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#nimona is just so important to me and the world
mayhasopinions · 10 months
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this line fucking hit. but it's true.
queer people for years, centuries, have been oppressed for being their most authentic selves, by the people who call themselves heroes and us the monsters, even nowadays with the most recent law for allowing discrimination against queer people in America. They call themselves the good guys, the saviours, the ones completely in the right and justified for hating against people just trying to live their lives. And apparently we're supposed to be the bad guys in this story.
i'm so glad that this movie came out when it did, the world really needs it.
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ech-e-sketch · 5 months
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NIMONA ‼️‼️
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crazypossumman · 9 months
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There is something incredibly charming about the bitchy-older-man-who-hates-kids-develops-a-meaningful-healthy-relationship-with-a-parentless-child trope. Especially in a world where nearly every movie/novel/whatever has to have a romantic plot/subplot when there are a plethora of other options. It’s a trope that carries great weights of love, caring, and understanding without being romantic; it expresses a different kind of love that is equally important in this world. To open your heart to a child and become the friend or parental figure they not only need but deserve is such a beautiful thing, and to watch a child help an adult learn something new about the world and the way they see it is a constant reminder that people will always have room to grow and change. To see an adult learn as much from a child as the child learns from them, sometimes even more so, is the reminder that so many people need that wisdom often comes in the form of a fresh perspective.
#anyway i finally watched nimona#and what a cute little movie#yes im aware that shes a 1000+ year old creature of some sort and not exactly a child but you get my point#i'd assume that the reason she takes a younger form instinctually is that she is close to her species' equivalent in developmental age#explaining why she has a younger child form 1000ish years ago and a more teenager-esc form in the present#meaning her kind likely just ages much much slower#unless the child form is meant to be more “accepted” as children are seen as nonthreatening and that was a time she wanted to belong#and the teenage form is meant to scare others away because teenagers often don't fit in or conform to societal norms#explaining the punk aesthetic as well#but that's just my interpretation#anyway it reminds me of the no-we-are-not-getting-a-cat dad memes where they fall in love with the cat#it’s hilarious and beautiful#also by GODS did that movie do the gays justice#queer characters#and never once was sexuality mentioned#it just existed without being a big deal#fantasy worlds with no homophobia are the best fantasy worlds#and it touched on some very heavy topics like depression and suicidal ideation in a way that was serious and thoughtful#but easy for younger audiences to understand#which is so so important in a world where we want younger people to feel understood#and to feel as if they can actually talk to others about their problems#roan rambles#random#nimona#nimona movie#i have a lot of opinions and they don't all fit in the tags whoops lol
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undedkat · 10 months
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I don’t think I’m ready to watch the ending of Nimona as a movie. I just reread the comic and the ending always fucks me up.
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please tell me this manga/comic/show exists i do not wanna have to make it
okok I've posted about this before but I'm watching animation content on youtube again while getting work done and by GOD I WANNA TALK ABOUT THIS AGAIN
There's a specific concept I want to consume as content/art so badly but it came to me in a stupid dream. BUT. Sometimes, a dream means I DID see a hint of it somewhere and my brain accidentally plagiarized it which provides me with the teensiest sliver of hope that exists already and I don't have to work on it
It's a kind of a reverse isekai, right? But instead of an instant portal, it's time passing. And what I mean by that is that it's a Sun Wukong story, but the branch off is that after the main events of Journey to the West he gets either water temple'd or trapped in magic sleep again, not for a few hundred years but a few THOUSAND.
He wakes up to an incredibly far-flung China that remembers his myth and only his myth.
The art style that operated in this dream was sort of. Textured but 3D? Think nimona's buttery lighting but instead of emphasis on light and shapes to operate with the stained glass and solarpunk-medieval style the models are textured in a way that just invokes traditional brushwork and colour bleed even in a more cyberpunkish setting. Think like. Whenever there's a night scene the astigmatism glow of lamplight bleeds a little, like ink feathering on paper.
It's a little bit of a Steve Rogers treatment in a way, the world has moved past him, but also completely mythologized and capitalized on that mythology. Rather than treat that man out of time narrative as an aspect of backstory, it's the MAIN character narrative, because this ISN'T a world that needs him. This world is doing pretty okay, actually.
This a story about him.
Not about his feats or how cool his powers are or the 8 gajillion things the magic staff can do but just.
How ya doing, bud?
From the vaguely coherent notes that I could garner from my sleepily typed googledoc, it seems that I wanted this to be a love letter of sorts to the Asian diaspora experience? A specific sort of loneliness? Where the world you experience has a sort of disconnect in that it makes plain you belong there but you also don't, you never have, and there's no way to go "back" but going forward feels like groping blind through the muck. How much right to the past does he feel like he has? When it's been built into something he can't recognize and is clearly important to other people.
I want the pickup of the plot to gain him friends, family, maybe even a conflict or two but the stakes should never elevate vis a vis physical enemies to battle.
It'd be about 2/3 of this sort of narrative drawn story and the other 1/3 just hogwild worldbuilding and design
I've looked at a few other journey to the west adaptations but they mainly just use him as a funky lil action figure hero that's there to be cool as hell and save the day
99% likely this is just a thing my brain is made up and I'd need a several million budget and about 25 additional skills to start the ball rolling but hey, worth it to ask yall again
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cosmicbucket · 10 months
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hey hi. about nimona. yes it's 100% about being trans. but as a nonbinary autistic person? this movie was really touching in ways I didn't even realise were possible.
the entire train scene actually killed me.
"Can you please just be normal for a second? I just think it’d be ... easier if you look human."
"Easier for who?"
"For you. A lot of people aren’t as accepting as me."
then, when Ballister asks what shapeshifting feels like - if it hurts - the way Nimona responds hits very close to home on my experience with stimming.
"Honestly? I feel worse when I don’t do it. Like my insides are itchy. You know that second right before you sneeze? That’s close to it. Then I shapeshift, and I’m free."
And then. "What if you held it in?"
"... I just... sure wouldn’t be living."
not to mention in the original comic, Nimona's parents believe that she's something synonymous to a changeling - that she's something that replaced their "real child". this myth was likely born as an "explanation" for neurodivergent or developmentally disabled children. the townsfolk talk about her getting "better" in the comic. as if there's a cure for the way she is. which is something autistic people deal with all the fucking time.
to end on a more lighthearted note, "I'm not a girl. I'm a shark." was so real of Nimona. I'm so happy they kept that in from the comic, because it was real when I was younger and it's even more real to me now.
this story is a trans allegory loud and proud. I do not want to discredit that with this post. but this story also makes me, an autistic person, feel seen. and that's so fucking important in today's world.
