Girls Gone Canon Cast - His Dark Materials S1E1: Lyra's Jordan

Episode Date: November 8, 2019

Spiral into an all spoilers cast on everything in (and out) of Lyra's world. Find out what the girls liked (and didn't), and pour one out for Tony Makarios, who will never get the screentime he deserves.   -------------------------- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: www.liesandarborgold.com Intro Waltz Of The Skeleton Keys by WombatNoisesAudio | https://soundcloud.com/user-734462061    

Hello everyone and welcome to Girls Gone Canon. Watches His Dark Materials. This is the television show. We are watching His Dark Materials, Season 1, Episode 1, Lyra's Jordan. I am one of your hosts, Eliana. You might know me as GlassTableGirl, or as Arithmetric, depending on where you are. I am another one of your hosts, Chloe. You might know me from the internet as LizaNarver on Twitter, Tumblr, or LizaNarverGold.com.

Well, everyone, it's here. After 16 years of waiting, I finally got a live-action adaptation of Historic Materials. I'm kind of a spoiled brat. I just stumbled upon it and got it now. I feel entitled. Is that a feeling? Should I be feeling that? No, I think this is a gift. Everyone is special. Chloe. Everyone is special. I'm special is what you're saying i am indeed saying that yeah i mean like you know i guess there's the other there was the movie and that was like fun we watched that of course patrons got to listen to our takes on that and

surprisingly this episode draws quite a bit from it and you know that set the bar for me this was a this was a good adaptation that we got just just the other day it was uh it's hard i got to watch it so i guess a bit of backstory if you guys have not listened to us let's start off from the top that we usually are covering books analyzing books we have at this point in time almost finished Northern Lights, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. This podcast will be all spoilers for the main three books. So,

The Golden Compass, Northern Lights, Subtle Knife, Amber Spyglass. We will be discussing components of those books as they appear on screen or as we see nods to them. If you have not read that far please log out or if you want to be spoiled stay on we'll spoil you we'll spoil you real good spoil you rotten rotten even yeah but um we are covering the show we are finishing up

the first book as i mentioned we also cover a song of Ice and Fire and have covered season eight of Game of Thrones on HBO as well. So we are very excited to start off with a new BBC HBO produced show. Yep. And we might every now and then touch on some of the information that is in Philip Pullman's ongoing series, The Book of Dust, which, of course, intersects with the ongoings in his dark materials yeah um if you have been privy to our northern lights golden compass coverage we do a dust discussion at the end where we spoil a little bit of what's to come in the books so this whole episode will be a dust discussion is what we're saying but we also do a dusty discussion where i get to monologue a little bit until eliana finally finally finishes labelle sauvage and the secret commonwealth will you be done by the end of this show i think i

could be if you if i uh commit to it i could be i i don't have any plans this coming weekend really you can get through a good chunk i could potentially do it if I remember to do that and not just watch trashy television shows, which, let's be real, is a great love of mine. Lyra's Jordan and expands it a little. User Twittagaze, who, if you are not following and you are a big fan of His Dark Materials, whether it be the books, whether it be the television show, even though it literally just started,

glad you're on board if you have never read it and decided you're in. This is it for you. You're in love, right? You have to be following Twittagaze. They are one of the premier i think sources for information about his dark materials but they they reported that the episode titles

of season one at the very least are named after chapters within northern lights slash the golden compass there's a few chapter changes right when it comes to Northern Lights versus Golden Compass. So there's no Mortal Kombat chapter in this for us Americans. There is no Chun-Li. There's no Chun-Li. But another interesting title change was that the first episode was originally Roger. That was what was released to the public. And then it changed

to Lyra's Jordan, the chapter name, and of course Lyra's Oxford. I will say that before I knew that they were named after chapters and knowing that back when we thought that the episode was entitled roger for the first episode then learning that it wasn't i thought maybe roger will be the name of the last episode me too i was fooled yeah we all were we were betrayed we were bam we were the betrayed we were bamboozled i was bamboozled and i was bamboozled. And I was ready to risk it all.

For that chapter title. I was risking it for the Roger Biscuit. She's gonna bet our podcast. Someone else can be one of our hosts. Not me. Fuck them kids, Mrs. Coulter.

That's actually how she feels. That's why she and Azrael get along. Both of them. They're like, we have a kid together? Fuck them kids, Mrs. Coulter. That's actually how she feels. That's why she and Asriel get along, you know, both of them. They're like, we have a kid together? Fuck them kids. Fuck them kids. So I thought we should talk about this wonderful question and quote that I read in an interview from Pullman before we even launch into all of this.

Frances Harding, a children's N.Y.A. author, asked, if you could lead a revolution in someone else's world what world would it be and pullman said what an interesting question i'd lead a revolution in the narnia story and i'd put susan at the head because she was the one who was turned away at the end because she was growing up and she was interested in boys let susan lead the revolution of the rejected in Narnia. I just thought that was such a great, just a great little passage for those that are huge fans of fantasy. Whether you're coming to this as someone who is fine getting spoiled and has not read the books, whether you're coming to this as a book reader, I think this story takes

what a lot of us read in childhood as Narnia, or as some of us might not have read in childhood and is read now. I wonder if that is something that really should lead how we feel about this, right? This is a different fantasy that we're about to embark on. It's the people that have the power and how they use that power and their emotions and look at Coulter and the things she does. And it's chilling. It's a different creepy fantasy, right? And it's closer to reality than I think a lot of people think. Yeah, it absolutely is. And I think part of the way that the books end, right, is to put you back into your own world

and say you have something that you need to do, right? You have seen heroes here. Now go do that in your life. You lead the revolution. Yeah, absolutely. And I think we're going to see a lot of a revolution, and I think it's going to revolve a little bit about this girl. This girl named Lyra.

Lyra. Lyra. Lyra. Thanks, Kate Bush. It's the award-winning end theme song of the golden compass for those of you who are like why did i sing lyra right now oh my god wait wait girls gone compass no it's a contender but no we'll think about it the whole season was originally rated r and then got turned to tv 14 it really needed to be tv 14 i mean it's a show based on books that

a lot of us read when we were that age i i think it's i would have been mad if it weren't accessible for younger audiences like if the 14 year olds and under get the metaphors good yeah good for them they're smart kids i think it's already like inaccessible to younger audiences because it's on hbo right but right just like you know it's kind of bullshit that sesame street is on it but whatever but you know here's my theory my pet my demon theory if you will about it so i guess they had to modify the monkey so it didn't have a dick that's really like this is legitimately what Chloe thinks. Yeah, that's how I'm going to lead. Yes.

That's how I'm going to lead. Yes. Walk us through it. The brand, the species, the brand, the, what do we want to call it? Literally, species. The type of monkey. Yeah, literally, the species, this monkey, Coulter's monkey, it's kind. It's not a golden, I know it's not a golden lion tamarin because I know those. Those are cuter. No, but there's a name for it. Is it's not a golden i know it's like not a golden lion tamarin because there's like i know

those those are cuter for it is it a gibbon whatever it is it's genitalia is prominent and i don't know i'm just saying maybe they cut it because that was just too much you know for the for the people for that was why tv 14 had to happen because the monkey this show could have something going for it. I'm optimistic. How are you feeling going into this episode? Are you optimistic? Yeah, I've waited 16 years for this and I already know what bad looks like.

And I know that this is not bad, okay? I don't even know if I've waited 16 years for anything. I've seen what bad looks like. You looked at it. It literally did. It looked back. Literally, Chris Weitz tweeted us. It looked at it literally did it looked back literally chris whites tweeted us it looked back it did and i'm sorry for him right this was that was clearly not his vision but like i know we already got that and so this is already like better you know i guess i feel bad i mean i know the time has passed right like it's

it's 12 years later chris whites does not probably want to return to golden compass but i also feel like he like deep down it's like just call me i'm here i mean maybe they might have because like again a lot of the direction and a lot of the way that some of the scenes were adapted are very similar to what he wrote. Watching a lot of this, it felt like Chris Weitz's script came to life in a lot of ways in the beginning. Yeah. We'll get into that a lot more, but there were a lot of similarities, a lot of stage directions that I was like, I mean, that does go to show. And you guys, if you want to hear more about this, please, you need to check out our Patreon episode.

Last month's patron-only episode was for five dollar and up patrons about the golden compass and what what happened in that movie what did happen in that movie what didn't happen in that movie a lot actually well we had some we definitely had some back uh background info for you guys some script info some info from like you said earlier to itag, who is very knowledgeable about some of the stuff that went on with production. Some interviews with Pullman, some interviews with Weitz, just a lot to piece together to say, hey, this is what happened. It wasn't Chris Weitz's fault. Defend Chris Weitz at all costs. But it was someone else who actually is still owning the rights and we are shills we will never talk about it so we want to talk instead be a historic material show i who gets paid eight million

dollars by hbo every fucking wish i wish oh my god hbo hire us you can go through expensive film school right no one's ever done that before. No one, ever, and didn't get big TV shows just handed to them. I could be handed things. I love being handed things. Hand me things all day long, HBO! We did get some emails

and tweets of note. We do these in our regular, everyday episodes. And by everyday, I mean once a week, depending on the brand you follow. We have a friend named Shadow Fox on Patreon who sent us a message saying they've watched the first episode. They have some concerns, which I think we'll probably address these today for sure.

They think James McAvoy was wooden and not convincing as Asriel. They found that strange. He is a good actor and they hope that will change. I kind of felt similar, but we'll talk about it. Yeah, my partner felt similarly. Okay, we'll talk about it now. I don't know if I felt like it was like that wouldn't, but I did. I felt like there were moments where he slipped into the skin for me and I was like, yes, I think Stelmaria, which we'll talk about Stelmaria because what a queen, but Stelmaria helped uh and i feel like maybe he was just painted a little sympathetically it could just be like sometimes pilots are rough right and it's a pilot yeah

for me it was mostly his performances right at the beginning of the episode that i found strange uh i found his other performances better yeah agreed agreed but also a lot of his performances right are for the most part like frantic etc and maybe it's just like really difficult i'm not an actor i only did it i mean i'm imagining at this point that like a it can only get better right like there's no way this show could get worse it's not the golden compass right like there's no they have so much to work with and they're obviously using source material. This is something that I'm, like, jumping all over. It's like, there's subtle knife laced in here.

