History LIterature / HisDarkMaterials

* LeaveHimToMe: Subverted. The Panserbjørne approach to banished bears returning to challenge the King to single combat is to [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim kill them with fire hurlers from a great distance]]. As a result, it takes [[ConsummateLiar Lyra]] a great deal of manipulation to get the ChallengingTheChief duel to ever happen

The first volume had a 2007 film adaptation, entitled ''Film/TheGoldenCompass'', which was not successful enough to warrant any sequels.[[StillbornFranchise The latter two books were not adapted]] as a result. Apart from this, there have been a two-part stage adaptation of the trilogy and two radio adaptations, one an unabridged recording of the books (with Pullman himself narrating and a full cast playing the various characters), and one a more traditional radio drama presented in three two-and-a-half-hour episodes.

The first volume had a 2007 film adaptation, entitled ''Film/TheGoldenCompass'', which was not successful enough, [[StillbornFranchise the latter two books were not adapted]] as a result. Apart from this, there have been a two-part stage adaptation of the trilogy and two radio adaptations, one an unabridged recording of the books, with Pullman himself narrating, and a full cast playing the various characters, and one a more traditional radio drama presented in three two-and-a-half-hour episodes.

Pre-teen Lyra Silvertongue (originally Belacqua, but she soon disowns this name due to the events of the first book) lives in an alternative GaslampFantasy world ([[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld Zeppelins!]]) in which people's souls live outside their bodies in the form of Dæmons, which take on animal forms according to the person's personality. She leaves her life as a [[PluckyGirl wild child]] roaming Jordan College, Oxford, (not actually a real Oxford University college, but this distinction is intentional,) to go on a quest to save her best friend who has been kidnapped.

* {{Fingore}}: The Subtle Knife demands two of your fingers to use it. [[spoiler:Will gets them ''ground off by a rope''.

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: Pullman has confirmed the books are set when they were published, in the late 1990s; but while Will's/our world reflects this, Lyra's world seem to be several decades behind in some areas. There's anbaric/electric lights and mention of ordinators/computers, but technology like photograms/photography is more basic and moving pictures/films were never invented, there are far fewer cars, heavier-than-air travel (save for gyrocopters/helicopters) [[{{Pun}} never seems to have gotten off the ground]], servants appear to still be the norm, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and it's very unusual for women to wear trousers.]]

* GodOfTheDead: The {{Witch|Species}}es believe in the death goddess Yambe-Akka, who comes to the dying to [[DontFearTheReaper welcome them with good cheer and open arms]]. She isn't among the supernatural entities who makes an appearance, but Serafina steps into the role of Yambe-Akka to grant a witch's wish for a MercyKill.

* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Subverted in a way; [[spoiler:in order for Lyra to fulfil the prophesy, she can never be told what she's supposed to do.]]

Including a badass [[RuleOfCool Armored]] [[BearsAreBadNews Polar Bear]] [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Warrior]] [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot King]]. Can't forget him.

* AMasterMakesTheirOwnTools: The [[BearsAreBadNews Panserbjørne]] forge their own armor from [[ThunderboltIron "sky-iron"]]. This is important, as they consider their personal suit of armour to [[OurSoulsAreDifferent house their soul]].

* BearsAreBadNews: The armored bears are bad news to their enemies and some are aligned against the heroes, at least in the first book.

** It is inadvisable to steal Iorek's armor while he is passed out. He killed about two people trying to find it and nearly cracked the skull of a sentry after getting it back. It was only his debt to Lyra that kept him from killing the man.

* DrowningMySorrows: Iorek drank so much after his exile that he passed out and had his armor stolen from him.

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: In the first book, one [[TalkingAnimal armored bear]] defeats another in single combat by ripping his jaw off, then tearing his throat open, slicing his ribcage in half, pulling out his still-steaming heart and devouring it before shouting "BEARS! WHO IS YOUR KING?". It's pretty intense. ([[Film/TheGoldenCompass The film adaptation]] toned this down quite a bit, but it was ''still'' surprisingly gruesome for a kids' movie.) The same armored bear, later on, discovers the corpse of his (human) friend, and ''eats it'' as a sign of respect.

* ForgotToGagHim: Lyra Silvertongue got her nickname by pulling this off - after being captured by the armored bears, she ingratiates herself with them, luring their leader into a false sense of confidence, ultimately leading to his downfall in a duel.

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Armored Royal Polar Bear Warriors! Even the author gleefully admits that this is the coolest thing ever.

