#nimona theory

[roosterlasagne]

In this scene, where Ballister puts his hand, his robotic hand, on Nimona to stop her from committing suicide, whether intentional or not, has a lot of meaning to me. Because Ballister didn't choose to have this arm. He got his hand chopped off against his will. And he only built the robotic one out of necessity. Nimona didn't choose to be able to shape shift. And the big 'monster' form she took was, for her, out of necessity.

And the fact that Ballister stopped her 'monster' form with his robotic arm while saying "I see you" and "you're not alone" is so poetic and symbolic. He's saying "I understand". And even though he doesn't understand fully, he can empathise with Nimona, like nobody ever has.

Although Ballister isn't ostracised because of his lack of a biological hand like Nimona is ostracised for her shape shifting. The arm represents WHY he is ostracised, the event in which he lost his original one. It represents his current state, he has the robotic arm and he is hated by society.

Throughout the whole movie, Nimona is already fully set in the fact that she isn't bad and it is society hating her that is the problem. While Ballister learns from Nimona to question society for rejecting him. And at the climax of the movie, this situation is flipped, with Nimona doubting her self worth, while Ballister says "I understand, and I stand with you while society hates us".

This is the message I take the most out of this movie. It is two people, rejected by society, learning to empathise with each other. One (Nimona) being able to faster than the other. While Ballister, with objectively the smaller problem (but still just as valid) learning to understand Nimona's bigger and longer lasting struggle with society.

I believe this is very applicable to our society. Because no matter how bad our struggles are, there is likely somebody who will be hated by society even more, to the point even we are wary of them. It is important to have support for ourselves, but it is just as important to be the support for somebody else, even if at first we have prejudices that we have to unlearn.

[j3ankimorit4]

I have a theory that Ballister FAINTED in this scene.

To start with, Tod and his gang gave him a damn beating.

Afterwards, he still had enough strength to limp into the city. Afterwards feeling terribly bad to see what happened (tock tock more traumas and lack of confidence entering)

Then he had the balls to climb a damn tower/monument of at least 5 meters to simply call Nimona (I REPEAT THE MAN WAS INJURED)

and after reconciling with her friend/daughter/the only reliable person in her painful life up to that point. She “dies” in front of his eyes

And finally we add that the shock of feeling guilty and feeling that absolutely everything is his fault was so great that he literally wants to kill himself so as not to have to fight with his dramatic life anymore. Yeap

THIS BEAUTIFUL AND TENDER MAN NEEDS THERAPY ToT

[midnights-dragon]

I know it’s probably a coincidence but… thinking about the possible implications of a broken alcohol bottle in Ballister’s hideout (and right next to where he was working)

I mean… we don’t even know how long he was there for. How long he was there, alone, suffering. Called monster and murderer. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he turned to drinking to deal with it.

It would definitely be interesting to see any after effects of that though, like if he struggled with drinking even after everything was resolved and it messed with his relationship with Ambrosius… hm

[little-cereal-draws]

I think Nimona can control electricity (to some extent)

Three times lightning/thunder cracks as she talks during the movie. It doesn't seem to be raining before or after these events and there's no more lighting except for on these important lines. The first time it happens is when she tells Ballister he's been unconscious for fifteen years, the second is when she yells "Don't call me a monster!" after he remembers the rhino, and the third is during the dance montage when she jump-scares him at the door as the Director. The third time we can clearly see outside and it's not raining. But what if that's just a really crazy coincidence that lightning strikes every time she, and only she, wants to emphasize something or push a joke? That doesn't mean she has electricity powers.

Well, before the climax, during the fight she has with Ballister over the scroll, she changes the color of the TV. The static on the TV is blue but as the conversation gets more intense, it changes to pink. At first it's just little flashes but once he's like "You know what you are" it gets bigger. As she gets angrier, her form gets bigger but also the static on the TV turns pink. Once he pulls his sword out, the whole screen is pink. As soon as Todd flashes the floodlight into the tower, she changes back to her normal human form and the TV goes back to blue.

