#yes the quote is about Serafina

[daemondaes]

i saw something about his dark materials cherry so can you please talk about that because i am very :eyes emoji: about it

HI HELLO this is so sweet of you to send?? i don't have a lot of very concrete things, and she has gone through SUCH a journey, but in the end, what i've settled on is that she is a witch. an old witch.

she looks young, of course, being a witch and all, but she has been around a long time. you'd think that would give her wisdom and grace, but if it does, she doesn't often show it. she's the elderly sort that is past the point of caring for convention or decorum. she's getting wacky with her eons. i saw on twitter today this quote from matt smith regarding the eleventh doctor, and it sums up the energy i'd like to bring across with her:

it more or less falls in line with how cherry presents in canon, deathly curious and eager to experience the world around her. the difference, i suppose, is that for canon cherry it comes from a fear of her own death as much as it does boredom. for witch cherry, it's born of the knowledge that her time, while not limitless, is terribly long, and so, she thinks, it would be a waste to not attempt to experience every single little thing. what's the point of existing for so long if she isn't going to do anything fun or interesting?

yes, many witches may prefer the company of their clans, away from human society, but that can't be said for all of them. if that were true, it would be unheard of for a witch to bear children, given that their clans are exclusively female. they must go and explore at least a little, at least at some point. cherry just happens to be more of a rover than most, the same as she is in canon.

she still tends to wear the dark silks that serve as the de facto uniform of witches, although she has little problem donning more conventional apparel, if necessary, to blend in. it can be a refreshing experience, on occasion, to dress up for some significant human gathering. of course, she has few qualms about nudity (the body is as natural as anything else in nature) and only deigns to wear her black dress so as to avoid embarrassing the humans she comes in contact with, but that's neither here nor there...

this iteration of cherry is accompanied not by "nikita" the demon, but nikita the greylag gander...which is a little unfortunate, because i decided on this back when my knowledge of HDM did not extend past the show, where serafina's kaisa is a falcon(?), not...a goose. oops. i chose a goose for cherry because if, as a witch, she has to have an avian daemon, i thought i might as well get a little silly with it. the inspiration for this version of nikita came from a belligerent goose named saracen in frances hardinge's YA fantasy novel fly by night (which is excellent and i heavily recommend it to EVERYONE). there's probably something witty to say about the demon to daemon pipeline, but i haven't got the wherewithal to think it up.

the most startling thing about cherry the witch is that her hair isn't pink. i couldn't find a way to rationalize it, so she's stuck with her original hair color, a dark auburn. it worked out nicely, because now this is why she goes by the name cherry.

if you look at the names of the other witches, they have a completely different feeling and flavor from "cherry," and i didn't feel great about calling her "charity" (her true full given name), because it is named for a virtue preached by the magisterium, and, being a witch, it wouldn't fit right with cherry's religion/spirituality/culture. instead, it's a nickname someone cheekily called her long ago for her red hair, and she liked it (or that person) enough to continue to use it longer after they were gone. we don't actually know what her real name is.

i'm thinking on it for the first time now, but in canon, cherry eventually has a son she names apollo. it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for witch cherry to have had a son as well. perhaps, a few hundred years prior, it was the father who called her cherry...

[ruta-skadi]

Character posters: Ruta Skadi.

“Clad like all the witches in strips of black silk, but wearing no furs, no hood or mittens. She seemed to feel no cold at all. Around her brow was a simple chain of little red flowers. She sat her cloud-pine branch as if it were a steed.”

[eileenleahy]

this ISNT birthday discourse this is only extremely slightly inspired by it but i would like to hear thoughts. do we think naomi and the other angels in charge of lobotomies were executing god's will or the heavenly host's will and to what extent do those things even differ

[mittensmorgul]

I thought Adam was kept alive because Billie (and Julian's Death) simply just didn't reap him? Serafina just kept him healthy?

ADAM: Sera and me, this is our baby, yeah. She kept me alive this long so I could see it through.

The angel, his lover and companion, has been keeping him alive for the last 300,000 years. He’s been looking for revenge since LONG before Billie came to power. Even the previous Death didn’t seem to be too fussed with overthrowing God.

