His Dark Materials – The Idea of the North (A Newbie’s Perspective)

So, I will admit that I wasn’t all that invested in “The Idea of the North,” the second episode of His Dark Materials. At least until that bonkers crazy twist where there is a multiverse?!? What?!? And with that, all my mundane questions about the rules of the fantasy world of the series (some of which were, in a roundabout way, addressed this week, while some remain mysteries I will gladly wait for answers on) took a back seat to trying to figure out just what is going on here.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I said I wasn’t all that invested, and, to be frank, I don’t find the character of Lyra all that interesting. I don’t know if that’s due to Dafne Keen’s listless performance (and I know, she’s just a child, but I expected more of her considering her strong past work in Logan) or if it’s the character itself. It might just be me – I didn’t care much for the child characters in Harry Potter, even as a teen reading the novels, finding myself more invested in the story’s adult characters, so it might be a quirk of my own making. Whatever the reason, I don’t care all that much what happens to Lyra on her quest.

I do, on the other hand, find Mrs. Coulter to be an interesting character that I’m intrigued to find out more about. Her reveal that Asriel is Lyra’s father (which I’m taking at face value, as the admission appeared to pack an emotional wallop for Coulter as well as Lyra) seemed to be a slip rather than a calculated statement – rare for a character that has shown a strong desire to remain in charge and several steps ahead of her prey. So much of what makes the character work comes down to Ruth Wilson’s portrayal. Following her attack on Lyra (finding out that harming a daemon harms the person was an interesting bit of information I didn’t see coming), her face cycled through a number of emotions before settling on exhaustion. Whatever long game she’s playing (and it’s clear she’s playing multiple games at this point, balancing a number of interests in hopes of winning – and positing it as a woman in a man’s world trying to fight tooth and nail for a place at the table, which is a noble ideal but one which traditionally doesn’t end well for the woman), it’s taking an emotional toll on her that she didn’t expect. I suspect now, following that look into her mental state, that she isn’t the “villain” of the piece, per se. In fact, I think we’re dealing with a set of characters steeped in gray – which is exactly how I like my fantasy dramas.

Now, onto the massive plot twist that I never even imagined was a possibility: The story takes place in a multiverse. When this was revealed, I immediately texted my book reader sister and she promptly laughed at how shocked and giddy I was at the possibilities this presents to the story. Yes, a fantasy tale is interesting when the world is well-defined and transports us to a magical place. But a fantasy story that has a foot in both a new, magical world and one in (presumably) our own world? That’s sensational. And the idea that someone has crossed over and is living (complete with his daemon) in our world? Well, that’s pretty great as well. I might not care all that much about what happens to the children in the story, but I’m very interested to see just how this journey to retrieve this world jumper plays out (especially as the rescue is coming from someone with a clear penchant for using force to get what he wants). Why has he come to our world? What do we possess (besides better coffee) that would entice someone to stay here? Or is he running from someone rather than running to something?

Final Thoughts:

— Watching that Consistorial Court official (the only name I can find for the character) crush the butterfly daemon and kill (Render unconscious? Hurt?) the journalist was pretty harrowing. This story is much darker than I expected.

— I get that Lyra is a 12 year old girl, but boy, is she a brat. Now, I remember being that age and feeling like everything that happened to me was a massive event, but it’s not fun to watch that on TV (just like it wasn’t fun to read about sullen Harry Potter in latter novels).

— So, Mrs. Coulter is the head of the Gobblers. Which makes me think there’s something more going on here than just kidnapping kids (largely because that’s just lazy and this certainly doesn’t appear to be a lazily plotted story). I assume this has something to do with the facts about Dust that Lyra awkwardly shared with us all in a brutal bit of exposition: Only children can see it. If Asriel has found this mysterious Dust in the Arctic, it would make sense to bring a horde of children up there to look for it as well.

— Just what is Coulter’s relationship with Asriel? I’ll be disappointed if it’s a broken romance, as that just feels too easy. I’m leaning toward familial of some kind. Siblings? That would be really interesting – and make a ton of sense, considering she has a vested interest in Lyra that seems to go beyond just wanting to have access to a child with some interesting abilities to survive and thrive.