I love this movie to pieces. Please go watch it, and remember to be kind. You will change someone's life for the better.
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kookygobbledygook · 2 months
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Some people have been saying this, but I don't think it's been said enough and I'm just going to add my voice to the mix.
Nimona's nomination is being framed as an example of "Look at what Disney missed out on!" and I get it. It's a nice, tasty schadenfreude situation and we all like to see The Mouse get taken down a peg.
But I think we need to be very clear; Disney did not miss out on anything because they were never going to take that sort of risk.
Disney was never going to release anything close to the Nimona we got. It would have been sanded down until anything obviously queer or controversial was as faint and unnoticeable as possible by the casual viewer. And then they would still be too scared of any potential backlash. So they would have given the film a limited release at theatres, with no advertising, or social media or support.
Like what happened with Strange World.
You remember Strange World, right?
No?
That's because no one does.
And I believe that was deliberate, because that way Disney can go "Weeellll... obviously we would LOVEto take more risks and have more inclusive stories but that's clearly not what the public wants!"
Look at the original concepts for Wish. The evil royal couple? The peter-panesque star boy that would have made the gen zers go feral the same way millenials went feral for Jack Frost? These could have been the best things about the movie, and even they were scrapped, and replaced with something more homogenised. And those ideas are nowhere near the level of the concepts and discussions Nimona brought to the table.
Disney can barely have explicit gay people. Nimona has a gay south Asian man in a relationship with an east Asian man. As a protagonist! But more than that, you think Disney could ever come up with a relationship as complicated and difficult as Boldheart and Goldenloin's? They would never have the guts to show one love interest cutting off the other's arm in a straight relationship. Let alone a gay one! And then for them to be on opposite sides of the conflict, shifting between feelings of betrayal, and questioning each other motives? That's some adult dark shit for a kids film.
Asha as a character was forced into the quirky girl role that Disney has already flogged to death with Anna and Rapunzel. You ever think they would allow a Disney princess to be as dark and violent and nuanced as Nimona? You ever picture the titial character of a Disney film AS the third act conflict, rampaging through a city in a self destructive rage? Nimona is anti authoritarian, vengeful, bloodthirsty, a pretty explicit trans allegory, and even, by the climax, openly suicidal. You KNOW that terrified Disney.
I had a thing about the Director here too but I was shocked by how long that got so I'll have to save her for a different post.
My point is the things that make Nimona art, that make Nimona a great story, that make the film important and Oscar worthy, are all things that Disney has become too chicken shit to produce. If Disney had released a film called Nimona it wouldn't have been Nimona. I fully believe that if the film hadn't had been 90% finished it wouldn't have been shelved. It would have been lobotomised and vivisected. Everything special and vital about the movie and its message would have been removed, and no one would have known what could have been. Once again we would have gotten scraps and been thankful for them.
It makes me think about films like Wish (and others we don't know the name of, and never will) and think of what they could have been if studio's like Disney were braver and let their artists make art, instead of content.
tl;dr Disney didn't miss out on Nimona because they are incapable of making Nimona. If they had produced it the real Nimona wouldn't exist. We didn't miss out on Nimona. And that's purely by luck.
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When I was around eight or nine my dad gave me a book.
In it, there was a gender non-conforming character but I didn’t know that yet. I just knew that I loved that little monster girl, and I wanted to be her so so bad. I wanted to shapeshift, and be in a medieval world that had cool tech, and have bright pink hair and everything. I loved her.
There were two other people in that book too, two guys. And though it was never said, I knew those two were in love. I was so rooting for them to get together, to accept that they loved one another. I remember being so happy that it was implied they were in love.
I don’t know how many times I reread that book.
That book was Nimona.
Recently I watched the movie version as a queer person and I refelt all those same emotions as I had the first time I read that book.
The chaos, the sadness, the love, and the comedy.
I saw the kid I was in Nimona. Younger me being obsessed with chaos and violence and fire. Just a chaotic mass in a little kids body.
I saw my friends in Ballister and Ambrosius. I saw part of myself in them too.
I can imagine how eight year old me, having read Nimona, would react seeing that movie.
Seeing two guys kiss on screen for the first time.
This movie was a relive of my childhood and it was the sweetest one I’ve had in a while.
Movies and books like this are so important for young queer people, and just people in general.
I love Nimona, she was instrumental in who I am as a person and who I was as a kid.
So to the director, the actors, to ND Stevenson and everyone who worked on this movie, thank you so much for this. It was more than I could ever ask for in a movie version of Nimona.
And I do love a happy ending so thanks for that too.
(Sorry about the whole speech but it just meant a lot to me.)
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tossawary · 2 months
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I think SVSSS as a 2D cartoon would be the best moving medium for it imo.
I mean, personally, yeah, that's how I'd enjoy seeing it as well! My ideal slightly pretentiously artsy SVSSS screen adaptation would probably look only a little more detailed than linograph prints (2D or shaded 3D?) (someone hit me up in like two weeks to draw an example of what I mean, if I don't remember on my own, I don't have access to art stuff right now), very stylized and vibrantly colorful, because that's one of the art styles that I particularly enjoy.
I'm not a personally a fan of the 3D SVSSS show because I find the characters a little too doll-like and same-facey for my tastes? It's fine! It works! It's serviceable! It's just all, backgrounds included, a little... safe? I tend to like over-the-top bright colors and intricate details and impractically weird shapes and yet also coherent world production design in my fantasy, which is a lot to demand of any production, perhaps especially with animation productions, which are always squeezed for time and money.
(EDIT: I know the SVSSS show was under heavy constraints and the results are impressive considering their resources; it doesn't change the fact that I just don't like the art style and nevertheless find the results underwhelming. I don't like a lot of "realistic" modeling / rendering styles, not just "anime" ones, even if they are extremely technically impressive. Believe me when I say that I know the vast majority of the entertainment industry is overworked and underpaid and creatively restrained.)
