#it's different from ambrosius but also it's not totally different

[seawitchkaraoke]

Something very interesting in how Eugene Lee Yang has been the one gay asian guy on a (first buzzfeed now) youtube team with otherwise straight white guys for years, so he felt a lot of pressure to perform well (especially in early videos). So he has this public image of an incredibly confident, talented, extroverted guy.

Plus of course, he's an internet celebrity so everyone has parasocial relationships with him (even more so than with other celebrities like actors and such). But obviously none of us actually know what goes on in his head or in his private life beyond what he decides to share.

And now he's playing a guy who feels a lot of pressure to perform well and has to appear confident and competent and extroverted - but who in his own mind has a lot more insecurities and of course acts differently in his private life than he does in public.

Idk. It's just fun. I wonder if he drew on that for his performance for Ambrosius

[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"

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 4, Wave 1, 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 round here.

Ambrosius Goldenloin-Nimona (Novel)

Qualifications:

He’s gay and has facial scarring

Addition by @yrrtyrrtwhenihrrthrrt First I'd like to clear up that he does NOT just have facial scarring!! He has a visible walking disability, requiring assistance to stand and using a crutch. He appears mostly unable to bear weight on the left leg, and additionally the facial scarring visibly obstructs his eye adding possible partial vision loss to the list so. Just gonna leave this here not to let my boy be sabotaged with misinfo lol

Propaganda:

He’s such an asshole it's great. Still very gay though, he gets injured at the end, and also has facial scarring. He’s very different from the movie, much more of an ass, but still interesting.

Valerie Day-Paranatural

Qualifications:

She is Blind and a Lesbian.

she's blind and sapphic

Propaganda:

Agent Day is a Spectral (a humans who can interact with spectral entities like ghosts and spirits, and possess spectral energy, in her case Pink spectral energy) working for the Paranatural Activity Consortium. Her "Tool" (an object possesses by a weakened spirits that Spectrals can use to host spirits an directly use some form of the spirit's powers) is her cane. Due to the influence of the cane being possessed by her spirit partner, "Venus Guytrap" (a giant talking Venus flytrap that emotes through various marble statues wrapped in its vines), it appears as a green cane with a bouquet of roses at the top. As a manifestation of Venus Guytrap's powers, the cane can fire pink arrows that cause whatever they hit to fall in love with the first thing they see until the arrow is removed. As a Spectral, Agent Day can enter a "Heightened State of Perception" to converse & interact with her spirit in a mental state wherein time seems to move at a slower rate, to the extent that it almost seems to stand still for everything except her and her spirit partner (a phenomenon also known as a "Spirit Trance"). Spirit Trances also create an illusory alteration of the world surrounding the Spectral theme around the Spirit's aesthetics, and cause the Spectral's eyes to glow white, but neither of these aspects really affect Agent Day given that she a) can't see the illusory alteration to the world & b) often has her eyes closed anyways, making it so that no one else would be able to tell if she was in a trance in public so long as she stays still and does not talk while being sped-up relative to everyone else. Thanks to this, she utilizes Spirit Trance to occasionally have Venus Guytrap act as a "seeing-eye spirit" to performing certain actions, like reading off of a menu so that she can order lunch during her date with Dr. Mina Zarei.

i'm no good at propaganda so i don't have a lot to say but i think she's very good and also she made a train kiss someone once. what more could you want

[sunshine-zenith]

…this was supposed to be a three panel gag comic

Anyway, while I like to imagine movie!Ambrosius is an orphan like his comic counterpart, the movie itself doesn’t really give much evidence either way. I’m also a sucker for AUs that connect different iterations of the same character, so when I thought “hey wouldn’t it be funny if…,” I couldn’t stop myself. Plus, in an older post on his tumblr regarding the webcomic, ND Stevenson said he saw Comic!Ballister as being of Asian descent/multiracial, like how Movie!Ambrosius ended up being (that said, Stevenson specifically “fancast” Lucy Liu as Comic!Ballister, who is Chinese-American, and Movie!Ambrosius was modeled after Eugene Lee Yang, who is Korean-American — two different ethnicities with two different originating countries. Given the in-universe No One Goes Over The Wall fact, M!Amb is definitely multiracial, and so would be C!Ballister if set in the same universe. Still, I wanted to acknowledge this)

I tried to make Older!C!Ballister look a bit like M!Amb, implying he’s the bio!grandparent/Gloreth’s descendant. Given the fact that C!Amb longed for parents that were special and were Totally Alive And Just Away For A Good Reason, No Death Or Abandonment Involved, him being Gloreth’s descendant takes away from that a bit of his backstory. This AU would make his parents known to him, and make them “special,” but they’d at least be “normal” knights in comparison to Gloreth’s line. Though thinking about it, given that cloning is referenced in the comic, maybe they used SCIENCE to make a baby that was related to both of them. Or one of them is trans idk

Also, for the record, if M!Amb actually met C!Amb, they’d probably get into a fist fight in like two second. C!Ballister would meanwhile adopt a Frustrated Dad persona and drill in the whole Arm Chopping =/= Love Language thing, while M!Bal would have a conniption over the Actual Law Breaker thing

[bambinella]

Day 3 - Suspense

Nimona - Ballister x Ambrosius

A/N: Day 3! Wasn't sure I was gonna make it today, but I missed writing for them! I loved the movie so much, I've not nearly seen it enough times so far! Enjoy!

Warnings: Slightly NSFW but not really?

“Are you sure you’re comfortable?” Ambrosius asked for the millionth time, at least, as he finished tying his only wrist down, and Ballister let out a chuckle at his overprotective husband.

“Yes, I promise,” He said to Ambrosius with a smile. Well, to where he thought Ambrosius was, since Ballister was blindfolded. And now also tied down to the bed. Every now and then the couple decided to have some fun, and this time he was the one being tied up. Which was totally fine, since he trusted Ambrosius with his life. But still nerve-wrecking.

“Even though you only have one arm? I was gonna allow you to keep it on, but you insi–”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ballister interrupted with yet another chuckle, appreciating the care for his well-being. However, he still remembered the last time he had gotten tied down, and he remembered how his metal arm had been a bit stronger than anticipated. Their bed had been long fixed, yet the memory still lingered. So no metal arm during bedtime fun.

“Alright… well in that case I only have one more question. Are you ready?” Ambrosius asked, and Ballister could hear the smile of excitement in his voice. And the anticipation filling his own stomach.

“Yes,” He breathed, his senses on edge since his view was now blocked. He could feel his lover shift, and he braced himself for whatever was going to happen. Every time they had a night of ‘fun’ like this it was a different experience, and he couldn’t wait to find out what Ambrosius had planned. He bit his lower lip and…

Nothing. Nothing happened.

“Ambrosius?” He asked after a short while, not sure what was happening. He could still hear his breathing, so he knew the blonde was there. Why was nothing happening? And then it happened.

The soft, gentle kiss of a feather. It traveled down his arm towards his biceps, towards his underarm, and it made him shiver. And then it was gone. And then another ticklish kiss, this time on his left side, and he found it harder and harder to contain his giggles.

“Ambrohohosius! Whahahat are you dohohoing?” He protested as the feather pulled away again. The blindfold was making the anticipation and suspense so much worse! No answer, just a ticklish flick into his bellybutton. He shook his head side to side, as if trying to remove the blindfold.

“A-Ambrosius! You jeheherk! Stop teasing mehehehe!” He said between frantic giggles, squirming left to right on the bed. Who knew a simple feather could tickle that much!

