#I don't have a singular (or two) faves from His Dark Materials

[loumauve]

rules: make a poll with five of your all-time favorite characters and then tag five people to do the same. see which character is everyone's favorite.

tagged by: nobody, bc I'm a heathen who just steals poll setups and then ignores the rules. feel free to participate as well (tho I think a lot of my pals have already done this one, I have been living under a rock called dissociation from terrible circumstances)

I went with explicitly emotional support characters because otherwise the list would be even longer. I have too many faves. the more time you spend in fandom spaces the more the collection grows. I'm sure I'm forgetting some minor character faves from other books/shows/movies/games. rip I'll prob cry once I remember them and feel bad

[zzinvolterra]

Aro and the Volturi seems to be your favourite characters, may I ask why? I understand their roles they have (vampire government) but at the same time I don’t understand them exactly. Aro in the movies was portrayed at a power hungry crazy person but in the books he seems like he is keeping everything in check.

Hello you darling wonderful delightful soul, I love you already.

Disclaimer About the Movies

First, I'm just going to disregard the movies. The Volturi were changed to an irrefutably corrupt coven that's headed by power-hungry madmen. One of whom has a very unhinged laugh. But, the movies wanted a clear Big Bad to oppose the Bella/Edward arc, and so they created one.

However, given the Volturi, and particularly Aro, that are depicted in the films aren't true to the original characterizations from the books, I've elected to ignore it.

I Love Them, Your Honor

While the Volturi don't receive a ton of screen time considering they're meant to be the overarching antagonists, what we do see of them is incredibly interesting to me. The core coven has been banded together for thousands of years, united by a singular purpose. When immortality was thrusted upon them (or chosen, in Aro's case), they went and saddled themselves with responsibility. Heady stuff, lots of potential there.

So yes, I believe that they're keeping everything in check. Best-case scenario, without the Volturi, another coven steps in when they realize, hey, we need to keep some humans alive to munch on. However, I'm inclined to believe that this wouldn't happen given vampires' tendencies to eat first and think later.

But beyond being the unacknowledged protectors of human life worldwide, the Volturi are just composed of such a rich cast and a frankly brilliant concept that I personally don't find in the rest of the books. There's so much left to explore and so many gaps to fill. What were they doing in the two thousand years before Twilight? How much have they interacted with and shaped the human world? Have they ever had a cat?

To get to the point, I think the unexplored potential that the idea of the Volturi present us with is what's kept me in Volterra Hell for over a year now.

Him Specifically

(Ended up having to dedicate an entire section solely to Aro.)

Also, as anon pointed out, Aro specifically is my fave. Again, it's the idea of this Dracula-esque leader who's lived for about 3,500 years, amassed the largest coven in the world, and taken control of about everything. Except, he's extremely friendly and polite to a dangerous degree (in Caius' opinion) and probably is the one who wanted a cat. Also he murdered his sister and the core coven is over the tipping point of dysfunctional nowadays. Oh, and he reads every thought a person has ever had. Like?? There's an almost endless amount of material there to work with and I ADORE IT.

Things I Couldn't Word Properly (But Still Wanted to Mention)

Literally just excited word vomit here.

They're one of the few covens I can force a dark academia aesthetic onto and have it still make sense. So many pretty edit and video options.

Balance of power within the closest thing to the ruling coven, and the idea of willingly choosing to have a "Master" despite being the apex predator yourself.

Vampire! Culture! Vampire! Events! Vampire! Balls!

Going to cut this off before I start keyboard smashing, but yeah, they're by far my faves.