#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)"

[randompoetemogirl]

SPOILERS

Okay, I like how Ballister had an actual reason for distrusting Nimona towards the end. Too many movies would have Nimona do something stupid to make him lose his trust. It’s cheap and I’m glad they didn’t do it. Same thing with Ambrosius. You never feel like either of them are acting bad or villainous, but at the same time, you know what’s happening isn’t fair.

Also, are we going to acknowledge the fact that Nimona has been by herself for 1,000 years? When I realized that my jaw dropped.

So you’re telling me that for centuries Gloreth’s bloodline has been forced into knightly positions? Ambrosius HAS to have some unresolved trauma from that. Did he even want to be a knight? I assumed her stepped down towards the end of the movie since we don’t hear anything about him or Ambrosius being knights.

Speaking of Ambrosius, he was written perfectly. You can tell he genuinely loves Bal, but has been brainwashed by The Institute. The moment he figures out that Bal didn’t do it he immediately said “screw The Institute”. So when he shows Bal the scroll, you can’t even get mad at him. Ballister would do the same thing if the rolls were switched. Also, him saying “You’ve worked harder than all of us,” really showed me he was a good guy from the get go. He acknowledges his own privilege and knows that Bal has had to work twice as hard to be seen as half as good.

The Squire was a surprisingly good character. If he knew who to go to, he probably would have given up the footage himself. But he didn’t, and he had to go against the word of The Institute, who’s basically a step below The Queen. I don’t blame him for not saying anything.

But listen, if people hated me for thousands of years because when I was 8 or so some kid my age decided I was a monster I would be LIVID. It’s a miracle Nimona turned out as nice as she did.

Also, NIMONA COMING BACK AT THE END?! I need to write and read fanfics of the wedding, the adoption, the adoption of more children, Ambrosius and Nimona having a moment. GET ON IN PEOPLE, I’LL DO IT WITH YOU!

Overall, best movie of the damn century. Disney WILL be kicking themselves.

[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

[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."