Slightly tangential general note: I don't think 2D is inherently superior to 3D (EDIT: NOT trying to imply asker is saying this, just having some general thoughts), especially because, with the realities of production, each have their advantages. 2D has a lot of stylistic advantages still, but 3D shaders are catching up and doing some incredible things these days! More advanced puppet controls and particle effects and such are doing some beautiful things for 2D shows as well these days. A lot of stuff has been subtly mixed media as soon as 3D became possible. It is potentially possible (note: not saying any studio would actually greenlight this) to do an equally slightly weird and artistically stunning 3D SVSSS show, given the freedom to work. (Good boarding and writing is also sooooo important in both mediums, obviously, it's not just about the art design. You can get away with incredibly limited animation with good boarding, writing, and art design.)
Another slightly tangential ramble: both 2D and 3D have the potential for stiff animation and poor character acting, which also comes down to production limits and animator skills? (I often think of character animators as a type of actor!) There are a lot of 2D shows that I don't really like because I find the animation incredibly stiff, both puppet and handdrawn (there's great 2D puppet stuff out there these days), which pretty much always comes down to production limits (deadlines and budget and software, saving up their animation for the coolest scenes). One of my favorite things about Studio Ghibli films (which as features get a lot more space to focus on art compared to the demands and restraint of television) has always been the squash and stretch in otherwise relatively realistic action, making things like hugs look SO nice for example. But 3D stuff is getting better at that these days! The ways characters slumped into each other in "Nimona" for example was great. And it's just fascinating to look at the elasticity / stylized sculpt of expressions in "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" compared to the technical limits of the models / rigs in "Shrek" or "Shrek 2".
Adding these side notes because I want to be clear about my respect for both 2D and 3D artistically! A lot of video games are doing cool stuff in 3D that looks very close to 2D with stylized shaders, which you can sometimes spot by the large or small rotations in character action / acting, which is difficult (and therefore often expensive) to do in 2D with all of those extra drawings / angle poses. Also, I think the current push towards funky shaders in 3D is so cool and it's hard not to gush about them!!!
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intothefandomverse · 8 months
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Nimona headcanons I came up with while in line at Disney World
When goldheart was first starting wedding planning, they were told by one of the fancy elitist wedding planners that if nimona was going to be in the wedding, that they should change their hair to a natural color so it matched the (frankly quite boring) themeing that was recommended. Ambrosius was so mad about this that that night, he had nimona dye his hair bright pink to match hers. They went in the next day, and after the planner had a heart attack, they got fired.
Sometimes, Bal and Ambrosius will forget that Nimona can shapeshift when they haven't seen her in a while in any form other than human in a while and/or are really stressed and distracted, so when she just spontaneously turns into a shark (or other animal) they'll get startled for a second, then remember it's just Nimona
When Nimona gets tired of walking, they'll turn into a small animal and climb on one of the boys and make them carry him around
Nimona will turn into a cat when they don't get enough attention and start smacking things off the counters. It starts with the least breakable stuff and slowly accelerates to become actual breakable things, like cups, and even threatens to knock down important things (but never actually would)
Nimona loves learning about different cultures, especially ones that may go out of existence soon, because she feels it can help preserve the traditions and languages, even if he's the only one who knows them. They have a scrapbook of all the cultures they've learned about over the years, and a lot of it is drawn due to a combination of not being able to sit down long enough to write them all out, and not being able to write long sentences in most of the languages (they try to keep the pages with the languages to match them, even if it only ends up being a few words)
Bal's love language is infodumping. You can't tell me that man wouldn't rant about anything and everything sciencey/how things work at any chance he gets just because he loves it and wants to share that love with others. Ambrosius loves when he infodumps. He thinks Bal is cute when he does it. Nimona also infodumps as a love language. So does Otter Infodump Guy. Nimona and Otter Infodump Guy love dropping random facts about animals. And nimona loves listening to Bal's "how it works" dumps. Nimona will also infodump about their latest craft because they love crafting, and Ambrosius even taught her how to use a machine to sew (she never got to learn despite being around since they were created, his mom taught him how to sew when he was a child)
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little-cereal-draws · 5 months
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A ramble abt Dr. Blitzmeyer's clothes (pt 3)
Hello, I'm back on my bullshit >:) as if I was ever off
There is no point that I'm trying to make with this, I've just been staring at pictures of her for so long I thought of this
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These are all different outfits but I'm grouping them together. This is concept art by Aidan Sugano from the art book. These were for the idea where Blitzmeyer worked at the Silver Society, a secret organization of scientists and other magical creatures who were against the Institute. In this idea, she also had a bunch of tattoos that glowed when she used magic. I think this idea is sick as fuck. Literally the coolest thing in the world. But in terms of her clothes, it's very asymmetrical and mimics a lot of Nimona's motifs. The hems in the clothes are on the organic grid that Nimona uses instead of the rigid, geometric grid of the Institute (they talk abt this earlier in the art book) and because her bottom half, whether it's a skirt or pants, is so baggy, it gives her that pear shape that Nimona has. She literally has the same highlights on her goggles as Nimona has in her eyes. They are using her clothes to characterize her as someone against the Institute, someone who has magical qualities, someone on Nimona's side. (Side note that's not abt clothes: Blitzmeyer also uses the organic S-curves that Nimona does instead of the Institute's geometric shapes - Ballister's a rectangle, Ambrosius' a triangle, and the Director's a diamond.)
In the second, third, and fifth sketches here, she's wearing harem pants. I think that these are too baggy for her experiments and would be a safety hazard so she probably wouldn't wear them to the lab; she takes her work too seriously for that. The designs on the fabric of the first two sketches reminded me of the patterns in African and Japanese textiles. (The first image below is a Zulu pattern from South Africa and the second image is from a Japanese kimono.) The pattern on the pants in the third sketch reminded me for the geometric patterns in Islamic art (third image below). The sash on the right in the fifth sketch, reminds me of ancient petroglyphs. (Forth image below, from the United States; it's so old, I couldn't find a specific culture to go with it.)
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Drawn by Minkyu Lee. These are probably the most comic accurate outfits in the art book. Out of the two of them, I prefer the one on the right because the one on the left's hair reminds me of ice cream lol
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Drawn by Minkyu Lee. I think besides the tattoo idea, these are my favorites. It still incorporates the punk-ness that would associate her with Nimona as well as staying true to the eccentric but smart nature of her comic character. I think these designs also do a good job of making something new but still being based in her comic outfit. Her lab coat here has the same collar and baggy sleeves as her casual outfit in the comic as well as the same black undershirt. The one on the right is a bit baggy for lab work but the one on the left is good. But I think the most important thing about this design is the goggles. The other designs have been missing it, I think bc it's hard to make her expressive that way, but it works so well here. It's an integral part of her comic design and you can't really have her character without them. I would love if they went with this design because I think it has everything it needs to read as her while still being new. Also I love how her hair looks here.
