Gelfling Wings & Flight 101 | The Dark Crystal Lore Explained

[@DarkCrystalConjunction]

OOPS! @ 04:05 I said the script was from 1984, I meant 1981 (as can be seen in the picture).

[@williamvanlandinghamdrwho]

I never know exactly what day it is. Gets me in a lot of trouble

[@rosesweetcharlotte]

What I love is that even in the series, they make a point to show just how difficult flying actually is for femalw Gelflings. They can just up and fly, but it's exhausting and not something they seem to like to do

[@glitterboy2098]

they seem to be able to handle short distances fairly well but high speed or long duration definitely takes it out of them. which makes sense.

[@Maldoror2112]

​@@glitterboy2098They have a more ancient flying heritage which is outside Thra's intention. The alien influence of the Pearl Moon is showing.

[@lorenzoc.b.9809]

Damn, I really wanted to see a trial by air!

[@melonlord4889]

Yeah that woulda been cool

[@Maldoror2112]

They would have raced whilst attacking each other. That would have been AWESOME! Hell, I'd even donate to the effects team to make that happen!

[@marimarsxd3252]

The wings are one of my favorite things about the Gelflings. How this represent a visual difference between male and female. Is amazing!

[@525Lines]

When Brea had to fly into the castle to get the brightest jewel, she started by climbing to the top of the library, supposedly to get enough speed to reach the high window.

[@DarkCrystalConjunction]

Ya, I suppose she wanted all the help she could get for that "great" flight,... seems like she just goes around a mountain but that is still a lot of flying.

[@stonegrotclan6924]

It was also to get pass Seladon, Brea couldn’t get through the gate, it was blocked with the guards & Seladon greeting the Sifa clan

[@Maldoror2112]

In a fanfiction I'm writing, Brea is fully prepared and able to fly great distances when it is required. After all, she was able to follow a unamoth back home from Sifa territory, so why not?

[@525Lines]

@@Maldoror2112 The market's wide open for dark crystal fan fiction. It's got a long history, too.

[@Seiferboi]

Looks like it's official. Kira is Vapra! I read that she has a Vapra pendant. I believe Brea is Kira's mother, as she's seen running through the forest with a bundle, just like in the movie. Maybe the Gelfling females have to be taught how to fly by others, and that's why Kira can only glide down?

[@DarkCrystalConjunction]

I think she is Vapra as well. And yes, she was raised by Podlings so possibly she just didn't have anyone to teach her how to fly.

[@GreeenBaron]

Ah, hadn't thought of needing to learn how to fly. I always took it to mean that as the Crystal was being drained, Gelflings lost some of Thra's magic- as if their wings became less able to defy conventional physics.

[@rosesweetcharlotte]

I think this makes the most sense. Plus, she lives in a forest. It's probably not easy to learn how to fly in a forest like that. She just has no one to teach her and the Podlings who raise her stay close to the ground.

[@glitterboy2098]

@@DarkCrystalConjunction given how wide spread gelfling civilization was in Age of Resistance, i'd like to think that there were still a few other Gelfling survivors hiding out in remote parts of Thra. the nomadic Dousan for example would seem like they'd be hard to wipe out if they stayed out on the desert, and might still have a few enclaves wandering around and hiding. such survivors would help avoid the genetic bottleneck that having only two survivors would otherwise give, as well as give a route for old culture to return.

[@Maldoror2112]

I think she is part Vapra and part Drenchen. Perhaps Gurjin is her daddy and Seladon is her mother? I've seen plenty of fan artworks depicting this union. To me, it makes sense.

[@kenpoarniceguy1]

Rian: "You won because you have wings!" Mira: "Of course I do, I'm a girl!" Jen: "Wings! I don't have wings." Kira: "Of course not. You're a boy."

[@CountOrlok22]

There is a surprising amount of avenues one can take in exploring Gelfling wings and flight. I think it's a fascinating subject that really has barely been touched upon in the series or the film. I'm hoping we'll see many more Gelfling take wing in future adventures.

[@Maldoror2112]

In a fanfiction I'm writing (detestable, I know), female wings are a result of "intervention." After all, females were flightless during the Age of Innocence, right? So what if females acquired them from a source outside of Thra?

[@samrizzardi2213]

I think it's implied in Power of the Dark Crystal and Beneath the Dark Crystal that Gelfling women are gradually losing their wings. Kira's wings are frail compared to Brea's, the firelings have lost them completely, and Beneath reveals a female who was born without them.

[@josebaturamos]

I think that does not mean that the gelfling will lose their wings, in real life there are people who have the bad fortune to be born deformed or even without one or several parts of the body. In the Power of the Dark Crystal comics (SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER) we saw that the crystalline eminence was also born crippled, so I see it as a sample of inclusion of the disabled, a demonstration that not everything is perfect and beautiful in Trha.

