What makes them so special?
by E. C. Florek
What makes them so special? Let me be clearer: what makes Lyra and Will's relationship so extraordinary? Why are the three quarters of HDM fanfics "get-togethers"? Let's analyze this, shall we?
Would it be because they went through a lot of places and emotions together? Would it be the brutal ending to their relationship? Is it because they have known each other for so long? By the way, for how long have they known each other? Less than a year, I am sure. And I am also sure that if you go in another category on you won't find half the love stories we have in His Dark Materials. So the question stays the same: what makes them so special, so different from any other teenaged love story?
Whatever it is, the fact remains that Lyra and Will are preteens (or tweens if you prefer). Yes, they were deeply in love, and if you ask me, they probably had intercourse. But as most of us, they would have broken up two months after the "Big Decision/Sacrifice". Why do we romanticize this story to the point that they would still love each other after fifty years without seeing one another? I am not saying that there is anything wrong with that either.
To go with what a reviewer told me the first time: another reason would be that they were brutally torn apart before it got boring. We wouldn't have glorified them so if they had lived happily ever after "à la Disney".
A third (or is it fourth?) reason might be that for both boy and girl, it was their first love. Will never had any friends, and Lyra, though always with Roger, just never loved anyone before Will. It could be considered.
Just another point, not much to do with the above, but still very written about: Lyra's pregnancy. You see, Lyra's Oxford is very much like the Victorian times (notice that Pullman's first books, the Sally Lockharts, are also set in the nineteenth century), and in those times, unmarried mothers were practically outlaws to have, uh… reproduced before marrying. Lyra would be not exception. And by outlaws I mean that most people would not have unmarried mothers work for them, and other such discrimination. Think about that before writing another fanfic on Lyra's would-be pregnancy. And anyway, we don't even have any proof that they actually might have lost their virginity.
In the end, I will have to admit, Lyra and Will's relationship is a touching one, but also one that is highly fictionalized.
Thanks for reading.
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I would have asked you to review for your longest relationship, as I did the first time, but that's the reason why I got the boot.
By the way, may I suggest you to read Tiamath's extremely long but deep review. It gives some very interesting answers to this text.
If I get two more reviews, I'll bet my all-time record! My all-time record is six reviews...
I am not a sadistic love hater.