daemons and personalities

[random guy]

with adults, the daemons have corresponding shapes to their human's personality.

But, is that inferring that an adult cant change their personality?
What if someone had an eagle daemon, and then got knocked out and got amnesia, then when they woke up, went from a strict sort of person, to a loyal recessive sort of person. Would their daemon change to a dog, or would they have a mis-matched daemon?

[AySz88]

I think that's one of the problems of Lyra's world: if you change your personality (especially if you consciously try), your dæmon can't change to fit it, and people would be prejudiced of you because of your dæmon's form.

[Daniel]

Something that is never really clarified is whether dæmons lose the ability to change or the will to change. If the later is the case, someone's dæmon would be able to change to again portray their human's personality.

[King Ogunwe]

i think its more of a "when its time to stop changing, like when lyra and will touched each others daemons, they really didn't want to change any more...

[Isobel]

I agree. At first, I thought that when a person got to a certaina ge, their daemon just got stuck however it was and there was nothing they could do about it, and that that was sort of a bad thing. But as I read TAS, I began to think that at a certain time, the daemon reached a form where it was happy and didn't need to change anymore, so settling was actually a good thing. I don't know if it was meant to be prtrayed this way, but my feelings about the daemon settling issue while reading HDM do kind of mirror the whole meassage about how growing up and being an adultis a good thing, contrary to how it's commonly portrayed in literature and by society.

[random guy]

in that case, could a very maverick-y person never have a fixed dæmon?

[eloquent]

In theory. There is no set time for daemons to settle, but I would say that in practice that would be very unlikely to happen with somebody with a reasonable life expectancy.

[Isobel]

I think it would be very rare that someone (and their daemon) wanted to stay unsettled for their whole life, because that would essentially be like satying a child forever, in a way, and I don't think most people would want that. I think eventually they'd realize they were missing out on a lot, and that maybe the advanatges of their daemon settling, and of growing up, outweigh the disadvantages.

[Will]

I wonder if mentally ill people in a child like state would keep their dæmon changing?

[la bohemia]

I don't think someone would ever completely lose their personality like that, enough so that their daemon would have to change. I mean, your daemon represents your essense, right? Your very core being, your soul. I don't think that ever really changes. You can modify your personality, like, making yourself more respectful or more learned, or louder or shyer or whatever, but you can't actually completely (and truthfully, you can always pretend, of course) change your personality.

[Daniel]

I don't think so -- people who are losing their minds wouldn't be like children in the way their personality is maleable, just in mental capacity.

[Will]

Would you not agree that some people do stay in a child like state for the whole of their lives?

[Nix]

*coughs* Michael Jackson *coughs*

[Daniel]

childlike in some ways, perhaps, but not in the way that matters: maleability of personality.

[random guy]

I think that someone who copies other people could stay changing forever...

[King Ogunwe]

I think a person's daemon always become fixed, it just becomes a representative animal for that person... so a "maverick-y" person would , instead of having a daemon that doesn't change, have a daemon that is very "maverick-y"...

[random guy]

well...

what like their dæmon would be a giant fly or summat?

[King Ogunwe]

aka a daemon that is very unpredictable... dont ask me for examples...

[random guy]

examples?

hehe

[Pyr]

Random Guys a spectre run!!