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    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    Discussion about Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. :D

    Personally I like Golden Compass the best, followed by Subtle Knife. Those dinsour roller skating things and numerous other things ruined Amber Spyglass for me. D:

    •  
      CommentAuthorVirgil
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    I only read Compass, and I enjoyed it.

  1.  

    The following is spoileriffic for The Amber Spyglass.

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    I only read Compass, and I enjoyed it.

    Yeah, Compass was nice and smooth, while the other two books it felt like Pullman was trying to shove everything down your throat. xP

    •  
      CommentAuthorVirgil
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    Yeah I dunno if I was gonna like the other two, so I stopped there.

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      CommentAuthorDem
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     
    I loved 'em. Subtle Knife was probably my favorite. Golden Compass had its charm but...eh, I guess I liked the transdimensional travel and the ghouls and whatnot a lot, and Golden Compass didn't have much of that. I...don't really remember what I thought of Amber Spyglass. I liked the land of the dead sequence a lot, but the roller-skating elephant-dinosaur things were...out there, to say the least.

    The idea of Dust was probably my favorite aspect of the books.
  2.  

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    The idea of Dust was probably my favorite aspect of the books.

    Ditto.^^

  3.  

    The roller-skating elephants who did sign-language were also not to my liking.

  4.  

    I want a daemon so bad. Now the most important question of all: if you had a daemon, what form do you think it would settle on?

    • CommentAuthorWlyWhy
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     
    Man-eating Anteater. Or would that be a Maneater?
  5.  

    A weird animal like a platypus. It might be a dog or wolf as well.

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      CommentAuthorVirgil
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    I’d like a cat, or a hummingbird.

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    Probably a cat, or some kind of bird. :D

  6.  

    I thought the books were pretty good, but I hated the ending.

  7.  

    I’ll put it bluntly. The ending sucked.

    •  
      CommentAuthorKyllorac
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    It’s been years since I’ve read the books, and the only thing I really remember about them is that I HATED the third book. I did not appreciate the ramming of God is a Fake down my throat. The Subtle Knife was my favorite, and I think I had a crush on Lord Asriel. o_o

  8.  

    •  
      CommentAuthorSMARTALIENQT
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009 edited
     

    I had a crush on Will. I think my daemon would be some sort of loveable dog, or a mink. Oh yeah, totally mink.

    Isn’t that so cute? I could have it on my shoulder and stroke it all the time… so soft…

    •  
      CommentAuthorKyllorac
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    •  
      CommentAuthorDiamonte
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    Aww, I just want to hug it… but then it would probably bite me.

    My daemon would probably end up being a horse, which would get… annoying. I’d like it to be a white tiger or a snow leopard like Asriel. That’d be sweet.

  9.  

    You could ride the horse. Imagine having a talking horse that took you anywhere, and only got tired when you did, since it’s your soul…

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    Yeah, but having one so big would mean bringing it with you everywhere, and it could be a easy target. :P

    •  
      CommentAuthorKyllorac
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    A snow leopard would be awesome. :3 Maybe that’s why I liked Asriel so much. He had a snow leopard as his daemon. XD

    If not a snow leopard, I should like my daemon to be a black panther. Not black jaguar. Panthers are sleeker than jaguars, plus they have such lovely green eyes. And my favorite character from The Jungle Book was Bagheera.

    •  
      CommentAuthorDiamonte
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    Yes, but think of how annoying it would be to try to squeeze a horse through doorways… if it’s a big huge Warmblood, which is my favorite type, then it’s not going to be easy.

  10.  

    But snow leopards are Rule of Cool.

  11.  

    it could bite people, like Peachblossom from Protector of the Small.

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      CommentAuthorKyllorac
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    I’ve always favored Morgans and Arabians. Arabians are pretty, but Morgans are more reliable.

  12.  

    Imagine using it as a pillow, like a big dog, but it would be fluffier and it talks.

    Note: I’ve never used a dog as a pillow, only read about it.

    •  
      CommentAuthorKyllorac
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    And it could maul people that annoy you too much. :P

    •  
      CommentAuthorKyllorac
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    Note: I’ve never used a dog as a pillow, only read about it.

    They make good pillows once you get used to the shedding and smell.

  13.  

    And it could maul people that annoy you too much.

    :D

    •  
      CommentAuthorDiamonte
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    True. Mauling people. How fun.

