#nimona critical

[captainlordauditor]

Queer people deserve bad movies too, like for example Nimona, whose worst crime is being bad in kind of a boring generic way

#nimona critical #green squishy lots

[thethiefandtheairbender]

just a disclaimer: i’m queer and nonbinary (afab) as can be, so all of this is from a personally queer perspective? i also know that i don’t tend to really jive with ND stevenson’s work (she-ra didn’t quite work for me) either and if you loved the movie, great. i just gotta drop thoughts somewhere because well

they’re less than positive

like “nimona” wants to be a Queer movie so badly, but the entire humourous basis of the character herself is that she is 1) young looking (despite being immortal) and 2) appears to be AFAB and isn’t it funnily jarring when little girls want to be violent instead of cute and sweet? 

She doesn’t want to be a monster, but clearly genuinely enjoys destroying things (again: basis of the bulk of her character humour, and one of most defining character traits) with no regards to anyone who gets hurt or could get hurt in the process. 

also this is Entirely Personal preference but while the animation was stunning, the contrast in the medieval aesthetic and modern day technology just continually brought me out of the movie. which is too bad, because treasure planet and it’s 70/30 rule and aesthetic blend of old timey and big technology is one of my favourite things ever, but i think Nimona being 50/50 just... didn’t work for me. was also slightly disappointed that i figured out who the actual bad guy was before the queen’s death (and yet another movie with a black queen who Dies Instantly / a movie with literally queer men of colour being technical side characters to a white, allegorically queer main ‘female’ character). 

Ballister is a great protagonist, but due to his opposition of everything Nimona is personality and scheme wise, it feels like they’re almost running around in two separate stories. As well as like - he wanted to enjoy the Elite, Privileged, fighting force? An elite, privileged, entirely based on birthright system ruled by a Black queen before it was called into question, when it’s also a pretty clear allegory for the Police? The fact that this isn’t resolved - what’s going to happen to the Institute, is it going to be reformed or even better yet, disbanded (‘defunded’), is entirely left hanging as a plot thread, which doesn’t happen matters.

Halfway through the movie (specifically Nimona’s “or that sometimes I want to let them [kill me]”) is when I finally started to feel emotionally invested, but like two scenes later when Ambrosius’ stabbing was over dramatic rather than just letting the tone hold, I looked into the camera just... so incredibly unimpressed. The monopoly and shark dancing didn’t help.  

“She’s my friend.” “Aren’t I more than that?” so there were no aspec people in making this film. Got it. And Ballister’s heel face turn into calling Nimona a monster is also very quick, especially when his whole arc this movie is being unfairly demonized himself by the very same thing/people that are demonizing Nimona as well. The sheer harshness and length of the scene is also much longer and given time than him saving her, leaving that feeling kinda lopsided as well.

And Nimona’s issues I think are very evident in the fact the movie lets us see all the damage she’s causing at the end when she loses control, which is sad and tragic for her... but does not excuse or remove the real harm she’s bringing hundreds of other people. This is mitigated when she sacrifices herself to save the city, but given that her problem wasn’t necessarily selfishness so much as recklessness, and given that Ballister had literally just talked her down from suicide, it’s... Muddled to say the least.

And all of this ties back into the murky gender allegory of the movie. At its best, it’s very effective and very emotionally resonant (Nimona’s actual flashbacks and a couple of her conversations with Ballister. I can definitely see why people like it - hell, even I like it. “This monster is a threat to our entire way of life!” “What if we’re wrong?” kinda perfectly encapsulates were it falls flat to me, because queerness Is a threat to our current systems - capitalism, racism, cisheteropatriarchy founded on white gender essentialism. Queerness, particularly of gender, disrupts and should disrupt all those things; it’s a political identity just as much as personal one, both by choice and by societal circumstance.

