Nimona Analysis - Tumblr Posts
also the way that the nimona movie showed that hate is a taught behavior?? the way that gloreth, the hero worshipped for slaying monsters, was fully accepting of nimona until her mother told her what to believe? until that generational bigotry was passed down? the way the director’s motive wasn’t even power like most evil government figureheads in media, but rather a fear of monsters destroying the kingdom because that hate had been instilled in her too, like it had in gloreth? the way ballister was also indoctrinated into hatred of “monsters” until he was just as outcast as one? because only then was he willing to change and learn?? and how even people with good hearts and good intentions like ballister and ambriosius and even the queen herself are still capable of perpetuating bigotry and unnecessary violence when they don’t take the time to understand or learn about the “others” they supposedly hate????????? i need to lie down
I read the comic in one sitting less than an hour after finishing the movie, and wow I have many Thoughts™.
- It's very obvious the two versions were meant to cater to different audiences AND tell different messages. I don't get why people are going "But the comic was better! It had more nuance!" just because Nimona was easier to root for in the movie.
- The comic was written back when ND Stevenson was still trying to process a lot of stuff, so all the characters are morally grey/straight up evil and the climactic battle is between a Ballister who regrets turning against Nimona, even if it was to save others vs. a Nimona who's too hurt to care if her lashing out was going to hurt innocent people.
- By the time Nimona got a movie adaptation, ND was a lot more secure in his sexuality, so the climactic battle was Nimona vs. the Director, the symbol of religious oppression and bigotry. It's not just about your friends turning on you because you're "too much" for them anymore, it's also about a society that would rather bring itself to the brink of ruin than coexist with you.
- (I totally get why people were upset about Ballister's surname change, though. Like come on, the media dubbing him Blackheart just to be mean was RIGHT THERE).
- Nimona's metaphor for not shifting is such a neurodivergent thing. Even in the comic, Nimona's parents insisting she's a monster who replaced their daughter is reminiscent of the changeling myth, which is what many parents thought their neurodivergent kids were—changelings who replaced their "real" children.
- Ambrosius being trained to cut off HIS BOYFRIEND'S WHOLE FUCKING ARM instead of merely disarming him is a very cop thing to do. As much as cops claim they're trained to de-escalate situations, their training still teaches them to treat everyone as a potential threat, and that level of constant vigilance can turn anyone into a trigger-happy/arm-choppy bastard. Even the Director, who can use a sword but probably hasn't actually fought someone in ages, STILL can't see Ballister reaching for the squire's phone without assuming he has a weapon.
- And on that note, the Queen getting killed simply because she was trying to reform the Institution and allow commoners to become knights? That's the best "no such thing as a good cop" metaphor I've seen. Because even if there ARE good cops and they ARE in leadership positions, the system will crush them before they make any meaningful change. It's not a good institution that turned rotten, it's an institution that only exists to spread its rot and refuses to be good.
- That's why Ballister's characterisation is so different in the movie vs. the comic. Comic Ballister had 15 years to come to terms with his trauma and the Institution's evildoing, while Movie Ballister is still freshly traumatised and hasn't found a way to define himself beyond the role he was assigned by the Institution.
- Not to mention Comic Ambrosius was not very noble to begin with and genuinely believed Ballister was better suited to villainy than heroism, while Movie Ambrosius never wanted the glory that came with his lineage in the first place and only antagonised Ballister because of indoctrination he needed to unlearn (which he did, all by himself, after witnessing the lengths the Director will go to just to kill Nimona).
- It really shows how important it is to surround yourself with loved ones who are open to change. Comic Ambrosius can love Ballister all he wants, but he'll still blast his arm off because he thinks Ballister deserved it anyway. Movie Ambrosius will stop to question what "the right thing" even means, even if he didn't love Ballister enough to defend him unconditionally.
I have so many more thoughts bubbling beneath the surface, but I'll probably address them some other day. In conclusion:
[ID: A pink-haired Nimona grinning evilly while holding up a knife.]
Watch Nimona. This is not a request.
Edit: Added more thoughts!
the thing that makes Nimona the most vulnerable up until the very ending of the movie is that she is alone, in a way no one else truly is. Ballister ends up ostracized and almost universally hunted - but like in the graphic novel, what leads to the climactic conflict of his and Nimona's joined arc is that very "almost": the fact that despite everything, Ambrosius still cares about him, and he still cares about Ambrosius. even at his lowest, Ballister still comes from the past where he had been loved, and even with the prejudice he faced his entire life, for the largest portion of it, he was lucky enough to have his baseline state of existence be - supported, celebrated, cared for, if only by just two people. having no one in his corner is new to him, is terrifying, is horribly vulnerable and surreal.
but for Nimona that's her entire life, that's where she comes from. and that's what leads to her being rejected and hurt both of the times we see her actually make a meaningful connection. i see people analyzing Gloreth's character and implying that she was more or less oblivious to prejudice up until the very tragic end of things - but i think it's important to notice that when Nimona shapeshifts in front of her for the first time, before accepting her, Gloreth looks over her shoulder. she considers the village. perhaps she checks that no one else saw.
