InsaneJournal

The Last Battle pt7


we’ll see it through, it’s what we’re always here to do

It’s been seven books, but only six of them take place in our timeline. And only five happen post-LWW. With what, a year between each book? So what year is it now and how old are these people? Jill and Eustace are the only two “still at school”, so that must mean Edmund is on his first year of university, and Lucy is making her debut into whatever she chooses to do after high school(fanfic usually says a nurse)? It wasn’t unusual in those days for a girl not to continue on to higher education, especially if her family didn’t have a lot of money. Or for boys not to go on either. But schooling seemed important to their parents so… maybe Lucy was going to go too.

The Professor has been reunited with Polly Plummer (awwww). Susan is absent, but this isn’t explained when we first see the group in Tirian’s vision. The seven of them have been meeting periodically to talk about Narnia, and call themselves “The Friends of Narnia”.

Eustace, I love this character now. I mean, he really matured and reformed and yet, he still has flaws. Like repeatedly interrupting people, and not knowing how to tell stories right ( he keeps breaking in to explain things, rather like the author does). But he tries so hard now, without really apologizing for himself either. He still isn’t like Edmund or Peter in battles, but he got better and he tries.

Jill is quite the action hero. Apparently, she and Eustace had been doing weapons training and learning to scout and track in their own world. The only thing is, we didn’t get much time to get to know her. And that’s probably why people forget her existence, or occasionally resent her. “Who is this Jill person and why is she replacing Susan?”

And they’re still calling each other “Scrubb” and “Pole” even though their UST is through the roof by now.

Lucy, when is Lucy not great? I dare you to come up with a time.

“Then they tossed a monkey through the door,” said Edmund. Serious book, serious scene, and yet he still comes through with the quirky way of describing a situation. I mean, I can hear that line, slightly amused, slightly baffled and slightly annoyed, maybe with a little forehead wrinkle or smirk.

Edmund. Oh, Edmund. He’s grown from an incorrigible, selfish little brat to a brave, mature, kind, helpful man. He and Draco are often compared, and one day I’d like to write something about what Lewis did for Edmund and what JKR did to Draco that makes their stories end so differently.

Peter, however, seems strangely callus and the most easily distracted by Aslan’s Country. Everyone else is trying to catch up and share their stories, and grieve, and he’s pushing them to forget about it and have some fruit. And as usual, no one stands up to him at all…

What bothers me here is not what happened to Susan. I actually think I understand that and am not bothered that much by it, as I’ll explain in another entry. What bothers me here is how little anyone else in the story seems to *care*. That is the real letdown. Not that she isn’t there, but that she isn’t missed. Even if they’d all gotten used to the idea that she has rejected Narnia (they all seem very exasperated with her), they barely spare two minutes to discuss it and then Peter’s like “anyone want some fruit?” Which is, WTF, C.S Lewis? We needed to see her pulling away, we needed more England scenes, the slammed doors and tension, the family fights, the growing chill of a gloomy English rain adding to the feeling of creeping foreboding and loss. It’s even more infuriating because you *know* he can do this. You know he’s better than this. What we’ve got here is strangely clumsy writing. He never seems to consider the English portions of the stories as terribly important and for some reason, chose to write the entire story from a Narnian perspective this time, and Tirian obviously wouldn’t know anything about Susan’s situation. A perfect excuse not to talk about something that desperately needed talking about.

I’ve read a few fan fics that do a much better job of portraying things from the Friends of Narnia side. And I believe it will be handled much better in the movie, because we’ll be able to see facial expressions and body language and they always do more 1940s England scenes.