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Drawn by Minkyu Lee. This one seems evil, cunning, and not science-y at all. It's giving Lady McBeth vibes lol
part one part two
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ariadnaltos · 1 year
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ND Stevenson interview about She-Ra and animation in Celsius 232 (2022)
This post is a transcribe of second interview/talk made to ND Stevenson during the Celsius 232, a multimedia festival about fantasy, scifi and horror genres celebrated in Avilés, a city in the North of Spain. The interview was about She-Ra and The Princesses Of Power. There was another interview about his comics that I attended, but I couldn't find recordings of that one. In this interview ND talked about topics such as Catra's choices, toxic relationships, Nimona's film adaptation and Lumberjanes' TV adaptation. He also answered questions from the public.
Click on Keep reading to read the whole interview!
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Thanks to Comic Astur for recording the interview. They have another interviews during Celsius 232 in their channel, both to Spanish and non-Spanish authors. So check it out!
First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! This post is being released on Christmas day in Spain, so I think it's a good moment to make a gift to the SPOP fandom. 🎁🎄
I don't do professional trancribes, I just want to share this interview. I love Celsius 232 and hearing ND Stevenson in person was a great experience. I want to share this with international fans. The interview is in a mix of Spanish and English, so I'll translate the Spanish parts (and also use some of Diego's translations that you can hear in the video) and I'll transcribe everything in English. I'll also add some notes here and there about the interview.
The auditorium opened some minutes before the beggining of the talk. It was almost full. There were some cosplayers of She-Ra, Adora, Catra and even one cosplayed as Finn, Adora and Catra's post-canon child. There was also a baby cosplayed as She-Ra (baby She-Ra!!). Some people brought with them pride flags because of the series nature. 🏳‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ When ND Stevenson entered the auditorium everyone started clapping.
In the scenario, as you can see in the video, there were three people. ND Stevenson (center), Jorge Iván Argiz (left, interviewer) and Diego García (right, interpreter). Jorge Iván did the questions while Diego translated everything to ND and then to the public.
The interviewer started the talk remembering that ND Stevenson will come back to Celsius next year, for Celsius 2023, and he also claimed the importance of animation. Then, he asked his first question:
Interviewer: When you make a comic you have full control. You have a blank paper or a screen. You have your pen and you can do wathever you want. However, when doing an animation film, even if it has a main creative, it's a hugely collective work. How it was your first experience? How it was entering the animation industry and realizing that it's a huge teamwork effort?
ND Stevenson: Getting into animation was actually kind of an accident for me. I didn't plan to go in that direction. When I started out writing comics I thought of myself as an artist first before I was a writer. And so getting hired as a writer in animation was kind of a surprise for me. And I wasn't sure if it was something I was going to stay with. But my first job was amazing. It was working for Craig McCracken who did Powerpuff Girls and a lot of other stuff that defined my childhood and other people's childhoods. It was a very cool job to work with him.
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Thinking of myself as a writer... it took me a while to accept that. But also, the collaboration of animation was what made me fall in love with animation. I also had always loved animation as a kid. Sneaking into my parents room where the TV was, when they were out of the house, to watch Teen Titans, which was my favorite show. To be behind the scenes, to be able to share this world that we were building together with the rest of the crew, that was... I immediately became addicted to that.
To write a comic it is all you. And unexpected things still happen but it all comes from your own brain, you own hands. With animation, everybody has a little piece of that world. And so, I would look over people's shoulders and ask to be in meetings that I wasn't technically a part of, just because I wanted to know everything and see everything. And so that is what made me fall in love with animation and that's what eventually lead me to make She-Ra.
Interviewer: Now we're going to talk about She-Ra. She-Ra as a character already existed, created as a base for a series of toys. I think that it started in 1985 and it was a show with near a hundred episodes. She-Ras was a twin sister to He-Man and she had a similar story to him, it was kind of complementary. But you made something completely new with this character and this universe. This seems wonderful to me. The first example already appears in the tittle [of the show]. The original series was called She-Ra Princess of Power. But here we're talking about She-Ra and The Princesses of Power. This collaborative spirit that you liked a lot when making animation shows was translated to the animation series. I imagine that this was the first decision [that you made], to bring a more complete arc for characters and to create not just one, but multiple princesses of power.
ND Stevenson: Yeah, the show ended up being- it was about teamwork. It's not just what the show was about, it's also the way in which we made it. It was a show that was made under a lot of pressure, not just because of She-Ra, but because we didn't have the biggest budget and we didn't have the longest timeline for making it. And so it was really something that if we were going to pull it off, we had to rely on each other to do it. And so that was something that really brought us together.
But that show, taking it from being- I hadn't watched the show myself [before], the original show from the 80s [when I was] growing up. But I loved it when I watched it [as an adult]. I had a lot of love in my heart for that show. Trying to pay that off and take that so it could appeal to new fans as well and still make old fans happy was always the line to find and walk. Taking it from one princess of power to an entire team of princesses who are very powerful and making it more about that, about the group instead about the one individual. That was something that was very important for us to do. Because it was so personal for us, with how the show was being made, because we were so close to each other. It was important to show that aspect of friendship and teamwork, and relationships in general. And love in every form. That was our inspiration behind that aspect of the show.
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Interviewer: I would like to know if from the beggining it was always clear that the series was going to have that format and that number of seasons. The first season was a presentation of the princesses, almost one per episode. For me the series starts having more pace when each episode develops these stories that connect with each other. I would like to know if the series was already thought like that or if after season one you still had freedom to make changes.
ND Stevenson: The production of the show was actually pretty unsual in animation. The show had already been greenlit for 26 episodes before I was even hired for the show. They just bought the rights to She-Ra and they knew that Netflix had already ordered the first season. They also knew that they wanted to do 52 episodes total. So when I was hired it was my job to pitch that second season. And so, when I pitched the show, I'm kind of a wordy person, so my pitch was supposed to be like 20 minutes and it was like over an hour [in the end]. And I was lucky that the people I was pitching to were receptive and interested, but I pitched all 52 episodes. That is part of why it was so long, because I wanted to have this conception of it.
