#Like how Nimonas forms are always pink

[sabindark]

shapeshifter Ballister Au

Ballister as Griffin

[madlad-sadgal]

I got bored again, so for the third time, here are random things I noticed throughout my rewatch of Nimona.

As always, Nimona Spoilers!

To start off, a few people pointed out how the first time Nimona shows up on screen, we see her doing a graffiti of the word dumb. Also, rewatching some of the scenes, in the scene where she shows the new murder wall, you can make out the word "Nemesis" written over Ambrosius' picture. Also, if you look at the very top of the wall, we can see a drawing of Bal's prosthetic with flames coming out of it with the words "Literal Firearm" written under it. So, I rethought it, and realized Gloreth was probably the first human Nimona had ever seen (as far as we know), so Gloreth probably taught her to speak, write and read, except this was a thousand years ago, and language constantly evolves, and we can all agree that "From whence you came" and "Nemesis" aren't really phrases or words people seem to use. So, I think Nimona probably has some knowledge when it comes to reading and writing, both thanks to Gloreth and just picking up bits and pieces throughout those 1000 years, but she still has trouble when it comes to full on writing actual long phrases to create like an essay or something like a resume.

When she pins back Am's picture on the wall, we see a post it with "Disrupt the System" written and highlighted on it.

We get a hint that Nimona might be "Gloreth's monster" when we see a drawing of her in dragon form that kinda resembles the dragon we see at the beginning in the scrolls.

When Bal calls Nim a monster, there is literally a newspaper cut out on the wall next to him with his picture and the word "Monster" written on it.

We get a bit of insight on the type of pressure Ambrosius suffers from when we get back to the Institute. All the other knights seem to think it's his fault for not having stopped Bal from escaping, despite a whole horde of knights chasing after him and not one of them even coming close to stopping him from escaping either. The other knights, despite probably not knowing the full extent of it, seem to be aware of the close relationship between the two of them, putting him under even more pressure because of that small fact.

When the Director stops the fight between Ambrosius and Todd, she tells them; "Look at you, acting like common children." Reminder that everyone is fully aware that Bal was a commoner and is currently suspected to having killed the queen. She is basically telling them; "Those people are very clearly below us and one of them is a murderer and a villain, and yet you are acting like them."

When Am volunteers to lead the manhunt for Bal, we can clearly see him go slightly worried for Bal as Todd is talking about how he'll make Bal pay. He probably volunteered because he wanted to lessen the chances of Bal getting hurt.

Like I mentioned in another post, Nimona often tries to get Bal to understand that the Institute is filled lies, but not by directly telling him. She starts by giving little hints. One example of him is when she tries to tell him that maybe there's nothing over the wall. I talk about it more in this post.

Nimona's little pink streak in her hair

Nimona is quick enough to go up an escalator that goes down, but a literal knight who has gone through harsh training isn't.

Todd knows that Am's hair smells like lavender. In flower language, lavender is associated with purity, silence, devotion, caution, serenity, grace and calmness. That sounds an awful lot like qualities the Institute would expect a direct descendant of Gloreth to posses, doesn't it?

I'll stop here, cause this is starting to get long.

Unrelated, but I decided to watch Nimona with my siblings (13, 7 and 5) and they all loved it. The best part for me was that my homophobic aunt watched the bit where Bal and Am kiss, started freaking out that I was pushing it onto them, and then my 13 years old brother just commented about how she kept forcing him to watch her romance movies with her and was always pushing him to "get a girlfriend for them to meet" and she just shut up and left. Just wanted to put that out there.

Might make another one of these if y'all like this!

[intothefandomverse]

Nimona headcanons I wrote when I really should have been doing my schoolwork

They have a pride flag hanging in the living room right by the murder wall

Bal and Ambrosius get Nimona squishmallows and other plushies whenever they see a pink one. She pretends she doesn't care about them, but if anything happened to any of her plushies, she'd kill whoever hurt them.

Bal has chronic pain, not just from the arm chop, but even before. He has really bad joints and would always push through it, just Amb learned how to pick up on the signs of a bad flare up and would try to force him to take a break, despite him denying it, and refusing any help if he sees it as help. Nimona picked up on this as well and will frequently turn into a cat, plop down on his shoulders or lap or arm just wherever is most convenient, and proceed to purr because she knows it's supposed to help pain

Nimona had some scarring when she first came back from the dead. Even though she has accelerated healing, she had to regenerate a ton from the impact, and while the phoenix form made it easier, it was still a lot.