[@rosesweetcharlotte]

Seems like it's something that requires a lot of practice, something Kira doesn't have a chance to get.

[@LilDroidBlue]

I was hoping you would make a video on this topic. Ever since I first watched the original film and heard Kira and Jen's exchange after their escape from the Garthim, I was so interested in why the females would have them and the males wouldn't. Of course, as I got older and learned, for instance, that only the male peafowl (peacocks) had the beautiful feathers, as is the case for most male birds, it started to make more sense. It's called sexual dimorphism, and tons of flora and fauna exhibit it. No reason these creatures that live in this world that Henson and Froud created and wanted to make feel living and breathing and alive can't exhibit some as well. Plus, the wings looks cool! Especially in Age of Resistance.

[@glitterboy2098]

sexual display might well have been a reason why the females kept their wings but males lost them. especially given that we've seen in Age of Resistance that Gelfling society was matriarchal. it wouldn't be hard to imagine ancient gelfling society when they first started using tools and living in more fixed locations as no longer needing wings for day to day survival, and the wings becoming something tied more to how gelfling women attract mates and eventually to things like social status displays.

[@kevinlee7678]

@@glitterboy2098 Except that males never had wings to begin with.

[@mightypingusta3390]

Damn seladon is pretty strong if she can throw Muadra Fara whilst in mid air

[@DarkCrystalConjunction]

09:10 SHE IS THE SENATE!

[@AngelEmfrbl]

Not really, you just need to get momentum. Then gravity does the rest.

[@bettyottman1718]

Feminist, trial by air.

[@izzysauls7737]

I can’t wait for the next video! I definitely want to hear about the doussan and their wings, there’s so many neat little tidbits about each clan and their wings (I won’t spoil it though)

[@DarkCrystalConjunction]

Indeed!

[@ProfLambeo_VT]

The presence of wings as a female-only trait is curious from a biological standpoint. If one were to explain them in an evolutionary sense, I could a scenario where, in the distant ancestral Gelfling species, the males were the ones to stay behind and fight while the females fled with children to safety. And yes, I'm aware that this is a universe with a defined creation, I'm just exercising my inner biologist.

[@DarkCrystalConjunction]

Henson was all about letting our imagination run wild with this world he created... ya, interestingly enough myths tell that wings were given by Aughra to help a maiden protect children... I'll get to that in part three of this series. :)

[@volaska4134]

Looking forward to the next video about Gelfling Wings & Flight!

[@1ARMOUREDWOLF]

Is it me or did Seladon go all Cersei Lannister on all of the Muadra with that fit she threw over her Mothers crown. Ha Ha.

[@abpeters4832]

Did anyone else notice in The Dark Crystal movie there's a part of Kira's wing that looks broken? Like one of the supportive parts is disconnected

[@Maldoror2112]

Strange. I never noticed that.

[@garzapinups]

It’s a design choice, Brians original designs as he said aren’t supposed to be symmetrical.

[@youraverageanxiouscommente2756]

With the sequel comics featuring gelfling women flying, did their wings become adapted for flight again?

[@DarkCrystalConjunction]

The sequel does show Gelfling flying once again,... I'll get more into it in the next part of this video.

[@originaluddite]

With wings as secondary sexual characteristics, I wonder whether they are regarded as an attractive body part.

[@JO-iv7tl]

When did the urskek first arrive on thra?

[@DarkCrystalConjunction]

999+1 trine in, at the first Great Conjunction www.darkcrystal.com/mythology/characters/urskeks/

[@ravensthatflywiththenightm7319]

Subscribed.

[@melonlord4889]

Also, they aren’t born with wings. They develop them over time.

[@DarkCrystalConjunction]

Indeed, I'll bring that up though the rest of the series.

[@squitterhyena652]

Oh hells yah second comment! I have been obsessed with TDC since I was a wee little thing myself. I still have my books and poster from all the way back in the very early 2000's. I got them both at a Boarders book store when that was a thing. Anyway I wonder why females are loosing their wings, it's not like they would not be evolutionarily helpful during the war for escape? I doubt we will ever get a satisfying answer.

[@rosesweetcharlotte]

I think the show does show that flying isn't terribly easy. It may be that they need their mothers or other female family members to teach them.

[@kaygunning5328]

Kaylan is Jen real father as he has the same blue streaks running through his hair an plays a wooden pipe. Deet is Jen real mother because of the nature side of things. Rian is kira real father as he has the green bits in his hair Brea is kira real mother as she is full varpa and she is from the clan kira is part varpa as she has the wings recheck the title of the clip you are Jen and kira parents are and have a closer look thank you from Kay Alice Gunning p's this might help you guys out