Some things stayed the same and some things changed over time, but we had certain ideas that stayed the whole time. For example, an early idea was that Catra was going to get a promotion at the end of every season and move further up the ranks. And also she was going to betray somebody in each season. That really ended up in the show. She just keeps kind of working her way up the ranks and eventually decides that she's out of there, going back to Adora. That was something that stayed true over time, but there were some things that we found along the way. A lot of things were really unexpected. At the very least, it was very helpful to have those broad strokes figured out from the beggining. I'm glad they didn't just cut me off after 20 minutes of talking cause that would be embarrasing *laughs*.
Interviewer: One of the best things that has happened to YA narrative is the shift from just entertainment and fun spirit to topics that were forbidden before. This change probably happened because of the new young people creating new stuff for young audiences. Some of this topics are abuse, bullying, mental health... She-Ra is about some of these topics, toxic relationships are very present in the show. There are multiple cases. It has been talked a lot about the relationship between Adora and Catra, but the relationship between Catra and Scorpia is also another perfect example of a toxic relationship. Something that someone denies, although everybody is warning them. I would like to know more about these messages that can make the audience think about their own relationships. Tell us about it.
ND Stevenson: I'm of the believe that it's important just not to see representation of good behaviour and role models that we can model ourselves on. But is also, I think, a good thing to see representation of characters making the wrong choices and doing the wrong thing. And Catra is defined by that. This was [something that] the crew [asked about as well]. People would come and they'd be like: "so, you told me that she's gonna join the good guys again, right? She'll be OK? When is that going to happen?" And people started to stop believing me that it was going to happen.
AJ, who voices the character, I would [tell her] "We have a big run for you today, Catra is going to do something new, but I promise that she's going to be OK in the end". And she'll be like: "yeah, sure, you say that every time". But I think that's why [Catra] was very beloved among the crew and by me. She's a character who kind of consistently always makes the wrong choices. And it can be so frustrating. Because you'll yell at her at just be like: "OMG, you know you don't want that, why can't you just do the right thing?". And that, I think, in it's own way can be something that also tells us how to make decisions ourselves. So when you see somebody who we sometimes want to scream [at], sometimes we're compelled to do things that make us a bad friend or bad people. And it's important, I think, to know the consequences of those wrong decisions.
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Catra is someone who expresses those things and my hope is that it is cathartic in it's own way, but it's also a little bit of a cautionary tell. She ends up alone at the end, without any friends. And that's the consequences of her actions. But then it's also something that it's- you know, there's nothing you can't come back from. There are things that if you work, if you make yourself vulnerable and open yourself up and try to make amends for your mistakes, it is possible to come back. That was something that was very important for us to show. It's my believe that it's important to see characters, specially female characters, making those bad decisions. We found it cathartic, and I hope that it was cathartic for others as well.
Interviewer: Now two short questions about the animation. First, it is traditional animation, or at least it looks like it, with some touches of CG here and there. I wanted to know if it was a conscious decision so the show would look like it was intended, or if it was because of the low budget and short production time which you said you had.
The second question is about the aesthetic of the ancient buildings. It makes me think about an illustrator called Roger Dean. I don't know if it's by chance or if it was an inspiration for this aesthetic.
*a fly 🪰 flies near the interviewer and he tries to hit it*
ND Stevenson: We had an option on pursuing 3D animation as well. It was something that was done at this studio I was at, at DreamWorks, pretty often. But it was also for an epic... There's a fly!! 🪰
*the interviewer and translator agree and everybody laughs* There's a fly in my... flying over and over... 🪰
Yeah, for epic action scifi fantasy it is harder, it's more expensive to do CG animation. And you have fewer resources. One thing that happens is that the characters can't go to many places because every room and setting has to be build in three dimensions. My friends who are writers working on shows in 3D have limitations of what they can use. They have a set number of characters and a set number of locations, which is true in hand-drawn as well, but less so. You don't have to design the whole thing if you'll only going to see it from one angle.
So that was a lot of the reason of just what was posible with the show. But also, I thought it was important because She-Ra was one of the last shows in the 80s animated in the US, before everything moved overseas to be animated in South Korea and Canada, France and Ireland. It felt important to stay true to the original and the hand-drawn look of the original.
As for Roger Dean, that was definitely one of my inspirations. You have very sharp eye! That very epic... The science fiction illustrations of the 70s and 80s that you would see on the cover of a paperback... That is how I wanted the world to feel. But populated by characters who felt a bit newer. As a kid, I always loved this covers because you would see these floating rocks or the sky with dozens of planets and moons. I wanted to capture that feeling. It always sparked my imagination to see those illsutrations and I wanted to capture that in the show.
Interviewer: Before starting with the questions of the public I have to ask about the adaptation of Nimona into a film, as well as Lumberjanes' TV adaptation. Tell us a little bit about both projects.
ND Stevenson: You're gonna see the Nimona movie early next year, I think february or march. *big applause from the public* So get excited because I just saw the newest cut and it has a lot of the animation. I've seen the board drawings for a while, but I started to get the animation and it is completely surreal to see really dumb drawings that I made as a teenager like, suddenly being executed in three dimensions and it's gorgeous and the style is amazing. So I'm very excited for everyone to see it.
And Lumberjanes is still in the development period. This is a little more standard. I said that She-Ra was unsual in the animation industry and part of that is that the development happened very very quickly. Less than a year. For most animated projects it takes longer than that. So on Lumberjanes we are still on the development phase. We haven't launched into the actual production of the show yet. It's still on the writing and creating the look of the show, finding a studio and everything like that. I think that I'll hopefully have more news about it soon for you. And I think that it's going to be also really cool. So... yeah. *applause*
Interviewer: Great. (To the public) Any questions?
#1 audience question: 1) I heard some rumors that you had trouble with Netflix because the series did not have as much advertisement as they wanted, the low-budget... That was the case? 2) Would you be interested to start working for other platforms like Amazon?
ND Stevenson: Something that not many people know it's that I actually haven't worked for Netflix. I created She-Ra as the show that you saw on Netflix, but I made it at DreamWorks. DreamWorks is it's own animation studio and they had a deal with Netflix that Netflix would stream the shows that DreamWorks was producing. So that was the deal. That's different now. They still do co-productions with DreamWorks, but they [Netflix] created their own animation studio after a year or so after I started working on She-Ra. So actually I didn't have much interaction with Netflix at all. I didn't get notes from them. I didn't know my executives there personally... Actually, I did, but... One of my executives was actually a good friend of mine. But I didn't actually have meetings with Netflix in any way.
