Anopheles is the main villain of The Commune.
Anopheles is the leader of a cult commune nicknamed "Pinewood Camp," and outsiders have nicknamed his cultists MOSK.
Note: To prevent spoilers I will be excluding information until release!
Appearance
Anopheles is an intimidating, tall middle aged man with a slender build. He has black hair, pale skin, red eyes, and prominent cheekbones and eyebags. He’s mainly human, but he possesses bug-like qualities such as sharp mandibles on his face and large wings attached to his back. Anopheles is usually seen wearing a red button up with an orange tie, black dress pants, black loafers and a large coat on his shoulders that make him look large in stature. His coat has orange diagonal stripes, and a W-shaped cutout at the bottom. Anopheles wears a mask, which is plague doctor inspired, with red goggles and a long “probiscus” which gives Anopheles his signature mosquito appearance. Anopheles has not yet appeared without his mask in the comic.
While red and orange are his main colours, Anopheles is seen in other colours such as orange and purple in Chapter 3 when he meets Jeong-Hui for the first time. (Author spoilers: In future chapters he will wear colours such as purple and green, as well as a full red suit for special occasions.)
Personality
Anopheles is a manipulative, charismatic and intelligent man. On first impression, he seems kind, loving and attentive, which is ideal for assimilating new members into the cult. He is seemingly strong in his conviction to rid the world of “corruption” and evil people, but he himself exhibits behaviour of the people he’s supposedly against. Anopheles is obsessed with control, to a degree that he is cruel and instills fear into his cultists to maintain it. He is an abuser who knows how to keep people loyal to his cult through his charms and ability to isolate and assimilate his members.
Powers
Anopheles is shown to have blood related powers as early in CH1. He can identify people by the smell of their blood, which is why he makes them wear blood vial necklaces.
To Anopheles, everyone’s blood has a distinct scent. The distance he can identify someone depends on how much blood has been spilled. In CH4, he’s able to find #130 from a few meters away from her blood necklace, but in CH5, #407 had to be close to Anopheles for him to smell the smaller cut on his arm. In the latter example, however, it’s likely Anopheles is accustomed to smelling the blood from the necklaces and therefore didn’t register that the smell was from a different source.
The best way to describe Anopheles’ range with this power is that with the amount of blood in the cultist necklaces (~two teaspoons) is enough for him to smell someone 15 meters away.
Anopheles is also able to fly with his wings. He’s shown using this ability for a stunt on stage in CH1, so that he could levitate in mid-air. His wings can propel him upwards, but Anopheles doesn’t use them to travel long distances as it would be too tiresome. His mandibles don’t grant him any powers, but they are sturdy and connected to his jaw. They are sharp and could potentially grant him protection if someone were to attack him.
History
Not much has been revealed about Anopheles’ history just yet in the comic. The small glimpse we get is in Chapter 4, where Anopheles mentioned constantly moving house with his father, and being glad to have stability living in the commune.
Anopheles mentions he used to be a surgeon to #407 in Chapter 1, after he’s asked if he’s a doctor. He says that he finds it much more rewarding to help his members in the commune as they “deserve it,” implying he picks and chooses who gets treatment.
(Author’s Note: There is a lot of history and lore to Anopheles, but I don’t want to spoil it!)
Plot
Anopheles is the primary villain. He’s a character whose goal is to maintain the current status quo in his commune, maintain control over his cultists and keep a “family unit.” It’s quite dubious as to whether Anopheles actually loves his cultists or is just being manipulative, especially considering how far he’s willing to go to "discipline them” and keep them in line.
Anopheles poses a major threat to the escape plan. A cult member escaping his cult equals betrayal in his eyes, and potentially puts his whole cult in danger if the member has information to help authorities.
Anopheles also creates major conflict with #407 choosing to leave, as he’s love-bombed and groomed him into thinking he’s a good parent to him, especially when put in contrast with #407’s biological father.
Relationships
Zixuan / 407
Anopheles has a soft spot for Zixuan. He’s basically Zixuan’s adoptive father, framing himself as a mentor and guide. At first glance, Anopheles contrasts greatly to Zixuan’s biological father, where he treats the boy with warmth, gentle care and understanding.
There’s clear signs of manipulation every time Anopheles gets Zixuan alone. When he’s in the medical room in CH1, he convinces Zixuan that the mission he’s sending him on is no concern, as long as he follows his guidance outside of the commune and doesn’t listen to outsiders. It’s clear later that Anopheles left out information about what missions entailed, frightening Zixuan into never wanting to leave the commune again.
This relationship is abusive. All of these techniques employed onto Zixuan are a form of grooming, where Anopheles preys on the boy’s vulnerabilities for his own gain. Presumably this would be feeding Anopheles’ ego and making him feel like a good parent, as well as doing free labour for him on the commune alongside the other cultists. Sasha implies in Chapter 5 that Zixuan is a “perfect child project” for Anopheles, where he believes he can mold him into what he wants. Zixuan neatly falls in line with what Anopheles wants, so he is treated nicely, whereas his other “projects” are put to the wayside or punished for having their own opinions.