“Stop? But I’ve just started! Are you sure?” Ambrosius asked with an audible smirk, the feather once more returning to his stomach. It earned a short but loud fit of giggles.

“Yehehehes! This tickles soho bahahad!” Ballister playfully whined, sucking in his stomach to escape from the ticklish touches. The blonde pulled the feathers away again, for a final time.

“Hmmm… sure!” He exclaimed, and then proceeded to use both feathers on the ravenhead’s sides at the same time. This caught him off guard, as planned, and elicited a steady stream of giggles. 

“Wait nohohhoho! Nohoho ohohohoho gohohohods!” Ballister cried out and arched his back, unable to stop giggling due to the light sensations. He cursed himself for being so sensitive from time to time. His husband, however, had no complaints, as he found it adorable.

“Hey you asked to stop teasing you, and I stopped. I don’t know what you’re complaining about,” The blonde chuckled evilly, dragging both feathers side to side over his stomach. Ballister nearly barked.

“You jeheheherk! Aahahahahahaha!! This is wohohhohorse!” His giggles grew louder and faster when those pesky feathers traveled up his sides, to his ribs, to his defenseless underarms. Ambrosius’ favorite spot.

“What’s that? Big bad evil knight can’t take a few tickles?” He teased while fluttering the ticklish tips side to side in his hollows. Ballister arched his back and roared with laughter, tugging at the single chain while attempting to sit up. Thank god the metal arm had been taken care of, Ambrosius realized. 

“AAHAHAHAHA! DOHOHOHON’T! OHOHO STOHOHOP!” The knight howled as the feathers twirled all over his ticklish underarms, blushing really hard at the teasing. Ambrosius really knew how to get to him.

“Don’t stop? Well if you insist,” The golden knight chuckled teasingly, using one feather to twirl inside of his bellybutton while the other one kept tickling under his arm. At that point Ballister was too far gone, unable to speak through his hysterical giggles. When he finally couldn’t take it anymore – Ballister was close to silent laughter and his hand had been tapping for a good thirty seconds – Ambrosius showed mercy and pulled away the feathers.

“There there, are you okay?” The blonde asked with a smile, using his palms to rub away the lingering tingles on his husband’s skin. Ballister was a giggling, blushing mess yet immediately nodded.

“Did I ever mention that you’re evil?” He asked with a chuckle, relaxing under the soothing hands. Ambrosius chuckled on his turn.

“Every week at least once, so I’m pretty aware at this point. Speaking of evil,” He smirked, slowly trailing his hand down his stomach until– oh. “I’ve never tickled you down there, now did I? I could try it… if you’re willing to try it?” He grinned, lightly brushing his fingers over the bump in his boxers. Ballister was very glad he couldn’t see Ambrosius’ face right now.

“I… ehm… I guess we could give it a shot?” He said rather timidly, slightly bucking his hips. This earned an approving nod from the blonde.

“Perfect! But first…” He said, before scribbling his nails against Ballister’s stomach and waist. The knight let out a roar of laughter at the sudden tickles and started thrashing on the bed again, all while still blushing.

This was going to be an interesting (k)night for sure.

[reinedeslys-central]

tbh I keep seeing the takes of ppl (and ballister) about ambrosius thinking he would kill the queen but not play freestyle jazz - and it totally makes sense and all with all the context -

BUT. I just wanna point out.

the look of indecision and shock/surprise on his face every time he sees bal after the incident, and even during the incident? the split second where he considers the other knights about to turn on him for knowing his partner best and steps up to lead the search saying 'before anyone gets hurt'? like say all you will (and I agree), but that scene to me reads exactly like someone trying to get to their lover first and protect them and prove their innocence before others can convict them sans trial (looking at you wangxian) OR, also, the realisation that you have to play it safe because the community has found out your lover is queer and the pitchforks are high, but you've always been the golden child / carrying a legacy, and you make the instinctive decision to stay safe for a multitude of reasons (after all, you can't shelter them by losing your rep too, can you? or so you think. same thing in the 'prom' teen-movie btw which is a whole thing to unpack on another day but this same theme is there!).

the first time he looks like he's against bal is after the director proclaims him leader of the search - and compared to his expressions all before then, it feels so much like a mask (mask-esque. not fake, just.. if you get what I mean? I don't really have the words this is just a brain vomit anyway, insert long discussion abt masks and conflicting emotions here ig) and it cracks immediately when he sees him breaking out of jail with nimona in the hallway. and honestly I'm down to give him a little slack after that because, comedically, he totally walked in RIGHT after ballister talked about murdering everyone, and then our boi didn't even manage to blurt out that he was innocent they just got caught up angstily staring at each other. which. :)

even in all the scenes that come after - yeah, definitely can see the totally-thought-he-was-the-killer-ambrosius-why-are-you-like-this angle. and i agree. bad moves all around, dude. but! my man lowering his crossbow in the market? I don't know about you but that doesn't look like a someone who's only holding back because he loves the target. that's a guy that looks unsure about the process the whole way through the scene. (bit of a stretch I know) and the thing that ties it together is the conversation with the director in the car. when he talks about feeling unsure of his legacy? the moment with the crowd and autograph? feeling like a traitor to his personal beliefs and the institution he was raised for? the hope, trying to discreetly make it to the car? it's all there, man. he's isolated from the only person that thinks differently, still outwardly pretending he's 100% with the institute's actions and lashing out with the things that still make sense and overlap with both mindsets.

yeah, ambrosius definitely messed up (ex. 1: arm-chopping as a love language of brainwashing omg pure gold) but? every step makes sense. i'd cut anyone a bit of slack for the doubt and wanting to reconcile their life when everything's turned on its head, especially after hearing bf in question saying he wants to murder everyone ^v^

and also i just. this movie is SO COOL for somehow touching on so many themes so core to so many peoples' experiences. TT y'all please go watch it it's free on yt until feb 26 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4CFWTYFRlw

definitely going to read the comic as soon as I can - I know it's supposed to be way darker, more subtle, with an ambiguous ending but that's it, so excited to see the original spin on this story :))

[withthewerewolves]

GoldenHeart Fix-it AU

Ok, so I know that everything between Ballister and Ambrosius needed to happen for themes, and parallels, and narrative foils, and all that freestyle jazz. I realize that changing this sort of ruins Ambrosius’s character, and makes Nimona a sidekick in her own story, and such. But consider this- 

It made me Sad. 

So what if an AU where Ambrosius is messed up by being the direct descendant of Gloreth in a slightly different way, and is a little less hinged as a result. 

The beginning goes down exactly as it does in the movie. The sword pommel lights up, the queen dies, Ambrosius swings his own sword. There’s a moment where it all freezes, Ballister still on his knees, gripping the place where his shoulder ends, big brown horrified puppy eyes locked with Ambrosius’s, begging for something (forgiveness? understanding? his arm back?) that Ambrosius can’t pull his scattered thoughts together long enough to give him. And then the jumbotron crashes between them, and when the dust clears, Ballister is gone. 

I don’t know exactly how long it is between the Night of Knights and when Nimona finds Ballister. It has to be long enough for him to:

a) find the hideout and equip it with what he needs 

b) design and build a prosthetic arm (using his nondominant hand)

and c) heal enough to install said arm. 

It also can’t be too long, because: 

a) the knights haven’t managed to track him down yet (perhaps this is giving them too much credit) 

and b) the story is still all over the news. 

I’m thinking this means less than a month, but not very much less. 

