I had this thought last night but couldn't elaborate on it because it was very late and I had to go to work this morning. HOWEVER--

Truth is: I think Lyra and Pan are better off separated.

Heresy! I know, but listen: I think that even if they had never separated in TAS, I still think TSC events would have happened, with minor changes to account for them not being separated. I think Pan would still have walked away on Lyra, he was quite miserable with their situation and so was she, and we learn throughout TSC that some people are just very unhappy to the point they abandon their daemons and vice-versa. And they were unhappy because, over time, Lyra stops being subjected to Pan's will and starts becoming more independent of him.

If we go back to NL, we can see how much they clash with each other! They rarely agree with each other and when they do, we're talking about very strong core values that they share. And yes, as time goes by, they change places and opinions - Pan becomes more careless and impulsive, while Lyra becomes cautious and fearful and uncertain - and I think this could be because Pan tries really hard to connect with Lyra by becoming more like she used to be (and, obviously, it doesn't work because her wounds run much deeper than just that).

For Pan, it must be very difficult to see Lyra grow more and more detached from him and he tries to fight this inevitable experience. He goes about all the wrong ways of trying to mend their relationship: he puts all the blame on Lyra's shoulders, he refuses to accept any viewpoints other than his own, he doesn't let Lyra process her feelings and he feels attacked whenever she has an attitude he dislikes. Pan is not ready for Lyra to grow up, and because it is such a slow process, and she is so hurt from her past, that for him it is a very slow-motion torture session.

So, while I think separating added to their griefs, I think ultimately Lyra and Pan were bound to have a big fight where one would storm off on the other and sever their bond. They were always quite different from each other and their relationship always suffered from their different views; the difference is that child! Lyra was far more susceptible to Pan, though she argued more often, whereas adult! Lyra is exhausted by her own depression, and therefore she refuses any council he offers, which frustrates him and invalidates him.

Thus, I think their relationship can only grow if they remain separated for a time. Because the severed bond allowed them to actually see each other independently and handle the world in independent ways too, making Lyra see Pan's views as valid as time goes by in her journey during TSC.

Well, it's not Marisa, for one thing. It's a very crude and poor attempt at bringing her on-screen. Talking about what I dislike about her means this gets intrinsic with the show's greatest flaws, because they are a big part of what is wrong with her portrayal.

First issue I have is that she is a very washed down version of what Marisa is. She's soft, purposeless other than "Lyra is my daughter" and overall she is a dull character. Had Book! Lyra ever met her, she would have found Show!Marisa boring.

Marisa's lack of purpose is deeply tied with many narrative problems, such as shallow worldbuilding (the non-women scholar bullshit from season 2, for one, and the lack of daemons) and even with Boreal, they played it very safe and boring. When Marisa deals with him in the books, she is power-playing and very strongly too; he isn't a nobody. In the show is very meh, Boreal is almost on even grounds with her, which makes her scheming silly and uninterested. Worse than that, she whines and cries so much in front of him (in episode 5, season 2 specifically, and this is where I left the show and I do not intend to come back lol) that it makes no sense. Marisa's vulnerability is only seen in specific moments of the book — with Asriel at the bridge, then later at the abyss, once with Lyra in the caves. There is a reason why she is vulnerable in those instances, and only then. Making her open herself to Boreal is utter garbage, plain and simple.

Second issue I have is how they set the tone for her to be a scorned mother. The show plays, again and again, the "I've always wanted you Lyra but--" card. They make it seem like Asriel stole Lyra from Marisa's throbbing chest and disappeared into the night, and oh! how desperately she has looked for her beloved child. Honestly! All the fucking books, even TBOD, show how she didn't want Lyra then and when she finally did, it was out of self interest and vanity. Only later, in TAS, is when she finally warms up to Lyra. They erased her character development for the sake of some motherly tears and I loathe it.

This pair's with Sami's latest post which just proves what I've been saying since season one: they took a great, leading character female character and they made it all about motherhood. It's insulting. Marisa is so much more than a mother. She never wanted to be a mother.

Third issue is the "She is bad because of how oppressed she has been" issue. Northern Lights, chapter four - Lyra dines with the women and the master and you have a whole discussion on female scholars and how Lyra felt pity for them and so on and how Mrs. Coulter was very different. Like, anyone who had actually bothered reading the novels could tell you that Lyra's world is a patriarchal world, but the women still find their way around, as they have since forever in our world.