There was even a couple of hints of the amber spyglass. The subtle knife. Yes. Very subtly. Subtly laced. And there's even some stuff from La Belle Sauvage and even possibly some Commonwealth in here. I feel like they're being very true to source material. They're world building. I think episode two can only get

better. Like you said, this is a pilot. This is the first episode. So this is the worst I feel like it can get. So now imagine James McAvoy frantic in the finale. Yeah, I think maybe as he spends more time with the character, maybe he'll settle into it more. Who knows? But he is a good actor, as said, and I mean, I'm sure and I know Shadowfax isn't the only one who felt that way. flowing and that it could just be first episode jitters i'm really hoping so because the preview looks really good and that there are definitely several differences from the books i did mention this on our regular his dark materials podcast for northern lights and golden compass in the last episode episode seven uh there are differences and they aren't that egregious i i can understand too he says i can understand why they did that I can too there are a few things we're definitely going to comment on Tony

deserves better and then definitely Shadow Fox finishes with Ruth Wilson changed it all she's amazing highlighted the episode I know right mommy he's quietly optimistic for the rest of the show and that's kind of

how I feel too. The first, so I saw it at my local free public library. They did a really cool thing with HBO. They had a free pre-screening about a week before the show came out. And it was really good. It was a good time. I enjoyed it. They did a scavenger hunt.

It was fun. There were pictures. I got to take a picture with Eorik. I'm happy. But I saw it then. I don't know if I would say I'm under I wasn't underwhelmed I was whelmed I was like okay it felt safe almost I was like okay that was safe there were some good choices adaptationally speaking that I really loved uh there were a couple things I was like hmm I hope this doesn't going forward do anything you know what I mean Like doesn't affect how I feel going forward, but I think it was fine. I think it was fine. And now that I've watched it a second time, I feel really positively about it. I think the second watch really cleared it up for me because the first one, I was like, I don't know, I'm worried. I've seen other things that I love get ruined. But this one I felt better about yeah I think I felt positively

from the get-go I mean I also just had like a lot of like excited energy so right and I didn't have like it wasn't like for me seeing Harry Potter right like on opening night as a kid that's that's kind of what I was trying to in my mind like be like what does this feel like um I didn't get that excited that I was excited excited I was excited but I didn't get that excited. I was excited, excited. I was excited. But I wasn't brimming. So I think that might have affected it too. The second time re-watching it and thinking about what I was going to actually say

tonight with you, I was like, okay, I'm into it. I'm really into it. I already had a lot of things to say that I was excited to remark upon as I was watching it the first time through. We're going to obviously get into that in a bit so um maybe a few more comments we want to get through though uh fanny and mass on twitter i'm lee scoresby's less favorite daughter had to read her name appreciate that as i'm repping some seraphina pakala love right now

they said they really enjoyed the episode. One little tear evidenced my emotion for Roger when he shouted to Azriel. Big mood. Such a pure little boy. I love him already. Yes! The Gyptians are everything I hoped for and more. Yes.

And I even liked Marisa as a character. I trusted her. Oh yeah. I felt that. They did a character. I trusted her. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I felt that. They did a great job of delivering her. To me. Wow. There's that. There's Roger.

I actually now have some thoughts about Roger thinking about this and the way that they played him in this episode and what it could mean for later episodes. Which I didn't expect to think to address until this moment. So more Roger thoughts, right? which I didn't expect to think to address until this moment. More Roger thoughts, right? From ThirdEyeCrow at HeisenbergGoat on Twitter. Says, really enjoyed that first episode. Great cast. The bar stewards haven't nailed it with Roger. His cute, innocent, stupid face is bound to make me cry.

It's guaranteed. Yes. I love how they always give Roger a cute, stupid face face the nose on the last one the nose just want to pinch you just want to and even in this one his cheeks you just want to like yeah pop them yeah superb looking set sets the scene nicely and introduces you to a lot also for people in the uk i feel there is added layer to the show, which will make it incredibly popular. And that is the day of the week it's shown and the time of day being on a Sunday before the watershed will broaden its appeal to a primetime family audience. And for anyone born before 1990, it may bring back fond memories of previous literary adaptations from BBC, like Five Children and It or The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe which aired on Sundays.

Someone take these member barriers away from me. Obviously the UK gets this a day before us. I did get to see this before everybody. Don't hold it against me. I won't get to do it again. I'll be late next week. I'll be late the week after that. So I have had days to stew on this.

We're moving to the UK. Yeah, we're all moving. By the end of the season, Eliana and I will have our new home. No, we have to do it during the season, and then we move back to the US at the end. Maybe our demons will settle. We don't know. I just love that. I love the lore and kind of just like, this has been something special, not just for people in the UK, but for people everywhere that have read this forever like you who introduced me to this

I am very grateful for that because I would not have known this or read this without you it feels very special I do feel like I'm intruding a little bit on some people here like having opinions on this I'm like am I intruding on people and their opinions because I just loved this I didn't

have the 16 years I didn't have all that and I wish i did i'm uh i'm disappointed i didn't i'm guessing it could have been you know i don't know why i don't know why i didn't read it i'm guessing it was maybe the two-year difference uh spoiler eliana is two years different for me two right two years different different there's two years worth of differences between me and chloe two years worth but you had two years i did not to love them is what i'm saying and i feel like maybe i missed the boat somewhere you know what i mean like somewhere in childhood i missed it and i wish i didn't because i love them yeah

i mean i don't know what it is i don't know it was on a reading list for one summer i was like that's a cool sounding book i read that i was like all right i need to know everything now typical oh that's how i was too here i am yeah so i don't know i don't think there's any intrusion i think the beauty of books and stories is you come into it when you do and sometimes they come to you at the right point in your life and if they don't they'll they're with you for when you need it i mean mean, I also was raised Roman Catholic and went to catechism. I felt really guilty reading the third book. I was like, is Jesus going to be mad at me for reading this? And see, now reading it as an adult only, I feel like that gif of Elmo where there's flames in the background.

But not because of this book. You feel that way all the time. I mean, also, also yes but especially now like specifically i feel that right now so i guess let's jump into this right that was a good intro i think i think we all are ready to get dusty get dusty we're up all night to get dusty is that gonna be on the soundtrack do you think lauren tell us i did i did in fact like some of those intros so starting off right we have the dust intro um in the golden compass interestingly they did it as a voiceover and now they've decided to just... Put the voice.

Yeah, they just had it written out, like, I don't know, in Star Wars. It's definitely HBO style, right? Like, all of this is. They give, like, the subtle, like, here's the words on the screen, and they're sprinkled in dust. And it gives us this little mini detailed breakdown for everyone who's new. Talks about the prophecy prophecy highlights prophecy and destiny apart from each other we break in after that to as real and i did really love some of the stylistic details in how they put together just this text right like when they explained about the sacred bond between human and demon i was like okay so we're just really gonna only put it up here and

tell everyone which makes sense especially because you don't get the slow reveal and understanding from the books. But the H in human gets sliced. Okay. It gets sliced in the way that the His Dark Materials logo is. And I was like, oh, interesting. And also it happens again when they're explaining about a child in prophecy. The word child has that slice as well so right from the jump you're getting that tie into what's gonna

likely happen at the end of the season and throughout it with the severing which fascinatingly they don't bring up the severed child or a question of is it a severed child in that library scene but we'll get to that in a second yeah I thought that was

interesting too they didn't talk about the kid at all or like that was the one thing that they didn't highlight but we will uh lyra arrives via gyropter um azrael is wading through some waist-high waters he gives lyra to the master of Jordan College. He claims Scholastic Sanctuary and tells him he has no choice. She's not safe with him. Pan is very small. I mean, I'm not wrong. He is.

He is. So this is actually, like, not to break it early on, but this is a total dusty discussion thing. This is, is like a little spoilery um i can't believe that they put in the very first scene a huge spoiler to the series not a huge spoiler i mean you know she got to oxford somehow like we know lyra ended up there that's like a we know yeah yeah there is some context to this that i won't spoil but there's dialogue from one of the

books of dust labelle savage uh there's a bunch of latin i don't think i can pronounce latin you want me to try it you want to try sure everyone i didn't take latin i took two other romance languages neither of them were latin so we're gonna do this uh best i can all right Latin. So, we're gonna do this as best I can, alright? Secundum legum de refugio scholasticorum protectionem tegimentum que

huius collegii profilia mea Lyra nomine roposco. Look after her. Scholastic sanctuary for this child? For my daughter, Lyra, as I said. She's not a scholar.

You'll have to make her into one then, won't you? Bye! That's literally it. That's what Asriel does. And then he comes back later in this episode and says, Money, please! Money! Where's my money, daddy? That's literally literally

what Asriel money please he's like here's this prophecy baby but no like really that is what happens so um i loved that i love that they kept it in obviously adaptationally speaking they cut a couple characters involved in this moment uh i will detest them with my little petty heart till the day i die but i understand why they did i would have done the same thing however there are other opportunities they could have brought those people in and we'll talk about them later but first we need to speak about Lyra and Roger because next they introduce another super, super just like iconic thing of Lyra and Roger.

Yes. Just tomfoolery. They're causing trouble around Oxford. Lyra's jumping in the housekeeping area and messing things up. They're disruptive. We get to see Oxford. It's pretty. It ends with them drinking wine in the crypts.

They chat about demons dying. They chat about demons settling eventually into one form because right now children's demons change, right? They change until they settle. The transition's great too at the end. There's a splash of wine from Lyra's mouth and it transitions into another scene in the north with snow. Overall, a great Roger and Lyra's mouth and it transitions into another scene in the north with snow overall a great Roger

and Lyra introduction I feel like we understand her and Roger's relationship in the episode uh combining this scene and the crypts actually was a great idea it was a great like great strong start good job they included two little nods to book readers in one for how fast the episode was right like I feel like the pacing was a little weird sometimes and fast, but it covered four chapters of the story. And I feel like we got our worth out of those four chapters. I feel like we really did. Like we spent sufficient time with every relationship that we were shown. We had a lot of the important parts and they were given like some time to breathe, like, maybe not a huge amount, but I think that it was good. And like you said, it established the important

parts. For example, as you said, Lyra and Roger's relationship. Love, Roger. You little shit. Just running first. I love it. I love that Roger is given just as every bit of much care and characterization as Lyra is. I like that

the scholars aren't stuffy about the kids running around. They're busy doing whatever. They let the kids be kids. They scold Lyra is. I like that the scholars aren't stuffy about the kids running around. They're busy doing whatever. They let the kids be kids. They scold Lyra a little. They're like, kids, what are you doing? You're jumping into the laundry. No one really scolds Roger, which I appreciate.

I do appreciate that. He stands to lose more, right? He has nothing. He's the lower class sometimes they get punished but they're letting them be kids so you get a little sense of the culture there it's it's a great little like childish playground and i do miss and i understand why they didn't include it i feel like that they get into some of those hijinks with the drinking but the scene that chloe and i loved from the books of them vomiting.