In the movie, Ambrosius spends this time doing…something unimportant. Crying in his room? Punching training targets until he can’t stand up? Researching survival rates for unintentional arm amputation? Doesn’t matter. In this AU, he spends it spiraling. He starts with one absolute: Ballister wouldn’t do anything bad. He saw the sword kill the queen with his own eyes, from much closer range than his nightmares would prefer. Alright. So why, then, WOULD Ballister do such a thing? 

He’s already struggled enough with the pressure to live up to Gloreth’s memory. We see that this sits heavy on his golden shoulders, and that both the Institute and the people put him on a pedestal. He’s seen the way the other trainee knights treat Ballister. We see that it bothers him, that Ballister instinctively holds him back from fighting Todd, as if this has happened before. We know that he knows that Ballister has worked harder than anyone, that he’s the best in their year, and that his lack of noble blood may (will) still ruin things for him. We know that he cares about protecting people, that he considers that to be a knight’s job. We see him choose to protect civilians, clearing the streets, when all the other knights rush to fight the monster. He can't be totally satisfied with the Institute’s training and ideology. 

He doesn’t eat (he can still smell the burning flesh as his sword cauterizes Ballister’s arm, even as he cuts through it). He doesn’t sleep (his dreams are nothing but green light and Ballister’s pleading eyes). He reads a lot of anti-monarchy blogs. Maybe he finds some futuristic-fantasy Karl Marx. Maybe there are some activists protesting systemic inequality and they have a website with a list of useful terminology and their definitions. He absolutely does not research mortality rates for unintentional arm amputation. He stops telling himself that has no clue where Ballister might have gone (maybe it's time to give up lying to himself altogether).

He leaves the Institute. He maybe says some imprudent things as he’s leaving ("Bal was right! Any system that allows you (Todd) to be a knight deserves to be brought down! Tyranny never wins for long!”). He sort of wants to leave his sword and armor behind, possibly with some amusing graffiti scratched into them, but he doesn’t know what Bal might be planning, if he might need it, and surely it’s symbolic, to attack the Institute using the tools of its oppression? On that thought, he does make one tiny detour on the way out. 

He finds Bal. There was only one place for him to be, once Ambrosius set aside the need to arrest him and let himself remember. I think it has to be before Nimona finds him, because Ballister puts on the new arm right before, and I want him not to be wearing it when he cautiously opens the door to his crumbling hideout to find Ambrosius framed in a shaft of late-afternoon sunlight, hair limp, eyebrow twitching like it used to before big exams, eyes maybe the tiniest bit wild. 

“Ambrosius?” Ballister is pretty sure he isn’t hallucinating. Yeah, the initial wound was rough, and the shock got to him, and he definitely had a fever for awhile there. But he’s been lamentably rooted in reality for weeks now, and he thought he was over that little mental hitch every time he heard a noise in the next room and realized anew that Ambrosius wasn’t the one making it. 

“Thank Gloreth,” Ambrosius says, because he may not have researched unintentional arm amputation but he does have an overactive imagination, and here Ballister is, upright and maggot-free and wielding a broken mead bottle. 

He has a speech planned. He’d recited different parts of it over and over on his way here. There were some good bits in there. 

Instead, he sees the gap where Ballister’s arm should be and loses the structural integrity of his skeletal system. “Darkness Beyond, I chopped off your arm.” His voice is mostly air pretending to be sound. 

“Uh,” Ballister says. “Yeah.” 

“I need to sit down.” 

Ambrosius maybe clanks a little as he sits (it’s not a fall if you state your intention before you hit the ground), but it’s ok because Bal is wearing his armor too (except for the right vambrace - nope he can’t think about that or he’ll vomit) and he clanks too when he crouches in front of Ambrosius, filling his entire visual field (the edges will come back eventually, he can still see the important part). 

“I CHOPPED off your ARM.” 

“Are you here to -” 

“I chopped OFF your ARM.” 

“You were disarming a weapon -”

“Who even does that? Who chops off people’s arms?”

“You were just following our training -” 

“Arm chopping is NOT a LOVE LANGUAGE.” 

“Forget the arm!” This catches enough of Ambrosius’ attention to drag him back into himself, because Ballister doesn’t actually get upset that often. He can’t afford to, not where the other knights or their trainers might see. He especially can’t afford to, when it’s just the two of them and Bal has to shove all the anger back down himself. 

“I don’t think I will ever forget the arm,” he says, but he smells Ballister’s sweat, like after they used to run miles in heavy armor, instead of roasting meat. He sees confusion and concern in Ballister’s eyes, instead of that horrible entreaty he never managed to answer. 

Ballister clunks to the ground beside him, back to the stone wall, missing arm shielded by his body. “No. I don’t know that I will, either.” 

Ambrosius doesn’t know what thoughts Ballister is caught in, but he can’t help drinking in his silhouette, familiar and beloved and so much more fragile than he’d ever imagined. 

“Can you ever forgive me?” he asks, even though he told himself he wouldn’t. 

Ballister turns toward him enough that Ambrosius can see the bitter quirk of his lips. “For the arm? Or for thinking I would kill Queen Valerin?” 

The last minutes have been the closest Ambrosius’s mind has been to still since that series of frozen seconds after Ballister’s sword flashed, followed by his own, but now it screeches to a halt. “You….didn’t?” 

Ballister’s head swivels slowly to look at him, like in one of those scary movies Bal likes so much. 

“Why not?” Ambrosius asks. It isn’t the question he means to ask. 

“WHY NOT?!” 

“I mean - because the monarchy is an outdated system that prioritizes bloodlines over ability - and the whole idea of nobility is classist - and the other trainees were awful to you just because you grew up on the streets - and why do we even HAVE kids growing up on the streets, do you know how much the Institute’s operating budget is? We could fund a million orphanages! Or -” 

“You think I would kill the Queen because some assholes were mean to me?” Bal is not tamping his anger down now. Ambrosius reminds himself sternly that Bal doesn’t like being angry, so it’s rude to think about how hot it makes him look. 

“No! I knew you’d have other reasons!” 

“The Queen is the one who LET me train to be a knight, even though I’m common born!” 

“She shouldn’t have had to let you, you more than earned it -”

“So you thought I would KILL someone?!” 

Ambrosius doesn’t have anything to say to that. He’s busy trying to re-sort all the stuff he JUST re-sorted to make room for Ballister killing the Queen, to make room for him NOT to have killed her. Does that mean he should put it all back where it was? How can he, now that he’s seen? He isn’t sure he wants to. He slumps back against the wall. After a moment so does Bal. 

“So what…did happen?” 

Bal swallows hard, his nervous tell. He doesn’t look at Ambrosius. “I don’t know.” 

Ambrosius is running on fumes, and he’s had to reorder his worldview twice in a short period of time, but he does still have a brain under the fabulous hair. “Someone framed you.” 

Bal glances at him through the corner of his eye. He’s somehow both more open and more closed off than Ambrosius has ever seen him. “Yeah.” 

“Were you the target? Or the Queen?” Yeah, he’s been reading the anti-monarchy blogs, but no one seems to have any specific issues with Queen Valerin. She’s fine, as far as queens go. No one has mentioned assassinating her. Actually none of them seem to have any plans whatsoever. But the activists have plenty of plans, and they didn’t talk about assassinating her either. Isn’t there supposed to be a different internet, just for criminals? Maybe they talked about it there? 

“Gotta be the Queen,” Bal says. “Which means the real killer is still out there.” 

