#lyra x malcolm

[secretly-a-catamount]

[evenlarksandkatydids]

philip pullman owes me financial compensation for making lyra x malcolm a thing.

[the-silvertonguewitch]

HDMmonth week2/relationship/angst

TSC, 287, 522-523

[lachemisenoire]

Having finally finished The Secret Commonwealth, I’m gonna rant about Lyra / Malcolm

1. Child!Malcolm in La Belle Sauvage was a wonderful character. Adult!Malcolm in The Secret Commonwealth is clearly Pullman’s self-insert. To quote Reddit, “he’s a sexy 007-esque college professor whose students clearly want to bang him.” To put this further into context, Pullman read for his B.A. at Oxford and later on also taught there part-time. He also suffers frequently from migraine auras. Remind you of anyone?

2. A particularly gross excerpt that quite a few readers picked up on: “once or twice when he was teaching her, bending to look over her shoulder at a piece of written work, he’d caught a faint scent from that hair, not of shampoo but of young warm girl, and drawn away at once.” Young warm girl? Was Humbert Humbert Malcolm’s mentor at Oxford? Also, bear in mind that here Lyra was about 15 or 16, meaning that Malcolm (who is eleven years older than her) would have been 26 or 27. Yuck. 

3. Pullman is so defensive throughout the novel about this relationship. He clearly sensed that it was going to create backlash among fans and critics, and I noticed this from (a) the prologue, where he makes a point of saying that Lyra and Malcolm are both adults now (as though we couldn’t have figured it out ourselves) and as SOON as I read that I went “h’oh boy here we go” (b) He keeps having otherwise intelligent, mature and sensible female characters (like Hannah Relf and Anita) telling him it’s totally OK to go after Lyra!1!! yOu ArE bOth AdUlTs as though that justifies anything.

4. The "romance” is so poorly developed! We switch suddenly from Malcolm’s big-brotherly attitude in LBS to him suddenly wanting to fuck her in TSC which would give any reader emotional whiplash... like what? We also have Lyra saying that Will is still the centre of her life and that she thinks about him all the time, only to have her suddenly get “shaky hands” when trying to open Malcolm’s letters and thinking about him all the time? Wha..? They barely even speak in person during TSC. 

Tbh this isn’t even the only problematic aspect of the book, I think there were some vaguely Orientalist undertones regarding Pullman’s descriptions of Eastern countries and traditions, and I’m a bit eh on the whole rosewater storyline. I’m more interested in Lyra’s relationship with Pan and her internal struggles (which, to be fair, I think is intended to be the emotional lynch pin of the trilogy). 

[ssmhhh]

[chrasilla]

[nerdyfangirl23]

The Secret Commonwealth, when it comes to the men in Lyra’s life really are the definition of:

This is Will, to Malcolm. We all know it. 😌 Those letters have got to stop, Mal, and Alice? Hannah? Mrs Polstead? Please don’t encourage this creepy shit.

Anyway, we don’t stan TSC!Malcolm in this household. 🙄✋🏼 Justice for Lyra and Alice in TBOD.

[lyraspan]

She stroked his head and settled down deeper in the furs as they fell asleep.

Serpentine 🐍, Philip Pullman.

[lordeasriel]

I know its controversial but I actually kind of like Malcom/Lyra better than Will/Lyra. Will is kind of a butt hole to Lyra. Malcom seems devoted in a sweeter way.

I actually know a fair amount of people who like the pairing, so I don't think you're alone, but I think you are the first person I've seen that doesn't like Will/Lyra alongside Malcolm/Lyra, which is surprising. I don't ship Malcolm/Lyra nor Will/Lyra, and personally, I don't make it my business to bully people over pairings. I try to make my blog a place where people can come with the most controversial takes without being afraid of being idk, harassed or something (unless ur a bigot, but that has never happened here before thank God)

You might see me criticise these pairings within narrative context, sometimes. (I think I am notorious by now about not liking Will lol, so I feel like people rarely ask me stuff about him, so I very rarely talk about him here)

I don't disagree when it comes to Will being rude to Lyra. As far as I've been on the fandom, I often see posts about will being absolutely rude to Lyra vs Will being rude because X reason (usually it's because he has a rough childhood) so "people who say he is mean to Lyra is stupid" or something like that. I get both answers, mostly, except I don't think rough childhood excuses any behavior of any kind (and a lot of the issues this create could have been fixed if Pullman hadn't tried so hard to have Will take Lyra's protagonism - one of the show's strengths it's how well they handled Will).