Yes, the line before the one I quoted mentioned that Billie has been giving them a hand, but I personally understood the scene to be Adam saying that it had been Serafina specifically keeping him alive all these years. Keeping him healthy (and preventing him from really aging) has nothing to do with Billie just not reaping him. 

And now that we know the full extent of Chuck’s story, that Adam had been a pawn all along... a Chekhov’s gun primed at the beginning of Humanity and waiting to be fired in this scene 300,000 years later... planting the dream in Serafina’s head thousands of years ago about Jack’s coming (making it long foretold between them), and making Adam the poor bastard who’d been tormented on this planet the longest just out of a malicious need for Chuck to get his own way with his story... I mean, yikes.

I... think it was just the two of them (Adam and Serafina) for hundreds of thousands of years, nursing this goal of eventual revenge only to be thwarted when the whole entire plan turned out to be Chuck’s lie. Billie was just another pawn in that bigger story, too, who was prompted to enact these plans when she finally approached Jack in the Empty and brokered the deal with him.

Heck, I hope that makes sense or even comes close to answering your question. That’s just how I read the scene, but there’s certainly room enough to interpret it differently depending on how big of a pawn Billie turns out to be, you know? Was she planning all of this all along, too? Or was she only brought to this point when she was resurrected as Death and, as she said, she became aware of a bigger cosmic picture? Because I think that’s FAR more likely, given all of it.

[lickstynine]

Odd numbers for Kit, even numbers for Wren!

Kit

1. How long is their hair?Very. It’s to the small of his back, nearing ass-length.

3. Is their hair straight, curly, or wavy?Straight. (the only straight thing about him tbh)

5. Do they dye their hair, or is it natural?Dye. He doesn’t like his natural orange, so he gets it done deep blood red.

7. What color are their eyes? Are they a “Human” color, or something else?Light brown; yes.

9. Do they have any freckles? If yes, a lot, or a little?Yes, just a smattering on his cheeks and shoulders.

11. Do they have any scars? If they do, where are they, and where did they come from?Yes; there’s some on his right leg from self-harm, a few scattered around his body courtesy of Reggie, and a small one on his abdomen from having his appendix out.

13. Do they paint their nails?Sort of. He gets manicures, but as far as polish, he usually just has clear on them.

15. What’s their favorite style?Um,,, broody gay chic?

17. Do they wear armor?Definitely not.

19. Are they thin, or bigger?Very thin. Like, unhealthily underweight atm.

21. Do they have any tattoos? How many, and what of?A lot. An eastern dragon spiraling down his right arm and onto his hand; a western dragon around his neck and shoulders and expanding onto his back, with the quote “From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire.” near the wing on his back; a brilliantly coloured phoenix on his chest; vines of roses wrapping around his torso; beautifully rendered Kanji on his ribs, chest, and left hand; a date (7 December) on his left forearm; a crest on his left shoulder; his right hip and thigh are taken up by a massive sun and stars, full of colours and linework reaching from the height of his navel nearly down to his knee; other filler/decorations include more small suns and stars, as well as varying literary quotes.

23. Do they have any extra body parts? What are they?Not unless you count several inches more than average of DICK.

25. Do they wear any makeup?He wears mascara because his eyelashes are very full and long, but very pale (the bane of having naturally red hair). He occasionally wears concealer if he’s got a bruise or under-eye shadows to hide.

Wren

2. How long would they like their hair to be?He likes it at about the current length (just past his shoulders). Too much longer would be hard to manage.

4. What color is their hair?Bright fiery orange.

6. Do they wear their hair up, or down?Down, unless he’s in the kitchen.

8. Are their eyes naturally colored, or are they a result of something?Natural.

10. Do they tan or burn?BURN. Boi is ginger af.

12. Do they have stretch marks? A lot, or a little?Not a one. He’s thin as a rail and always has been.

14. What era are their regular clothes from?Well, I mean, it’s all been bought recently, but he looks more like a dumpy librarian from the 70s.

16. Are they dressed for combat?God no.

18. Are they short, or tall?He’s on the short end of average. He looks like an imp next to his family though. Serafina is six foot, Jace is six five, and Vody is seven foot, so compared to them, five eight looks very small.

20. Are they proud of their appearance, or is there something they want to change?He’s proud of nothing about himself. He’d rather look less girly and waifish.