"Hm," Ambrosius says, because he's thinking about all the stuff people have been saying about Ballister, both online (where he can scroll past it) and in the Institute mess hall (where he cannot). He's wondering if Todd, who is unfortunately not as stupid as he looks, could have pulled off something like this, when he feels a light touch against the outside of his thigh, where his chainmail doesn't cover. 

It's the first time Bal has touched him since before the ceremony. It's just the barest brush of the side of his hand, and could've been accidental except for how it's carefully placed so he can feel Bal's body heat through the cloth of his trousers, and how he knows that Ballister doesn't touch people by accident. 

Ambrosius can't tear his eyes away from Bal's hand. He's not wearing his gloves (glove). The skin on the back is cracked like it gets in the cold season, unless Ambrosius sits on Bal and applies the moisturizing cream himself. The nails are ragged and bitten close to the quick, and something dark is trapped under them, possibly the same something that's streaked along the base of his thumb. 

How's he supposed to clean under his fingernails with one hand? How is he supposed to WASH his hands, for that matter? Ambrosius quickly stops thinking about it. He’s here now. He'll clean them himself. 

"Do you believe me?" Ballister asks, and Ambrosius darts his gaze up to Bal's face. It's turned away, as if he can't stand to see the answer to that question. 

Bal's chin is scratchy where he hasn't been maintaining his facial hair, but Ambrosius revels in how warm and alive he feels under his fingertips as he tilts Bal's face toward him. "Bal," he says. "Of course I believe you." 

Something in Bal's eyes breaks, or heals, or cleaves like a sword through bone. He slumps, suddenly looking like a teenager playing dress up in the huge armor he'd worked so hard for. Ambrosius wishes he wasn't wearing his own, because Bal tips so that his head is buried in Ambrosius’s chest, and that would be so much more satisfying for both of them without a chestplate. 

Ambrosius buries his face in Bal’s hair (lank and unwashed, but smelling so much like BAL that he wants to roll around in it) and maybe cries a little. Bal maybe cries a little too. Ambrosius makes a mental note to get them both out of their armor as soon as possible because he needs to hold Bal properly, feel the warm living weight of him, maybe lay down and pull Bal over him like a blanket, revel in the soft puffs of Bal’s breathing, the chill of his toes, the flutter of his eyelashes against Ambrosius’s skin, the physical realness of him. All the little details his imagination could never get right. 

Probably he does get to do this. Probably he gets them bathed and wearing fresh clothes (he probably packed a duffel bag from their shared dorm room), and maybe feeds them both some canned beans he finds in Bal’s mostly empty cupboards. Probably Bal shows him the prosthetic arm, which is nearly finished, and lets him marvel over the genius of it. Probably he says that once they’ve got Bal’s name cleared he should become an engineer, what was he doing wasting a mind like that on being a knight? 

Probably they get to take a nap, pressed together on the couch. Probably Ambrosius is horrified anyone has been sleeping on that biohazard, let alone someone with a healing wound. Probably he’s too tired to come up with anything better. 

If we’re kind, we could maybe give them just this one sleep without any nightmares. They need to be firing on all cylinders, because they’re going to be woken by a loud banging at the tower door. 

I personally think it would be very funny if Ambrosius is completely on board with all of Nimona’s plans. He probably pushes for non-violence if possible, and then when that fails, for at least leaving innocent civilians out of it. Nimona isn’t convinced the civilians ARE innocent, but Ambrosius has some ideas for breaking stuff that intrigue her. Bal is horrified by the entire conversation, and has to be talked out of just going to the Institute and explaining himself. It works this time though, because Ambrosius knows exactly how unreceptive the Director is going to be. 

Todd is the one leading the search this time, so he probably leads them in completely the wrong direction while our heroes talk to the squire. But if they do have a confrontation, it’s worse. There’s no intention to arrest them unharmed. There’s no chance to explain. No relationship talk over locked swords. He’s got the knights shooting to kill. 

I’m not sure how Nimona reveals her shapeshifting. Probably Ambrosius is just as upset as Bal is, but he and Nimona are anarchy buddies. He makes himself take a step back and examine his initial reaction, possibly while narrating his thought process. If he didn’t condemn her for skewering guards on her rhino horn, he can’t condemn her for HAVING a rhino horn, can he? 

Maybe the happy ending for them is this AU is different from the happy ending in canon. Maybe after they release the video of the Director, they do set out together to explore the world beyond the Wall, all three of them. But it isn’t because they’re afraid of the kingdom or the people in it. It’s because they aren’t tied to the kingdom anymore. They’ve all moved past the boxes the kingdom would try to put them in. They don’t NEED the kingdom anymore. None of them are going to be alone. 

And adventure awaits. 

[winepresswrath]

I saw Nimona! It was delightful, especially Nimona herself- I loved the animation for her shapeshifting, and she was a total joy to watch. A menace and a woobie. A 10/10 meowmeow who can actually turn into a cat and meow. Tragic backstory has me clutching at my heart, no notes. They did a great job with Ambrosius and Ballister, though they're very different from their original counterpoints (especially Ambrosius, who is wrong but also basically a sweetheart. Ballister is also a sweetheart, but that rings pretty true to the original to me). I think the biggest emotional/relationship change is that the crux of the respectability politics metaphors has shifted from Ballister and Ambrosius to Ballister and Nimona, and I think that really works, especially in the context of the other changes they made. Nimona gets her own xagnetoesque quasi-romance, and on a shallow note I thought that was extremely tragicute and it really worked for me. My only critique is that bits of the movie felt a little rushed. I would have liked it if they had let a little more time pass in-universe and given a few of the big emotional scenes a little more breathing room, but it all came together and it gave me that good movie feeling where you sink into it and stop thinking about the story as a story because you're too busy experiencing it.

[sephyathredon-writing]

Whumptober #5: When Everything is Said and Done

Summary: Ambrosius doesn't find Ballister at the end of the movie, instead, Ballister finds him crushed under the rubble from the wall and he helps the other Knights that survived the cannon explosion dig him out. An entry for Whumptober under the Prompt "Debris".

---

Nimona was gone. Ballister was left on his knees in the rubble of the broken wall without her. He felt hollow and numb, like his heart had been ripped from his chest. His eyes watered with tears as he stared up into the sky and watched the pink specks of light disappear. The last remnants of her and they were gone.

He put his head in his hands and sobbed.

A distant noise jolted him from his thoughts, someone calling for help. He recognized the voice immediately.

Ambrosius.

On shaky legs he stood, realizing how utterly exhausted he was. Not only had Todd hurt him badly, but it put such a strain on his muscles to move so fast. He believed most of the strain was from climbing the statue.

Still, he willed himself to move, he needed to be by Ambrosius’ side right now, because despite everything that happened, he still loved him. He couldn’t bear to lose Ambrosius and Nimona in the same night.

Ballister stumbled a little, but he made it to a different section of the collapsed wall. A few Knights surrounded the area. One of them approached him.

“It’s Sir Goldenloin, he’s trapped under the rubble!”

The Knight led him to where Ambrosius was, joining the others.

Ballister took in the scene. Ambrosius was lying unconscious with his legs and his left arm underneath the rubble from the wall. The Knight that had led Ballister quickly joined the others, working on clearing the rubble around him.

“Please help, he saved us, even though he was injured himself,” one of the Knights pleaded, struggling to lift a particularly large piece of rubble.

“Ambrosius was injured before this? Where? How?” Ballister immediately moved to help clear the rubble, focusing on the part around Ambrosius’ shoulder. From this distance, he could hear Ambrosius’ pained wheezing. He also noticed that there were signs of scorching on his face.