When vaguely humanoid, nimona will shift their appearance slightly to match the gender vibe at the time, but will usually keep their hair roughly the same style (though, will sometimes trade it out for a different color, such as blue or purple, but they always return to the pink eventually)

Everyone in the trio has very bad habits and refuses to acknowledge them. They will yell at each other for bad habits but will say theirs aren't as bad or deny their bad habits. They are terrible hypocrites about it. It becomes a big game of calling out everyone's self depreciating habits and denying them when they're being called out.

Sometimes, when they're out, Nimona will decide to start a scandal and shift into the "demon baby" and pretend to be Bal's actual child (like during the science fair scene in the book) and fuck with the press because Bal does not have a child. But here is this random kid who very much looks like his child and is claiming to be his child? Oh it's Nimona. She thinks it's funny and enjoys reading the false news articles

[little-cereal-draws]

Troy Quane and Nick Bruno on Nimona's character

I was able to attend a Q and A with Troy Quane and Nick Bruno, the directors of Nimona, yesterday and here are some of their comments on Nimona herself. I tried to transcribe as much of it as I could but most of it is paraphrased.

Troy started by saying, "This character puts out a big tough exterior but it's all a wall around herself. On the inside, it's this soft 'I want to be hugged' interior." Because of this, she's able to be really "murderousy-- Is that a word? It is now" and "talk a big game." This gave the outward presentation of her character but despite this, to determine the core of her actions, they were asking themselves, how would you feel after 1000 years of hate?

They said that she likes to "poke back" at people; see how far she can go before they leave her. She certainly does this a lot with Ballister in the film. But the thing is that if she wanted to, she "can easily make people like her." She can take on "the ideal form of the person she’s talking to or have lots of charisma but she wants people to like her for who she is."

Then in terms of her actual shifting itself, her "shapes are always driven by how she's feeling in that moment." At first, they had it set up so it was almost like she was a normal girl with "a layer of magic" over her, but they realized that wasn't working. It needed to be driven by internal feelings. Even how she shifts is related to her feelings. If she's happy or excited it's going to be this quick upwards motion but if she's sad, it's going to be a heavy drop down. Troy said that the one form he wishes they got to use but unfortunately didn't have the budget for was a "murderous octopus with eight arms of pink fury." He said he would "cry himself to sleep" thinking about how cool it would be if they had the money for it. Nick added that a giant octopus would've been awesome because "imagine how many heads you could squeeze off at once. It would be a great party trick."

Part one part three

[hecateisalesbian]

Gonna be honest: a lot of these questions feel a little too personal to me; as in I know I'd be fine with getting asked most of these, but I feel like asking someone else that I don't really know these questions isn't a good idea. so yeah feel free to abstain from answering any of these lol

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself?

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends?

13: what’s something that made you smile today?

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is!

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair?

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up.

20: what’s your favorite eye color?

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations?

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks.

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends.

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it?

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now?

38: tell us about your pet peeves!

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of.

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe?

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today?

50: what’s an odd thing you collect?

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far?

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point?

56: what are some things you find endearing in people?

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics?

59: what’s your favorite myth?

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received?

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel?

70: have you ever used a ouija board?

75: tell us about your pets!

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t?

77: pink or yellow lemonade?

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub?

83: what’s some of your favorite album art?

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot?

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them.

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why?

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself?

Uh yeah. I love music so naturally I’ll do that. Also just jammin out to an air guitar/drums sometimes

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends?

🤷🏼‍♀️ I used to have one with my ex best friend but yknow

13: what’s something that made you smile today?

My dogggggggggg 💜

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is!

I actually have my own space fact/theory. Idk if it’s weird but yknow screw you. I heard about this theory that since black holes exist and suck everything in, that white holes also exist and just spew random crap out. My theory is that somehow these holes can get connected and spawn very very far away from eachother and every so often a white hole will form outside the universe and the spewed stuff creates a new universe and that’s how multiverses are created :)

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair? Purple, though Gwen and Nimona got me feelin a little 🩷

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up.

Uhhhh. I made an edit of my friend performing mama Mia

20: what’s your favorite eye color?

green 💚

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations?

scroll tumblr and hope moots are on. Also do some art

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks.

this is a weird question but I’m all down. I like socks. But if they are too tight on the elastic band then they are BANISHED to the farthest PITS of HELL where most American Presidents are located. Weird Socks must be protected and should take over the world. I wanna see silly goose socks and dragon socks. More of that. Yes I sleep with socks. My room is already cold I don’t want me feet to be either when I put one leg out on top of the covers cuz somehow I’m still hot? No I never confine myself to just white socks, tho I do have a bunch.

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends.

