i see them as āall the other hasā (especially with nathan)
nathan doesnāt really have other friends and is shown to not be well liked by the other kids.
mimsy is friendly, iām sure he does have other friendsā but none that compare to nathan in his eyes.
mimsy has his own sadistic tendencies that some people tend to forget about, or not notice..
(nathan has to shush him because he gets so excited at the idea of them harming someone, he almost spoils the plan.)
(he has also KILLED PEOPLE in the tfbw dlc)
nathan enables mimsyās violent thoughts/behavior, being violent himself.
theyāre both messed up, in different ways
nathan wants ārevengeā on jimmy, mimsy just thinks itās fun.
nathanās a very tragic character to me.
heās neglected by his parents, and not liked elsewhere (ex: at school), but jimmy is.
jimmy has everything he wants: several talents, friends, fame (the town loves his comedy, he even grows up to be a professional one day!)
jimmyās parents arenāt perfect- but theyāre better than nathanās.
nathan desperately wants to be liked, to have attention.
but due to the mistreatment of the world, as a defense mechanism- heās become closed off and mean.
heās learned to use the way society babies him as an advantage, acting āmore disabledā than he is when the adults are around, in order to seem innocent and stay out of trouble
using manipulation and schemes to get his way (which the schemes rarely work)..
he has practically no control over his life, everything always goes wrong.
but their āboss and henchmanā role gives him control of something.
mimsy will give him the attention he wants, heās that boyās biggest fan. nathan just doesnāt realize it yet
nathan might not show it, but he cares. his world would crumble around him without mimsy.
when talking about their plans, nathan always includes mimsy in the goal.
he doesnāt say āthe prize will be mine,ā he says āthe prize will be ours.ā
sometimes he brings mimsy along even if heās not helping with the scheme. (handicar, moss piglets for example)
thereās no reason for him to be there if nathan doesnāt want him to help- rather heās just there as company
in handicar, nathan said ājust imagine it mimsy. a whole summer to ourselves to do what we want. itās going to be awesome!ā
the sweetest thing heās ever said, he just wants to hang out with his friend in a place he DOESNāT hate (summer camp) q_q
in the same episode, mimsy was offering āsaferā plans, logical, nicer things that wouldnāt get nathan hurtā but he wasnāt listening.
however, at the end, mimsy had one of his moments of clarity (that shows heās not as dumb as youād think).
he suggests to nathan if he doesnāt want to go to camp so badly, then he should just try and talk to his parents.
nathan told him to shut up, but he DID try this at the end of the episode. he listened.
it didnāt work, though. nathan probably knew it wouldnāt go well in the first place; and being rejected probably made him worse.
even more scared to be āweakā and vulnerable.
he can pretend he doesnāt care when he hears the kids say they prefer jimmy. ātheyāre missing outā, he thinks. but he cares. a lot
their relationship isnāt perfect by any means
(in its current [canon] state).
[the obvious points of nathan slapping mimsy, and mimsy making ājokesā about nathanās misfortunes. (i donāt think he means ill-will, but nathan does NOT want to be reminded of those things or made fun of)]
i like to think they improve themselves as they get older, though.
nathan learns to be vulnerable rather than reserved, bottling his emotions to the point of explosion.
mimsy learns whatās right to say in the momentā to console him
nathan also (after several years work) finally gets over his one-sided hatred against jimmy, maybe even becoming friends afterwards :)
also reminder that nathan and mimsy are still together in post covid!! (in both timelines!)
they grew up together š„¹š„¹ and are seemingly successful based on the gold jewelry
they have matching outfits and necklaces š„¹š„¹š„¹