“The Director hurt us all with some sort of laser. His left shoulder got hit.” another Knight replied.

Ballister took a moment to look at the others around him. Nine Knights in total, all bearing some sort of scorch mark.

Ballister swore he was going to be sick when he lifted a piece of rubble and saw a scorch mark on Ambrosius’ shoulder. The scarring was deep, made worse by the rubble pressing down on it.

“He took the most damage, I think, but even though he was injured he still helped others to safety. I wouldn’t be alive without him…” another Knight spoke.

Ballister nodded when he heard this, “Yeah, sounds like Ambrosius.” It didn’t surprise him that the Director had some sort of last resort weapon on her, knowing what he knew now.

He was already exhausted and that exhaustion was only growing the more heavy pieces of rubble he lifted. By the time they had unearthed Ambrosius, he felt like he was going to faint.

Carefully, gently, he lifted Ambrosius into his arms and held him close. He left gentle kisses on his cheeks, tears falling. Then he enveloped Ambrosius in a tight hug. “I missed you… so so much…”

“M-Missed you too…” It was quiet, a ghost of a voice whispering in Ballister’s ear, but it was enough to put a small smile on his face.

Ballister swayed in place, feeling dizzy all of the sudden, his exhaustion finally catching up with him. His eyes went to Ambrosius’ scorched shoulder again, some tears falling at just the sight of it. He looked up at the Knights that had gathered around the two of them. “Please, he needs to be taken to a hospital.”

That was all he could say before he collapsed, being sure to keep a hold of Ambrosius in such a way that he did not hit the ground.

Any testimony gathered later from the Knights would all be the same. The pair were inseparable, clinging to each other in their unconscious state and refusing to let go, as if they’d die if they were separated from each other again.

This, naturally, made it hard for the doctors to treat the wounds, but they managed, deciding not to separate them either. Ambrosius was their main concern. There were several broken bones that needed tending to from the rubble that he’d been buried under, but his shoulder was the most important thing. Ballister had several fractured bones from Todd’s abuse, as well as muscle strains from all the running, climbing, and hauling of heavy things.

----

Ambrosius woke up first. It took him a few moments to realize that he was in the hospital. He felt numb, no pain at all, despite the feeling of his shoulder and several other parts of his body being wrapped in bandages.

The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was Bal’s face in front of him. A small smile appeared on his face when he realized that the Doctors that had treated them had put them two separate beds put together with the rails between them lowered so that they fit together as one double wide bed. They were indeed still clinging to each other, despite Ballister being unconscious.

Ambrosius watched as Ballister’s expression grew pained. He looked like he was about to cry. Ambrosius let go of Ballister to loop one arm around him and pull him close. “Shh… It’s okay…”

Ballister didn’t seem to hear him.

“Nimona… Nimona…” he cried in his sleep. “Please don’t go… don’t leave me…”

It tugged at Ambrosius’ heart strings to see Ballister so vulnerable.

“It’s okay… It’s okay Bal…” Ambrosius whispered in a gentle tone.

The hand on Ambrosius’ shirt only tightened its grip as Ballister curled in on himself.

“I want Nimona… Come back… Please… Come back…” Ballister struggled, jolting awake moments later, eyes flitting around the room before finally landing on Ambrosius. He began to straighten himself back out from his earlier position with his knees pulled up to his chest, leaving very little room for Ambrosius on the bed.

“It’s okay… deep breaths, you’re safe Ballister,” Ambrosius whispered.

“Ambrosius… where am I? Is this… Is this a hospital?”

He nodded, resting his hand on Ballister’s cheek. He relaxed into the grip, but Ambrosius could see tears start to fall from Ballister’s eyes.

“I miss her so much…” He sniffled, “She saved us all.” Ballister wrapped his arm around his middle. Ambrosius could easily guess that if he had two arms he’d be hugging himself. He didn’t let himself look at what was left of his other arm, even though it was there in plain sight.

Ambrosius tried to say something, but no words came out, instead he just wrapped his arms around Ballister and pulled him close.

Whatever had been holding back his emotions shattered as soon as he was hugged and Ballister just let go, sobbing into Ambrosius’ shoulders.

“It’s not fair… she was supposed to be my sidekick… forever… That’s what she said… for her to pull a stupid stunt like that… just to save all of us… It’s… It’s…” He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

Ambrosius dragged a hand lightly through Ballister’ hair, letting him just get everything out, and staying with him as he cried. Eventually he did speak. “She was really important to you, huh? I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner, Bal.”

Ballister looked up at him, but he wasn’t looking into his eyes, rather his eyes were on Ambrosius’ bandaged arm.

“You’re hurt…” he said, through tears. “I helped the others dig you out of the rubble, was told that the Director fired a laser at you. I imagine that you were trying to stop her, right?”

He nodded, “She was going to fire a cannon into the city, Bal. Even after seeing you and Nimona standing on the Gloreth statue and hugging each other, she still chose to use violence. I couldn’t stand for that…” It was Ambrosius’ turn to cry this time. A few tears slipped loose, rolling down his cheeks, “I… I saw you… Bal. I saw what she was really about to do, and then I saw you stop her… and I’m not lying when I said that I fell in love with you all over again.”

Ballister gave Ambrosius a small smile, “All she needed was a friend, you know…” Then the smile disappeared and he buried his head in Ambrosius’ chest, “All of this wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t accused her… I pulled the sword on her, Ambrosius…”

“No… no Bal… It’s my fault. I put that scroll in your hands… I gave you that sword back. I… manipulated you into thinking the same way I was thinking…”

Words rang in Ambrosius’ head.

‘I am here to save you.’

‘This was all her plan. All of it. She’s evil, Bal.’

‘It’s her, Bal. She’s Gloreth’s monster. She’s come back to finish what she started and she’s using you to do it.”

‘Aren’t I more than that? We can slay this monster, we can go back to the way things were.’

‘She’s using you to destroy the kingdom!’

‘You know what she is. Why won’t you admit it? You’re in danger, Bal!’

He can never take any of those words back, but he wished desperately that he could. He held Ballister tightly, feeling the tears fall even faster, unable to hold them back.

“No… I’m the one that made the decision to confront her… because cutting ties with that sword not only meant cutting ties from the Institution, but you as well… and I wanted to make sure that I was doing the right thing.”

All at once, it hit Ambrosius what exactly he had said that had spurred on that decision.

‘Because I love you.’

He bit back a sob, “Bal… I would have loved you no matter what. I love you to the ends of the earth and back. Was I frustrated that you took her side, back then… yes I was, but that was because I truly believed you were in danger…”

It was Bal’s turn to comfort, despite his own pain. He moved his arm up under Ambrosius’ head and started to gently stroke his hair.

“I know. You were confused, and inclined to listen to the Director because that’s what you’ve been doing your whole life… but you came around in the end…” Ballister’s voice was soft, signs of tears still lingering on his face.

“Too late. I couldn’t even stop her from firing the canon. I tried to run after her, but… she shut the door on me…”

“Well… those Knights are very appreciative. They told me that you were trying to save people, even when you were injured yourself.”

“It was just… the right thing to do,” Ambrosius replied. “The one I was helping was hurt badly and unconscious. I didn’t even think about it… I just slung him over my shoulder and tried to carry him to safety.”

Ballister gave a small smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes as he tilted Ambrosius’ head down with his hand so they could look into each other’s eyes, “You have a good heart, Ambrosius. I’ve always known that about you. It’s hard to do what’s right when it goes against everything else you know… trust me.”

