#panjava

"Just do it."

His Dark Materials (2019-2022), 3x08 - "The Botanic Garden"

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I have no idea what the intention with the Olivier reveal was, and it upsets me that Philman felt like he had to give Lyra a biological brother to be some sort of companion at the end, instead of going for a sibling dynamic for Malcolm and Lyra, which would’ve been so much better than all that stress we had to go through thinking “will they won’t they”. And then if he wanted a half-brother, wouldn’t a child Asriel was not aware of make so much more sense? How can a previous pregnancy fit into Mrs Coulter’s life? I have no clue

That being said, I am OVERJOYED at Lyra’s character arc and all the theories brought in about the imagination and the windows. With Philman I know never to think too literally (what about the spectres now? What about Dust being dragged away? What is the truth?), especially when he’s telling it to our faces that he wants us to be able to hold paradoxical truths. The conversation with the angel midway through made me ugly sob. So it had always been unfair! It had always been weird that Will and Lyra didn’t insist more! It had always been too mathematical to make sense within such an emotional context! And then… isn’t that what facing reality as a child feels like? When you tire out of fighting and just give in that the reasonable adult must indeed be right, and you have to live as they tell you? They were too young, too broken, too much yearning for a guidance they never had. They were left speechless before angels, after battling death. How many of us have known that speechlessness?

Lyra never fully voices whether she believes that things she’s learned will allow her to find Will, and I believe it was the perfect right call to let that remain silent. For one, it’d be to make her arc revolve too much around romance, when it’s been about her finding herself as an artist. Second, how many barriers must she have put up to convince herself there was no way of seeing Will again? It’ll take her a while to realise the maybe behind the alethiometer’s needle, and to have the bravery to try it without the existence of the tiniest of openings, as was the case when she did open a window. Third, it’s for the reader to decide. As a storyteller, Lyra is now conscious of what to leave in and what to leave out, as to make the audience pass by the greatest amount of emotion. I wonder if she herself will be tormented by the artist’s choice - try out real life, or treasure the idea? I believe she’ll wish to cherish the idea of Will a bit longer, and that will hold her from realising the possibilities too. But the possibility is already there in her subconscious, especially in how she cries at the old man and the old woman living their last days together. I guess the role of Malcolm as a possible romantic interest had a part in this too - somebody getting as close as possible to what she had with Will, all the unending parallels that made me sweat cold, but it just isn’t it. We who receive the artwork are better off left with the tragedy and the wonderings, but the philosophy of the books pushes her to give real life a try.

And then, the relationship with Pan… absolute chills thinking about all the parallels in the scene when they almost get separated in between worlds. When you think they couldn’t undergo worse fears of separation than what they’ve already faced, here’s yet another way, which is just the way they got cut from Will. The panic of undergoing it again - losing Will, leaving Pan in the shores of the dead, being under the blade in Bolvangar, and all of it at once, and all because they had separated in the worst and (now, perceived as dumbest) possible way, through the hatred for oneself.

Overall I’m not bothered by the amount of retconning that went into it, especially when it seems to me to reflect so much of how we grow throughout life. We learn to be silent, to make ourselves responsible for our communities, to accept how arduous it is to go by day by day. We learn to hate ourselves, until somehow new possibilities present themselves, showing you that you do not need to do all you thought you had to do when you were 12, while the harsh reality you did face back then has not actually changed. It’s you who has changed, who has been able to see things a little less in black and white. And you wouldn’t have gotten there if you hadn’t gone through pain, and one thing does not annul the other, you’re just able to live within the realms of uncertainty and possibility.

As part of their journey, Lyra and Will travel to the land of the dead. When they open a window between worlds there, they allow the ghosts to become part of the universe again.

Then By choosing love and resisting the path laid out for them, Lyra and Will break free from the cycle of fate, effectively ending "destiny" and restoring free will to all sentient beings - Lyra brings the end of destiny by fulfilling the prophecy of the "Second Eve," a "fall" in which she and Will, by falling in love, collectively end their predetermined destinies and restore free will by helping to reunite the land of the dead with the living. Their choices and actions, particularly their pursuit of love and freedom, liberate all consciousness and free will from the control of "The Authority". Their actions and love simultaneously restore Dust, the conscious, visible manifestation of consciousness, which is essential for free will.