And Roger being like, dude, I literally like this. And Lyra also vomiting, like, yes, and I do too. That's my daughter, dude. Yeah, we didn't get the thing of the demons and the coins, though. I was

bummed, but I kind of, I don't know, maybe it's the Song of Ice and Fire Game of Thrones thing, but I was just like, at least it happened. It's probably not even that important, right? Yeah. I mean, in a way, souls and shit, but... It was cool. I don't know. It was cool.

It was very cool. And I liked that she got haunted, but obviously they weren't going to show her getting haunted of it. Yeah. It wasn't plot relevant. It'll be in our hearts. Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was all just so cute.

It was very cute. Yeah. And Roger does stand a lot to lose. And it reminds me of what Juno, when the stepmom looks at the dad and is like, you know it wasn't his idea about Juno and Polly Bleeker having sex. Like, you know it wasn't his idea. Like, it was her idea. And that's how I feel about Lyra with most things. Like, you know it wasn't his idea.

Yeah, but it was kind of Roger's idea a little here. He ran first. He pushed it. He pushed. So I like that they're in it together in a lot of ways. Next, we have Asriel exploring the North. As you said said we transitioned from that wine splash so mario's like literally keeping his shit together storm's bad he's taking

photograms he's on instagram instead of scaling a mountain asriel do it for the gram we gotta do it for the gram still maria still maria's like dude that filter looks awful on you. Turn off Amparo and let's go. He's like, IGTV. IG Live. Seems he has somewhere to be. And then he comes back. He yells at his manservant a little to help him get all of his evidence together. And he's like, I'm going to Jordan.

Wow. Big move. And he's like, I'm going to take our friend with us. And out comes this chunk of ice. Yeah, well, at least Asriel has a good head, not'm going to take our friend with us. And out comes this chunk of ice. Yeah, well, at least Asriel has a good head, not on his shoulders, to go with him. Nice. Nice. I thought that was great.

It's really good. Stanislaus comes with him. That's cool. That's cool. Okay. Okay. They put Stanislaus in. I'm feeling good.

Yeah. Yeah. I was like, every little, little thing, right? I was like, yeah, do it for me there's quite a bit of setup in things for like even next season you know that's that's how i felt the whole time i was like oh you're setting up a whole entire world yeah they did a lot i'm gonna be able to move around in this next year stell maria is not only keeping azrael's life together she's keeping this show together yeah her fur, her luxurious voice.

Mama, yes, I love Stellamaria. That might be my favorite demon so far. Her and Peon. Her voice is so sultry. Very sultry. Very like, we need to get down the mountain now, Azrael. Like, okay, I'll do whatever you want, Stellamaria. I don't know. I thought

it was cool. I just thought she was a great bit of this. Like, her tail, I want to pet it. i don't know i thought it was cool i just thought she was a great bit of this like her tail i want to pet it i don't know i don't know i don't think she wants you to do that we weren't talking about what she wanted oh okay okay so let me have the opening credits which it's so obviously hbo yeah yeah i do like it but it is obviously a lot of this show screamed hbo quality right like everything is so well it's bbc yeah right that's what it felt i think it's initially mostly produced by bbc it is but i could like feel the music and the like okay the egyptians on their boat and the music they played, I was like is Daenerys Targaryen flying in on her

dragons, right? It felt very HBO, like, oh. Cinema, art. It was funny. I like it. I'm not saying it's bad but it was something that I was like, okay. I see your style. The song, the intro song is very much

so a bop. It kind of reminds me of a series of unfortunate events is adaptation song a little like not like completely but just like the behind it um we see some dust some sparkly dust on the alethiometer we see what i presume is the metal alloy for the silver guillotine cover that was? Was that what that was? I don't know. I didn't catch that one. Oh, that's interesting. It was like a metal spring. Yeah, it covers just pay attention next time you watch it. It like covers

the alethiometer in a little coil. It could be the metal alloy for the guillotine and of course for the subtle knife later. We begin to see Lyra. She's standing kind of at an edge of precipice looking out. You know, the a world armies stand behind her soul stands beside her we zoom out beside her we zoom out to lee scoresby's balloon we see some stairs interesting those stairs uh we see a zeppelin we zoom out all the way and see different worlds and even

a tease of one that looks like it could have some wheeled creatures on it. Some wheels and creatures, to be specific. Not sure. Interesting. I loved it. I loved seeing the different worlds. I think the show is really setting up well for those next seasons. Something the Golden

Compass cut pretty much all of. It's exciting to see things that would lend to these other worlds. The upside down stairs are interesting. I like the idea of a heaven reference, right? Stairway to heaven. And the other side of going south, south to underworld.

And I also thought, was there a strange figure on the other side of the stairs? Yes, I do believe that there is another figure on the other side of the stairs? Yes, I do believe that there is another figure on the other side of the stairs. If you zoom in, you don't have to just believe me or you. No, I really think, and like I said, this is the things that we were saying of, damn, they're really setting up some stuff already for later episodes for that they they kind of like already had those nods right to the amber spyglass with those lenses yeah and i almost am like

i'm curious that they had this other figure because is the intro going to change to include that figure more are they going to change that intro scene and include Will or what? I would like to think that they will evolve it. Why not? They'll probably have the budget for it. Like Thrones, right? Same thing. Yeah.

I think that's a fun thing for people to do. Or you know how anime opening songs change every season? Oh, yeah. This is an anime now. This is an anime. But yeah, you were talking about the stairs, and I really love the way that they portrayed that. That's something that caught my attention immediately, because they're really drawing heavily from the artist M.C. Escher.

I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with his work. He does a lot of you are familiar with his work. He does a lot of prints that have that very impossible-looking world of stairs that seem to be going into nowhere, the stairs that all feel like a Mobius strip, but it's a staircase. recognize him and he was very inspired by mathematics and art and while of course uh his dark materials is a fantasy there is a bit to which pullman is drawing from and playing on ideas of like science and stuff and and some physics but he's like giving it cute names like experimental theology and you were talking a little bit about like that heaven and hell stuff. And M.C. Escher was also greatly influenced by Hieronymus Bosch, who is another artist famous for a triptych, depicts also the Garden of Earthly Delights. And on the one of the panels, right, is hell. And Escher did his own take on it and so I think that there's something really poignant about pointing to Escher who a lot of his artwork was also inspired by the Alhambra which has a lot of towers they a lot of them are called the Torres del whatever insert thing here so I kind of wonder if to some extent their depiction of what sitagaze will look like is inspired by mc

escher i mean sitagaze is somewhere in between like kind of ancient but also really advanced in terms of like their technology because of their their magic and experiments so alhambra of course heralds to that with the mediterranean um vibe but also was a place of incredible art and you know bringing all of these together could make for some really great inspirations for how they portray all of that then you have all of those different worlds and then they all like become stagger along each other i love that scene. And they become like wafers and turn around. All skinny. Yeah, become skinny. And you see sort of ripples coming out from them.

And I think that heralds to a lot of different ways that you see this idea of the multiverse or parallel universes portrayed in fiction. Or every now and then, you'll see it talked about in actual science. But I mostly am familiar with it, of course, from science fiction, which is inspired by that. But one of the things it reminds me of is a little of that ripple effect.

Like the ripples is time and different universes, a river or a lake and how one thing can ripple out to the others. But I think another thing it kind of reminds me of is string theory, which very much has to do with all of those parallel universes. So each one of those worlds almost became like a little string, right? So I think it's fun that they're bringing all these different visual motifs

to convey some of the elements that are going to be in this story. There are some animals that I was like, why did they pick these animals? It probably doesn't mean anything and just look cool I wasn't sure if one of them was like a lion or a wolf and the other was a goat one was a wolf

I couldn't tell if it was a lion or a wolf so it's interesting that it's a wolf to me I did some research on the usage of wolves in the bible of course we understand what the goat is the goat has been used as a motif in paganism and to as a stand-in for the devil in a lot of christian um visual depictions but the wolf is interesting if it is that and in the bible wolves aren't portrayed very positively they're very they're used often as like the idea of a vicious uh animal

and sometimes they're used quite often in this idea of like literally the wolf in sheep's clothing that language comes up clothing and that's something that comes to play in this storyline regarding people pretending to be what they're not trust yep yeah there's a lot in this intro that really excites me i thought it was interesting too that in general there are these demon statues almost in oxford right they're almost just like just regular animals but we know it's different that's their soul those are the probably the demons of what forefathers who knows who had the gargoyles one me no i don't know. I don't actually know. Very 90s.

We're not going to get demons until we finish the Amber Spyglass. That's when our demons settle. We already discussed this, you guys. Discussed this. I'm a child. Yeah, I'm 10. I'm a 10-year-old boy. I'm 10 and on the internet, what is this? I'm a 10-year-old boy and all I want to do is go on Neopets and talk about boobs.

I do want to go on Neopets and talk about boobs. I do want to go on Neopets. I still do. I made an old co-worker a Neopets account. I was like, Kyle, this is your Neopet now, and I think that Neopet's dying. Mine is like, my Neopets that I have left is like, Chloe Loves Alex, or some ex-boyfriend name. Oh, I don't remember mine. I wish I did. I'm worried about them.

Oh my god so after the break we come back of this intro and lyra is in class with the librarian and i love this scene so much yeah it's a really it's a really great scene she's being taught by the librarian only magisterium approved things she's bored and then she oh, Asriel's coming into Oxford, so she tricks the librarian into finding, like, a high-up book to read to her. Then she sneaks out, and then she sneakily hides, and then locks him out, and then she runs across the

rooftops to go spy on Asriel and still Maria. Who's looking great. The true star of the show. I'm just saying, like, she looks so good, she's slinking her tail's all like I'm a beautiful big cat I love the librarian

says that they have to follow the rules if they want to keep Scholastic Sanctuary so Sanctuary in general we obviously know what Sanctuary means Scholastic Sanctuary means no one can touch them it's a big theme Sanctuary is a huge theme No one can touch them. Scholastic Sanctuary means no one can touch them. It's a big theme. Sanctuary is a huge theme in La Belle Sauvage,

as you get through the story. And it comes back up in the Commonwealth. I think it's supporting, this detail in general, is kind of supporting some of what's set up and built in the world of the secret Commonwealth. And I thought it was odd, because this isn't something we see in the main three as much, right? Scholastic Sanctuary isn't thrown out as this big theme in the main three books as much,

as much as it is kind of in the second two books of Sanctuary. So I thought that was interesting that they chose to adapt that into this and keep that in the world building. It could just be world building of like this is the world they live in but i also think that whole revolution around scholastic sanctuary is what's important here that like that's going to come back in the future yeah i mean maybe they were just really inspired by that scene in the disney adaptation of the hunchback of notre dame where quasimodo is yelling sanctuary neverctuary! Never read the book.

