#but there's also susan and edmund in it

[soffij]

The problem of Lucy

If you are interested in stories about the Narnia aftermath of the Pevensie siblings you might enjoy this.

Watch it on 1080 quality for best experience.

There was a time, dark and divine, Exciting and new, shameful and true Free to explore, we had it all. Towering trust, insatiable lust Clouding the truth, both of us knew This sordid affair is ending in tears Yes we would go on knowing the wrong Until the day it was taken away Oh, all our love fell down to Earth. Here, broken and cold, with great remorse But for a while it all made sense It might have been just a dark pretense But you had me And I loved it To be with you, to be the one, To live a lie It really got me all excited. I felt wanted Then in the night the sorrow inside Was taken away. Deliverance came Fell from the sky. Heaven replied Salvation in streams, silent and clean All that we were, all that we knew Faded away with tears in the rain. Yes all that we were, all that we knew Is fading away like tears in the rain. All that we were, all that we knew Fading away All that we were, all that we knew Fading away All that we were, all that we knew Fading away All that we were, all that we knew Fading away

There's also a first draft of the first part of the video, it's a bit different and it's only 2 minutes long. I published it on YT and there's a tumblr post about it (with the thumbnail I created for it but couldn't attach to it), but soon I will upload it to vimeo.

[supernovasilence]

Ok we all talk about the Pevensies' trauma at returning to Earth at the end of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and their trouble readjusting to life there again but think of all the funny/good parts too

They return from the country, and their mom is surprised when all her children hug her at the station. Even Peter, who thinks he's all grown up. Even Edmund, who went away surly and withdrawn. She doesn't know her children haven't seen her in over a decade.

They miss their dear Cair Paravel, but they absolutely do not miss its chamber pots. Indoor plumbing is amazing.

It takes a while to remember how modern technology works, though. How many heart attacks did the siblings give their parents or the professor because they walked into a dark room only to turn on the light and find the children sitting there in the dark. (They were by the window! There was still plenty of light from the sunset! They would have gotten a candle in a minute!) The kids sheepishly remember oh yeah electricity is a thing.

(Edmund has a new electric torch in Prince Caspian. He was so excited to get that torch. Almost more excited than you'd think a kid his age would be, and his parents expect Peter at least to tease him, but the siblings all agree light in your hand at the touch of a switch is terrific.)

Suddenly getting really high grades in some subjects and terrible in others. Their grammar, reading comprehension, spelling, vocab, even penmanship? Amazing. History and geography? They don't remember anything. One time in class Susan forgets Earth is round and wants to die.

Also they can never remember what the date is supposed to be because Narnia uses different months and years. They can estimate time really well by looking at the sun though, and Edmund at least can always tell which way is north etc without thinking about it (again, using the sun)

Okay but how many times did they go to pick something up or reach something and realize they are so much shorter and less muscled than they expect? It's a common sight to see Peter climbing on counters to reach a top cabinet, grumbling about how he's High King this is demeaning. (No he never takes the extra five seconds to grab a stool. He will climb that shelf.)

Peter and Susan being delighted because they are no longer almost thirty. (In a few years Edmund and Lucy will tease them about being old and their parents will not understand.)

Lucy doesn't have to deal with periods anymore for a few years yet. Susan might not either. Heck yeah

Lucy loves to climb into her siblings' laps and be cuddled. In Narnia she eventually she grew too big, but now she is small and snuggleable again. Peter is her favorite, and if she's upset, he'll tickle her and tell bad jokes until she's smiling again, but really she loves cuddling with all her family. She grew up without her parents; how many times did she just want to crawl into her mom's lap and her mom was a world away? Imagine the first time she realizes she can now. Or, imagine one day, a cold and grey sort of day, when the rain is pattering against the windows, and it sounds like the rain on the windows of the Professor's house, that first day they went exploring. It sounds like the day they played hide and seek. It sounds so like the rain on the windows of Cair Paravel, that if Lucy closes her eyes she can imagine she's back there, having tea and chatting with Mr. Tumnus before the fireplace of her room, and soon the rain will stop, and they will go out on the balcony and wave to the naiads and the dryads and the mermaids, who have come out to enjoy the rain and visit one other on the banks of the Great River winding past Cair Paravel down to the sea.

But if Lucy looks out the window, all she'll see is the rain over London, so it's not only a cold and grey sort of day, it's a lonely sort of day too.

