#Narnia 2023

[artist-issues]

About Greta Gerwig, Little Women, and Narnia

Greta Gerwig should not be in the Narnia realm at all. As anything.

The Narnia stories are inseparable from Christianity. Greta Gerwig is a Unitarian Universalist. This means she, in her own personal life, doesn’t believe in the saving work of Jesus Christ, which is a core belief of Christianity, and a core theme in Narnia. Everything in the Narnia books hinges on this, from the character motivations to the structure of the fantasy world to the way the magic in Narnia works.

Additionally, the women in Narnia do not adhere to post-modern or even antique feministic values. They are celebrated for their love and tender-heartedness and faith, all of which require self-sacrifice. Aravis of The Horse and His Boy starts out a proud warrior escaping an arranged marriage and ends up a humbled lady of Archenland court marrying the Prince. Susan Pevensie is at her best when she’s tender-hearted and at her worst when she doubts and becomes more concerned about her own identity than others. The school that Eustace and Jill go to in The Silver Chair is derided for it’s feministic views. By contrast, modern feminism is opposed to self-sacrifice, and that is the kind of thing Greta Gerwig demonstrates belief in throughout all of her works.

Am I saying that no person who isn’t a Christian or some type of conservative when it comes to feminism can ever work on Narnia? Absolutely not. I’m not saying that. Lots of people on the Walden Media Narnia movie (the first one), which was great, were not Christians and did not believe in the saving work of Christ. But they stayed faithful to the source material, even if they didn’t believe in the source material themselves. So the story retained it’s autonomy and power.

Greta Gerwig can’t do that. She has already demonstrated that she does not know how to make a story that hangs on to it’s integral source material if she, herself, doesn’t agree with that source material. She can’t be objective, and therefore, she can’t be faithful to what Narnia is.

How do I know that? Little Women.

I don’t care if you liked the Little Women movie by Greta Gerwig. I don’t care if the acting was “amazing” and I don’t care if Timothee Chalamet and Florence Pugh are great in it. I said exactly what I said. Greta Gerwig made a great movie—but she made a terrible adaptation of Little Women.

It was not Little Women. She made changes to Little Women. What changes, you ask? Changes to the specific pieces of the source material that did not reflect Greta Gerwig’s personal views.

That’s the cardinal sin for directors of adaptive stories or remakes—to make changes to the core themes of a classic tale, because you don’t agree with those core themes. That’s called mutilation, not “updates.”

Here’s how she did it in two major ways in Little Women:

She cut out Jo’s humble response to Friedrich’s gentle rebuke of sensation stories, and replaced it with a feministic self-pitying outburst from Joe and s borderline apathetic, cool piece of feminist advice from Friedrich. That takes all the continuity out of it and warps the characters. That scene is so pivotal in the book. It’s Jo, respecting a man who is much older and excellent in character than any other she’s ever known, and feeling immediately humbled by him calling her out. She’d never have responded that way if Laurie called her out. They would have argued. But this scene was supposed to show what Jo needed from a future romantic partner. She needed someone she respected, someone who could be wise and gentle—two things Laurie is not. She needed someone who would help her take her eyes off of worldly success and herself, and onto eternal benefits to mankind, specifically, the effect her stories might have on children. His gentle, respectful, wise love (and the love of characters like Beth) turns Jo from a self-absorbed writer into a selfless mother, like her own Marmee.

But Greta Gerwig never wanted Jo to be a selfless mother. She wanted, and I quote, “Jo’s love to be her work, and her romance with Friedrich secondary.” You know why?

Because that’s what Greta Gerwig believes in. Greta Gerwig’s life is her work. Watch any of her movies, you’ll see the smudge marks of that wholehearted belief all over them. She can’t even be objective when the whole point of a character is to make work secondary, as was certainly the case with the character of Jo March. No. She has to twist up one of the best American heroines ever into an automaton of herself.

The second way she mutilated source material is with Amy and Laurie. In the books, Amy and Laurie grow to love each other out of the character deficiencies that they make up for in one another. At the start of their courtship, Amy is ambitious and Laurie is lazy. Amy wants to marry for advantage, and Laurie wants to make much of his spurned love for Jo by giving up on life. And that’s it.

It’s Amy who first wakes up to feeling something romantic toward Laurie, not Laurie, and Laurie is not the first to make a move on her. Laurie does not know he is in love with Amy until well after she knows she loves him. Then, he does not make the first outward advance on Amy. They both come to the same conclusion together; when they do, she does not resist. In Greta Gerwig’s version, he’s back to falling in love with a girl who’s resisting, because that’s where Timothee Chalamet’s emotional acting shines or whatever.

