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“ | It was my fault the Black Lotus attacked the golden city of Azra. It was my fault they burned it to the ground. | „ |
~ Ankara |
Ankara is a supporting character in the AMC series Into the Badlands.
A former Master of the Abbot Monastery, she was banished after being tricked into revealing the location of the great city of Azra to Magnus, a member of the Black Lotus, leading to its destruction. Decades later, Ankara and her former student Bajie call Pilgrim, one of the lost children of Azra, back to the Badlands with the plan to destroy it and rebuild a new Azra in its ruins.
She was portrayed by Clare Higgins, who also played Julia Cotton in Hellraiser and Agatha Cackle in the 2017 reboot of The Worst Witch.
Personality[]
Ankara is shown to be a cryptic and obsessive individual, very rarely telling others of her true intentions. This is due to her guilt over having inadvertently led to that fall of Azra after being manipulated by Magnus, suggesting she was once rather foolish and susceptible to being tricked. Living in the mountains away from society caused her to become known as the "Mad Witch" by others, although she wasn't actually insane, but rather had lost her hope in the world, only wanting to see Azra. This led her to calling Pilgrim to the first temple of Azra, even knowing that this would lead to the deaths of countless innocent people. That being said, she does come to regret this after the Black Lotus begin hunting her, knowing she is likely to die soon and reflecting on the mistakes she made in her life. Her care for Bajie is also very genuine, as she saw him as her best student and used her last bit of strength to save him from death.
Biography[]
Early life[]
At some point after the Master created the Abbot Monastery, Ankara joined and began helping her to train Dark Ones. Ankara's Gift was the only person other than the Master to possess a Master's Gift, and as such was trusted with the Monastery's biggest secrets. Ankara believed in the supposed myth that there were Dark Ones attempting to rebuild Azra, a safe haven for those with the Gift that existed when the old world collapses five-hundred years prior. At this point in time, the Monastery was willing to work with non-Gifted scribes who would help them track Dark Ones, and were often entrusted with secrets of the Monastery. Magnus, a member of the Black Lotus, the group dedicated to finding and killing Dark Ones, began working as a scribe in order to infiltrate the Monastery. Magnus formed a close relationship with Ankara so she would let her guard down and help him find the location of Azra, which they eventually did together. Magnus then betrayed her, poisoning her wine and laying siege to Azra with the rest of the Black Lotus. After it was destroyed, Ankara was riddled with guilt and became obsessed with bringing it back, searching for a special Azran compass and book that could contact Pilgrim, one of the lost children of Azra, and lead him to the first temple of Azra, thus enabling him to rebuild the mythical city. It was around this time that a boy named Bajie was brought to the Monastery, and taken in by Ankara as her primary student. She told him of how to bring back Azra, although she did not inform him that Pilgrim's return would likely be an apocalyptic event. Ankara was eventually banished due to her obsession, but Bajie continued to search for the compass and book in her honor.
Return of Azra[]
While living in the mountains, Bajie still continued to search for the compass and book, and eventually found them and used the compass to locate a radio tower. In the tower, he plugged in the book and compass, which sent out a signal to what he thought were the rulers of Azra. In actuality, the signal was intercepted by Pilgrim, now a false messiah and warlord that had an army of followers who wished to help him rebuild Azra. Bajie sits at the radio tower for several months with no response, and assumes the Ankara really was wrong, and then gives up on brining back Azra. Bajie eventually reunites with Sunny, and old friend of his and one of the other surviving children of Azra. Sunny's infant son Henry has the Gift, and he is desperate to find a cure as the Gift does not normally appear in infants, and will soon kill him. An ally of his named Lydia suggests going to the Master, but Bajie says that she will take Henry from Sunny and he will never see him again. Lydia then suggests visiting Ankara, and despite Bajie at first refusing due to his belief that she lied to him about being able to bring Azra back, he eventually relents and agrees to take Sunny to Ankara in order to save his son. The two venture into the mountains and find Ankara's home, where she greets Bajie after not seeing him for so long. He is extremely hostile towards her, believing that she used him, but Sunny ignores their hostility and begs Ankara to help his son. She manages to temporarily deactivate Henry's Gift, and at the same time partially taps into Sunny's long buried Gift, giving him flashbacks to his childhood which have been suppressed for several years. He questions her about what he saw, and she explains that his sister Kannin locked his Gift and memories inside him in order to keep him safe. She then tells him that Henry's Gift is not removed, but only subdued, and that he must seek out Pilgrim to remove it permanently. Bajie asks who Pilgrim is, and Ankara reveals that the signal he sent out was actually intercepted by Pilgrim, and that he will destroy the world and build a new Azra in its ruins. Bajie is heartbroken as he thought that the signal would bring heroes from Azra to fix their broken world, but he still ventures with Sunny to find Pilgrim as they are desperate to save Henry.