Now for the show, this pisses me off on many levels, but my main issue is with how they try, so hard, to have Marisa say - and this is important, it's never shown, it's only ever said by her - how men get the better end of the deal, how she had to work so hard to get where she was and blah blah blah. Honestly, this is very true for the show; they bothered very little to write meaningful women into it, the one change I would have appreciated very much, but as in regards to the truth of the character, it's just nonsense. This whole shenanigan could have been fixed with Hannah Relf's presence, because she alone would prove that Marisa's cruelty and malice are innate traits, not a byproduct of her world being sexist. It makes no sense.

If you're looking for more insight into that, I recommend Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss which is an analysis of episode 5, season 2 and this patriarchy business on the show. It's very good and insightful and more reasonable than I will ever be discussing the show lol

There's no excuse for Marisa's poorly written character. It's a waste of Ruth Wilson's acting and a damn shame for a studio that so often claimed to have learned from the movie's mistakes (which they, very very obviously did not as Marisa from the show and the movie are very, very similar). That's why I've only stuck with books since season 2, because while Philman sometimes does stuff I don't entirely agree with, he has a great grasp on the woman he wrote, which is why I leave you with Madame Delamare's own words about Marisa, something the show writers failed utterly to understand and therefore could never truly bring her to screen:

"Delicately and subtly," she mocked "Marisa would know how to show some force. Some character. She was all the man you'll never be."

TSC Analysis: Talbot vs Brande

Or “Why philosophy is so powerful in a world filled with fear and ignorance?”

I have been meaning to write this piece for a long, long time; both concepts are among the things I have enjoyed the most from TSC and the new dæmon lore. Brande is certainly my favourite aspect of them both, so know that this will be harsh on Talbot’s opinion in general, though I shall try my best to be as impartial as humanly possible.

Spoilers for The Secret Commonwealth and, just to be safe, anything prior to that book.

We start TSC and right at the beginning we get slapped in the face with Brande’s The Hyperchorasmians, followed closely by a very succinct description of Simon Talbot's The Constant Deceiver. These two books shape, not only Lyra’s early adulthood and her plights through the plot, but the lore of the world and they are responsible for a considerable intellectual shift in the youngest generation of scholars. They are responsible for the devastating presence of dreary philosophy as Lyra struggles with her melancholy, Delamare reshapes the Magisterium and Olivier Bonneville delves deeper into the mystery of the new method of reading the Alethiometer.

These three represent the core of the greater plot, and should (theoretically) be followed and concluded. But we are here today to question the haunting presence of these philosophies in a world that is facing enormous and intrinsic change.

Hello! Thank you for the ask, it's been a while since I had a meta ask!

If I had to say anything about these four characters you mentioned, I'd say they are resourceful. That's what primate daemons mean to me, that people who have them have an inclination towards aiming for their goals, but even if they are a bit adrift or purposeless, they still will overcome any obstacles in ways that are usually outside the box.

I also agree with the other adjectives you mentioned; even Capes, who we see little of, seems to fit well with this description. They are all intellectuals of different fields of study, that somehow converge at different points (except Nugent). Nugent, however, has common sense and enough knowledge to control an entire group, dancing between social circles. They are social people, with connections spread around and they can get what they need - usually info - from these people.

So I think that, while being manipulative can also be a trait for them, I'd say they are much closer to being persuasive instead. Hannah would probably prefer to try to and win an argument through charm and eloquence than straight up play mind games with said person; Marisa and Nugent are skilled at both, and they use that they need to achieve what they want. Capes is a bit minor but he seems really well connected and connections are everything.

If anything the Red Building reminds of the Fade in Dragon Age.

The Fade is this world outside the physical world, it is full of magic and it is ruled by different laws of physics (in Trespasser, I think they explain how the Fade was part of the world but Solas locked out away when he fought the Evanuris? I'm sorry I don't remember much). It's the home of spirits and dreams and it can only be accessed by Mages and dreamers, never physically.

Magic is born and drawn from the Fade, and there are places where the veil is weaker and things from the Fade bleed onto the world. Depending on how strong these leaks are, and what is coming through, not everyone can interact with this (only Mages can actually do magic, but anyone can be possessed by a demon, in theory).