For me, the biggest issue with Will and Lyra has always been the fact it never felt natural to me, and I know this might seem crazy for some people, but not only he treats her rather cruelly - at first, at least I'm gonna be fair, but his behavior towards her is rather annoying to me across TAS - they don't have anything in common other than "we are new on this world". Anyway, I derailed a bit but I felt like I needed to explain this lmao

As for Malcolm/Lyra, Philman's handling of the pairing on the text was very bad, that much I can't deny. While they are both adults when the story takes place meaning the relationship is not wrong or illegal in any shape or form, Malcolm being infatuated with Lyra as a teenager was rather bad - all that 'scent of warm child' like, what the fuck. As someone who lives in a country where the age of consent is 14 - in fact, in high school my chemistry teacher was dating my 15 year old schoolmate - that rubs me off the wrong way.

Philman was rather defensive of his writing of Malcolm's feelings, and his answers rubbed off badly as well, and he could have done a much better job with it - instead having his feelings happen when they were both adults and not otherwise. Like, personally, I wouldn't ship it anyway, because it's not a dynamic that appeals to me and personally, I wish more stories with female protagonists didn't rely so much on making a romantic subplot or whole plot out of it (which has been my greatest disappointment with TAS, and the fact I don't like Will or Will/Lyra comes from this place as well).

Your point about Malcolm's devotion is one of the things I think was ruined when Philman decided to make this a love story (technically not yet a love story, but all his defense of the relationship he wrote has made the fandom assume it might happen. Frankly, I hate to suffer in anticipation, so I treat this as 'high chances of happen, yet hasn't happened yet'. Personally, Malcolm could have been much better used as a mentor figure, but alas here we are. I also think that while Malcolm isn't rude to Lyra like Will was, he patronizes her a lot (everyone in the book does, tbf, they treat her like a dumb child, which is more of a writing problem than character problem). Will also does patronizes Lyra, but given he is a kid, I'm less irked about it because kids are dumb and they do dumb stuff at time. But again, it's also a writing issue, not a character problem.

However, like I mentioned, I don't generally think that people who ship Malcolm/Lyra as adults are evil people; I don't feel comfortable bullying people over fictional characters. I think fandom escalates very quickly, it just isn't a pairing for me, so I don't interact with it at all and I hope you're not having a bad time for liking it, to be fair.

[magiclovingdragon]

Malcolm/Lyra as a reddit relationships/AITA post

I (33m) am attracted to a friend (22f). I have known her since she was a baby and I was 11. I’ve always felt connected to her since I first looked at her. I babysat her, played with her and even changed her nappies. I kept her safe from both the authorities and a man who wanted to harm her (with help) and reunited her with her father. I taught her at the school she attended when she was 15 and I was 26 and I first noticed my attraction to her then, when she was my student. I realise it was wrong and awkward at the time. As time has passed she has come to me with various studious matters. I have never told her of my feelings because I dont want to bother her with them yet I can not help but be attracted to her. Apparently to some my romantic feelings towards her are quite obvious and I believe she may also have some feelings for me but people* have said its wrong, called me creepy and have even gone so far as to suggest I have been pedophilic towards her. What should I do? AITA?

*by people I mean the fandom

[marisastan]

I’ve just finished reading The Secret Commonwealth and I’m so confused with the ending like it just stops, I thought there’d be more but no it’s a bit of a weird ending 🤨🤷‍♀️ Also I think it’s a bit creepy that Malcolm is in love with Lyra like no just no don’t even go there. And I’m annoyed that Lyra and Pan didn’t reunite 😤😢

[the-silvertonguewitch]

I had forgotten... 

and Mal’s just acting like he didn’t get the jab. REALLY LYRA????

[mariamnamah]

lyra to pan: bugger off. 

me at the tender age of my early twenties, feeling the pressure of the future and having massive expectations of how i want to act and be perceived: well that def makes sense

[ssmhhh]

[hedonistbyheart]

I've stopped reading the secret commonwealth and I'm honestly not sure I want to continue, because Malcolm is currently the embodiment of the "when I was x they were a baby!" meme only seemingly with no punchline in sight and I'm too fucking old for it.

I suspected it in la belle sauvage, which was as supremely creepy as you can imagine and I just don't know if I can trust Pullman not to go there. I hope it's a red herring, but it's gonna sour my relationship to the series quite a lot if he does go there.

[randomestfandoms-ocs]

April At A Glance

(Given how much I post, I thought it might be worthwhile to try doing a monthly list of all of my edits — please let me know what you think of the idea because I’m very much not sure!)

Luna Hale bio

Reese Masrani & @decennia‘s Selina Merrick + Trouble

Lyra Lovell moodboard

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Adhara Black & Rosalind Greengrass + You look just like your mother

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Benjamin Bridgerton x Edwina Sharma + The Lakes

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Cassiopeia introduction

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The Final Countdown introduction

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Kirsty Gilmore AU: Begin Again

Kyla Keller & @decennia​‘s Guy LeMieux + Young God

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Angelica Hopper bio

Nikki Rogers & The Science Kids

Stevie Cooper bio

Cassia Potter + Grief

Rebecca Wayland moodboard

Harriet Warwick x Anthony Bridgerton + Jane Austen

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