#my most famous post on here is about the Pevensies coming back to England

[fallingskiesandrisingseas]

Susan Pevensie comes back from Narnia and tries to forget, not because she doesn't believe in Narnia anymore, but because it hurts too much thinking about what she lost.

In Narnia, she was revered, respected. People wrote songs about her, asked for her hand in marriage. She was with her siblings, and she was free, and she could finally stop worrying about her brothers dying in an air raid. She had a people she protected, a land she ruled, and family to look after. She was respected in courts and battefields alike.

Narnia brought other problems, of course. Not all her suitors were kind about her rejection, and Peter and Edmund were expected to lead armies, which meant they were always in the line of fire. More than once had they come home with grave injuries that took months to recover from, even with Lucy's secret potion.

It is this Narnia Susan vividly remembers just aftee she comes back, a wild and savage land where magic roams free, but evil roams free too. It is the Narnia of eternal winter, of giants and ogres, of Aslan dying on the Stone Table. The Narnia of Telmarines, of dead friends, of failed sieges.

England forces her back into obedience, into a mold. Tells her to behave in a way expected of a young lady. Lucy can stay wild a little longer, but Susan has an education to focus on, men to impress. England tells her she is below her brothers again, should get married and have kids.

So Susan tries to forget, convincing herself that the stiff upper lip, tight collars, kneelong skirts, ridicule from adults when she speaks her mind and forced silence is better than the freedom she had in Narnia.

For that freedom had to be paid for in blood. At least in England her family and friends don't risk dying, not after the war.

She alienates from her brothers and sister further. She tells them Narnia was a game, a fantasy. But the difference in faith is also due tk the way she has to hide how it changed her. Peter, Lucy and Edmund do not have to. The boys write long essays about justice and religion, join the fencing team. Lucy dances everywhere she goes and is known to never wear shoes if she can help it.

But the archery club at school will not accept Susan. Neither will the debate team. Her teachers are annoyed with the fact she never slips up, disgruntled at the fact a woman runs rings around them intelectually. Susan is a young woman after a time of war, and all of society would rather she shut up and do what she is told.

Soon, Susan has new friends, new things that matter. All these adult thoughts she can only discuss with her brothers and sister drive her crazy, and there is no one around that takes them seriously. And so she tries to grow up as fast as possible, get to an age where people listen to her again. She forgets so that she doesn't have to deal with the feeling she was meant for much more, to ease the mourning of all that she lost when she kissed Caspian goodbye.

All the Pevensies start forgetting Narnia slowly, the memories fading. Soon none of them remember the names of their generals at Beruna. They forget the smell of battle, the weight of an iron sword in their hands. But they all still walk as if their crowns are on their heads, and ride horses in a way none of their instructors understand. It takes a while before they are back to their Narnian levels, but it is clear to them someone has instructed them before. None of them can figure out what commands they use, however. Is it western style, perhaps? Or maybe rodeo? They cannot have been taught in England, not with the amount of control they can exert with and without saddles, the sense of balance. Some of their teachers are astonished by their academic growth, but others attribute it to the lax education standards after the war. Susan is sold short most often, but all the Pevensie children suffer from arguments with teachers and attitude problems. Teachers generally don't like it if you behave like you are older or more important than them. It's worse because they are almost never wrong, even though all of them feel the effects that having a teenage brain has on their speed of thought and the coherence of their arguments.

The Pevensies deal with these remnants of Narnia in different ways. Susan becomes an actress. She picks West End over Oxford because the stage is a place she is allowed to be free. And since Narnia, dry textbooks don't thrill her like they used to, while the fantasy concepts of spirits and courts and magic and other things thespians work with entince her all the more. Inside her is a longing to become someone else. She knows where it comes from, but she doesn't want to acknowledge it.

Susan plays a queen often, or a diplomat, or a model. Something about her performances have audiences hooked, convinced she was royalty in a different life.

Remembering Narnia hurts. She scolds someone for being reckless with the stage props while teaching them the correct way for a full minute before realizing the person in question is older than her, and doesn't listen to a young woman. He has the same name as her younger brother.

So Susan forgets. But as she carves her way into the elite of old Hollywood, years later, she begins to remember as well. What it's like to have a voice. How it feels like to have people listen.