And there's that passage on Dr Strauss's journal that just made me think of that. How the Red Building just appears like a mirage, how the men on the journey have to separate to access it, how they have terrible dreams while at it. The priests also say that those who enter the Red Building cannot leave, and the Fade is also inaccessible physically (again, in theory; in practice the Inquisitor just said fuck it! lol). If the Red Building is a place bleeding for another world, from a place where the laws of Lyra's world don't apply, what does it mean?

It's not like the Fade is actually a very original allegory, but it is a good one all the same. The lore says it was the seat of the Maker, who is this God figure, and so much of it matches the Red Building. My favourite connection is how the roses that grow there cannot grow elsewhere and have to be modified in order to grow outside the desert. I think it shows that maybe the Red Building really is from someplace else.

I'm due an essay on the roses by the way lol

something i’ve been thinking about the past days is about Asriel never buying his way out of trouble.

so, I was originally thinking about my OC, and she - like Asriel - has a title and a connection with a Duke. now, I understand that for the general purposes of the story, he didn’t buy his way out because of the plot, but supposing the story didn’t need that, I still think he wouldn’t have bought his way out. At the very least, I think it’s odd he didn’t try, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me. Asriel is so proud, I can imagine him refusing to buy his way out of spite.

Asriel wasn’t tried by the Church - this was my first wrong thought - he was tried by the High Court of England or something like that. So, for all intents and purposes, he was judged based on the laws of England not because of the Magisterium. Whether the Church played any part in it we don’t know, but I doubt it, especially because the state of England during La Belle Sauvage indicates the CCD as a growing power and not as established; it’s also mentioned that the king of that time was aligned with Oakley Street beliefs, meaning that any power he had in politics would have been directed against fighting the Church influence not the opposite. So Asriel’s trial is 100% within the laws of the country - the CCD only begins to act later, when they begin to search for Lyra. I think that might have been just a coincidence, as Lyra is taken from Asriel, not necessarily orchestrated; if it was orchestrated it will be a very tough thing to believe in. The events are just too random to be orchestrated that specifically.

So I don’t know. I can imagine his allies insisting on buying his way out - pay the right people, pull the right strings to make sure his sentence was more lenient. Asriel was at the very least a baron and I find it difficult to believe that a world like Lyra’s wouldn’t bend to aristocrats with the right money and influence. He was deemed immensely rich and powerful, actively influencing laws and edicts, with a connection with the King (NL, chapter 1 and 2). There is no reasonable explanation that would fit Asriel not using his power to get away with murder; frankly, people wouldn’t bat an eye at him a few months later, because nobles be like that. Marisa would still face rumours over cheating on Eddie and getting him killed, but Asriel certainly would be off the hook in six months or so. So, why didn’t he do it? Why not just buy his way out? Why go through all that hell and risk his entire career for the sake of a silly trial? He could have easily run over Eddie’s politician status; all he had to do is pay a bunch of people and bam! Eddie is a violent, vicious man who hurt his wife. Eddie was crazy. Eddie was this or that. Even if he didn’t want to lie about it, Asriel could have crafted his defence to make him look better yet he never did and I think it was out of spite.

In some ways I think Asriel might have thought his name alone would have made him get absolved, and in other ways I think it might have been just spite. By going through the trial, he would have dragged Marisa along too, and it would have been a pretty scandal for everyone. We don’t see much of the repercutions, but in LBS we see lots of people discussing Marisa and the affair. We have the scholars in Sweden commenting on the scandal and on her lack of motherly instinct, we have Malcolm learning about her not wanting Lyra and he questions that, and Hannah brings it up too. In fact, Marisa’s disinterest in Lyra and her role in the affair is discussed very much during LBS, yet very little of Asriel is said. He killed Eddie, that would be that. And of course, this is a different discussion, but I think it’s interesting to think that Asriel’s spite worked at least.

That’s it. Hav a nice sunday lmao

The owl symbolism in TSC

I’ve spoken about this in a meme format once, but I wanted to dig a little deeper. Let’s talk about Marcel and the owl symbolism across TSC.

Pullman’s writing is very… loose, so to speak, so looking for too much symbolism is both an easy and hard task, mostly because while one can find anything in any piece of text, it also means that a great deal of it might not mean anything at all. Pullman writes through instinct and following a sort of Rule of Cool, so sometimes he trades consistency for good storytelling devices.

