Narratives and Labels in Nimona

I'd say you missed the mark on this, but in fairness, you missed missing

A thing I think people miss about Ballister is that he grew up in the Institute for most of his childhood after an early childhood spent foraging and homeless on the streets (ND has also said that Book!Ballister’s father was a neglectful alcoholic who sold him to the Institute for drinking money), and during that time period of homelessness and deprivation Ballister had to lay low and hide from the authorities because he couldn’t shapeshift his way out of trouble the way his 1000-year-old daughter always could.

"Capitalism! Where everyone wins but you!" Is the perfect quote the "Disney buying everyone out" situation.

Sure, it makes a crap ton of money, but that drive for money is what almost killed this movie. Happy that it didn't get cast into the void along with who knows how many other wonderful movies.

I LOVED NIMONA AND THIS WAS SO GOOD

I thought tangled handled varian well. And he was punished. And , whyever later is weird, good but weird.

And hasnt book nemona a clear monstrous side. Which is there due abuse of her, but still. She still saw that as part of her.

i need to rewatch this

I was wondering why Nimona made me feel so nostalgic, of course it was made by the same person who worked on She-ra and Tangled the series, it all makes sense now...

01. Have you read “The Priory of the Orange Tree” by Samantha Shannon? I haven’t read it, but I’ve heard it covers similar topics, themes, and ideas to “Nimona” in how it portrays its mythic heroes.

02. If you’ve read “The Locked Tomb” books, do you feel that Tamsyn Muir handles Gideon and Harrow’s relationship better than Nate Stevenson handled Catra and Adora’s relationship in SPOP?

Gods I love your content....I know when you post I've a tendency to fanboy it up a bit, but seriously, your use of psychological and sociological premises with a dash of philosophy is just brilliant. I can't say enough good things.

I sadly didn't have the exposure to the source material until AFTER I saw the animated story so I didn't have that to critique, and it's tough to take that prejudice out of the mix but you make great points. I found Nimona having some similarities to the Grendel character in the John Gardner novel, at least in the acceptance that they were a "monster" but as time goes on they see that the people that regard them as such aren't much better with their moral failings of what their ideas of honour and what makes a hero represent. I see and agree with some of the storylines that would have been fun to explore. I think the one storyline I'd have liked to be explored is how much interaction Nimona had with the citizens and the city over their thousand years. Were they showing up as a constant threat over the ages, menacing the city and its inhabitants constantly, or were they a pantomime villain used to justify "The Institute" and it's control over the city? If the latter was true, how much of the constant "kill monster" propaganda was just The Institute/The Director gaslighting the public to maintain control? In that way I found The Director far more insidious and careless with the lives of the people of the city. Even without touching upon that more, The Director is far and away the most irredeemable character. Literally everyone else had a sympathetic element and were given a bit of redemption, even Todd. The Director isn't conflicted or morally ambiguous, she’s just closed off by her own fear. She's unapologetically bigoted, tyrannical, and manipulative so much so that she's willing to kill her Queen, the citizens she's supposedly trying to save and decimate the city rather than allow a “monster,” whether that be Nimona or Balister inside the walls she's put up.

I absolutely adored so much about this film. The story telling was tight and had good focus, it moved things along even while doing what it could to flesh out the world building. Visually I thought the cel-shaded animation had a great "Tears of the Kingdom" vibe and I couldn't agree more with how incredible the music (Metric's "Gold, Guns , Girls?!?" Chefs kiss).

Thank you again for your content, I literally can't wait for you to put things out. And I will be signing up as a patreon.

Absolutely loved this movie, thanks for covering it

Excellent work as always :)

I love your videos 🥰🌹♥️

As always, an absolute banger and a great way to end my night

Nimona rubbed me the wrong way, though it’s narrative hints at systemic oppression it endorses authority, the Queen and star pupil are the ones that see Balidtar as a knight when everyone (including the common people don’t) This implies people in authority people and successful people are the ones responsible for creating social change to educate the masses on their biases.

I don’t agree with that, and I feel like this movie tries to do the same thing with Trans and Non binary representation and issues in an equally un tactful manner.

Nimona is unrightfully discriminated against in movies (and the comic but I haven’t read it) so the movie like “don’t be transphobic”. It acts as the authority telling us what to do but it doesn’t answer why. Why does Nimona feel the way they do? Why is it hard for people to accept them the way they are. The comic answers these questions beautifully with “I don’t know, but this is who Nimona is and you care about them regardless”. The movie if anything is afraid of tackling gender queerness if anything, saying transphobia is bad means nothing to me, It’s like saying racism is bad… yeah obviously. What a queer story really tackles is how people deal with their own queerness or coming to terms with the queerness of others. This movie pretends to do those things but it’s all surface level. Balastar accepts that Nimona can transform and it’s a part of who they are but it’s not coming from understanding Nimona as a person but stoping being discriminatory, Nimona deal with being gender queer by being hunted down by the government for being queer… these are not internal conflicts or interpersonal conflicts. If the conflict is simply resolved with “I won’t bring it up when Nimona shapeshifts” or “the government decides to stop hunting me” then what is said isn’t about character but the world we are in. That we shouldn’t persecute queer people and respect their pronouns which I agree with - but we don’t live in that world and helping people understand why Balastar struggles to accept Nimonas transformations and then how he comes to terms with it would help people actually understand the queer people in their life and hopefully build a better relationship with them built on understanding. Instead this movie tells us how to act “just accept that Nimona is a shapeshifter, stop being transphobic bro” and “you common people are the reason why governments go after oppressed people and you need listen the good elite (the people who make the movies) and what we say in our art and words. Why understand the reason if people can just listen to the right thing to do. They have a good message but the film fails to convey that message to a general audience due to their appeal to authority. If people in power make change then why make a movie convincing people of why that change is good when we can just tell them what is good and they should just listen and follow.

I have no real reason to believe this but i genuinely think it’s just executive meddling that makes this “appeal to authority” narrative in the movie everything else about the movie is a rejection of authority from it’s setting to its characters but the story it’s self endorses authority contextually and thematically.

I’m glad that there is some Non binary representation out there on the big screen now but I think that there are so many better stories out there “land of the lustrous” is a good one

great video