In Age of Resistance, Aughra makes a comment about how the Skeksis used to be beautiful. They have become twisted and ugly over the centuries as their flaws have taken over their personalities and their inner nature has expressed itself physically.

So, this has me wondering... how would gelflings or real world humans look if they did the same thing the skeksis did that got them corrupted to the way they ended up as?

I stumbled upon the art page of Maudie Brady, who worked on the set designs for AOR, she's posted some behind the scene shots here, and you can really appreciate how much love and skill went into the building of the props for this awesome show.

This is just a small glimpse of some of the props used in, but it's incredible to think of how much work and time this must have taken to create the environments and scenes we see in the show. I can see why this series was so expensive to make!

Behind the scene sculpting: https://maudiebrady.com/the-dark-crystal-age-of-resistance/

Spoilers for AoR comic of Hup:

At the very end, Barfinnious begins to tell the story of Deet and Hup/presumably the resistance. Specifically he says “another place another time” and then were shown Deet and Hup meeting for the first time from the show. We know this because of Deet saying “I used to get along with animals” which in the show is word for word what she said. I feel this can have some crazy implications lore wise:

A. Bar was watching Hup/Deet and was meant to later be introduced to the show as a parental stand in for losing Ordon and Mayrin. He clearly tells Hup/Deet meeting right so it’s possible he didn’t want to reveal himself till later with the arathim right there. The age makes sense and I could see him being a very good contrast to Rian’s previous unhealthy relationship of looking up to Ordon, probably Seladon/Brea with Mayrin as well.

B. This is the most unhinged but what if this implies Bar made up age of resistance. I know this would make soooo many mad, but when you look at it, Rian escaping from the castle was a god damn miracle. Even the stuff as small as Deet sneaking into Ha’rar seems far stretched, not to mention Rian allying them with the freaking arathim. Some more evidence which could make this plausible is that notice he’s telling the story to children, not adults like we see him doing previously. Yeah, one of them has a mother, but it’s still possible AoR could be a story of hope for the kids while they’re all in hiding because of the draining and Bar is trying to give them hope. The win at stone-in-the-wood in ep 10 would certainly make them more optimistic and knowing Rian is “fighting off the skeksis” could comfort them. Again, I may post this on Reddit and it’s sure to get hate, but decisions like gelfling willingly dreamfasting with Rian makes much more sense, as does the idea of killing the Skeksis off was off the table to make Rian seem more noble.

C. Alternate universe. This one seems the most unlikely but maybe it’s actually a different timeline Bar saw somehow through talking to Aughra or other means. I certainly wouldn’t put it past him to be in league with Sifa as he’s a very good con artist. So he saw the AoR timeline, made modifications to add someone he used to know, and came up with a good story for the kids. I mean in the opening we saw he ripped his old story off of Ordon (the whole destroying the arthim part). This wouldn’t be out of character at all.

I don’t think any of these are right at all. I just thought it’d be cool to share some ideas. Feel free to tell me how crazy this all is but I honestly think he could’ve been in the show at one point and I would’ve loved to see his puppet talk to the others.

Haven’t read them all yet (working on Mayrin rn) and might post some stuff on all three later. So far, I have to say Mayrin’s cover is my fave and that really surprised me. My fave art is definitely Ordon, Mayrin, and Hup together though.

\"As the Skeksis ravage the land, they draw new life from the sun. Once more they will replenish themselves. - Through the power of their source, their treasure, their fate... The Dark Crystal.\"

Comics? Purchased-ownership back to Henson? Never? I'm curious what will become of the conclusion that links to the movie. We deserve something after so long.

Mira's death in episode 1 set the tone, but the massacre of the castle guards was brutal, the Skeksis gorging on essence and forcing gelflings into cages for slaughter.

The "public micturation" scene was something else.

And the Ascendancy is crazy. I'm very excited to learn more about them, because at first glance, they seem more dangerous than the Skeksis themselves. Marching the whole Stonewood Clan back to be turned into juice might be the bleakest thing I've ever seen in a "children's show."

hi everyone,, i recently finally watched the netflix show and fell in LOVE all over again, i already brought the Myths Creation and Shadow of the Dark Crystal, but i really want to learn more about the period of time we see in the show and i discovered that there were three full comics about it.

since i already have made a little investment by buying some comics, i’m thinking if possible reading them maybe via scans before actually buying them as a collection? i don’t have a lot of hope something like that woulf exist, but i’m asking just to be sure.

(also very happy to see that the fandom is still active somewhere!)

So in the end of of season one we see the chamberlain kill him but in the dark crystal movie he is alive and becomes emperor. So how does he return CCD

I really want Dark Crystal Valentine cards with Mystics that say, “urCute”. Any other good puns we can think of?

