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| “ | Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire, or it will consume you. | „ |
| ~ The Widow |
Minerva, better known as The Widow, is one of the two deuteragonists (alongside M.K.) of the AMC series Into the Badlands.
She is the Baron of Oil and ruler of the Butterfly Territory in the apocalyptic wasteland known as the Badlands. The Widow wishes to free the slaves of the Badlands who are known as Cogs, puts her at massive odds with the other Barons, eventually leading to war. While she is seen as hero by many for liberating the Cogs, her brutal methods often sacrifice all of her ideals in the process, leading many of her followers, including Tilda, to abandon her, seeing her as nothing more than another tyrant.
She was portrayed by Emily Beecham, who also played Elvira Blake in the 2007 adaptation of Agatha Christie's Marple. As a child and teenager, she was portrayed by Jesse-Jane McParland and Freya Allen.
Appearance[]
The Widow's initial appearance.
The Widow is a tall woman with red hair, which she styles in different ways throughout the series. She is often seen wearing a variety of different dresses and accessories, befitting that of a Baron. She is known for wearing high heels, which she often utilizes in battle, and will wear a black suit when she is training her swordsmanship.
The Widow presumably wore the Abbot robes during her time at the Abbot Monastery. As a Cog slave to Baron Chau, she wore white robes. During a hallucination induced by the Master, the Widow has to face an alternate version of herself known as "Raven" who wears similar outfits to that of the Widow, but in crimson red instead of black.
Personality[]
The Widow is an incredibly complex individual. As a Baron in the Badlands, she kills countless people, however, she claims that she wants to make life better for everyone, primarily by freeing all of the Cogs who are enslaved to other Barons. She is often seen treating her Clippers as family, primarily the all-female guard of her home, who she calls her daughters, and has them call her mother. She does appear to have a hatred towards men, but this mostly due to her husband raping her adoptive daughter Tilda, leading to the Widow being forced to kill him in order to end the abuse, and her mentor Bajie abandoning her. Once the Widow reunites with Gaius, a boy she fell in love with as a child, and makes amends with Bajie, her misandry is no longer present.
While her kindness towards the people under her does set her apart from the other Barons, the Widow is ultimately a hypocrite due to her wanting to start a war with the other Barons in order to free the Cogs, which requires her to send young adults out onto the front lines to die in her war, something that several characters call her out on. This ultimately leads to Tilda abandoning the Widow despite once considering her to be a mother. The Widow also wishes to use a boy named M.K. against his will, keeping him prisoner for months with the goal of using him as a weapon due to him being a Dark One, something that Quinn also attempted, showing that the Widow could be just as manipulative and brutal as the man she despised so much. Her hypocrisy in hating Quinn becomes even worse at the end of the second season, when Veil, a woman who had escaped from Quinn's clutches takes sanctuary in the Widow's compound. Quinn wants Veil and her newborn son Henry returned to him, and in exchange Quinn says he will kill several other Barons for the Widow. Despite vowing to protect woman, the Widow trades Veil and Henry back to Quinn.
After Quinn is killed by Sunny, the Widow enters into a direct war with Baron Chau, during which almost all of her allies abandon her. This event, combined with the impending threat of Pilgrim's invasion, leads to the Widow finally deciding to change her ways and no longer act as a brutal tyrant. She enters into a relationship with Gaius, and when she learns she is pregnant, she decides to keep the baby and start a family with him. When she confronts Bajie on him abandoning her as a child, he apologizes, but promises that he did care about her and never meant to hurt her, and the two reconcile. This leads to the Widow's trust issues being reduced significantly. Her and Tilda eventually make amends as well after Tilda sees the Widow changing her ways, and the two of them fight together one last time in the war against Pilgrim. During her final battle against M.K., the Widow ultimately kills him after he mortally wounds Tilda, but despite her anger over what he did, she is shown tearing up at what she had just done, and expresses sympathy for M.K. in his final moments, showing that the Widow ultimately did regret all she had done to him.
Relationships[]
Family[]
- Unnamed father
- Unnamed husband
- Percival (possibly) - Son
- Tilda - Adoptive daughter/former Regent
- Unborn baby
Allies[]
- Bajie - Mentor
- Gaius Chau - Lover
- Tilda - Adoptive daughter/former Regent
- Waldo (formerly) - Former advisor
- Nathaniel Moon - Regent
- Sunny - Former archenemy
- Baron Quinn - Rival Baron/situational ally
- Lydia - Viceroy
- Zypher
- Baron Rojas
- Nix
Enemies[]
- Baron Quinn - Rival Baron/situational ally
- Sunny (formerly) - Former archenemy
- Baron Chau - Archenemy
- Tilda (formerly) - Adoptive daughter/former Regent
- Bajie (formerly) - Mentor
- Lydia (formerly) - Viceroy
- The Master
- M.K.
