Have you also been gnawing on the bars of your enclosure since the most recent episode of The Acolyte? If so, it might surprise you to discover that part of the inspiration for the show’s great mystery is the game that everybody’s playing right now.
We’re going to spoil The Acolyte, you’ve been warned.
At the end of The Acolyte’s fifth episode, Manny Jacinto’s Qimir became everyone’s hot new boyfriend when he flexed his unbelievably jacked arms and murdered half the cast, revealing himself to be the Sith at the heart of the show’s mystery. Revealed to be the one known as The Stranger, his character design quite notably eschews many of the tenets that define the Sith, and that evidently has a lot to do with 2022’s acclaimed RPG Elden Ring.
Qimir’s look, according to The Acolyte’s showrunner Leslye Headland, is inspired by Elden Ring’s most seasoned warriors. In an Inverse interview, she reveals that Qimir’s lack of distinctive armor takes cues from “the Elden Ring costume. The Elden Bling. When you summon people, you always summon the people that aren’t wearing anything, and it’s like, ‘These people are fucking crazy.’”
As the interviewer points out, there’s a bit of a phenomenon around Elden Ring where players who really wanted to dial in on a particular fight would strip their characters down to their underwear. Headland—who’s very stoked about the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion throughout the conversation—responds affirmatively, sharing that, “Yeah, you have to go in with that offensive attitude, especially with those bosses. You can’t be getting back and panic rolling. You have to be aggressive with them. You have to roll into things.”
Headland is almost certainly taking inspiration from players like Let Me Solo Her, who became a folk legend of sorts in the Elden Ring community. They would allow themselves to be summoned for the hardest fight in the game against Malenia and, per their name, insist on tackling the fight by themselves. However, much like Headland describes, they would only don two swords and their character’s underwear for the fight.
Read More: The Latest Acolyte Episode Is Star Wars At Its Most Sexy, Deadly
Even Qimir’s lone bit of armor, a strangely fashioned helmet seemingly bearing a sinister smile, seems to lift from the fact that Let Me Solo Her’s only real armor—if you’d even call it that—is a jar on his head.
This design ethos not only guided Qimir’s relatively lax clothing, but also seems to have defined Jacinto’s approach to the character’s body language and confidence. As Headland puts it, “I was like, ‘Why would you wear armor if you’re not going to get hit?’”
When we think of a Sith, we think of someone kind of stuffy, who dons either big black robes (Palpatine) or has heavy black armor (a la Darth Vader). The prevailing image is certainly not a smarmy slut of a man showing off how toned he is and who flows through a fight with the swagger of a dude who could pull anyone he wants.
Qimir reveals himself to be the most efficient fighter in the sequence, showing off what an imposing figure he can be, and why he makes such a striking Sith. He disables Jedi’s lightsabers left and right, and dispatches with numerous warriors without breaking a sweat. He’s got this brazen brutality as he cuts down person after person that’s reminiscent of Vader’s famous hallway massacre in A New Hope. In Headland’s own words, he’s “aggressive” and “roll[s] into things.” Yet when he speaks, he talks in a relaxed cadence, and doesn’t parrot platitudes about darkness—rather freedom. It’s a chilling dichotomy, and it works. Speaking of freedom, you know what Jacinto is free to do? Call me!
I’d say that stripping Jacinto down for Qimir’s portrayal has absolutely worked. It’s not just that he’s hot as hell, though that certainly helps. His interpretation of a Sith is just so bare and unburdened, that it’s refreshing to see. Now, everyone say thank you to Elden Ring, Let Me Solo Her, and Leslye Headland.
