#hdm thoughts

[laufire]

me every time I see even a veiled reference to toby stephens playing the problematic deadbeat dad in percy. jackson:

but why couldn't he play the problematic deadbeat dad in his dark materials :(((

[caffeinosis]

No I'm not crying because Lyra had to rip off part of her soul and leave it behind why are you asking

[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

[kirjavas]

never not thinking about iorek byrnison eating lee scoresby's dead body, so as not to let it rot but instead allow it to sustain an old friend on his journey. and how this act fulfilled lee's dying wish to help lyra by giving iorek the strength to go on and find her. thinking about consumption as a form of love, loving someone in their entirety and wanting to eat them whole but also love and grief being something you carry inside of you that guides you forward

[the-real-list-of-ominous-threats]

I'm going to force you to watch a terrible adaptation of your favorite book

[universetopieces]

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

[tragicotps]

Marisa coulter + ART 1. Jason and Medea - John William Waterhouse (1907) 2. Circe - E. Bertram Mackennal (1902) 3. La notte - Hendrik Christian Andersen 4. After the ball - Ramon Casas i Carbó  (1899) 5. The Fallen Angel - Alexandre Cabanel (1847)

[dreamingpartone]

They lay down in the soft sand at the foot of the dunes, and then they heard the first bird calling.

[least-carpet]

AU ask game: (I keep forgetting the name) daemon au? The one where they have spirit like animal companions, technically their soul manifest.

Hi, thanks for the ask!

Oh, hey, that's His Dark Materials—sure! Also, I don't know much about naming daemons in Chinese, so I haven't named any of them.

Neither Jiang Cheng nor Wei Wuxian's daemon had settled before the fall of Lotus Pier. They were often similar so they could play together and accompany the duo more easily, Jiang Cheng's in the form of a leopard cat and Wei Wuxian's in the form of a fox, or an Asian small-clawed otter, or a monkey that liked to ride on Jiang Cheng's daemon's back.

(Before Wei Wuxian came to Lotus Pier, Jiang Cheng's daemon was most often a dog—a "superior dog," which reduced but did not eliminate his mother's criticism. Either a Chow-Chow or a Tibetan mastiff—big, tough, smart working dogs who only like their people. He liked his daemon like that, but the leopard cat was also good, since they can swim and play in the water. So it was fine, he could do it for Wei Wuxian. Sometimes, when she was startled, or if Jiang Cheng was really mad, she turned into a tiger. His mother liked this form best of all.)

After Jiang Cheng's core was crushed, his daemon disappeared; but after he got his core back, she appeared again, settled as a tiger, ready to search for Wei Wuxian. When they found him, his daemon had gone, and he said simply that they had been separated by the Wen. Jiang Cheng looked for her often, with no luck.

When Wei Wuxian returns, his daemon's settled form—a crow—matches well with Lan Wangji's elegant male crane.

Jiang Yanli's daemon was a soft-spoken butterfly. Jin Ling tells himself he will never, ever, ever have a daemon that fragile.

[draconym]

Mmmmmm talk of the Catholic Church being the reason people don't touch other's daemons is something that never really was clear to me because I haven't read the books since like 2007 and instead was a part of an online daemon community talking to our daemons lmao (I still do). But that's such a fascinating thought. If daemons were real (with some changes as were debated on the forum), how would various religions feel about it? It would always be somewhat intimate, you wouldn't want a stranger running up and touching your daemon but people hug and kiss friends and family, queerplatonic relationships are well heard about now. Would the queer community be more willing to open up and let friends and others touch their daemon because the queer community is so intimate in the right time and place, it's such a fascinating thought. Would former Christian atheists have the same holdings over only partners touching daemons? Would different sects of Christianity have different thoughts? You mentioning theater and the Catholic Church has my mind running wild. Artists with daemons in general is fascinating to think about.

Also, something that's always been on my mind as a wannabe zoologist is zoos and daemons. If we take daemons into our world where there aren't talking polar bears and such, how do wild animals react to them? Do daemons smell like their human? Will a pet cat recognize a mouse daemon or try to eat it? Will a pet dog adore their human but be wary of their human's hyena daemon?

Honestly the hypotheticals of daemons both in Lyra's world and our own are fascinating to think on, and something I still think about to this day as I talk to my daemon, despite leaving that community a long time ago. Sorry for this random rambling but you have opened up something inside me lmao

I don't know about you but if my good friends always had little animals hanging out with them you bet I'd ask to pet them. There are plenty of people in the real world who have been socialized to be afraid of loving platonic touch, and plenty of people who haven't, so it's not that big a leap to imagine that in Pullman's fantasy world, close friends from more relaxed societies might briefly touch each other's daemons.

Also it's been a long time since I've read the books but I do think it's canon that nonhuman animals react to daemons as they would a human; whether the daemon is their same species or a prey animal, animals can somehow sense that daemons are human/dust and not Animal in nature, and are therefore less interested in them. So I think our pets would usually treat our daemons as they would treat the rest of us.

Anyway do keep talking to your daemon because I think it is a cool and fun way to process your thoughts. :)

[laufire]

gay mary malone gay mary malone gay mary malone gay-

[caffeinosis]

Why is Mrs Coulter the best part of the series?

[three-atoms]

I read somewhere (don't remember where) that the HDM costume design team took inspiration from Old Hollywood glamour and particularly Hedy Lamarr while styling Marisa Coulter.

And I can see why they would choose Hedy Lamarr: she was known as one of the most beautiful and glamourous actresses and was also a brilliant inventor. She developed frequency hopping, the technology that would form the basis for the eventual development of WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS.

Photos of Hedy Lamarr: Source + Source

[kirjavas]

She had never dreamed of what it would feel like to love someone so much; of all the things that had astonished her in her adventures, that was what astonished her the most. She thought the tenderness it left in her heart was like a bruise that would never go away, but she would cherish it forever.

[mxrisacoulter]

endless gifs of marisa coulter ~(33/?)

[casualavocados]

She’s not safe, you’re drugging her. Why are you keeping her here? Why won’t you let her leave?

HIS DARK MATERIALS 3.02 | The Break