The Dark Crystal/YMMV

• Alternate Character Interpretation: The Skeksis, life draining tyrants who destroyed an entire race to preserve their lives or senile old aristocrats who are desperately trying to keep their own identity, but their other halves sent an agent to prevent this from happening.
  • They don't constantly plot the destruction of the earth, they eat (with very poor table manners) and have their own hobbies; and anyone (with a Middle Ages mindset) would try to prevent their own demise even if they weren't completely accurate on it.
• Author's Saving Throw: The Expanded Universe did much to correct the Esoteric Happy Ending of the film. The Power of the Dark Crystal comic establishes that the Gelfing race was rejuvenated by the healing of the Crystal instead of leaving Jen and Kira as the Last of Their Kind while Creation Myths fleshed out the urSkeks, saving them from being seen as total Karma Houdinis by establishing their Hidden Depths and the tragic circumstances that led to them being split into the urRu and the Skeksis.
• Badass Decay: In the Netflix show, the Skeksis are unstoppable. By the time of the film, a mere fifty trine later, they're a pale shadow of what they once were, the Chamberlain in particular. In the interim, they'd even managed to wipe out the Gelflings. Might be justified as the introduction of the Garthim meant the Skeksis could embrace Obviously Evil and rely on brute strength instead of cunning.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: The WHOLE soundtrack.
• Cult Classic: Reviewers have said that this is a visually stimulating film as well as being one of Jim Henson's most underrated works.
• Draco in Leather Pants: SkekTek the Scientist. The fact that he was pragmatic enough to warn SkekSo about the dangers of the Darkening and his Klingon Scientists Get No Respect status make him quite the Jerkass Woobie that many fans feel sympathy for. Doesn't change the fact that SkekTek is just as cruel as the rest of the Skeksis, mocking the Gelflings that he drains.
• Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • The Chamberlain in the film. Little surprise then that the Expanded Universe always makes him a major player. Ironically, him being an Ascended Extra in the show seemed to make the Scientist the new Ensemble Darkhorse.
  • The urSkeks are extremely popular and captivating, with many fans wanting to see a prequel focusing on them.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Sure the urSkeks are made whole again but the Mystics and Skeksis are dead as a result. And then the urSkeks, after all the hell they caused on Thra, just up and leave the planet, emerging as large Karma Houdinis while the Gelfling are left functionally extinct.
• Even Better Sequel: Ever Better Prequel. It's universally agreed that, while the film was by no means bad, the Netflix prequel was the best thing that The Dark Crystal franchise produced.
• Evil Is Cool: The Skeksis are easily the most popular part of the franchise.
• Fanfic Fuel: What "heresy" did the eighteen urSkeks commit to be exiled?
• Fanon:
  • It's never actually said that the urSkeks are immortal. The closest thing is them describing their culture as "ageless".
  • The Fallen urSkeks were banished because they violated Individuality Is Illegal.
  • The urSkeks split into the Skeksis and the Mystics because one of the eighteen, only referred to as "Dark Heart", let his homesickness and anger at being trapped on a primitive world consume him when they tried to go home, leading fans to wonder who Dark Heart was. The most common three fan answers are SilSol; given that the urSkek composed a song, urSol was a chanter and skekSil is particularly cruel Skeksis; GraGoh; given that the urSkek desperately sought to return home and GraGoh's shards so badly wished to reunite; and HakHom; given that when the restraint of his Mystic was removed, his Skeksis went right to murder.
• Fridge Horror: Those Landstriders they summon for transport, who later die fighting off the Garthim? Their cubs are left behind, presumably to fend for themselves.
  • What the Scientist does to those poor animals.
    • More of Fridge Sadness, since the Mystics and Skeksis are the same being, when you consider all the who died due to their counterparts Skeksis being killed off in petty schemes or battles with the Geflings.
• Friendly Fandoms: Fans of Gravity Falls seem to love The Dark Crystal.
• Inferred Holocaust: The Arathim Ascendancy. They were targeted as raw material for the Garthim and although it's never said that they were driven to extinction, every sentient species on Thra, but the weak Podlings, was brought to extinction by the Skeksis.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks: The Dark Crystal focuses on Jen and Kira trying to return the missing shard to the Dark Crystal before the Great Conjuction strikes it, making it dark forever while fighting off the Chamberlain's attempts to claim the shard. The Power of the Dark Crystal comic sequel broadly follows the same storyline.
• It Was His Sled: The Skeksis are Mystics are Literal Split Personalities of the alien urSkeks.
• Uncanny Valley: The Gelflings are closer to human in appearance than any of the other puppets — and perhaps for that very reason, some viewers tend to find them the least convincing.
  • The Gelfling muppets have no capability for facial expressions, which is darn odd for the main character when considering the amount of effort put into the others.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: SkekEkt the Ornamentalist and SkekLach the Collector. They're the only two Skeksis voiced by women despite the Skeksis being described as genderless beings. At the very least, SkekEkt is said to be the most effeminate and vain of them.
• Vindicated by Cable: A rather underwhelming theatrical release but it did much better in syndication and DVD. The later Expanded Universe and Netflix prequel series prove that the franchise can stand on its own two feet.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Admit it, the effects and world building on display here is darn impressive.
• What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: That is, not for young kids (age 3-5). Despite Jim Henson being the director, this movie is no Sesame Street (or Muppet Show for that matter). The story is pretty dark for a Jim Henson production and there are some scenes in it that can be considered unsuitable for young viewers, like when the Skeksis drain the Podlings and Kira of their vital essence. As the producers of the Netflix show lampshaded, the franchise is called "The Dark Crystal", not the "The Happy Crystal", so what did people expect?
• The Woobie:
  • Jen and Kira being the only known survivors of the Gefling race.
  • The Mystics being the good halves of the urSkeks that make up them and the Skeksis probably have seen several of their fellows die suddenly without much reason and likely knowing what the Skeksis are planning, but are too peaceful to do anything.
  • The Gruenaks. Last of Their Kind and Butt Monkeys whose situation is very much not Played for Laughs. And just when it looks like they may live to see a free day, they set off SkekTek's Rage Breaking Point. One is sent plummeting to their death while the other is brutally beaten and their insides used to create the Garthim.

---

Back to The Dark Crystal