Hunted by the Black Lotus[]
Bajie and Sunny find Pilgrim, who has discovered the Meridian Chamber, the origin of the Gift, and together he and Sunny activate it. They then transfer Henry's Gift to Pilgrim, curing him but turning Pilgrim into an incredibly dangerous Dark One who is highly unstable due to him not being born with the Gift originally but instead stealing it. After Pilgrim starts creating an army of Dark Ones using the chamber, Sunny tries to destroy it but fails and is nearly killed. He and Nix, a former follower of Pilgrim, decide to seek out Ankara in the hopes she may know how to stop Pilgrim. Unfortunately, before their arrival Ankara is attacked by the Black Lotus, who have finally managed to track her down. She kills the members who attack her, but is severely injured in the process. Sunny and Nix take her to a marketplace with the plan to help her escape the Badlands, but are intercepted by Bajie and the Widow, who are now working with the Master and need to capture Ankara to take her back to the Monastery. Ankara attacks all of them using her Gift, the Widow incapacitates her using a syringe given to her by the Master that was specially designed to turn off her Gift. On the group's way back to the Monastery, Ankara begins to stir from her slumber and tries to stop their car using her Gift, prompting them to stop at one of the Monastery's storage houses. They find needles and use them to suppress Ankara's Gift, but once she wakes up Ankara tells the Widow that she has seen a vision of the Widow's allies in danger. The Widow removes the needles and sees a vision of Baron Chau torturing her adoptive daughter Tilda and lover Gaius Chau. The Widow and Nix depart to save them, leaving Sunny and Bajie to watch Ankara. They are told by Ankara that she is dying, and that the Black Lotus are coming for them. Bajie calls her a liar and says she never cared about him, but she says that she always did, and her reason for calling Pilgrim was to try and fix her mistake of leading Magnus to Azra. Magnus and other members of the Black Lotus arrive, knocking out Sunny and Bajie with flashbangs, and although Bajie removed the needles so that Ankara could fight, she is quickly overpowered by Magnus, who use his pressure point techniques to disable her Gift. He then kills Bajie, causing Ankara to cry in despair. She tells him she only ever wanted to see Azra, and lay her body to rest their. Magnus says she will be there soon, and stabs her, departing with Sunny as a hostage. In her last moments, Ankara uses her Gift to revive Bajie, and tells him how to find Magnus and save Sunny. She then succumbs to her injuries, leaving Bajie to mourn his former Master.
Powers & Abilities[]
- Master's Gift: Ankara's Gift was trained and powerful enough to be considered a Master at the Abbot Monastery. Ankara was the only person other than the Master to be shown capable of using her Gift to search to world, and it took a specialized syringe created by the Master in order to turn off her Gift, suggesting the normal pressure point technique would not work on her.
- Seeing Beyond: Ankara was capable of searching the world with her Gift, as seen when she showed the Widow a vision of Baron Chau holding Tilda and Gaius Chau captive. She was even capable of doing this with the Gift-deactivating needles in her body, although she couldn't show others the visions until the needles were removed.
- Martial Arts: While it isn't seen on-screen, Ankara manages to survive the initial attack on her by the Black Lotus by killing several members, suggesting when using her Gift she is able to fight with great proficiency.
Trivia[]
- Ankara's home in the mountain appears to be a broken airplane from the old world that she converted into a house, although certain parts of it still work, such as the radio she used to intercept the signals sent by Bajie and Pilgrim.
External Links[]
- Ankara on the Heroes Wiki
- Ankara on the Into the Badlands Wiki
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Villains | ||
Armadillo Territory Butterfly Territory Fox Territory Pickaxe Territory Other Territories Dark Ones The Black Lotus Other |