#queen valerin

[vinylattes]

NIMONA (2023) | dir. Nick Bruno & Troy Quane

[walrus150915]

Do you ever think about how Ballister didn't get to grieve the Queen properly

Do you ever think about how the Queen was probably the first person who's shown him kindness ever since he became a street kid

Do you ever think about how much she meant to him and he didn't even go to her funeral

Do you ever think about how she spent the last seconds of her life thinking he killed her

Do you *explodes*

[fozgard]

Little sketch

[sir-ballister-boldheart]

Ballister being a badass fighter in this early animation scene that did not make it to the movie...is doing things to me 😳

Although they did seem to have reused some parts of this fight scene in the introduction of the movie

[dunnowhatimdoin]

Sometimes she comes checking on the cadets...

Happy mother's day, folks!

[sunshine-zenith]

This is kinda a part two to this post here, about Ballister’s scar. Specifically I wanted to speculate a bit on Ballister’s relationship with Queen Valerin when you consider the fact that he was a mistreated and vulnerable child when he met her

Like. Look at this moment here

She’s reassuring him. She genuinely believes in him, and it’s clear from the knighting ceremony, when she specifically lowers her voice to tell him how much she’s been looking forward to this moment that her intentions around him a pure. She wants to change things, she wants to give this kid a chance, and she’s killing two birds with one stone by making him a knight

But like Nimona herself says, question everything

Look a little bit closer at this image — the queen is well dressed and already had a statement prepared. Ballister is dressed in rags and looks like he hasn’t even been given the chance to wash his hair. He looks surprised and a little scared when the media erupts with questions. And I don’t think this was the Queen’s doing, necessarily — odds are the Director was the one who was supposed to prepare Ballister, and chose not to, because she probably knew that while the Queen wouldn’t judge him for looking like the homeless kid he was, the media would. Still, it shows that while the Queen has overall say on Ballister’s future, she doesn’t have a lot to do about his present

Ballister says he loves the Queen, but it’s hard to tell if he meant he loves her like you’d love a family member, or if he “loves” her like someone who has been raised to not question authority “loves” said authority. He took a deep breath and looked to Ambrosius during the knighting ceremony, not to her. She realistically probably wasn’t super involved, even if she wanted to be — she had an entire kingdom to run, other knights to knight, and likely spent her days making progressive decisions that were controversial with the conservatives in her kingdom. Plus, if she had been super involved, it could’ve increased bias against him, like she was favoring him above everyone else — Ambrosius seemed overall not sure popular among the knights, and while they respected his authority when he was put it charge, there was definitely a vibe that they resented him for being the “Golden Boy” descendant of Gloreth.

Let’s compare Bal and Queen Valerin to Comic!Ballister Blackheart and one of the Queen’s inspirations, Dr. Blitzmeyer (the other was the king, who was a basically prop that was referenced heavily in relation to Ballister as someone he should kill before dying off screen).

Blackheart and Blitzmeyer end the comic opening a lab together, working as co-scientists. Blackheart clearly thinks of her as a friend, but she thinks of him as a fond colleague for most of the comic — she’s happy to offer help in the form of exposition, and she helps him save the day by giving him a McGuffin That You Just Gotta Read The Comic To Understand, but part of her is worried he’s a rival scientist that wants to steal her ideas. She still welcomes him in her home and offers him team. When he’s at the end of his rope and needs a comfort hug, she awkwardly indulges him

She’s surprised when he puts her down as his emergency contact

Dr. Blitzmeyer is a quirky scientist that hangs out on conspiracy forums and probably practices witchcraft for the sake of scientific study. Queen Valerin is a warm and progressive monarch who makes controversial decisions. And they make big decisions regarding helping Ballister

Remember the reluctant McGuffin handover?

She’s weighing the odds of him lying to her and stealing/tampering with/destroying it, hesitating before trusting him. If she had said no, a lot more people would’ve died in the comic, but she had no way of knowing that. She was barely interested in looking out her window and just worried the thing she spent years on would be wrecked

Now, the Queen — we don’t see her weigh the pros and cons of letting Bal become a knight, but she had to. And consider what she was presented with: a homeless kid with either no family or an abusive one judging from his scars and bruises. He had no adults in his life to protect him. No one to tell her no, making him essentially a child soldier might not be in his best interest. And he jumped a fence into the middle of a knight training session declaring he wanted to be a knight, basically coming to her — essentially the perfect candidate for her semi-social experiment

