#Nimona comic spoilers

[raphaelesbian]

Okay since I now have a VERY popular post comparing Ambrosius in the movie vs the comic (primarily pointing out what a dick he is lmao) I DO feel the need to compile my gayest goldenheart moments. Like yeah their relationship is full of anger and bitterness and they hurt each other a lot but they DO still love each other. Like I do think that the movie characters could've become closer to the comic characters if you gave it the 10-20 years (ambiguous) of being nemeses from the comics. Definitely still different, considering the circumstances were totally different, but closer. But anyways: homosexuals

"archnemeses" being super concerned about their wellbeing. And I don't have a screenshot but the Director even calls Goldenloin out on not fighting him as hard as he could basically. And Nimona says p much the same thing to Ballister

And yeah my original post was about how hilariously flippant Ambrosius was about the arm thing but like. He DOES actually feel bad about it, and I think that repressed guilt underlies a lot of his meanness. He's flippant BECAUSE he feels bad, so he tries to diminish it and not talk about it.

And of course, I love a good "don't touch him!!" protective rage moment ❤️❤️❤️❤️ they can beat the shit out of each other but NO ONE ELSE can touch his husband archnemesis

Finally, the cut-off love confession 💔 and the hand on Ambrosius's cheek!!! Literally I'm obsessed with them. It's just so good. Read the comic

[yrrtyrrtwhenihrrthrrt]

I love thinking about the Nimona characters from the movie and comic meeting because in addition to the usual shenanigans of the Ambrosiuses hating each other (it would NOT be one sided, Comic Amb would think Movie Amb was a privileged spoiled brat and would be absolutely boiling with jealousy) there's so much other fun stuff like

-Comic Ambrosius not realizing that their Nimona is a different person since he never knew her well and immediately chucking his crutch at her because "fucking bitch is the reason I even HAVE a crutch" (Nimona would find his rage ceaselessly entertaining)

-Blackheart would love Movie Nimona and vice versa because "it's a version of my Little Buddy that didn't cause my boyfriend permanent disability and also massacre civilians" and "it's a version of my Boss who isn't a total fucking square let's go" (they love their real versions more but they would still get on great and it would be extremely refreshing)

-Blackheart and Movie Ambrosius MIGHT get along depending on if Blackheart is in a forgiving mood.

-The comic boys would be so passive aggressive the whole time like

Blackheart: "Wow babe this one said sorry after only a few weeks for cutting off his boyfriend's arm. How long did it take you again?"

C Ambrosius: "Jesus Christ LET IT GO"

also

C Ambrosius: "Wow babe that one had the whole Kingdom turn against him and drive him into the shadows and he managed not to become a villain. What was that about how you had no choice?

Blackheart (affectionate): "I will break what's left of your knees"

And additionally,

Boldheart, desperately holding back his boyfriend (foaming at the mouth) from beating a disabled person to death: "babe he's also a sad orphan who wanted to be a Knight and also had his weapon replaced he's just like me fr. I mean he's also a bitch but babe you need to calm down he can't even walk"

[annoyingloudmicrowavecultist]

[candyskiez]

God. Man. Now that I have the novel as context so much of the movie hits SO much harder.

In the comic, Bal tells her "this isn't you" when she transforms into essentially the manifestation of all her pain and anger. He sees her agony and suffering and goes "But you'd never really do that. You're too good." And that is the wrong thing to say. Because all she hears is "He doesn't understand me. He doesn't realize how much I've been through. How badly I want to do all of this. How much I want to rip the world to shreds for everything it did to me. He doesn't know me at all. If he's actually trying to save me, he's trying to save the little kid he thinks I am. He doesn't care for who I actually am." He says this isn't who you really are, and she hears "Just be fine. Just stop causing a scene."

