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 Institute, 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 immediately cuts Ballister's arm off on instinct, only realizing what he had done seconds after. They both stare at each other in horror before the floor under them is destroyed, causing Ballister to go on the run and become a fugitive.

Similar to the comic, Nimona meets him and tries to help him stop the Institute, although Ballister stops her and trusts that Ambrosius would trust him if they had the chance to talk things over. When they reunite for the first time since the queen's death during Ballister's jailbreak, they look happy to see each other, saying each other's names before remembering the awkward situation surrounding Ballister's arm. Ballister is heartbroken when he realizes Ambrosius also believes he had killed the queen. Ambrosius later seemingly reluctantly offers himself to lead a group of knights to capture him. When the Institute is able to pinpoint the location of Nimona impersonating Ballister, he is able to tell it is not him, stating that Ballister "hates freestyle jazz" and is able to pinpoint the real Ballister in the footage. He then leads the knights to Ballister's next location, aiming to find him and capture him. However, when he had him in the crosshairs of his crossbow, he hesitated, and put his bow down upon seeing his face, opting to stare at him instead and ultimately not shooting. Later on in the flying cable car with the Director, she 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 proof is destroyed by Todd. Ballister begs Ambrosius to believe him in spite of it which causes Ambrosius to briefly hesitate but ultimately choose to go against him, calling for his arrest, breaking his heart but also angering him, and causing them to start fighting. Later on, Ballister and Nimona attain definite proof of the Director's guilt by tricking her into confessing through impersonating Ambrosius. It is shown afterwards that the real Ambrosius was also planning to confront the Director, implying he did consider Ballister might have been telling the truth. Upon seeing the Director's confession on the news, he watches angrily as he calls several guards to back him up to arrest her. However, the Director is able to convince Ambrosius of her innocence to make it look like it was Nimona's fault. Ambrosius, now convinced of this, apologizes to Ballister, now believing in his innocence, but also asks him to kill Nimona. Ballister 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 Institute. Ballister, now doubting of Nimona, still denies to go back, but is visibly affected when Ambrosius declares his love for him, and after a few seconds, he leaves anyway, but not without picking up his sword and the scroll Ambrosius had showed him. Ballister later confronts Nimona with the information Ambrosius gave him, implying he chose to believe what Ambrosius had told him after his declaration - albeit the wrong choice.

During the climax of the movie, Ballister realizes his mistake, as does Ambrosius when he 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, the two seemingly reconnected, having gotten together again as they share a kiss and hold hands, walking together to 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 410+ written works.

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