And Nux Was the One Receiving a Blood Transfusion
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | And Nux Was the One Receiving a Blood Transfusion |
| Creator: | kinkygreyjoys |
| Date(s): | May/June 2015 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | Mad Max: Fury Road |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | And Nux Was the One Receiving a Blood Transfusion (original post deleted from Tumblr as of November 2018) |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Responding to a Tumblr message about Nux, kinkygreyjoys responded with a character analysis of Nux and to a degree, his War Boy partner Slit. The resulting post, called here And Nux Was the One Receiving a Blood Transfusion, was an interesting piece of Mad Max: Fury Road meta that characterized Nux as a "badass" rather than the "cinnamon roll" that other parts of fandom considered him.
Essay
woodswanderer: No but canwe talk about how badass nux is? Slit is below him in that. This is a guy who headbutted his best friend and stared him down. When nux was staring slit down slit was all breathing heavily and growling and nux was all calm and collected...http://jaesauce.tumblr.com/post/121264144356/no-but-canwe-talk-about-how-badass-nux-is-slit-is
kinkygreyjoys: AND NUX WAS THE ONE RECEIVING A BLOOD TRANSFUSION.tbh I think Nux operates predominantly out of this “I’m gonna die anyway so might as well be cool about it” mentality. He’s on death’s doorstep when we meet him, literally unable to stand. If his tumors don’t kill him, the night fevers will. He is expecting to go at any time now.
People always seem to headcanon Slit as older and more mature than Nux but I don’t think that’s true at all. Slit may be older, but he’s mentally more immature than Nux. He pitches a small fit when Nux asserts his rightful authority over him. And I wonder if part of this is related to how much longer they have left to live. Slit doesn’t once try to sacrifice himself. He doesn’t even get to chrome himself. Nux, however, gets ready to die three separate times. He’s not only accepted his inevitable death, he’s embraced it.
I think that, as childish as the War Boys seem (and they are childish), Nux has his shit together a lot more than people give him credit for. He’s driving a pursuit vehicle, has a subordinate who reports to him, is important enough that the Organic Mechanic lets him take a universal donor who could benefit the entire War Boy community until he dies and strap him to the front of his car to presumably die on Nux’s funeral pyre.
Nux is also mature enough to realize that fighting Furiosa, Max, and the wives is pointless, and personifies the whole “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” idea. Not only that, but they all come to rely on him. Not just Capable, but all the women look to him when Max suggests their new plan. Nux drives the rig, gets under the hood of a STILL DRIVING RIG to fix the engine. There’s one scene where Dag and Cheedo (I think it’s them, anyway, it’s such a quick moment) have their hands on his shoulder, fingers curled in anxiety. He becomes a constant for them, someone to rely on. Maybe if the circumstances were similar, it could have been that way for another War Boy, but I don’t think so.
Long story short, Nux is a badass.http://jaesauce.tumblr.com/post/121264144356/no-but-canwe-talk-about-how-badass-nux-is-slit-is