“That doesn’t mean you should forgive me for it…”

“Then I won’t… not now at least. I need time to grieve Nimona’s….” He couldn’t say the word. “And then we’ll talk about it.”

Ambrosius nodded. “Can I stay here?” He didn’t feel like he had the right to.

“Of course you can,” Ballister replied, his voice still soft.

“We should get some rest.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Ballister replied. He scooted up on the bed a bit to be able to reach Ambrosius’ head and left a little kiss there.

No full kisses yet, just forehead pecks.

Ambrosius returned it, grateful to just be able to fall asleep with Ballister in his arms. It was just one of many things he had missed.

“Night Bal…” He held back the ‘I love you’, that he instinctively wanted to say.

“Goodnight, Ambrosius.”

The two of them fell asleep, Ballister resting contently in Ambrosius’ arms.

[midorikawawas]

Thoughts on Goldenheart (Comic and Movie)

I obsessed over Nimona as I rest in between my finals, especially about the difference between having goldenheart being established as arch nemesis in the comic instead of us seeing the event of their separation in the movie adaptation as a recent incident, and proceed to have said event not be a memory but a present issue both characters have to deal with in the timeframe of the movie. I keep saying how Nimona (movie and comic) are the same story told differently. In the movie, it's totally believable for them to act the way they did when all the events happened in just a matter of days instead of years.

The way comic! Bal was full of anger and said that if someone had to kill Ambrosius, it had to be him. He's valid in his rage because he's had time, y e a r s, to see Ambrosius be the star knight with no regards of not only him causing Balllister's fall from grace, but also completely ignoring and denying his participation in that event and sticking to an empty role he doesn't even fulfill properly. While comic! Ambrosius acts like his own error has nothing to do with him, Movie! Ambrosius is trying to keep it together for most of the movie when he knows he hurt Bal. I think the nature of the arm chopping incident changing too was a great detail! The whole arm chopping joke is amazing, but it's also such a good way to constantly bring up how messed up that was, as we remember it was in a live event, a stadium full of people, and honestly it could've killed Ballister. There's a sense of urgency in the movie because the queen's murder got added instead of how in the comic the institution discarded Ballister for being disabled. But the core of the issue stays: The man Ballister loved and relied on hurt him.

In both versions, Ambrosius did something unthinkable, but in the comic he blanks out and hurts Bal probably out of jealousy, then time makes him forget. Now in the movie, it was a valid impulse to have, it's just that him doing that to Ballister is what makes us all so surprised, and still we have him confronting that event, coming to terms with it and still being unable to make an excuse. He doesn't even want to. It's really a matter of timing and context I guess. Yes, both versions of the same character are different, but to the core that's how I understand it.

And then there's bar fight.

There's nothing that I loved the most than the bar fight. Both versions. Because again, time and context. Ballister in the comic, as I mentioned, has had enough time in the shadows to see Ambrosius and grow bitter, and him winning demonstrates once again who was the better fighter and better knight, but Ballister doesn't win anything from that fight. In the movie, Ballister clings to the hope that Ambrosius will be on his side and that he never betrayed him. Ambrosius is the only person that supported him and cared for him all those years in the academy, and Ballister knows he's a man of honor. That's why he accepts going to the bar and pleads him to believe him. Them having a physical fight in this context would've made no sense since they're so pathetically in love with each other that the short separation they've been enduring is probably killing them at the moment. That's why that "Because I love you" it's so amazing to me. It happened right after Ballister rejects Ambrosius' touch. Something... unthinkable, if we go back to the first scenes (They're strong with the PDA is lovely) At that point this version of Ambrosius is tired of everything that's been going on, and he would only let Ballister see this side of him.

Then there's how they kind of switched roles, because in the comic, it's obvious that Ambrosius is still carrying a torch for Ballister even after all those years and their new roles he doesn't want to let anyone change. And in the movie, Ballister is who needs Ambrosius, to the point he excuses him mutilating him. But it's because Ambrosius is in this context, everything Ballister had prior to forming his bond with Nimona. For Comic! Ballister to accept/mention he still loves Ambrosius the situation had to be pushed to the most dangerous limits. It's because of pride and the bitterness that grew in Ballister over many years and that just made him cold. Movie! Ballister has that big wound in his heart, freshly cut and pouring out a pain he never imagined Ambrosius would be the culprit of. He freezes when Nimona says the most logic comments in the situation. "It's complicated" he responds, and Nimona can't understand it, mostly because she sees it from the point of view of someone who's been betrayed and rejected, and can't trust anyone. U can't blame her.

But Ballister was still hopeful, because just a matter of days before Ambrosius and him still loved each other. When Ambrosius let them go in the market, he knows Ambrosius can still be reached, so he keeps being hopeful. So much Nimona herself helps him.

I have so much more to say but those are still in a space without shape that I can't reach at the moment. Maybe after a rewatch and a Re-read I will. Overall, I'm so glad this movie exists.

[madlad-sadgal]

Hi! Here's some more stuff I noticed/wanted to point out in Nimona.

Nimona Spoilers!

Bal putting a protective arm in front of Nimona when Ambrosius asks who she is.

Everyone (the Director, Amb, and even the knights in the background) lean back when they realize that Nimona isn't human.

Nimona's frown that appears as soon as Ambrosius raises his sword, only to then turn into a sad, almost disappointed expression. She's disappointed because in a thousand years, nothing has changed, and history is just repeating itself at this point. Bal is framed for the murder of the queen and Nimona gets attacked, defends herself and then gets blamed for the damage. They then both look towards people they trust for help (Bal begging Amb to trust him and Nimona turning towards Gloreth once she's calmed down) only to have a sword pointed towards them ("Arrest them" and "Go back to the shadows from whence you came")

Facial expressions during the "Arrest them" scene. Bal looks betrayed and confused, like he doesn't believe Amb wouldn't ever trust him. Nimona looks hurt, but resigned, as if she expected this. Right before he says the words, Amb looks like he's about to cry, like he doesn't want to do it (which he probably doesn't) but has no choice (which he doesn't considering there's at least thirty other knights around them plus the Director). Meanwhile, the total opposite of everyone else's expressions, the Director looks pleased. You'd imagine she'd be hurt upon facing the arrest of the boy she's cared about and trained all these years, but she just looks pleased, almost proud, because her plan is working, as even someone such as Ambrosius, who knew Bal better than anyone, has turned on him.

The way Bal and Nimona just easily fall into battle, fighting alongside each other without missing a step, as if it's something they've been doing for years, or as if they're reading each other's minds.

Right before really starting to fight Ambrosius, a knight charges at Bal and he just, punches him without even looking back, which really goes to show how much he deserved his "top of the class" title, and that's just one example.

Bal being the one who attacks while Amb spends most of their fight defending. Also, Bal not taking back his comments about Nimona when she comes running by acting like a child, and instead adding onto those with "And she has my back. Unlike you." And just imagine how hurt Amb must be because, again, he probably doesn't want to arrest Bal, but just doesn't have a choice.

When Todd grabs Bal and drags him away and through the streets, I'm pretty sure he causes an accident, which just gives us another reason to hate him as a few civilians were most likely injured.

When the car is heading towards the kid, there's a knight standing there, but instead of saving the kid, he just runs away, and it's Nimona that ends up stopping the car, and yet even after doing that and shifting into what was probably intended as a non-threatening form, the kid still points a sword towards her and calls her a monster, proving to Nimona, once again, that in a thousand years, nothing has changed, and everyone, even kids, are just brainwashed people who are scared of what they don't know, and so react how they were taught to; hate.

