The Nimona movie could have been 30 minutes shorter if Ballister had just sent Ambrosius the full video. "You see, my kid couldn't have been mimicking the Director, simply because she was too busy mimicking YOU, darling. Oh, and did you see that part where the Director drove the sword into you??"

Nimona, the Comic: If you pay a little bit of attention, and you know a little about the creator, you’ll see this is a clear trans metaphor :)

Nimona, the Movie: (CLAMBERING OUT OF THE DOWN WITH CIS BUS) THIS IS A TRANS METAPHOR. ATTENTION, EVERYBODY, THIS IS A TRANS METAPHOR!

I enjoy all the headcanons of Ballister and Ambrosius becoming Nimona's dad's, because it ignores that she's actually at least a thousand years old. Just two gay men trying to father an eldritch being that's literally older than the hills

my favorite thing about nimona is that they didn't give her a backstory to why she was a shapeshifter. just that she was. it was her normal reality that she had lived for over a thousand years. that despite doing nothing wrong she was labeled as a monster from the beginning of time. the entire kingdom was only built to protect the world from her just wanting to exist free to be whatever she wanted.

this movie isn't even a trans allegory at this point, it is The transgender movie.

I like to think combat training for these two became more complicated as they got older, if you know what I mean

I colored the last one first and then lowered my standards. give it up for 10yo ambrosius and his glaringly yellow shirt

i think my favorite thing about nimona is how genuine it is. like obvi there are other animations out there like nimona but i think this is the first time i actually appreciated it. all the characters have different body shapes and face structure

and their facial expressions are real and exaggerated (BALLISTER SHHHHSHHS ITS OKAY BABY🙏)

and just how their faces change a mile a minute:

like imo the only person who doesnt have that exaggeration is the director??? woman is so mild nd professional smh

the moral of nimona is that the government sucks and weird little trans girls should be allowed to kill anyone who wrongs them

Behind the Animation for Nimona | Netflix

nimona is abt living in a surveillance police state where the only path to acceptance is conformity as a tool of oppressing those like you. it’s about how a privileged white woman afraid of imagined dangers can often be the greatest threat of all. it’s about how our nature is acceptance, but even a single moment of misinformed paranoia can give rise to lasting cycles of bias and abuse. it’s about how systems of belief will always find a way to validate the harm they inflict upon others, even if it means turning one child into a myth and the other to a monster. nimona is also. a film about a dancing pink shark in sunglasses

nimona the webcomic and nimona the netflix movie are so thematically different and come from such different periods in the artist's (nd stevenson) life and our lives and I love that?? I love the bitterness and angst and how morally gray the graphic novel was, just as much as I love the hopefulness and compassion and how unapologetically trans the netflix film is. watching his work grow as he grew older and I grew older and more secure in my sexuality, is just - so special. it's a rare thing to grow in parallel with the work of an artist you love, especially a queer artist, and I'm so fucking happy this film got made, especially with all its differences to the original work. something something to be loved is to be changed idk lmao.

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!

one thing i really like about nimona's final form is that it has no teeth. she bears no real threat to the city. yet, they still misconstrued her into a monster hoping to destroy their kingdom and all they got. her teeth make vivid appearances when she's either committing violence or showing key personality traits aka being herself. she has nothing left of herself because of this country and still she doesn't aim to hurt anyone. she bears no threat. SHE BEARS NO THREAT!!! DO U UNDERSTAND 😭😭😭 she doesn't hurt one person during this scene. she hurts a few buildings, sure, but doesn't hurt a single person. if anything, the kingdom hurts itself more than she ever did (via missiles, bombs, guns, etc). maybe i'm over analyzing this but this movie is sick

"You're gonna be a Knight, Bal! They're gonna love you. Like I do." | NIMONA (2023)

i am going to throw myself out of a window

A collection of some of my favourite Nimona reviews on letterboxd

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

Nimona (2023) + text posts

finally watched nimona (had the comic for years so i figured no rush) and i was struck by how different certain elements lept out in a new medium…. the one thing that hit harder in animation: she’s literally just a kid.

okay, yes, “she’s” a 1000 year old eldritch horror with no gender all the genders who bites people and commits crimes to alleviate boredom but as someone who works with kids i assure you, that’s literally all children at default settings

it just hurt so much (but in a cathartic way) to see the flashback where the townspeople turn on nimona and i just kept thinking she’s just a kid. she was just a kid. SHES JUST A KID!

(and think the obvious use of gendered pronouns there is a clear sign that this is not totally about nimona)

and then to see the “monster unleashed” sequences where the “monster” in question (or what i’m going to call the shadow form) is made from all of nimonas pain and grief and rage…..

the shadow form is harmless on its own. it has no teeth or claws. it’s voice mimics a whale call. a mourning, crooning noise, not a roar or a snarl. the destructive capacity is in its reaction, in the pain that rejection and humiliation and persecution has caused it.

as much as i relate to nimona more often through the “socialized girl child” and “queer child in a religious family” concepts within the film and book….. i’ve never seen myself so strongly as i did in the scene where nimona becomes the shadow form. the pressurized roar of grief and loss that they let out right before… i know that sound.