I’m getting the urge to say some words for my girl Nile Freeman. A thought that’s been percolating for me since I watched tog2 was the fact that she does whatever she wants, and I don’t mean this in a shallow girlboss unstoppable way.
I mean that I love seeing all the instances where she is directly doing what everyone tells her not to. When they’re playing liar's dice (i think) about 12 minute into tog2, and everyone is telling her not to call it, she goes with her gut and calls it anyway.
On the plane in tog1 Andy tells her that her prayers are unheard, but Nile goes on praying. In the same scene, Andy tells her not to try and fight back, but Nile goes on to make two separate attempts to do so.
Also in tog1, while Andy is fighting off the swat team alone in the church, Nile is adamant that they should go help her, despite booker's assurances that "that's not the signal."
In tog2, when everyone is insisting that andy be left alone to go find quynh and be given space (34 min in), Nile just gives them this look, this "you idiot" look, and storms out after her, not taking no for an answer when Andy tries to stop her from coming along.
And its not just big things. Nile's agency and self confidence are kind of ever present in these movies. She decides to go home to see her family in tog1 because that's what she wants, and that's what feels right. She turns around to save Andy because she decided that was right too. She's the only one to go out and chat with booker right before his exile, and the only one who wants to let him off easy. She steers a boat into a building. She jumps a guy out of a skyscraper window. She's an icon. She is the moment.
But what I'm really getting at I think is that she really trusts herself. She trusts others as well, and she knows how to take orders. I mean hell she's a soldier, and she's good at it. But despite that ability, she always goes with her gut. I know if I were in her place, I wouldn't have the bravery to voice an opinion contradicting that of some guys hundreds of years older, who in a very literal sense have more experience, but she does it without a second thought.
It's not that the others see her as inferior, but they do sometimes see her as young, or maybe even naive in some circumstances, and Nile will take none of that as an excuse to put down her own judgement.
And you know what, she's damn right to consider herself their equal! It was a bluff. She should fight back against being kidnapped by a stranger on a plane. Andy did need company to go and find Quynh. Of course Nile isn't always right. She has gaps in her knowledge and she makes incorrect predictions sometimes, just like anyone, but I really love her confidence. It's one of the things that makes her character so empowering, I think.
Anyways 'nuff said, I just wanted to talk about Nile Freeman the baddie the legend the queen.
