The Dark Crystal

Carl

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
I watched a few episodes of this new show on Netflix and highly recommend it so far if you're in any way into fantasy. It reflects our reality and situation in some ways.

The plot begins with the world in a harmonious state populated by various beings, the primary and intelligent humanoids being called Gelflings. Until one day a race of bird/lizard creatures called the Skeksis come from space. They come bearing gifts and trick the guardian of the world into ignoring her duties and instead astral projecting to explore the whole universe. Her narrative is that she can bring back beneficial knowledge, but in reality it seems she has been simply dissociating for her personal pleasure. While she is away, the Skeksis promise to take good care of the "Crystal of Truth", which is a proxy for the life force of the whole planet and all that live on it.

Of course instead of protecting the crystal they suck energy out of it to achieve immortality. The show begins 1000 years later. The Skeksis have organised the various tribes of Gelfling into a heirachical pyramid structure with their favoured tribe at the top, and of course themselves sitting above it all. They have fostered the narrative that the entire world of Thra needs their leadership and that all good things in life ultimately come from them, and nearly all of the Gelfling population are 100% brainwashed into believing it. The energy from this crystal has now run out, it is fully corrupted, and the corruption is beginning to spread to the world, so now the Skeksis must turn to draining the life force directly from the Gelfling.

It's in the Skeksis best interests to keep the tribes fighting among each other, and they are aware of this and say so in the dialogue. In fact there are many instances of dialogue that's surprisingly aware and insightful. The show is also beautiful, including the scenery, architectural style, music, and especially the songs of various characters
 
If I'm not mistaken a similar story has been made into a feature film with the same title: The Dark Crystal (1982) so this Netflix production would be some sort of a remake with more 'normal' means, i.e. human actors in stead of puppets. OSIT.
Yeah, it's a prequel series that takes place before the movie. And luckily, it doesn't have human actors - it's all puppets!
 
For some reason I've been drawn to watch this show, and it's been incredible so far (on episode 9 of 10). There are a lot of parallels in this current reality we face, and the bravery shown throughout the series is indeed a sight to behold. One theme that intrigued me was the importance of uniting in the face of a stupendous threat. Seven clans of Gelfling, close to Thra (their Earth) are scattered across the lands under rule of a ruling class called the Skeksis. Little do they know of the truth of their nastiness, and have been under their spell that they are benevolent beings ruling for "their sake".

The scenes where they awake to this truth are surreal and have a sort of humaness to them, and has been awesome to watch. It's been confirmed that the second season has been canceled, unfortunately. Though there are themes of unity trickling through, it won't come to fruition until there are more seasons. Perhaps that mirror to our reality is currently being written right now...
 
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