This is the perfect opportunity for me to infodump about my favorite underrated found family ever aka Rion and Dimos from NieR Reincarnation!!! (TW violence, ableism, child abuse | major spoilers for their main game chapters and Dimos’ dark memory story)
Summary: Rion was a prince severely abused by his biological family and the only person who truly respected him was a clockwork cowboy android who struggles to understand his own emotions and wants to protect Rion more than anything.
Rion is the eldest son of a tyrant king at war with neighboring nations. His mother died while he was young. Due to his pacifist nature and being born with a chronic illness, he was an outcast among his biological family. Before meeting Dimos, his father barred him from showing any weakness in front of others, and he had survived countless murder attempts from his brothers who desired the throne. His spirit had been all but shattered. The only thing keeping him going was hope in a better future.
Dimos is the first model of clockwork android soldiers Rion’s nation produced to aid them in the war. They were trained only to kill enemies and serve their superiors.
The story of Rion and Dimos meeting each other is quite complicated. Technically they met twice.
The first time was when Dimos was stationed to protect the boy on the battlefield. During his time with Rion, Dimos grew attached to him, realizing thoughts and emotions he never felt before.
While hiding in a storage room during a battle gone wrong, Rion suffers from a coughing fit after running out of medicine. Afraid of his father’s abuse if he heard of the situation, he makes Dimos pinky promise to keep this incident a secret.
Rion’s coughing spell soon reveals their location to the men he was commanding. Instead of coming to their rescue, they attempt to kill Rion as part of a scheme ordered by his younger brother. Due to his programming, Dimos is forced to comply with the other superior officer’s commands.
But something changed within him. He is unable to accept this. Rion trusted him with that promise. Above all, Rion told him earlier: “If I am ever in danger again, maybe you can help me out.”
Dimos is able to regard this as a royal order that takes highest priority above all else, and he overrides his controls, wounding the general and leaving him to die at the hands of the enemy army in order to save Rion.
This act would not go unpunished. After returning home, he is forced to undergo a complete memory wipe. He loses nearly all memory of the prince, save for the promise he made, which eventually fades along with everything else. His resistance to the procedure causes an error in deletion. He is then cast aside in a warehouse and left to rust.
Years pass. Dimos continues to lay dormant.
Until the day they meet (for the second time) and their story officially begins.
The prince is shoved inside the room.
They find themselves in yet another storage room. Neither of them would ever remember their previous encounter.
Dimos prepares a bed for the boy with random discarded materials in the room, and they talk. Rion and Dimos were both cast aside and discarded in similar ways: the boy for his worsening illness and the man for not obeying orders. They find comfort in each other because of this fact.
Rion feels so comfortable, in fact, that he falls asleep on Dimos’ shoulder.
In just a short time, he already feels more comfortable around Dimos than he does with his living biological family.
Later when Rion falls further ill from the poor environment, Dimos tries to find medicine for the boy out of concern, only to discover an empty bottle. In an effort to cheer Dimos up, Rion converts the bottle into a tiny lantern and sings him a song about peace. The song awakens something unfamiliar but warm within Dimos.
They inspire each other to take action. They defeat the guards, sneak through the castle halls, and approach the king (Rion’s father). Rion begs his father to end the war—much like the hero of the song he sung—but instead of a favorable reply, his father orders Dimos to kill his own son.
He is unable to accept this.
He shuts down his motor system and kneels in front of the prince.
They are chased out of the castle and begin a new chapter in their lives. Rion would spend the remainder of his life traveling between nations advocating for peace, and Dimos would follow, taking care of the boy and protecting him. They now face capture by their former country and are still the target of hate for other countries affected by the war.
Through their adventures, they stayed by each other’s sides. No matter how many people were against them and wanted them dead, they always had each other, to the end and beyond. Every time fate pulled them apart, they made their way back to each other.
They stuck together until the end, and beyond.
After Rion’s illness had cut his life short, Dimos stayed with him, even after death. He remained there for over 100 years, protecting Rion’s body by any means necessary, until he was eventually killed and laid to rest by a bounty hunter. She honored the two by building a grave for them.
Their story is tragic and takes a very dark turn, but it is also beautiful. I cherish it so much since it reminds me of one of my own relationships and it’s part of the reason why Rion is currently one of my highest kins. They devastate me. I love them.
Anyway, they adopt a chihuahua in the comics and Dimos officially becomes a guardian figure. The end!!! Thank you so much for reading if you got this far! Their story is technically longer and far more complicated so if you’re interested in them then go play NieR Reincarnation. Now.
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