If there's rumors about being trouble with Netflix it's certainly not in any kind of working relationship way. They are pretty mysteryous, they guard their algorithm pretty closely. But yeah, that was my experience with Netflix. For me it was very positive. I can't speak any more to what their reaction towards the show was because we were in different places. Hope that answers that.
I'm not currently working with Amazon, but that's something that is definitely... it's pretty common in animation to kind of move around from studio to studio. So it's definitely posible.
#2 audience question: I'm almost 30 so I'm a bit old for the She-Ra target audience, but me and my friend loved it because there is a lot of queer representation. For me and my friend that is very important. I was wondering how it felt because we're more of less of the same age, so we've grown up with similar cartoons and there was nothing that showed you what queer means. We didn't really see ourselves in mainstream shows. I was wondering how it felt to put for the queer community out there this clear representation.
ND Stevenson: It was obviously pretty important for me in a personal level. But another thing that I don't know if that many people know it's that when I got the job I wasn't out yet as gay. So it was certainly not something... Honestly, the show is probably responsible for making me way gayer, just working on it. *everybody laughs*
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But it was something very important to me, just in the world of the show, you know? For me, it's always queer characters, they're always on the front of what I make, even before I was out. But also it's something that is defined by the show itself, what makes the world feel more alive. So I felt that having very fluid gender expression was an important par of the show. Because honestly, the original show has fairly fluid gender. He-Man wears pink and purple in his clothes and then wears a furry diaper when he transforms as He-Man. All the characters are wearing tights and belly shirts and men and women, there're not non-binary people in the original show, but it makes sense for us that there would be. So there's something for me that made the world feel more alive. And again, rainbows and drag queen princesses were such a big part of the original that it just makes sense to [have them] and it made our world feel bigger and more expansive. So that was a lot of my thinking behind it, and sometimes it was an easy sell I think. We were pleasantly surprised that the studio would be very receptive for Bow to have two dads. And Double Trouble, we were very excited about that and very supportive of hiring a non-binary voice actor.
And then there were other things that were a harder sell. I got on the phone with a lot of different people for the Adora and Catra relatioship and had to pitch it a bunch of different times to different people. Got a few notes at first. And then, you know, appealed it, and then the noes turned into yeses. And I still didn't believed it until I was actually watching the final season on Netflix. I didn't believed it'd really happen. But it did so, yeah, that was really cool.
*when the interpreter was translating this answer by ND he tried to hit the fly 🪰 and everybody laughed and applaud, it was really funny*
Interviewer: (To the public) One last question with a short answer?
#3 audience question: In the series there's a lot of characters. I wanted to ask who do you relate to the most?
ND Stevenson: I think all the characters have little bits of me and the rest of the crew. I think almost every character is sort of- there's someone on the crew who identified with them really strongly and that person became more expert on the character. So we have someone who strongly identified with Entrapta, or Tecnia as you said... (Tecnia is the name of Entrapta in the Spanish dub <3) I forget they have different names sometimes. Which is a great name, Tecnia is a great name! *public laughs* But yeah. Almost all of the characters had some counterpart among the crew.
For me, I think that I sort of related the most to a tie between Adora, Catra and Glimmer. One of the things I struggled with on the show was that I was very young when I was hired and I'd never been a manager before. And I mostly just worked on my own stuff and so, having to suddenly become a leader was a thing that I found very difficult and very scary. Like, I really really wanted to do a good job. I wanted everyone on the crew to be taken care of. And it was very difficult and terrifying. That's something that I think all three of those characters deal with in different ways.
Glimmer unexpectedly becomes the new queen. Adora changes sides and suddenly has to deal with all the guilt of having been on the bad guys side before. And Catra has this drive and this ambition, but she also starts to fall apart the higher up the ladder she moves.
I put a lot of those feelings into the characters. With Glimmer there's an episode where she can't go on missions anymore with Bow and Adora because she needs to stay and go to meetings, which was like my everyday. Everyone's going to do something fun and I have to be in a meeting, I can't hang out with [other crew members]. Like Adora in the episode where they play D&D and she keeps just being like: "no no NO, we're all gonna die and everything is gonna go wrong" and she's trying to anticipate every possible way it could go wrong. That was a lot of like, you know, having to conceptualize and keep consistent a story that was going to be told in such a long period of time, with such a large crew of people. That was how my brain felt a lot of the time. A lot of these feelings were poured into she show through the characters. Those are the characters that I think I have the strongest connection to.
(ND is, in fact, wordy, so it wasn't a short answer LOL)
Interviewer: There are big threats and the world needs to be saved a lot of times, and at the same time what you're woried the most is if the characters will recover their friendship... What's going to happen next? Someone will pay attention to Scorpia? *everybody laughs* This shows us something that happens in our lifes as well, that a big event can change you as much as an event that may seem small. This series also shows us that being different is cool, being the same as everyone else can be pretty boring. Being different can be even desirable. ND said that at the beggining he started working with someone who changed his life and who gave him a show such as The Powerpuff Girls, and I anticipate to him that right now, very very soon, there will be people that will say "I'm working for ND Stevenson, who changed my life thanks to She-Ra and his other works". To make easier our wait for the next year [Celsius 2023], when he comes back to Avilés, we're gonna say goodbye to him with a very very strong applause.
*all the public applauses, ND does a heart shape with his hands 🫶 He also thanked the Celsius 232 organizers and the public for coming*
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This interview was done on Friday 22nd, july 2022. ND Stevenson made another talk/interview the day before. After that one talk I went to the signing and got my copy of Nimona signed. He was really nice and we could talk with him a little bit. He seemed really happy to visit this event in Spain and I'm really excited to see him next year. At that time the Nimona movie will be out, so I'm sure that we'll be able to know more about it and his future projects!
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Photo with ND Stevenson during the book signing on Thursday. My boyfriend and I went together. We both love Stevenson's stories. <3
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Thanks to ND Stevenson for coming to Spain and to Celsius 232!! I've been going every year to this event since 2018 and they always have great authors and the festival is really nice. I've learned a lot of stuff thanks to this festival and with talks like this one that ND made. The event is mostly about books and literature, but as you can see other forms of media are in Celsius 232 as well.
That's all! Thank you so much for reading this whole thing. I hope that it was interesting. <3
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achillesmonochrome · 2 months
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What really drives me insane about the ATLA Live ACTION
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Is this change.