I don’t recall when I first noticed this, but I remember it made me laugh because it felt so on the nose. There is, nearly always (so we’re precise in this analysis), a scene with an owl with either Lyra or Pan just before a Marcel scene follows in the book. Each of these encounters mimic the Marcel scene that will follow, which I’ll give examples below and explain the ones I think might need some explaining. Spoiler for The Secret Commonwealth, of course!

that scene with the alchemist in TSC remains my favourite, for the single reason that it showcases lyra's relationship with asriel very well. philman kinda neglected them in tsk and tas (save for that one moment where asriel decides out of a sudden to praise her lmao talk about hurried writing, eh?) but that moment in TSC is very fundamental.

she thinks of asriel frenquently in that book, and most of the time she looks at her memories with a certain detachment, it's very analytical, he existed, he was her father, that was the end of it. but then she faces that man who instantly reminds her of asriel - because of the way he held himself, the way he was doing his work which was ruthless and meticulous, and she remembered her last fondest memory of asriel, when they meet in svalbard and she thinks her quest is done. then she is engulfed by everything, and she shuns away the thought of him because it hurts. lyra thinks of mrs coulter very little in this book, and that makes sense to me because lyra wouldn't love marisa without an extra effort, not because she is evil, but because mrs coulter is a stranger to lyra. she is her mother, but that is news to her, that is recent and even then they never grew into that relationship. even if marisa had survived, lyra wouldn't have gotten attached to marisa as much because of that distance factor.

but with asriel, she was always close, he was always family, he was no stranger. lyra did not hesitate to accept him as her father (and I don't think it's fair to compare her reaction to marisa here because technically she struggled because of marisa's evil ways, not anything else) and even after everything he did she still referred him as 'father' afterwards, and only began to call mrs coulter mother - still rarely in comparison - only later.

so when she sees that alchemist, so like asriel in all the ways possible, including the ways that hurt her, lyra allows one single memory to be organically assimilated and it hurts her still, because she never faces the ghost of asriel head on, he haunts her still and i think that's beautiful.

Effie’s Meta for His Dark Materials: a Masterpost

Per an anon request (sorry for the delay, I actually write A LOT lmao) here’s a masterpost to all the meta and analyses and other stuff I’ve written for HDM and TBOD in the past two years. Usually I add spoilers when I write analyses (and I point out which books are being spoiled), but be warned that there may still be some hints about The Book of Dust in these posts.

This will be updated in case I write new things, so you can bookmark it if you want to.

The Book of Dust vs Roda-Viva: a parallel study

I’ve been meaning to write this for a while, but I’m packed full of things I have to do, so finding time and energy was hard.

This is a parallel between The Book of Dust event (The Secret Commonwealth, mostly, and some of my expectations of TBOD3, so take it all as an indulgent piece) and the song Roda-Viva by Chico Buarque. I’ll be translating the song as I write the paralells, but if you speak Portuguese, I recommend you listen to the song and check the lyrics for yourself. This is one of my favourite songs of all time, and I was very surprised when I noticed the parallels between them.

Some historical context: this song was written a few years after the military coup happened, in 1964, and while there are many analyses over this song’s meaning - written as a romantic ballad, but with a politcal message, as most of Chico’s songs tend to be from that period - the artist has spoken about what he meant. He says the song is about the cycle of life and inevitability, and how no matter how we thrive for progress, life always take a turn back into darkness. Brasil, prior to the coup in ‘64, had endured a harsh government in the 30s if I’m not mistaken, so going back to another controlling and violent government, years later, is precisely what he means by a cycle.

Not only that, but the song was released only one year before a law was introduced in the country, that had most artistic work go through a harsh process of censoring. Anything that remotely insulted, criticised or endorsed political activism was censored, which is fitting with the HDM’s themes, I think.

(I’m also translating as literal as I can, but certain bits require a context translation, so if you find different translations or understand the original lyrics, please don’t freak out lmao)

lyra’s world: the kings of brytain

I’ve mentioned I wanted to write this before, so here I am because I’m sad over Maeve Dermody’s character in SS-GB. This is an essay talking a little bit about the kings in Lyra’s world. I’m only discussing the period between Oakley Street’s creation and The Secret Commonwealth, anything prior to this I’ll not address here because that needs a lot more research than I can actually afford to do now. This covers all the books, so fair warning for spoilers, but honestly if you follow me still after all the stuff I write, you either don’t care about spoilers or you read everything. lmao

Also before we start, I want to remind you that I did some research on Britain’s politics - no much in depth though - and that I am not British. So, it’s possible I mistook one thing for another or didn’t fully understand the entire scope of how politics work in that country. Anyway, the important bit here is the Kings so it’s fine, I’m fine. Under the cut for the usual reasons!

