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| “ | A living nightmare, as though I was buried alive. Trapped inside my own body with no way to escape, I could feel the needles drilling into my skin like knives. No matter how hard I screamed no one could ever hear me. | „ |
| ~ Eli |
Eli is a supporting antagonist in the AMC series Into the Badlands.
He is a former novice from the Abbot Monastery, a place where a woman named the Master would capture and train Dark Ones. When Eli tried to run away, she put him into a coma using acupuncture needles. After being saved from the coma by Pilgrim and M.K., he becomes a fanatical follower of their mission to bring back Azra, being willing to kill anyone who opposes them.
He was portrayed by Thom Ashley.
Personality[]
Prior to being a novice at the Abbot Monastery, Eli was looking after his brothers in the world of the Badlands. After being put in a coma for trying to run away from the Monastery, an experience that he described as being a living nightmare, he came out a deeply troubled and shaken person. He was extremely grateful to Pilgrim and M.K. for saving him, and after it became clear that his brothers were gone, he became fiercely loyal to them and their cause to build a new Azra. He was ecstatic at the thought of killing the Widow, one of the Barons of the Badlands, showing he enjoyed fighting for a cause he believed in. Under M.K.'s tutelage, Eli gave into the darkness of his Gift, enabling him to use it at will, while making him very ruthless in the process.
Biography[]
Escaping the Abbot Monastery[]
Eli was originally living somewhere in the Badlands with his brothers, being the only person who could look after them. Eli possessed the Gift, making him a Dark One, and was at some point tracked down by members of the Abbot Monastery and captured to be brought back and trained as a novice to control his Gift. Eli wanted to go back to his brothers since they were so young and had no one else to look after them, but the Master of the Monastery would not allow him to leave. One day he tried to run away, but was caught and brought to a hidden room in the Monastery. Here they pierced acupuncture needles into his body, putting him into a permanent coma in order to contain his Gift. During this coma, Eli could feel the needles piercing his body, and was stuck in a living nightmare that he couldn't escape from. One day, the Monastery was attacked by the false messiah Pilgrim, who wished to rebuild the mythical city of Azra, a kingdom where those with the Gift would be safe. Pilgrim had been informed of the Monastery's location by M.K., a former novice like Eli who managed to escape. Pilgrim uses his ability to turn off the Gift in order to overpower the Master, while M.K. and the other followers of Pilgrim kill all of the Abbots, freeing the novices. They find the technique to free the sleeping novices, and use it to wake all of them, including Eli. M.K. welcomes Eli back to the world, and he thanks him and Pilgrim for saving the sleepers. Eli tells M.K. his story of why he was put to sleep, and says that he needs to leave in order to find his brothers. M.K. then tells him that he knows they are dead or long gone, and that if he joins Pilgrim, he can help create a world that is safe for people like them. Eli says that whatever Pilgrim needs, he will do it, and is later present during Pilgrim's speech to both the freed novices and the woken sleepers, where he tells them of their mission to take the Badlands in the name of Azra. Eli and the rest of the sleepers are taken to the first temple of Azra, where Pilgrim's and his followers reside. With the Master gone, the last primary enemy of Pilgrim left is the Widow, the only remaining Baron of the Badlands who has allied herself with the greatest warriors from across the world in order to stop Pilgrim.
War for the Badlands[]
Cressida, a blood witch who serves as Pilgrim's adviser, is kidnapped by the Widow's forces, prompting him to plan an imminent invasion of her territory in order to retrieve his high priestess. M.K. advises against this, saying that the Widow is clearly trying to get them to attack while Pilgrim is weakened, as he has lost a lot of his energy from waking up the sleepers. Eli tells Pilgrim that the sleepers were told they would get to fight for a better cause, and that now it is time to set them loose. Pilgrim compliments Eli's eagerness to go into battle, and he and his followers soon depart to invade the Widow's fortress. M.K. and Eli later talk about how they are finally going to change the world for the better, and M.K. tells Eli of how the Widow once had the Gift to, and was even in a coma as well, but was saved. Eli says this almost makes him feel bad about killing her, but only almost. Eli is later present during the attack on the Widow's wall, which is rigged with explosives and injures M.K. greatly. Eli and the surviving forces storm the Widow's fortress and kill the majority of her Clippers. Eli himself faces her Regent Nathaniel Moon, and despite him having a vastly superior fighting ability, Eli's Gift overwhelms him and he has to retreat. After rescuing Cressida, Pilgrim and his forces return to the temple, where Eli attempts to help M.K. recover from his injuries, but M.K. rebuffs him due to the explosives having burned most of his face, causing him nothing but rage. Eli and the other novices are later brought before M.K., who tells them that in order to use their Gift without cutting themselves they must focus on something that hurts worse than any cut. Eli presumably focuses on the feeling of being in a coma, and is thus able to use his Gift at will. During the final battle against the Widow's forces, Eli helps Cressida get to safety. Pilgrim and M.K. are ultimately killed by the Widow and her allies, with the Meridian Chamber, the origins of the Gift which Pilgrim was using to give his followers the Gift, being destroyed with explosives. Eli wanders into the ruins of the chamber, being the last surviving member of Pilgrim's army. He digs around in the ruins and finds a working pistol, something that has not existed in the Badlands for hundreds of years, which he then test-fires.
Powers & Abilities[]
- The Gift: Eli's Gift was initially unstable and hard for him to control, only activating when his skin was cut. However, after waking from the coma that the Master put him in, he was instructed alongside the other novices to focus on a feeling that hurts more than any cut ever could, Eli presumably focused on the feeling of being in the coma, thus enabling him to use his Gift at will.
- Martial Arts/Swordsmanship: Eli was extremely capable in combat, and when using his combat skill in combination with his Gift he was powerful enough to kill several members of the Black Lotus, who are specifically trained to kill Dark Ones, as well as overpower Nathaniel Moon, who was once considered to be the most powerful and dangerous Clipper in all of the Badlands.
- Working Pistol: In the final scene of the series, Eli discovered a working pistol in the ruins of the Meridian Chamber. This would make him the first person in the Badlands in hundreds of years to possess a working gun, which when combined with his Gift would make him arguably the most dangerous person alive.
Trivia[]
- Eli is the last character seen in the series, with the final shot being him firing a working gun in the ruins of the Meridian Chamber. With Pilgrim and M.K. dead, if the series had not been cancelled it is possible that Eli would have become the main antagonist due to the power that being the only person with a working gun grants him.
External Links[]
- Eli on the Into the Badlands Wiki
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 Villains
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Armadillo Territory Butterfly Territory Fox Territory Pickaxe Territory Other Territories Dark Ones The Black Lotus Other | ||