Releasing Nimona on the last day of pride month 2023 was such a great move because it’s a really needed piece of media right now. Lots of countries that legalised gay marriage years ago have been grappling with this rising TERF narrative of “if you’re gay it’s whatever but if you’re trans, non-binary or gender non-conforming in some way you’re a PERVERT! A MONSTER trying to GROOM CHILDREN!” The outrage against simple things like pronouns and drag events, and the movement against gender affirming healthcare have reached a terrifying peaks for contemporary times.
So a kid’s movie set in a fictional country with controlling government officials with personal agendas, with an openly gay couple but also a shape-shifting kid who cannot even be afford to be out is our reality in the US today. Nimona’s feelings about her vibe, body and form, her insistence that she is only “Nimona” no matter what she looks like and her aversion to “small-minded questions” together forms such a beautiful allegory about trans, genderfluid individuals.
Ballister asks her to be a girl, but for whose sake? It’s only for the comfort of people who refuse to understand her, and would rather see her die than let her be herself. And it’s this widespread rejection and loneliness that has eventually made Nimona indifferent to pain, that makes her feel suicidal.
In the end, it is another member of the LGBTQ+ community that truly sees and accepts Nimona for who she is. And that should be a reminder that we cannot let them divide us. Trans people stood up for the rest of us and made historical change happen, and we need to do the same for them. Besides, cis queer people are only the “good ones” until they’re done with trans people and then will turn on us.
Nimona was SO MUCH FUN def would recommend watching it on Netflix
Also, Nimona would definitely interrupt Ballister and Ambrosius during their lovey-dovey moments just to mess with them lmao
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date idea: we watch nimona together but every 5 minutes i pause and explain to you what that specific scene meant and what i believe the character's thoughts were
In nimona I hear everyone ealk about the "He hates freestyle jazz" and "He's allergic" and how well they know each other but those details are there so the line when ballister stabs the sword in the ground next to ambrosius even more impactful. They know each other so well and then:
"What are you gonna kill me too now?" "If you really believe that-" sword plants in ground, "Then you never knew me at all."
I remember when this page dropped on Tuesday, July 16, 2013, and Blackenloin/Goldenheart/Goldheart/w/e shippers all collectively lost our minds. Yes, Ballister and Ambrosius are very shippable from the get-go (their hand placement on p.13, Ambrosius on p.21 to Ballister "Are you trying to make me jealous" and his otherwise flirty dialogue, Ambrosius holding Ballister's hand at the bar on p.102, plus little hints and things by Nate on Nate's tumblr), but p.126 was an outright confirmation that it wasn't just angsty and close platonic stuff (with very clingy Ambrosius) that's fun to ship but not exactly canon in the text itself (like you can read it as "oh these two had something" from the get-go but it's not exactly explicit up until this point, and it's a different experience reading the completed comic all in one go versus reading it page by page over the course of a couple years as pages release). The Director's wording, Ambrosius' little blush. Ahh, these beans.
Miss Heed's adrenaline infused rage gave her temporary super strength and was able to overpower Demencia in a choke hold and dunk her face into a punch bowl. Demencia proceeds to kick her in the face and body slams her into a pile of cake.
Honestly if Miss Heed is coming back, I kinda wanna see crazy fight scenes of her (actually fighting), between the Villainous gang, especially where she's crazy enough to take on Demencia 😂.