Susan and Edmund are playing chess in the living room (and they must have studied with Professor Kirke, thinks their mother, because they certainly weren't that good when they left). Lucy goes over to Edmund, and oh dear, thinks their mother, now he's going to call her a baby and be horrible to her, but instead he picks her up and puts her on his lap without even taking his eyes off the chessboard; it's simply a matter of course.

"Doesn't the rain sound familiar?" says Lucy in a solemn, wistful way.

Their mother doesn't know what that means, but her siblings must, because Susan says, "Yes, Lu, it does,” and Edmund gives her a little hug with his free arm as she tucks herself under his chin to watch the chess match.

(Five minutes later there is a crash from the next room as Peter falls off a counter. Their mother does not understand the words he must have picked up from the Professor, but he's grounded for them anyway. His siblings have no respect for their High King, because they refuse to stop laughing.)

[always-a-king-or-queen]

The ache will go away, eventually. 

That was what the Professor told them, the day they got back. When they tumbled from the wardrobe in a heap of tangled limbs, and found that the world had been torn from under their feet with all the kindness of a serpent. 

They picked themselves off of the floorboards with smiles plastered on child faces, and sat with the Professor in his study drinking cup after cup of tea. 

But the smiles were fake. The tea was like ash on their tongues. And when they went to bed that night, none of them could sleep in beds that were too foreign, in bodies that had not been their own for years. Instead they grouped into one room and sat on the floor and whispered, late into the night. 

When morning came, Mrs. Macready discovered the four of them asleep in Peter and Edmund’s bedroom, tangled in a heap of pillows and blankets with their arms looped across one another. They woke a few moments after her entry and seemed confused, lost even, staring around the room with pale faces, eyes raking over each framed painting on the wall and across every bit of furniture as if it was foreign to them. “Come to breakfast,” Mrs. Macready said as she turned to go, but inside she wondered. 

For the children’s faces had held the same sadness that she saw sometimes in the Professor’s. A yearning, a shock, a numbness, as if their very hearts had been ripped from their chests.

At breakfast Lucy sat huddled between her brothers, wrapped in a shawl that was much too big for her as she warmed her hands around a mug of hot chocolate. Edmund fidgeted in his seat and kept reaching up to his hair as if to feel for something that was no longer there. Susan pushed her food idly around on her plate with her fork and hummed a strange melody under her breath. And Peter folded his hands beneath his chin and stared at the wall with eyes that seemed much too old for his face. 

It chilled Mrs. Macready to see their silence, their strangeness, when only yesterday they had been running all over the house, pounding through the halls, shouting and laughing in the bedrooms. It was as if something, something terrible and mysterious and lengthy, had occurred yesterday, but surely that could not be. 

She remarked upon it to the Professor, but he only smiled sadly at her and shook his head. “They’ll be all right,” he said, but she wasn’t so sure. 

They seemed so lost. 

Lucy disappeared into one of the rooms later that day, a room that Mrs. Macready knew was bare save for an old wardrobe of the professor’s. She couldn’t imagine what the child would want to go in there for, but children were strange and perhaps she was just playing some game. When Lucy came out again a few minutes later, sobbing and stumbling back down the hall with her hair askew, Mrs. Macready tried to console her, but Lucy found no comfort in her arms. “It wasn’t there,” she kept saying, inconsolable, and wouldn’t stop crying until her siblings came and gathered her in their arms and said in soothing voices, “Perhaps we’ll go back someday, Lu.” 

Go back where, Mrs. Macready wondered? She stepped into the room Lucy had been in later on in the evening and looked around, but there was nothing but dust and an empty space where coats used to hang in the wardrobe. The children must have taken them recently and forgotten to return them, not that it really mattered. They were so old and musty and the Professor had probably forgotten them long ago. But what could have made the child cry so? Try as she might, Mrs. Macready could find no answer, and she left the room dissatisfied and covered in dust. 

Lucy and Edmund and Peter and Susan took tea in the Professor’s room again that night, and the next, and the next, and the next. They slept in Peter and Edmund’s room, then Susan and Lucy’s, then Peter and Edmund’s again and so on, swapping every night till Mrs. Macready wondered how they could possibly get any sleep. The floor couldn’t be comfortable, but it was where she found them, morning after morning. 