22. Do they have any piercings? How many, and where?Not a one.

24. Do they have nonhuman body parts, like tails or wings? What are they?nope.

[aion-rsa]

His Dark Materials Season 2 Ending: What Does the Post-Credits Scene Mean?

https://ift.tt/2WxEaaS

Warning: contains spoilers for His Dark Materials season two and The Amber Spyglass

That’s the lid closed on season two. Like Lyra, His Dark Materials is all packed away for the time being. The episode’s closing scene showed our hero kidnapped and drugged and stashed in a steamer trunk by her mother, who was promising to take her somewhere safe. Having learned that Lyra was destined to be the new Eve – the fate of every world resting on a choice she was foretold to make – Mrs Coulter vowed to stop her daughter from bringing about another Fall. She would protect Lyra and thereby save humanity from Dust and sin. 

In another realm, Lyra’s father was preparing to take on the Authority. Unaware of the prophecy surrounding his daughter, Asriel would take an opposite view to his ex-lover. Believing that Dust and ‘sin’ are consciousness and free will, he would want his daughter to fall, freeing the worlds from the Authority’s tyrannical rule. Families: never not complicated.

With a reunion, two painful goodbyes and a little hint at what’s to come tucked away at the end, here’s how everything was left by the stunning season two finale… 

Roger’s cry for help

After the credits rolled on the finale, a familiar voice was heard in the darkness saying “Lyra. Lyra help me!” As the little figure of Roger Parslow emerged from the shadow, Lyra’s voice replied: “Roger! What is this place?” Good question. Roger was killed by Lord Asriel in the season one finale, who used the energy created by cutting the boy from his daemon to open a window into another world. His death cast a shadow over Lyra throughout season two.

[Book spoiler ahead] Unless it’s a dream, the exchange seems to be a flash-forward to the third season. Roger and Lyra are in the World of the Dead, another of His Dark Materials’ parallel universes where people’s ghosts go after they die. In book three of Philip Pullman’s trilogy The Amber Spyglass, Lyra and Will travel to the Land of the Dead by cutting a window there using the Subtle Knife. It’s a desolate place ruled by the Authority, where ghosts are tormented by harpies. Part of Lyra and Will’s mission is to help to free ghosts like Roger, and bring them peace.

Lyra, the New Eve and the Fall

In the finale, Mrs Coulter finally found the answer to a question she’d asked the alethiometer in season one: who is Lyra Belacqua? According to the Witches’ prophecy, Lyra’s other name is Eve, the mother of all. Like the biblical Eve, the child is destined to be tempted by a ‘serpent’ and either to resist, or give in and in so doing – in the eyes of the Magisterium and Mrs Coulter – to bring Dust and sin once again upon the heads of mankind. 

It all depends on your perspective on Dust. The Magisterium sees it as sin and therefore bad, while Asriel and his followers see it as consciousness and free will, and therefore good. The Angels originally bestowed Dust on mankind, making them sentient beings. The Magisterium wants to separate humanity from Dust so that it can have absolute control over its subjects. That’s the war Asriel is waging, on the Authority and those seeking to control and repress free will. 

Who is the Serpent destined to tempt Lyra?

Dr Mary Malone. Dust/the Angels told Mary that she was destined to act as the serpent. She will be the one to tempt the new Eve to do the equivalent of Biblical Eve eating a forbidden apple from the tree of knowledge, after being tempted by a serpent in the Garden of Eden.

Why all the biblical references?

Philip Pullman’s original His Dark Materials trilogy is a reimagining of John Milton’s epic biblical poem Paradise Lost, which tells the story of rebellious angel Satan being exiled from heaven, and his role in tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden to eat the forbidden fruit and, as Christian myth has it, lead humanity into sin. The title ‘His Dark Materials’ is a quote from Milton’s poem. Pullman wanted to tell an inversion of the story in which Eve wasn’t responsible for humanity’s sin, but for bestowing free will and consciousness on humankind. 

Read more

TV

His Dark Materials: What is the Prophecy About Lyra?

By Louisa Mellor

TV

His Dark Materials Season 2 Episode 7 Review: Æsahættr

By Louisa Mellor

Asriel recruits the rebel Angels

When we saw Lord Asriel for the first time since the season one finale, he seemed to be speaking from a parallel world called the Republic of Heaven, where he builds a basalt fortress from which he raises an army to attack the Authority. 

