His Dark Materials: Lyra and Her Death

We’ve reached an episode in which the structuring makes a lot of sense to me, with each plot-thread focusing on mother and daughter separately trying to negotiate a hostile environment with their charm, wits and ability to convincingly lie. Each one is motivated by love, and each one’s course of action leads them to a betrayal caused by that love.

In Lyra’s case, it’s having to leave Pan behind in order to reach the Land of the Dead. In Mrs Coulter’s case, it’s realizing she’s delivered the means to her daughter’s destruction to those willing to use it. The scenes from each storyline flow in and out of each other nicely, and the restructuring of the books chapters works extremely well.

The material is taken from two-and-a-half chapters that centre on Lyra (“The Suburbs of the Dead”, “Lyra and Her Death” and “The Harpies” – though they’ve obviously held back on the harpies for now) and one revolving around on Mrs Coulter (“Mrs Coulter in Geneva”). Neither one feels rushed or truncated, and I suspect Jack Thorne may have gotten his inspiration from the quote at the beginning of Mrs Coulter’s chapter: “As is the mother, so is her daughter” – Ezekial.

Links and Updates

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, as there’s really not a lot to look forward to, is there.

Still no confirmation on a third season of Shadow and Bone, which would finally give us the Ice Court heist, and given that there’s a major writers’ strike going on, chances are Netflix will drop it. For the record, I fully support said strike, but... well, maybe we should start getting used to the new normal: stories that simply don’t have an ending. 

Heck, they’ve already cancelled Cuckoo Song before it even got into production.

On the horizon is a whole heap of nothing: a reboot to the DC Cinematic Universe (a new Clark and Lois were announced today), more meaningless Star Wars movie sequels (sorry, but given Disney’s track record I’ll only believe they exist when they’re actually in theatres), and a Harry Potter television show (guess that five-film plan for the Fantastic Beasts movies didn’t pan out).

There’s going to be a Frozen 3 (inevitable), a Zootopia 2 (meh), a Toy Story 5 (how many bittersweet endings do they plan on giving this franchise?) and a Shrek 5 (I would have been indifferent except that Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was unexpectedly delightful). Twilight is getting turned into a TV show. And superheroes. So many more superheroes.

I AM BORED I AM BORED I AM SO SO BORED. Remakes and reboots and sequels and prequels and mid-quels and legacy-quels and an ever-spiralling, never-ending assembly line of live-action reimaginings of stories that were animated in the first place for a reason. I mean honestly, a live-action Moana announced only seven years after the original was released? Are you shitting me??

This is where our obsession with nostalgia and the capitalization of stories has brought us. Why invest in something new and exciting when we’re apparently happy to watch regurgitated sludge for the millionth time?

And what’s the point of getting excited about stuff like a live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender remake anyway? Netflix is just going to cancel it after the first season. And with the onset of A.I. created art and ChatGPT written scripts, I can pretty much guarantee it ain't gonna get better.

So, on that cheerful note, here are some other things to get annoyed about:

His Dark Materials: The Intention Craft

Three episodes in and we’re nearly halfway through the book! Obviously this show plans on being extremely back-heavy, as this particular episode neatly covers only three chapters: one in which Will and Lyra plan their next move, one in which Iorek helps to reforge the subtle knife, and one in which Mrs Coulter is captured by Lord Asriel and promptly escapes onboard an intention craft.

Mary still hasn’t reached the mulefa yet (she’s already spent two chapters with them in the book) but it looks like we’re finally getting some forward momentum on that front, along with some extra bits and pieces courtesy of Jack Thorne.

Woman of the Month: Zuli

Zuli from Wingbearer

As I mentioned in my reading/watching log for June, there is something incredible going on in the world of children’s graphic novels right now. Gorgeous artwork, epic stories, heavy themes, and so many interesting, complex, three-dimensional female characters are currently defining that particular storytelling medium, and I can’t get enough of it.

There are a number of female protagonists from graphic novels I could have gone with for this blog: Vonceil from Salt Magic, Alidade from Mapmakers and the Lost Magic, Sorceline from... well, Sorceline. But it was Zuli from Wingbearer that really captured my heart.

Don’t be fooled by her design on the cover of the book – it’s rather awful, and they’ve given her that ghastly Dreamworks Face. The truth is, she’s more like an old school Disney Princess: compassionate, naïve, determined, curious, outspoken, with a pair of big brown eyes and a signature outfit. Like most fairy tale heroines, she’s a foundling, with a jewelled bracelet as her only clue as to where she originally comes from.

She’s enjoyed an idyllic childhood within the boughs of a tree that provides a resting place for the spirits of birds before they’re reborn back into the world, but after a prolonged period in which the bird spirits cease to arrive at the tree, Zuli takes it upon herself to go out into the world and find out the source of the affliction – another familiar fairy tale/Disney animated film trope.

The reason I keep bringing up Disney is that artist Teny Issakhanian literally worked for the company, and it’s apparent in her designs for all the characters. This is the closest I’ve ever come to watching the likes of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin for the first time again, as every panel looks like a still from a nineties Disney classic. Zuli in particular is so beautifully rendered, so bursting with colour and life and vitality. Her hair! Her eyes! Her little headband! Her balloon pants! I was captivated.

She’s also one of those characters who is protected by her own goodness. This can come across as unbearably trite if it’s not played with a careful hand, but Wingbearer succeeds with flying colours, simply because Zuli is never anything but totally sincere in her dealings with others. She’s honest, joyful and unprejudiced, and no one is ever left in any doubt that she’s completely earnest. At one point she gets a dragon to release his captives by the sheer power of her Puppy Dog Eyes. It’s as adorable as it is hilarious.

My only issue is that it’s going to take forever for the next book in the series to come out.

Reading/Watching Log #91

Another month goes bye-bye. The last four weeks have involved me acclimatizing to my new place of work, dealing with the half-hour commute, and trying to read as many library books as possible. I’m slowly but steadily moving through my Slavic Fantasy book pile, can tick off two more Babysitters Club books, and devoured a bunch of graphic novels – and damn there’s some good material coming out of that particular medium.

I finished up with Sailor Moon, which came as something of a relief since now I can finally get to Harley Quinn, Unicorn Warriors Eternal and Wizards of Arcadia, and completed two more seasons of Spooks – the end is now in sight! Movie-wise I ended up rewatching some old favourites, which made for a nice change of pace, though the two recent releases (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Amongst Thieves) ended up being unexpectedly great.

Onwards to July...