I don't know if she's able to control it consciously or if it's more of a reaction to her emotions, but I think it's a bit of both. Idk how far she can take this (like could she control Bal's arm?) or if this power is somehow related to her shapeshifting that she just doesn't use as often, but does it really matter? She's Nimona and it's just smth she can do

[lucydddreamssss]

random Nimona thing I noticed

So, when Nimona says this:

“Shall we pillage a village, lay low until no one remembers us, the rise like a mighty phoenix!” (I can’t remember it word for word, chill-)

I was up at 1:00 AM thinking about this and decoded it! “Shal we Pillage a village?” Talking about a thousand years ago, a fire was caused and everyone blamed her

“lay low until they don’t remember us” no one remembers what Gloreths monster looks like

“and rise like a mighty phoenix” Rose against the Director as a pheonix

“But remember, that’s just a theory. A NIMONA THEORYYYY!!!”

[siaisyomum]

Guys, what if Nimona comes back with long hair and ask Ambrosius to cut it and they become hair twins

[fluentisonus]

also this bit slaps

[all-made-of-stardust]

okay I know this has probably been brought up but @thalia-amongst-the-thorns made me cry last night with this realization:

what if the big epic battle with Gloreth against the “monster”, the one that’s been told for 1000 years, the one that depicts Gloreth as a triumphant hero vanquishing the massive beast that is actively terrorizing, destroying, MURDERING the kingdom!!!!!!!

what if that’s all just a story.  a myth, twisted over 1000 years from the actual truth.

the truth that a little girl held a wooden sword to her best friend’s (love interest’s? i appreciate either interpretation) heart, stated “Go back to the shadows from whence you came”, and the small scared child....did so.  Heartbroken, and not wanting to hurt anymore people.  Least of all Gloreth.

what if that was all that happened?  what if Nimona left of her own accord?  what if the legend, the mythos, the triumphant glorious battle that the Director, the Institute, the Kingdom holds as factual and true.

what if it was all just a story.  and all that happened was Gloreth picking up a harmless weapon and banishing a harmless Nimona from her life?

[luciano-nightstar]

Random theory because my mind is random.

What if Ballister was secretly the biological son of Queen Valerin? I am aware that some say that the queen might be infertile because she has no heirs, but what if Ballister was her rainbow child?

Imagine this: - After years of trying, the queen miraculously managed to get pregnant. One the day of the birth, someone took the baby and just lied to the queen that she had a miscarriage. - Or a Rapunzel version where the queen was aware that her baby was kidnapped and has been trying finding him for years. Most thought that the potential prince was forever gone or dead and Valerin was also starting to think of that. And another scenario but in a what if the queen survives: One day Val and Ballister were just having a regular conversation when she noticed a birthmark on Ballister and she recognizes it as like some royal birthmark or the same birthmark as hers.

[fandomfaeofveryfewf4cks]

Things I noticed the nth time watching Nimona:

Knight armour can get sliced through like nobody's business (Balister's arm), but can take a laser hit without serious, body-altering consequences (Director hitting Ambrosius with a laser made from the same one that apparently has the power to wipe out half the realm, or kill an Immortal being who doesn't feel severe pain from an arrow wound)?

...is this because Ambrosius' armour was made to be more protective than Balister's?

"She manipulated BOTH of us." Ambrosius says this about Nimona, who he had very few interactions with aside from her very blatantly fucking shit up for the institute. How did she manipulate HIM?

I guess it probably makes sense when you consider he was going to arrest the director, implying that he believed Bal AND Nimona, but I dunno. The little rat in my head started running on its brain-powering wheel at all the possible fanfic plots this could lead to.

Nimona as Ambrosius grabbed the Gloreth statue when they fell to the ground.

On the one hand, this could just be actor!Nimona putting dramatic emphasis on how even in death, the leaders of the realm will cling to their hopes and beliefs, or the golden boy finally getting to join his ancestor.