But in the movie, Ballister tells her "I see you." He sees why she's doing this. Why she reacts how she does. He understands. He understands why she tries to rip it all apart: because of course she does. It's self defense. It's the self destructive urge to give into everything they tell her she is. It's the want to make it all stop. It's her giving up. In this, he doesn't tell her this form she became because she was too angry at the world for abandoning her isn't her. He tells her he gets it. He understands. She's not alone. They can fix this. She can come back from this. Not "You're too good to do this. This isn't you." But "This isn't the end."

At the end of the book, Ballister says he hopes if they ever see each other again, she can see that he's her friend. And next time they saw each other again, she DID. She was so excited to meet him. She loved him so much. And he couldn't save her the first time but this time he could. He saved her. He saved her because he saw why she was doing this. Why she felt the way she did.

I am in shambles.

[sandyona]

Random ideas in my head about C.Nimona:

⚠️ English is not my first language, thanks⚠️

Im sorry but I just love talking about Nimona, my bff's morning starts with Nimona theories lol , but what I wanna talk about that many people are saying that in the comic Nimona is possessed by something .Im not trying to say that they are not right or something, but, the author said that Nimona isn't possessed by anything and she just owns power to creat hear strong emotions, Nimona's beast is a representation of her :

-Rage

-Fear

-Negative emotions

Nimona's beast was her only defence from the cruel world and people she had meet.

We all have some kinda of the beast inside us with different strong emotions, but many people cant accept their beast ,but Nimona did accept it,and I really admire her because of that.

Don't forget this is only my ideas and theories ❤️🙌

[bonktheroyal]

People reading the Nimona graphic novel after watching the movie

[doteddestroyer]

just finished the Nimona movie last night and I have some THOUGHTS. very long post with spoilers for both the movie and the comic under the cut, so read at your own risk.

in the comic, it's a lot more... bitter, tone-wise? Nimona is more evil, her backstory is even more tragic, Ambrosius and Ballister are long since broken up and clearly hate each other, Ambrosius is WAY more of a jerk, and the overall tone is just more snarky and angry and bitter. even if in the end they take down the Director all the same and Nimona and Ballister still become friends/found family along the way, the comic just feels like a bleaker world.

like, Nimona doesn't believe Bal when he says he's sorry and that he doesn't want to hurt her. Bal is the one to "kill" her, she disappears after letting him know she's alive, and she never gets to be known as a good person to the general public.

also, like. comics Nimona *is* actually a monster who intentionally kills people, even if the scared little girl is also part of that.

but now that ND Stevenson is transitioned, the movie he made is so, like... joyful and open and hopeful? yes it involves talking about fear and how that turns into bigotry and how bigotry is passed down, but it's got so much hope, too.

Nimona gets to be seen for every piece of herself (scared child, feral gremlin animal, destructive force of sorrow and anger) and loved anyway, not just by Bal, but by the rest of the kingdom too. she's talked down from her rampage and actively tries to prevent harm to innocents when she's in a better state of mind. she believes Bal when he says he sees her.

Nimona pretends to be a monster because she thinks that's what will keep her heart safe, but she isn't actually one.

even though Am messes up and doesn't believe Bal about being framed, it's still repairable and it's not the years of bitterness and loathing that their comic relationship has calcified into.

the difference seems to be that the comic is what would happen if the situation wasn't fixed right away. everyone has accepted the status quo, even if they're not happy about it. Bal identifies as a villain. Nimona leans in HARD to being evil. Am calls himself Bal's nemesis.

in the movie, though, the status quo is called out HARD! both in a good and bad way. on the one hand, Bal doesn't call himself a villain because he wants to get back his relationship and status. on the other hand, once he accepts the change and leans into villainy just a little bit, he becomes way more effective. the Director adheres to the status quo to a destructive extent, hurting and killing people in her effort to stay in it.

in the movie, things are still hopeful and repairable. but in the comic, the most anyone can hope for is a bittersweet ending.

i don't know how much of this can be chalked up to "it's a movie, it needs a happy ending and for the characters to be more sympathetic" and how much is ND intentionally creating a movie about being joyfully and openly queer, but it's neat either way.