I can totally see her in another world letting this kid into her home and giving him tea and comfort, but I don’t think she could here. While she meant good, she took in a kid with nothing to lose and gave him everything to lose (a home, education, likely his first friend, safety), while also putting him under unavoidable social pressure. And she did it while the only adult figure other than her in his life, the one who would actually be involved in his upbringing — the Director — openly and defiantly failed him from the get go, and protested letting him join the knights to her face

Y’all I adore Queen Valerin, even if we only got her for like five minutes. Even if it’s in a speculative sense I like that she’s a good person while morally gray actions. She very much improved Ballister’s circumstances by giving him a home and the opportunity to pursue his interests. She clearly cared about him. She’s also a politician who, even if unavoidably, lowkey set him up to be a scapegoat without a backup plan and no outside support

Like. Y’all.

[yrrtyrrtwhenihrrthrrt]

Thinking about the Squire from Nimona rn

Imagine being in possession of the sole proof that the Director of the FBI assassinated the President and framed your celebrity crush for it

And proceeding to do absolutely fuckall about it

Like Pedro Pascal is being hunted down by the authorities and you (and you alone) know he's innocent and have video proof of a MASSIVE conspiracy and your attitude is just "I don't get paid enough to care"

?????

[puddlestheduck1]

i am going to be violently sick all over the floor he looked so happy and proud

[letternumbersash]

Remembering that one scene where Ambrosius says 'That's not right...he hates freestyle jazz'

He must hate it SO much to the point Ambrosius thinks he's willing to commit murder just to avoid it

Queen Valerin: *playing freestyle jazz*

Ballister: *holding his sword* it's nothing perosnal

Queen Valerin: Wait wha-

Ballister: *laser beams her*

[riririkinzi]

Here's it's first art everyone UwU

[little-cereal-draws]

Details I noticed in Nimona pt 2

In the opening narration, when we first see Gloreth in the scrolls there are words behind her that read "Salva nos" which translates to "save us." When she stabs the monster there are words that read "mori" which translates to "Death."

One of the newspapers on Ballister's innocence wall reads "Black Heart Out There"

When Nimona bangs on the tower door you can see her shadow under the door

The first time we see the circular saw in the tower it's off. Then it turns on just so Nimona can lean on it. Then it's off again

Nimona wears a black pair of glasses when she asks Ballister about the job while reading the newspaper. She drops them on the table but wears them again as an otter after the second fight at the Institute

When Ballister is screaming "Murder him, murder her, murder everyone!" Nimona sees Ambrosius first. She looks between Bal and him a few times before Bal notices

Back at their hideout, when Bal looks over the couch to see Nimona cooking, he looks around like 'uhhh...' a few times

The item Nimona classified as most deadly was a HUMONGOUS chainsaw. The chainsaw gets moved around the tower a bit but ends the movie on a top shelf in the alcove

In the top left of Nimona's updated murder wall, there's a drawing she did of a design for Ballister's arm. It's shooting fire and is labeled, "Literal firearm." Next to it is a self portrait she did

When Nimona suggests maybe there's nothing outside the wall before they go to the market, Ballister blinks and actually considers it for a second before deciding that's wrong

Nimona's right (our left) fang is bigger than the other

The sign in the subway projecting the train arrival times said that the C to Marketplace arrived in one minute, the Q to Castle Cross arrives in six minutes, and the 6 to Victory Ave. arrived in ten minutes

When Ballister tries to convince Nimona it's "easier to be a girl" during their subway ride, there's a poster behind him that says, "Put Your Faith in the Institue." I love how unsubtle they were with their subtext in this movie lol

When they go up into the subway air vents to escape Ambroisus, Nimona beats her chest once in gorilla form

The highlights in the squire's eyes are pentagons. I know ppl have done metas abt what the eye highlights mean but idk how pentagons fit into there

While trying to stuff the squire's unconscious body into their trunk, Ballister drops him. On his head

The bandage that Bal uses to heal Nimona's knee is the bottom of his cape, we see him tear it off while she's talking. Also the bandage has increasing amounts of blood on it as he wraps it. It's still not very much but it does increase the longer it's on there

After coming back to the tower from the second fight at the Institute, Nimona almost hits Bal in the face with the door but he catches it at the last second

On top of the wooden case where the Director was hiding Ballister's real sword is a huge old book. It's in a glass case that she rests her hands on while talking to "Ambrosius." Again, I love how obvious they were being with this movie; she's hiding the weapon that she used to kill, frame, and exclude people to preserve oppressive tradition under smth that looks exactly like a medieval Bible. They were not subtle lol

When "Ambrosius" dies, there's blood on his armor and the sword. Not very much but you can see it