- Pilgrim
- Cressida
- Ryder
- Jade
- Castor
- Odessa
- Baron Jacobee
- Baron Broadmore
- Baron Hassan
- Alexander & Ophelia Chau
- Eli
Powers & Abilities[]
- Martial Arts/Swordsmanship: The Widow is considered to be one of the best fighters in the Badlands. She was shown capable of taking down dozens of Clippers with ease, and was the only individual in the series other than Sunny to ever land a direct blow on Baron Quinn. After coming to terms with her hypocrisy, she is instructed by the Master to no longer fight with anger, and this enables her to focus better in battle, and even fight Sunny to a standstill, though it would appear he is still the stronger fighter, she is no longer completely outclassed by him.
- Military Strategist: The Widow displays keen intellect when it comes to battle strategy, successfully winning the war for the Badlands and taking down every Baron other than Quinn in her quest, and helps Sunny devise the final plan of attack against Pilgrim and his followers.
- Leadership: Despite many becoming disillusioned with her cause, the Widow is shown to be highly skilled at acquiring new followers on a constant basis.
- The Gift (formerly): The Widow once possessed the Gift, but had it removed by the Abbots. Bajie describes it as having been highly destructive and volatile.
- Bajie's Gift: In order to wake her from her coma after she was put to sleep by the Abbots, Bajie transfers his Gift to her, but she was unable to use it. She reawakens it after M.K. mortally wounds Tilda, but it's unclear how powerful it is, due to her only using it to kill M.K., who had given up on fighting out of despair at accidentally stabbing Tilda.
Quotes[]
Said by the Widow[]
| “ | The appearance of weakness is the greatest advantage. | „ |
| ~ The Widow's lesson to her Butterflies. |
| “ | Every butterfly needs a sanctuary. | „ |
| ~ The Widow's motto as Baron. |
| “ | We are fighting for a world where girls don’t get dragged into dark rooms and have their innocence torn from them. But that world comes at a price. | „ |
| ~ The Widow vowing to not let girls like Tilda be abused in her new world. |
| “ | Kindness is a weapon men use to get what they want. | „ |
| ~ The Widow expressing her misandry to Tilda. |
| “ | Bajie: You do not get to judge me, not after everything you've done. The Widow: I'm fighting for a just cause! |
„ |
| ~ Bajie calling out the Widow for trading Veil and Henry to Quinn. |
| “ | Sometimes dreams have to be tempered by reality. | „ |
| ~ The Widow's nihilism. |
Said about the Widow[]
| “ | You think that compromise is weakness. It’s not. It’s survival. | „ |
| ~ Waldo chastising the Widow's recklessness. |
| “ | No one stays innocent forever, you taught me how dangerous a girl can be. | „ |
| ~ Quinn taunting the Widow. |
| “ | Power's changed you. Now you're willing to sacrifice innocent lives for your own interest. You're no better than any other Baron. Swindling people with declarations of good will, only to stab them in the back. | „ |
| ~ Tilda turning against the Widow. |
| “ | We want an armistice. An immediate end to the fighting. You're the only one who can do that. | „ |
| ~ Arthur threatening the Widow. |
| “ | Be the leader you promised to be. End this war, once and for all. | „ |
| ~ Wren's last words to the Widow. |
| “ | Stop looking to a greater authority for answers, you need to find them inside you. Create a world where there are no more masters. | „ |
| ~ The Master's final lesson to the Widow. |
Trivia[]
- The Widow alludes to the Ruler of Women's Country from the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, of which Into the Badlands is loosely based on.
- The butterfly symbol of her territory is based on a design found on the knife sheath she owned when she was a child.
- The Widow ultimately ends the series with full control over the Badlands, as all other Barons have been killed with the exception of Gaius Chau, her lover. As the only other Baron in the Badlands, he pledges to follow her, effectively giving her control over all territories.
- At one point when speaking to M.K., the Widow claims to have a son named Percival, and when M.K. asks what happened to him, the Widow does not answer. The Widow is later seen looking at a locket with a picture of a young boy on it, which may be Percival. Beyond this, he is never mentioned or referenced again, even after the Widow becomes pregnant, implying that the Widow was possibly lying to M.K. about having a son in order to gain his trust.
- The Widow initially calls her Clippers either "Butterflies" or "Bowlers" with Butterfly Clippers serving as her personal bodyguards and Bowlers fighting on the front lines against other Clipper forces. Unlike Bowlers, Butterfly Clippers are only ever shown to be female.
External Links[]
- The Widow on the Heroes Wiki
- The Widow 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 | ||