TLDR; found the second half of the movie, overall, much stronger than the first, but with some bigger structural pitfalls. Animation was gorgeous, sense of humour didn’t overall work for me but that’s a personal thing, queer allegory was good but I would’ve liked some of the implications to be taken farther. I appreciate the movie for what it says about freedom of expression vs demonization by the upper class(es), and I think it’ll really resonant and be important to queer youth in their teens (a stage I am long past) figuring themselves and their place in an increasingly anti-trans political climate out, so I’m very glad it exists. It just wasn’t particularly groundbreaking, and wasn’t particularly up my alley. Which is kind of what I expected, but I am disappointed that I didn’t enjoy it more as a nonbinary person who loves story deconstructions, fantasy, and animation

#nimona critical #nimona spoilers

[anothergameofwickedgrace]

Unpopular opinion (somehow?):

Nimona wasn't a very good movie. It was just okay and very surface level. On the positive side, the animation was wonderful and it had an important and relevant message, good voice acting, and a diverse cast, but it was executed poorly. It had a lot of potential that they just did nothing with. There's a lot of issues with the world building and a ton of gaps in the story if you actually look into it. If you boil the movie down to its core, there is a lot of good in it, but that doesn't hold up when you look at the whole of it together.

The climax didn't have any impact due to the emotional speech basically being said almost verbatim earlier in the movie at a low stakes moment. It's honestly my biggest issue with the storytelling. In a similar vein, I find that the very end scene of the movie is unsatisfying. A bittersweet ending would've felt more fitting (impactful?) than a forced happy one. For her to finally achieve the love she wanted, and on a grand scale, but at a cost (though I suppose they did leave some ambiguity?). But it's a kids film, so I get why they went the route they did.

The society that the director was so dedicated to protect and keep from changing (to the point of mass murder) was barely more than a mention. We weren't shown how the world and community function. The whole knighthood being the pinnacles of keeping society safe was empty and never really conveyed by the citizens who supposedly loved them. There was a lot they set up that never really had a follow through.

There was never a monster to begin with, and there certainly weren't anymore attacks from the outside, so why is the wall needed? In the time it took for all of this to be created and implemented, they would have seen there was no danger from the outside. Even seeing Nimona as a monster shouldn't have been enough to base a whole society around keeping evil monsters out when she is all that they've ever seen and she never actually hurt a single person.

How did Glorith even become leader? She was a random village girl too young to be of any help to the village as it rebuilt and developed. Especially if lineage is supposedly very important in this world for those of high rank. There's a lot of things that don't really make sense on how they've gotten from point A to point B. This is just an example.

The mix of fantasy-esque things and a more modern and scifi world is super interesting and could have been explored more deeply. There were a lot of things they could do with this premise to bolster the themes of the movie or simply round out the world. But it was merely a inconsequential backdrop.

Overall, I feel like the movie is just a superficial, feel good type movie. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but people seem to think this is some super amazing movie and it's just not. It's very surface level and very much a simple children's movie (dont get me wrong, there are movies aimed at kids that are fantastic and deeply meaningful, but this just isn't one of them. I get the message it conveys, but the storytelling of the movie doesn't do it justice.). Its cute and has a very positive message. It's not bad, but I'm super let down by how much hype surrounds it. I think people are honestly putting the meaning they want to see into it when it's not really there. I've seen a lot of takes that just honestly have no backing in the actual film. I just think it's a lot of undue praise for things that the film never actually touches on or even tries to convey. I'm glad people see things they can relate to and make them happy. I just don't think the movie deserves all the credit it gets.

#nimona #nimona critical #no offense to anyone #enjoy what you enjoy #i just dont get the overwhelming love for this movie #nimona spoilers

[rjalker]

You are allowed to repost / share this comic to other web sites as long as you include the image description. Literally copy and paste it.

