WMG / The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

For The Dark Crystal, see here.

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The Series will have a Downer Ending.

The show’s final arc will deal with the prophecy.

• Jossed: the episode ends on a fairly happy note with the Gelflings having united and achieved a first victory over the Skeksis, who were forced to retreat. Also, there is no mention of the prophecy. The only downer parts are the final scene, where the Scientist unveils his first Garthim, and also Deet being infected by the Darkening.
  • That's for the first season. But what happens in the (potential) second season?
    • Furthermore, since this is a prequel to the original movie, it's safe to say that no matter how many seasons this show has, it's not going to end well for the gelflings whose names aren't Jen or Kira.

Ancestors of Jen and or Kira will be shown.

Might not be explicitly the case, judging by how long this show takes place before the movie but they could be shown.

• As guessed below, Rian will be revealed as Jen's ancestor.

The main cast won’t die, but they’ll be indisposed in some other way

Them outright losing to the Skeksis would be too much of a Downer Ending, but the plot of the movie requires Jen and Kira to be the last Gelflings. Maybe our heroes will do something else like Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence. Either that or pull a Heroic Sacrifice of some kind to stop an even worse Skeksis scheme.

• Kinda confirmed for Deet, who absorbed the Darkness and is now a Walking Wasteland as a result.

The final episodes will be a "Ray of Hope" Ending

The series will end with the Gelflings managing to hide away the babies who will grow up to become Kira and Jen, ensuring that the Gelfling legacy will live on (and with it a chance to stop the Skeksis) even after their deaths. The last shot will be of the now adult Kira and Jen completing the events of The Dark Crystal to show that eventually the Skeksis will be stopped.

Rian is Jen's ancestor

Of the three central protagonists, Jen most closely resembles Rian, with similar facial features and overall coloring. This makes it most likely that Jen is descended from the Stonewood Clan, and possibly even Rian himself.

The series will diverge from the movie’s continuity

Aughra speaks a lot about the future being made up of possible timelines. It may be that the events of the movie represent only the darkest timeline, where everything goes wrong. And that the series may subvert expectations by going down a different path where the Gelfling genocide doesn’t happen.

• If the final scene in the season 1 finale is any indication, the genocide will soon happen, so jossed.

skekGra will get a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass moment

He's in better condition than his decrepit kin and he did used to be known as The Conqueror.

Stone-In-The-Wood is the Gelfling Ruin from the original film

The location of the ruin fits Stone-In-The-Wood much better than any of the other Gelfling cities, and at one point Kira sees and sits on a throne implying it must have been a major settlement rather than one of the smaller villages like Deet and Hup visit the first time they encounter Gelflings above ground.

Who are the last Skeksis and Mystic pair

Originally there were eighteen urSkeks who were splintered by the Crystal. Two pairs died after the newly-born Skeksis killed their counterparts because they were unaware of the link between them, leaving sixteen, with only ten remaining by the time of the film. Assuming skekSa the Mariner and urSan the Swimmer are considered canon to the series and film (since their source does contradict the series in a number of places) we still have only fifteen pairs of Skeksis and Mystics accounted for, and the sixteenth have yet to be seen or named.

• If I remember correctly, one of the missing Skeksis named in episode 9 is one called skekLi the Satirist and their Mystic counterpart is called urLii the Storyteller.
  • I believe the Skeksis named in this episode were the three from the original film missing from the Castle in season 1: skekUng the Garthim-Master, skekNa the Slave Master, and skekShod the Treasurer.
  • skekShod was not mentioned.

Deet's vision and season 2 theories

• Rian fails to heal the Crystal. Either the shard is a fake, or only during the Conjunction can the Crystal be healed. And he's Jen's father, though since the Mystics live isolated from the outside world, they might not know who his father was and thus can't tell anything to Jen about his heroic deeds.
• Brea is Kira's mother and runs desperately to find a place to hide her daughter. Then the Garthim get her.
• The Emperor will kill Deet in the throne room, but she will still have the time to strike him hard with the Darkening, which will make him rot faster and lead him to his deathbed.
• Deet went to the Skeksis castle willingly, since she is a walking wasteland she will exploit this power in the heart of enemy territory.

