feel like i need to watch this movie 3 times but one thing i thought was an interesting change from the graphic novel was that very little of the destruction in the final scene was caused by nimona herself - most of it was because of the soldiers shooting at her as she made her way to the statue. and then the director attempting to wipe out half the kingdom just to kill her. it really drives home how queerphobia is based on unfounded fears and how a society that vilifies us and mocks the value of diversity in general is only hurting itself.
another big change is nimona risking her life to save the kingdom from itself, a kingdom that always hated her (after one guy showed her there might be something worth saving). though i love the graphic novel’s take on it too i think both endings are brilliant in different ways. to me it shows the shift in nd stevenson’s work, from a story grounded in righteous anger when he was young and in the middle of processing a ton of trauma, to one that reflects a confidence about who he is and his place in the world as a bigender person fighting for justice. nimona saying “it’s time to rewrite this story” is so fucking meta
cruelty is so easy. youre not special for choosing it
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist; a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.”
-Ursula K. LeGuin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
“Evil is boring. Right? I kinda believe in the banality and mundaneness of evil. Evil is just selfish impulses, which at the end of the day are really easy to understand. It’s easy to understand why people do bad things. It’s like “yeah, ok, you’re selfish and scared and cruel, I get it”. Being good is complex and beautiful and hard.” - Brennan Lee Mulligan
Fun fact! Having a job every day is actually a fairly new thing.
In olden times, people had daily chores and other things to do but their workload/ daily working hours was actually much lower than it is today. Even in farming communities.
The concept of working super hard every day actually comes from capitalism, which in turn comes from Puritanical ideology.
The Puritans believed in salvation through work and in no play.
Early capitalists adopted this ideology because it meant higher productivity and therefore more money if their factories were running near constantly.
The idea of needing to be continuously productive in order to be useful/ allowed things like food and shelter, is actually quite an insidious ideal that is deeply rooted in the American culture.
4 day work weeks have actually proven to be more productive than the 5 day week. But corporations won’t adopt it willingly because it means less of a stranglehold on their workers.
every gym leader is like “I lost!?! UNBELIEVABLE!” buddy you live in a world where every ten year old child has always been offered a free fire breathing monster at least once and you brought nothing to this fight but anthropomorphic flowers
gym leaders’ whole job is to provide a specific challenge, a battle of a certain type and difficulty level. if you’ve brought the tools and skills to complete that challenge, you’re going to win by design. the pokémon in that battle are probably not actually the strongest pokemon they have.
when gym leaders go “argh, how could i lose??” they’re acting to give your victory legitimacy because you’re 10. they’re like a villain cosplayer letting a baby knock them over. they’re being nice!!