When Lucy, Edmund and Peter die in the train accident, Susan weeps for days. She knows what she has lost in them. She is now the only person fluent in their interpersonal language, the only one that still remembers the mating call of the centaurs, what jokes a forest spirit makes. She is now truly alone in the world.

Narnia comes rushing back to her during this grieving period. Eventually, she remembers that she used to have a voice, a crown, lovers of whatever gender she wanted. And also how Narnia would have you pay for freedom in blood. They gave up on that freedom to protect her siblings. only to lose them anyways. Suddenly, Susan remembers how Narnia was fair, how a bargain struck was a bargain kept. She remembers the nymphs, the trees in spring. She remembers the beauty of it all.

Later, when Susan is a grown woman and an arrived actor in Hollywood, Aslan begins returning to her dreams. He never speaks to her, but the sight of him gives her strenght. She was once Susan the Gentle, who accompanied Aslan to his death. It is time she returns to being that person.

After the Stonewall riots and during the AIDS epidemic, Susan is the only actress willing to make a public stand. It costs her 2 box office hits and a 3 month ban from the tabloids. But she remembers justice, and the price of freedom. Others start looking to her for wisdom, just like they did all those years ago. Susan feels her quiet strenght returning, her faith slowly coming back.

She stops wishing she could forget Narnia. The magic that was responsible for the memory faded with time. Maybe it was just to protect her from mourning a world where she was so much more.

When Susan looks at the boys coming back from wars in Korea and Vietnam, she recognizes the look in their eyes. Reflected in their behaviour is a maturity that shouldn't be present in teenagers. The loss of innocence, the unrepairable damage to their childhood illusions. It is a look she spent her twenties avoiding mirrors for, because she knew what it meant. No matter what she told herself then, she believed in Narnia. She still does now.

She knows her siblings are in a different place now, and that she revoked her faith in that place, but slowly, as the years grey her hair and wrinkle her face, she begins to believe she may one day join them there. She remembers Aslan as a kind lion, even if he wasn't a tame one.

She grew old in Narnia once, after all. She hopes to die there.

Once a queen of Narnia, always a queen of Narnia

#my most famous post on here is about the Pevensies coming back to England #here are some more thoughts about it. #narnia meta #the lion the witch and the wardrobe #narnia #peter pevensie #lucy pevensie #susan pevensie #susan pevensie meta #idk this concept of forgetting the other world seems fucked up #prince caspian #character analysis #fanfic #edmund pevensie #susan pevensie fanfic #the problem of susan

[elwinged]

narnia analysis

so i’m just gathering here all of the analysis i’ve read about narnia so far?? I think it’s pretty cool ngl

a note: i’m not going to hecking mention the v obvious and already explained christian allegory with aslan being jesus and edmund representing humanity and the witch being satan and all that jazz.

DISCLAIMER: absolutely none of this belongs to me except for the odd bit of prose in the edmund section

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first up, names! credit for this goes to @thoughtfox72 (you can find the original post here)

- peter means rock, which ties in well as he’s the “rock” of the family. It’s also a reference to good ol’ st. peter- in matthew 16:18 (the bible), peter is called “the rock upon which my church was founded”.

- edmund means protector, which again ties in well with his actions against the witch, but it also ties into shakespeare’s king lear. in king lear, edmund is the bastard son of the duke of glouchester, who betrays his entire family to gain power. sound familiar? yeah, i thought so too. shakespeare’s edmund is never redeemed, however, but it is a direct parallel to narnia’s edmund.

- lucy means light, and it’s pretty obvious that she’s the light of her family, illuminating the path to aslan.

- susan, however, means lily and it’s pretty hard to figure out why that’s so important. like yeah, lilies are typically used at funerals (which, um, pretty dark bit of foreshadowing there, mr. lewis) but like?? compared to the others, that doesn’t seem deep enough. and that’s when you realise- at the end of vodt, what does the dawn treader have to sail past to get to aslan’s country? a sea. of. hecking. lilies.

- and so the flower that susan is named for is the ones that grow on the path to aslan’s country, which is a pretty strong hint about her eventually returning to aslan’s country.

- also, if you look at the points of the compass, aslan’s country (and therefore the sea of lilies) are in the east. it’s implied that susan beginning to forget narnia started when she went to america (heading west). this is really paying a lot of attention to direction, which brings me to my next point…

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direction, and points of the compass! credit for this goes partly to @thoughtfox72 (because of the above point) but mostly to @elecktrum , from the most noble order of the table from the sword and shield, jewel and song series.

