"The fate of more than this world depends on her."
Hello everyone!
If you've ever heard of Philip Pullman, you've probably heard of the movie The Golden Compass, too.
And if you've heard of THAT, then you know there's a show to follow afterwards as well.
BBC and HBO partnered up to bring us another adaptation of Pullman's book trilogy, which tells the story of an alternate world, or well WORLDS, and how there's going to be a second coming of the Original Sin, which a lot of people are trying to prevent.
Of course, one should note that the author himself is anti-political and anti-religion, so you can definitely see influences of that throughout his work.
His Dark Materials, however, remain absolutely amazing.
I've never actually reviewed anything of Pullman's, sadly, though I intend to work my way through the books for this blog as soon as possible. However, for the time being, it's only the show that will keep our attention, so why don't we just dive in?
In a world very similar to ours (I say similar, not the same, you may note) a girl named Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) is growing up within the walls of Jordan College in Oxford, with her best friend Roger, a servant boy, and not really knowing much about her family outside the fact that the famous explorer, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) is her father (she initially thinks he's her uncle, too).
Lyra is fiercely proud of the man, and wants to go with him on his next expedition to the North, so she's super excited when he suddenly pops up to visit Jordan.
Except, his visit is kind of ... chaotic.
Firstly, the master of the college wants to poison him, which Lyra stops from happening, and then Asriel reveals a heretical knowledge that there are other worlds just out of reach of ours. The Magisterium, the head authority of religious matters, would probably want to relieve him of his head if they got word of what he discovered.
Still, he's off to discover some more, but leaves Lyra behind for her own good - not something she appreciates or understands at the time. It's not long after that Jordan receives another visitor, Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson), who offers to take Lyra on as her personal assistant.
Seeing as a group that's been stealing children all around (including the Gyptians' ones, enraging the traveling people) kidnaps Roger, Lyra agrees to go with Coulter so that they can find him in London.
Only, life in London consists more of Coulter making Lyra into someone she's not, rather than finding Roger.
Not to mention the fact Coulter is the leader of the General Oblation Board, the organisation which snatches children to begin with.
Lyra is content enough, if not happy, with the woman, but that all comes crashing down when events force Coulter to "make" Lyra behave, which includes her daemon grabbing and hurting Pantalaimon, Lyra's own. This, among other things, convinces the pair they have to flee, and take with them the alethiomether that the Master gave them back at Jordan; this is a device that looks a lot like a compass, but isn't really a compass, and only six were ever made. Studying them is almost impossible, takes forever, and one of these priceless artifacts is now in Lyra's hands.
Also, Coulter wants it. And she's Lyra's mother, from an affair she had with Asriel back in the day (this also included her then-husband going after Asriel and Asriel killing him before hiding Lyra in Jordan, as you do).
No pressure.
Lyra and Pan do manage to escape, much to Coulter's dismay, but London isn't Jordan, and they end up caught by Gobblers, which means our adventure would have been short-lived if not for the timely arrival of the Gyptians, who rescue the pair and take them to their king, John Faa. Once there, Lyra learns more about her own past life (the story of Asriel and Mrs. Coulter, respectively) and about the Gobblers, as well as the fact the Gyptians will travel North to free their children.
And while one of them dies during a raid on Coulter's apartment, Lyra realizes she can enter a trance which allows her to use the alethiometer and understand its messages, learning of his death before the messenger actually brings word of it, which makes her suddenly invaluable to pretty much everybody, but the Gyptians especially, so they take her with them North.
Of course the journey isn't smooth - they get boarded by the officials looking for Lyra, among other things, and Coulter's little mechanic spy insects find the girl, much to everyone's dismay, because they only manage to capture one, but the other returns to its handler, revealing their destination.
They don't have much choice in the matter, however, and push further North to Trollesund, where they want to see if they can contact the witches of the North; while there, Lyra not only learns of the existence of an armoured bear, Iorek Byrnison, who she becomes super close to, but she meets (and scams) aeronaut Lee Scoresby (Lin-Manuel Miranda), also on the hunt for Iorek, impressing him and amusing his daemon, Hester.