Zixuan is also notably younger than many of the other cult members, which feeds into Anopheles’ want to mould his mind at a young age, where in CH4 he states that he likes that he likes that Zixuan “understands perfectly” without having to teach him to understand, as he knows Zixuan trusts his word completely. Anopheles has unwavering trust that Zixuan is fully loyal to him, which is why he doesn’t like Jeong possibly giving him new ideas.
Sasha / 01
Anopheles and Sasha by far have the rockiest relationship out of everyone. Sasha is disillusioned, and what Anopheles sees as a “failed” project, as they’re a cult member who will try to rebel in small ways as much as they can. Anopheles still knows he has them under his control, but he mentions in CH4 that he wishes Sasha “saw [him] with a smile on their face,” like they did when they were little. It’s clear Sasha at least liked or looked up to Anopheles in the past.
While Anopheles has physical control over Sasha with their shock bracelets, he more so has a hold on them psychologically. Sasha gets angry at Jeong for wanting to try and escape because of the fear and pain Anopheles inflicted on them when they did, shown by a flashback to Anopheles breaking Sasha’s legs with a crowbar in CH5. Technically, Sasha could leave at any time during missions as their shock bracelets are off, but Anopheles has isolated them, made them reliant on him and scared of him to the point where they haven’t ever attempted to escape again.
Anopheles is by far the most abusive to Sasha out of the main cast, rarely ever talking to them with anything but annoyance, anger and resentment. The one time (so far) that we’ve seen Anopheles talk nicely to Sasha was in the isolation room in CH4, where he tries to guilt Sasha for not being loving towards him, only to get angry and shove a uniform onto them when Sasha tells him not to touch them. After this interaction it’s clear he wants Sasha to know that they “need him” and will not help them unless they are dependent on him and allow him to exert control without pushback.
Jeong-Hui / 267
Anopheles and Jeong have a very distant relationship which can feel passive aggressive from Anopheles’ end at times. Jeong doesn’t talk much around Anopheles and doesn’t give out information to him, and it’s clear that this bothers Anopheles. When Anopheles tries to get Jeong to open up in CH4 by complimenting his gardening and talking about his life, Jeong responds by fake laughing and pretending to agree with Anopheles. We see how much this bothers Anopheles in CH5 where he tells Jeong “I told you that this is what happens when you bottle things up” and “You never come to me about your issues.”
Anopheles distrusts Jeong because he can sense that Jeong is holding out on talking to him. It also bothers him that he’s friends with Sasha, as to him that means that Jeong is more likely to disobey or be disillusioned from the cult. Anopheles also doesn’t like Jeong spending time with Zixuan, but because Zixuan is so attached to Jeong, Anopheles knows he can’t separate them or completely rid Zixuan of his influence. Or at least not for now.
Lucas / 24
Anopheles and Lucas have a close relationship. Lucas depends on Anopheles for attention and validation, which he receives through being Anopheles’ eyes and ears for cult members not following rules in the cult.
It’s shown that Anopheles not only enables Lucas’ violent behaviour, but finds it beneficial. Lucas is an important mission member because he will happily kidnap and kill people for Anopheles, he hunts the commune’s food for Anopheles and he too, like Anopheles, uses fear to control the other cult members. Anopheles himself is violent so he sees Lucas’ behaviour as something that can be useful if kept under control, rather than something to fear.
Lucas is placed in management positions by Anopheles, and there’s a sense of trust between the two. However, as we see in CH6, Lucas will lie to Anopheles to cover for himself and get out of trouble, while Anopheles preys on his vulnerabilities to get information from him and keep him loyal. Anopheles is unaware of some of the bullying Lucas and his friends get up to, which Lucas is able to hide from him by blackmailing and falsely accusing people to Anopheles in order to keep quiet. Anopheles is also unaware of additional illicit substances Lucas and his friends use outside of group therapy sessions.
Lucas clearly sees that Anopheles is moving his attention to Zixuan however, and this deeply bothers him. As Sasha mentions in CH5, Lucas was one of Anopheles’ “projects” that he successfully turned into a loyal follower (as far as he knows.) It’s likely that Anopheles’ ego was boosted by getting a violent child like Lucas “under control” seemingly.Anopheles considers Lucas a success project because of how useful Lucas is, and he’s moved onto another “project.” As far as Anopheles knows, Lucas is indifferent to Zixuan.
Cultists
Anopheles’ relationship with the other cultists varies greatly depending on the person. Overall, he provides them with a home, food and community in exchange for labour and devotion. There are masked cultists nicknamed “Sirees” who do not take off their mask and choose to completely devote themselves to Anopheles. Other cult members are still quite devoted, and consider living in the commune a vast improvement to their own home lives. There are a portion of cult members who are aware that Anopheles is abusive, but they feel they have no-where else to go and have found friends and community in the cult. Even to those who know of Anopheles’ deeds, the commune feels like a better place because more people means a lower probability of Anopheles picking on you specifically. It’s clear to any cult members wanting to escape that with no connection to the outside world, you’re stuck here.
Trivia
- Anopheles used to work as a cardiothoracic surgeon.
- Black coffee is his favourite type of coffee.
- Anopheles has an ex-wife who is a lawyer.
- Type-O blood is his favourite. Scent-wise of course.
- Anopheles smokes cigarettes to try and calm his nerves.
- Both of Anopheles’ parents are dead.