One of the citizens watching the news about the Director's confession is an old lady. She's got a couch, a tv stand, and two framed pictures of chickens on her wall. That's it; the rest of the room, like behind the TV (which is in the middle of the room for some reason??), is completely empty. I just thought her chicken pictures were funny lol

When Bal and Ambrosius are arguing in the Antlered Serpent, Bal says, "You know what? You are so full of-" And then he gets cut off by the waiter, so we'll never get to hear him finish that sentence

Also in that scene, there's a portrait of the Queen behind Ambrosius but nothing behind Ballister. Again, they're using the environment/background to show where characters' loyalties lie

Nimona's got a little pink and white circle on the bottom of her boots. You can see it when she wakes up on the couch and when she jumps off the balcony in the Director's office. I can't get a good image of it but I'm guessing it's some kind of logo

In the flashback with Gloreth, Nimona is pretty shy and reserved until she can use her shapeshifting. Then she's chatty, she's fully engaged in the games, and she just looks so much happier. She knew she could trust Gloreth and wasn't worried about hiding a key part of her identity. She shapeshifted and then she was free (ignore me crying)

When Nimona turns into the big shadow monster at the climax, the initial transformation destroys the well where she met Gloreth. I'm sure there's some symbolism in there but I'm leaving that for someone else to figure out lol

When Todd crashed his hoverscooter, he went all the way through the billboard. I thought he just hit it but no, he made a giant hole

When Ballister shows up to the city for the final sequence, the "A New Era of Heros" billboard is burning behind his right (our left) shoulder. Again there's probably symbolism in there but I'm leaving it to someone else

When Bal's sword hits the ground after he drops it off Gloreth's statue, it turns off. It's the first time in the movie where it hasn't been glowing. It really drove home that he's done with the Institute. He's not carrying it, it's not even on. He's helping Nimona

Ambrosius tries to carry an unconscious/severely injured person off the wall as Nimona's flying at it but he puts the person's full weight on his injured shoulder. Bc he's big brain like that

The scene where Bal and Ambrosius kiss is actually on top of the wall. Maybe that was obvious, but it took me forever to realize. They've turned it into a park and have made it accessible to the public. Also it looks over the entire Kingdom and it's HUGE! I've seen people worrying about how they fit all those people in the walls but it's actually ginormous

pt 1, pt 3, pt 4, pt 5

[walrus150915]

Having kinda mixed feelings about Queen Valerin bc she's such a clear example of neoliberalism but like😭😭 SHE'S SO😭😭😭 IDK LOOK AT HER I'M😭😭😭😭

There must be a reason why I wrote 3 fic centering around her right🖐

If you want me to write a deliberate analysis of her character (at least the parts we know- since my girl DIES in like first 10 minutes of the film) AND the way she ruled over the kingdom, let me know. Because I will

[shinekocreator]

Angsty post canon Nimona (2023) fanfic idea:

Going off of the headcanon that Queen Valerin was going to adopt Ballister after the knighting (because she can only adopt nobles).

One day the current monarch of the kingdom is asking Ballister to meet him for a private conversation. Apparently, amongst Queen Valerin's belongings, were found adoption papers, signed by her. She was going to adopt Bal, and if he agrees to sign them, he'll be the heir to the throne.

Ballister is absolutely baffled by what to do about it.

[sir-ballister-boldheart]

I edited out all the dialogues from the opening scene of Nimona, so that we can only hear the awesome background score as the opening scene plays out. Yes, I am insane.

Also, this is my first time editing a video so please be nice :3

[rosetowers]

I need to stop making Aus and not do anything with them, but Prince Ballister has a hold of my brain, so have some little ideas.

EDIT: forgot to tag @mvjerbs bcs their art caused this

Bal's adopted by the queen during his "breaking-into-the-Institute-bcs-he-wants-to-be-a-knight" thing, and she goes "free baby" and scoops him up.

He has a generally easier time, even if he's a bit disappointed about not being a knight. It's one thing for even the queen to stray from Gloreth's doctrine and allow a commoner to be a knight.

Like, people don't like a commoner becoming heir to the throne, but that's seen as being up to the queen, and the closer relationship protects Bal from people's scorn.

The Director becomes concerned as Bal gets older and more involved in politics, as he starts suggesting stuff like helping the lower classes or anything that affects the status quo, which could put the city (*ahem* the Director) in danger.

The queen had been a bit sheltered from problems in the realm, but takes Bal's advice seriously and starts looking into ways to help people.