Nimona saying she doesn't needs Bal's help because she's survived a thousand years without anyone's help and has learned to take care of herself.

"Kids. Little kids. They grow believing that they can be a hero if they drive a sword into the heart of anything different. And I'm the monster?" Two things to say about this. One, we have to remember that Nimona is talking to Ballister Boldheart, the commoner who wanted to be a knight and managed to be top of his class at the Institute. Killing monsters to become hero must've been what he believed at some point to want to become a knight, and that ideology was most likely forced into his brain while training at the Institute, and now he'd forced to reconsider that as someone wildly different opens his eyes to the real world. Secondly, it's that last phrase, "And I'm the monster?" because I want to put this in real life. This example is kind of obvious, but take the LGBT+ community. All we ask is basically to let us be who want to be, let us love who we want to love, and basically just accept us into society. Meanwhile, in the past LGBT+ people were killed in the past because they were different, people are yelled slurs at for being themselves in public, teens are kicked out of their homes by homophobic parents. And we're the monsters? The weirdos? The ones who are going to hell because we're "sinners"? Just wanted to put that in perspective.

Right after that, Nimona talks about how she sometimes just wants to let people kill her, basically saying she is, although not directly, considering suicide. For a thousand years, she's been piling all of this up, and although Bal betraying her at the end wasn't the main cause for her going to the statue, he was probably the one thing that was too much and made everything she's been balancing for all these years tumble down.

When Bal's talking about going over the wall, he's saying it not because he's tired of staying in a kingdom that hates him, but because he sees that the inside of the wall isn't safe for Nimona. He's ready to overcome his fears for her safety. On the other hand, Nimona doesn't acknowledge him until he outright says that they'll leave together. That's when she looks up at him and mutters "Together?" and when she says it, it just sound so hopeful, and it breaks my heart everytime.

When Bal says "We can't change the way people see us" Nimona seemingly takes a moment to think before saying that he changed the way he saw her, and when he confirms that, and I feel like I can just see a spark of hope in her at the thought that maybe, just maybe, if someone cans see her as someone worth caring for, protection and acceptance, perhaps other people could, which probably makes his betrayal towards the end hurt all the more.

This one is darker than my other ones and I elaborate a lot more on the things I point out, but I just really needed to talk about these specific scenes, so I still hope you enjoyed. I just love this movie and all the subtext that comes with it and what it means to different people who relate to so many different aspects of it, and yet still holds an important place in so many people's live, both as a comic and as a movie, but in different ways. But, yeah, hope you enjoyed and I just love this movie.

[earako]

Okay, apparently more Nimona headcanons

- Ballister's nickname for Ambrosius usually tends to be 'lover.' Before they got together it was mostly shortened versions of Ambrosius name

- although the earrings from his mom were gold Ballister's a silver jewelry kinda guy. Which Ambrosius and Nimona noticed when making Ballister replica's of his mom's earrings

- Ballister gives really good head massages and Nimona and Ambrosius *will* fight to go first whenever he offers/just want to play with someones hair

- Although Nimona can speak in multiple languages they can't neccessarily *read* in the multiple languages they know [they picked up the language by hearing it constantly]

- Ambrosius and Ballister 100 percent had that second gen immigrant experience of getting slight whiplash at the change from their ethnic food to food provided by the institute. At home its soups, stew, and stir frys with plenty of greens. At the institute its mainly bread, though surprisingly stir frys also incorporates. The only familiar food there for a while is the stew and even thats seasoned differently

- Nimona totally experiments in the kitchen with random recipes she only half remembers. It's 50/50 on it being edible or not

- Since Nimona can breath fire the boys will ask them for help on stuff they'd usually use a lighter for [unless its delicate work]. Nimona loves it because instead of their fire breathing being seen as monsterous its seen as something helpful. Yes the boys always get Nimona a treat afterwards for helping them out

Aaand that's all for the meantime

Edit wait I lie I wanna add one more headcanon

- Whenever Ballister is just *done* with Ambrosius he calls him "dearheart." When he's *done* with Nimona he calls them -sweetie pie- [No I'm not projecting s h u s h-]

Edit 2: yeaahh sweetie pie sounds weird to me now, changing it to "you pink gremlin" / "darling menace"

[yrrtyrrtwhenihrrthrrt]

Hi!!

I love your comic Goldenheart baby and tried to draw the lil bald guy ;-; I love him so much pipipi (also I know you've been having some rough weeks where you are, so I hope this can at least cheer you up a bit 👉👈 you're so coolest 🗣️)

Also sorry I got thoughts of them based on your own thoughts of Goldenheart as parents 🧍

-The idea of Ambrosius' never wanting to let anyone hold him gave me the idea of Gregor becoming a velcro baby (very attached to Ambrosius) which then translated to not just Ambrosius' arms but anyone's arms (and then gave me the idea of, them at the table eating or something and passing the baby from one's arms to the other's so they can eat in peace for a while and simply it working like that until he's a toddler 😭) (sorry I just like to pick other people's headcanons and add in my headcanons in their AU, in my mind JSKDHD 😭 I hope that's okay ª)

-ALSO y'know how you mentioned in one of Gregor's posts about him having something (I can't quite remember the exact name🧍) but Ambrosius blaming himself for that? I thought what if he thought that bc babies when they are months old think of their closest parent as themselves (until they start to realize they're a different being themselves, so if they're sad they understand that they themselves must be sad and stuff ? As I understand it) but AA Ambrosius simply experiences emotions and stuff and Gregor imitating him. And he doesn't connect it when he's happy or calm, but when he's angry or sad, he does notice that Gregor copies him and WA 🧍

-ALSO I LOVE HIS OLD MAN HAIR WHDHW bald babies are so cute 😭

-Also sorry Ambrosius holding him one-handed was based on a dad holding his baby like that and taking a selfie 😭 (also drew movie Ballister holding his baby like that bc it's such a silly way, especially bc the dad in the picture was supporting correctly the baby's head and all that and the baby seemed very unbothered shsjh).

>He was supposed to say something like, would a depressed person make this? Presents his best creation Like that meme but I couldn't remember if he was actually depressed or not in your headcanons 🧍 (and I was too lazy to look it up sorry 😭)

Also adult Gregor because I really like his hairstyle and facial hair 🗣️ very cool

ANYWAYS HE'S SO COOL PIPIPI (sorry for the rambling shdkdh)

That's it I hope you have a good day !! 🗣️🗣️

OH MY GOSH I LOVE THISSSSSJFJDHSGSUS

First off thank you so much I really needed this right now 😭 I love your headcanons and your take on him and OMG I LOVE the way you draw him!!!! I'm so glad you like my OC and please don't apologize feel free to make whatever drawings or headcanons you like, they make me so happy !!! :,,,,)

YES he would definitely be a Velcro Baby and a complete snugglebug like his parents, never wanting to not be held! And I can TOTALLY see Ambro blaming himself for every negative emotion this child ever has, especially as a baby. "He's sad because I'm sad! He has anxiety because I was anxious before he was born! It's all my fault!" But while he would be a flawed parent he'd still do his best and with Ballister's support they'd do a good enough job eeeeeeee

I love this so much your art is so good!!! I love seeing your Goldenheart babies they're so cute and it's so lovely seeing Gregor in your style 😭 thank you so much for this!!!!!

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 1, Wave 2, Poll 14

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.