Me and My Best friend were having a sleepover when I was visiting in state and it started snowing and (since I haven’t seen snow in like two years) we went outside and just started playing in the snow

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it?

you say stuffed animal like I only have one 😼my favorites though is this stuffed bee/bear I got at this place called The Brown Palace for one of my birthdays, and the second one was a stuffed animal that my Nana got from the Zoo. I named it cheetah. It is uh. Not. A cheetah.

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now?

Daniel Pemberton. This person has created the best music ever. Which is why I’m listening to the ATSV album rn lol

38: tell us about your pet peeves!

uh. I hate when sand gets like. Anywhere above my feet. I don’t like sandy floors. Terfs. When people don’t reblog art

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of.

Uh. Hey are from tennesee, cuz your the only ten-I-see 😼😽😳😤😩😏

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe?

I would say tomato’s (hi Tommy) but then we wouldn’t have marinara n stuff. So probs brussel sprouts. Those guys are NASTY

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today? Spiders. Yes

50: what’s an odd thing you collect?

Tabs, pins, stuffed animals, really random stuff from friends or whatever. I got cool rocks, a small miniature duck, like 3 babies, a scrunchie, a braided little uhhh. The thing that you pull to tighten a hood or waistband? Idk. I just collect things

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far?

Idk.

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point?

RAN AWAY FROM HOME TO LIVE IN A CAVE. Jk lol. Probably shove a whole piece of pizza in my mouth in one bite bc someone said I couldn’t. (Btw if anyone gets that reference please date me)

56: what are some things you find endearing in people?

🤷🏼‍♀️ their little habits or quirks. Their laughs. Basic cheesy romance things

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics?

MAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

*inhale* OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I DONT WANNA DIE

SOMETIMES I WISH ID NEVER BEEN BORN AT ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

59: what’s your favorite myth?

Greek mythology. Also witches

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received?

it’s like you think I have a good enough memory to remember this stuff.

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel?

love ‘em. More clouds please. The sun is overrated

70: have you ever used a ouija board?

Yeah

75: tell us about your pets!

Oh boy if I started I would never stop. But my main pet is my ADORABKS LITTLE DOG EKWJQKQJWJSHAJAJNA (I say little but she’s like medium size)

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t?

Sleeping

77: pink or yellow lemonade?

the way this is worded makes me uncomfortable but idrc

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub?

there’s clubs-?

83: what’s some of your favorite album art?

Lemon Demon Spirit Phone, Lovejoy Wake Up and it’s Over

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot?

I don’t own a Computer

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them.

Wiiwwoekdjswkwksoaowj idk. Ordinary by Joriah Kwamé.

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why?

5 years into the past, assuming I keep all knowledge. I would wanna change a few things

[sabindark]

shapeshifter Ballister au

ballister as Nimona

[madlad-sadgal]

So I was thinking about Nimona and their shapeshifting and I was just wondering, why a teenager? Why (in certain instances) a child? I came up with a little something.

Nimona Spoilers as always

When Nimona shapeshifts into a human, I think, depending on the form/age, it may be a representation of how they feel on the inside. We see Child Nimona on a few instances: When they first meet Gloreth, when they saved the kid and when they're back to the well at the end of the movie. The rest of the time, they're a teenager, and not once do we see them as an adult. You know how some people say that when you get over a moment in your life, whether it be something traumatic that you've finally come to terms with or something else, you become a whole new person? Well, what if that applied to Nimona?

Their child form could mean that they're still trying to latch onto the old Gloreth, the Gloreth that didn't care if they were different, or maybe it means that they're still not over the betrayal. That could be why they go back to their child form right before the shadow one when they're back at the well at the end. Although I'm not sure about the moment when they save the kid, it could be because they remember that the village accepted them when they only showed that form? Not too sure, but I'll think about it later.

As for their teenage form, it could mean that they have moved past people not accepting her (it's in this form that they're seen becoming animals the most and always go back to that one by default, causing a direct association of Weird teenager with pink hair = Shapeshifter), but although they've accepted that not everyone will accept them for who they are, they're not over how they are treated because of it, the betrayal they suffered from, or even both.

Now, imagine that at the end of the movie, when Nimona comes back, it's in a whole new form: an adult one. They know not everyone will accept them and doesn't care and are just themselves, but they're also over the betrayal. They know that some people will care about them only to stick with the majority/the people with power when put in dire situations (what Gloreth kinda did) and others will stick with them and recognize that they've hurt them and will do anything to be friends with them again (like Ballister did). And they're over all of that, so although they can still shift into a teenager and a child, their new "default form" is an adult now.

