"Tell me, children, what do you see?"
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a movie and comic full of emotion (as should be expected from Hayao Miyazaki). Most of it is sad, but some bits make you smile.
Both Media
- Nausicaä's first meeting with Teto.
- Nausicaä telling Lastel what she needed to hear so the girl can die content. What that thing is depends on the version and is elaborated below.
- As Nausicaä attempts to save the baby Ohmu which had been abducted, tortured, and trapped on a sandspit in the middle of a highly acidic lake, she gets pushed into the acid and screams in agony… and the Ohmu, which had been resisting her the entire time up to this point, suddenly backs off and uses its tiny tendrils to take away her pain, suggesting that it sensed that she had put herself in danger to save it.
The Manga
- Rastel's death: When Nausicaä finds her, Rastel explains the situation and gives Nausicaä what turns out to be the Control Stone to the God-Warrior on the promise that the Torumekians NEVER get it. Nausicaä agrees, allowing Rastel to die satisfied. Despite all the hardship it puts her through, she keeps the stone safe until she can get it to Asbel.
- As Nausicaä prepares to leave Asbel, she glomps him, prompting the kid to blush. Aww!
- She wears the bandage he made for her for a good chunk of the story after.
- At one point, Nausicaä is with the Torumekians investigating a destroyed (by miasma) Dorok village. One of the soldiers checking out the well encountered a spore-infested Royal Yanma (giant moth) and got a lungful of miasma for his trouble. As they get him back to their camp, everyone assumes he's a goner, but Nausicaä starts administering CPR and removing his tainted blood via her own mouth. As Kurotowa starts giving the eulogy for the soldier, Nausicaä quietly informs everyone that the man will be fine. Doubles as a Moment of Funny for Kurotowa's reaction.
- Ohma (a skyscraper-sized instrument of destruction) believing Nausicaä is its mother.
- Discussed: The meeting of the Valley people with the Dorok Namei tribe – they perform an ancient ritual to deflect hostilities and declare peace. The narration itself calls it a rare bright spot in troubled times.
- As the King of Torumekia lays dying at the foot of the Crypt of Shuwa, he tells Kushana that he never learned to like her, but acknowledges her leadership ability and gives her one piece of advice: the Nobility are a bunch of snakes, but no matter what they do, never kill even one. It's probably the only fatherly gesture the guy ever made in his life for any of his kids (or step-kid in Kushana's case).
- After everything is over, on the very last page, Ketcha (who had stayed with Yupa and Kushana) and Asbel (who had gone with Mito and the air artillery) see each other for the first time in months, and Ketcha runs at him in tears and gives him a big hug.
The Film
- Lastelle's death: When Nausicaä finds her, she's been chained up as a Tolmekian slave, and her last words are asking Nausicaä if the "cargo" had been destroyed. Nausicaä, unaware of what the airship was carrying, assures Lastelle that everything aboard is burning and that whatever danger she was warning against must surely be destroyed. Despite their later discovery of what it was, Lastelle smiles as she dies with peace of mind, and Nausicaä uses her Ohmu-shell sword to break her chains so she won't be a slave in death.
- The Pejiteans who help Nausicaa escape.Pejite Queen: Please forgive us. What our people did was horribly wrong.
- The reveal that the woman is Asbel and Lastelle's mother. Nausicaä tears up and gives her a hug.
- Asbel's reaction to the news of Lestelle's death. He regrets not being there for her, and apologizes to Nausicaa for having nearly killed her earlier that day, thanking her for caring for Lastelle.
- Asbel and Nausicaa finding the Pejite capital city, now reduced to dead, smoking ruins. Asbel knows full well what happened to his home, and knows that nothing can justify the cost of having wiped out the Tolmekians who had invaded their country. It is clear in that moment that Pejite as a nation is possibly in its death throes, and Nausicaa is horrified to learn the same fate awaits her Valley.
- The Pejite gunman being unable to shoot Nausicaa because he thought she was Lastelle.Gunman: (gasping) The princess!
- After Nausicaä dies, sacrificing herself so that the rampaging Ohmu wouldn't destroy the Valley, the Ohmu used their powers to revive her. When she wakes up, she spots the baby Ohmu on the head of another Ohmu, waving towards her.
- Obaba's reaction upon realizing that she was witnessing the prophecy she'd committed to memory come true.
- The film's closing image of Nausicaa's hat sheltering a new tree growth.