- so as was stated above, susan’s journey away from aslan’s starts with her going west, but the flowers that she’s named for are in the east, near aslan’s country, thus signifying that she will probably return.

- as well as that, aslan gives edmund and peter the west and north (“to the great western woods, king edmund the just” and “and to the clear northern sky, i give you king peter the magnificent”), respectively, while susan and lucy receive the south and east (“to the radiant southern sun, queen susan the gentle” and “to the glistening eastern sea, i give you queen lucy the valiant”).

- edmund and peter have the directions of their enemies (to the north are the wild lands of the north, where the giants live, and to the west are the western wilds and telmar).

- susan and lucy get narnia’s “allies” and protection (i put allies in quotation marks as calormen isn’t really an ally, but it isn’t quite an enemy either)- archenland, calormen and the eastern sea.

- this highlights that the brothers are the ones who protect, and the sisters gather allies and friends (a teensy bit sexist, don’t you think?).

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there’s also a bit of character analysis!

i’ll start with Peter (credit for this goes to @thoughtfox72 ) (post found here)

- so like loads of people have said that peter is boring, because he doesn’t have complexity, and the heart of this boils down to the fact that c.s. lewis keeps us at a distance from peter. we don’t get to see what he thinks or feels, whereas we do with the younger siblings.

- also, and this is connected to the point above, peter seemingly rushes into things without any warning (e.g. the duel with miraz, pc book canon). but honestly, it’s not that he rushes into things, it’s that we don’t see his reasons for doing it. an example of this is in the prince caspian book- peter is the only one to realise that they’re in cair paravel and he actually numbers his goddamn reasons, like it’s a slideshow or something. this, of course, tells us that he’s been thinking about it for a while, but just hasn’t chosen to share it. peter keeps things close to his chest.

- peter doesn’t share things that much- this even shows in his title. valiant, gentle- heck, even just are quite descriptive and specific. magnificent, on the other hand is like “??? what does it mean?" this is done on purpose, as it’s an effective way to maintain awe. he’ll always meet an individual’s sense of what a great king should be because he’s left to the imagination. “High King Peter the Magnificent is more an idea than a person, like King Arthur.”

- but peter is a person. he’s a good king, but still a person. examples: when they have to vote on which way to go (book pc), he doesn’t want to vote until trumpkin says that it’s his duty. basically the first thing he says to caspian (again, book) is “i haven’t come to take your place, you know, but to put you in it”. though he’s the one in charge, it’s his duty, not something he seeks.

- this is also shown during acts of violence. think about it- most of peter’s most famous acts (save the last battle) are to do with violence- killing the wolf, fighting the witch, duelling with miraz. this all emotionally affects him- he cries after killing maugrim, it’s shown that he’s pale and drawn after fighting the witch... i could go on. although he’s good at this stuff, he doesn’t like it- it’s not easy for him. this ties in well with the whole series’ idea of kingship- “For this is what it means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attack, and last in every desperate retreat.”- and c.s. lewis knew this. lewis had fought in the war and knew how bad it got, but he had peter do it anyway, because he’s the high king, and the hardest tasks fall to him. this, matched with peter liking to keep things to himself, is a lonely task.

- as well as that, it’s more than likely that peter would’ve served in the war back in england as well- the timelines do match up.

- and peter has a super strong sense of duty and responsibility as well- why, at the end of prince caspian (book. again.), he tells aslan that he was leading them wrong, even though he was being pulled in opposite directions by both his sisters. he’s trying to take everything that’s wrong onto himself, including his siblings’ faults.

- tldr; peter is good at being a king but that doesn’t mean he has to like it. he’s a good warrior and a good person but he’s been given really hard tasks and he’s trying to keep it together. he only looks perfect and boring on the surface because he’s not very open and is kept at a distance from the reader. his job is lonely, because he’s high king and that’s what it means.

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okay. peter’s done. hopefully that make sense.

onto the problem of susan (credit for this goes to @ncfan-1 ) (find the original post here)

- to start off, here’s a reference:

“Sir,” said Tirian, when he had greeted all these. “If I have read the chronicles aright, there should be another. Has not your Majesty two sisters? Where is Queen Susan?”

