Urban Numina The Movie: Anima and The Nemesis

Fans of the webseries may remember that the final episode revealed some interesting things about Anima and mentioned the existence of "The Nemesis." This was a plotline that I had been developing since the inception of Urban Numina, but had been lost with the all juggling and rewrites during our first season run.

With the film having more of a focus on Andrea, Mel and Devon's relationships, the character of "The Nemesis" has been excised completely from the story. But there does need to be an antagonist still to keep the drama going. Someone who is going to prevent everyone from getting what they want. While Deus' arrival disrupts things, he is also going to help bring things together at the end of the story.

Which means that someone needs to step up to the "nemesis" role to drive the tension.

As you may be able to tell from the notes I've been writing so far, Anima is being set up as an antagonist at least in regards to Deus. But her role in the film is going to be a little different from the webseries. In the series her conflict was primarily with Urge. They were presented as two nemeses fighting to decide which side Deus belonged on - but never directly involving Deus in their plans.

This wasn't the original goal, and although Bex and Andrew really sold the two characters we never got to see the original plan which actually involved Deus. In the film things change. Urge is more of a free agent, and Anima is much more cautious.

There is still the conflict between the two key numina factions, the Rebels and those who support the Elders. But the nature of the Numina will be explored more through Anima and Urge's actions. The two's behaviours will reveal more about why the Numina/Gods stopped walking in plain sight, and what it is about Deus' love for Devon that disturbs Anima so much.

I am currently working on two such scenes. These were originally planned for the series, but I have rewritten them for the film script. Both involve Deus engaging in a battle of wills with Anima. In the first one, Deus is trying to figure out who Anima is. He is less interested in her attempts to get him involved in godly affairs and gives her reason to suspect that he is experiencing feelings for Devon. The second scene is at the end of the montage sequence with Devon. This time Anima is physically present and tries to convince Deus that being around Devon is dangerous for Deus' sense of self. There is a subtext that love can cause someone to lose themselves into the personality of another.

In this scene Urge intervenes, and manipulates his way into Devon and Deus' confidence. This sets up the latter part of act two where Anima will meet Andrea and Mel.

But it also lays the foundations of doubt for Deus just as Devon is beginning to warm to him.

A lot gets told in these two scenes, but most of it is in the subtext of the conversations and action. It is a challenge to write without being too hamfisted about it.

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Thanks for the support so far!

Conan