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His Dark Materials

905 replies

AllGoodDogs · 19/07/2019 22:50

New BBC adaptation, looks so good, can't wait Grin trailer here -

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10162256439035553&id=683285552&sfnsn=mo

OP posts:
Unihorn · 22/12/2019 23:41

I really enjoyed it but the daemon portrayal was shit again really. I thought Roger should've been calling out for Salcilia more, who we've barely seen incidentally, so it wasn't quite as emotional as it could've been.

Bimbleberries · 23/12/2019 00:46

But in North America, the mathematical tool IS called a compass, not a pair of compasses.

I didn't know the Paradise Lost reference, though.

ShinyGiratina · 23/12/2019 07:55

I never understood why the title was changed for the USA. Is the term "Northern Lights" not used there?

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 23/12/2019 14:05

I have a feeling that it might have been the other way around. That was the working title and they kept it in America even though he'd changed his mind.

Bimbleberries · 23/12/2019 14:09

Yes, the term Northern Lights is used in North America. No idea why there were two different titles.

I would have assumed, if I'd read it as The Golden Compass, that it meant a direction finding one - leading them towards truth rather than north - and not the circle drawing tool

Rosehip10 · 23/12/2019 16:39

Why didn't the magisterium fleet of airships simply gun down asriel and his equipment?

ginghamstarfish · 23/12/2019 17:55

What the heck was Mrs Coulter (and daemon) up to at the beginning, on the airship? It looked a bit rude!

dementedma · 23/12/2019 21:40

How did Will manage to find the portal thingy just by chance and , if that can happen, why haven’t loads of other curious people gone through it?

Igneococcus · 24/12/2019 07:47

I'm not a native English speaker and I have only thanks to this thread realized there is another meaning to the word compass in English.

Rosehip10 · 24/12/2019 08:04

The amber spyglass was also edited in the US to remove "offensive" content about the church and lyra's "sensations".

CountFosco · 24/12/2019 10:25

How did Will manage to find the portal thingy just by chance and , if that can happen, why haven’t loads of other curious people gone through it?

Some of that may be explained in a forthcoming series! As for why haven't lots of other people gone through it? Would you? Will and Lyra both have nothing to lose (Will thinks he'll be arrested for murder, Lyra has lost her best friend and her parents have let her down), but if you were reasonably happy in your life would you go through a portal into an unknown world? You have no idea what awaits you there, you might never come back. I wouldn't do it. Boreal was quite excited to discover John Parry had moved between worlds, he had never met anyone else brave enough.

ShinyGiratina · 24/12/2019 10:42

Will followed the cat, and the portal presented a safe place to hide.

Mummy195 · 24/12/2019 10:54

Didn't the letters from his dad give Will clues on where to go?

Rosehip10 · 24/12/2019 11:07

No as I think colonel parry went through another portal in Alaska?

Piggywaspushed · 24/12/2019 11:17

I thought the book was about the NESW compass , too, but I call the twiddly twirly thing for angles a compass, too. No one has ever overruled me!

I do have an American mother but doubt I discussed compasses, of either kind, with her.

noblegiraffe · 24/12/2019 11:32

I just watched The Golden Compass again last night to see how they did it differently and omg the dæmons were so much better. Every scene had birds flying overhead, animals on the ground and it didn’t make it seem too busy, it just made it seem like a different world. It felt that they built the world more effectively too, perhaps because they had less time. But it did feel rushed, I think the content was better as a series.

Every time the alethiometer came out, they said ‘it’s a golden compass, an alethiometer to help you find the truth’ (or similar) and I was filled with rage now that I know that Milton was talking about golden compasses.

piggy I call the twiddly twirly thing for angles a compass, too.

This is the hill I am willing to die on. PAIR OF COMPASSES. Do you have wear a trouser and cut paper with a scissor too?

noblegiraffe · 24/12/2019 11:35

How is Will going to end up in Cittàgazze when the portal he goes through is the one that Lord Boreal uses to get to Lyra’s world?

What the heck was Mrs Coulter (and daemon) up to at the beginning, on the airship? It looked a bit rude!

I have no idea! I wondered too. Were they angry? Cold? It did look a bit rude.

Piggywaspushed · 24/12/2019 13:17

Why is it a pair though : what does each bit of it do? ( I realise I could ask the same about scissors...)

Pretty sure Dh says compass... but then he doesn't do less/ fewer either!

noblegiraffe · 24/12/2019 13:21

It’s a pair because it has two legs.

Trousers. Scissors. Compasses.

Piggywaspushed · 24/12/2019 13:26

Turns out - as with many American usages- that compass is the original, changed when the mariners' compass was invented . I give you Chaucer : "poynt of my compas".
and Swift : "to fix one foot of their compass wherever they think fit."

Piggywaspushed · 24/12/2019 13:27

However, what is definitely true is that Milton wrote of Golden Compasses.

There is a raging debate about this on a Masonic website, obviously.

WaterSheep · 24/12/2019 13:34

noblegiraffe That was my first question. It's the wrong portal. Not sure how they're going to write themselves out of that corner. Confused

CountFosco · 24/12/2019 19:43

I was not happy that he used the portal in the wrong place. Pullman describes very clearly where the portal is that Will uses, I use to live very close to it, and was looking forward to seeing that not very attractive part of north Oxford on TV. It wasn't Lord Boreal's portal though, it was just very nearby which makes a kind of sense (think about what Will does later on).

Do you have wear a trouser

Clearly you haven't read much fashion writing, it's all 'a red lip' and 'a silver shoe'. Gives me the fucking rage. As annoying as 'she sourced her jumper at Oxfam'. Grrr.

CoffeeWithMyOxygen · 24/12/2019 19:49

What the heck was Mrs Coulter (and daemon) up to at the beginning, on the airship? It looked a bit rude!

I’m pretty sure this was supposed to be mortification, the religious practice of causing yourself physical pain as a form of offering to God. I thought it was quite clever really, showing how she could hurt/mortify herself by hurting her daemon.

TanselleTooTall · 25/12/2019 18:05

Well I finished watching the last episode. I purposefully stayed away from this thread so I couldn't be influenced as to how I feel about the season vs the book.

Lyra wasn't bratty enough! I'd hoped to watch her being an 'orrid little so and so, but she was so reserved on screen.

Ma Costa's forearms were too slim. I wanted to see a big, stocky woman capable of giving a good wallop and clout when needed!

The daemons barely adapted and changed to suit the mood, need or environment. That was a let down.

I really hoped to see the scene where the fish was taken from the little boy after his death. Lyra was full of rage and anger at the huge sense of injustice of it all: Pan turned into a snarling, vicious leopard whilst Lyra screamed blue murder.

Iofur's desire to emulate humans was skimmed over to a huge degree. His short part in the episode really didn't make much of a point, IYSWIM?

I was unhappy with how Hester was designed. Too fluffy, too animated, too talkative. She was a scrawny, dull looking thing, ears flat along her back, eyes barely open and made herself as still as possible. Extremely cunning because that way, no one paid her any attention and she watched everything and everyone in the room, relaying important information back to Lee.

Farder Coram's cat was a let down. She was so beautiful and with unusual markings in TNL.

It sounds like I'm moaning but otherwise, everything else was pretty good with some really great acting. I cried a fair number of times.