Maybe you've heard of Ralph Bashki's films in a film called Lord of the Rings, the classic 70s animation but maybe you haven't but theirs a film he made a year before that suprisingly was trying to compete with Star Wars but we are not going to talk about that. Wizards is a fantasy epic about two brothers one of them is evil and one of them is good, it takes place in a post apocalyptic world where humans have turned elves and they all fight each other in this epic war.

I find this to be the closest to the dark crystal because of the exoticness and style, and don't worry theirs a few other creations ive seen that have dark crystal vibes and no the things im talking about aren't visual media but stuff like music. But this thing right here when i first watched this, it blew my mind on so many levels on why this movie isn't known by others like sure it didn't receive the amount of love compared to star wars. But this film is like man, even if it didn't win the competition this is basically the dark crystal before the dark crystal to be honest. Anyway i highly suggest you watch the film if you love the dark crystal like me and is a dark crystal nerd!

Alright guys just hear me out again. Since this sub is kinda dead I thought I’d get the discussion going. We all have seen the ending to AoR right, another thought I had while rewatching it was how the gelfling managed to fumble so hard. At the end of episode 10 they had the missing shard from the Crystal of truth. How did they manage to not put it back in before getting wiped out by the skeksis. I get that the garthims were created by skektek to combat the gelfling forces but surely the gelfling, arathim and many other creatures of thra could’ve managed to put one piece back into the crystal. Id love to see a book/film/show on the time period before the original but after AoR.

Anyways just a thought flame me in the comments with your ideas 👍.

I couldn’t help but draw eyes on it 🤣

Alright hear me out in this one. We all know from both the original dark Crystal and AoR that when a mystic (urRu) dies it’s partner skeksis dies aswell. Recently when I was rewatching the dark Crystal movies/tv shows I realised. If the mystics were actually smart and wise why didn’t they all do what UrVa (archer) does and just commit suicide. If they all did that = no skeksis = problem solved.

I fricken love Dark Crystal Age of Resistance (and the original movie) but I only know two people who have also seen the show. My parents, who watched it with me. I really thought that this show deserved more love because I used to be obsessed with it and now that obsession is returning and I was angered when there was no youtube fandom. I want ANIMATICS. THEORY VIDEOS. EDITS!!! You have no idea how excited I was when I typed "dark crystal memes" into google and I saw that I am indeed, not the only person who has watched the show.

Y'all I just learned that 'Celadon' is the most beautiful jade green color!? Obviously, it reminded me of Seladon. Thought I'd share this fun fact 😋

Celadon was used as a "spirit vessel" or Chy- Tang to summon spirits to bring positivity, in many Korean temples from the 14th century. Traditional Korean greenware has distinctive decorative elements.

This piece is giving ✨️ Sifa ⛵️✨️

Ever since the cancellation of Age of Resistance I have been craving more dark crystal content. Does anyone have thoughts on the novels. Worth a purchase? New lore? Let me know your thoughts!

I’m absolutely obsessed with them!!!! If anyones in Ontario, I got them done by an amazing artist (ink.by.Ricky on insta) in Hamilton!

https://preview.redd.it/ygxhuu1pgj8d1.png?width=1800&format=png&auto=webp&s=fa12be8f249203e1264083c506b41a93db1a546d

(Original)

Had posted it on my Tumblr but felt like sharing it here too !

As I was watching the serie I was wondering how old the characters were or at least their age range. And most of the cast struck me as them being adults/young adults for a big part of them. Because their actions didn't read like the kind of actions a teen or older teen would have.
The only one that could strike me as younger or being the yougest (beside the children that were pointed out or looked like children) would be Brea ?
Because she still had some of that naive wonder to herself and didn't have any big role as in responsabilities, unlike Tavra and Seladon but that might've been because she was the youngest, she was pretty much free to do whatever she wanted. Although I don't thin she'd be under 18 otherwise that would make the slight courting of Re'kyr kinda creepy.
While character like Deet, Rian, Gurjin, Naia, Mira and Kylan felt like they were young adults because they all have some sort of responsibilites or jobs like being guards at the castle of the crystal even though for Deet I am not quite sure what she'd do since when we saw her feed the creatures, and then we quickly jumped to her being attacked.
Other characters like Onica, Tavra, Seladon, Freckles, Re'kyr, ect... are adults maybe in their mid-twenties or a bit older.

I'd love to hear out your opinions on this because I read on reddit some thought they were between 14-16 which didn't feel like it matched how they were portrayed in the show. Perhaps it is because The Dark Crystal is a dark fantasy so the characters have a more mature feel but still.