    @ Kyllorac: I’m more of a Warmblood person myself. I’ve heard nice things about Arabs, but the ones I’ve met were a little crazy. Of course, I know some absolutely insane QHs too, so I suppose it just depends on the horse.

  14.  

    I think I’d end up with a cat as a daemon.

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      CommentAuthorSpanman
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    Same here. Because I’m lazy, arrogant at times, affectionate at others, and definitely don’t get along with everyone.

    Anyway. I liked The Subtle Knife best for some reason, can’t remember exactly why. Will was nice. And Will/Lyra was totoally SCREWED UP in Spyglass. I couldn’t stand any of that, and especially not the rollerskating elephants. I didn’t like any of the books enough that I’d want to read them again, though. Something about the way Pullman write sometimes isn’t very compelling to me…

  15.  

    “Yeah, well, my fandom has rollerskating elephants (who speak sign-language)!”

    •  
      CommentAuthorKyllorac
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    “Yeah, well, my fandom has rollerskating elephants (who speak sign-language)!”

    XD

    You forgot: have a coconut obsession, and zoom down lava highways.

  16.  

    “My fandom owns: we have a talking snow leopard; rollerskating, coconut-obsessed elephants who speak sign language and zoom down lava highways; and demons daemons.”

    •  
      CommentAuthorDem
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     
    Ever since I've read the books, I've been pretty sure my deamon would be a snake. No clue what I would want it to be, though...
    •  
      CommentAuthorNorthmark
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    ...I cried at the end. :(

    I liked the series enough but it was certainly overhyped. I’ll probably end up rereading them at some point but not for awhile.

    • CommentAuthorUn-Dante'd
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    I kind of liked the whole “God isn’t really God, he’s actually an asshole. The real God is just an old, old, OLD angel.”

  17.  

    Hahaha.

    •  
      CommentAuthorDem
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     
    I was kind of confused on the whole God thing...I think it could have been done better. It became very muddled toward the end.
    • CommentAuthorUn-Dante'd
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2009
     

    True. And Heaven actually being a big, floating fortress in the middle of a cloud.

  18.  

    When the Meet Your Daemon test on the official site was still up, I took it and got both raccoon and snow ermine.

    I think the coolest part of The Dark Materials universe was the concept of daemon. I shamelessly wish that I had a daemon ;_;

  19.  

    A snow raccoon? Interesting…

  20.  

    Well, I was amazed when Pullman tried the All Christians Are Catholic trick. I was pretty annoyed. And then the ending, both with Lyra and Will (who I had a crush on), and Marissa and Asriel sucked, big time.

    Plus it was all, “Let’s go tear down the old bad guys and live with a new authority in charge.” Or something like that. Anyway, it ended up being epic fail on Pullman’s part.

    Northern Lights was awesome. The Subtle Knife was boring. The Amber Spyglass was great in some places and wth in others. I could never figure out in my head how the mulefa looked.

    •  
      CommentAuthorElanor
    • CommentTimeAug 20th 2009
     

    I could never figure out in my head how the mulefa looked.

    Me neither. I ended up mostly imagining them as rhombus-shaped skin trampolines with heads and wheels.

    I have to say that I compleeeetely missed the messages about God and whatnot the first time I read it. (I was like…ten? Eleven?) Same way I completely missed the Christian symbolism in the Chronicles of Narnai, except that in retrospect C.S. Lewis does it in such a way that you can ignore it if you want to, whereas Pullman shoves it in your face and it’s rather hard to ignore unless you really are oblivious (as I was).

  21.  

    Lol, I was about thirteen and I missed them too, until Mary Malone says outright, “The Christian religion is just a very convincing fake”.

    More or less a direct quote.

    •  
      CommentAuthorElanor
    • CommentTimeAug 20th 2009
     

    ...wow.

    I must’ve been a really oblivious child, because I completely missed that, too.

  22.  

    Lol. I had to have the whole epic fail part pointed out to me, though.

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeAug 20th 2009
     

    If there was a fantasy world that I would want to be in, it would be HDM’s. Because that way we could still have ImpishIdea and Deamons. :D

  23.  

    I’m not offended by Pullman, but if I can figure out your agenda by reading your stuff, you did it wrong. coughJAMES PATTERSONcough

  24.  

    if I can figure out your agenda by reading your stuff, you did it wrong.