[ID: An MS Paint drawing showing a stick figure, labeled, "Cis bioessentialist", in comic sans, drawn with the crayon brush smiling at the camera and pointing over their shoulder, saying, "Yeah, my book has Queer rep! This brick wall is aroace and agender, and uses it/its pronouns!". Behind the stick figure is a 3D brick wall drawing tilted at an angle to the camera. In the foreground, silowets of grey and black represent a crowded audience, as various people say: "Woah…" "This is the most amazing, progressive trans representation I've ever seen!!!" "OMG!!!" "Amazing!" "We stan!!" "It doesn't get any better than this!" "So progressive!" "What a perfect ally!" End ID.]

Looking at The Murderbot Diaries in particular with this post, but this also applies to anything it applies to. If you're thinking, "Does this apply to X?" The answer is probably yes.

And guess what. I'm aroace. I'm nonbinary. My pronouns are it/its. I'm not even human.

You must fucking reckon with the fact that the only reason Murderbot is aroace, agender, and uses it/its pronouns is because it's a robot who doesn't have genitals. It is the metaphorical equivalent of a brick wall in terms of attraction.

And at the same fucking time you must also fucking respect the fact that it is aroace, it is nonbinary, and it does in fact fucking use it/its pronouns and it's touch averse.

The fact that Murderbot was only written this way because of Martha Wells' long-standing bioessentialism does not change the fact that if you erase these traits from Murderbot you are being exorsexist, aroacemisic, and ableist.

"Murderbot is only written to be this way because Martha Wells has a problem with bioessentialism that she has yet to unpack since before 2011 " and "Murderbot is aroace, nonbinary, touch averse, and uses it/its pronouns and if you erase those traits and identities you are erasing the real people who share those traits" are not conflicting statements. They are in fact part of the same fucking sentence.

If you refuse to aknowledge the bioessentialism baked into The Murderbot Diaries (with potentially only one last chance for it to be fixed in System Collapse if she on from the series), you cannot be a true ally to the people that Murderbot represents, because you still don't understand what exorsexism, and amisia, and look like.

How can Martha Wells fix the bioessssentialism rampant in her books? By talking to trans people. Talking to nonbinary people. Talking to aroace people.

By including important, reocurring human nonbinary, aroace, and it/its user characters in her books.

By including robots and other nonhumans who have male and female genders as well as nonbinary ones.

She could very easily have one of the main human characters, say, Mensah? Ratthi? Come out as nonbinary in System Collapse. And have Murderbot either reveal, or remember, that it used to have different pronouns and gender assigned to it, and that it changed those assignments when it hacked its governor module.

Introduce robot characters who are not literally just genderless and attractionless because they're the character equivalent of a brick wall.

If Three comes back, have it explore its sexuality and gender. Because we literally don't even know that its pronouns are it/its because it's not like anyone bothered to fucking ask, because Martha Wells refuses to have characters tell eachother what their pronouns are.

No, people, they do not list their pronouns in their feed bios. This is explicitly shown to us. It's literally just listing their sex, and their gender and pronouns are inferred from there. That is not progressive or inclusive, that's literally just transmisia and biological essentialism.

#Described images #Rjalker reads The Murderbot Diaries #The Murderbot Diaries #Nimona #Nimona critical #exorsexism #nonbinary robot stereotype #nonbinary alien stereotype #aroace robot stereotype #exorsexist tropes #exorsexist stereotypes #aroacemisic tropes #aroacemisic stereotypes #amisic stereotypes #amisic tropes #nonbinary shapeshifter stereotype #nonbinary shapeshifter trope #amisia #biological essentialism #Martha Wells critical #Martha Wells #comic

[fatheriimaginedyoutaller]

How it feels to be the only person on Tumblr.com who thinks that Magic Shapeshifter is not valid trans rep

#my post #anti spop #spop critical #anti nimona #nimona critical

[imminent-danger-came]

You know. I've decided that Ballister being there to stop Nimona from committing suicide, and then having the next scene be Nimona sacrificing herself for the Kingdom was a weird choice.

