#but... hdm is... not that.

[ssaalexblake]

would it kill the bbc to advertise their shows? just totally by accident found out hdm starts back up tomorrow having seen exactly 0 press for it, jeez

[hashtagloveloses]

the equivalent exchange of your favorite childhood book series (his dark materials and percy jackson) getting the adaptations they finally deserve but the price is that one character must be played by lin-manuel miranda

[foldingfittedsheets]

My little book club is reading His Dark Materials and daemons came up while my betrothed and I were cuddling in bed.

They said to me, “Do you think anyone’s daemon is a mosquito?”

“What? No way, that’s way too small!”

“No,” they countered, “We see beetles and butterflies, Pan turned into a little lightning bug, and a moth.”

I digested this information in silence, and then my betrothed started shaking with laughter and pitched in two different voices. “‘Where’s your daemon?’ ‘Oh, it’s a tick.’”

I let out such a guttural sound of amusement and horror that I scared the cats. I couldn’t stop laughing and repeating, “It’S a TiCk!!!”

I escalated in hilarity to choking out, “The only blood it can eat is it’s own persons! They JusT gO aRouNd with a TiCk on their face!”

“I don’t think daemons need to eat, do they?” They asked.

“IT’S A tIcK!!” I responded, tears rolling down my face, hyperventilating at the best and worst concept I’d ever imagined.

[lonicera-caprifolium]

"... What I thought was that if you-- maybe just once a year-- if we could come here at the same time, just for an hour or something, then we could pretend we were close again-- because we would be close, if you sat here and I sat just here in my world..." "Yes," he said, "as long as I live, I'll come back. Wherever I am in the world, I'll come back here--" "On Midsummer Day," she said. "At midday. As long as I live. As long as I live..."

(from Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass)

[ovenproofowl]

His Dark Materials is a franchise that tackles so many branches of physics and even creates a universe where the main course of study is experimental theology which is all about identifying and explaining dark matter while also adding dimensions to string theory, the multiverse theory, and the very concept of the human soul. At the same time, it aggressively calls out the problem with the state being controlled by the church, how people are condemned for being different and religious fearmongering stops the chance at growth both on an individual and a societal scale. It’s a franchise where the heroes of the story are two children who aren’t allowed to know the prophecy they’re a part of, who save the world unwittingly simply by doing what they believe to be right. Meanwhile, the person who thought he was the hero all along, the person who rallied an army from multiple universes to FIGHT. GOD. HIMSELF. is ultimately consumed by his own ego and forced to take a back seat when he realises he’s just one tiny piece of a much larger story that’s true heart is his own daugher. The child he abandoned, the child he didn’t know or care to know how to look after. It’s a franchise about finding love even when your biological family abandon you, it’s about looking evil in the eye and seeing your own mother, it’s about good and evil not being black and white but instead a complex and cruel mixture of both. It’s about the two worst people you know banding together at the last second to save their daughter with their final breaths. It’s about exploration and learning how to grow through experience, it’s about kindness being shared across the multiverse, exchanging stories with strangers and saving the whole world by doing something perfectly ordinary and receiving no reward.

Oh, and it’s also a franchise rich with fantasy, with giant talking polar bears, witches and ghosts, angels and daemons, and a mammal-like species from another world that travels exclusively on roller skates. 

And it fucking. rocks.

[styllwaters]

I'm thinking about His Dark Materials again. Specifically the societal quirks that Lyra's world has as a result of everyone having their soul manifested outside their body in the form of dæmons. It's one of the most fascinating examples of worldbuilding I've come across tbh

Some of my most favourite tidbits:

Dæmons are named by the dæmons of the child's parents

It's taboo to touch another person's dæmon, but this is learnt, not instinctual

Children often settle arguments through their dæmons, with one accepting the dominance of the other (eg. Pan hissing at Annie's fox daemon in the first book to get her to back down)

The fact that people can tell when someone lacks a daemon even though they can be hidden out of sight (like a mouse in your pocket)

To the inhabitants of Lyra's world, looking at someone without a dæmon is like looking at someone without a head

These extra pieces of lore just make the world seem so magical but believable at the same time

[babaknit]

his dark materials really said heaven is not real and you will return to dust upon your death so you need to make your own heaven on earth by being a good person instead of wasting your time practicing a hateful religion headed by a corrupt church

[wizard-legs]

Just revamped this Golden Compass illustration I did about two years ago, and wanted to post since I’m kind of in a winter mood! hand drawn typography by yours truly :P

