You may have noticed that this is not your typical happy, Hollywood movie-ish ending. What will happen? What will this new world be like? And what is that crazy Asriel up to? The ending raises more questions than answers, leaving us running for the next book in the series, The Subtle Knife. We know there are more adventures to come – Lyra and Pan are traveling to a completely different world, after all. It's also important to point out that this may be the end of The Golden Compass, but it's definitely not the end of Lyra's story. We have a lot more to say about Dust and original sin in " Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory," so be sure to head over there. It's a pretty radical thing to say if you think about it.
Why is this such a big deal? Well, because in the book Dust is equated with original sin, so what they're basically saying is that the way the Church sees the world is wrong. Intense, huh?Īt the end of the book, Lyra and Pan decide that Dust is not bad – it's actually good. Then they follow Lord Asriel across the bridge into the other world. Lyra and Pan make the radical theological declaration that original sin isn't such a bad thing after all. Lord Asriel declares he's going to save the world from sin and crosses a bridge into another world. Roger is severed from his daemon and dies. Warning: stuff gets kind of crazy at the end of The Golden Compass.