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The Panserbjørne (repeat: Armored Polar Bear Warriors!) are a proud warrior race.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The Panserbjørne are not treated too well by humans. In one of the novellas, a mayoral candidate actually proposes forcibly banishing them from human cities. The main reason for this is because they have no Dæmons, which humans take as proof that they have no soul. Iorek makes it very clear to Lyra that his armor ''is'' his soul.

*** This is also justified since Ci'gazze is the center of a culture that for the last 300 years has stolen culture and ideas from every other world. Naturally, that could include language.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: One of the images on the Alethiometer was a chameleon. One of its underlying meanings is air because, as Farder Coram mentioned, chameleons don't eat anything but air. This may have been fine for when the Alethiometer was first created a couple hundred years earlier but Farder Coram was a learned man and should have known better. Not that the myth would have to be true in our world to be true in Lyra's, though. . .
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Much of the books' criticism of Christianity centers around the role that it - and the Catholic Church in particular -- supposedly played in holding back scientific and technological progress. The truth is that the real-life Church has been funding science since before it was actually ''called'' science, and still does. The long story [[ArtisticLicenseTraditionalChristianity is here under science]], but the short version is that they own at least two scientific institutes -- [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontifical_Academy_of_Sciences the Pontifical Academy of Sciences]] and the extremely venerable [[http://vaticanobservatory.org/ Vatican Observatory]] and fund many more. Many important scientists, such as Gregor Mendel and Georges Lemaitre, were Catholic clergy, and the church funded research that led to important discoveries such as Nicolaus Capernicus's astronomical discoveries. These are the guys who accepted evolution as soon as they had deemed there was sufficient evidence to support it (in about 1942). The idea that they have ever opposed, or even disliked, science is a myth that originated from accusations made by Reformation and Enlightenment thinkers, sprinkled in with a few cherry-picked examples of the few times it did block scientific thought (e.g. Galileo).
* ArtisticLicenseReligion: The climax of the trilogy hinges on the second Fall of humanity, in which it's prophesied that Lyra "will disobey" and thus become a "second Eve" (from Literature/TheBible). What she actually does is [[spoiler: fall in love and make out with Will.]] She may have had sex, but even WordOfGod on the subject is "maybe, maybe not," sometimes slanted more toward the [[http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/12/1071125644900.html not]]. The issue is that if you leave out the sex between unmarried teenagers, there's nothing in her actions that the Bible considers sin or "disobeying" at all. Even that may not be a sin since it's supposed to happen prior to another Fall-- Adam and Eve are implied to have had sex before the theft ("be fruitful and multiply" and all that).

* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Subverted in a way; [[spoiler:in order for Lyra to fulfill the prophesy, she can never be told what she's supposed to do.]]

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness - In early editions of ''Northern Lights'', one of the deceased Scholars had a daemon taking the form of a young woman - later retconned out when Pullman decided that daemons could not take human shape.

* HonorBeforeReason: Lyra [[spoiler:deliberately ''abandoned her own soul'' in the World of the Dead, so that she could make amends to a friend that she unwittingly led to his death.]]

* IThoughtItWasForbidden: Touching someone else's dæmon. Then again, it could be argued that Lyra's innocent view of the world saw the act of touching someone's dæmon as much, ''much'' rarer than it is in practice. Could be GettingCrapPastTheRadar as a metaphor for sex, or perhaps a case of ItsOkayIfItsYou.

* EmptyChairMemorial: In the last book, [[spoiler:when Lyra has to say goodbye to Will, she proposes that they sit in a bench that exists in both of their Oxfords each year for in hour, to reminisce on their past relationship.]]

* NoWomansLand: As Lyra's world is quite a few decades behind our world in both technology and society, women's roles are more limited. While there is at least one women's college in Lyra's Oxford, female scholars are regarded as an oddity and Lyra's quite surprised to find that the scholar she needs to talk to about Dust is Mary Malone (though admittedly Lyra was raised by ''very'' traditional male scholars, who obviously look down on their female counterparts). Mrs. Coulter is very high ranking, but she's the only female member of the Magisterium that we see other than some nuns who take minutes for meetings and have taken vows of silence.

* AnatomyOfTheSoul: The Soul, Mind, Body division. See that trope's page.
** Though at one point the characters speculate about whether it's even more complicated in some universes.
*** [[spoiler:Turns out it is. In the land of the dead, all mortals are accompanied by their "death" from cradle to grave.]]