I probably should. I hear it's really good. It is really good. Have you read it? Yeah. Oh, it's a long-ass book. That's why I haven't started it. I can't even finish La Belle Sauvage.

My God. I don't read books. I think I read it in high school, actually, now that I think about it. I'm trying to think if it was a high school or college. One of the two, but I read it. It does take a little bit. Takes some perseverance. It is a big one.

Think of all the CW shows I could watch in the amount of time. No, I'm not going to do that. But yeah, I think what I also really like about this scene, and basically it's the whole first episode, right? All this world building you see on the board. They don't use the term, but it's a bunch of technically experimental theology aka mathematics and it's funny how they're weaving that together with the religion because in the middle of all this like i don't know math there's a venn diagram of like earth and then the other one is heaven and hell and i found that really interesting that heaven and hell are on the same plane in this venn diagram and not in separate worlds yeah and then she also like apparently lyra pays

attention enough in class to be able to recite things and be like can you read this very very specific long thing to me and then she the scene actually in this library starts out with the librarian quoting a passage from the book of Genesis, but it has a twist on it, right? Which is very fun. And we get that entire passage in his dark, in Northern Lights slash the Golden Compass regarding demons. And it takes place in the Garden of Eden. And it's like, And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,

but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall surely not die,

for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open, and your demons shall assume their true forms, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to reveal the true form of one's demon, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they saw the true form of their demons, and spoke with them. But when the man and the woman knew their own demons, they knew that a great change had come upon them. For until that moment, it had seemed they were at one with all the creatures of the earth and the air, and there was no difference between them.

And they saw the difference, and they knew good and evil, and they were ashamed, and they sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness. The passage that is quoted in this episode is regarding, and your demons shall assume their true forms and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. So there's a lot of talk of demons settling. You missed this thing in last night's His Dark Materials that links to this other thing.

Like this should be everywhere. That's like a very, like as far as subtext and like a quiet like Easter egg goes, this is a huge fucking easter egg in my opinion not everyone i guess had very christian assholes i don't know maybe they did but i maybe you should cut that out i didn't mean that it's like a dig i'm just like i just feel like this is big this is a big one i was just like wow good job i i i heard it and i knew it was like a bible passage off the top of my head i was like oh

is that genesis is that matthew i don't fucking remember but i'm i quit catechism okay no i didn't actually i i got through catechism i don't know how i got through catechism but i got through catechism we don't have to talk about it matthew's in the whole other testament exactly i don't know shit about shit dude but i got through catechism so imagine all the people to get through and then go to work for the magisterium okay so i i stuck out to me because when i reread the series as we did recently and are doing again right after having reread it. I loved this twist on the book of Genesis because it felt like this great element of world building, of showing, hey, this is how this is slightly different, but similar to us,

and is a point of familiarity with, again, that twist on it. And I kept waiting for more weird Bible passages throughout the rest of the books and we got none but this one is kind of a lot I'm really like thinking about this and I'm like they really read this

yeah they did that's amazing this right here almost excuses all of the other sins really I would almost excuse the big sin capital B I thought this right here almost excuses all of the other sins. Really? I would almost excuse the big sin. Capital B.

Capital B for Billy? Yep, but I would never excuse that because I'm not a fucking treasonous bitch. Betrayal. Betrayal. I've been betrayed. I just, we're going to get there, but I can't believe they did this to us so glossing past eliana's brilliant revelations which one the one where the seal breaks we don't know different book different book that's literally on the other side of the whole ass book chloe i don't know loads of books god so we get a mini

scene some of these scenes are like mini scenes, right? They're like a 30 second, one minute scene of the master and his demon. They had been pouring over a lithiometer books, which I thought was a great, great, really nice thing. Like I just, the scene is really nice. It's so short, but it tells so much. They're pouring over books and they have the lithiometer there. And he looks up and says, Asriel's here. It's time. His demon encourages him and he looks up says asriel's here it's time his demon encourages him and says yep you have to do it and did you know pullman's demon is a raven i see it he loves birds like that crows ravens all of it he says they're clever he just says

he loves those burbs so the master is his self insert you know yes but I argue Malcolm Polstead is too welcome to my essay one day I'll be able to read it you know who knows when Malcolm Polstead is my insert honestly he's my son fascinating

the master and the steward try to poison Asriel Lyra and Pan watch from the window and then when asriel comes in he's totally about to drink it yeah idiot and then still mario says some like sassy good stuff and lays it all down luxuriously and then jumps in breaks it on the ground and asriel's like what and then he shoves the wine bottle up leaving her right and they're like it's poison lyra's waited to speak with him for a year and he's like all right great i have a job for you

just like i don't want a job he's like you have a job now and puts her in the little fucking like i don't know pew nobody puts baby in the pew he does and he's like i want you to listen to how everyone reacts to the word dust. Especially the master, though. Yes. True. Specifically about dust. And then later he's like, I'm not going to tell you about dust. Bitch.

I kind of liked how he was cruel-ish in this. I don't know, not cruel, but I like that he was not sweet to her or anything. The sympathy cut itself, right? We saw Asriel in the first scene. You feel a little sympathy, like this guy's doing the best he can for his kid. You see Asriel later and you know what I mean, bitch. What we as an audience are presented in this TV show is different from what we as a girl's gone canon know. Okay.

So he's presented a little sympathetically in the beginning of the episode. And here, like it just shows he's kind of a dick. He's a little mouthy. He's all like, but I don't know. I don't know how I feel about James McAvoy overall still, but I do think this was good. I think that his acting from here on out was definitely good, especially second half of the episode, I think, was good. Yeah, it was way better. I loved Lyra said ain't, and she said it

like, perfect. Like, Daphne Keene somehow said ent or ain't, or I can't say it. I'm not Daphne Keene. I'm not Lyra. But she did, and she did it perfectly. And it was just, I don't know, the sound of it was good. Did anyone else feel this way? Or was it just me? Because it just sounded good.

She's very cute and good as Lyra. I think she's the right choice. I do. Yeah. And when I heard that she was cast in this, I was like, clearly they're casting her as Lyra. And it's a great choice. You know, I wasn't mad. I know a couple people were like, they couldn't put her in the closet but i

wasn't even mad about the closet in this like not being in the cupboard thing there's a shit about the closet i so like i have the vision in my head of her falling asleep and the perfumed uh poppy perfumed air and like her falling asleep in that closet amidst the robes and pan waking her up i see that in my head but i'm not disappointed i think it was fine changing it to the window i get it this is something that would save you like two whole minutes dude it's not even that i think that maybe the sneaking in the hallway etc there was so much world building and so much back and forth between her and pan of like are we gonna get punished are we not right and it's a great opening scene very fun for the books but you need something a little more dynamic for a visual medium which is where they pulled this labelle savage crap and it came really well

to open with that um i mean the whole idea i i would argue like the whole idea obviously is that like it's the anti-Susan, right? A girl's in a closet overhearing a conversation she shouldn't. It's interesting. Very mega-Susan. And I get that, the way he goes with the story. He wants to just prove that, as we said at the top. But I think it's fine here.

Even though, I mean, and I'll still enjoy this beautiful vision in my head of, like, the light smoke going up from the incensed poppy. Not the incested poppy, but the incensed poppy. I can still see that. And this was fine, but I do think it was fine. It is interesting that the Golden Compass actually did it with her in the closet, though, and did her walking with Pan on the table and chairs and checking out what's going on in the retiring room.

The retiring room was a place, a place we never come back to but it was a very important place yeah and this actually is a little similar right to the way they played in the golden compass movie because in in the books lyra just peeps like no in! In terms of, don't drink the takei. But here... She jumps out of the window. Yeah, she jumps out of the window. She does the same thing that she does in the movie, right? In terms of knocking the glass out of Asriel's hand. The

interactions between, like, how Asriel acts towards Lyra, I think, feels pretty accurate to the way he's portrayed in the books. I get what you're saying about, I understand how it can be meaningful in the context of reacting to Narnia. I'm fine with it not being the opening scene if that is an issue.

I think that the establishment of Roger and Lyra's relationship is more important, especially because in many ways, Roger's a driving force for a lot of her story. Yeah, and they really put the focus on that i feel like in this episode and i think i would sacrifice that for the retiring room absolutely yeah um maybe that makes us heretics i'm into heresy and that is what Asriel is preaching in the next scene

right the scholars watch Asriel's little skit the master opens up and he's like Jordan will listen to you but they can't be a place of gossip and the master says a bunch of stuff that we'll talk about in a minute read between the lines Asriel prevents

Asriel presents some photograms prepared in different emulsions one's just a normalish photo the other shows dust Asriel presents some photograms prepared in different emulsions. One's just a normal-ish photo. The other shows dust. Asriel uses it as proof that dust is only attracted to adults in the photo without explaining it, which we'll talk about as well. Like the Magisterium has been theorizing. He shows them the Aurora and there is a city within it in that second emulsion, which puts the scholars in an uproar, which actually I was happy about that,

very much so like the books. Lyra is sitting there watching that beauty of that city, and I loved that in my little shipper heart because she was like, it's beautiful. And I was like, you have no clue what you're going to find there, Lyra. No clue. You're going to find a family and a home and not.

You're also going gonna find horrible things anyways so the master tries to shut all this down he's like this is heresy and asriel pulls out his final card the head rolls it's grumman's head to be uh frank stanislaus grumman's head rolls it's here he blames the magisterium for Stanislaus's death, which is kind of a big boss move. And he's like, Grumman was fighting for true academic freedom, that which the master wanted to silence, and that you need to fund me so I can keep researching.

And then he says, and I thought this was very interesting, the way it was phrased, who will stand against me not with him against him very smart he played that well this is where i thought james mcavoy really shined um yeah there was a lot of read between the lines on the speech of the master it sets up for future books as well with the magisterium placing laws around scholarship at jordan i thought this scene was just great i think the tone was right. They cut some of the stuff. I don't know how I felt about cutting it, but they did enough

world building that it didn't confuse me. It felt pretty sacred and pretty good enough straight. I'm not mad about that cover change, like I said, and I know there's some deeper stuff we can go into, but I think it was a good solid scene. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, there could have been more panther Bjorn mentionings, but I just like the word panther Bjorn. There was no Palmyrian.