But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that she adds a feminism speech from Amy, as a reason for her resistance, and she subtracts the scene where Laurie actually proposes. The scene where Laurie proposes, in the book, is so beautiful.

The two characters are in love, they know they’re in love, and neither of them is insecure about it. Amy has learned that she needs a life-partner who knows her and will protect her, like her old home-values did, and not some rich aristocrat or prince. Laurie has learned that he needs a life-partner who can stir him toward change, not through big explosive arguments and hope of conquered affection like Jo, but with gentle love and sheer inspiration, found in Amy.

So, in the most beautiful analogy for courtship that ends in marriage ever, he proposes to her while they’re rowing on a lake. She’s sitting next to him in the middle of the boat, she’s got one oar, he’s got the other, and she says, “How well we pull together, don’t we?” And he says, “so well that I wish we might always be in the same boat. Will you, Amy?” And she says “yes.”

That’s it. No argument. No big, passionate, sentimental explosion like he had with Jo. No wrenched and broken heart-strings. He didn’t have to convince her. She didn’t have to resist. Because entirely without force, and entirely without insecurity, they protected each other’s hearts and came to a conclusion that was based on something so much deeper and more eternal than fleeting passion.

Greta Gerwig cut that out and listened to Meryl Streep and put in another stormy lover’s-quarrel speech from Amy about why she couldn’t be with Laurie because she was in Jo’s shadow, and feminism and marrying for advantage, blah blah blah. It’s terrible. It’s mutilation. It ruins everything the original Little Women had.

it doesn’t matter if she got some of the characters right. It doesn’t matter if she got a lot of the quotes right. It doesn’t matter if all of Act 1 of the movie is mostly-book-accurate. If you change load-bearing themes or character motivations, you show that you can’t be objective and faithful to the source material.

It is fine if Greta Gerwig wants to make a movie about a woman who loves her work more than anything else. It is fine if she wants to make a movie about how women are under-appreciated for their minds and souls, and have characters that go on a journey to prove it. But it is not fine to use someone else’s story to say it. Make your own story, Greta Gerwig.

Oh, you already did? See: Lady Bird? See: Frances Ha? Then come up with something new. Don’t shoehorn your same beliefs into every franchise that is offered to you, like vomiting, then eating the vomit and regurgitating it over and over in new colors. Figure out how to tell someone else’s story in a faithful way, objectively, or else keep your stained hands off until you can clean them up. Especially, keep them off Narnia.

Greta Gerwig makes movies for Greta Gerwig, by Greta Gerwig. She can’t be objective, and for that, she can’t do Narnia. She can’t do it justice, she can’t do it faithfully, because she makes movies for herself, by herself.

[confessions-of-a-bookworm]

"5 tickets to the Barbie movie, please"

[silvermoonartz]

Lil low-fi meme comic I made last week due to Chapter 297 events 🤭

[novella-writers]

Hi all! I am a fellow 18+ Novella writer, mainly operating on discord. Lately I have been short of threads, so I'm seeking out some new partners! I mainly do double roleplays, but single threads are fine if I find the right partner! Below are a list of topics I am interested in writing.

Alice In Wonderland

Interview With A Vampire (1994 film)

Napoleon (2023 film)

Seven Deadly Sins

God of War

2003 Teen Titans

Stranger Things

Adventure Time

Marvel/ The Eternals

Shadowhunters

Criminal Minds

Harry Potter

Percy Jackson

Twilight

Sherlock

The chronicles of Narnia

The lord of the rings

The hobbit

Once upon a time

Bridgerton

The Labyrinth

Night in The Woods

Norse Mythology

Fandomless ideas:

- A forbidden relationship based on the moon and sun pairing. Characters would be based on these or maybe we could even explore the personification of these mystical beings! A fae and a human would be cool!

- A fantasy based pairing, could be witches, fae creatures, anything of the sort!

- Anything set in the 40's, 50's, or 60's!

- A musician couple that tours together

Sorry for the long wind, I wanted to make sure I got everything out there! If you'd be interested in chatting, feel free to like or reblog and I'll reach out to you!

Like if interested!

[daily-rayless]

Oh, you have a Narnia OC? You have a Daughter of Eve Princess OC, and a pretty leafy dryad OC, and a strong noble centaur OC, and a capering foresty faun OC?

Who among you is going to cop to having a Dufflepud OC?

