#also i havent read narnia in a WHILE so feel free to chime in on their dynamic if you agree/disagree. im mostly an fma fan lol

[its-no-biggie]

okay listen. i love the pevensies. they have some really accurate sibling conflicts, like none of them taking lucy seriously because shes the youngest, edmund being easily turned against the others because of his unaddressed resentment, and peter being responsible to the point of overbearing. theyre solid fictional siblings! but NO ONE is doing it like the elrics

and the key difference is that the pevensies dont really like each other?? they love and care for each other, certainly, but they dont get along most of the time and theyre constantly at odds. theres a major power dynamic, and all of them hold some level of resentment toward each other because of that power dynamic. this is certainly realistic, and they do work through some of it, but you kind of get the sense that they love each other out of obligation/proximity, which creates some emotional distance between them. they take care of each other but they dont SUPPORT each other. and it leads to things like edmund getting taken advantage of by the witch or lucy running off by herself all the time.

the elrics, on the other hand, are best friends. theres no significant power dynamic- theyre both equally protective of each other and treat each other with great respect. they go everywhere together, tell each other everything, and each of their motives is to get the OTHER their body back. ed lays down his life for al VERY early on in the show, and toward the end al deliberately puts his life in eds hands (haha get it? cause its...... eds hand....... ANYWAY-) the biggest conflict between them is when al gets manipulated by barry the chopper, which was also partially triggered by ed choosing not to tell al something out of fear of what he would think. that whole conflict is about what happens when the 2 of them keep things bottled up in order to avoid hurting each other. meanwhile lucy is out here running away in the middle of the night because she knows her siblings either wont believe her, or wont let her go because its too dangerous. the pevensies WANT what the elrics have.

and if youre thinking "well thats great but no siblings are like that in real life, its unrealistic" i regret to inform you that i am in fact that close with my siblings. we used to be much more like the pevensies- we spent a lot of time together and cared about each other, but there was a major power dynamic and we didnt get along. then in middle school we realized we were all on the same team and got over our bullshit. and now we're best friends.

now, age does also play a factor- the age gap between me and my siblings is closer to the elrics than the pevensies, so its easy for me to say "the power dynamic is bullshit, lets just be friends!" when its a bit more complicated than that. so, given the age gap, it is understandable that peter would take a more parental role. but you can still have a parent/older sibling who takes charge without talking down to the other person?? especially because, and i just learned this recently, apparently younger siblings genuinely look up to their older siblings??? like its not unreasonable for peter to take charge, but it IS unreasonable for him to dismiss lucy just because shes the youngest. a power dynamic doesnt always have to create resentment, even among teenagers. and yes peters treatment of lucy is addressed, but its in a very christian "children are valued by god" way instead of a "shes a person with valid thoughts and opinions too, you know" way- and im not here to critique the validity of that, im just saying it doesnt really strengthen their sibling dynamic. this is ESPECIALLY clear with the edmund situation- he gets all the blame for that as if his siblings did nothing to drive him away??? maybe if you made him feel loved he wouldnt even be tempted to sell you out!

anyway, in conclusion theyre both very realistic, however the elrics like each other more and thats rarer to see and also way more fun in my opinion. thank you for coming to my ted talk

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