Asriel’s blistering recruitment speech to the rebel Angels ended with them pledging their allegiance to his fight against the Authority. As the Witches said earlier in the season, “If Asriel has Angels on his side, he can do anything.” What Asriel wants to do is defeat the Authority and overthrow his oppressive reign. But to do that, as we learned in the finale, he’ll need the Subtle Knife.

Why does Asriel need the Subtle Knife?

For that, it’s useful to know that the Subtle Knife’s other name (from where the finale takes its title) is the Æsahættr. That’s the name Jopari used for it, and what the cliff ghasts call it when Ruta Skadi is eavesdropping on their conversation about the coming war. Æsahættr translates as ‘God-Destroyer’. It’s the only weapon in any universe that is able to destroy the Authority, just as it’s the only weapon that scares the Spectres. 

What were those creatures Ruta eavesdropped on?

Cliff ghasts, last seen in season one attacking Lee Scoresby’s balloon and causing Lyra to fall out and into the Panserbjorn kingdom, where she managed to trick the usurper king into facing Iorek Byrnisson in battle, winning Iorek his rightful throne.

What was different from the book?

Jopari’s death was slightly different in The Subtle Knife. He was still running from Magisterium soldiers to meet Will at the ravine, but he wasn’t killed by one of them. In the book, Will and his father met, and fought in the dark, not realising who each other was to begin with. The moment Jopari realised Will was his son, he was shot by a Witch. Juta Kamainen was the Queen of the Lake Visha clan of Witches. She had fallen in love with Jopari but he refused her, staying loyal to Will’s mother, which hurt and angered the Witch. When she saw Jopari speaking with Will, she shot him with an arrow through the heart, and then killed herself. 

In the TV series, Jopari and Will met in the light, and recognised each other almost immediately, giving them a little time for an emotional father-son talk before Jopari gave Will the mission of taking the knife to Asriel. Jopari spotted a Magisterium soldier about to shoot, and spun Will around to take the bullet himself and protect his son.

Lee’s death played out almost exactly as in the book. He told Jopari to go on ahead while he held off the Magisterium soldiers, taking them out but hit by a bullet in the process. He calls for Serafina Pekkala’s help, but she arrives too late, and says a protective spell over Lee’s body to prevent it from being desecrated. In the books, Lee’s good friend Iorek Byrnisson eats his corpse as a mark of respect, but this adaptation may have decided that was a bridge too far on screen?

Are Jopari and Lee really dead?

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Yes. We saw their daemons dissipate, which means that in this world, they’ve definitely gone. The little glimpse we saw of Roger though, shows that there is a place where ghosts go after people die…

The post His Dark Materials Season 2 Ending: What Does the Post-Credits Scene Mean? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3mCFPGO

[clarabosswald]

ajsminyard replied to your post “a couple of tv hdm-related tidbits for today: these quotes from this...”

ive never agreed abt anything more than i do w/ you on nicole kidman as marisa omg

yes yes thank you for being w/ me in this subject i mean, talking about the casting in general... like when people talk about the tgc movie they often say that the casting was “the movie’s biggest strength” and i’m always like... no. no it wasn’t. there were some nice near-hits here and there. but i mean... daniel craig as asriel? had NONE of asriel’s canon charisma and energy and personality that made him the actual leader of a multiverse rebellion against god. and... eva green as serafina? too damn gloomy and holier-than-thou. where was serafina’s wild for-of-nature, one-with-nature spirit? her joyous connection to the cold, to the starlight on her bare skin?  and nicole kidman? she’s a good actress, yes. and the hair debacle aside, she could probably portray a good marisa, given an actual good script and actual good directing. but at the end she was just... really superficial compared with the incredible complexity of canon!marisa. she lacked the wisdom, the sleek charm, and most importantly - the ability to be utterly terrifying and lacking of any moral compass whatsoever. at the end the strongest impression she left was that of money and fashion and style and those were the least interesting thing about marisa. so it’s not a surprise to anyone but 10 years later this movie continues to be a horrible, shitty trainwreck in nearly every aspect possible