That's a good point. That's true. He wasn't there. So this isn't really the case in the books, but I do like the line of asriel saying that he brought back groman's head as befitting a scholar of this college and he stresses that since we saw at the beginning of this episode the heads uh below below the college so i think that was a good tie-in and strengthened that world building it's also kind of weird to me though this

is something that graded me and it's really not a big deal but that the photograms that he shows them are in color here because as real like makes a point he's like these are standard silver nitrate emulsion photographs and like in real life photography, standard silver nitrate photographs were like some of the first photographs, right? Not the first, but some of the first ones. Maybe it is the first, I don't know. Ignore my like, whatever. them are in black and white because silver obviously doesn't necessarily have other colors they can be colored right using other dyes but those aren't from the silver so no asriel this is not a standard silver nitrate emulsion that's all i want to say that's what i wanted to get off my chest no that is kind of like once you've explained it to me i'm like yeah okay but i get i get i mean just in real life this is a real life thing but this isn't real life it's just fantasy caught in a historic materials slide um no i don't know

i mean okay jack thorne has invented some other things that were a little weird so maybe we could chalk it up to that right like delphine lestrange voldemort riddle what have you read the cursed child or even the wiki no i haven't yet i have the book that i'm tell myself i'm gonna read one day um let me just save you the tragedy don't't do it. Bellatrix and Voldemort have a baby. You're welcome. I've heard that part. They time travel and try to fuck up Scorpio and Severus Elbis, whatever his name is, his life. They try to save Cedric Diggory.

They don't win, obviously. It's a thing. But I'm just kidding. The rest of this is decent-ish. But that is kind of like a... Pullman said in an interview once somebody asked him do you do a lot of research he's like of course I research but research needs to stay background right like you don't write about the research you write as if your character knows the

research like you use the research when you write you don't use it to define your work then it's a textbook is what he says um Jack thorne didn't do the same here so there's another quote that i thought was really cool here especially regarding all of this discussion this dust discussion literally asriel uh is talking about all these different worlds that are a possibility and they're like that's heresy there's only this place where catholic people rule i can't believe why we think this is the right choice. And Pullman has said in an interview when asked about different worlds in real life,

David Eagleman, an American scientist, once said, if you look at the night sky and hold your thumb and look at your thumbnail, it's covering something like 10,000 galaxies. The amount of stuff up there and the number of planets is infinite it's not conceivable to me that there isn't life somewhere i love the idea that he thinks that through all of his things all of them but that illustrates this of possibilities just always floating out there. Eliana, will you talk about one of my favorite not canon

scenes, please? So this is like actually one of my favorite additions to this, yeah, to the series to this episode, to what they're doing here, where the Egyptians throw a ceremony right, for Tony Costa Maa Kassa gives him like that hawk ring

because his demon settled as a hawk and presents him, yeah, like a debutante. And his little brother Billy, who is a precious cinnamon bun. He has like almost no lines, but I know He's gonna die in like three chapters. I was gonna say he's adorable. Oh, sorry.

Yes, that too. And Billy's demon apparently now is Radder, so that's basically confirmed. They made a point for us to hear that. They introduce Benjamin DeRoyter. And I do like that he's a little more fleshed out. He asks Tony to vow to uphold the Egyptian ways and to protect and uphold their morals and their people. people and then billy goes scampering off into the night and then tony's like he's been annoying me so much i'm trying to be a cool older dude now and ma cost is like yeah well she'll accept him she just wants to know that you're still gonna be his like big brother and not only a man now and then while he's out there billy gets kidnapped it's too bad you know he gets kidnapped by like this dude that's i don't know wh, whistling, wailing, singing.

He's whistling. Yeah. Billy sees a demon. It's a fox. Maybe a coyote. I think it's a fox. And they get drawn into it, and then they're kidnapped by him. Yeah.

A couple feelings here. I like that they had the birds and the rafters to like signify demons because let's get real. The budget can't afford a demon for everyone. It also can't be too busy. Like if it's too busy, we're going to get distracted. Annoyed. We'll be like, why does it look like this? So I think the birds and the rafters were a good solution to show you demons still exist here at the Egyptian thing.

I loved this scene in general i think it was great we'll talk a little more about speech in a second i there was no culture kidnap yeah i didn't like that um they didn't have it at all interestingly this episode you know the the movie we talked about how they chose to kidnap both boys at once right roger and billy at once hanging out chilling whatever yeah and i thought that was like a good addition with coulter though it was with coulter but here no coulter kidnap which bugs me because we get it in the book and it tells us like oh this lady is bad maybe hot but she's bad and then we get it like later on you're like oh she's pure evil because lyra's just falling for it lyra doesn't fall for

anything um i don't know i'll forgive it obviously already like i'm already over it but i did note it like very heavily and i was just like this was a moment i looked at my partner and i was just like interesting yeah they did the same thing right like where they reversed the order of that reveal i guess but i mean they obviously had to have reversed it here because we still haven't gotten the reveal that culture's involved in in here but it's important to me to have that first like it's important because then you go into it knowing she's bad and lyra doesn't know and it's like lyra has a little bit of a betrayal then you find out it's coulter like you know who she is finally you're like oh it's her mother yeah there's a there's that irony that comes with knowing that Mrs. Coulter is the one that is kidnapping the kids and it kind of heightens the stakes for Lyra being with her the whole time. But maybe, I don't know, maybe we're just wedded to this idea and there's a benefit to doing it the other way. We're going to see it play out. We've seen it play out one way and you know the golden compass movie was not the best

execution of it so right right who knows maybe we'll feel differently in a few episodes i don't know billy costa though oh my god so adorable and punchy in his little glasses and this little sweater vest i felt like in the books he was like the asshole jock kid. Really? A little bit. Like I felt like he was the leader and he was cool and he was like the other gang's leader. I think they're having Tony take more of that role.

Oh, Tony who's not in the show? No, Tony Costa. Oh, right, right. You know, I agree. Also, I was like, is that Ezra Miller? It's not, but... No. I knew you'd laugh at that, though. Thank you.

Thank you for humoring me. Because I was like, what? Who is this kid? It looks like a young Ezra Miller. I'm like, are you in Perks of Being a Wallflower? I don't know. In the speech that was given, there was that line about one unified family. And then

the next scene is Asriel putting Lyra to bed. Oh, yeah. And then Lyra meets Marisa later. Yeah. I'm a little sad. Are you sad? No. It's a bummer, dude. Not about it.

It's a bummer. I don't love it. Lara has a different family, and it doesn't happen to be related to her by blood. No, not at all. She has a dad. His name's Lee Scoresby. She has a mom. Her name's Serafina Bacala. Oh, I meant Dr. Carnet and the librarian. Oh, them two.

So... Dude, that guy was gonna murder for her. I know, and I love that. I don't know. I love the Egyptian stuff. I think this is really good, and especially because, as we're going to see as we go on, they become an actual, like, people and being. Like, their story is separate from this.

This is about their story and their suffering, their children going missing. It's really hard-hitting. Yeah, I love the emphasis on it for the reasons that you just said. And also, I think from a narrative level, I think it's really smart to establish the Egyptian storyline separately at first. It makes the world feel bigger. It makes the stakes higher, right? Because we see how it's affecting their entire community.

And I think it will make it a little stronger when everything converges. Probably be next episode whatever but like in general I just have really loved this scene and its addition because by having this ceremony we get so much information about the Egyptians and their culture it's a huge community right you said you talked about that unified family. And when one of them becomes an adult, all of them come out to celebrate this. It's such a momentous big thing that everyone is here to enjoy it, to witness it. You have the adults, but we see a close-up of lots of faces of children because they're being inducted and seeing like, oh, this is what it means to be a part of this community. It reinforces that collective identity in, I think, a very positive

way. And we get that emphasis again when Benjamin talks about the creation of the ring that Ma Costa gave to Billy, right? That all of them came together. They all contributed a little bit of that silver. Not Billy. That Ma Costa gave to Tony. That all of them came together. Right? And they contributed a little bit of this silver to create that ring. And I think that's just such a beautiful interpretation of what it means to become an adult. Right?

For them coming together as a community to welcome this young person, and then another one, another adult comes forward to mentor them and guide them. It's just really great. And I think that this idea of the coming of age, that rite of passage, which is what this is presented as, is something you see in a lot of cultures. Like some people might be more familiar with like the idea of the bar mitzvah or the bat mitzvah you've probably encountered that somewhere you've maybe heard of like something called the quinceanera in the philippines we have something that's called the debu uh the quinceanera and the debu are very gendered right uh often it has that aspect of like a young a girl is becoming a woman and being presented right to the community um but here

that idea is flipped on its head where it's a mother presenting her son and you see that a lot of the language is similar to that idea of a marriage and i think that's part of that responsibility again of adulthood because they're committing themselves to the gyptians to their people and entering this very communal relationship with them. We do. We do. And this exploration of that coming of age is a big part of Pullman's story. And I think it's great that we're getting it right from the jump with this first episode, like the story's establishing it. This is like the first 20 to 30 minutes. It's very smart. And to quote from an interview that pullman did

um that was actually like some of this was tweeted out a little like around the time of this release pullman says the story as a whole concerns something that every one of us goes through in our life and that's the change from childhood to adulthood from innocence to experience the way we apprehend things the way we think of things the way we see the world that's at the heart of the story later on he talks about he's like i don't know what the demons were there for at first, but then I figured out he's like, I could use the demons to signal the difference between being a child, which is malleable and flexible when your demon can change shape, and gradually becoming an adult when your demon settles in one fixed form. And I think that last part and having this ceremony, that's absolutely what's at play

here, and it's nice to see the first episode center that so that it can be a through line for the rest of the story in the next few seasons, even. I think that sense of community is so strong here. I think they're very much so

developed as their own people which i feel good about um it's like you're following different factions again it's bbc hbo they want you to clearly know who you're following you know like whether you're a house stark or a house target you know what i mean like they want you to choose someone um the time has come to choose a side choose a side that's like the whole thing they want you to choose a character get obsessed about them obviously everyone's gonna be obsessed about lyra because she's the best lyra lyra but this just ties so many good things about world building right in the book we hopefully will hear about this next episode i'm guessing too

if they deign to put it in here but like the egyptians uh they all come together and put money and gold and silver toward finding their kids together right like each clan is called upon and said hey you need to bring us what gold or silver you can and they come forward and say we've given this much silver we will help to find these children these are our people and so it really established their culture um i feel like as an added scene it's really good like really good like i don't feel good about added scenes usually i'm a game of thrones person so you know i hate anything that's not from the books, but this felt good. Yeah. All around, I support what was happening here.

It was just, I think, really smart and very well done. And I'm excited. But, coming off of that, Asriel and Selmaria are exhaustedly celebrating their win when they remember, oh yeah, that's right, Lyra's in the bench.