On the other hand, we could make it deliciously angsty (yum yum) and say it is Nimona's personal desire to grab the statue of Gloreth for reasons such as: taking down the monster-killer image of her former friend out of anger and sadness because she never wanted that image to be so true in representing one of the few people who ever cared about her even briefly;

OR, While trying to think about how she would act if she were actually dying, she reaches for the closest thing to a friend that she has, but this is her staging a false death, as that particular friendship was false so this is just fitting, isn't it?;

OR, They wanted it to spread a message that with the fall of the director, would come the fall of the corrupt system they live in, as well as the fall of this narrow-minded view of both Nimona and Gloreth's story as well as Gloreth and Nimona themselves.

Nimona freaking out about the arrow in their leg in the comic vs Nimona treating it like a little scrape not to be worried about in the movie.

This is really interesting to me. In the comic, it's played up for humor like Nimona is almost overreacting, then having Bal take care of her because he does care about her. This shows it as a bit silly, but so very meaningful.

Then you have the movie where Balister is freaking out and it's kind of funny because clearly Nimona is relatively fine about it, so he doesn't really need to make a big deal out of it. Then he helps her and is still very careful about it like with anyone else's arrow wound, and asks her questions so he can better understand them. Again so very important.

I love both versions of these scenes, I just am so curious about why they made such a drastic change.

I love this movie so freaking much. (I knew that already, but it bears saying for the thousandth time. It's just so fucking good.)

For this last one:

TW: mention of police brutality (discussed as a theme in the movie, nothing specific outside of the Nimona movie)

"He's got a weapon." It's not a weapon. It's a phone. But Todd (and who knows how many of the other knights) didn't choose to see it as anything other than what the director told him it was, and destroyed it as he was trained to do. This screams messaging about the stupid, dangerous, and harmful actions of too many police officers who don't check the situation for themselves before acting on "information" they gathered from insufficient data and/or unreliable sources, and combine that with profiling to make decisions that so often end up being harmful and even fatal to others.

[bidillion]

Theory: As the EVIL ELITIST Director, she actually comes from very humble beginnings. She's projecting her self-hatred towards Ball because he was CHOSEN by the Queen Majesty herself, while the Director had to claw her way up with blood, sweat, and lies. Even though she seems like she respects the royal bloodline thing, she believes that true power isn't given but taken from the ones that are foolish enough to "let their guard down" (she says that at her outrage to the soldiers while Ball and Nimona hug). She's cunning, patient, and deceiving.

I'd love to see more of her, ND! Maybe like flashback scenes when we go through the corruption story of the institution?

[deerteetharepretty]

Trans Ballister Headcannon and intersectional queer theory thoughts about the movie Nimona

I absolutely ADORE the Nimona movie but as an Autigender, genderqueer, who is specifically somewhere encapsulating genderfluid and trans masc nonbinary lesbian, this movie made me sob. 

I related to Nimona so SO MUCH. But due to my love of studying the intersectionallitys of queer struggles as my special interest, i saw a specific headcannon among fans that has my entire heart. 

I dont wanna put down anyone elses, i love them all, but i wanted to take a moment to talk about the beautiful lense you could look at queer intersectionality with the Trans Man Ballistar Boldheart headcannon. 

I want to be clear i do not mean this in a weird way at all!

I think theres a lot to discuss with how we could view there kingdom as being accepting of gay people (at least a bit more progressed past where we are where there may not be hate crimes or any problems but some people are still terrible homophobs far and few) 

But through the eyes of our child Nimona we see that the society only accepts queer folks who are “the good ones” aka constantly repressing little parts of their true self to appease others. The accept gay people and say they are willing to try with binary trans people but the bigotry and outward threat of violence to anything different has kept people in the coset, hiding beautiful, normal, facets of queer joy to be seen as acceptable to the kingdom.

That's why i am so inspired by the headcannon of Ballistar, maybe not openly trans but fully living as himself accepted by doctors and the queen fully at a young age, striving for his best life, with a loving and understanding boyfriend who truly sees him.

