#Pantelaimon

[vwikaartt]

Somehow I stumbled upon Golden Compass then on His Dark Materials, so here are Lyra and Asriel on airship heading North

[knifebearer]

dont talk to me or my son ever again

[totopopopo]

Had a great idea for a painting and then was shot down by the responsible person in my brain that said hey you still have 75 pages of the 200 page book you’re presenting to your class tomorrow as well as the entire Silmarillion to read. So. ://

[enter-the-bogman]

One of the problems with the His Dark Materials show being their insistence on slamming symbolism in with a sledgehammer, when a huge strength of the books are their nuance and elegance. The reader is not told what to think, but is prompted and moved to think creatively for themself and come to their own conclusions. Which is, importantly, a MAJOR part of the thesis! Pursuit of knowledge and development of understanding is what makes PEOPLE exist. 

Specifically, children being whole entire people who must mature by developing understanding of the world beyond that which they have been taught-- the show absolutely misses that in a variety of ways. For one thing, this is seen through the lack of attention payed to Pantelaimon. Lyra’s relationship with Pan is at least as important (if not more important!) as Lyra’s relationship with Will. I can tell you nothing about show!Lyra’s relationship with Pantelaimon (and with that of herself embodied within Pan), because no attention has been put there. Lyra’s betrayal and its repercussions are not going to have any impact if the centrality and importance of Lyra and Pan has not been established. And as the show has been setting up the Book of Dust, that relationship may become even more central in the future. (I have some more thoughts on how this has reduced impact of certain scenes already, which I may share in a different post.)

 A lot of the time which isn’t spent diving into who Lyra and Pan are is spent with Marissa and the Monkey. While everything they’re doing with those characters was definitely interesting at the beginning, it’s start to become a bit repetitive, not to mention over-the-top. Yes, Marissa apparently has self-hatred issues. Yes, she clearly is at war with that of herself embodied in the Monkey. But paying such close and repeated attention there is missing the point. A huge point of the story is that it’s NOT about Lyra’s parents, in the end. It’s about Lyra and Pan, and has always been about them. In fact, a major part of Marissa’s redemption(?) is she first understands and then convinces Asriel that their role must be in support of their daughter’s much more important role. 

[knifebearer]

reposting my journal entry from the forum about yarah settling as a snow leopard + my Feelings on the cyclical nature of that:

Ah, hey. Hey. Yeah.

So, uh, long story. I think that Yarahel might've settled as a snow leopard? Which I have complicated feelings about, obviously, since... y'know. The obvious that's plastered all over my profile, haha.

I don't know why she necessarily decided to stay like this, and like, detached from all of my weird baggage about having the same form as my former father, it's kind of neat? I like snow leopards, they're a good animal. Good form. Kudos to my fellow snow leopards out there.

At first I was sort of in denial about it, because like, of course Shiloh Silvertongue of all people in the world has a snow leopard for a dæmon. That was a little too on the nose for me, so we tried on different hats with big cats until Yarah decided that she was tired of going poof and changing it. And she's stopped changing (unless it was to take the shape of a red panda, which I'll talk about in a second.)

I... have complicated feelings on the matter. I know that a form is only what you make of it, but for like, personal spiritual and metaphysical reasons, it was really difficult for me to accept that Yarah had decided to settle that way. My soul being the shape of my (former) father's soul is kind of, well, cyclical. And I dunno about you but I'm not too keen on killing god a second time around.

I think if Lord Asriel and Stelmaria saw me now they'd both promptly laugh in my face. Haha! You're continuing the cycle, idiot! Yeah dad, thanks.

Anyway, red pandas! I saw them at the zoo once and felt drawn to them in an "aww cute" kind of way. Then I saw the HDM tv show and that Pantelaimon took the form of one in Cittagazze, and Yarah promptly took to taking that form when I was big sad or feeling nostalgic. And then I ended up with two plushies of red pandas, and now I fear I'm growing a collection.

Anyway, Yarah kinda... hops into the plushies when I'm sleeping or cuddling with them. So I'm cuddling her. It's nice. Real nice. The bigger weighted one I sleep with at night, and the smaller one comes with me out places when I'm too tired to project.

Lots of typical stuff happening. I go out, I do schoolwork, I play my silly roleplaying games, I go to the library, I make art... Yadda yadda.

Bye for now,

Shiloh Silvertongue (and Yarahel).

[knifebearer]

anyway this is pantelaimon

i hate experiencing object sapience and having hyperempathy bc i ended up spending 20$ of my xmas money on a weighted red panda plush because he was looking at me with sad eyes and i felt bad that he wouldnt have a home