Yeah, she's out there. He's literally about to forget his daughter. He so is. And this is such a tough scene. It makes me feel too sympathetic toward him again. I feel like this whole episode is just like, everybody like Asriel. I don't want

to like Asriel. I hate him. I don't want, like I'm conflicted. Like his end? I don't want to like asriel i hate him like i don't want like i'm conflicted like his end i don't know if i really feel good about it like i don't care good i'm glad you died doing that fuck you um i never forgave him it the good doesn't wash out the bad. Wow. So, he carries Lyra off to bed. I don't want to feel sympathetic. Fuck you. Show Asriel.

Fuck Asriel. And we get a look at him and he stares at the postcards and maps of the north that Lyra has on her wall in her bedroom in Jordan. He tucks her in. Pan is clutched at her chest. He unties and takes off her shoes.

Lyra wakes up and he's like, oh, now you wake up. Like I carried you all the way up here. And she's like, did you get your money? And he says, yes, yes, I did. And then she asks him out dust. And he's like, no, you're better off not knowing yet. And she's like, you made me spy about it, though.

And he's like, and? He's like, I didn't ask you to report out. Right. She wants to see Gremon's head. And he's like, no, absolutely not. Why would I show you that head? But also knowing what we know about Asriel. It's like, oh, oh okay because she's too clever

good to know she asks if they can trust the master and then he says he doesn't trust anyone whoa edgy she's like can i go north with you and he's like good night that's it that's literally that's the scene um aliana did you read the postcard on the wall i did did you zoom real close and read about it because i will read it to you and please read it to me chloe i want to relive it lyra reports have reached me that you stole egyptian boat tenacity aside, it would serve you to apply the zeal against the Acosta children to

your tuition with Charles. Regards, Asriel. Oh. Oh. Oh, poor Charles. Also, I'm glad it was important to me because I wasn't sure

if we were going to get reference to the bug it's close enough this is I think what I'm going to get but I firmly believe in this bug Lyra might not firmly believe in this bug anymore but I do oh my god I'll never forget

your bug I saw this hilarious joke on Twitter when Asriel's like I remembered it when Lyra was asking if Asriel got the money and I don't know who it was who said it but they were saying the most unbelievable or unrealistic

part of his dark materials was how quickly the university gave Asriel a research grant I did like the means he did use, not to get too serious, but the means he actually used to do it where he was like, who will stand against me?

It was a threat. It wasn't a question. It was, who dares? Please tell me. Who has connections enough to defeat me at this point? It's probably literally anyone to be honest he's not well liked he's really not everybody everybody was like northern conspiracy about it they'd be like bye asriel which they kind of try to do in the first book they do they do um that's sad well it stuck out like a sore thumb it's obviously why like lyra has to be different

from them right yeah that's true they don't trust anyone uh there's a lot of culture as real feelings in this episode i feel like the actors themselves did a great job of like i don't know just bucking, kind of swimming around those feelings. It pulled up real well in that especially. I don't trust anyone. That's why Lyra's not like you. I guess she could have learned that lesson, right? Towards the end of the season slash book, whatever.

That's true, but I don't know. The lesson she does learn is about poison next the master and the librarian are discussing poisoning asriel next uh the librarian's not happy with the idea the master's like the balance is at stake of the college. And like at the time, I feel like it sounds weak, but no, it's not. It's true. He has to retain that balance to keep everyone safe. I understand the master so much more now. Now that I finished the Commonwealth, I'm just like sitting here and I'm like that poor man.

He reveals that the alethiometer says if Asriel continues, it could be bad for everyone. And especially Lyra, their favorite person. Lyra. He talks about the part she has to play and that she has to make a journey and that she has to do the whole betrayal thing. I love that they kept this in, especially that he said Lyra will be the betrayer. The experience would be horrible

and then also we have to watch that on a screen and you're gonna cry yeah I will too I will cry absolutely I like that they kept the sin I like that they kept the master as the poisoner i think i think it they did a good job of he's got a in a mini way right a reverse azrael and coulter he does this bad thing at the beginning of the mc actually like no the master's legit i really like his glasses i remember the first time i like when i read realized i'm like like when i got to it in the third book when i finally realized like that was the hardest choice he's like do i choose to try and kill her dad to protect her what do i do yeah that's a lot all he's ever wanted to do was yeah and and you get that especially like in this conversation they have a lot of the same dialogue that is in the books but there's some added stuff but i it was executed really well with the librarian you know saying lyra of like

but she's just an innocent girl and she needs to stay one which has meant protecting her so i mean they're they're the ones who have been raising her this whole time they're her dads they love her i see it so clearly but and what i like about the language here is you know she's not going to be an innocent girl forever she she doesn't need to stay one because eventually as poland is saying this is something everyone goes through everyone has to grow up and the librarian insists on this he says we can keep her here we must and then a few a few beats later the master responds with all we can be is scared for her and scared of her oh i think it's just such a great analog for i think what it means

probably to be a parent right you have to let them make their own choices you can't keep her here and the master intentionally makes that happen right by bringing mrs coulter here to send lyra off he's like we we can't she has to live her life and i think that this is really very similar to the scene in finding nemo where marlin has that revelation about parenting he's holding on to the scene in Finding Nemo where Marlin has that revelation about parenting. He's holding on to the little tongue knob inside the whale and Dory's like, you gotta let go. He's like, how do I know it's going to be okay? And she's like, you don't.

That was the metaphor for parenting, letting go of the little tongue taste bud. It's the same energy as the scene. I'm really glad you brought me all this parenting from you yeah find it from finding nemo also i mean that's about animals and theoretically this book is also about animals i good i did it this is good you did it have you mentioned all this to your partner yet no but i will okay good so the next scene is really nice it's a good building scene and it ends pretty high up uh roger is in the kitchens he brings food to lyra so lyra updates roger on what happened in the not cupboard in in the bench um as best she can

with everyone talking about dust he's like why the fuck with everyone talking about dust and he's like why the fuck are we talking about dust and he tells her actually that billy costa is missing and rumors of the gobblers and i was like gobblers aren't fucking real and she's like the egyptians are gonna find him it's fine and i'm just like don't blame me when i get to say i told you so rude that's so rude why would you actually write that into a script don't blame me when i get to say i told you so rude that's so rude why would you actually write that into a script don't blame me when i get to say i told you so what the fuck do you mean rude because of what happens to roger yes that's what i'm fucking saying what the fuck it's really painful i'm like who would say that uh he tells her he's like oh by the way your your uncle is i was about to say your dad your uncle's

leaving and she's like i have to go! She runs to find him. He's packing up his airship. And then Roger runs right behind her too. Oh! My son. Asriel yells back at Lyra and he's like, what are you doing here? Interesting.

I'm busy! And he says that he'll visit her on the way back. That she's a good girl and still maria is also rushing him out at this point he takes lyra aside and he says i'm sorry but i don't have a lot of time for you now he just straight up says i don't have time for you now i'm like have you ever had time for her never not once no no i should have been a Marlin. She had the master and the librarian. I love the dialogue from this scene.

It's sad. It makes me really sad. It's all very weighted. Yeah. Take me with you! We'd have lots of time then! Wait, are we really going to read this aloud? Yeah, I'm Azrael. Say I'm daddy. Okay.

We're reenacting these seeds so that Chloe can be daddy. Chloe's daddy. So I can be daddy. I'm daddy. Take me with you. We'd have lots of time then. The north is no place for a child. Did it look like this what the airship that my parents died in no it was smaller oh god damn it that's sad i'm sure there's

like a metaphor there but he's like what the fuck is she talking about then he's like oh that's right that's right we told her her parents died i'm her parent um what are you doing here frowny face yeah yep that's a uh there's a lot of build-up I like the emotion they're bringing to this when Daphne King cries oh man I cry that was she doesn't hold back when it comes to acting things I think that's part of what makes her such a great

actress she's an emotional character right you don't see this much in the books I feel like Philip Pullman doesn't explore all of the emotions that he could because Lyra is an emotional character. She's a lonely

girl. She's lonely. She invents stories and lies that she tells all the time. She has to be the leader to tell these lies. She's a lonely girl. She's a lonely child amongst a bunch of adults um yeah

I also really loved Roger's role in this scene his actors are so good yeah if the north is like I don't know I want to touch again on like if the north is no place for a child it makes what happens in the rest of like this portion of the book all that much sadder to see what's happening in bulvangar right it's rough it's uh they're not supposed to

be there the north is no place for a child asriel says but where does he find a child in the north and where are all the children being taken to a place that they shouldn't be i didn't like the closing line to this like the the back and forth of roger and asriel the first time i saw it i liked it better the second time i thought it was a little cheesy at first but the whole you know she's special she's better than you know like she's special everyone's special yeah i like that roger doesn't give a shit, though. He's like, whatever. Yeah.

I'm going to talk back to Lord Asriel, and I'm like, good for you, Roger. Everybody wants to. Yeah. Or is it just us? I don't know. The Gyptians are working in a big hall. Benjamin is leading them. And Jon Fah and Farder Coram appear. Jon Fah and Farder Coram appear.

Oh my god! That happens first! Early! I'm glad it happened early. I think it's great. It's a smarter choice to establish them earlier. Benjamin is organizing teams to check around the city.

Jon and Farder Coram think the gobblers would have gotten him out of Oxford by now. But as we learn, the gobblers are real. Elsie Mormont, I mean, Coram and Trexel, sorry, wrong person, speaks some wisdom. He says, look, we think the children are going to London. They must go there next. Tony is like, Ma would never agree to go to London and Jon Favreau

is like we'll search and we'll make the next move so I just want to touch on quickly how I enjoy that they've been giving Benjamin a lot more screen time in this adaptation I think he's a great foil to Tony's insecurity as a blossoming adult but i think it also means that it's gonna hurt a lot more when he dies yeah and i think that's why they're building him up right like he won't just be the guy that was with egyptians he's had a name since the first episode that's awesome um i'd love that we're exploring these characters now so that we'll have those feelings later there's something the movie didn't really hit the show's laughing them on this that they're bringing these elements in of these people these characters um a lot of the stuff for this

little knife lore is coming into play it's smart it's a really smart way to adapt this uh we're gonna care when he dies we're gonna care jon thaw and quorum coming in is also so smart it is instructing the next episode so it's like it's not new to us it's new lyra so we can feel what lyra feels easier yeah yeah i agree uh they're just laying the groundwork i think in a really smart way this episode. Yeah. They're covering a lot of ground, and that's what's impressive here, is how much they're covering. Yeah.

