From romances and sidekicks to rivals and secret enemies, there are actually quite a
few relationships in the newest Netflix film, Nimona. So, let’s discuss them!
I’m Kifinosi with WickedBinge, and this is Nimona Relationships: Healthy to Toxic.
As always with our new releases, major spoilers ahead for the entirety of the film!
Starting off, we have what we would consider to be our healthy relationships - aaaand
unfortunately, there’s only two of them.
Getting the Gold Medal of Healthiness is the brief relationship between Ballister Blackheart
and Queen Valerin. As sad as it may be, the Queen was the only figure of authority who was willing
to give a commoner the chance to become a great knight. In spite of everyone telling her she
was making a mistake, Valerin saw Ballister’s true nobleness and wanted to nurture it. This, in turn,
made Ballister incredibly grateful and respectful towards the queen, having a ton of admiration for
her. But of course, this just makes the way things went down all the more tragic and, for Ballister
especially, horrific. With how positive their relationship otherwise was, it’s a bummer to see
what was essentially a sweet surrogate mother and son relationship be destroyed by an outside force.
As for our other healthy relationship in this film,
we feel that Ballister and Nimona manage to earn a spot here in the end.
Now yes, these two certainly have their share of rough moments. Their personalities begin to clash
almost immediately, leading to the two of them becoming more than a little frustrated with each
other. They also have a pretty big blow up near the end of the film’s second act after Ambrosious
starts to make Bal doubt his friendship with Nimona. But even with these moments,
their friendship is ultimately an incredibly positive one. While she may mess with him a lot,
Nimona cares about Ballister immediately and just wants to help him clear his name. Ballister,
in turn, comes to care about Nimona - taking care of her arrow wound, comforting her when
she’s upset, and growing to understand who she is instead of simply only caring about WHAT she is.
Even after his big mistake, it’s Ballister who stops Nimona from ending her own life,
telling her that she isn’t alone. If that isn’t true friendship, we don’t know what is.
We now move onto the more, as Ballister would put it,
“complicated” relationships in the film. Welcome to the Grey Area.
Starting things off, let’s talk about Nimona, Ballister and Diego the Squire. Yeahhh, this
one’s a bit on the wacky side of things, given that - after the initial meeting between Ballister
and Diego at the knighting ceremony - their next encounter involves kidnapping and Nimona’s whole
‘demon baby’ act freaking him out. But while this may not be the deepest alliance around,
we do give Diego credit for at least TRYING to show Ballister what he had recorded before
the ceremony and then, in spite of likely worrying about what could happen to him,
fully showing him the recording later on thus giving Ballister the evidence he needed.
It’s just a shame that this squire wasn’t just a bit faster and braver.
But while that relationship was a bit more comedic, the eventually-broken relationship
between Nimona and Gloreth was certainly more dramatic, as well as tragic. As we see through her
flashback, the two young girls start off as best friends, with Gloreth even being able to accept
Nimona’s shapeshifting abilities. Unfortunately, things take a turn when the rest of the village
finds out. Although Gloreth does briefly try to defend her friend, between her mother’s warnings
and seeing Nimona accidentally set the village on fire, Gloreth ultimately breaks off their
friendship AND breaks Nimona’s heart by telling her to leave. Given how young she was, we can’t
necessarily blame Gloreth for being scared and doing what she thought was needed for the sake
of everyone else’s perceived safety. What we can’t quite excuse, however, is her continuing
to be against so-called ‘monsters’ during her adulthood, to the point of establishing a team
of knights to fight them. Again, this relationship isn’t quite toxic, but it’s definitely a tragedy…
We’ve finally arrived at what many consider to be the film’s other main relationship besides the one
between our two leads, that being the relationship between Ballister and Ambrosius Goldenloin. While
they do start off as best friends and lovers, Ballister being framed for murder throws a
pretty big wrench in their relationship, with Ambrosius struggling to believe that the man he
loved was innocent. But even though these two end up being antagonists and rivals with each
other throughout most of the film, there are still moments that show how much they still care about
one another. As angry as he is with Ambrosius, Ballister never tries to seriously hurt him,
instead simply wanting Ambrosius to trust him. And, even when he’s hunting him down, Ambrosius
doesn’t want to hurt Ballister either. When he’s trying to warn Bal about Nimona’s possible evil
intentions, this is also just him trying to look out for him despite the misinformed intentions.