Each morning they looked sadder than before, and breakfast was silent. Each afternoon Lucy went into the room with the wardrobe, carrying a little lion figurine Edmund had carved her, and came out crying a little while later. And then one day she didn’t, and went wandering in the woods and fields around the Professor’s house instead. She came back with grassy fingers and a scratch on one cheek and a crown of flowers on her head, but she seemed content. Happy, even. Mrs. Macready heard her singing to herself in a language she’d never heard before as Lucy skipped past her in the hall, leaving flower petals on the floor in her wake. Mrs. Macready couldn’t bring herself to tell the child to pick them up, and instead just left them where they were. 

More days and nights went by. One day it was Peter who went into the room with the wardrobe, bringing with him an old cloak of the Professor’s, and he was gone for quite a while. Thirty or forty minutes, Mrs. Macready would guess. When he came out, his shoulders were straighter and his chin lifted higher, but tears were dried upon his cheeks and his eyes were frightening. Noble and fierce, like the eyes of a king. The cloak still hung about his shoulders and made him seem almost like an adult. 

Peter never went into the wardrobe room again, but Susan did, a few weeks later. She took a dried flower crown inside with her and sat in there at least an hour, and when she came out her hair was so elaborately braided that Mrs. Macready wondered where on earth she had learned it. The flower crown was perched atop her head as she went back down the hall, and she walked so gracefully that she seemed to be floating on the air itself. In spite of her red eyes, she smiled, and seemed content to wander the mansion afterwards, reading or sketching or making delicate jewelry out of little pebbles and dried flowers Lucy brought her from the woods. 

More weeks went by. The children still took tea in the Professor’s study on occasion, but not as often as before. Lucy now went on her daily walks outdoors, and sometimes Peter or Susan, or both of them at once, accompanied her. Edmund stayed upstairs for the most part, reading or writing, keeping quiet and looking paler and sadder by the day. 

Finally he, too, went into the wardrobe room. 

He stayed for hours, hours upon hours. He took nothing in save for a wooden sword he had carved from a stick Lucy brought him from outside, and he didn’t come out again. The shadows lengthened across the hall and the sun sank lower in the sky and finally Mrs. Macready made herself speak quietly to Peter as the boy came out of the Professor’s study. “Your brother has been gone for hours,” she told him crisply, but she was privately alarmed, because Peter’s face shifted into panic and he disappeared upstairs without a word. 

Mrs. Macready followed him silently after around thirty minutes and pressed an ear to the door of the wardrobe room. Voices drifted from beyond. Edmund’s and Peter’s, yes, but she could also hear the soft tones of Lucy and Susan. 

“Why did he send us back?” Edmund was saying. It sounded as if he had been crying.  

Mrs. Macready couldn’t catch the answer, but when the siblings trickled out of the room an hour later, Edmund’s wooden sword was missing, and the flower crown Susan had been wearing lately was gone, and Peter no longer had his old cloak, and Lucy wasn’t carrying her lion figurine, and the four of them had clasped hands and sad, but smiling, faces. 

Mrs. Macready slipped into the room once they were gone and opened the wardrobe, and there at the bottom were the sword and the crown and the cloak and the lion. An offering of sorts, almost, or perhaps just items left there for future use, for whenever they next went into the wardrobe room.  

But they never did, and one day they were gone for good, off home, and the mansion was silent again. And it had been a long time since that morning that Mrs. Macready had found them all piled together in one bedroom, but ever since then they hadn’t quite been children, and she wanted to know why.

She climbed the steps again to the floor of the house where the old wardrobe was, and then went into the room and crossed the floor to the opposite wall. 

When she pulled the wardrobe door open, the four items the Pevensie children had left inside of it were missing. 

And just for a moment, it seemed to her that a cool gust of air brushed her face, coming from the darkness beyond where the missing coats used to hang.

[tending-the-hearth]

a version of chronicles of narnia where those closest to the kings and queens get put into a sleep when the pevensies are brought back to their world, from which they're awoken only when their beloved four rules return, something à la sleeping beauty.

so the pevensie siblings return to narnia, and logically, it's been thousands of years. their closest friends, those they viewed as family, are, to their knowledge, dead, and they are completely alone now.

until peter and caspian encounter each other in the woods, and are about to get into their fight. it's the moment where peter's back is turned, and caspian has his word raised. lucy is screaming, tears in her eyes, susan and edmund are too far away to do anything, and there's a moment of chaos before caspian's strike is blocked by a larger, longer sword.

oreius, completely disgruntled and still very out of the loop, but only focusing on the fact that his king, his friend, his son, is in danger, glares daggers at caspian, not looking away for a second, even as tumnus gathers a now-relieved, sobbing lucy up in a tight hug, and edmund and susan shriek with joy upon seeing the beavers and mr. fox.