* {{Anticlimax}}: For some. For others, the scene in question is a terrific subversion of typical fantastic fiction. [[spoiler:Asriel's rebellion, the war that will change the very structure of the Multiverse, is ultimately treated as an irritating distraction as Will and Lyra frantically search for their missing Dæmons.]]
** Further, [[spoiler:the stated BigBad, {{God}}, is revealed to have aged to such a state of extreme senility and fragility that he is eventually killed by a stiff breeze, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu because of two kids, and not even on purpose]]. Seriously. Fortunately for the story, his [[TheDragon Dragon]], the Metatron, takes on the mantle of prime villain.]]
* TheAntiNihilist: The books eventually come down in favor of this, with a touch of FantasticAesop courtesy of Dust. God doesn't give the world meaning, Dust does. Dust is essentially fundamental particles/bosons of conscience, endeavor, knowledge, curiosity, etc., and are created by acts of teaching and learning, ergo...
** Which plants the series distinctly on the side of UsefulNotes/{{Existentialism}}. YMMV as to to what extent those two philosophies genuinely differ.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Much of the books' criticism of Christianity centers around the role that it - and the Catholic Church in particular - supposedly played in holding back scientific and technological progress. The truth is that the real-life Church has been funding science since before it was actually ''called'' science, and still does. The long story [[ArtisticLicenseTraditionalChristianity is here under science]], but the short version is that they own at least two scientific institutes--[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontifical_Academy_of_Sciences the Pontifical Academy of Sciences]] and the extremely venerable [[http://vaticanobservatory.org/ Vatican Observatory]] and fund many more. Many important scientists, such as Gregor Mendel and Georges Lemaitre, were Catholic clergy, and the church funded research that led to important discoveries such as Nicolaus Capernicus's astronomical discoveries. These are the guys who accepted evolution as soon as they had deemed there was sufficient evidence to support it (in about 1942). The idea that they have ever opposed, or even disliked, science is a myth that originated from accusations made by Reformation and Enlightenment thinkers, sprinkled in with a few cherry-picked examples of the few times it did block scientific thought (e.g. Galileo).

* ChekhovMIA: Will's father.
* ChallengingTheChief: Lyra's [[ConsummateLiar skills of persuasion]] are so good she arranges a ChallengingTheChief fight between current Panserbjørne king [[EvilPrince Iofur Raknisson]] and [[WalkingTheEarth outcast]] / [[RagsToRoyalty part-time usurped rightful king]] Iorek Byrnison. To top it off, [[BeyondTheImpossible it's supposed to be literally impossible to lie to, or even bluff, a Panserbjørn]]. It gets cooler still: it’s made clear any outcast wandering into the city for any reason, let alone to challenge the king gets [[JustShootHim shot]] with [[KillItWithFire Fire-hurlers]]. Lyra talked them into a KlingonPromotion fight when they would normally kill Iorek on sight! That’s how good she is!
** Iorek claims that tricking a bear is impossible, and invites Lyra to try. She fails miserably. But Lyra notes that Iofur wants to be human; he rejects his birthright as a bear. So when Lyra says Iofur can gain a daemon for himself, he ''wants'' to believe her, and his blind focus on this goal leads him to fall for Iorek's WoundedGazelleGambit during the duel, too.

* ChastityCouple: Balthamos and Baruch.

* ConsummateLiar: [[PunnyName Lyra]].

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: Pullman has confirmed the books are set when they were published, in the late 1990s; but while Will's/our world reflects this, Lyra's world seem to be several decades behind in some areas. There's anbaric/electric lights and mention of ordinators/computers, but technology like photograms/photography is more basic, there are far fewer cars, heavier-than-air travel (save for gyrocopters/helicopters) [[{{Pun}} never seems to have gotten off the ground]], servants appear to still be the norm, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and it's very unusual for women to wear trousers.]]

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: The books are likely set when they were published, in the late 1990s; but while Will's/our world reflects this, Lyra's world seem to be several decades behind in some areas. There's anbaric/electric lights and mention of ordinators/computers, but technology like photograms/photography is more basic, there are far fewer cars, heavier-than-air travel (save for gyrocopters/helicopters) [[{{Pun}} never seems to have gotten off the ground]], servants appear to still be the norm, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and it's very unusual for women to wear trousers.]]

* {{The Nothing After Death}}: The land of the dead isn't exactly nothing, but it is insanely close: just a bleak wasteland with almost no light in which nothing happen. And then there's the Abyss, which really ''is'' nothingness. And of course now people just dissolve after dying and are returned to the universe so that they can be a part of everything again (Nature's spirit recycling service)]].

* ImmortalBreaker: The Subtle Knife is prized for its rumoured nature as the God-Killer. [[SubvertedTrope Actually]], it's 'just' an AbsurdlySharpBlade and DimensionalCutter.