Nimona

Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | YA | Published in 2015

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-5

Chapters 6-7

Chapters 8-9

Chapters 10-11 and Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 6-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 6 Summary

The first pages of the chapter illustrate Nimona in the form of an old lady, secretly leaving a modified apple in a greengrocer’s shop. In a flashback to a week earlier, Blackheart engineers nonlethal poisonous apples in his lab. His plan is to create panic in the city. He hopes the people will become suspicious that the reports about the Institution’s use of toxic jaderoot may be true.

The narrative resumes with Nimona coming home after dispatching the apples throughout the city. While waiting for the poison to take effect, Blackheart suggests they go rob a bank: “[H]ow would you feel about robbing a bank?” (59). Nimona enthusiastically agrees. They enter the bank with Blackheart wearing a hooded cloak and Nimona in the form of a burly man. Nimona shapeshifts to fight off the guards that attempt to stop them while Blackheart opens the vault with a laser gun. He then asks her to keep the civilians away so he can blow the wall for their escape. Outside the bank, Goldenloin and the guards are about to go in, but Nimona in dragon form comes out to scare them away. Goldenloin understands that she is a distraction, but he arrives just as Blackheart blows the wall open. Still in dragon form, Nimona picks him up and they fly away, but one of the guards’ arrows hits her leg. When they get home, Nimona is excited about their adventure, but Blackheart notices she is hurt and insists on taking care of her wound.

Later, as reports of jaderoot poisoning cases increase, the Director of the Institution criticizes Goldenloin’s inability to foil Blackheart’s plans. She orders him to kill Nimona, which Goldenloin objects to, but she tells him that Blackheart’s life will be threatened if he does not.

Chapter 7 Summary

Blackheart and Nimona happily watch the reports of poisoning cases. During their conversation, Blackheart notices that Nimona’s wound has healed suspiciously quickly, but she claims that it’s due to her shapeshifting abilities. After she leaves, Blackheart gets a video call from Goldenloin, who invites him to a secret meeting. They meet in a tavern, and Goldenloin warns Blackheart that he should get rid of his sidekick. Despite the Director’s orders, Goldenloin does not want to kill Nimona. Blackheart is not worried for Nimona’s safety and gets angry at Goldenloin for pretending to be a noble hero while refusing to acknowledge his betrayal during the joust: “The Institution needed a villain. That lot fell to me. I never chose it” (96). Goldenloin counters, claiming that Blackheart never had the heroic traits required of the Institution’s champion. They start to fight. Blackheart holds Goldenloin to the ground and tells him that he could cut off his arm in revenge. Blackheart maintains that the Institution would “cast […] aside” Goldenloin like they did him. When Goldenloin protests that Blackheart would not hurt him, Blackheart agrees, adding: “And I’m the villain. What do you suppose that says about you?” (99).

Chapters 6-7 Analysis

In Chapters 6 and 7, the plot advances with Blackheart and Nimona working seamlessly together now that they have worked through their communication issues in the previous chapter. Their relationship is more secure and trusting and further develops the theme of The Significance of Found Family. Nimona agrees to rein in her destructive instincts while Blackheart takes more decisive action in their plan to overthrow the Institution. Overall, they have learned to cooperate more effectively and strengthen their friendship in the process. The harmonious relationship between Nimona and Blackheart makes them more challenging opponents to Goldenloin, whose character evolves the most in this section. In contrast to Blackheart and Nimona’s success during the bank robbery, Goldenloin fails as the traditional hero, who is expected to foil the villain’s plans and slay the dragon. Their respective character developments work in parallel to emphasize the reversal of archetypal hero and villain roles.

Stevenson uses the pointed exchange between Blackheart and Goldenloin to thematically highlight Shifting Identity as Queer Symbolism and Ambivalent Morality and Moral Dilemmas. Goldenloin and Blackheart’s meeting reinforces the idea that although Goldenloin may be trying to do the right thing, his methods are not as genuinely heroic as Blackheart’s: Goldenloin is dishonest about his intentions, works against the Institution in secret, and wrongly assumes that Blackheart might seek vengeance for his lost arm. Blackheart maintains that the Institution villainized him. Goldenloin’s response reveals that he is still naive about the oppressive system he is a part of: “Oh, please! Do you really believe that? / You never had it in you to be a hero” (96). However, the conclusion of their physical altercation marks a turning point in Goldenloin’s epiphany about the Institution’s methods and his role in it. Blackheart’s closing rhetorical question deconstructs the Institution’s delineation of the hero and villain roles. Now, characters grapple with the nature of their own identities, both internally and externally.