This is just what I like to see it as, because I think this can make room for more meaning in certain possible things. Some people make off hand comments about their shapeshifting or they get a few weird looks when doing it in certain places? Teenager form. They know not everyone will accept them, but they really don't like the treatment people give them because of it. Nimona has a really bad nightmare of Gloreth resenting them and calling them a monster? Child form. They feel scared, vulnerable, and it's about a really bad moment in their life.

Basically, I see it as although they control if they shift into a human or not, the age they shift into is controlled more by how they feel faced with a situation, and each one can show off a certain feeling. This can also give some fics of the boys slowly figuring this out and paying attention to the "age" they shift into when they're a human.

[little-cereal-draws]

Nimona and mental health headcanons

Obviously Nimona struggles with her mental health. 1000 years of living as a ghost and hearing constant hate about you will do that. I think her shifting responds to how she's feeling and not always in the best ways

I think she'll involuntarily get stuck in her little girl form when she's feeling too overwhelmed. She feels so small and helpless, so her appearance is going to reflect that. It only happens after the buildup of stress and bad feelings finally get the better of her. She tries to not let it get to that point but it doesn't always work. She's shifted after nightmares, one too many monster movies, and when they found quite a few very disturbing documents in the Director's office after the wall came down. The worst time was when they made the mistake of walking by a pro-Institute rally after running some errands. Bal was disgusted and was trying to shoulder his way past them and didn't even notice Nimona was missing. He got a whole block away before he realized she wasn't behind him. He looked around and then started retracing his steps with growing fear, calling her name, and frantically looking for any hiding pink animals. He was growing frantic when he finally glanced down an alley while running past it and caught a glimpse of pink hair. She was crying behind a pile of garbage and flinched when he came up to her. He tried to talk to her but she just shook her head and sobbed harder. She clung so tightly to his shirt as he caried her home. The best thing to do in these situations is to get her away from the problem. From there sometimes she'll want to talk, sometimes she'll want to be left alone, but she'll always feel better eventually. Bal hates when this happens because it means she was already feeling bad before she got tipped over the edge and he didn't know

She'll also turn into small animals when it's more of a sudden onset. Most of the time this is caused by sadness, regret, and guilt. She'll turn into a mouse or a fly or anything else small and unnoticeable. Thankfully, this has only happened in the house so far and Balister fears the day it happens elsewhere. She hides for hours in a small hole or corner, something way too small for Ballister to notice, and feels bad. A few times, she saw him walk by calling for her with increasing worry, but she never moves or makes a sound. She's invisible and she wants to stay that way. She'll come back when she feels better

When she's really angry, she gets infinitely stronger even if she doesn't look like it. This is caused by watching too many bigoted people on the news, frustration at how slowly the kingdom is changing, and Ballister making a few innocent remarks that open the floodgates for a lot of misdirected anger. Her appearance might not change but it's obvious her powers are being used because she's put her cup down on the table too hard and split the table in half, slammed a door so hard it came off its hinges, and crushed the handle to the fridge. If her appearance does change, it can be pretty scary. Her fangs get bigger, sometimes her eyes glow, she'll get physically bigger or have her arm muscles expand. It's easy to tell when she's angry though, she has no problem with letting people know. She'll yell, start arguments, and do and say every offensive thing she can think of. Bal has learned to just give her space to cool off when she gets like this; usually it's only a couple hours but sometimes a few days. He made the mistake of trying to comfort her a few times at the beginning of their relationship but that just made her angrier. He tried to push it down and trust her but there were a few moments where he was scared for his life. He always chides himself and tries to correct his thinking after all she does is scream at him and storm out but she was very intimidating

(tw self harm and suicide) It's canon that Nimona struggles with suicidal thinking but I think she would struggle with self harm too. It's only been very rarely that she'll make the conscious decision to hurt herself and it hasn't happened since the wall came down. What happens now is more of an accident/subconscious thing. She'll be lost in thought, replaying bad memories, completely drowning in thought. Sitting in alone in her room, half gasping for air, absently scratching at her arm. Slowly, as her thoughts get darker and loop into each other, her nails get longer and longer. Soon she's got claws and her arm is burning. She looks down and the bright red blood shocks her out of her thought loop. She shifts it away and it's like nothing happened but she still goes and splashes some cold water on her face and arm. If Ballister ever found out (I'm on the fence abt if he would), he would be so concerned and watching everything she does with an eagle eye. Eventually he would calm down a bit but after every time she does one of the other things in this post, he would be watching her out of the corner of his eye. She might say she's ok now and be able to shift any harm away so he wouldn't know but he's still going to worry