[id: cropped screenshot from the movie, showing Nimona from the back, holding an apple in her hands, and Gloreth looking away from her, at the roofs of the village down the hill. end id]
Gloreth is aware of shapeshifting as something that her community will not favor, whether that awareness is fully concsious or intuitive. Gloreth knows that aligning herself with Nimona is in some way "bad" and "wrong" in others' eyes, and chooses to do so regardless - but in secret.
when the rest of the village finds out about Nimona, Gloreth ends up caught between her parents, calling out to her from beyond the line of fire - and Nimona, on the same side of it as her, reaching out. Gloreth has to make a choice between staying in the light of being known and accepted or lose everything to remain with someone who seemingly has no choice but to resign to the shadows.
[id: a cropped screenshot from the move, showing child Nimona on left side and Gloreth on the right, Nimona in shadows, Gloreth backlit by the fire. end id]
Gloreth might have genuinely started seeing Nimona as a monster in that moment - but it seems much more likely to me that that was simply the story she told herself in the understandable, self-protective childhood need to save herself from the same devastating rejection. Nimona had to be something bad and vile for Gloreth to justify severing herself from her and rejoining her family, the only community she's ever known
the very same thing happens with Ballister - and the reason why it all even can happen is because both Ballister and Gloreth had all these people who knew them and cared about them before Nimona found them, before Nimona made them "worse" in others' eyes. she's a challenge, she's unapologetic, she's a catalyst for authenticity, she exposes the lies and reveals the uncomfortable truth - and for everyone who can no longer recognize a once-beloved person transformed by their bond with her, it is easy to see Nimona as the problem. the person they cared about was good up until now, so they must be good still, just deceived, manipulated. Nimona is the tainting, dangerous influence that can and should be washed off and separated from the uncompromised wholesomeness of the person they love
and for Nimona - no one was there to treat her the same way, however misguided and ultimately unkind this sort of mindset is. she was never precious to someone, never unconditionally good to someone, never a child, never a life-long friend. no one knew her before they saw her as the newcomer, the disrupter, the trouble, the other. no one is in her corner, seeing her as a person and believing her to be fundamentally good and thus deserving of protection. she is always the monster, the corrupting influence, the evil lurking in the shadows. in terms of the metaphor, she is always the obviously queer person "tempting" others into her ways. her loneliness is cyclical, self-sustainig, as if since no one is there to protect her, it just affirms she must not deserve it.
Ballister choosing to trust her even though he has the liberty to adopt any interpretation of her, disregard the little girl as a disguise, the teenager as a mask, him choosing to see her pain instead of shielding himself from his own - that's the weight of him saying "You are not alone". it's been Nimona against the rest of the world for as much of her life as we see it, and the world treated everyone else but her as deserving of protection, sheltering, forgiveness - worst of all, protection from her, sheltering from her, forgiveness for their guillible trust of her. when the movie tells us Nimona is treated as the monster of the story, it's not an exaggeration, not a shallow plot formula: she is, quite literally, the one and only wicked principle of creation everyone else is to be redeemed from.
until someone chooses to take her side. until she's not alone. until she's precious, good, smart, kind, sophisticated, loved, vulnerable, important, deserving of care, protection and life, like everybody else is.
[id: cropped screenshot from the movie, showing Ballister holding the battered Nimona in a hug. end id]
Why Ambrosius and Ballister’s Relationship Feels So Different in the Movie (Nimona)
As someone who read Nimona countless times growing up, I am very familiar with the story and these characters. Which is why when I watched the movie, I was struck by how different Ambrosius and Ballister felt. They seemed like totally different and unfamiliar characters to me, and it didn’t have anything to do with their designs.
After rereading the original Nimona graphic novel recently, I’ve come to the conclusion that the main reason they feel like completely different characters in the movie comes down to one thing: the removal of the joust.
When I watched the movie, I was surprised by the fact that they changed the circumstances that drove these two apart. But it didn’t hit me just how much this one event shapes both of their characters and their relationship to each other until I reread the book.
The joust is CRUCIAL to their dynamic. It pervades every interaction they have with each other, they bring it up constantly, it is literally the crux of their collective storyline. We learn about it on PAGE 5 of the whole book, and their big heart-to-heart when Ballister is captured near the climax of the story is based around Ambrosius finally admitting the truth about what happened. Honestly I’d say that him finally coming to terms with what he did and apologizing for it is probably what allowed these two to finally find peace together by the end of the book.
We get something similar to it in the movie. Ambrosius still is responsible for Ballister losing his arm, but it is under WILDLY different circumstances. So I want to talk about how the joust affects them in the book, and then explain why the movie’s version of events, while similar on the surface, has a completely different effect on everything. So let’s get into it!
(All images of the book are via pictures of my own physical copy btw, so apologies if they’re not the best quality.)
(Also I want to make it clear that I don’t hate the movie nor its adaptation of these two. I do personally greatly prefer the book, but this post is not here to tear down the movie and exclaim that the book was way better. I just find it interesting how changing one event can have huge ripple effects!)
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