Goldenheart

Goldenheart is the slash ship between Ambrosius Goldenloin and Ballister Blackheart from the Nimona fandom.

Comic
Both of them met when they were younger in the orphanage of their Institution. As they were growing and becoming closer, they started somehow a secretish relationship, implying they became boyfriends. As they were growing together, they had the same dream in their minds: become knights for their kingdom and, pherhaps, stay together until destiny decides to part them away. Years passed and both of them become promising knights. They were assigned in a competition with several other knights, and as they were passing their tests, Ambrosius new lance's balance threw him off, causing him problems and making Ballister take the chance to push him off his horse, making the winner. Ambrosius got angered over this and did not control himself, causing him to fire the lance at Ballister's right arm, making it seem like an accident.

Ballister, enraged for this, promises himself to kill him one day, as the institution kicked him out since “knights with one arm are useless”. They then became nemeses, with Ballister deciding to stop the institution he lived and kill his former lover, forcing Ambrosius and other knights to put him as often foiling Ballister's plans against the Institution. Blackheart seeths over Ambrosius' betrayal, and The Director, noting their chemistry, admited that he used their relationship and Ambrosius' continued affection for Ballister to make Ambrosius toe the line.

During this whole period, Blackheart meets Nimona, where both unite to destroy the institution, and although Ballister thought many times of killing Goldenloin if he had the chance to, he was not capable to. Same with Ambrosius: even if they got to fight many times, he was not able to kill him either. During a point of the comic, Ballister is in a crisis, as Ambrosius intends to kill Nimona and viceversa, saying a famous quote of him:

After a big fight against the institution, Ambrosius and Ballister got to reconnect and finally join forces to stop them and Nimona, but during this Ambrosius gets heavily injured and collapsed, and was sent to a doctor. At the end, he finally got to reconnect with Nimona, but was sad as he thought she left. Suddenly Ballister realized that Nimona shapeshifted into one of the doctors and starts running after her, but when he heard that Ambrosius woke up and was asking for him, he decided to let Nimona go and went back to check after him. In the epilogue, they appear to be close again, once more.

Movie
Same as the comic, both of them grew up in the Institution, being together since their childhood. As they grow older, Ballister is chosen to be the royal knight of the queen, but was set up by the Director to be blamed for the murder of Queen Valerin. After this, Ambrosius quickly cuts Ballister's arm off, making Ballister go on the run and become a fugitive.

Similar to the comic, Nimona meets him and tries to help him stop the Institution, although Ballister stops her and trusts that Ambrosius would trust him if they had the chance to talk things over. On the other hand, Goldenloin was convinced that Ballister wouldn't kill the queen and did his best to support this decision, although he later offered himself to lead a group of knights to capture him. When the Director asks him what is going through his mind, he starts having a mental breakdown, mentioning this:

Then it is revealed he never said anything of these and it was all in his head, and he said "I'm fine, Director" with a low expression.

When Ballister and Nimona finally have the proof to clean Ballister's name, they try to talk with Ambrosius as he planned, but the Director tricked him and made Goldenloin attack him back, breaking his heart but also angering him, making these to start fighting. Once again, Ballister and Nimona get another proof of his innocence, and once again, the Director fools Ambrosius to make it look like it was Nimona's fault. The golden guard, convinced that it is true, apologizes to Ballister and ask him to kill Nimona. He angrily denies and starts leaving, but a desperate Ambrosius show him enough reasons to look at her as the villain and begs him to go back to the Institution. Ballister, now doubting of Nimona, still denies to go back, but is shocked when Goldenloin confesses his feelings for him, and after a few seconds, he leaves anyway.

At the end of the movie, Ambrosius finally sees that the Director has lost her mind, since she ordered to fire a giant cannon into the city since she is trying kill Nimona transformed into the Great Black Monster, but that would also kill thousands of people. The cannon was not launched as Ballister was able to control Nimona and apologizes to her, and as she returns to her human form, a delighted Ambrosius realizes he was always wrong, so he goes back to the director and tries to convince her to stop. Blinded by rage, the Director herself directs the cannon to Nimona, prompting the girl to transform into a huge Phoenix use herself as a shield to protect the city, killing both the Director and Nimona. Ballister, who ran after her hoping to see her alive, feels devastated as he sees his friend's ashes disappearing. Ambrosius runs to hold a depressed Ballister as the last one falls unconscious in his arms from sadness and exhaustion.

At the end of the movie, we can see that these two were able to be in a relationship once more, being able to reconnect, and together, pay homage to Nimona.

Fanon
Goldenheart is the most popular ship within the Nimona fandom as this is the main couple of the story. Since the comic release, many fans have loved their interactions and the way both of them complement each other perfectly. The two are usually portrayed in the popular fanfiction troupe, "Enemies to Lovers", although they were in a more complicated situation (lovers to enemies, then back to lovers), as both of them had to fight each other and are obligated to fight each other several times, but at the end, they are able to resolve their problems and come closer again.

The black knight-white knight theme of the two men has also helped to grab people's attain towards the ship. Like other known LGBTQ+ couples and duos of a LGBTQ-like nature that happen to have some sort of a connection to a child, people like to feature Ambrosius and Ballister as Nimona's dads. With fans of the Netflix film and original book seeing Ballister as a father figure to the young shapeshifter, while Ambrosius being Ballister's lover would have him as a co-dad. Who gives Nimona a chance for Ballister's sake and so the three of them could be a family.

On AO3, Goldenheart is the most written ship for both Ballister and Ambrosius. It is also the most written ship in the Nimona (Webcomic) and Nimona (2023) tags. There are currently 80+ written works.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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