and any feeling of tension or fear immediately seeps out of peter, who drops the rock he had picked up, and stumbles to his feet and to oreius' side, being able to lean on the centaur for the first time in a year, and not have to worry about his safety or his siblings' safety. and oreius, without taking his eyes off of caspian and his followers, just puts an arm around peter.

and caspian remembers. he remembers the stories of the high kings and queens of narnia, and their beloved inner circle, and the absolutely terrifying centaur who called them sons and daughters of his heart, and he can't quite help but think about how utterly fucked he is.

[kaetor]

golden age of narnia outfit designs based on medieval fashion. dont ask why theres two of them.

[jessmalia]

Don't know if this take is controversial or not, but I think Edmund is genuinely the best person of the siblings and I think that him making the biggest mistake so young is the main if not sole reason why.

Because his misdeed was so big (in consequences not intent) he went through all that turmoil and learned all those lessons, that the majority of people have spread out over their entire lives, all at once. He deals with all his flaws right away, while his siblings, who are viewed as good and well behaved people from a young age, have their flaws slowly start to show themselves and cause problems as they get older, leaving them unprepared for how to handle them.

[losticaruss]

chronicles of narnia: prince caspian will forever be a tragedy to me, especially in the way the movie presents it. it opens with peter, desperate to return to the respect he deserves (or thinks he deserves), a fully grown man trapped in this child's, this stranger's body, still adjusting to the life he'd long since forgotten. he gets into a fight because it's natural to him. don't they realize who is he is? not selfishly (a little bit selfishly) he expects people, his siblings, the crowd, to be with him in battle. it's another battle to him, and edmund, lovely edmund, young edmund, edmund who was 12 and on the verge of death, edmund who loves his siblings the most one could ever love your own blood, is in the fray with him, and they fall back into the rhythm they were used to back home- back in narnia, and lucy and susan are screaming at them to stop, and edmund and peter see the soldiers coming home from war, and all they wants is to go back with them, and they understand how these soldiers feel, shell-shocked and distant and they want to fall into line with them, but they're kids and they're fighting other kids, they're not undisciplined, they're unadjusted. nothing changed but so did everything.

and they hop on the train and none of the pevensies want to talk about what happened and they end back in narnia and they're finally back in narnia they're home on the beaches of their home and it's a joy so grand that there's nothing they can do but go back to being kids- again, and they find cair paraval, and everything's gone- and the chessboard that edmund loved, the chessboard he played on when he first beat peter, is gone, there's nothing left of it, and they fall through the ruins like ghosts. here's the dining hall, the ballroom. remember this, lu? it used to be your bed. do you remember when you were so homesick you begged me to stay with you until you fell asleep? do you remember the way the garden bloomed in the spring? and they fall naturally in step into the dais, empty, not even the familiar sound of their shoes clacking against the polished floor. everything's gone now, of course it is. they knew how time worked in narnia, but it didn't happen to them. how could it move on without them? and they make their way into the lower floors, peter naturally falls into the trait of the leader, hes the first to forget the world they came from, but edmund, clever edmund, desperate edmund, brings a torch. he doesn't say how he packed it in his bag every day, how he packed it and prayed that they'd return. and everything is still there, in that room. nothing prepares you for seeing statues of your face- not your face, but what will be your face, what used to be your face- cracked and covered in moss. their crowns are there. everything is there. peters sword returns to his side, and it's the first time he looks complete since they left narnia. and they adventure- how much had changed? the trees are so much taller. how long now had they been gone? it was natural for narnia to have moved on, but they were meant to move on with them. peter tries to bring his siblings through his usual shortcuts, through an overpass, far from the well-trod paths that had cropped up since theyd been gone. he can't have been abandoned by his home, not so soon.

but he was. and there's a kid here, claiming to be the new ruler of narnia. who is he? he looks so young, and susan is looking at him and he's... looking back? and the civilians are looking at this stranger, this kid, like he's supposed to know what to do. had he even fought a battle? he rubs his beard- and is blocked by the bare skin of his chin (of course it's not there. he forgot.) and peter wants to be the bigger person, he's the high king, that's how it should be. but there are all these emotions he hadn't felt before- he thought, not in narnia at least. and he doesn't want to be the bigger person, he finds. stop looking at him like he should know what to do! he stands up to take over- his people forgot about him. he left and they forgot. and he sizes up this child as he speaks- high king peter of narnia, he says. the magnificent. and there it is, he thinks. the familiar look, shock, awe and- confusion? that's a new one- but not incorrect, as he realizes his situation.

