#I wonder sometimes if Susan hadn't been isolated like that

[sophieswundergarten]

FEELINGS ABOUT SUSAN PEVENSIE AGAIN

In TVotDT, it's explained that the reason only Edmund and Lucy are staying at their aunt's is because their parents were headed to America, and while Peter was studying with Prof. Kirke (Who had somehow lost his large house and sadly didn't have room for all of them), they did have enough money to bring all three children. So Susan was the only one chosen.

Which would be fine, which would make sense because she's the second oldest, which would be whatever because that sometimes just how things go when you have siblings

EXCEPT IT'S SPECIFICALLY STATED THAT SUSAN WAS NO GOOD AT SCHOOL AND SHE WAS PRETTY. ERGO THIS WAS THE ONLY WAY FOR HER TO MAKE SOMETHING OF HERSELF

And it's also stated that up until that trip, Susan still regularly talked to her siblings about Narnia, and seemed to fully believe in it.

We saw how Lucy was tempted because she didn't feel pretty like Susan, but she had Edmund and Caspian and all her friends to rely on.

Susan was on her own

Also, LOOK ME IN THE EYES AND TELL ME THAT QUEEN SUSAN THE GENTLE, SUSAN THE RENOWNED ARCHER, SUSAN THE DIPLOMAT WHO WAS KNOW FOR HER LOOKS BUT TURNED DOWN EVERY SUITOR WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY HANDLING THE SITUATION SO AS TO AVOID WAR

TELL ME THAT SUSAN WAS BAD AT SCHOOL

Or, maybe, she learned what was expected from her. She was the oldest daughter, and there was a lot of pressure on her.

Imagine being all alone, in an unfamiliar country, where all people think of you is your looks. Where you don't have your siblings to fall back on; this isn't an ambassadorial trip, this is you being picked because you need to be shown off. Because you are not trusted to do anything worthwhile with your life, so you must get married somehow.

And when the only options presented with you are lipstick and pretty dresses and high heels, wouldn't you rather take to them on your own terms than have them forced on you?

I imagine Susan liked going to parties because it reminded her of being a queen. She was smarter and wiser than half the dimwitted boys who looked at her and only saw a skirt, and she enjoyed talking circles around them and giving backhanded compliments they were too dull to understand. I imagine it gave her some sense of control back.

She may not be a queen in this world, but she'd demand respect regardless. Pretty make-up and fancy dresses became her armor and disguise, and she envisioned each cocktail party as a battlefield: a war won with wits and words.

And she was good at it. She attracted attention while remaining aloof and untouchable. She had everyone hanging on her every word, and quite a few handsome young men throwing themselves at her feet, getting down on one knee.

But she didn't want that. And, too late, she realized she had sealed herself into this fate. Susan was the "Pretty One", the airhead who somehow twists boys around her little finger without even realizing she was doing it.

And I'd bet that, after all that, after clinging to her memories of Narnia and of her siblings being kings and queens in court, she'd be exhausted when she got back.

And then to hear that Ed and Lucy had been on another adventure without her, while she had felt so alone, I'd imagine she'd be bitter.

She needed Caspian by her side, directing her through the fancy people and the debutantes; she would have loved to have Reepicheep following behind, defending her honour; it would have been so much more interesting to talk to a star than the silly, giggling girls she was intended to be friends with.

And it would be hard to find your place, when you didn't fit in that world of kings and queens and talking mice anymore, but you didn't want to be forced into the world of glitter and dresses and getting married so young because the rest of society deemed you too pretty to be smart

I wonder sometimes if Susan lost her way because of all the outside forces pressuring her to leave Narnia in the past

#And how much of that she willingly took on to protect Lucy from it #Susan was incredible #There's no way you can convince me she was 'bad at school' #Unless she was deliberately not trying #Maybe she was 'bad' because she kept standing up in class and protesting and her parents were trying to keep her from getting expelled #And even if she was!!! #Schoolwork is not the end-all-be-all when it comes to measuring intelligence!!! #Or really anything!! #I wonder sometimes if Susan hadn't been isolated like that #Even if she hadn't gone to Narnia #If she could have stayed with Peter #Would her story have gone the same? #susan pevensie #narnia