HBO’s adaptation of His Dark Materials features a world with some disturbing social issues and unique reality of souls outside of bodies. People’s behavior changes when they can see for a fact that they have souls. It’s interesting to see these out-of-body souls arguing with their humans in the show. And the shapes of the souls can be a tip-off about the human’s personality.
Some complex characters live in this world and deal with unusual ethical questions. So their moral alignments are that much more interesting to examine. Here are the moral alignments of the main characters as they stand after season 1.
Roger: Neutral Good
Roger is a typical kid in his attitude toward authority and rules. He respects them sometimes, but he also wants to have fun with his friend Lyra. He’ll work in the kitchens as told, but he’ll also run around open coffins where he shouldn’t be.
More importantly, he has a child’s intuition about adult behavior when something’s off, and he generally responds to that; he tells Lyra how nervous he is about the way Lord Asriel looked at him, especially compared to his reaction to Lyra. Roger easily falls into the good category with his loyalty to his friend and his generally pure intentions.
Will: Neutral Good
Will Parry has to function outside the rules by necessity. He’s at risk of being taken away from his mother if the state knows too much about her mental and emotional issues. He’s basically just a good kid who gets into a bad situation through no fault of his own.
He knows nothing about his father’s ventures from another world, or how he relates to the grand scheme of things. He just wants to live his life and take care of his mom. Fans of the books will know how he eventually shows how good he is, but that’s a story for another season.
John Faa: Lawful Good
John Faa has a tough job as the leader of the Gyptians. The Gyptians are a minority group who have to navigate their problems somewhat outside the law, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their own codes of ethics.
Faa wants what’s best for his people, and he understands that government authorities aren’t going to help get their missing children back. That’s why he’s willing to pick them up and head North with a possibility of war. His code starts with his loyalty to his people and his responsibility to protect them.
Ma Costa: Chaotic Good
Ma Costa is a loving mother whose child is kidnapped. It’s no surprise she would do anything to get him back. But it also shows her willingness to ignore the rules of her own people, going against Faa’s wishes to try to get Billy back.
She also dared to hide Lyra as both an adolescent and a baby; Lyra was in serious danger as an infant before Asriel got her to relative safety at Jordan College, and Ma Costa took a serious risk by taking care of her. Ma Costa has no regard for the law, but that’s fair since the law has no regard for her as a Gyptian.
Farder Coram: Neutral Good
Farder Coram is the kind of man who takes measured risks. He doesn’t ignore authority just because he disagrees with them, but when it seems like the smartest thing to do, like hiding the alethiometer from the Magisterium. This is arguably reflected by the shape of his daemon, who is a cat. He also cares about other people and is the closest Lyra comes to a proper father figure, even though she knows her real father.
Farder Coram proves himself trustworthy when he hides Lyra’s secret about the alethiometer and doesn’t try to take it from her. He also proves this, ironically, by trying to stop Lyra from investigating a town that the alethiometer says she should (and for good reason).
Lee Scoresby: Chaotic Good
Lee is a free spirit through-and-through. He wouldn’t be an aeronaut otherwise. He hangs out with armored bears, starts crap in taverns that he can’t finish, and bloviates about his own skill when trying to get a job. But the kinds of jobs he chooses are good causes, like trying to help Lyra get to the North and save the missing children.
And his friend Iorek, while bearing a bad reputation, is basically honorable at heart and just down on his luck because of two bad incidents. His daemon is a hare, who could arguably reflect his swiftness of mind or adaptability.
Iorek: Lawful Good
Iorek doesn’t sound like a lawful good character when first introduced. He’s living in a human settlement stripped of his armor after committing crimes both against his own people and the ones in the town. Viewers then learn, however, that Iorek was tricked into his supposed crimes.
He’s a miserable grouch to his old friend Lee because he is a bear of honor who cares about the right thing, and his guilt plagues him. All the more reason for him to be grateful when Lyra helps him regain both his armor and his honor.
Mrs. Coulter: Lawful Evil
Marisa Coulter would probably consider herself good, but that would be an unjust label. Her daemon’s strained relationship with her is a red flag for viewers. She believes that the ends justify the means, and is willing to cut children’s souls off to prevent sin from destroying them. She’s really just trading one kind of destruction for another, but that’s assuming she’s right about the theological implications of Dust.
She only cares about the rules of the Magisterium in the sense that she finds the best way to bend those rules and get what she wants. But she does know them well, and she’s an expert negotiator.
Lord Asriel: True Neutral
Asriel believes he’s doing things for the greater good, but his actions are too morally questionable for him to really fit in that category. He only obeys authority when it suits him, and it often doesn’t. He’ll take advantage of institutional protections like a scholastic sanctuary, but he also aims to take down the Magisterium.
As for being good, he’s a crap father to Lyra and he sacrifices a child for science. He doesn’t even fully understand the ramifications of opening the gateway, but he was willing to cut off a child’s soul to do it.
Lyra: Chaotic Good
Lyra’s greatest enemy is authority itself. This is especially true in the parts of the story yet to come on the HBO show, but the authorities at Jordan College and the Magisterium work against her in season 1. Even the leader of the Gyptians butts heads with her on certain matters.
Her goals, however, are all for the good of those she cares about. She’s determined to find Roger and save him, goes out of her way to save Billy Costa, and does her best to free the missing children from Bolvangar. All of which she does while displaying great bravery and cunning.
