The Slow Death of the Director in Nimona
If you’re reading this, congratulations. You’ve accepted me as the patron saint of all these weird Director posts (go through my account— I’m basically a Director stan account at this point), and I’m BOOM BACK BABY to do ANOTHER ONE! Except this one is a bit more linear.
See, the Director is actually killing herself throughout Nimona— she’s her own judge, jury, and character assassinator. She starts the film with a facade— in flashbacks and all. She’s stiff, emotionless, and regal. She stands tall and everyone knows to respect her; her soft voice seems analytical and she’s always a bit distant from emotion.
Even when the Queen dies and the Director seems all shocked, she never stops being.. her. She kneels down to check on her and looks shocked, but still retains an element of being in control. Of course, this could partially be because we all know she was faking or either half-faking her shock, because she’s the one who actually killed the Queen. However, as I said, even during that flashback where she checks Ballister’s sword, that air of soft superiority and coolness stays. Her eyes are shifty, but the rest of her is the same.
While she asks Ambrosius what’s wrong, she may look attentive, but her posture is still very regal and refined.
It’s when she sees Nimona— gets confirmation that, in her own twisted mind, the reason she killed the Queen was valid —that she starts to change. Her posture is less regal and more on-guard. She gets genuinely shocked, face-warpingly shocked, then angry and crouching as if ready to fight, baring her teeth, and looking on with concern as she watches Nimona’s chaos.
Of course, we all know that while she’s watching replays, her eyes are all narrowed, and when she stands, she switches from vulnerable to condescending while talking to Ambrosius, only to make a heel-turn and violently stab him, and resume her elegant posturing— but her face is clearly angry. Then she goes back to comedically scared when she figures out it was a ruse, and we get the ✨beautiful✨ scene of her GROWLING at Ambrosius. This, to me, is when she ACTUALLY loses it.
I think that before she managed a balancing act— she occasionally let bits of paranoia show, maybe while engineering the weapon to kill the Queen —but with Nimona in the picture, she’s clearly messed up. While Nimona may take the form of creatures and monsters, she isn’t one, and remains painfully human.
The Director stews. She bares her teeth.
And by the end of the film her last words are a growl once more.
As Nimona grows more comfortable with being human— that is, accepting herself and becoming more calm around Ballister —the Director loses it. She doesn’t use her persona anymore. She cracks and becomes paranoid, loud, animalistic even. She’s so far gone she even fakes regret and continues a plan she’s been alerted to being obviously bad, bordering on the genocidal. She has accepted the idea that she may be wrong— then instantly regrets it and goes even further down.
The Director didn’t need to die at the end of Nimona because her persona is already dead. She’s so fractured and paranoid and insane that she could almost be a totally different character.
