one last character post for tonight, but here's another! this time, we'll be focusing on dafne bennet.
here's her story, as told by the gamedec team on their character announcement post:
꒰ who did you want to be when you were a kid? a professional gamer playing the goodabads wreaking havoc among the enemy ranks? a v-runner with a great sense of justice catching bad guys? or a famous actress bathing in glitz and glamour? dafne bennet was it all. she spent most of her childhood treasure hunting, fighting beasts, and solving mysteries. she lived through all the lives of heroes from holomovies and infolias… but not her own.
growing up in high city, with a caretaker as her only friend, she dreamed about living outside her glass walls. with a rare medical ailment, she was already an outsider among her peers. her parents' overprotectiveness made it even worse. with imagination at her disposal, she had the whole world at her fingertips. at the same time, she was banished from it.
then finally, the experimental treatment worked. she got better; she could finally start living. she craved adventure. she explored everything within the city limits. she traveled to other human-made hubs. but still, she yearned for more. she wanted to see what lies behind the anti-bios barrier separating wildlife from humans, so she tried to join the out-rangers, a special military group patrolling areas outside the abb, but with her health record, that was not an option.
dafne didn’t give up. she was a game mistress of her own story, and being a gamedec played right into her strengths. visiting the virtual worlds, solving mysteries, and creating her own adventures were what she knew best. she quickly learned the ropes and got a few trusted clients. a cliché every cloud has a silver lining took on meaning for her because right now she was living the dream. she was needed, she was wanted, and most importantly, she could finally be herself. ꒱
according to her character customization screen, dafne is 33 years old, identifies as female, and is generally considered to be enthusiastic.
Se hace saber que el 29 de Diciembre a las 22:00 en el escenario que será montado en la Feria Navideña, sobre la pista de hielo, habrá un concierto de covers tradicionales de la época de los 80. La entrada será gratuita y el aforo limitado.
Just to be clear, I think Dafne Keen is a terrific actor. This is in no way criticising her or her abilities. It’s more to do with the direction and the way her character was put together.
Adaptations of characters change according to the actor, or the vision the writer has i.e. There are different versions of Lizzie Bennet. I don't have a problem with a different vision of Lyra.
The problem I had was the Jack Thorne shaved away her prominent flaws - yet mentioned them at the same time. At the start, and throughout its mentioned that she's a liar, but we don't see it or rarely experience it. So when we do get moments where the storyline mentions that "she has to tell the truth", it doesn’t hit as hard as it should.
The whole concept in the 'Land of the Dead' sequence was her telling the dead true stories, but those story beats don't land as well because she's already truthful.
It was like the storyline wanted it both ways with her.
For example, comments that characters made in the show like "you are insufferable" "you don't apologise easily" or "LIAR" don't make sense because TV!Lyra is nothing like that.
And another thing, Lyra’s dislikable qualities are important to the story. 'His Dark Materials' is mostly driven by characters emotions and motivations rather than the plot. So things like, her lying, her selfishness, her rudeness even her EMOTIONS being toned down effects the entire story.
Lyra is first and fourmost an EMOTIONAL and impulsive person. She wears her heart on her sleeve. She doesn't filter herself. So her leaving Pan on the doc in the TV Show, kind of seems unnecessarily mean since we've never seen her do anything like that before. Which brings me to another point that I have.
Shaving away Lyra's flaws doesn't make her a kickass amazing character, it dehumanises her. I've seen this with other adaptations before. It presents a major problem that media has. "That women are just pawns to be pushed from one scene to the next. Their own agency never truly factoring in"
Lyra in the books undergoes through a massive character growth. Take her lying for example. She first lies to do wrong. She lies to save herself. She lies for good. Then she finally learns to tell the truth in the land of the dead. The whole irony of her being given the compass, is that it’s something that "tells her the truth".
So the TV show presented all these plot points to her, but none of the development or emotions to go with it.
So her character development is..I don't know really.
•She’s 16-18 by a dance with dragons but would be 14-16 when we meet her.She has a pale gaunt face with dark hair and big brown doe-eyes.She is slim and is pretty but looks somewhat child like in appearance.
Lyra Belacque (Dafne Keen) from the movie His Dark Materials
(She’s around 13/14 during filming so good for her when we first meet her.She slim with dark hair and brown eyes.This fancast is only good for up close shots since she wears modern clothes)
Martha (Skye Bennet) from Pillars of the Earth
(She is around 14 so good for when we first meet her. She’s skinny with big brown eyes and dark hair.She wears medieval ish clothes)
Eponine (Erin Kellyman) from the show Les Miserables BBC
(She is around 20 so good for future books.She is pretty and slim with brown eyes and dark red hair.She wears 19th century clothes)
Queen Anne (Alexandra Dowling) from the show The Musketeers
(She too old being in her early 20’s so would be good for future books .She is pretty and skinny with dark hair.She wears medieval clothes but her plainer ones would be better for Gilly)
Besty Bell (Rachel Hurd-Wood) from the movie An American Haunting
(She is the right age to be Gilly given she’s around 14/15 during filming. She isn’t accurate really only being pale and skinny but she has a few good scenes from beyond the wall.She wears 19th century clothes)