Discover Top Posts Tagged with #golden monkey

Lord Asriel and Stelmaria

Mrs. Coulter and the golden monkey

Art by Clement Poumirau

#hdm #his dark materials #art #lord asriel #asriel belacqua #stelmaria #snow leopard #mrs coulter #marisa coulter #golden monkey #ozymandias #daemons #fanart #character design #character art #the golden compass #the subtle knife #the amber spyglass

Golden monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis kandti) in a bamboo forest in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda, Africa

by Mary Bomford

#golden monkey #blue monkey #guenons #monkeys #cercopithecus mitis kandti #cercopithecus mitis #cercopithecus #Cercopithecidae #simiiformes #haplorhini #primates #mammalia #chordata #wildlife: rwanda #wildlife: africa

Do I dare make Bamboo Kingdom minis? Yes. Yes I do.

#warrior cats #erin hunter #warriors #bamboo kingdom #rain #ghost #leaf #dasher #shiver #nimbletail #golden monkey #panda #red panda #snow leopard

Golden Monkey

Ignacio Yúfera

#ignacio yufera #photographer #golden monkey #monkey #animal #mammal #wildlife #nature

I've talked about this at length already but I really don't like that adaptations repeatedly make the monkey mute when that's not the point! It's not the point at all! He talks! We're told and shown multiple times that he talks!

We just don't get to hear him!

Sometimes it's described with monkey sound words sometimes like chitter, but we see that with Pan and other daemons too. But he is talking to her.

Northern Lights, after saving Lyra from intercision.

In the cave at the beginning of the Amber Spyglass

Directing her as she flies the Intention Craft to the Clouded Mountain.

There is only one moment in the entire trilogy when we are allowed inside, to hear what he says.

When they are alone at the Adamant Tower,at one of their lowest moments, when they are confused why Asriel would show them the craft. A singular moment when their guard against the reader is lowered, just for a moment.

But adaptations keep taking it and turning it into a failure to communicate BETWEEN them. A sign of internal strife and conflict, but it fundamentally mischaracterises their relationship.

They communicate just fine. But they have only had each other to rely on for so long, they allow nobody in. They are entirely closed ranks, because Marisa has seen what happens when she lets people in. She does not trust anyone, because she knows how easily trust turns to betrayal. She knows that her role as a beautiful woman in a society that restricts, dismisses and reviles women is constantly at risk. She has lost everything once before, and it has taught her to hide everything about herself that is not useful. She uses her beauty like a blade, she is as deeply decietful as her daughter, and her willingness to be cruel makes her useful to the Magisterium as long as it is wrapped neatly in a bow of experimentation or interrogation. She plays the role of femininity precisely as far as is desirable: being attractive, fashionable and desirable, yes, but never soft. Never domestic.

Everything about Marisa is held tight, upright. Contained. Everything is calculated, her plans, her appearence, her behaviours. The monkey is the only thing that gives her away. He is her hot anger, where she must only be cool and detached. He screams, attacks and pins and almost pulls Pan's ear off while she calmly arranges flowers and tells Lyra to kiss her cheek. He slowly pulls apart a bat, limb from limb, so very like she watched behind laboratory glass as childrens souls were cut from them.

They are each other's confidant, so agressively private that even we, the readers, are only allowed in once. They are perfectly in step, aligned, the only source of trust that each of them has. The wall around them is a fortress.

While I see the value of it as a narrative exploration, as characterisation, I truly believe that every time the Monkey's silence is used to show a wedge between them is a fundamental misunderstanding of their character. His silence is not a sign of division: it is how tightly they are entwined that not even the reader or the viewer is allowed inside.

If he was just silent then there would be nothing to know. Instead, the narrative repeatedly shows that they are talking. Dangerous, secret things that you, dear reader, are never allowed to know.

And aren't you just desperate to?

#Marisa Coulter #Mrs Coulter #Golden monkey #narrative analysis #meta #his dark materials #hdm #northern lights #golden compass #the subtle knife #the amber spyglass #philip pullman #lyra silvertongue #lyra belacqua #i know i have talked about this at length already #but she is one of my favourite villains of all time #and it drives me mad that every adaptation fails to understand her relationship with the monkey #stop making the monkey her lackey or whipping boy #they are both deeply hateful and cruel #they are gossiping bullies that you see talking about you across the room #they are politicians holding private council deciding who will suffer to fill their coffers a little more #they are a microcosm a remote island undiscoveref creatures in the deepest recesses of the deepest ocean #you know there is something but that you will never be allowed to know more

HIS DARK MATERIALS 3.06 The Abyss | 3.08 The Botanic Garden

+ bonus:

#tv: hdm #1k #2k #hdmedit #hdmsource #marisa coulter #lyra silvertongue #golden monkey #pantalaimon #lyra x pan #useraish #usersmia #omgari #usersanshou #userpegs #userdanahscott #adaptationsdaily #dailytvwomen #his dark materials

Can we talk about this scene from the beginning of 2x03 The Scholar? Here we see Marisa's daemon sitting in the backseat with his seat belt on like a good son. Doesn't exactly scream "menace to children," does it? He looks more like a mascot for auto safety.