Here is the funny thing, this really didn't bother me until much later in the series; granted at first I thought having Aand wanting to get some air rather than running away from his responsibilities was throwing away an important part of his characterization, but I thought maybe they wanted to explore a new angle about him so it was okay.
That's not what happened.
I decided to not get the screenshots because I don't want to comb through so many episodes, but my problem is that the show REPEATEDLY, CONSTANTLY doesn't stop to tell Aang how he failed the world, how because he wasn't there people died and he needs to take responsibility.
And this went from a situation who had people sometimes being harsh to Aang but from a situation where you could understand where they were coming from; to people being EXTREMELY mean to a kid.
Aang went to fly for a bit in order to clear his head, got caught in a storm and acted on instinct, got trapped for 100 years, and then spent the entire show with him and multiple people telling him how much he messed up.
Sure, in the animated series Aang didn't intent to disappear for as long as he did, but he did decided to run away of his responsibilities, is because of this that he ends up caught in a storm and frozen 100 years. As much as anyone can understand his reaction, you can see why he would feel guilty and responsible about the situation, because if he hasn't wanted to run away from his responsibilities this wouldn't had happened.
But in the live action show is just a freak accident.
The thing that really bothers me about this change, is that why? Why even do it?
All the people being angry at Aang, Aang feeling bad and being moody about what happened, all of that would have much more impact if it was because Aang decided to run away.
Instead, I end up feeling frustrated both with Aang and the other characters because DUDE, IT WAS AN ACCIDENT, A HORRIBLE ACCIDENT, YOU REALLY SHOULDN'T BE FEELING THIS GUILTY, AND YOU PEOPLE YELLING AT HIM SHOULD LEAVE HIM ALONE.
I don't even think he tells anyone that it was an accident, heck I almost feel than the writers in the show somehow forgot that they did it that way, even I feel the audience forgets because it was different in the animated show and is not like the live action show acts as if it was an accident.
I don't know if is my memory or what, but I even feel people are being harsher in the live action show than they were in the animated, which feels SO much worse with this new context.
Look, I don't think an adaptation has to be identical in order to be great; I really liked the Percy Jackson show, I LOVE Nimona; but I feel if you are going to do changes, you better do something good or interesting with it.
Not do a change and then act for the rest of the show like you didn't.
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skyeknight-oneshots · 10 months
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So, not Nemesis
"Bal, I'm here." Ambrosius announced as he entered the not-so-secret hideout.
The knight couldn't see where Ballister was, but he knew his lover was around. It was him who sent a message to come over quickly, when they barely left each other's side for more than an hour. All he knew was that there was something important he needed to tell him and it couldn't wait. Well, the exact words he heard Ballister telling him was that he couldn't wait to show it to him.
Ambrosius blushed, wondering if Ballister was up to something. He's pretty sure it wasn't there monthsary yet.
Or was it?
Ambrosius looked for a calendar to check the date, only to finally find Ballister sitting on a chair but looking rather listless.
"Bal?" Ambrosius frowned, reaching out to him. "Is everything okay?"
Ballister lets out a sigh, before looking at the man. "Hey," he said. "I think... We need to break up."
Ambrosius widened his eyes as he felt his whole world crash down before him.
A muffled sound was heard, followed by sounds a crashes as if another person was fumbling around. Another Ballister comes appeared and rushed into the room. "Damn it, Nimona!"
"Aw," The 'Ballister' that just broke up with him morphed into a young girl. Not just any girl. Nimona. "You couldn't wait another five minutes or so to break out of the ropes?"
Ballister face palmed, and went to Ambrosius who was sporting a jaw-dropping expression. He closed the mouth before pressing a kiss to his temple. "We're not breaking up." Then, he breaks into a grin and gestures to Nimona. "Also, look who's back! She suggested this whole prank to announce it to you, I said no then she tied me up."
Ambrosius gaped again, because Nimona had been reenacting the scene by morphing into Ballister and herself tying him up in succession as Ballister had been explaining things.
"You gotta admit," Nimona shrugged, while looking like Ballister. "he kinda deserved it."
"Ballister rolled his eyes, "You'll get used to it." he patted his lover's back.
Nimona circled around Ambrosius, "So, Nemesis..."
"Nimona, we talked about that."
"Fine, fine." Nimona waved her hand dismissively, "I'll play nice with Mr. Golden Loins, except later because I'm totally gonna wreck him and take everything he knows and loves!"
"What?!" Ambrosius looked at Ballister incredulously.
Ballister sighed, looking at both of them fondly. "She means your properties... She's talking about a board game."
Ambrosius didn't really have any expectations when he walked in here, but even if he did, he would've never expected this.
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albaqae · 9 months
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NIMONA SPOILER RANT!!!
Soooooo I watched it a bit ago and OH MY GOD???????
The way they gave nimona a more pear shaped body as a kid really meant a lot to me, u don’t see that many kids like that in media, and as a child it felt like because I wasn’t like kids on tv i took up more space than I was supposed to (the good old “why do my thighs look like that when I sit” and “why are my shoulders wider” and ofc! The “why isn’t my face as thin as them?”) IDK I HAVENT SEEN LOTS OF PPL POINT IT OUT BUT IT MEANT THE WORLD TO ME??????
Altho Merida rlly helped me out w that but kids are still rude!
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Bal also put out so many questions, like why do we feel we need to prove ourselves to other people? And why does it tend to take up a bigger seat than our morale? And the way it started to erode off his character was so realistic I feel also because they were so throughout with it, they didn’t just show the viewer “love urself” they actually DEMONSTRATED how that position FEELS
It felt like it was happening to YOU
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And I really love they made a character gay without making it a CONFLICT, it feels like whenever people try to make movies about queerness, they can get lost in the homophobia and conflicting gay identity, and it can sometimes overshadow over the characters themselves (their intentions, feelings, etc replaced by labels and social customs so much that the character is just lost), and in the end of it, it leaves me super unsatisfied because I never KNEW who this was even about!!!
But here yes it was a plot point, but the characters felt real, like they actually loved each other, it made this conflict between feeling like one has to choose just a million times more important
I CARED about what happened to these characters
I feel that a part of that is how they made goldenloin the screentime of him regretting what he was going to bal, like u saw the raw, unresolved conflicts in his eyes every time he cornered him and ofc the “im fine, commander” scene REALLY just completes it all
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If this movie was around when I was a child, I think it would’ve saved me a lot of heartache and maybe would’ve made me feel a bit better about being “too much”
And a lot more if I saw it when I didn’t know what my identity was (fun fact- I still dunno!)