he wants to be recognized how he used to be. the pevensies have returned to what they were, the warrior, the archer, the diplomat, the healer. and this new one, the one who wanted to be all four at once so desperately it made ed look wise. and finally- finally he gets his chance to shine, where he belongs, on the field, against The Enemy. of course, not how he'd like it, not in broad daylight, sword and armor gleaming, but it was the smart move. and he's filled with these emotions- not dread, or worry (maybe a little worry), but excitement, and everything is pounding in his head and the adrenaline- he forgot how good it feels- and he leads the army, his army. he's the warrior, the high king, and for a night, the people remember, they remember the golden age. and ed is brilliant, and peter can't help but grin with glee as he sees him pull of a maneuver that pete knows took months of training.

and then the hoards come and they're losing- they can't be losing, this was his chance! he's right, he's the king this was his chance to show them. and he cries for a retreat but it's too late- he was a fool, he watches his army, the army who trusted him, he watched them be slaughtered against the gates that had sealed their fate. he watched the blood spray and stain the metal, oozing between the stone bricks and he just stares. and it's all he can do and he wants- what does he want? to say he's sorry? to save them?

no- no, nothing like that. he should be in there with them. he should be gutted like the rest of them (a hero's death, not this cowards life). he went in too fast, too proud, he knows that. but to have these innocents follow him in willingly, blindly, and he's the one to make it out? it's unforgivable.

and then he's given another chance. a fight- a duel, to the death. he leaves the arena a victor, or he dies a martyr, and everyone forgets his sins of the night of the ambush. and he fights the best he can, he loses his helmet, he's injured and he can hear death whistling it's grim tune, and he almost doesn't pick up his sword, and he sees edmund, lovely edmund, young edmund, with hope in his eyes- with faith in his eyes, and peter knows, he certainly doesn't deserve the life he's been longing for, but he picks up his sword because his little brother, his little brother who almost died, whom he loves with all his heart and so much more. and he accepts it. he realizes he won't get it back, his golden age, but he can fight for edmund, for narnia. and he fights. he fights and he fights and he fights.

and when it's over he breaths the sweet narnian air, and he clasps the hand of caspian, another brother, not a blood one, nor a narnian one, but one of a deeper connection, deeper than any love, and he sees susan smiling. the pevensies and caspian are celebrated like kings, and the pevensies help caspian, still a child, overwhelmed with all this love, they guide him through it, preparing for the many days in the future when parades and celebrations fill the streets, and the people adore their rulers- their king.

it's their last time, he tells the others. once they leave, him and susan can't return. there's more on the other side, the other world, another way to return to narnia, to Aslan, and he doesn't share the fear in his heart. another way, but not this way. not through his home, where he's surrounded by it, drenched in it. not the same not the same, never the same again. they could stay, of course, says a foolish side of him. but not, they couldn't, it's stupid to say so. his mother- had he forgotten his mother so soon? she would go mad with loss. his golden age, it's come and past, and narnia moved on without him, and he steps through to the train station, not to his home, (no. he can never go home again.) and susan follows him, and she grasps his hand, a look shared between the two of them that she understands. and peter, one last chance to be the bigger person, he sees her loss and he squeezes her hand back. edmund and lucy they think they understand, and they grasp their elder siblings hands, and it's comforting, but peter and susan know, they know they won't understand, not until it's their turn, they won't know how empty it is, how lonely it is in this world.

so yeah. it's a tragedy

[whymusttheworld-95]

As part of the I wanna say like a thousand remaining members of the Narnia fandom, I think we should adopt collective dementia and pretend that the seventh book never happened, the pevensies all found the rings that digory and Polly hid and could visit whenever they wanted, and there were 8 friends of Narnia and one friend of ours (caspian) and they went on adventures on other worlds through the Wood Between the Worlds!! They all lived full lives and Peter got to pursue a career in medicine and Susan believed again, and were happy as they could be!!

[rainintheevening]

Pevensies + Hymns

[grizzlyb03]

hc: when the pevensie siblings come back to england after the Lion, the witch and the wardrobe, they all have a fancy cursive handwriting and all their teachers are very impressed.

To the point where they call Mrs. Pevensie and tell her that Peters handwriting is now readable and he gets better grades.