Because its him realizing Nimona isnt the enemy, they are just a transgender/shapeshifter child. Much like he doesnt understand shapeshifters at first, he doesn't understand their gender, but you start to see him see Nimona for who she is and love her so much.  This headcannon also makes me think so much about the scene on the sword of Gloreth and the ones right before. After he hurt her Ballistar immediately regretted it. The look in his eyes and the way his hand went weak in shock when he realized he almost threatened her. He sees the fear on her face and it strikes me so much in the headcannon of them both being trans because he realized he was threatening a child, and a queer one like himself who clearly wanted to just be accepted and not hurt. I also want to talk for a moment about the ending with Ambrosius. I may need to make a part two because theres a lot to unpack with ambrosius being a cis gay man who is very supportive of the trans community and having a closeted trans partner. i feel like when the dust settles he would feel so horrible for how much he rejected Nimona in the first place.  GOD I WANNA WRITE A FANFIC ABOUT THEM WORKING TO HEAL THROUGH THIS SHIT 

[tttrashmouth]

something i think nimona did really well was that they didn’t make nimonas oppression like,,,,, “her fault” i guess is a way to put it. i feel like far too often, whether the plot is an allegory for race, gender, or disability, it goes something like “x person is oppressed and treated like shit” and then you find out it’s because they turn into an uncontrollable monster that kills or hurts people and it’s like, why is that the metaphor we’re going with here. like with jk rowling and werewolf’s representing AIDS somehow. like, what the fuck do you mean by that?

but what nimona does well is they make nimona a shape shifter (trans person approved, i would love that) and then it’s not her problem that she’s different. just because she technically might fit the definition of monster doesn’t make her one and then we find out that the things that made her “bad” in the first place weren’t even real. it was a lie made to demonize nimona. she’s never the bad guy, she doesn’t want to hurt people, she’s just nimona and happens to be a shape shifter. and that’s how you do it in my opinion. you can’t make the oppressed the aggressor in these situations, because they literally never are. or at least should never be the original cause of it all, because in real life they really aren’t. they are the original victims of bigotry and their stories get rewritten so they look like the aggressors.

[lucydddreamssss]

guys, when watching Nimona again, I noticed something….

in the scene after Nimona and Ballister breaks out of jail, you can hear the knights muttering bad stuff about Ambrosius and how they don’t like him.

And then when Todd blames him for letting Ballister escape, everyone else AGREES! I don’t think they like him 🤷🤷

[siaisyomum]

Their backstorys???

OkAy, so I have a question:

What ACTUALLY happened to everyone's parents in the movie Nimona??? Like, we know basically... NOTHING about everyone's family!

Like, in the scene where it shows everyone as young children, they look ten-ish.

What happened before they were ten-ish?

Maybe the reason Todd acts like a brat is because of something that happened to him when he was younger. Maybe the reason why Ambrosius goofs off is because his parents weren't very nice, so he made sure everyone else felt happy. Maybe Ballisters parents thought that him becoming a knight was best for him. I mean, bro came with a freaking scar on his eye. What about the Squire? He's probably got some lore in him. As well as the Director (speaking of the Director, what's her real name??) What happened to the king? (My friend said he died because there's a picture of him or smth 💀)

WHAT ABOUT NIMONAS FAMILY, HUH??

She had to be creating by someone- or something. She was what? "Created from the ashes"? But what MADE those ashes CREATE her? It's not like ashes or magic and anything like that can just form itself into a creature. Something (or someone) had to help it!

BuT tHaT's JuSt A tHeOrY

My god, this is, like, the longest thing I've typed on Tumblr lmao..

Anyways, I kinda wanna hear y'alls theorys, I may make a story off of this theory because I'm bored 😇

[eaglefangz]

also i love that he is Genuinely going to use a plunger as a sword. against guys with actual swords. ugh. my sweet babygirl.