I have a couple of ideas as to how he meets Nimona:

Follow canon, somewhat. They meet after the main plot kicks off with Nimona opening Bal's eyes to how much worse the situation is and how corrupt the Institute is etc.

Or, they actually meet when he's younger, and she gives him far more radical ideas as to how they can help the realm.

For the first one, just Bal suggesting they should allow commoners to become knights would be enough to set the Director off, but in the second scenario, Bal could suggest actually trying to explore beyond the walls.

Not sure if I'd have Bal be framed in the second scenario: I feel like they could announce the intention to take down part of the wall ON the wall, and the Director makes it look like someone from outside attacks the royals.

Bal survives, but loses an arm. Thanks to Nimona, he suspects the Director, who demonises him and makes herself regent.

As for Goldenheart, Bal still wanted to learn how to sword fight, so Ambrosius was assigned to be his sparring partner.

Gloreth's descendents also often become royal bodyguards.

This can involve anything from pining over not being able to be together, to saying "fuck it" and doing so behind closed doors.

In the "Bal has known Nimona for years" scenario, Ambrosius knows about her too and agrees that they should help people and explore beyond the walls.

If nothing else, it does give him the opportunity to do something new as Gloreth's descendent.

He still believes in the Institute and doesn't think the Director would hurt anyone, but he also still believes in Bal's plan and doesn't like how he's being treated after the queen is murdered.

So there's some tension going on there as he tries to figure out what he should do.

Again I have put too much thought into this, and I'm not gonna have the attention span/confidence to write a whole fic, but I needed to get it out of my head lol.

[sunshine-zenith]

Actually yeah I’m jumping back on my bullshit and doing another ramble about small details in Nimona

Specifically the fact that, in the movie, little Ballister already has his eye scar

In the comic, he gets the scar at the same time he loses the arm, but how he loses it in the book and the movie are different — in the comic he’s basically hit by a tiny missile, so it makes sense he would take a lot more damage overall, while in the movie it’s lost in a sword chop, so unless Ambrosius’s impulsive “disarming” also involves additional face stabbing, it wouldn’t make sense in the movie canon for him to give Bal the face scar here. But Ballister bleeds a bit from the head after the Gloradome collapses, and while him walking away with just one face scar instead of several might seem like a stretch, they could’ve played it off. They already had to make a new character model for him with the prosthetic arm, they could’ve also added the face scar to the second model

Instead, they “backdated” the scar all the way to his childhood without giving a backstory for it, and it implies so much about how his life was before he joined the knights

This concept art by Crystal Kung sure doesn’t show a happy and well cared for kid. We know he was homeless/impoverished (the visible patches on clothes, the “street kid/charity case” comments, zero signs of parents when his “commoner” bloodline is emphasized). He could’ve gotten the scar running from someone in the streets, or by getting into a fight since he was a pretty impulsive/bold (see what I did there) kid — jumping a fence and interrupting a knight training session. I can’t help but wonder though…

It’s implied that he’s an orphan, given the fact that all of zero parents are brought up when discussing his “commoner blood,” but it’s never outright stated. ND Stevenson stated that in the comic Ballister’s father gave up custody of his son to pay off his debts, and while the knights are no longer exploited orphans/the Queen doesn’t seem like the type of person to ask for that kind of transaction, it does make me wonder what movie Ballister’s parents were like

Look at those blotches on his face. Sure, they might just be dirt, since it doesn’t look like they bothered to give this poor kid a bath before throwing a media circus in his honor, but compare them to how bruising shows up on his adult self’s face. And if they are bruises, it’s possible that a couple of them are from the whole Tackled By Like Three Fully Grown Adults In Armor thing, but If you look closely, it looks like he already has a blotch before he’s tackled

Granted, his body language doesn’t really change when he sees the knights coming towards him (no flinches or attempts to cover his head, and while he doesn’t move it doesn’t look like he’s freezing) so him being abused might be a stretch, But think about how he holds Ambrosius back from confronting Todd, how he just quietly accepts the verbal harassment and rough treatment. He doesn’t think confronting Todd is worth it — Todd’s bullying was clearly never shut down or addressed over the years, and it’s likely that any attempts at retaliation from Ambrosius or Ballister got them in trouble instead. Bal is just… used to it

Listen. This vulnerable kid was hurt physically by something before he joined the knights. Maybe he had abusive parents, maybe he had an abusive foster family, maybe he was attacked by someone who caught him trying to steal food or something to survive, maybe he was attacked just for being homeless, maybe this wasn’t his first tango with knights. We have no clue. But he got that scar at a very young age and he got it from somewhere