    Who says he has an agenda? Pullman is just expressing an opinion and his beliefs through literature. Seeing an author’s message in their writing isn’t a bad thing.

    •  
      CommentAuthorDiamonte
    • CommentTimeAug 20th 2009
     

    When it’s being shoved down your throat, though, with no other option, then I think it’s a bad thing.

  25.  

    Yeah, messages are best when they’re subtle.

  26.  

    Who says he has an agenda? Pullman is just expressing an opinion and his beliefs through literature.

    True, bad choice of words. It’s when the characters become the mouthpiece for their authors that it gets bad. An example:

    In James Patterson’s The Final Warning, Max and the Flock go down to Antarctica to help combat global warming. Max doesn’t see why it’s such a big deal, but her love interest, Fang, crushes on one of the scientists and tries to generate support against global warming on his blog. A lot of stuff happens, and they end up in Miami about to be auctioned off to various world powers. A hurricane hits. Max says “Isn’t it too late for hurricanes?” Fang says “Global warming makes hurricane season longer, and each hurricane stronger,” or something. Max learns that global warming is bad, and after the Climactic Battle she gives a chapter-long speech to Congress about global warming. The end.

    Seeing an author’s message in their writing isn’t a bad thing.

    No, but when it’s blatantly obvious, it’s… well, not bad writing, but writing that could have been subtler.

  27.  

    Yeah, but given JP’s notoriety, how can we be sure he actually WROTE Maximum Ride in the first place?

  28.  

    True. But surely he read the thing before it went into print. Right? Right?!

  29.  

    Um. Do you hear yourself?

  30.  

    My idols, my idols, they fall one by one…

    • CommentAuthorWitrin
    • CommentTimeAug 23rd 2009
     

    Me neither. I ended up mostly imagining them as rhombus-shaped skin trampolines with heads and wheels.

    I’ve got no idea how, but I always imagined them as elephant-ish with feet stuck in watermelons.

    And M.R.S. Coulter was too awesome to die.

  31.  

    @ Smalien: you lie.

    I don’t see why everybody thinks Marisa Coulter was all that.

    • CommentAuthorWitrin
    • CommentTimeAug 23rd 2009
     

    She’s been talked up extensively. And she had a monkey.

  32.  

    I don’t see why everybody thinks Marisa Coulter was all that.

    You read the books, right?

    Even Pullman said that he loved writing her because it was so fun to write a character that had no morals—or something like that.

  33.  

    You never know what she’s going to do.

  34.  

    I still don’t know if she’s a good guy or a bad guy.

  35.  

    Ultimately, she’s ‘good’, but I mean, she’s not a Disney Princess.

  36.  

    The image I got was that Mrs Coutler was an evil, deceptive, power-hungry and manipulating woman and her only one redeeming moral was her love for Lyra. All the ‘good’ things she does in the course of the series stems from that love.

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      CommentAuthorKyllorac
    • CommentTimeAug 23rd 2009
     

    The image I got was that Mrs Coutler was an evil, deceptive, power-hungry and manipulating woman and her only one redeeming moral was her love for Lyra. All the ‘good’ things she does in the course of the series stems from that love.

    I got the same impression. Even then, she was quite a bitch towards Lyra.

  37.  

    Evil is cool.

    • CommentAuthorWitrin
    • CommentTimeAug 24th 2009
     

    As are monkeys.

    •  
      CommentAuthorKyllorac
    • CommentTimeAug 24th 2009
     

    I hate monkeys.

  38.  

    Even Jack the Monkey?!

    • CommentAuthorWiseWillow
    • CommentTimeAug 24th 2009
     

    You can’t hate Jack the undead monkey!

  39.  

    He even has his own wardrobe!

    •  
      CommentAuthorKyllorac
    • CommentTimeAug 25th 2009
     

    Jack’s special. :P

    Though seriously, are you familiar with the Uncanny Valley? Clowns and mimes don’t affect me because I know they’re just performers. People in monkey suits, drawings of monkeys, and undead monkeys are similarly un-creepy. But real monkeys… they’re real. And they freak me the hell out.

  40.  

    It’s ok, I get freaked out by live birds.

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeAug 25th 2009
     

    sigh

    Another thread derailed…. :P

  41.  

    Well, at some point, you’re done discussing.