From a recent post by u/Diver081377 and comment made by u/tksopinion I got thinking about what would’ve been a good piece of media produced by either the Henson Company or Netflix in order to gage how much they should’ve funded towards AoR before it ended up happening. Yes, I know we have the books and the videos by content creators, but those are entirely different forms of media and this is a hypothetical of if Henson/Netflix wanted to dip their toe before going all the way and overkill with the budget like they did.

I’m definitely not saying the show shouldn’t exist (it’s literally my favorite show of all time) I’m honestly just bummed we won’t ever get another season and I wish the longevity of the brand had been a factor. The Henson company and Netflix have been radio silent since its cancellation, many content creators have moved on, and it doesn’t look like we’ll really get to see anymore of this world and series we love even in the next few years which really sucks after how deeply I’ve fallen in love with the world, characters, and story!

It makes me wonder if the franchise could’ve possibly been saved by a cheaper route in the beginning. AoR has a lot of puppeteers, set designs, and celebrity VAs which cost Netflix a ton and since the audience wasn’t there and COVID hit, they didn’t order another season nor an ending to the story. So I want to give my ideal of what a good way to reintroduce interest into the world and story before spending a butt ton on AoR and basically killing the shot the series had at a not niche audience.

I definitely would NOT do the cgi show unless there was 0 other options. It looked like they were gonna merge puppetry and cgi anyway and that would’ve just been awful so nooooo.

My idea would’ve been a 2D animated cartoon with a gritty but appealing style. Things like gravity falls, Helluva boss/Hazbin Hotel, and Steven universe come to mind. If they wanted to go more realistic even a style like Pluto or Blood of Zeus would’ve been nice. Heck, even the style of the comics after the movie or the art work in JM Lee’s books would’ve been perfectly watchable and a great fit!

For the plot, I’ve seen a lot of fun ideas, but if we’re going simple I think splitting it between the castle and Ha’rar would’ve been good and adding the Grottan as a surprise if it’s successful enough. Also limiting the character pool in this hypothetical show would be nice. I’d say for the Skeksis focus on SkekSo, SkekSil, SkekTek, and SkekVar, their day to day, politics, and possibly other motives or flesh out their politics (I think Tek being more sympathetic or even an ally to a gelfling or two would’ve been a nice twist). For the gelfling, I see a few mixes working well for two at the castle and two in Ha’rar to focus on that mirror each other.

It’s definitely suspected that I’d be in the Ordon/Rian and Brea/Mayrin camp, and though I think it’d still be a strong set of duos to have plot points and build off of and mirror each other, I think there’s actually a stronger one. The problem with them is that we’d only see Thra from a high society standpoint, meaning they wouldn’t come into much conflict with the Skeksis Thra besides the Mira/Rian thing which the show counters with Deet and her story.

I feel in the aspect of focusing on two characters from the castle and two from Ha’rar, Tolyn and Rian countering Seladon and Brea would be a better fit. Tolyn’s a blank slate, he definitely could’ve been destitute at one point prior to living in the castle and grew up with Rian so they would have some kind of relationship. If I was to give a rough outline, probably being in conflict with each other on their views on the society they live in, relationships to others and themselves, and about the roles they’re given. Just focusing on those four and building up their characters I think would make for a decent show. They wouldn’t really be traveling and I know it sounds like more work since it’s split four ways instead of three, but really it’s only split two ways because the main focus would be their interactions and how and why they clash, potentially strengthening their bonds but then breaking them, maybe even to the lead up of AoR. They be great fits since their stories would be directly impacted by the society, such as Tolyn and Seladon being traditional while Rian and Brea wanted to break from norms, or possibly something like Tolyn and Brea wanting to be detailed whilst Seladon and Rian would just want to get a task done to focus ahead. They’d both obviously have their own drama/moments not mirroring one another but I think they’d just be a good start. The relationships would have more differences than the Brea/Mayrin and Rian/Ordon one did for sure.

The Skeksis main focus would be again on the politics like the show, but also keeping and consolidating their power while trying to gain more among themselves. This could mean Sil doing more favors like he did for Tek, Var doing some promoting of the guard, and So being paranoid about being usurped.

Regardless, it’d be a 2D show with competent animation, still a story of gelfling and Skeksis, but expanding the world a whole lot more. The guard come from all different clans and can give insight into the warrior lifestyle and differences of the clans. Ha’rar could dive more into the fake vs real history they keep and just expand on the history in AoR more. It also could focus on class or way of life of them vs the Sifa on their ports and how they keep a cooperative relationship between them or other clans.

Sorry this is long since I definitely expected it to be shorter. If you read this long, thank you so much. Give me your pitch of a storyline or concept you think would’ve been interesting to follow prior to AoR.