[transvioletbaudelaire]

the lee scorseby “you love her but thats not enough is it” line is also like at the very heart of the story. the fact that mrs coulter loves lyra doesnt stop her from treating her cruelly and it doesn’t stop lyra from rejecting her. the fact that lee loves lyra doesn’t stop him from dying and leaving her. the fact that lyra loves pan doesnt stop their separation. the fact that john parry loves his wife and his son doesnt stop him from leaving them and it doesn’t bring him back. the fact that will and lyra love one another doesnt stop them from being torn apart. love never conquers loss in hdm the way it usually does especially in kids media and thats what makes the ending so jolting and devastating because you keep believing until the last second before will closes the window that there's going to be a happy ending, because how could there not be, they're in love…. but then they lose each other anyway

[winter2468]

His Dark Materials where everything is the same except Mrs Coulter’s daemon is the stylish but illegal monkey

[dragonsareawesome123]

"We can come back here every year. You in your world and me in mine. Midsummer's Day. Midday." "And I'll be there. I'll be there every year. My whole life." "And if we do meet someone we like, we must be kind to them. We won't compare them. When we come here, just for an hour, we can be together." "Every year. I promise."

His Dark Materials (2019-2022), 3x08 - "The Botanic Garden"

[tossawary]

Every time I see or otherwise imagine a Daemon AU (a story borrowing the concept of "physical soul animals" from the "His Dark Materials" book series), I get distracted thinking about aaaaall the logistical issues and cultural changes that would happen if the world was different in this way. Especially if it's a story that's set in the modern day!

Mostly, I'm distracted by cultural changes that are, uh, let's go with "silly". Like, I think people would put in cat doors and ramps for their daemons. I think people would put their turtle daemons on hot wheel cars and let their rat daemons drive miniature cars. I think some miserable people would be unreasonably outraged by "assistive devices" for daemons and call it unnatural. I think people would post online like, "I just watched my grandma's elderly dog daemon spend ten minutes trying to climb onto the couch." I think that there would be Tumblr polls asking: "Are daemons allowed on the furniture in your house?" And some people would be like, "Absolutely not, that's disgusting," and other people would be like, "Yes?! Of course?!?!?!"

I think some people would put their daemons in outfits. I think some people would wear MATCHING outfits with their daemons. I think there would be a huge market for daemon accessories like collars and scarves. I think you could find someone who would argue to their dying breath that putting a collar on your daemon is a form of abusing yourself. I think there would be daemons who would straight up hate wearing anything, especially the daemons of young children, and shed collars immediately. I think some people would get their daemon's ears pierced.

I think people would take photos of their daemons getting stuck in stupid places. I think people would take photos of their daemons making silly expressions. I think these photos would be used as memes. I think this would be included in the "don't take photos of strangers and post them online???" arguments. I think some people would try to get animals that are the same as their daemon forms so that their daemon could have a "friend". I think the exotic pet trade in this world would be horrible, especially in relation to modelling and acting industries, and that some people and their daemons would work as "substitute daemon actors".

I think that people would judge other people based on their daemons, sure. I also think that daemons are incorporated into things like astrology and matchmaking in ways that our world can't imagine. "Oh, I only date guys with dog daemons. Guys with cat daemons are too feminine," would be a constant sexist / homophobic sitcom joke and also a real thing people would say. There would be sex books written taking daemons into account and I'm not going to get into it more than that except to say...

The furry "discourse" that must exist in a Modern Daemon AU is operating on a level that we cannot possibly fathom.

Most of this stuff is not relevant for most Daemon AUs, but I feel like when doing any kind of cultural worldbuilding, we must face the fact that many people love and hate nothing more than to sincerely and insincerely get into extensive Twitter arguments over pointless bullshit. And also, on a lighter note, that "Draw yourself and your daemon!" would be a classic Day 1 of school activity for children. Confession blogs would have people saying, "My mom and aunt and grandma all have parrot daemons, so until I was four, I genuinely thought all women had bird daemons. When I met a woman with an iguana daemon in a grocery store, I asked her what kind of bird it was supposed to be. My mom has laughingly brought it up every few weeks for the past twenty years."

[mxrisacoulter]

#let him rest

[lordbelacqua]

STELMARIA + the crumb of lord asriel's fatherly instincts

[dreamingpartone]

at that place we sat together today again, I'll go to where you're going

[casualavocados]

And I think Lyra's even braver than me. She can be. But, sometimes she's not. She's the best friend I've ever had. You know that? Not that I've had many friends. You're her best friend, too.

HIS DARK MATERIALS 2.07 | Æsahættr