The series will be revealed to be a Stealth Sequel.

• An older Jen will make an appearance from the future, and guide the main characters into changing history.

skekNa was a victim of the Peeper Beetle

It's clear that the punishment has been used before, and skekNa is the only other skeksis who is missing an eye. It is possible he will bond with skekTek over this experience, since they are part of the same political faction.

The Master will appear in season 2 or beyond

In Jen's flashback in the original film it's shown that the Master personally saved him from the Garthim when his village was attacked. Additionally, Aughra actually expected him to be accompanying Jen to her observatory when he said that urSu sent him. All of this suggests that much like the Archer and the Wanderer, the Master at one point took an active hand in the goings on on Thra, and may only have retired to the Valley once he had Jen to care for (and even then, nothing says that he couldn't have left Jen in the care of the other Mystics when he had business elsewhere). To that end:

• urSu will be playing a role much like Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings (or even Aughra in the first season), helping inspire the Gelflings, while not actually leading them, in their resistance against the Skeksis.
• It will show that before old age slowed him down he was a considerable Bad Ass that all of the Skeksis (perhaps even the Emperor himself) fear.
• urSu will directly confront the Emperor and inflict a wound in their fight that greatly shortens their lives, and is ultimately responsible for their deaths in the film.

The Skeksis are immortal by nature and unaware of it

The Hunter who avoids the castle and the Heretic who's been exiled for centuries are not only still alive despite not draining power from the crystal, they're doing a lot better than the others physically. When Aughra awakens from her sleep, she fully expects both the Skeksis and the Mystics to still be around, even after learning generations have passed. This suggests that the crystal isn't actually helping them at all, and the boost it gives them is just the high from a Fantastic Drug.

The urSkek that the Heretic and Wanderer are halves of was the kindest one.

The reason the Heretic managed to Heel–Face Turn (albeit still being somewhat of a unintentional jerk) is because when it all comes down to it, his urSkek self was so goodhearted (or at least in control of his darker nature) that Heretic manifested having something resembling a conscience.

Season 2: The Garthim will be difficult or even impossible to control until skekUng's arrival.

A Skeksis who's strong-willed, unafraid, loud and physically strong will be needed, and the guy got the job for a reason, being the only one left to fill such requirements.

Jen is either a Stonewood Gelfling and Kira is a Vapra Gelfling.

Jen's tunic has the triangle symbol of the Stonewood Gelfling and Kira has some of the characteristics of the Vapra Gelfling such as their blonde hair.

The Skekses will regain the power of the three suns to boost their longevity through the crystal.

The first scene of the ceremony of the sun shows the Skeksis trying to gain power from the three suns shining separately on the crystal from three small skylights while the main center skylight remained closed. This is different from the film; eventually the Skeksis will work out that the crystal still gives life if powered by a minor conjunction of the suns, which is when they will open the central skylight directly above the crystal.

One of the non-movie Skeksis will be revealed to be a Retired Monster.

Contrasting with the Heretic, either SkekLi the Satirist or SkekSa the Mariner will be shown to have given up the Skeksis lifestyle—not because they realized it's wrong, but because they got bored with oppressing the local populace and decided to live somewhere far from the castle, where they wouldn't have to deal with their compatriots' constant scheming, backstabbing and decadence. However, they'll decide to come out of retirement to help the other Skeksis deal with the Gelfling uprising.

Tavra will return in some form in Season 2.

Tavra and the Arathim bonded to her said they had fused to the point where they no longer knew where one ended and the other began. It's altogether possible that her personality may have lived on in the Arathim even after her death.

skekUng's original title...

Since skekVar was the first General, and the Garthim are only created at the very end of Season 1, skekUng must have had a different title before becoming the new General & Garthim Master. Considering that the other Skeksis refer to him as a formidable fighter, it's likely his original title was something like "The Warrior", "The Champion", "The Herald" or "The Enforcer".