Obviously, Lyra manages to solve the problem of Iorek's enslavement in the village, finds his armour, and unleashes the bear and all his rage when she tells him all the answers he's wanted - she also enlists the help of Scoresby while she's at it, much to his own confusion (he's adorable).
The Gyptians get in touch with the witches through a special guest star when none other than David Suchet voices the daemon of the witch clan leader, Kaisa, telling them that, if no one else, his soul-partner will support them on their journey, and Serafina Pekkala herself (Ruta Gedmintas) makes a surprise appearance just before they push further North.
This is where things start getting more complicated.
The alethiomether keeps telling Lyra she has to explore a 'ghost in the woods', and she eventually convinces the Gyptian king to allow her to explore, taking Iorek with her for protection. And indeed, they find their ghost.
It's the Gyptian boy who was snatched by the Gobblers back in the beginning.
And he don't look so good.
Horrified upon realizing that he has no daemon and is basically a walking zombie, the group brings him back to the Gyptians, where he dies in the arms of his mother. Lyra's discovery helps them all understand what the Gobblers actually want with their children: they take them to perform an intercision, which is a process where they separate a child from their daemon, for reasons still unknown to the group as a whole.
You'd think that was shocking enough, but oh no, there's more.
During the night, the camp gets raided and Lyra is snatched, taken directly to Bolvangar - aka the place where the kids get that nasty process done to them.
But no one in Bolvangar is actually prepared for a girl like Lyra, who pretty much manages to trick the lot of them before they decide to perform the intercision on her, which would have been a bad, bad move if not for the arrival of none other than Mrs. Coulter, who puts a stop to it right before it happens.
She then somehow manages to believe Lyra's story of how she ended up at the station, and asks for the alethiometer, which it looks like her daughter is happy enough to give her - until Coulter gets attacked by the other spy bug she'd sent after the girl in the beginning, allowing Lyra to flee.
She and Pan destroy the intercision machine and chaos breaks out in the entire station, which also enables them to grab the children who'd already been separated from their daemons, and release the daemons without children on top of it all.
With the help of the Gyptians, Serafina, Scoresby and a rampaging Iorek, Bolvangar is left a smoking heap by the time they're done, which is one part of Lyra's mission over.
Since she also found Roger there's only one thing left for her to do, which is, in her opinion, to take the alethiometer to her father, who's a captive of the Panserbjorns and their king, Iofur. She, Iorek, Roger, their daemons, and Lee Scoresby and Hester all pile up into Scoresby's balloon to fly off further into the unknown. They are guided for a time by Serafina, who also explains to Scoresby that Lyra has a great destiny ahead of her.
Great, but dangerous, not that it deters him, because he's found his paternal instinct and he's been more of a father to Lyra in the short time he's known her than Asriel has all her life, honestly.
And it's a good thing, because it makes him highly motivated when the balloon gets attacked by flying, leathery beings, causing Lyra and Pan to drop out of it into the unknown.
Or, not so unknown, as they are taken by the armoured bears and delivered to the palace, which is an ugly heap up North, trying to imitate what the humans have. This, and the rantings of a lunatic in her cell, gives Lyra the idea of tricking king Iofur into believing she is Iorek's daemon - and Iorek is the rightful King of the bears, anyway, on his way to reclaim her.
Which he does, and wins the duel against Iofur, taking command of the armoured bears, as it should have been from the start (though machinations from Iofur and none other than Mrs. Coulter have prevented it).
Now, Lyra's road is free to continue to her father, who is not only unhappy to see her but he really doesn't need the alethiometer.
Say WHAT?
You'd think things were confusing enough since we have another thread of the story weaving around Coulter's friend, Lord Boreal, who knows about the existence of the multiverse and passes back and forth between worlds freely, searching for an explorer Grumman, who turns out to be someone from exactly our world - with a wife and son Boreal thinks he can exploit. Well, he might have been able to with the mother, because she's a little bit sick and unstable, but her son Will Parry is definitely his father's boy, who makes sure she's in a safe location, grabs important letters and things from his dad, and kills one of the mercenaries Boreal sends after him before hightailing it out of there.
So yeah, you think THAT's shocking?