And THE ANIMATION. THE ANIMATION. THE ANIMATION.
Ima just say- I’ve never seen characters melt onto each other that well, and even LESS in 3D ANIMATION??????
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Also nimona’s unapologetic feral energy and how it both brings her up and throws her down- I just discovered a lot of myself in her and idk i guess I’m trying to be kinder to myself and ruder to those who aren’t kind to me (??)
I’m still figuring it out lol
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eerna · 9 months
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Hi there, i would love to know your opinion about the Nimona movie compared to the comic? What they did worse or better? And which you liked better overall. ❤️
UhuhUHU okidoki here I go. Fair warning I might be off because I haven't rewatched the movie or reread the comic yet.
The comic is pretty similar regarding the broad strokes of the story, but entirely different in the moral of the story? And the themes are different as well. It's aimed at young adults/adults, while the movie is aimed at kids. There's blood and the characters aren't as pure or righteous, and the ending isn't as forgiving. But honestly, it surprised me how similar the two were, and I legit don't think I prefer either version. While there are stuff I prefer in both, both of them accomplish what they set out to do, as two totally separate things. SO I'm separating the comparisons into three categories: Neutral, Movie did it better, and Comic did it better.
Neutral:
In the comic, Ballister has been the city's villain for quite some time, and he embraces the role while still following a moral code.
Nimona kills a lot of people and he can't stop her. She is supposed to be his sidekick, but in truth, he's the one running after her and excusing her actions. I liked the aspect of "Nimona is really really not good but Ballister loves her too much to accept it" that culminates in Ballister betraying his ideals and killing someone!
Goldenloin is Ballister's nemesis, and gleefully accepts the role - he mocks him, engages in banter, and is a prick. He isn't the born-to-be-golden-child he is in the movie - in fact, as a child he used to lie to everyone that his family was important, and was bullied mercilessly for it. He shot off Ballister's arm out of jealousy!! Because Ballister was better!!!! And the scene where he realizes he has never apologized - HOW cool is that!!!!!
In the finale, Nimona is split in half, one part of her turning into a raging monster destroying the city while the other is living through her worst memories, stuck in her child form. Ballister and Goldenloin join forces to stop her, but Goldenloin wants to kill her while Ballister just wants to subdue her powers long enough to talk her down. This means he is forced to betray Nimona, but stuck between the two people he cares the most for in this world, what else was he supposed to do!! The moment he breaks down after spending the entirety of the book all rational and stoic and cold... Waaaaaah what a good heartbreak.
At the end, Goldenloin adn Ballister are considered the heroes who saved the city, and Nimona is forgotten. She's still alive, though - she still visits Ballister one last time in another person's form so he doesn't realize it's her until it's too late, and he finishes the story wondering if she'll ever be back and know he wanted to be her friend. What a cute bittersweet ending!! Loved it!!!
Movie did it better:
The comic doesn't have the societal order commentary that I really loved in the movie. I loved how the knights are basically useless, a higher class who contribute nothing but entertainment to society, which you can only enter if you're born into it. The queen decides that the class should be expanded and regular people should be able to earn the right to join it, and she is killed for it. Her idea wasn't even that revolutionary!!! She wasn't questioning its right to exist, which would have been the truly controversial way of thinking!!! And it was enough to get her dead!!! In the comic, the knights are mostly orphans anyway, a glorified police force more than the rich celebrities they are in the movie.
Parts of Goldenloin and Ballister's relationship hit harder in the movie. I prefer the "cut off his arm as an instinct because his instincts went against his heart" story from the movie. I loved how he kept seeing Ballister as a victim. I loved the tortured love.
Nimona is way more sympathetic. The comic's explanation for her personality is that she was lied to and experimented on when she was a kid, but that's as far as it goes. We are supposed to accept her as she is, and that is a really cool story, but I just really really like the way the movie flipped it into "Nimona is actually peaceful and kind, she is vilified for not staying silent when abused".
Surprisingly, the suicide angle is not present in the comic!!! That was ADDED into the kiddie version!! That heartbreaking scene with the sword and the heart isn't there, and neither is the friendship backstory, which was some of my fav stuff. I too kept asking myself how could Nimona stand to be immortal, and the movie is like. She can't. She wants to die rather than be alone. But by the end of the movie she decides to live, symbolically turning into a phoenix. Like wow thanks I'm gonna go cry in the corner now
While Ballister's innocence sometimes grated on my nerves, I enjoyed the warmer, newer-to-societal-revolution Ballister more than the experienced terrorist from the comic. The aspect of Ballister accusing Nimona of trying to turn him to her morals because she wants him to be as evil and as much of a monster as her so she wouldn't be alone!!!! Bro OUCH
The arrow scene!! It was amazing in the comic too, but I really liked the awkwardness of the movie ahhahahah
Comic did it better:
The humor!!! I enjoyed the humor of the comic so much!!! Probably because it was written with my age in mind instead of the kids, but also ND Stevenson is just really funny in that deadpan "art student writing comics" way.
Goldenloin's name. Why is that man still named Goldenloin in the movie. It is hilarious in the comic esp with his design but the movie.... WHY
While I sorely miss the "I wouldn't die, it just wouldn't be living" line, I do have to say I prefer the subtler version of explaining themes because that's just the way I roll fdjbskabjaks
Over the course of the story, Ballister finds out there is a way to put a temporary lock on Nimona's powers, keeping her stuck in one form. And in the finale, he uses it thinking it could help talk Nimona down (as opposed to Goldenloin's idea of killing her). He keeps her stuck in one form, which is something that seems entirely reasonable at the time, and when she learns it was him who has done it, she turns away from him entirely. This is SUCH a good concept and while I have no idea how it could fit into the movie, I do have to say it's a better betrayal
The battles of Ballister VS Goldenloin are much better. Less standing and clashing swords and more kicking and throwing each other out of stuff.
The board games scene. It was way funnier with how Ballister plays Nimona's game and also starts saying stupid stuff. Excellent.
Nimona's immortality is better established, and there is no overdramatic "is she dead or not" - we find out she lives right away after she "dies". I'm really impressed with how nicely it was laid down, as someone who doesn't like death fakeouts, as it is difficult to do such an ending. The drama comes from the question of whether she will let Ballister back into her life. I feel like the movie would profit from establishing her immortality better, especially since they also introducted that she can kill herself if she wishes to. Ouch my heart.
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