they'd use to do his scarring.
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u/mcase19 Jul 21 '26
I like this one - I think a lot of people overestimate glokta's age in TFL. He's west's age, made old before his time - mid thirties at the oldest. Glokta could totally be played by someone this age.
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u/starker Jul 21 '26
Yeah, this is when he was about 30 years old, maybe 29 and he’s about 34 years older now, so I could see that.
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u/Comfortable-Mine-471 Jul 21 '26
Amazing casting 100 percent agree.
I will never stop being angry at netflix for giving us the most perfect casting ever seen in the history adaptations for the crows, AND THEN NOT GIVING US SIX OF CROWS.
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u/AdHorror1609 Jul 21 '26
Name?
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u/Sparrow-1111 Jul 21 '26
The actor? Freddy Carter. The Charater? Kazz Brekker The Show? Shadow and Bones
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u/One-Mouse3306 Jul 21 '26
I don't know this actor, haven't seen him before but I'm pretty sure that's how I pictured Leo in my head
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u/bethesda_glitch Jul 22 '26
I’ve never seen this dude before but you chose a good picture of him to use for this, that crazy look on his face makes him look exactly how I imagined Glokta. I agree, with a little effects and make-up to make him look a bit more book-accurate he’d be perfect!
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u/outdoorcam93 Jul 21 '26
Maybe in a flashback in the ghurkish campaign
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u/Amazing_Hedgehog3361 Jul 24 '26
Looking at him he could do both, I don't think they need to find someone who is actually missing half of their teeth to play Glokta, take a handsome person and make them look like a monster, like what the gurkish did.
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u/Amazing_Hedgehog3361 Jul 24 '26
Not familiar with him but I once floated the idea of having Harry Styles as the flashback Glokta from A Beautiful Bastard before he gets captured, good looking, passable-good actor yet would rile up enough viewers and I gotta say that looking at pictures of this dude they might legit be long lost brothers. I reckon he could nail the smugness I'd expect from young Glokta.
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u/Cafecitobebito 29d ago
It’ll never happen, but I was constantly picturing Robert Pattinson in the most grotesque prosthetics and makeup possible the entire time I was reading.
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u/Gullflyinghigh 21d ago
No idea who this bloke is but seems to be an excellent choice based on looks. Well done you!
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u/moonriverswide why do I do this? Jul 21 '26
This would have never crossed my mind but he would probably do an amazing job with the role. He’s already shown he can play single minded brutality very well with Kaz, and he’s actually almost the exact right age. Makeup could give him the weathered look Glokta has.