despite this they all work together regardless; against the Magisterium (basically the state) who is trying to make people
 them mindlessly subservent and blindly follow their every command; without question, by stripping them of their dæmons.

then there is Asriel, he is your typical 'freedom fighter' who serves to try become the one in power with all the control,
so not really interested in freedom this is shown extensively, his ambitions seem good at first

he wants to take on The Authority himself, but it slowly becomes apparent he just wants to become the one with all the power and control
instead not to stop it-

also another thing to note, is not following the demands of authority figures trying to control you is always the correct thing to do
some examples of this include:

• Asriel tells Lyra to stay out of things she doesn't understand (relating to dust; while not doing so himself-),
  however if she had done this Asriel would've been killed, and her friends too
   
• Later the gypsies (who honestly feel structured a bit like an anarchist commune in many ways --)
  still try to keep her with them and try to tell her not to leave to look for some 'ghost' she doesn't
  .. and .. it turns out the 'some ghost' was the missing children they were looking for the whole time
   
• The Angels and Asriel goons come and tell her and will they have to go give the subtle knife to Asriel,
  they end up not doing that .. actively tries to stop him from being able to repair the subtle knife-
  it also turns out that Asriel is kinda power crazed, more interested in becoming power than stopping power
   
• Lyra wants to goto the land of the dead to try help her friend Rodger, who she kept getting visions of being trapped there
  Iorek, the king of the bears,
• tells her its 'no place for her' and refuses to try repair the subtle knife. she goes anyway,
  turns out people are trapped there the place is basically a prison, and she ends up freeing them all.

look ok im not saying His Dark Materials has anarchist undertones, what is there im not sure how intentional is-
but .. im JUST saying that the main antagonist is literally called "The Authority"

but yeah its really well done <3

the worldbuilding is incredible it actually makes sense, its not completely all over the place.
the characters actually engage with it in a interesting ways that make sense (like nether-portal entry to places <3)

..  the ending feels a bit bullshit but i suppose it makes sense otherwise will would have an extreme amount of power
but it also does kind of also feel like border enforcement with more steps with the whole 'no travelling between worlds' decree;

weirdly they dont pushback on that one either, though i suppose its more just a function on how the universe works than anything else
( also what about Asriel's desire craft, that could travel to any world you wanted without windows, why did they just forget about this ... )

and somewhat of just a reason to play into the forbidden love trope

i also wish dæmons were a bit more explored though like especially for diverse sets of people who do not behave like most others
like for example their gender is usually on the different end of the gender spectrum to whomever they are for, so if your a girl your dæmon is probably a boy;
but this is not always the case either, which can be speculated to be transgender stuffs; but like this doesnt account for nonbinary people for instance, or genderfluidity,

.. honestly with these kind of systems it often doesn't explore many diverse experiences, like ..
what about DID systems? or just anyone whos individuality is fluid in some way (??)

its kind of sad, theres so much good stuff in here, but all anyone talks about is how its anti-religious and about killing god
personally, it reads more like being anti-authority- than anti-religious (though religion is a floating signifier, TODO: elaborate later)

they also don't actually kill god, god is actually already dead, and surrounded himself in dust proof bubble so that they dont turn to dust upon leaving the land of the dead;

infact .. Lyra never directly harms a single person or entity ever, always relying on forms of non-violent self-defense when in any situation,
such as e.g deception, and evasion, amoung others; Will does once and hates it and swears to never do it again-

its everyone else who does that .. specifically those with more social power.. and higher up in social hierarchy, which honestly checks out..