The first scene of Lyra trying the new method (in TSC) is nagging at me.

Initially, she wonders if the cat in her dream - she refers to it as a dream, which is odd but whatever - is Kirjava, then the text confirms that at some point it is Kirjava and when Lyra thinks of Will, the dream changes.

Then she is in a corridor, and she sees the cat, but it’s just a cat now. The cat moves towards a door that is open when Lyra approaches it, and she follows the cat, only to see Olivier, although Lyra mistakes him for Will for a moment.

Both Will and Olivier have similar, if not exactly the same physical descriptions (black hair, strong jaw, a tense kind of posture). Probably intentional given the whole chapter. Anyway. My point is Lyra sees Olivier while using the new reading method (she points all the three to the bird symbol - which the text states stood for daemons in general), while he is looking for her. Lyra, after seeing him and realising he isn’t Will, realises Kirjava has vanished.

I promise I have a point, just stick with me a little longer lmao

Lyra and Olivier then see each other. They know who the other is.

Olivier knowing who she is, is no surprise given he has photographs of her given to him by Marcel; Lyra knows who he is because he is publicly known as the inventor of the method, perhaps he’d been in an academic paper or something (or you know, poetic license lmao). At any rate my point through this is, Lyra cuts the ‘connection’ before he can do anything, and she then thinks “He had been so like Will-- that first moment(...)”.

What if the Alethiometer - and Dust, in a way - is using Lyra’s feelings for Will to warn her? This wouldn’t be the first time she was manipulated through the instrument; in fact, her entire HDM journey is about how the angels lured her to fulfill the prophecy, my manipulating her through Dust and the Alethiometer. I’m not here to debate whether this is right or wrong - it certainly is unorthodox as a means to help her, but the Alethiometer is usually very morally grey or neutral - but I thought it was interesting how they lured her into finding about Olivier by using Kirjava.

She starts the reading by pointing the three needles to the bird symbol - the symbol for daemons - because she wants to find out if the cat is Kirjava. For all intents and purposes, that was her question, in a way; her first attempt to do the reading in the same chapter ends with her drifting - because she doesn’t ask a question, she is looking for nothing, so she drifts among all things and truths and possibilities - and she gets sick rather fast. But when she does it again, with a question in mind, she lasts relatively longer from a reader perspective - it’s never accounted in the text - and when she sees Kirjava and touches Kirjava and thinks about Will being nearby, the scenes changes, immediately.

It accomplished its purpose, it changes fast because it doesn’t want Lyra to stay on that line of thinking. The change confuses her, but the cat has her attention and it leads her to Olivier. Lyra senses that something there is probably not right, and she mistakes him for Will for a second, but quickly shuts the door away before he can react. She realises the cat has vanished, having served the purpose of luring her through her feelings and leading her to what she needs to know. Lyra wonders if that was what the cat was doing after all, leading her there, after the reading is over. But then she stops thinking about it, as she does most things.

Like, yes, I get it, you can’t give her all the answers, but Lyra’s lack of focus - I genuinely can’t find a better word for this - gets tiresome throughout the story. It’s not even out of character, to be fair, she always was more active and impulsive than contemplative, she literally just forgets shit all the time because her mind is always going places. It makes sense, in a way, but it annoys me lmao But I think it might be that  a Bigger Force is trying to show her that someone is out to get her. She only finds out that she is a wanted person much later in the story, very much near its end, when she is in Smyrna and she only finds out because Bud Schlesinger tells her. She’s literally been evading the Magisterium forces by sheer luck also known as plot armor lmao

Mind you, she doesn’t ask ‘is someone after me?’, she only asks if the cat is Kirjava. All she does throughout the book is dwell on those old feelings, even if she neglects all the other parts of her journey. The entire reading is twisted to lure her into focus, because she only focus if she is thinking of Will (which I fucking hate as a concept, but canon be canon, I can’t just-- pretend not to see when I’m writing meta. SADLY lol) and when she is deep enough into the reading, it changes to what it matters WHICH IS OLIVIER TRACKING HER DOWN BECAUSE EVIL FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!! And even when she sees Olivier, she still thinks of Will. She’s so dumb, I so hate this lmao Come on, Lyra, help yourself.