Ambrosius Goldenloin-Nimona (Book)

Qualifications:

He’s gay and has facial scarring

Addition by @yrrtyrrtwhenihrrthrrt First I'd like to clear up that he does NOT just have facial scarring!! He has a visible walking disability, requiring assistance to stand and using a crutch. He appears mostly unable to bear weight on the left leg, and additionally the facial scarring visibly obstructs his eye adding possible partial vision loss to the list so. Just gonna leave this here not to let my boy be sabotaged with misinfo lol

Propaganda:

He’s such an asshole it's great. Still very gay though, he gets injured at the end, and also has facial scarring. He’s very different from the movie, much more of an ass, but still interesting.

Lenore Vandernacht-Nevermore

Qualifications:

in a sapphic relationship, extremely genderfucked, wheelchair and cane user

Broken hip = cane and wheelchair user + severe mental health issues, in a sapphic relationship & is so gender of all time

Propaganda:

This girl is THE sapphic of all time. Literally met a girl while she was being drugged out of her mind and still managed to be gay enough for her to DIY physical therapy for her broken hip (which had long since healed) to be able to walk with a cane to go marry her. she's also just absolutely gender and her gf fainted the first time she saw her in a suit. She got absolutely fucked over by Victorian/Edwardian treatment of women with disabilities and mental issues and went into disguise as a man to escape that

She’s a lesbian who looks like a twink and is brute forcing her way through life with the power of gay love and a slay ass crow headed cane

[disabled-characters-showdown]

Disabled Characters Showdown Round 4

Note: The reason why we have decided to have these two go against each other is because we didn’t see Ambrosius lasting much longer and thought we’d have fun with it along the way. (The reason why there is the same image twice is because they have different image ids.)

Propaganda/Who is this:

Lord Blackheart- Very cool character, kind of a villain but not really. The movie adaptation of Nimona is out on Netflix and is worth watching, it’s really good. The book is really good and worth reading.

Ambrosius Goldenloin- From the graphic novel Nimona, he’s an interesting character, struggles with dealing with corrupt institutions. The movie adaptation of Nimona came out on Netflix and it’s totally worth watching. The book is also worth reading.

Check out the other polls in this round here.

[bestworstcase]

with only three episodes left, what do you think is in store for the rest of the volume? personally, i’m having trouble imagining a solid resolution fitting into such a small window. not that i doubt there’s a way to end this volume succinctly—rwby is always throwing curveballs i could’ve never predicted hitting, which i love—but i suppose the hangnail in resolution’s cuticle is that jrwby are all finally facing their lifelong, beaten-in worldview being turned on its head and that seems like the kind of thing (on top of neo’s untold ever after story) that needs more time to be resolved. in which case, ig we’re not looking at a clean wrap up? do you think they end this volume ascending the ever after? escaping back to remnant? (i ask those two questions separately bc i wanna say they might have different answers lol)

as a point of comparison, here’s everything (not necessarily in chronological order) that happened in the last three episodes of V8:

1 - ironwood vs everyone beat down

2 - winter heel face turn completed

3 - met ambrosius + staff of creation rules

4 - magic rules lawyered penny into a flesh body to save her from the virus with a side dish of horrible body horror robot body death scene and holy shit atlas is FALLING.

5 - creation of whacky portals for evacuation to vacuo

6 - emergency evacuation broadcast CANCELLED!

7 - cinder remembers the power of friendship and uses it for evil

8 - cinder recovered the lamp and scored the password and used the last question to spy on team oz which is fucking hysterical by the way, so she knows the entire plan

9 - YANG DIES?

10 - ruby and blake fall too. and neo

11 - the evacuation dumps everyone in a sandstorm so they can’t call for backup and also the exit is one-way (“oh dear. ambrosius \:” love that enthusiasm sir)

12 - HARRIET TRIES TO NUKE MANTLE?

13 - ironwood murders jacques

14 - eleventh hour harriet heel face turn also zeki dies because atlesian tech goons thought the nuke needed to be plugged into the IOT for some reason god bless

15 - PENNY???

16 - and winter becomes the winter maiden

17 - TEAM RWBY TOTAL PARTY KILL!!

18 - jaune also

19 - salem and cinder playing chicken over who is going to blink first like they don’t both already know that it’s going to be salem

20 - ATLAS OBLITERATED FOREVER

that’s a lot of things!

now, it’s a lot easier to set up and execute a dense, tightly-paced climactic spiral of disaster than bring a lot of interconnected emotional crises to satisfying resolution in the same amount of runtime—but on the other hand, V9 has a lot less going on. it doesn’t FEEL that way because the emotional development has been so rich and done so, so well, but there honestly are not that many narrative threads to tie off. basically, the big ones are:

1 - ruby’s emotional crisis

2 - jaune’s corruption

3 - neo

4 - how do we get home?

5 - what do we do once we get there?

compared to the sheer amount of dominoes V8 had to juggle, handling this stuff is a nice little walk.

the key thing to remember—& this has been true for every one of rwby’s climactic sequences and also counts as writing advice—is that none of these major threads are truly discrete. they’re all interwoven with each other and bound together with all the smaller filaments (like the cat’s arc or little’s arc or the framing device of ‘the girl who fell through the world’ and what really went down with alyx and the tree), so you don’t have to resolve them separately and indeed you can’t because it all has to happen at once. what this means, from a writing standpoint, is you layer up and make every scene work towards the resolution of two or three major threads and however many minor filaments you can fit comfortably so that everything is doing work for everything else. if you’re efficient you don’t need a lot of time to pull off a stunning climactic sequence, and efficiency is something rwby has always been very, very good at. this is true even of V1 even though V1 feels laughably inefficient by the standards of V8; which is to say, they started off good and got much better.

the other piece to bear in mind is that V9 is not meant to be self-contained; it is not a character-focused breather volume to let the protagonists heal up before returning to remnant to carry on as they were, it is The Answer. when rwbyjn go home they are not going to return to the story they fell out of at the end of V8. that story is OVER. it ENDED. the final word was checkmate and the world they knew is GONE FOREVER. salem WON. the ever after is an epilogue to that story and the prologue for another; it isn’t building towards a resolution so much as it is building a hook.

(<- remember V3 “beginning of the end” and “end of the beginning”? this story-within-story device is something rwby has utilized before; this show is a singular contiguous narrative in the literal sense, but it’s structured as a trilogy.)

so V9 needs to be a satisfying farewell to the middle book and also make the case for continuing on to the third and final story—which very much works to its benefit here, because the sweeping emotional changes being developed actually SHOULDN’T be resolved. a clean wrap up would critically weaken the narrative structure. the immediate crises need to be realized—there must be a moment of peace, of closing one book and beginning the next; a hopeful glimpse of the story to come, of what it could be—and then they go home. and the new story begins.

in the figurative sense you could call it ascension. in the literal sense, no, i don’t think any of the remnant characters are going to ascend because i don’t think they can (frankly i’m bemused as to why so many people seem to believe otherwise; it seems to me that the cat has made it very clear that ascension is closed to non-afterans). but the idea of ascension? oh, yes, they’re carrying that forward with them.

as for whether they’ll return to remnant—yes. i think the probability that they don’t find their way home by episode ten is zero. how they return is an open question but also not a question at all, because the tree is the question and their answer is the door; this has been spelled out, explicitly, albeit in wonderlandish terms. what we don’t know yet is what this will look like, because the tree is also the blacksmith and the ever after runs on wonderland rules. it’s not going to be literal. (<- unless abstraction is less absurd than the literal option, which is possible given the likelihood that the ever after itself is fictional.)