Lyra and Roger discuss leaving to go north, and Roger reminds her, we're orphans. I work here. No one's gonna pay for us to fucking go north and Lyra's like but I know we're gonna go I feel it in my jellies she makes little bird hand puppets against the map of the north for the while and I don't know feels like maybe

bird demons like witches up in the north oh like Kaiza you think about Kaiza I am thinking about Kaiza what a scene up in the north. Oh, like Kaisa? You think about Kaisa? I am thinking about Kaisa. What a scene because you know only one of them is going there in this fashion.

Wow. Rude. We get an interesting made-up-for-TV scene. The Magisterium, Eliana. Lord Boreal is hot. He's young. He's got some sexy hair.

I'm into him. He's walking with a dude that I'm, I'm presuming he's Fra Pavel. Yeah. They call him father. So same character. They're discussing Sidigase, the city in the sky,

and they're discussing heresy. The father tells B tells boreal do everything in your power to find out what asriel's doing but do not mention it to our mutual friends including her oops no scarlett johansson yep in the movie her yeah i yeah I like this portrayal of Boreal. It makes more sense to me. Honestly. The Magisterium. You know, they are going in

with the whole religious overtones in this, which I think is good. They obviously cut that out in The Golden Compass. It's subtle, right? Some of the way that they're doing it. They have subtle right some of the way that they're doing it they they have it with some of this father language but and and the costumes that they are dressed in they do look like right they look less like oh fancy folk and more like priestly frocks um the symbols that

are decorating the magisterium it is a little interesting to me that they don't have very much iconography right if it's going to be inspired by the catholic church or but i mean there's nothing really i think in the books you can see it a little but there's nothing that specifies a particular christian sect i thought it was interesting that in the movie they gave them those crazy m's right like those crazy here's my huge m necklace um and they're downplaying it a little but i mean we still got to see it so that was cool like we saw the magisterium yeah this one they're not doing the m's they're going for it they're doing the same the artistic motifs for that when i first saw it i was like uh where is it it looked like a

flower then i realized um watching it the second time around, that those are in fact crosses. They don't look like the more recognizable T-shape of the crucifix people might be familiar with. But it is, I think, most similar to a Canterbury cross. It's just a different stylization of the cross. Yeah, I can see that. So they're not shying super far away from it. It's still there. Well,

speaking of her, the her that they don't Her dark materials. Not her. Settle down there, Gob. Job. Job. Villain music comes on. I thought that was a little cheesy her the person that

they're not supposed to talk to about this shows up it's that bitch here she is it's marisa coulter nay van z yeah and she walks in during prayer and every man in the room stops thinking about god go look at her do they do they this is your line you gotta do it she's uh she's fierce she's here she's hell in high heels she's gonna charm lyra and she does but not before her voldemort nose having monkey fucking demon stares at us gross what is up with those nostrils i like them i like how weird they are do you really i think i just like strange looking animals uh i don't love that lyra ignores roger during all of this even though he's like, hi, it's me. I'm your only friend at dinner.

Yikes. Which I think this will probably be good when Pan yells at her about Coulter later. Right? Like he'll probably bring this up, I'm guessing. But Coulter name drops Asriel super lightly, and they talk about the North and the Pantsierborn, which they call armored bears

better than ice bear. I mean, they are actually armored bears. Yeah, so I think it's okay. A good delineation, yeah. And it's enough of a nod towards the future, right? She's like, oh, yeah, the armored bears, I've negotiated

with them. Yeah. Interesting. It is interesting, and I mean, we'll see that play out later and then she tells lyra i got a job for you uh you're hired why is everyone hiring lyra yeah well before she didn't want that job and this one she's like yeah word let's do it but also i want to bring roger or two for deal um yeah so he can cook and clean she offers yeah but yeah yeah and then coulter's like we don't need that i've got a household staff and then finally she's like all right fine boy from the common hall can come and lyra hugs her it's so sad it's such a sad hug coulter's like oh i'm touching my daughter i'm holding her this is the first time i've gotten

to hold her like this yeah but then she's also gonna go like do some evil fuck them kids fuck them kids thank you for keeping me like focused this is the heart of the episode really the heart of the whole series fuck them kids I don't know I don't want to complain because I still think it's fine but a couple things

there was no Dame Hannah I do wish there were a Dame Hannah there was no Mrs. Lonsdale in this whole thing yeah that was easy and they chose not to they chose to adapt I do wish there were a Dame Hannah. There is no Mrs. Lonsdale in this whole thing. Yeah. That was easy and they chose not to. They chose to adapt La Belle Sauvage, but not one of its main characters. They could have made the professor in the lesson a different person.

Maybe Professor Polstead. Don't worry about it, Eliana. But what do I know? You know, it's still good. I'm just saying these are easy Easter eggs. You can make any person that read the books be very impressed with you. But I guess it's not for us. It's not for me.

It's not for us. It's not for me. It's for the public. It's for the public. It's for the people. The villain music when Mrs. Coulter walked in. Yeah. A little bit much.

Very March-like, which I thought was interesting. Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba- kidnapped the kid instead yeah that was the so the scene the introduction of mrs coulter i think what i was struck by is it for me felt like the one that was most similar to what they did in the golden compass movie because it is incredibly different from lyra's meeting with mrs coulter in the books right both of them are but they're very similar to one another of her um the camera falling behind her as she enters a crowded room of i don't know dinner or some shit and men turning to look at her and then her sitting down the master introducing lyra but there's not that surprise the master introducing a letter to m. Coulter is like the same as in the books. But yeah.

Yeah, it's that whole charisma and the way Ruth holds herself and where she like smiles at Lyra very secretively and sharing little things there. Yeah. And I mean, when we enter the scene, you get the monkey right away. You don't see Mrsrs coulter the first pan no pun intended that we get hey is the pan to the monkey sitting in the seat then mrs coulter yeah which is that is interesting so you know what to anticipate right then and there the horror of the monkey yeah they did do a good job though creating such a more charismatic mrs coulter she's very self-effacing right she she plays to lyra

by getting lyra to trust her and putting herself down a little she's like oh you're gonna have to teach me about forks like i don't i'm not used to this and then she like jokes to lyra about all of her explorations later and, again, plays it down. She's like, I'm sorry, does this really interest you? I can be quite boring sometimes. Lyra's like, no, if you're talking about the North, I'm never going to be bored.

And she forces Lyra to re-acknowledge and reinforce that interest. It's almost like a very toxic parent thing of forcing the kid to love you in whatever you do you know what i mean like the whole like like oh i'm so sorry i'm so boring but you have to love everything i do is just very like it's just a very abusive technique and it's so horrible to hear it out loud because like you know where it all heads and it's drugs in her mouth yeah cave but well even more than that it's that idea of isolation the way that mrs coulter seems intent on isolating lyra a little because a she's taking her away b ruth does an amazing job in in acting these scenes and the directing

here is great because you have that high lyra from roger and then it it cuts back to mrs coulter's face and there's like a slight pause it's not long it's incredibly subtle but you can see that she's displeased by it it doesn't even really show and register as an expression her face doesn't really move but you can see it you can see that it she doesn't love it and this scene is so well done because it's juggling all of these other characters it's juggling how roger's reacting to lyra it's juggling how mrs coulter is reacting to lyra but not really lyra who's too entranced and mrs coulter yeah so but later on right when they're talking about going north and and mrs culture's like no you

can't fucking bring roger what like she doesn't like roger being her only friend and being there because she wants to isolate lyra yeah absolutely very much so it's the only way to get her alone isolate her and then go from there and uh afterwards lyra goes back and pan and her chat about roger going with them and pants has some stuff that's like lyra i hope you listen to me and aren't tone deaf but lyra's very tone deaf to all this pants like have you talked to roger about maybe dragging him to go with m. Coulter you know like she wants you to go work for her you're just dragging Roger with you have you talked to him and then it flashes to Roger it shows him doing some chores and some eerie music plays and then it moves on and there's

nothing else we know what happens but there's nothing else um I don't know. Lyra's classism kind of shows here. It's addressed in the secret commonwealth. I think it's interesting that it's addressed then. You will see it. But it's addressed a little bit. I wouldn't even say it's addressed fully. But there's a little classism going on here for Lyra. She doesn't realize

Lyra's protected by Scholastic Sanctuary. Roger is living by working. Yeah. He's not protected by anything. Nothing. As we find out later on. Especially not from Colter. Goddammit. Especially not from fucking Asriel. Yeah.

Yeah. It is a... this scene with Roger though, also well-directed and written. I like that it only intimates what happens because we've established this fox, maybe, demon, and the whistling. And then right after that, it cuts to

Tony Costa comforting Ma Costa for Billy being gone. It's an apt cut. All well-structured. Yeah, it's a very quick scene. Very quick, but it's sweet. I think it's important. really love the egyptian building i really love it yeah they're doing some good character work with very little dialogue in

that just by showing it lyra gets awakened by the librarian not mrs lonsdale even though they already named the other housekeeper not mrs lonsdale it's stupid it's fine it's just right there but we won't talk about it. So the librarian wakes Lyra up and says, hey, before you leave for the rest of your life, you should go talk to the master. Yeah. She's like, why the fuck am I being woken up this early? Which, yes, I feel that way. So she does go do that.

And the master and Lyra have their chat. He gives her the lithiometer, which is one of six ever made interesting he says who wrote this wow they read the books uh remember in the movie when they're like there's only one left i'm like literally it's a plot point that other people have the alethiometer you don't even know how much of a plot point it is. You weren't even there yet. It is. Yeah, it was a big deal. The master tells Lyra to keep it a secret, keep it safe, and she tries to give it back immediately.

She's like, I don't want secrets. I'm like, okay, Lyra, yeah, right. I'm like, excuse you. Hilarious. You you know i would argue that she keeps that view pretty consistently throughout the main three books and especially in the secret commonwealth when she finds out there were a bunch more secrets that were kept from her she's not happy about it um i thought that was interesting the way they had her say like i don't appreciate the secrets bitches that's uh that's very much so where she is at age 20 so interesting yeah they tell her though that it's for her own protection and then he advises her to keep her own counsel

i love that straight from the books yeah that yes you know some people are complaining about the shape of the alethiometer. You know, there were worse things that have happened to this story. I just don't have the energy. I don't. I don't mean to be mean. I just don't have the energy anymore because I watched the movie

several times and I came to Jesus with it. That's right. I forgot you'd watched it several times. Like four times. I've seen the possibilities out there and I'm like this is fine I will let it go yeah actually though so

Tan is cute Tan is cute I've been really just appreciating how adorable he is he was like sniffing at it and like remarking on it. I'm like, oh, small pan. I just felt good about it. I just, I loved

him being little. Being so little and small sniff. I don't know. Pan had great interactions. I look forward to that going forward. Lyra and Pan wake up and they look for Roger and they can't find him anywhere. They go like everywhere. Yeah.