While tensions remain high until the end, things do ultimately work themselves out, with Ambrosius
acknowledging that he - and the rest of the Institution - was in the wrong and Ballister
ultimately choosing to forgive him, allowing the two of them to finally re-start their romance.
Finishing off the Grey Area is the rivalry between the film’s three knights - Ballister and Ambrosius
versus Sir Thoddeus “Todd” Sureblade. There’s always one dude-bro meat-head in the bunch,
and Todd certainly fills that roll. The film even opens up with a scene showing
just how much he disrespects Ballister for being a commoner. Despite them both being of noble blood,
Todd doesn’t show much respect for Ambrosius either, likely out of either jealousy or ego. Once
Ballister goes on the run, Todd acts as both an obstacle and an annoyance, arguing with Ambrosius
on how to capture the two ‘villains’ before then going after Ballister and Nimona himself. But for
as much as these three may agitate and antagonize each other, they do ultimately end things on a
more neutral ground - with Todd even deciding to bring flowers to Nimona’s memorial before giving
both his fellow knights a nod of respect. It’s not much in the grand scheme of things,
admittedly, but it’s a sign that things will get better between the three of them.
We’ve now come to the relationships that probably
won’t be turning a positive corner anytime soon. These are the Toxic Relationships.
For our Bronze Medal of Toxicity, we have Queen Valerin and the Director. While this relationship
doesn’t get much actual screen time, it’s still one that deserves a mention given how it ends
with the Director setting up Valerin’s murder. Although Valerin may have had good intentions
about opening up knighthood to anyone who wanted it, she - according to the Director at least,
who isn’t exactly an unbiased source to be fair - dismissed the Director’s concerns about how
doing so would be blatantly going against Gloreth’s wishes and that doing so could
spell disaster. Given that Valerin is the queen and all, we certainly get why she would want to
use her authority to enact something that seemed good - and regardless of whether or
not she was being ‘dismissive’, it still doesn’t exactly excuse the murder on the Director’s part.
Getting our Silver Medal of Toxicity is another Director-focused relationship,
the one she has with Ambrosius. Although Ballister may be the Director’s main enemy in the film,
it really doesn’t take long for her to have a falling out with Ambrosius. She is kind to
him before it though, prompting Ambrosius to be respectful in return. But in spite of this
hierarchy, the moment Ambrosius begins to suspect the Director’s possible involvement in the queen’s
murder, he doesn’t hesitate to confront her - though he still ends up being a bit late,
but at the very least he continues trying to fight against the Director as she begins to
descend into madness. But speaking of that first confrontation between her and a disguised Nimona,
considering that the Director was willing to kill who she thought was the real Ambrosius,
it just goes to show that even though he was by all means the perfect knight who was the direct
descendent of the woman that the Director was killing in the name of, to her Ambrosius was
ultimately still just a cog in the system that could be replaced if necessary. Ouch…
Finally our Gold Medal of Toxicity is, unsurprisingly, going to Ballister and
the Director. This is really a no-brainer for our bottom spot, given that Ballister didn’t
do anything to the Director except try to be a knight while also being a commoner. For this,
the Director framed him, lied to his face and continued trying to do all she could to prevent
him from clearing his name. She ruins Ballister’s faith in the Institution, prompting Ballister to
do all he can to not only gain back his innocence but also weaken the Director’s
grasp on the kingdom, wanting her to face true justice for all her lies and horrible actions.
There’s even a point where the Director is willing to take out thousands of innocent
lives if it means taking Ballister and Nimona out once and for all. Regardless of any history
or might have shared or any slim chance Ballister might have had at changing the Director’s mind,
as long as the Director held true to her beliefs and Ballister was willing to do what
was truly right, this relationship was never going to have a happy ending. For all this,
we decree that it’s the Most Toxic Relationship in the film.