Let's Take a Moment to Appreciate Ballister and Bodhi

I recently watched Nimona on Netflix. It had been on my "watch list" for a while. But Nicole recommended it, so I moved it up the list. 

I loved it. 

Spoilers. 

I was at first excited to recognized the voice of the queen as Shadow Weaver (I love her voice).  Kind of sad to see how short-lived that was though. I would have loved more of her. Especially since she seems like a really good queen.

I also recognized the voice of Ballister. My brain worked its way to Star Wars, and all the way to Rogue One. But there it ended, and I had to look up who he was. The pilot, of course! Can we take a moment to go to Rogue One and look at what Bodhi the pilot does? Bodhi risks his life to defect from an evil organization, bringing vital information to the good guys. He ends up in the hands of a paranoid radical, who has an alien suck on his brain. Bodhi then recovers from that, escapes an exploding city, and volunteers to help with ANOTHER dangerous mission to gather more vital information. He is a key person in getting that information out. But then he's killed in the process. Poor guy. Freaking hero. 

So, as usual, previous characters help me get attached to new characters. In a shocking turn of events, my favorite character in the movie isn't the monster, but the knight! 

Maybe because he's the one that befriends and saves the monster. (I like monsters, so I use the term lovingly). Oh man, Ballister gets so tortured through the movie! (In so many ways, including getting beat up a couple times).

The end was so stupid, but I loved it. And I loved the stupid debate about what kind of otter it was. And Nimona has so many cute animal shapes. I love how bouncy she is as a rhino. 

The first time I watched it, I was so concerned for Ballister and Ambrosius's relationship. Ballister gets caught looking so guilty (like shouting about murder). Then Ambrosius frustrated me for a while. He seemed to turn on Ballister pretty easily. But that's not really fair. Ballister also took some convincing to see the truth, and Ambrosius didn't have someone trying to drag him in the right direction. 

Oh man, I think every time I watch it, I cry harder...