S03.E07: The Clouded Mountain

[Cranberry]

Quote

As the Clouded Mountain approaches, Mrs. Coulter, Asriel and his council discuss their battle strategy. In the Land of the Dead, Lyra and Will deliberate their next move.

Original air date: December 18, 2022 (BBC iPlayer); December 26, 2022 (HBO); January 29, 2023 (BBC One).

[Cranberry]

Well... watching Coulter and Asriel die hit me harder than I thought it was going to. They won't get to journey through the land of the dead and ultimately become part of all things.

I didn't get the impression that the kids realized they were essentially killing "God" by exposing him to the open air, but I'm glad the show went there. Honestly, it was a humane end for a very old, frail, fraud of an angel. The knife served its purpose (Æsahættr literally means "God-Destroyer") without touching him at all.

[PurpleTentacle]

As nicely shot and moving that death scene was, I think Asriel's turn was completely unearned. He has never been anything but a massive dick, who never gave a flying fuck about his daughter, but suddenly he is proud of her and seems to love her, for um, reasons, I guess? Just because the prophecy turned out to be true? This didn't work for me at all.

Coulter was consistent and I really liked all about her in this episode. Though I forget why she can control the daemon eaters. Can anybody remember? I only just vaguely remember that she did so already in a previous season.

How is the war over if Metatron was only regent and real fake-god is still out there somewhere? I hope they wrap that up in the final episode. Or was that him in the box? If so, it seemed that he died. Why? Again, I hope the final episode won't disappoint in that regard.

[Cranberry]

34 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

How is the war over if Metatron was only regent and real fake-god is still out there somewhere? I hope they wrap that up in the final episode. Or was that him in the box? If so, it seemed that he died. Why?

That was him, and he died because he was so ancient and frail that being exposed to the wind damaged him. In the book,

Spoiler

he was also demented and powerless and could only mumble incoherently, but experienced "profound and exhausted relief" as he vanished.

 

[PurpleTentacle]

I have a feeling the books explained a lot of things better than the show. I was kinda under the impression that angels couldn't even die from old age? How does a being made of dust, that can slips through the cracks between world, so is completely intangible, die of old age?

Also how can a human be made into an angel?

[Bill1978]

If you had told me at the start of this story that I would feel emotional over the death of Ms. Coulter I would have laughed in your face and told you that you were being ridiculous and walked off still laughing. But here we are. And from my understanding, her and Asriel don't even get to enter the real Heaven (I don't really understand the Oblivion). I was sad at the death of Asriel's daemon, but not really over Asriel - too little too late for his character redemption I feel.

Speaking of daemons, great to finally see Will's daemon. She doesn't seem as put out over the separation as Pan was, but maybe that's because she is new. Once I've finished the final episode, I'll pop over into the Book Question thread to ask some questions about daemons.

I actually found the different battles occurring during the war quite effective and very well done for a TV show. I was on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen, and what was going to jump out of somewhere. I actually think I appreciated the war more here than if The Amber Spyglass had been adapted into a movie - knowing Hollywood, stories would have been rushed so we got a 45-minute battle sequence (unless they did what was popular at the time and do a Part 1 & 2).

I totally forgot that Ms. Coulter could control the spectres and also have no idea why/how she controls the spectres. But I'm glad she was able to banish them, nonetheless.

I do feel the one big weakness of the episode is the lack of explaining things like how Metatron's death wiped out the Kingdom of Heaven. I thought the Kingdom of Heaven was a world? Did that blast of dust destroy the world? Also, they did a poor job of explaining the death of The Authority. That felt very rushed and unexplained. And the scene almost felt like it was included because they had to include it. I'm definitely going to have to read the book to get more details about the ending of The Kingdom of Heaven.

I really want to see the last episode, but it's late here and I want to be alert for the conclusion so it will have to wait until tomorrow morning.

[Tachi Rocinante]

Wow, this one almost seemed like a finale - not much to tie up, just Mary and the fallout with the priests.

I still don't trust Ms. Coulter. Heh.

Sorry, but I just cannot look at the name of the knife and not pronounce it "A Shitter".  Yes, I'm 12.

[Bill1978]

6 hours ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

Sorry, but I just cannot look at the name of the knife and not pronounce it "A Shitter".  Yes, I'm 12.

I pronounce it as Ass Hatter, and I get confused when characters don't pronounce it like I do. 

[Black Knight]

I was sad about Ruta’s fate to fall forever into the abyss, but in the cases of Asriel, Mrs. Coulter and Metatron, it’s richly deserved.

Characters worried a couple of times about how the other angels who had joined the rebellion would react to Asriel torturing and killing that angel, and then it was just dropped. I wonder if the show ran out of time and figured it wasn’t an important enough subplot since the rebellion came down to taking Metatron out and keeping Lyra alive, so the internal politics of Asriel’s group didn’t really matter.

I’m glad this was a TV show and not a movie, because otherwise 45 minutes or more would have been spent on the big battle. 

I wonder how much of everything was the Authority’s doing vs. Metatron’s doing, because otherwise I don’t understand the point of writing in a regent when they could have just battled the Authority. Well, except that they needed two figures so Asriel and Coulter could die taking out one while the knife could fulfill its name by taking out the other. The show could have spent a bit more time on the latter. Did Lyra and Will even know who that was?

[PinkRibbons]

1 hour ago, Black Knight said:

I wonder how much of everything was the Authority’s doing vs. Metatron’s doing, because otherwise I don’t understand the point of writing in a regent when they could have just battled the Authority. Well, except that they needed two figures so Asriel and Coulter could die taking out one while the knife could fulfill its name by taking out the other. The show could have spent a bit more time on the latter. Did Lyra and Will even know who that was?

Taking this to the book thread.