Just wait. Let's go back to Asriel and Lyra. In what's probably only the second moment of the entire series, Asriel is a fatherly figure (more because his servant bullies him into it than his own quick thinking because the man is devoted solely to his research, natch) and he and Lyra share a lovely conversation, which shines some light on Dust, the thing that everyone and their mother (and particularly the Magisterium) seems to fear.
Dust is one of the invisible, original particules, which settles on beings in the universe, more heavily so once children reach puberty and start maturing, and their daemons settle (before, they can assume the form of any animal they wish). The Magisterium wants to destroy Dust, and the intercision process is one way of trying to prevent it from settling, which also basically keeps children caught in their childish state forever if they survive.
Asriel himself initially wanted to destroy Dust - for Lyra's sake, if you can believe him - but now he's changed his plans somewhat.
And in the night, he snatches Roger and hightails it out of there to complete his procedure, though both Mrs. Coulter and Lyra are hot on his heels.
Both of them are too late, however.
He manages to separate Roger from his daemon (killing both in the process, something Asriel genuinely does seem to regret), harnessing the energy from the separation to complete his inter-dimensional bridge which will take him to another world. And while he tries to persuade Mrs. Coulter to go with him, she declines, saying her place is in her world, by Lyra's side.
Little does she know she's not exactly on the right track there, because Lyra, overhearing everything, decides to follow her father across the bridge to find Dust.
Not to do any battle with the Authority, you see, like Asriel now intends, or to destroy Dust - because Pan theorises that, if everyone thinks Dust is so bad, maybe it's actually something good? So why don't they go and SAVE Dust?
They won't be alone in their quest, either, because even as they go into the next world over, so too does Will Parry, finding a passage in his own world.
The board is now set, rather explosively, because that's the only way Asriel operates; the pieces are definitely moving, including a crash-landed Lee Scoresby who is told by Serafina that Lyra still needs him, so the cowboy hat goes back on and it's time for OK Corral if he has anything to say about it.
Unfortunately, this is where we leave our lot of heroes, because the second season of the show isn't out yet.
SAD PANDA.
Mesmerizing, shocking, beautiful and absolutely devastating at times, His Dark Materials brings Pullman's world to life like you wouldn't believe. It brings us into a reality which, even with the fantasy elements, we can probably relate to rather well - after all, how many times do we hear about the authorities in charge wanting to go after something that they think is good/bad, but end up militarising pretty much everyone else?
It's a fairly familiar story, and it's a story about coming-of-age, the tender years when everything starts to get confusing and complicated, perfectly captured by our protagonists, Lyra and Pan, and Will to a lesser degree.
Not only that, but we get masterful performances by the many recurring and guest stars on the show, helmed by McAvoy and Wilson as Lyra's parents. Interestingly enough we do get a slightly better look at Mrs. Coulter's and Lord Asriel's motivations and deepest desires (also that Belacqua is actually HIS last name, which I don't think is explicitly mentioned anywhere in the books, but I could be wrong about that), which is an intriguing character study.
Marisa Coulter is portrayed, or an attempt is made to portray her as a tragic character who was used by just about everybody before she seized power and learned how to make the world (read: men) bend to her will. She's also saved Lyra's life a few times, and her explanation for why she didn't fight for her daughter was that she wasn't strong enough at the time.
Honestly, as much as I appreciate the attempt of humanizing her, she is and remains just as she's always been: a consummate liar whose lies are as integral to her as breathing, and while she IS powerful, she's also dangerous, and manipulative, and her entire being seems to be to destroy this Dust, ostensibly to keep her child safe - but at any cost and any lie.
Both he and Mrs. Coulter will have massive roles to play in Lyra's life despite the fact they're all separated at the moment, so we'll probably see a lot more of them as the seasons unfold.
For the time being, however, we have to leave our little explorers, Lyra and Pan and Will, to their own devices. Hopefully they don't get into too much trouble before we get season two.
In the meantime, let's just rewatch season one, enjoy the vocal artistry of Mr. Suchet, and be absolutely thrilled with the Panserbjorns.
The multiverse can wait.
xx
*images and video not mine
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