[nakedinashes]

books cristina read in 2023: the voyage of the dawn treader - c.s. lewis

It is not for you, a son of Adam, to know what faults a star can commit.

[elijones94]

🦁 I read some of the “Narnia” books back in middle school. When I read “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe”, I came up with only a few story sketches while reading in AR reading class and outside of class. “The Magician’s Nephew”, “Prince Caspian”, and “The Silver Chair”, to me, were the most difficult to read through. It must’ve been because I was more familiar with “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe” due to watching the movie made by Disney and Walden Media. With Christmas coming, it felt appropriate to add another title or two to my classic stories collection of drawings. Plus, I have always wanted to show my take on some of the “Narnia” characters, especially Aslan (one of my all-time favorite characters). ✨❄️

[florencewelchsgrapejuice]

they’re movies…that take place in winter. at least partially. don’t overthink it

[thenarniaficexchange]

NFE 2023 - Quick Update

As many of you know already, AO3 is down due to a DDoS attack. What this means for the NFE community is that people can't access the site to sign up to participate in this year's NFE. Originally sign ups were going to close tomorrow, Wednesday, July 12th. We will be extending the sign up time for the exchange; however, until AO3 is back up, we can't do that. All times/deadlines will be changed based on this, but for the moment we're in a holding pattern. Once AO3 is back, we'll update  with changes for sign ups, etc. Thanks for you patience, and please remember to stay off AO3 while they work to resolve the issue.

[ablatheringblatherskite]

top five Christmas movies

OOOOH A CHRISTMAS THEMED ASK!! TY, HANNAH!!

5. Spirited

4. You've Got Mail

3. The Santa Clause Trilogy

2. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

1. Klaus

send me Top 5 Anythings and I'll answer!!

[artist-issues]

I mean actually it's really just the story of Adam and Eve and their fall, but with Greta Gerwig's ending and contextual spin put on it.

God actually created man in His own image first, for relationship with Him, and then added woman because it was not good for man to be alone without a helper. Then the Enemy told Eve that disobeying God would make her "LIKE GOD," so she disobeyed God and Adam went along with it, and instead of being like God they became monsters and their relationship was broken with God. But He offered a way to fix it by sacrificing His Son in mankind's place and un-twisting their monstrousness back into what humanity was meant for.

But in Greta Gerwig's understanding, Eve was in a sheltered idealized perfect environment and started to "wake up" to the messy possibilities of life and mortality. Barbie's jarred out of perfect, idealized Barbieland and into the messy life-and-mortality of the real world. Oh, and Ken's there too.

Instead of learning that she's become a twisted-up monster-version of what she'd been made for and opting to be returned to her true purpose, like a Christian does, Barbie does the opposite.

She decides she wants to become human--and since, in this movie, humanity means "messy decision maker" and that, in turn, translates to "a god worthy of worship," she's literally doing what Eve ACTUALLY did to sever her relationship with God in the first place: try to be god.

But instead of that breaking Barbie's relationship with her creator and twisting her up even further until she's eventually destroyed, this decision to be god is portrayed as a good thing. In fact, her creator admits that (supposedly) a creator has no say in the matter--then disappears. Because in Greta Gerwig's worldview, God is dead, for all the meaning or use or power He has, and we are gods just as we are.

It's disgusting. It's revisionist history. It's taking a historical person with the moral standing of King Henry, and writing a metaphor about how chopping his wives' heads off was actually the grand transcendent defining moment of his life--which was objectively beautiful.

That's what Greta Gerwig's Barbie has done with humanity's Fall. She says "it wasn't a Fall, it was an Awakening." Which is exactly what the Enemy lied and claimed that it would be. She's just believing the old lie and perpetuating it.

And unfortunately, the God of the Bible is actually real (plot twist) and very much on control of how all this ends. And it just doesn't end with the monsters pretending to sit on His throne listening to a pretty Billie Eilish song and smiling the end credits into place, I gotta say.

I mean it's expertly done. Very engaging story. Speaks to everything we, as humans, love in the worst way. But it's a lie. And its basically the least original take on...humanity. The world we live in. God Himself. It's the original unoriginality.

[di-daynamic]

@fluffbruary Day 26

Edmund had always liked the night.

That had been the case even before Narnia, and its incredible night sky and stars.

Admittedly, England’s stars were a lot lackluster in comparison, but he didn’t mind it. Much. He sat in the courtyard, leaning back up against the wall. He and Lucy tended to the garden a lot now, much to the astonishment of their parents. Lu had been the first to look at the surroundings back in Cair Paravel, he reminisced. After they had truly begun to rule, after everyone had really begun to look at them as leaders.