[gollivant]

thinking about how comic ambrosius betrayed comic bal for affirmation and validation — the very thing he was deprived of as a child because he grew up an orphan. that’s why he’s so competitive. he needs to prove to himself that he’s worthy of love. look at the way he invents a glorious family lineage in the christmas comic, his focus on being the good kid.

but also in the christmas comic, we see bal taking the role of ambrosius’ parent by being the one ambrosius runs to when things go wrong. we see bal filling up ambrosius’ stocking. the love and affection ambrosius has always craved is something that bal had always given to him, but he gave it all up for this facsimile of it, the false love of personal achievement. and we all know that the institution cast ambrosius aside the moment he failed them; ballister never cast ambrosius aside, even when ambrosius failed him.

but what about bal? growing up an orphan with ambrosius as his closest friend, finally making something of himself, and then being betrayed by everything he’s ever loved and known?

[fallloverfic]

Fun maybe intentional "Nimona" comic/fandom reference in the movie adaptation concerning Ambrosius Goldenloin

Spoilers for the comic and movie below the cut:

So remember when the webcomic by ND Stevenson was still publishing and we wondered if Ambrosius (in the comic) was related to the mysterious nameless blonde man who takes child Nimona away in the flashbacks to get experimented on:

(Top: mysterious nameless blonde man. Bottom: Ambrosius in the story present, ~16 pages prior)

Ambrosius' mysterious comic parentage is brought up in the comic Christmas Special, where he claims his father is rich and lives in a castle, but Ballister says this is a lie (for additional context, Nate explained in 2013 that Ambrosius was an orphan, and Ballister's father gave Ballister to the Institution to cover Ballister's father's gambling debts).

Prior to the movie's release, pre-release footage was released (I think at a previous Annecy festival) of Nimona shapeshifting into an armadillo and then a girl and hanging out with a pale-skinned child with longish blonde hair (this was an unfinished cut of one of the young Gloreth and Nimona scenes). But we had no context for it (or at least none that I found). Nimona was obviously the shapeshifter (the armadillo was identical to what we saw elsewhere), but the other character's identity was unclear. First theory I saw was that this was young Ambrosius, and "I" figured maybe the movie would feature him and Nimona having a friendship that ended badly (or well, who knows?), and that would give them a stronger connection and stakes in the movie (e.g., a good friendship as children, but they become enemies as adults).

Another theory I had was this was a retconned version of the unnamed blonde man backstory: that he was actually Nimona's friend who later turned her in/otherwise betrayed her for one reason or another (and possibly that he was genderbent to be female in this version, as the blonde child's gender is unclear). Still later when we got the cast listing showing that Gloreth was in the movie (but weren't overtly shown her anywhere; in the comic, she's a brunette, but also there was a big theory that Nimona was Gloreth or Gloreth's beast from the comic, and Nate was close-mouthed about it even back in 2014 outside saying she's not Gloreth's descendant), I wondered if the blonde child was Gloreth... and that the blonde hair indicated she was related to Ambrosius. That change could also create interesting stakes between Ambrosius and Nimona if he was the descendant of someone who'd been her friend/hurt her in the past. Particularly given, in the movie clip Netflix put out, Promise You Won't Freak Out, when rhino Nimona is barreling towards Ambrosius, there's a moment where Ballister is looking directly at Ambrosius and says "Good Gloreth!" and that made me really think "ohh! Maybe they really ARE related!"

Another detail: someone (seemingly a reporter) shared photos on Facebook of a Zoom call they had with Nate and the rest of the crew back in early April 2023, and one of the backgrounds featured was of the giant statue of what we later learned was Gloreth (you can see these backgrounds used in other interviews that have now been made public, but I forget which ones actually featured this background in particular. The two people in this frame are Julie Zackary and Karen Ryan, the latter of whom voices adult Gloreth in the movie opening).