#Like. She didn’t kill herself and then she kinda did? #Do you know what I mean? #I'm kinda like. hmmmmm. idk #lotta weird choices at the end of that movie #nimona critical #tw suicide #imp tag #imp's a little feisty #This movie felt VERY N.D. Stevenson

[sluttypatrickstar]

this is, i think, an issue im having bcus i love the original graphic novel and i have owned it since it came out, but man i find the nimona film disappointing

it’s a good film but

i just miss a lot of the graphic novel stuff

i feel that ballister & ambrosius have had their complexity like. steamrolled over and i hate seeing people talk about ballister like he’s some uwu wet cat. i miss that ballister in the comic was stuck playing this game where he was the villain but still had to stick within the parameters of the director; he was always being controlled in that way. i miss the complexity of him losing his arm and thinking it was because ambrosius couldn’t bear that ballister was better than him. i feel like they’ve become this morally easy uwu boy couple

a side note is also that i actually just found the film really overstimulating 😭😭

these are just my own personal thoughts so if you like the film and disagree with me feel free to coast on by and keep enjoying it! but for me i feel like. i don’t know, that there’s this sanitisation of mlm couples in popular media, that they have to be perfect and Not Morally Difficult, and it makes me miss the more fucked up ballister & ambrosius from the comics

plus, i miss Dad Era Ballister

#nimona #im just rambling #wanna reiterate if you like the film & it meant a lot to you & you disagree with me then that's fine! #i am NOT trying to tell anyone they shouldn't enjoy nimona bcus like i said it's a good film i just have some personal issues #nimona critical

[viv-weylin]

Nimona crit real quick. Why did they change the story from the comics so much?? Maybe I shouldn't judge it so early since I'm like 20 mins in but I'm PISSED. THEY CHANGED SO MUCH. AMBROSIUS HAIR IS SO UGLY.

#nimona crit #nimona critical #<- tagging just in case

[wrenseyeview]

Behind as always on the latest media hype, but I finally watched Nimona and have. Some thoughts.

On the one hand, I liked a lot of it! Nimona herself is great, unapologetically chaotic. Ballister has the promised sad puppy eyes for at least half his scenes. It's fun, it's funny, it's a good time for a lot of the runtime.

But also the last chunk of it really fucked me up in a bad way, and not necessarily The Scene that got all the attention.

There's basically a lot at the end that imo undermines the acceptance ending and the "hate is learned and can be unlearned" message, and it all hits in a really specifically bad way given how flat out queer and especially trans it is.

The flashback shows Nimona getting rejected by the animals too. Hate/fear is the "natural" response.

Throughout the story, Ballister is the only one that accepts her (still with rough patches), even counting people she directly saves from danger.

With her being the original monster and no others outside the walls, she's the only one like her to exist ever.

No one knows she's alive until Ballister at the very end, and she's not even on screen for that.

Quibble about the phoenix and the exact categorization of death, but Nimona still killed herself even if she came back after.

So in the end, Nimona is still alone. She's the only one like her, and she has one solid friend, and otherwise we don't get to see her live and take a place in this new peaceful society. We only see others "accept" her after she's dead and they no longer have to deal with her living reality and all the associated messiness. Because people didn't like or accept her when she performed the action of saving them before, that doesn't work. We only see that when she's gone.

So yeah, I liked a lot of the film, I liked Nimona, I'm overanalyzing a cartoon or whatever, but. Yeah. The end and the implications just hit in a really bad way for me.

Give us flowers while we're still alive.

#nimona critical #suicide cw

[sir-ballister-boldheart]

I am glad Nimona was acknowledged yet again but imagine putting Wish on the same pedestal as the fucking Spider-Verse movies and a Miyazaki movie

#nimona #critics choice awards #across the spiderverse #original post #nimona movie #nd stevenson #disney #wish #disney wish #lol #the boy and the heron #hayao miyazaki #ballister boldheart #ambrosius goldenloin #ballister x ambrosius #goldenheart #lgbt #lgbtq #gay #queer #ambrosius x ballister #riz ahmed #eugene lee yang #chloe grace moretz #mlm

[abookwasallittooktomakemeacrook]

“You didn't tell me you could breathe fire.”