“My sister Susan,” answered Peter shortly and gravely, “is no longer a friend of Narnia.”

“Yes,” said Eustace, “and whenever you’ve tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says ‘What wonderful memories you have! Fancy you still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.’ ”

“Oh Susan!” said Jill. “She’s interested in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grow-up.”

“Grown-up, indeed,” said the Lady Polly. “I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she’ll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one’s life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can.”

“Well, don’t let’s talk about that now,” said Peter. “Look! Here are lovely fruit trees. Let us taste them.”

–The Last Battle, page 135

- please notice who speaks. tirian asks, peter gives a very tense, very abbreviated explanation (which probably means he doesn’t intend to take it further than that). however, eustace, polly and jill jump in and defame her to tirian, despite the fact that what she’s been doing on earth is very clearly none of their business. lucy, edmund and digory don’t speak at all.

- i’d like to point out that the four people who knew her best contributed nothing to her defamation, and that three of them are pointedly silent.

- now, onto the three that did talk.

- how well did they know susan? there’s no canon evidence (book, movie, or otherwise) that any of them interacted with her.

- eustace was susan’s cousin, yes, but up until vodt she thought he was an annoying brat and we only know that he made friends with edmund and lucy- it’s not sure if he made friends with the rest of the pevensies as well.

- polly was digory’s friend, but we don’t know when she was introduced to the pevensies- if it was before susan “forgot” narnia, or after. it was possibly and probably after, given that there was no mention of her at all pre-prince caspian (save the magician’s nephew, but that’s not the point)

- and we know for a fact that jill and eustace didn’t meet until a few years after pc. we don’t even know if susan and jill ever met, or if jill just knew of her.

- so there are a few questions raised. how well did eustace, polly and jill know susan? were any of them even close to her? how reliable a judge are they?

- well, eustace, jill and polly are shown to be the kind of people who, when they know that susan has received the new that they’re dead and is being asked to identify their bodies, instead of expressing sympathy for her (she has to bury them, bury them, and they can’t even express sympathy? talk about heartless), they just talk about how silly and vain she is- so no, they’re probably not the best judges of susan pevensie.

- what this tells us is that none of the three were really interested in knowing susan. none of them really wanted to get to know her side of the story. if they treat her like that when she isn’t even around to defend herself, imagine what they were like to her in person! small wonder that susan pevensie didn’t confide in them.

- let’s look at the other four, the four who knew her best. her siblings and digory, who would have known her better. while none of them express sympathy for her (seriously, guys? not good), none of them gossip about her either. as mentioned above, peter gives a short explanation that is obviously meant to wrap it up and also cuts off the three gossips. also mentioned above is that the other three who knew her best say nothing. absolutely nothing.

- that might suggest they agree with the others, or, perhaps more likely, that there was a lot more going on with susan that eustace, polly and jill didn’t know about.

- there’s a continuation of this, as well. everything pre-the last battle suggests that when aslan sent them back to earth for good, he wanted them to live their lives there. we’re not completely sure what aslan said to susan and peter at the end of prince caspian, but it’s probably somewhat similar to what he said to edmund and lucy (vodt):

“Dearest, said Aslan very gently, “you and your brother will never come back to Narnia.”

“Oh, Aslan!” said Edmund and Lucy both together in despairing voices.

“You are too old, children,” said Aslan, “and you must begin to come close to your own world now.”

“It isn’t Narnia, you know,” sobbed Lucy. “It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?”

“But you shall meet me, dear one,” said Aslan.

“Are—are you there too, Sir?” said Edmund.

“I am,” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

–Voyage of the Dawn Treader, pages 215-216

- everyone who was brought to narnia, and then sent back, had a super specific purpose. aslan wanted them to live on earth, and find meaning in their lives there. he wanted them to look for him there.

- we don’t know if susan tried to look for aslan on earth. we only have eustace, jill and polly’s word for that, and as stated above, they are unreliable.

- susan did live on earth, and she tried to make a life for herself, and she made it her home and “[came] close” to it. she probably missed narnia, despite what she said to the three gossips. but she didn’t spend her life pining after something she could never have.

- aslan told the others to live lives in their own world, and to look for him there. and what did they do? spent the rest of there lives wanting nothing more but to go back to narnia.