(Above, crop of the image from Facebook, which was later taken down. Bottom, image shared by Netflix of the Gloreth statue in the movie)

At the time, without context of who the statue was, I assumed it was that statue of Ambrosius in the comic, given the long hair and general similarity to Ambrosius' comic appearance:

(the statue in chapter 4)

But given the potential change of Gloreth being blonde and Ambrosius having short hair in the movie, I wondered if this was a statue of Gloreth instead, and the replacement (Ambrosius statue in the comic, Gloreth statue in the movie, the statue actually has Ambrosius' long comic hair...) indicated a connection between them. Heck, they even have Ambrosius do the (mirrored) statue pose in the movie. The parallels are intentional on some level lol

(I mean I also theorized that maybe the statue was still Ambrosius and he just cut his hair after the statue was built or something, or the statue came after he grew it out, or it was just concept art and not actual movie stills, there were many theories alkdjlaj)

And then it turns out yes, actually, Ambrosius is Gloreth's descendent in the movie! And so yes, that was cool to be right about that lol. But I realized just now... wait, they sort of kept the comic fan theory that Ambrosius is related to the mysterious blonde [person] in Nimona's traumatic past! And that's really cool! I'm not sure if it was intentional because of that old fan theory, or picking up a plot Nate dropped or didn't have time for in the comic (Gloreth was an incredibly minor character in the comic), or just to tie into the general plotty stuff in the movie, but it's a nice thought, anyway, especially because of all the other stuff clearly meant to appeal to the comic's original Tumblr audience. (After all, like Nate said in 2014, Nimona is not Gloreth's descendant).

(Anyway if you haven't read the comic, you can buy it here)

[pandakong]

Wait what… y’all are so right, people need to watermark… my 2014 or 2015 nimona fanart on someone’s Wordpress…. (First image on the second row)

[tloubraininfection]

[raphaelesbian]

Special shout-out to Ambrosius's ponytail in this one scene

[yrrtyrrtwhenihrrthrrt]

People talk a lot about how Movie Ambrosius would hate Comic Ambrosius if they ever met but not enough attention is given to the fact that I don't think Boldheart would be much of a fan of Blackheart either like. Boldheart has very "heroism" values and is not very morally gray (he's actually really similar to comic Ambrosius the more I think about it). He would understand some of it but for the most part would not be even a little okay with half the shit Blackheart pulled.

Boldheart:

"what do you mean you had no choice but to become a villain?? You weren't accused of a crime?? They just fired you, you had other marketable skills and nobody was even trying to blow you up and murder you!!! What the fuck is your excuse??? You were pissed off?????"

"what do you MEAN YOU POISONED THE CROPS!???"

"What do you MEAN you BASHED HIS HEAD IN AT THE BAR??? I felt bad because I yelled at him and didn't say I love you back!!!"

Bonus:

Movie Nimona (sweating nervously after hearing about how Comic Nimona terrorized a whole city killing countless innocent people and nearly tore Ambrosius to shreds): "haha that's sick dude"

[annoyingloudmicrowavecultist]

holding these two panels in my hands and shaking violently

[savagegood]

“Did you see the way that little girl looked at me? Kids. Little kids. They grow up believing that they can be a hero if they drive a sword into the heart of anything different. And I’m the monster? I don’t know what’s scarier. The fact that everyone in this kingdom wants to run a sword through my heart or that sometimes I just wanna let ‘em.” “We have to get you out of here. Over the wall. We won’t stop until we find some place safe, okay? We’ll go. Together. No matter what we do, we can’t change the way people see us.” “You changed the way you see me... Didn’t you?

NIMONA (2023), based on the comic by ND Stevenson, who came out as transgender in 2022

[thetrashiestbaby]

Rolling on the floor at the concept that Ambrosius is canonically a weird ass name, like in-universe it’s not a normal fucking name

Ambrosius Goldenloin

HIS NAME IS IMMORTAL BIGDICK