As the youngest, and the one Pete and Su were most protective of, she’d had a lot of free time in the beginning, before she began taking the regional court and dealing with soft power and diplomacy. Edmund had been busier – as the ‘Just’ he’d been in charge of most of the criminal trials, with Peter overseeing – but he’d been feeling extremely apologetic to his siblings, especially Lucy, and he’d never denied a chance to learn something. When Lucy had in her excited way rambled about her efforts to garden during one of their ‘compulsory everyone has to sit down and eat together’ meals, he'd liked the prospect of spending time with her enough to start, and he’d never stopped.

Remembering Narnia tended to be difficult though. Here, people still looked to him as a sullen child, while there he’d been a respected king. He sometimes wondered if he missed Narnia for its own sake or because he longed for a place without the flaws of England, where he could be respected.

“Looks like the first snow is here,” came a soft voice from behind him, and he instantly recognized it as his older sister.

Edmund looked up and felt the usual uneasy jerk of his stomach at the sight of anything to do with the White Witch. “So it is,” he agreed. “Is that what brings you out here at this time, dear sister?”

Susan smiled, bumping his shoulder with hers. She had always been beautiful – the kind that made other parents sigh and tell theirs that they were lucky to have such a beautiful girl who would be married off very easily – but ever since Narnia she had attained a maturity and grace of someone years older. Princes and kings had vied for her hand there.

Edmund sighed, and looked up at the stars. As all roads led to Rome, every thought these days led, somehow, twistingly, achingly, to Narnia. And how much he wished they could do it all over again.

“I saw you slip out,” she replied.

“So I can expect the others here soon too?” He asked dryly, but Susan didn’t answer that, instead looking him in the eye in that deducing way of hers. He avoided her gaze.

“What is it that brings you out here, Ed?”

Melancholy and memory, Edmund could answer, but that would bring to the forefront so many of the things they had carefully not spoken of. “I wanted to see the stars,” he said instead.

Susan looked up too. “They are beautiful,” she agreed, but he could hear in her voice the wistfulness for Narnia’s night sky.

Between the two of them, they thought too much. Peter and Lucy balanced them out, gave them joy and hope and optimism, though Pete could be a downer too, High King and all. Lu had her work cut out for her more often than not.

“I say, the pond has nearly iced over!” Lucy’s excited voice came. “Do you remember skating across the frozen rivers?”

Case in point.

“Of course,” Edmund replied, smiling at the memory. “During the winter festival. Every year, without fail. Una and Panna would always drag the two of you out, and then Pete and I’d come out just to keep you out of trouble.”

“Rather hypocritical of you to call the two of us troublemakers,” Susan drawled, but she was smiling too.

“I don’t know,” Peter teased, walking up to join them. “As I recall, it was the two of you who somehow managed to get us to stumble upon the Marsh-Wiggle rebellion. And let’s not forget the time Lucy went off with the dryads and left us to start preparing a recuse mission for an assumed kidnapping.”

Lucy rolled her eyes, and crossed her arms, huffing in a way Edmund had not heard her do since she was seventeen – but wait. She was only nine now, again.

It was difficult to remember that. Lucy slipped between acting nine and twenty-something. Peter gave commands the others obeyed instinctively, even if they contradicted their father’s. Edmund sometimes thought it was convenient to have grown up before and know how it would happen, and prevent the ridiculous ‘growing pains’ they’d had as teenagers, but then sometimes he just got so sick of being back here, with hard air and no magic and no power. It was a beastly business, altogether.

“—can’t talk, Peter!” Lucy was saying, gesturing exuberantly as always. “You were the one who got kidnapped more than a hundred times!”

“Oh yes, I remember throwing the ball for his hundredth kidnapping,” Susan said.

“I still cannot believe that when Oreius was leading a daring rescue, the three of you were dancing around in the ballroom,” Peter complained for the thousandth time.

Lucy waved a dismissive hand. “It was the hundredth time, brother. And that one was fairly low risk. We knew perfectly well you were more valuable as a hostage rather than dead. And those were low-grade smugglers. They would have never dared kill a royal.”

“We must treasure the time you are not there to boss us around,” Edmund proclaimed solemnly.