- aslan told them to look for him on earth, and they didn’t do that. their eyes were focused on another world.

- now aslan was responsible for pulling them back to narnia one last time, but it probably wasn’t meant as a reward. they were pulled back to narnia because they failed. they were brought back because aslan realised that they were never going to do what he wanted them to do, they were never going to look for him there, and so he just “bit the bullet and gave them what they wanted”.

- in the end, it looks less like susan deserted narnia, and more like she was the only one of them who did what aslan wanted her to do.

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and edmund! credit goes to @softlyblues , from weeds spring high, and @quecksilvereyes , from Putting the Gentle Queen Back Into Her Own Narrative, A Suggestion In Ten Parts

- this analysis is directed at the viewpoint that “edmund is a traitor and betrayed them all for sweets”, and while that is true (to a certain extent), there are some certain points made (below)

“I’m not a very good person,” Edmund says, looking up at the clouds.

(He’s thirteen at this point.)

“You’re thirteen,” Susan says sensibly. Sensible Susan with her sensible shoes.

Edmund does that snotty breath that young boys are often wont to do when they think they might cry, breathing a whole cloud of stuff in through his nose. “Father Christmas didn’t give me a gift,” he says, all wet and damp. “You got two. Luce got - you know. Peter got Rhindon. I got to be Edmund the Betrayer.”

“You were eleven,” Susan says. Sensibly.

Her brother looks to the sky and she can see how shiny his eyes are. His cheeks have freckled in the summer. “I’m not anymore and I don’t feel any different to how I did then. What if I’m not any better? What if we go back and I do the same thing again?”

But privately, Susan thinks there isn’t much wrong with being cold and trusting a woman who says she will warm you up, who offers you treats to eat and drink and makes sure your fingers won’t freeze of frostbite. Susan thinks there isn’t much wrong with being eleven and upset that you’ve been sent away from your home, away from your parents. Not much wrong with being eleven and wondering if you’ll still have a house left to come back to.

Aslan used to be someone you couldn’t help but disappoint.

–weeds spring high, by softlyblue on ao3

and

VII. Perhaps then, finally, I can look at the lion and tell it what I think of its inaction in the face of genocide, its inaction in the face of its people starving and dying away. Maybe then I can tell it that a nine year old boy who misses his parents like the food he’s starving for, who hasn’t had sweets in a year didn’t deserve to be called a traitor because he was upset and hurt and a Witch spelled him.

–Putting the Gentle Queen Back Into Her Own Narrative, A Suggestion In Ten Parts, by Quecksilver_Eyes on ao3

- i’m not sure i even have to say much after those two excerpts, but i will say this

-imagine this. you’re lonely. you’re tired. you’ve been sent away from your parents, and you miss them you miss them you miss them. you’re surviving on war rations. you’re criticized by your siblings. when you enter this new world, you’re all alone. you’re cold. your sister, who went in with you, is gone. you’ve been left alone. again.

- and then, a woman. a kind, gentle, beautiful woman. she gives you food to eat and a warm drink. you’re warm. finally. you haven’t had anything this nice to eat since before the war. you barely remember that.

- in the end, it all comes down to this: you’re cold and hungry and tired and you miss your parents so much it hurts and there’s a kind woman who offers you food and drink and warmth and love, and so of course you accept, because what else would you do?

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on numbers (credit to @nothinggold13 ) (post found here):

- in the bible, the number 7 means completion. this has direct parallels in the bible and narnia: 7 churches, 7 lampstands (bible) and in narnia, 7 books (although out of world rather than in-world) and the 7 friends of narnia. and so 7 is completion.

- but that leads you to think- what about susan?

- with susan, the 7 friends of narnia would have become 8.

- and do you know what the number 8 means in the bible? do you?

- new beginnings. resurrection. regeneration. new life.

- susan is the 8th. there is a hope and a plan for her.

- “Yes, the Seven stand in completion, but after the end, God makes all things new.”

that's all, folks! will update if i spot any more analysis!

#the chronicles of narnia #narnia #susan pevensie #edmund pevensie #peter pevensie #prince caspian #lucy pevensie #the last battle #jill pole #eustace scrubb #polly plummer #digory kirke #tirian #analysis #narnia analysis #narnia meta #the truth of queue