• He could have also become the new Conqueror after skekGra was banished, which would explain why he wasn't present for the first season.
  • He could have been "The Tormentor" in which he physically torments his victims as opposed to this mystic counterpart, "The Healer".

The reason The Collector's ailment is unexplained AND the reason their various treatments never worked was because the cause of the condition was actually on their Urru counterpart's end of the Psychic Link.

As in, urSen (The Collector's counterpart) had been trying to, for example, perfect some sort of chemical concoction or something, one of the ingredients being rather toxic. They had not yet perfected the recipe by the time The Collector was killed, thus requiring repeated exposure to this toxin. Or maybe urSen was just allergic to something growing in the Valley of the Mystics. In any case, if that was the cause, then the most skekLatch's treatments could hope for would be to temporarily mask the symptoms.

Personalities of the currently unseen Skeksis.

• skekUng: While we saw plenty of him in the original movie, the future seasons would show that before age and possible essence consumption affected him he was a Genius Bruiser with a code of honor to better differentiate him from skekVar.
  • Furthermore, skekUng will harbor suspicions about the death of skekVar and he eventually deduces that the Chamberlain murdered him. He doesn't have the proof to expose skekSil (or the Emperor simply doesn't care), but his suspicions fuel his animosity toward the Chamberlain, leading to their bitter rivalry in the movie.
  • He'll also be a massive Knight of Cerebus, as even the General had moments of humour and cartoonish villainy associated with him, which skekUng will lack, to further highlight how much more of a dangerous foe he will be to the Resistance.
• skekSa: The novels she appeared in describe her as surprisingly humble and generous to those she considers friends, making her into a Noble Demon type villain but ultimately still aligned with the other skeksis.
  • It will also be revealed that she and skekSo were once lovers, and she was actually meant to become his Empress. However, as the Emperor grew crueler and more controlling over time, she became disillusioned with him and left the Castle. She only returns out of a sense of duty to her species.
• skekNa: He would be a straight up sadist but also a skilled spy master as stated in secondary media and he has an eye patch due to being the previous victim of a peeper beetle as speculated above, ironically meaning the skeksis responsible for keeping slaves in line is himself, unruly and disobedient.
• skekLi: The novel he appears in shows him as the entertainer of the skeksis who grew to hate that position due to the others treating him as the court jester. The show would use that as a basis, showing that he left the castle for that reason and become something of a traveling bard, bringing entertainment to Thra's other races who treated him with more respect. His travels and interactions made him much more worldly and compassionate to the inhabitants of Thra, making him an Affably Evil Token Good Teammate as the least and potentially even making a full blown Heel–Face Turn.
• skekShod: He's described as greedy in supplemental material so that could he could have acted as the skeksis tax collector/loan shark before the gelfling were exterminated.
• skekHak^note This is assuming that the show takes after the novels in that it only skekYi who died.: In contrast with their lazy, hedonistic kin, the Mechanist is an eccentric workaholic whose constantly making new buildings and gadgets. They could make some new and strange steampunk weapons for the other Skeksis to use and have something of a friendship with skekTek due to their similar interests.
  • Skek Hak might also be treated as something of a barely tolerated outcast as the only Skeksis who's known to have murdered one of their own, even by proxy by killing their Mystic

Elder Cadia and the Librarian are ex-Lovers who parted on very bad terms.

There is a very bitter air between them. Cadia mentions that Sifa "never forget or forgive," and the Librarian is very wary of the Sifan, declaring they do nothing for free, believes Cadia is "not to be trusted," and that when he sailed with them he found something more than adventure. He also doesn't trust Cadia not to do something malicious while Brea is meeting with him. The way he talks sounds almost like someone painfully recalling a past romantic relationship. It's possible that they were in love when they were younger, and ended it over a possible perceived betrayal or miscommunication. Both of them seem to believe they were wronged by the other, and regardless of the reason, there was a bad Noodle Incident in their past that entirely soured their relationship. The fandom seems to view them as something of a Dry Docked Ship.