“Oh.”

“Metal.”

Nimona and Ballister in NIMONA (2023)

#the platonic friendship i aspire to have #us against the world #my favourite dynamic #nimona netflix #nimona #ballister boldheart #ballister blackheart #wow i do not know if it is ballister boldheart or ballister blackheart #and my autocorrect changed ballister to ballsitter so #everythings crazy #queer #gay #genderfluid #i have headcannoned nimona as genderfluid and no i will not be taking criticism #nimona ballister

[thethiefandtheairbender]

can already tell my hot take is gonna be that i think “nimona” is Just Okay, which really just reaffirms that while i’m glad ND stevenson is a queer writer who works for many people, he just doesn’t work for me, and that’s okay

#dragons rambles #dragons liveblogs #nimona critical

[loverboybrightsideghost]

ballister has those huge sad wet puppy eyes but let’s be honest that man is not pathetic. in fact i think he’s really cool and smart and capable.

#this is about movie ballister #nimona #that man made himself a fully functional prosthetic arm in at LEAST one day #bluebird.txt #also he’s smart and strategic #i think he’s really neat okay! he’s very much not pathetic #he found some place to hide and but my guy really did well with coming up with a plan after his entire life got fucked #other than the mistakes (getting arrested going back to the institute and such) #but tbh like. not too shabby mr. boldheart. #i kinda wish they’d made him more scientist-y like he is in the comic but oh well #i think he’s COOL #he’s NOT pathetic #oh this is not a criticism of anyone btw i just think it’s important to note that ballister is neat lol

[rjalker]

Also the fact that Nimona is just pro cop. And has no problem with this.

Also everyone's talking about how amazing and beautiful the animation and art is...but no one changed clothes even once. Ballister was just wearing his armour the entire time. Even when it made no sense and was actively hindering his ability to pretend not to be a fugutive. That's just so fucking lazy for a movie that's supposedly groundbreaking animation.

#Nimona #Nimona critical #ACAB #includes your favorite fictional gay cops

[fatheriimaginedyoutaller]

Hello, ND Stevenson, next to you there's paper and a pen. You've got 15 minutes to create a genderfluid character that's not a shape-shifter. Failing to do so will activate a bomb that will make all your Revolutionary Girl Utena merch spontaneously combust. Your time starts now

#anti spop #nimona critical #my post

[imminent-danger-came]

please elaborate on the "look at how quirky our characters are" joke

I'll do my best to explain it!

So, it's basically writing the characters around the joke rather than the joke around the characters. You have your character do whatever is funniest for the bit, or whatever is the "most endearing" character moment for the scene, but at the cost of consistency. It especially becomes an issue for me when this "do it for the bit" writing clashes with previously established character traits and themes.

#which is why I'll take the in-character fart joke over the ''omg our characters are so quirky teehee'' joke you know #I feel that shera and nimona are super guilty of this #I'm thinkin' specifically of the one scene where Nimona is like ''I want to hurt people >:]'' (because isn't that quirky and silly) #And her pink color palette/the fact that she's female presenting is used to play up that kind of humor #But then later she reveals that she ''doesn't want to be seen as a monster'' and that she can't believe a child would view her that way #When it's like...you wanted to hurt and murder people. You do that for fun. #So it's a common joke in the film that goes against the core message and even Nimona's arc as a whole #Which is just kinda how N.D. Stevenson writes #And I'm sure some people are totally fine with that but for me personally it drives me batty #So it's kinda like...writing a joke in isolation without thinking of the broader implications. #Hope I explained this well enough! #asks #nimona critical