| “ | Yes, I see. Corruption and envy and lust for power. Cruelty and coldness. A vicious probing curiosity. Pure, poisonous, toxic malice. You have never from your earliest days shown a shred of compassion or sympathy or kindness without calculating how it would reflect to your advantage. You have tortured and killed without regret or hesitation, you have betrayed and intrigued and glorified in your treachery. You are a cess-pit of moral filth | „ |
| ~ Metatron condemns Marisa Coulter. |
| “ | I loved their flesh. And I understood it when the sons of Heaven fell in love with the daughters of Earth, and I pleaded their cause with the Authority. But his heart was fixed against them, and he made me prophesy their doom | „ |
| ~ Metatron's lust. |
Metatron (born Enoch) is the overarching antagonist of the fantasy novel trilogy His Dark Materials (appearing as an overarching antagonist of the 1995 novel The Northern Lights and the 1997 novel The Subtle Knife, and the main antagonist of the 2000 novel The Amber Spyglass) and its 2019-2022 television series adaptation of the same name.
Metatron is the Regent of Heaven. He is stated to have been the Biblical character Enoch with the same alias, who is the line between Adam and Noah (son of Jared, son of Mahahaleh, son of Kenan, son of Enosh, son of Seth). He is the regent of the first angel and the false god, The Authority. He is the active adversary of Lord Asriel.
Appearance[]
Metatron is described as a being made of light, man-shaped, man-sized. He is exactly a man in early middle age, tall, powerful, and commanding. The force of his eyes and the ferocity of his gaze seem frightful to stare at. His voice can deliver judgment so great it would shake people profoundly. Like angels, he has mighty wings.
Personality[]
Though he became an angel, Metatron retains his impure human feelings and became greedy for God's rule. He grew bitter, oppressive, and malicious. As he thought that the Authority was God, Metatron believed that anything that was not His way was pagan, occult, or not good in the way it 'should' be. He considered dissimilar or contrary views, practices, and ideas unholy and profane. Through this belief, Metatron raised the Christianity of this universe into a superior ascendancy. He made the Magisterium into a theocratic and dogmatic governing power in Lyra's World (a universe parallel to ours), teaching them that tolerance and free inquiry are heresies and sins, inspired them into a corrupt desire for purity, and motivated them into spreading Christianity as the ultimate authority. Metatron demonstrates arrogance and ignorance to ideas contrary to his own views are prominent character traits.
Like human beings, Metatron is susceptible to lies, and consequently, can easily be tricked, while all angels know the truth. This would make him vulnerable to Marisa Coulter's manipulation when she attempts to destroy him to save Lyra.
Metatron is very lustful and it is revealed that as Enoch, he had many wives because he loved their flesh, and understood why the Watchers were so satyrical towards human women. However, of all his choices of his subjects of lust, Metatron submits dangerously to Marisa Coulter's beauty. To save her daughter Lyra, Mrs. Coulter manipulates Metatron with her beauty as part of a plan to defeat him by promising Metatron herself as a prize for his victory over Lord Asriel. However, she is conspiring with Asriel to destroy the villainous angel and protect their daughter.
Despite these flaws and sins, Metatron is a being whose profound intellect has had thousands of years to deepen and strengthen itself, and whose knowledge extended over a million universes. But still he becomes blinded by his two obsessions: to destroy Lyra before the second Fall and to possess Marisa Coulter as his goddess. This would all be his downfall.
Biography[]
The Authority, who claims to be immortal but really is not, displayed his declining health by seeking out a regent to take his place as God. Enoch was transfigured into an angel after his 65-year life on earth, and after the rebellion of the "fallen angels" he took the regency of the throne of the Authority, the Clouded Mountain, in order to implant the monotheistic religions across the multiverse and so affirming his power and rule. However, he became more powerful than his master. To keep his power, he betrayed and trapped the Authority in the crystal box to stay alive, but trapped and out of the way. He seeks to supplant God, destroy Lord Asriel and his army, and kill Lyra Belacqua. He shares the belief of many that she is the second Eve, who is destined to fall into temptation like the first.
Acting as head of the Magisterium (Church), an oppressive religious institution that symbolizes Christianity, Metatron holds the true power and cruelty responsible for the Magisterium's oppression and he leads the final battle against Lord Asriel and Xaphania and their rebels. In the end, he is killed by Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter, Lyra's parents, who sacrifice themselves to ensure Metatron never threatens Lyra again. Metatron, Lord Asriel, and Mrs. Coulter all fall into the Abyss between the universes, which is opened by a bomb that the Magisterium uses in a failed attempt to try and kill Lyra.
Trivia[]
- The way Metatron dies is similar to the death of Megatron in Beast Wars and Beast Machines; Someone (Mrs. Coulter and Asriel in Metatron's case, Optimus Primal in Megatron's case), sends themselves and him falling into a lethal pit (the Abyss for Metatron and Cybertron's organic core for Megatron). Their names are also similar, which is made fun of on Supernatural.
- The concept that Metatron is an ascended Enoch has precedent in rabbinic mysticism and the Kabbalah.