#as nimona said they brainwashed them good

[dreamsrunfaster]

Nimona (2023) rly said "hey! Scholarship kid! You can be whatever you want to be! (So long as what you want to be is a perpetuator of and living excuse for an oppressive system) (also you will be 1st in line for any scapegoating sacrificing or literal maiming we need to do along the way)"

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 2, Wave 3, Poll 4

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and prior here.

Ballister Boldheart-Nimona (Film)

Qualifications:

He has a boyfriend (and then they have a sort-of-breakup but they're back together by the end) and he has a prosthetic arm.

He’s gay and missing an arm.

He’s explicitly gay, in love with a man. He loses his arm then builds himself a prosthetic while on the run like a badass.

His boyfriend cut his arm off :( he uses a prosthetic now.

His arm got chopped off after being falsely accused of killing the queen, he spends the rest of the movie with a prosthetic metal arm. His arm was also chopped off by his lover, Ambrosius Goldenloin, during said false assassination.

His boyfriend cut off his arm

Canonically has a boyfriend and built his own prosthetic

Qualifies by both being canonically disabled (amputee) + canonically gay

Propaganda:

Please plz plz vote for him

His boyfriend cut off his arm. He made himself a prosthetic. He used his arm to block someone’s sword. He kissed his boyfriend. He has sad wet cat eyes, which isn’t relevant but still. He has them.

He’s so GOOD even though he’s having like the worst day ever (specifically talking about movie but webcomic also applies). He has the biggest wettest eyes how can you not root for him????

People love him! He kinda looks like a sad, poor little cat. A real soggy wet kitten man.

Let's see. He and Ambrosius are lovers, or at least boyfriends, from the moment they're introduced. Ballister gets his arm chopped off by Ambrosius during the false assassination. Ballister spends the rest of the movie trying to convince Ambrosius and the kingdom of his innocence, with a metal arm replacing his missing one. It originated the phrase "Arm Chopping is not a love language!" Did I mention he's a main character too?

Is a science nerd, built his own prosthetic arm with his non-dominant hand, accidentally adopted a trans chaos demon of a 1000yo being

A knight, Nimona's best friend and father figure of sorts, but the plot mostly revolves around him- Ballister is framed for murder and has to hide while trying to figure out who framed him and how to prove he's innocent. Nimona becomes his sidekick (he didn't want one, she just showed up at his place one day like a very chaotic stray cat) and together they form a great duo against the corrupt government. This is complicated by Ballister's ex Ambrosius, who accidentally cut off Ballister's arm and is a bit brainwashed by government propaganda. Oops. You should watch Nimona it's great 💞🦈

The qualifications and propaganda paragraphs correspond, @foulfirerebel is the fifth submitter, and there were at least 7 others.

Matt Murdock / Daredevil-Marvel

Qualifications:

He is blind. And quite often headcanoned as queer (mostly bi)

Propaganda:

I love him. He is a lawyer. He is a devout christian, who's superhero-persona is devil themed. He wears an "I am not Daredevil" shirt. Spiderman finds out he's blind, because he doesn't know the colour of a villains costume. He's my favourite guy

[unicornteacup24]

Watched Nimona a few weeks(months as of present) ago b/c Netflix put it free on YouTube and it's so fun!

The voice acting is solid. Had me about to cry twice 😭. I couldn't pinpoint everyone's voices until the end when the credits came up; but, then it clicked. Like 'why does he sound so familiar? Who is that? Oh! That's who that is! No way!' The actors and actresses did a wonderful job ☺️

The animation is so pretty and expressive. You could freeze-frame so many scenes and just stare at it. The backgrounds remind me of watercolor and the characters kinda remind me of paper.

The first escape scene reminds me of the Emperor's New Groove which is a win

(opens split screen so I can look up how to spell characters' names correctly)

I like most of the characters honestly. A lot of their motivations make sense to me in some way.

Nimona is a fun character. I like their carefree approach to stuff which is a nice contrast to Ballister and everyone else they have to face off against. It made the serious scenes more sad and it emphasizes the backstory when you realize exactly what was true about the things they told Ballister on the train. (Them talking about just letting people kill them had me tearing up 😭)

I really like Ballister. He's an underdog. And I was not ready for how this movie was going to kick off! Man JUST got his recognition from the Queen and everyone else who's been doubting him, then it gets destroyed a second later 😱 LIKE 🤬! OKAY THEN! Him and Ambrosius are cute though. On that note...

Ambrosius. I like him well enough. I like how his personal feelings for Ballister come into conflict with his job.

Sidenote: I like how it's done here. You'll see a lot of characters have this conflict but they either just met the other person; or the feelings just got reciprocated. But, since Ballister and Ambrosius are written to be already well established (they have favorite spots and know how each other likes their food) it's more impactful.

