Edited by Scott Westerfeld - Teen Libris

Bushid Bear 21
bears can’t help but be confused. Even if they ape his actions-add a little
bling to their dress and carry around their own little fake dæmonsthe
charade does not bring them any closer to being human. They may
have the marble halls of human learning, but they don’t know how to
take care of them. They become caricatures. They become weak.
In the end, Lyra is able to use this weakness against them, both in
manipulating the guard to take her to the king, and in getting Iofur
Raknison to agree to duel Iorek Byrnison. Had they been bears acting as
bears, they could not have been tricked, but as it was, bears acting as
humans are all sorts of gullible.
This brings us back to Iorek Byrnison, the constrained hero. Having
held fast to his code of honor, he is about the only one who remains
“pure and certain and absolute” (TGC 303). When he meets up with
Iofur Raknison again, a comparison is inevitable. Two different roads
have led them to that moment in time and two different futures will
follow.
Iofur and Iorek look completely different as they face each other, the
former all proud and polished in his fine armor and the latter looking
scruffy and dented in his. But, as Lyra observes, Iorek’s “armor was his
soul. He had made it and it fitted him. They were one. Iofur was not content
with his armor; he wanted another soul as well. He was restless
while Iorek was still” (TGC 306-307).
In the end, perhaps that’s what the whole honor thing comes to after
all-not some obscure ideal or a provision of protection for society, but
a means by which a warrior can stay true to himself.
For all its constraints and limitations, his sense of honor defines and
distinguishes Iorek Byrnison: panserbjørn, rightful king, true and honorable
hero.