Potential episodes titles for Season 2

In continuing with Season 1's theme of having episode titles be quotes from the original movie:

• "Trial By Stone"
• "The Two Made One"
• "Questions, Questions, Too Many Questions"
• "Garthim, Attack!"
• "Like The Worms You Are"
• "The Shapes of Kindness"
• "Could Be Anywhere, Then"
• "A Journey Must Begin"
• "A Time Of Testing"
• "The Houses of the Old Ones"
• "We May Meet In Another Life"
• "Search The Land, Search The Water, Search The Sky"

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• YMMV, but "Could be anywhere, then" is a bit too humorous a title to be likely. It'd almost be like naming an episode "mmmmMMMMMmmmm" after skekSil's "whimper." A more likely name might be "Now, there are only ten."

At some point, the Gelfling will actually contemplate killing the Mystics in order to defeat the Skeksis.

At some point, with the war going so badly, at least one of the Gelfling characters suggests that they locate and kill the Mystics in order to destroy the Skeksis. Eventually, he or she is talked out of the idea (or - if they go down a darker path, is stopped from implementing it).

Hupp will survive the Garthim War and adopts Kira

Hupp's Podling Clan rescues and raises Kira, with Hupp teaching her everything that Deet taught him about caring for Thra's wildlife. Hupp eventually dies of old age, but not before receiving a vision that prompts him to send Kira out to find Jen.

• Kira's adoptive Podling parent is explicitly a female named Ydra. She looks nothing like Hup at all: their hair, head shape, and the placement of their eyes are all very different. She even has her own separate character folder: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/TheDarkCrystalOtherCharacters
  • That was her adoptive mother, but who's to say she didn't also have an adoptive father at some point.

After the war, Aughra makes a deal with Skeksis, promising to tell them the time of the next Great Conjunction in exchange for them leaving her alone. She does this in order to keep the Shard hidden, and also so she can ensure the prophecy is fulfilled.

It would explain why, despite her helping organize the Gelfling rebellion, the Skeksis never tried to finish her off between the series and the movie.

None of the main characters of Age of Resistance are Kira or Jen's parents...but they might be their grandparents?

The Gelfling ruins in the movie are much too old and overgrown to have come from any of the thriving tribes in the series, if Kira and Jen are the children (and still young, at that!) of our young protagonists. How could Stone-in-the-Wood or Ha'rar have deteriorated *that far* in the time between just one generation of Gelflings and the next generation reaching young adulthood? But the timeline makes more sense if Kira's mother is, for example, Brea's daughter or even granddaughter, placing her and Jen among the last remnants of a dwindling species. (This also gives the Skeksis a less absurdly short stretch of time in which to burn through the entire population of Gelflings upon which they rely for essence, even with their careless gluttony to speed them along...)

• Actually, it takes very little time for even large settlements in heavily forested areas to be overgrown when abandoned. It's completely possible for Stone-in-the-Wood (which seems to be the most likely candidate for the ruin) to have disappeared within a generation.

Ur Goh and Skek Gra will re-fuse during a lesser conjunction during season 2.

A lesser conjunction is an eclipse between any two of Thra's suns, and the lore states that the skeksis can draw power form one, same as a Great Conjunction (all three suns), just not as much.

The Chamberlain will get away with killing the General

Think about it, a Skeksis killing another Skeksis is considered appalling. Even the traitor, skekGra, due to his way of thinking, was a liability because he teamed up with the Gelfling against the Skeksis. And they still merely banished him (and probably severely injured him if that nail in his head is any indication) instead of killing him. What would the punishment for a Skeksis killing another Skeksis be? Banishment? Life imprisonment? And yet he's perfectly fine in the movie, and amongst his own kind.

Jen is descended from Rian and Deet, while Kira is descended from Brea

Going off of the "Jen is related to Rian" theory, the series seems to be keen on pairing him with Deet. Kira has Vapran traits, so it's likely that she is Brea's descendant (or another notable Vapran).

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