Nimona

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Nimona is a completed web comic by ND Stevenson, of Lumberjanes fame. It used to be online on Tumblr and later on a personal website, only to be taken down after it was collected in a graphic novel.

Ballister Blackheart is the bad guy in a fantasy kingdom. He's accepted this role ever since his ex Goldenloin shot off his arm after losing to him at a jousting tournament. There's a reason they are exes now, and Goldenloin has been assigned to capture Ballister alive. Ballister strives to take down Goldenloin and the Institute which hired him.

Then one day, a teenager named Nimona barges into Ballister's lair. She says she can help him with his coup, if he hires her as a sidekick. Ballister is hesitant, until Nimona reveals that she's a shapeshifter, who can pose as anyone and turn into sharks. He realizes that Nimona could be a game changer in his plans to reveal the Institute as a corrupt governing force...that is, if he can stop her from recklessly killing the guards trying to arrest Ballister. Nimona may not be the cheerful sidekick that she pretends to be, and the Institute gives new orders to Goldenloin: kill her.

Blue Sky Studios bought the rights to adapt Nimona into an animated film. After Disney acquired the animation company, they killed the project despite it being nearly complete. Annapurna Studios now has the rights, with a release date set for 2022 on Netflix. Riz Ahmed has been cast to play Ballister, while Chloë Grace Moretz will play Nimona. Tropes for the film will go on a separate page once we know more information.

Tropes used in Nimona include:

Badass Gay: Both Ballister and Goldenloin qualify as this, considering Ballister beat Goldenloin in a joust fair and square, though it was implied that it wasn't easy for Ballister. Goldenloin is technically an idiot, given how long it took for him to realize that he was on the wrong side, but he can defend himself in a fight and win.
Bittersweet Ending: In the end, Ballister achieves his goal of revealing that the Institute is corrupt and never had the kingdom's best interests at heart. He becomes the new ruler, and starts implementing reforms. Goldenloin, however, has been badly injured in battle and may never be able to fight again; he and Ballister reconcile. Nimona reveals to Ballister via shark drawing that she is alive, but vanishes after giving him a farewell smile. Ballister hopes that they'll meet again, and she'll see him as a friend.
Deconstruction: Of the Draco in Leather Pants and Ron the Death Eater dynamic in both fanon and canon. The story's opening would like you to believe the Ballister is the Villain Protagonist of his story, and Goldenloin is the Hero Antagonist who has to take him down. They even seem to enjoy their rivalry as Ballister strives to stage a coup against the king. Then Nimona comes in and announces that she's Ballister's new sidekick, and she flips the dynamic because Ballister has to reign in her worse impulses, which takes away from the banter that Goldenloin and Ballister have when clashing when stopping her from burning guards alive. Ballister is also quite serious about his refusal to hurt any Innocent Bystander. We find out that Ballister was telling the truth; Goldenloin did shoot off his arm on purpose, even if the circumstances were more complicated than him being a sore loser, and the Institute is a corrupt organization that has no ethics. Goldenloin has a Heel Realization when talking with Ballister about this towards the end of the story, sincerely apologizing.
Experienced Protagonist: Ballister Blackheart has been around the block enough to know when not to fight fair against the Institute, and how to evade their military. What Nimona brings to the table is more firepower and means infiltration, to turn the tide of the populace and show the Institute is corrupt.
Freudian Excuse: It comes out the reason why Nimona is reckless about human life; as a kid, she shapeshifted into a dragon to save her village from raiders. Rather than take refuge in the fact that she saved them, her parents proceeded to deliver her to the Institute, claiming that she must have been a changeling that replaced their "real" child according to the scientists watching over a locked-up Nimona. The scientists labeled her as a "monster" accordingly while she was scared and wanted to see her mom and dad again. She lost her childhood to years of experiments and being treated as a monster. Nimona eventually broke it and it's implied she hunted down her parents to confront them for abandoning her, possibly killing them herself. She eventually became the label, and decided to own it. As Ballister puts it at the end of the story, anyone who went through that should not be called a monster, especially a child.
I Am a Monster:
- Ballister says this when he finds out that his "mild" plague led to several deaths. He goes to deliver the cure and gets arrested on sight.
- Towards the end of the story, Nimona reveals that beneath her perky exterior, she feels this way about herself. And why? Because that's how she's been seen all her life, by the scientists that experimented on her and her own parents. Nimona straight up doesn't care about being good; Ballister is the only person with him she truly bonds because he was the first that saw her as a scared girl in need of a home and a friend behind her bravado.
Idiot Hero: Goldenloin; he can be cunning, but Ballister is clearly the smarter warrior and better fighter between the two of them. In fact, this is why the Director said he was a useful idiot, in her plans to secure Ballister and Nimona.
Pet the Dog:
- Nimona's monstrous side doesn't want to hurt Ballister. Its first reaction is to save him from a raid gone wrong that led to Nimona losing her head. Later, it forces Ballister to attack in the climax, saying that the girl he knew was a lie, and it's better this way if one of them ends the other.
- The Director's only moment of kindness is when, in the climax, she realizes that she's going to die and so will anyone that tries to protect her. So she orders her guards to evacuate the labs but leave her while she fends off Nimona with a jade root cannon.
Puppet King: Implied that the Institute has installed one on the throne, and the Director really runs the country. It seems to be confirmed when the king dies, and people elect Ballister as their new leader.
Reality Ensues: When Ballister releases a plague, he designs it so that people will only be inconvenienced, not seriously ill or dead. He has a breakdown on learning the plague caused several deaths, and walks into a trap that the Institute sets at a hospital delivering the cure. You cannot predict how people's immune systems will work, factoring in allergies, autoimmune disorders, and preexisting conditions.
Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: The comic ends with Ballister helping Goldenloin with his P.T. following the fight with Nimona's dragon form. Unlike when Goldenloin abandoned him to recover from his arm loss, Ballister vows to be there for him since Goldenloin did the right thing in the end.
Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Implied with Nimona though it's not confirmed one way or the other. When Ballister finds out that Nimona can survive beheading and regenerate from a monstrous dragon form, he realizes that it's possible she's much older than he is while in a teen guise, and Nimona hints that it's true when despite experimenting on her for decades, the Institute has few records on her. 'Cause she razed the place while busting out of there as a teen. The scientist friend who discusses this with him admits that it's a real possibility, and that the regeneration may actually be reincarnation.
The Reveal Nimona's backstory has some harsh truths when we see the real flashbacks: she doesn't know how she got her powers, only that one day she was able to transform as a kid and defended her village from some raiders. Her parents then dropped her off at the Institute, where the scientists experimented on her for years. She managed to escape as a teen, but the experience left scars. Given that Nimona technically can't die, as she regenerates after receiving a life-threatening injury, it could have happened decades ago, given that a captive Nimona tells the Director that the Institute didn't learn from the first time they experimented on her.
Riddle for the Ages: Turns out that no one knows how Nimona got her powers. Even she doesn't; one day, she woke up, and she could shapeshift.
Shoo the Dog: Goldenloin meets Ballister to parley with him about Nimona at an inn that's neutral ground. He whispers that he's been assigned to take her out, but Goldenloin does not kill children while knowing if he fails, someone with fewer scruples will take the assignment. Goldenloin advises Ballister to send Nimona into hiding because she's just a kid and not part of Ballister's war. Ballister says nuts to that because Nimona can take care of herself, and Goldenloin should know better than to follow orders blindly.
Traumatic Haircut: Flashbacks reveal that Nimona's signature shave are a reminder to her about how the Institute, as part of their experiments on her, shaved off part of her hair to attach wires and electrodes. Her child form doesn't have this cut.
Ungrateful Bastard:
- In the real flashbacks, Nimona's parents were this. When she saved her village from Raiders, her parents handed her over to the Institute according to the scientists there. They claimed that she must have been a changeling that replaced their real child.
- Subverted when Nimona's monstrous side rescues Ballister after she's beheaded, causing a massacre in her wake. After Ballister recovers in the lair, he's mad at her out of Anger Born of Worry-- that she was killed and it was his fault for not doing proper reconnaissance-- and shock -- that she survived losing her head. As he puts it, no one can survive that, and what else is she hiding from him?
Unreliable Expositor: Nimona tells Ballister that when she was a kid, a witch granted her the power of shapeshifting, without any instructions on how to control them, to help the witch get out of a deep pit. Ballister questions why a witch would do that rather than conjure a ladder or vines to climb, but Nimona says the witch wasn't very good at thinking things through when casting spells. Nimona tried to go to her village, but the residents were scared of seeing a dragon, and she didn't know how to become a girl again, so she took time to control her powers. By the time she figured it out, Raiders had come and wiped out everyone, leading her an orphan. Ballister figures out she's lying when she freaks out about losing control during a science fair, saying it was the first time she couldn't change back. The truth ends up being about half this story as flashbacks reveal: Nimona doesn't know how she became a shapeshifter, only that it happened one day when she changed into a dragon to protect her village from Raiders. Her parents dropped her off at the Institute, who proceeded to treat her as a monster and scientific experiment. She also may have orphaned them in anger about being abandoned.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: From flashbacks, before the events that turned Nimona into the cynical teenager that she is now, she was a normal kid. Her first question from being locked up in the Institute is asking where her parents are, and if she can see them.