But I like this idea of Dust - or something using Dust, Lyra has some connection to the Secret Commonwealth after all - manipulating her feelings to try and help her survive, even if it is just to lead her to a painful journey or for some ulterior motive that might not actually benefit her. It tracks with all the people in her life that was supposed to aid her, but just used her for something else. (The angels, Asriel, Marisa, so on and so forth). This chapter also covers a lot of imagination talk, how Lyra compares the takes of Brande vs Talbot vs Imagination and how she agrees with some of their takes on it, but also how the alethiometer connects to that very world of spiritual, occult meaning things. The text openly states “she was horribly divided.” I’m saving my thoughts on this for another post, though.

I think that for me, this reinforces the idea that Lyra’s sacrifice will be about letting go of the Alethiometer. I’ve spoken about this before in different places I think, here included, and I think it all comes down to Lyra moving forward. I don’t think that, for me personally, it will be satisfying because I feel Pullman will make this whole thing about Will telling Lyra to move on and be happy - because that’s what he does, that’s what his whole character is about. So wise, so clever, so mature blah blah blah.

I definitely think we will see him in TBOD3 - god, I hope I’m wrong but yea, I don’t think I am - and I think this makes my alethiometer theory tighter (as tight as anything tbod/hdm can be, yea lmao). Lyra not only associates the alethiometer with her previous journey, but I think she will learn that it has been manipulating her, especially regarding her feelings for Will and she will no longer trust in it. She allowed these feelings to dictate her life, she has rituals surrounding them (the botanic garden thing, for example, or how she tries to be more like him whenever she needs to do... Anything.) and this has clouded her judgement of things. While she should be questioning why she was being shown Olivier, she just dwells on how he looked like Will for a moment, and Kirjava this, and cat that. Besides, Lyra learns in TSC that there are better ways of dealing with Dust - roses not included yet - so the Alethiometer no longer is the only way for her, and she is in possession of the Myriorama (given to her by Papa Delamare jk unless).

There are other instances of the cat thing, but I’m not there yet in my reread so stay tuned for part two of me complaining about this lmao

The Sun never sets on the Magisterium

The reach of the Holy Church in Lyra’s world is the first and most prominent worldbuilding aspect we learn from Northern Lights. It is the most important introduction one has to this world, so vastly different than ours yet so similar still, and it is the one trait that remains constant throughout both trilogies and novellas included.

This is an analysis of the Church in Lyra’s world, so spoilers for all the books and novellas, most likely. I’ll try and make a single post about this but I’m gonna reserve the right of maybe doing two separate parts because it’s a big subject. Under the cut because you know the drill, it’s long lol

hdm theory: dust is actually harmful

Dust is actually harmful. Not in the sense of being sin, but it is ultimately what damages people from different universes to stay where they don’t belong. Stay tuned for what I consider to be wildest, craziest, most senseless theory I’ve ever written. Keep in mind this isn’t super serious, I’m aware there are gaps in this theory (because I accidentally countered my own arguments as I was writing lmao) and beware spoilers for both trilogies. Under the cut because it’s long-ish.

hdm theory: the Thuringia Potash company is owned by the Delamares

I was just ranting on discord but @cozcat convinced me to post here too, so here we are, buckle up for some long ass post. Spoilers for The Secret Commonwealth. Keep in mind this is a theory, which I don't do often, but yes, this one feels unusually solid. This also goes a little further than just the company ownership, I do not know the concept of “direct and precise” lol

the unspoken rule of visible daemons in lyra’s world

Sami and I were discussing recently about *ttwn characters and their daemons and we fell into a trap of trying to think of ways a person could fake their death when you have a daemon. And, obviously as expected, that got me thinking about daemons in Lyra’s world again. (She suggested separation or being small enough to hide, in case you were curious).

With that in mind, I began to ponder about how daemons have a certain policy of being visible. While there are instances in the book where daemons are, many times, hidden from people’s views for several different reasons, that is not the standard social policy of the world. A person without a daemon is incomplete in the social perspective, that is the one adamant rule Philman doesn’t break, so a person must, under most circumstances, have their daemon within sight. (Under the cut because it is long, you know me.)