YMMV / NIMONA

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • In-universe, The Institute and Nimona herself claim that a shapeshifting child is an "abomination" who is destined to be a monster. Ballister believes that she was tortured into becoming a human guinea pig, that Nimona snapped because anyone would after being abandoned by their parents and tested for decades. In the end, those two sides of Nimona argue with Ballister, but the truth is ultimately left ambiguous while leaning towards Ballister's interpretation. At the least, taking a sample of Nimona's blood will unleash her Superpowered Evil Side, as the Institute finds out the hard way, but she recovers in the end to indirectly apologize to Ballister for hurting him while posing as Goldenloin's doctor.
  • Nimona's parents, with The Reveal. The Institute officials callously discuss how after Nimona shapeshifted into a dragon and saved her village from raiders, her parents gave her to the Institute for experimentation because they were scared of what she could do. Nimona herself retells the tale to Ballister that the raiders killed her parents because she doesn't want to believe they would do such a cruel thing as abandoning her and never see her again. Given the Institute's reputation towards spinning the narrative, however, perhaps they had a hand in making Nimona's parents commit such a heinous crime. Don't forget how they made Goldenloin shoot off his boyfriend's hand and led Ballister to believe that Goldenloin was selfish, cruel, and ambitious.
  • Nimona revealing she's alive to Ballister but vanishing from his life has a lot of questions in the end. Was Nimona in My God, What Have I Done? mode for nearly killing the man who always believed in her, and felt that she didn't deserve his forgiveness and parental love for being a "monster"? Perhaps she can't forgive him for being forced to kill her Superpowered Evil Side? Is it a case of But Now I Must Go since Nimona doesn't know if she'll be accepted back into society, given the Surprisingly Realistic Outcome that her Superpowered Evil Side killed a lot of people? Ultimately, the reader is left to decide with no sequel or spinoff in the works.
  • Where does the line for Goldenloin blur between Idiot Hero, Obliviously Evil, Unwitting Pawn and Well-Intentioned Extremist? After all, he did shoot off Ballister's arm, because the Institute threatened to kill Ballister instead and the weaponized lance acted of its own accord when he lost but it ended up ruining their relationship, and Ballister decided to declare war on the society that cast him out and made him the villain. As Ballister aptly points out it wasn't an accident, Goldenloin lies and keeps insisting it was and that Ballister is the one who chose to go evil. Goldenloin takes a while to admit the truth to Ballister, who points out there may have been a better solution, and no, it does not make up for the years of Goldenloin causing his pain and ruining his life. When they fight, Goldenloin treats their duels as games and complains he's no fun when Ballister goes after a Leeroy Jenkins Nimona and refuses to banter. The Director calls Goldenloin a useful idiot when he goes You Said You Would Let Them Go on witnessing her torture Ballister and Nimona at the same time and tries to rescue Ballister. At the end, at least, Goldenloin redeems himself by fighting Nimona's Superpowered Evil Side to buy Ballister time to negate her powers, at the cost of his ability to walk.
• Catharsis Factor: Goldenloin getting some Laser-Guided Karma in that the climax injures him badly, to the point that he's going to need a cane to walk and possibly has months to recover. Ballister of all people shows forgiveness because while Goldenloin left Ballister to recover from his arm injury alone, Ballister vows to be there. He pulled a Heel–Face Turn and provides some much-needed support against Nimona, but was still going to let the Institute execute Ballister and enabled them to torture a child because, as the Director put it, he was too dense to realize he was on the wrong side.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • While also upsetting, Ballister outright stating how he feels about Goldenloin and Nimona, for once. When a Nimona disguised as the doctor says that Nimona was a monster who caused a lot of damage, Ballister refutes it. He says she was a child mistreated and misused by the authorities.
  • His and Goldenloin's apparent reconciliation is also a heartening detail amidst a series of sad events. Goldenloin abandoned him to recover from his serious injury alone, but Ballister has forgiven him. He takes up a chair by Goldenloin's side and says he'll be there for the whole journey.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The movie adaptation being cancelled during production but able to come back trough Netflix interestingly mirrors Nimona's ability to die and come back to life.
• Memetic Mutation: I'm not a (noun)... I'M A SHARK.
• Rooting for the Empire: It's hard not to sympathize with Nimona laying waste to the kingdom that treated her as a disposable guinea pig in the climax. A lot of innocents are caught in the crossfire, soldiers and citizens alike. Ballister even says he understands why Nimona is lashing out, but he still has to stop her because his creed is no hurting innocents.
• Trans Audience Interpretation: Nimona’s butch manner of dress and ease as taking any form she wishes, particularly big beefy dudes while usually presenting as a small teenage girl, leads many to interpret her as trans or genderfluid. The comic’s author ND Stevenson later came out as bigender and transmasc, and noted that many of his early remarks about Nimona’s gender came off as Hilarious in Hindsight.

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