Another thing I can’t get past about Nile is how accepting and welcoming she is. I know the fandom is head over heels about Joe’s softness and Nicky’s caring, but I feel that Nile is overlooked in that regard. Nile has so much softness and caring and consideration in her.
The way she interacts with the child and the woman in her first scenes, she’s both kind and respectful respectively, each time going out of her way to ease the experience for the person she is communicating with, to no one’s benefit but theirs.
And on that subject, and this was very, VERY, important to me, when Nicky says the “love of my life at dinner” and points to Joe, Nile doesn’t show one flicker of surprise or shock or give us the “oh, are you gay?” moment we might expect. No. Just a “You’re the oldest?” to Andy, because Joe and Nicky being together is a fact she’s witnessed and heard about, and just like that she’s accepted it completely and without question, wich is certainly a testament to her upbringing and personal values = Nile Freeman is good people.
When she wakes from her nightmare, her immediate and general “sorry’ to everyone for disturbing their rest, even though she’s known them for all of what? Three, four, five hours at this point? She considers them, even in the midst of her own turmoil at the moment?
The way she relays the contents of her dream to them when Nicky asks? Low and questioning, although not demanding answers, even though the dream obviously pertains to them in some way, and she has a right to do so?
The way she speaks about her mother and father and family to Andy? Quietly loving and proud? This is what and who my family is, this is what they did for me? And Andy sees and understands - “you come from warriors,”
Even the way she chooses to leave Andy is in it’s own way considerate, she doesn’t reject or do so angrily or accusingly, she simply tells Andy firmly, “I’m not doing this,” and then almost pleadingly, “I still have time with them,” and then, and THEN, she asks “Are you going to be okay?” because she cares for her family, and wants to go back to them, but she also cares for Andy now, she knows her leaving could potentially change the game for her, and she wants to make sure, before she goes that it’ll be okay for her.
Then she realizes Booker’s betrayal, and with all the implications of that for Andy and the team, that care manifests, and she immediately goes back.
When she sees Copley’s wall, her first thought goes to Andy’s hopelessness and grimness, “she couldn’t see, but you could,” she sees an opportunity to better life for someone and takes on the task of delivering that message of hope to that person -
- the first thing she does in the lab is reassure Andy, tell her softly, almost sweetly, that all she’s done has mattered.
And throughout the fight at the end, “where is Andy?” “Put on the damn armor, Andy,” “you’re going spend it with us,” because she cares so much, loves so much, she’s welcomed these people in already and it’s so glaringly obvious that she’s determined to make her life with them a good one.
And at the very end, when she only wants an apology for Booker, yes, she’s still young and not fully understanding of the depth of what Booker did, but she knows it is serious, and she’s still ready to forgive. (another testament to the way she was raised and perhaps how her religion influences her views: forgiveness is a big thing in Christian religion, and she seems to be a Christian of some denomination)
Nile is just…she has such a big heart. She’s such a good person that it fucking hurts to even think about it.
She feels deeply, cares deeply, is hurt deeply, (her face when she comes into the tent in the camp and see that her ‘friends’ are packing her off) and welcomes without qualm and with the depths of her heart.
Her heart is so, so big, she accepts all these people, accepts them as they are - I think this verse from Nirvana sums it up (Come as you are, as you were. As I want you to be. As a friend, as a friend. As an old enemy.) and she accepts with no small amount of grace the hand that destiny has dealt to her, and at every turn retains her personal values and inherent goodness.
In conclusion, Nile Freeman is an awesome human being, and the values she embodies and the love she’s ready to give needs to be more appreciated.
And I love her
@themoonwheniamlost (if it’s okay to tag!! tell me if it’s not!) You love Nile as much as I do, any thoughts?