I honestly love his fake out scene. It's funny but also nice to see what he honestly thinks about everything happening between him and Ballister and the system they're a part of. Which shows how him and Ballister think alike and why they work as a couple.

But I also kinda wish two things happened in this movie:

Nimona and Ambrosius both mentioned how “cutting off limbs, isn't a love language,” and Ballister acknowledges that's how they're trained to react, but it would've been a nice 3 for 3 mention if Ballister said that when Ambrosius follows him out of the diner/bar. Just throwing it back in his face would've been so good and dramatic!

Ngl I wanted Ambrosius to lose an arm. I feel like it would've been dramatic but also kinda symbolic b/c they both lost an arm b/c of the system they were brainwashed by. Also matching disabled boyfriends!

Todd...🤬 you! No, but I thought Todd died during the final battle. Then he lived. 🤬...no, but honestly Todd was a jock douchebag but he was funny. Plus, I can give him credit for stepping toe to toe with Ambrosius b/c he believes that Ballister is a weak point for him ( which is a fair point).

The Director was terrible. Manipulative and unwilling to see reason. She was frustrating in the best way. Using the prophecy and everyone's fear of the unknown and mob mentality is solid evil. And I was happy for her downfall.

[earako]

Baby steps

There was one thought that kept cycling through Ambrosius mind that bothered him. It was just a small little nudge at first, he'd thought the concern would fade with time, would fade as he and Ballister remapped their relationaship.

He thought it would fade with the return of Nimona.

It didn't. If anything the nudge grew into a push, then a shove. Then it was outright punching the squishy brain tissue in Ambrosius head until finally he blurted it out, "It could have been anyone."

Ballister's humming stopped. Nimona pulled their headphones off and turnef away from the stove where they were cooking breakfast tacos for lunch. ("They're lunch tacos now, boss, cause we're having them for lunch.")

"What was that, love?" Ballister asked, setting down his mug as he leaned forward to place a hand on top of Ambrosius'.

"I...it's nothing."

"The same nothing that's been bugging you for the past two months?" Nimona asked from the stove. Ambrosius startled. "How- you- was it that obvious?"

"Dude. 1000 years old, remember? You learn how to read people." Nimona said with an eye roll, not in an annoyed manner, moreso in a 'these mortals I swear' sort of way.

"Right...right..."

"Ambrosius?" Metal fingers lightly squeezed Ambrosius hand. He sighed, tried to word what he wanted to say in his head. Sighed again.

"I was...I was thinking of the director." Nimona stuck out their tongue and scrunched up their face. "Ew, gross."

"I'm with Nimona here, love. Why would you waste brain space on that woman?" Ballister asked, his head tilting in confusion.

He had a point. The director had hurt all three of them severely, she should be the last thing on Ambrosius mind.

But the thing was...

"I was just thinking...I think what made the director so terrifying was that she could have been anyone." Nimona quirked an eyebrow up at him. It seemed like she had an idea as to what Ambrosius was trying to get at but waited for him to say it himself

"You wanna expand on that, Goldie?"

"I mean, I," Ambrosius huffed as he tried to gather this thoughts. "All that talk about always being on our guard, always being alert for threats...always wanting to protect the realm. It's what we were all taught."

"Right, the brainwashing."

"Nimona, let him finish," Ballister scolded with no real heat behind it. He nodded at Ambrosius to continue.

"No, no Nimona's right, it was brainwashing, I mean," Ambrosius gestured with his free arm to Ballisters prosthetic, "This? Messed up, training people to attack as a reflex? And-and if they get paranoid enough, if they see danger everywhere, the director said Nimona was a threat to our way of life but the only real threat was her-" Ambrosius breath sped up, his hands moving to grip at his hair.

"Hey Goldie-"

"Ambrosius-"

"The way we lived -created- the director. Her crimes were a direct byproduct of our very society and-and how are we gonna fix that? How are we gonna undo decades of mental programming-"

One pair of arms grasped his shoulder while another tore his hands way from his hair.

"Goldie, you keep that up and you're gonna go bald."

"What Nimona is trying to say," Ballister growled with a glare at the shapeshifter, "is you're worrying yourself with facts we already know."

"What boss said. Goldie, look, now you know you were wrong, good, great even. But yanking your hair out isn't gonna undo the things the director did, the things you or Gloreth did. What was that you said, boss? Baby steps?" Another nod from Ballister.

"We're- there's always going to be people like the director. All we can do is make sure their voices stay as a minority. This'll take time, Ambrosius and it'll be hard, but it won't be impossible. Alright?"

"I..." Now that Ambrosius thought about it he felt a little silly for his freakout. Of course Ballister and Nimona wouldn't let them turn back to the director's ways. What was he so scared about?

He took Ballister and Nimona's hands in his own, giving them a light squeeze

"Yeah, alright."