His Dark Materials has such a beautiful depiction of love, because in the end love is what saves every world, but the rest of the series is almost a lesson in all the things love can’t save. Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter loved Lyra, but it doesn’t stop them from abandoning her and using her as a pawn in their respective schemes. They loved each other but it doesn’t stop them from manipulating and hurting each other, and it doesn’t save them in the end. Lyra loved Roger but it doesn’t stop her from getting him killed, and it doesn’t bring him back. Will and Lyra loved each other, but it doesn’t stop their separation. John Parry loved Will and his mother, but he still left them. Lyra loved Pan, but she still left him behind in the world of the dead. There’s no absence of love, but it’s not the cure all other books often make it out to be. The love is there, but it doesn’t change anything. And yet in the end it’s Will and Lyra’s love for each other that saves every world. It’s Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter’s love for Lyra (and each other) that lets them defeat Metatron. In a series where love has consistently failed to save the character, two of the most important and seemingly impossible feats are accomplished solely through love. And yes that means that the story inherently contradicts itself, but that’s what I love so much about it. Love is by nature contradictory. The point of the story isn’t to show that love is all powerful or that love achieves nothing. The point is that love doesn’t usually doesn’t solve anything, but that we should continue to love, and that every now and then, love truly will save it all.
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