“To be sure, it was a greater shame that you managed to be captured by such incompetents,” Susan agreed, ignoring Peter’s protests, “The ball really was beautiful, wasn’t it? Though the ice sculptures were—” She hesitated, and all three of them gave Edmund the side-eye, concerned about him. Edmund rolled his eyes, he loved his siblings, but they needn’t think him so delicate so as to still quake in terror at anything even tangentially related to the White Witch.

“Ed, you danced with the Lady Eluna, remember? From Galma?” Lucy changed the topic, easily, as she was wont to do. The charming smile on her face distracted from the abruptness of it. It was why they had always sent her on diplomatic missions – with Peter or Edmund for company, of course.

Which wasn’t to say she wasn’t a terror on the battlefield, but the other three had always done their utmost best to keep their little sister away from the horrors of war, as much as could have been done with her being queen.

Edmund made a face. “Don’t remind me. Pete forced me. Said it was for ‘international relations’.”

Lucy made a clicking sound with her tongue. “Don’t listen to him, he enjoyed it. I caught him and Eluna on the balcony a couple hours into the cleanup.”

“We were only talking!” Edmund protested defensively, feeling heat rise in his cheeks.

“Just talking,” Peter mocked. “And he derides his royal brother for foisting such a great pleasure onto him.”

“Weren’t we only just teasing Peter?” Edmund complained. “Why can we not continue with just that?”

“Family time includes humiliation for everyone,” Peter smirked.

“Except me,” Lucy said cheerfully.

“I’m certain we could find something if you wished it, Lu,” Susan replied amusedly.

“Perhaps the time we went to sort the centaurs-dwarfs fight out?” Peter suggested.

“Hardly,” Edmund scoffed. “Lucy was perfectly fine in that. You’re the one who was humiliated in that, my dear sister.” He grinned at Su.

“Oh, don’t leave yourselves out,” Susan responded coolly, tossing her hair. “I seem to recall the two of you losing to Windstorm several times, and Peter proceeding to fall in the mud, and Ed making the terrible decision of burning the building down with him still in it.”

“It was an impulsive decision,” Edmund grumbled defensively, as his siblings laughed. “And you can’t say it wasn’t a good one.”

Lucy stopped laughing first. “No, we can’t,” she agreed quietly, obviously remembering the worse parts of the episode.

Narnia hadn’t been all fun and games. Ruling had been tough, and involved a lot of ugly scenes and making hard decisions.

“No regrets, then?” Peter asked, eyes and face grave, his High King imperiousness at an all-time high, and they knew perfectly well he wasn’t just asking about that mission.

“Never,” Lucy stated firmly.

Susan and Edmund exchanged a glance. “Certainly not,” she agreed.

Edmund could never, ever regret Narnia and what it had taught him, taught all of them. How it had helped heal the relations among the siblings. How much ever hurt it gave him, gave all of them, he loved it beyond anything.

“Except that you somehow managed to become even bossier, High King,” Edmund said cheekily, and his brother mockingly swatted at him, and the two of them began to playfight with their Susan exasperatedly telling them to stop and Lucy cheering them on.

How on Earth or Narnia could he ever regret this?

[illuminespace]

2023/Dec The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

[wingedflight]

Welcome to the Black Knight’s Crib

A very cracky fic for @edenfalling for the Narnia Fic Exchange 2023!

Characters: enchanted!Rilian

Tags: crack, day in the life, MTV Cribs Crossover

Summary: MTV Cribs gives viewers a glimpse into the lavish subterranean home and lifestyle of the Black Knight, notoriously-elusive companion to the Lady of the Green Kirtle.

Excerpt:

This is a pretty large castle, but today we’re gonna focus on the East Wing ‘cause that’s my zone, you know? Black Knight Central, if you will.

It starts here in the East Foyer, not too large a room but we’ve got some actual yellow-flame lanterns to start things off with a nice homey sort of vibe. Waaay better than those cold lights the gloomy-faced earthmen use, am I right? Hehehe, such weirdos.

Anyway, foyer, where we are. Through that door: big long hallway filled with antiques--I’ll be honest, decorations aren’t really my jam. That stuff’s mostly decided by the Lady, she’s super into those tapestries that tell stories with the pictures. Like this one? This one’s my favourite, it’s got some sort of giant cat getting stabbed by a hot chick. Heheh, it’s wild, isn’t it? Who even comes up with this stuff?

[Read more on AO3]

[dancingsunflowers-ocs]

𝙊𝘾 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙧 𝘽𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙤 2023

Ruslana Yang x Edmund Pevensie

↳ for @oneirataxia-girl

[nakedinashes]

books cristina read in 2023: the last battle - c.s. lewis

And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story.