It's nice though. It's a subtly done thing how Lyra goes throughout Jordan to find him. Yeah. I mean, they revisit all of the places that we saw right at the beginning of the episode, which I think this makes it really well structured. Brings it together well.

Yeah. It's a good tie-in. And I like Pan saying to Lyra as they go to the crypts, like, this is the last place he'd be, and on one hand, yes, we know that Roger hated it because he was terrified of it, but also yes, it's literally going to be the last place

he would be because he dies. Yep. God, thanks, El dies. Yep. Lol. God. Thanks, Eliana. You're welcome. So the Egyptian leaders head to the Costa boat. Pha and Kor and Ventrexel show up.

Ma Costa refuses to believe that the Gobblers are real and that Billy is out there somewhere. But John Pha tells her they are real and she knows they need to keep moving and they'll bring the children back yes and we established that 16 children have been taken so far from Jon Favre

as in more are being taken now and they do a good job of establishing alright so we're going to go to London and therefore creates a convergence point for their storyline and Lyra's yeah I like that that's the timeline that aligns them both good to know for us yeah so we have mrs coulter and lyra chatting about roger's disappearance and mrs coulter calms are telling her that she will help her find him and she has this great scene yeah she's like the gobblers have to be in London

I don't know that I'm just telling you because I have ideas that say they're in London and you know in London there's so many kids they can disappear like Thanos snap uh like that yeah I wish I was that good at snapping interesting enough

Coulter's not saying this because she's friends with Thanos. She's saying this because it's her that's stealing them. It's her. There's a little too much truth here. I'm like, okay, Coulter. Yeah. Especially with her being like, I won't just help. I won't just

try. I'll succeed. And I'm like, okay, great. This is the worst way that we could possibly succeed. She wins, but, like, for her. Well, in terms of, like, finding the kids, yeah. She's great at finding them. That's true. It really weirds me out how since, like, our

first introduction to Mrs. Coulter, she just keeps, like, touching Lyra's hair and face. I'm like, we've literally just met you. I have a bubble? Everyone has a bubble? Yeah, but she's looking at her own stuff, man. She's like, that's my hair. Those are my eyebrows.

That's my face. Weird. And Lyra consults the alethiometer, concerned about Roger. To no avail. They get nothing. Lyra confusedly says Coulter's their best chance at getting him back, right? They have to catch the airship.

They barely catch the airship. And they jump on to join Coulter. I just thought this scene was fun. Lyra screaming at the alethiometer like it's fucking Siri. Just really throws you home. Like, Siri, tell me where Roger isger is alexa okay google can you search for roger and it

really just shows you the master gave her no fucking instructions on how to use this fucking knick knack yeah just good luck go do it good job here you go keep it secret keep it safe yeah uh she does kind of she doesn't kind of

she doesn't like literally the monkey sees it in like two seconds but that is an interesting bit uh coulter is awaiting her on the airship when she finally gets on and she wants to start looking for roger immediately she's like we gotta find him we gotta make a plan and colder's like we can't talk here it's not safe and we'll have plenty of time to discuss this in the future so lyra of course who has just heard from a parental ish figure ish it's her dad uh he said i don't have the time for you here's you have the time for me. So that's what she hears here. She starts to move her lithiometer on her hip and the monkey is watching her.

Coulter is subtly looking as well. Lyra watches out the window as the Egyptians roll out at the same exact time. We get the Daenerys Targaryen music from HBO Game of Thrones that plays. Roger's in a cage under the ship, banging on the window.

So this is the thing I kind of wanted to come back to and that I realized as we were talking about Roger from the tweets of note earlier. I think Roger's going to play a much bigger role in this storyline we had this a separate storyline right with egyptians that's going to converge with lyra's i think we're going to get roger and billy aren't going to be kidnapped in the same time like in the golden compass movie but i think that they will meet and converge because we've gotten so much investment on roger's character and the fact that we get this last scene of him focusing on him in in the ship banging on the window makes me think he gets um a little bit of that storyline then establishing instead i think he's definitely going to be more important than he is in the books uh and serve a bigger purpose.

And I really do think they're expanding on his and Lyra's relationship more here than ever. Maybe it's just seeing is believing, but I just feel like the movie did not do enough as far as this goes. And I think the show really made Roger one of their priorities. They know it's all about him in the first season. It's Lyra going to get him she's gonna hate i mean i i don't know if you've watched the next week like coming on his dark materials thing on hbo but it shows some episode clips from all of the future like up to the finale even yeah yeah yeah i saw that one from the finale that i showed you i I was like, wow! It shows all of that, so

I don't know, he has to remain a big deal until then. Yeah, so I think that's something that's going to be an interesting adaptation that I assume we're going to get. And so, yeah, that's this week. What do you think your biggest likes were, Eliana?

I mean, we touched on it a little now, right, Roger? And obviously I loved the Egyptian storyline and it being biggest likes were eliana i mean like we touched on it a little now right roger and obviously i loved the egyptian storyline and it being separate and getting all that fleshed out and this isn't really alike but again i continue to be fascinated by how similar some of the direction and writing is in this to this way it was adapted for the golden compass right like if new line had just let them freak. Yeah. It kind of tells you on one hand, it wasn't necessarily the choices, right? It was the

execution. That's true. I like that it's on the air. I like that it loves LaBelle Sauvage not. Stell Maria is a queen. A lot of those smaller details and small scenes, like the librarian's lesson that you pointed out.

The Egyptian building, the world building, they're a whole people and actual people. Good job. They exist. I think they've done a good job with all of those things. Petty dislikes because I do feel like this was good. Like I said, it grew on me.

I think it's at an 8.5 now. It was like a seven or an eight uh my petty dislikes are the monkey kind of looks like shit and you like it and i don't it's all right it looks like a monkey i i think that the other monkey looked creepier to me but i think i also just like i like creepy looking animals i do think i like the other the golden compass monkey better um its mouth looks like plastic to me i looked at the mouth after you said that i don't get the same feeling well i'm right you're wrong i'm just kidding i don't know uh the coulter reveal her kidnapping kids it was removed for that element of surprise I don't know we'll see yeah yeah

um LaBelle Savage erasure you don't know a bunch about this yet I know I don't want to sound like an asshole here but I get they want to be smart and give an easter egg but like go out or don't

go at all like give me some easter eggs man give me dame hannah at dinner give me mrs lonsdale the housekeeper you had a housekeeper with a name that was long and i don't remember it but it wasn't lonsdale you could have just called her lonsdale you didn't even have to show her face um you could have brought another character from the bel sauvage you could have brought a professor in who teaches Lyra in classes. There's a couple people could have brought in. That's all.

It's just a bummer. It's like, you guys came so... I feel like there was a lot of... I loved it, but I feel like it was very tame in some manners. I don't know as much about what's in LaBelle Sauvage that could have been in this and what isn't. I think, I mean, for context, right?

They, from my understanding, started, I don't remember if they started production on it or they got the green light for it, right? Around 2017, which is when La Belle Sauvage came out. So I think maybe they're drawing from it a little, but they don't want to put too much emphasis on it because this is a series that was literally- It's a classic. By 2017, yeah labelle savage came out the series had been wrapped

up for like 14 to 15 years and so they didn't feel it was as necessary to pull from i get that because i think the context they're using it for spice and flavor but not as something that they felt was important for what the his dark materials trilogy was about because it's stand stood alone on its own for a long time i like it i do it's just there's you just gotta finish the book because it's just gonna make you shake your computer like you'll be like it's fine like i am but also you'll be like ah what if um there's just easier ways they could have but i don't know none of that compares to my only big complaint which is tony marqueros gets nothing for for real that's the part that bothered me the most

and again this is another thing that the golden compass did the melding of billy and tony's characters like you can see that that's what they're doing because they made a point to call out that billy's demon is named radder but there are a lot of reasons i don't like it a because billy's an adorable like little cinnamon bun um i just he was very boy. He had big old glasses. Yeah. He just loved his family. Why? I mean, Tony Macarios was also sweet.

And I think that was what was important about his storyline. Like here, yeah, we get a lot of that dramatic pull of Billy's family looking for him. And we still, we're still going to get, we still got that right in the books. But for Tony, we got a vignette of his mother, of his life. And I think the point of Tony is it doesn't matter if his family isn't looking for him. It doesn't matter that his mother, she loved him and is sad and felt like she couldn't provide for him and that's why he ran away it doesn't matter that no one was able to look out and care for him and find him what matters is his life still had value and what was done to him was unjust regardless of whether or not anyone was looking out for him and i think that's part of what makes it even more unjust i think that's one of the things that

this really pointed out most right especially is that classism between different groups different you have the egyptians you have the people that are expert um like i said earlier we learned about it in the secret commonwealth but there is a little bit of a come to jesus moment where lyra's like oh money's a thing so i like that i'm glad uh you get some fantasy authors that just don't, they ignore that kind of stuff, right? So that's important, especially for kind of a spinoff story

or a successor story. And they are incorporating some of this stuff. So that's kind of what makes me think that it's true. It's not just like a rando fake thing. I don't know. It's interesting to see these distinctions between Roger, between Billy, between Lyra, between the Magisterium, between these people. It gets to be really interesting for the weeks to come. Like I said, I don't think this could be worse. At all.

Again, I've seen what bad looks like and this is not that what's your number what do you give it out of 10 I don't know I want to look at it holistically yeah somewhere like in the 8 to 9 same as you it could be like a 9 I don't know I just like don't think of it I think on

that scale I am very binary I'm like did I like it did I not well I think that's a wrap right we uh we covered it all we hit it all every single scene this was our thorough scene by scene analysis of his dark materials season one episode one lyra's jordan thank you for everyone for tuning in and of course we are doing a reread of the books. We are wrapping up soon our reread of Northern Lights slash Golden Compass,

and you can find that on girlsgonecanon.podbean.com or any of the other mediums that we use. iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, Acast. Yeah, all those. Something. Probably. Yeah. And if you had an opinion about the episode

you can send us a couple things. You can send us an email at girlsgonecanon c-a-n-o-n at gmail.com Let us know what you thought. Or of course, leave us an iTunes review. It's been a while. Log on. Leave us a review. Hit that five star

and tell us exactly what you think. And we talked a lot in this episode about the movie The Golden Compass, which again, it's not a great movie, but we did it. We watched it. You can check out our review of that on our Patreon for patrons

$5 and up. We do special episodes. A lot of them have been around A Song of Ice and Fire because we started out rereading the Song of Ice and Fire books. As always, I have been one of your hosts, Chloe.

I have been another one of your hosts, Eliana.