And Susans handwriting was already flawless before, but now it just got a little more fancy.

I belive Edmunds handwriting got a lot more cursive. i think he wrote really small and barely readabe letters before but now it's still small but more cursive and elegant.

Im kinda torn between thinking lucys handwriting is absolute chaos now (like it was fine before, but now she even uses different narinan languages and even some ancient runes or something and no teacher understands anything) OR it was a mess before (like with every child her age lol) and now her handwriting looks like written by and adult (to the point where the teachers accuse her mother of doing her homework and that lucy is somehow cheating. / I think while growing up in narnia she had teachers who showed her how to write perfectly and bc she was so young they had the most influence on her writing style. And obviously since she grew up there her handwriting developed with her. so when she came back her handwriting looks all grown up and the teachers dont understand how, bc they had a hard time getting her handwriting to be even readable (honestly they had the fear, that her handwriting would develop to look like her brothers). And now they all have fancy handwriting) (also is it noticeable that Lucy is my favourite? xD)

At some point they just decided the children were bored when they were in the country and decided to learn how to write fancy (Susan probably saw how bad her siblings handwriting was and decided that just wouldn't do)

Also the Pevensies all use fancy weird narnian words that the teachers dont understand but pretend to bc they dont want to look like children have a better vocabulary than they do

[allamericanb-tch]

headcanon that the pevensie siblings are the founders of hogwarts. susan as rowena ravenclaw, peter as godric gryffindor, lucy as helga hufflepuff, and edmund as salazar slytherin.

[always-a-king-or-queen]

there are literally so many reasons why we don't need a third Narnia adaptation

first of all, while they might not be the most accurate, the Disney movies are actually so good and, in my opinion, still manage to capture the heart and soul of the series and what it's truly about. The characters are each perfectly portrayed; the Pevensies act like actual siblings and yet love each other dearly and would die for each other even through all the petty arguments; the music creates perfect atmosphere and emotion and never fails to make me tear up or get shivers down my spine; and the CGI is honestly just absolutely stunning.

I really do not feel like we need another adaptation by Netflix.

Especially not through Netflix.

Netflix has already been known to mess up so many shows and movies by completely changing the source material or adding in unnecessary things that completely take away from the purpose of the story. I can already see them warping Narnia into something that barely even resembles the books, that strips it of its purpose and simply makes it about a fantasy world, nothing more. I've already seen posts saying that the new movies just can't end the way the books end, that heaven must be explained away, that Susan never forgets and falls down a dark path, that the faith aspect must be taken out so as not to offend new viewers.

Here's the thing.

If you take faith out of Narnia, you remove the very heart of the series. you remove the entire purpose. Because Narnia is entirely about faith, and trust, and Someone greater than yourself who sacrifices everything to save your own traitorous soul. the Disney movies did not shy away from portraying this faith as openly as possible. if anyone was offended, I've never seen proof. I have seen many nonbelievers talk about how much they were affected by Aslan's death, which goes to show that you simply don't have to be Christian to understand what Narnia is about, and to love and enjoy it.

So if these new remakes remove the faith aspect, then what is the point? four siblings go to a magical land and save it from a witch and befriend a talking lion with nothing special about him and live there as kings and queens and return home and live happily ever after? there is no sacrifice, there is no "he's not tame, but he is good," there is no creation, there is no redemption, there is no last battle, there is no "in your world, I have another name", there is no sister straying down a dark path because she has forgotten how to hope, and then returning because her story is unfinished and the road to heaven is paved with flowers that symbolize her name.

so then, what are you left with? Aslan is just a talking lion, nothing more. the stone table never cracks, the sun never rises. "That by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there" is forgotten entirely, because why would Aslan exist in our world if he is merely a talking lion in Narnia? Aslan's country is changed to be something else, and there is nothing about how Aslan suddenly no longer looks like a lion, and how the things that happened after are more great and beautiful than can be described. Edmund's life is never threatened because of his traitorous deeds; Aslan never offers his own life in place of a guilty boy, is never killed, is never resurrected.

the very core of Narnia is removed, and what you are left with is emptiness.

sure, it might make for a good fantasy story nonetheless. you might still have sweeping views and epic music and an intriguing plotline, but something will always feel like it is missing. like there is an empty hole, desperately needing to be filled.

of course, I don't know that all of that will happen; it's just speculation at this point. But I am fairly sure that it is safe to predict these upcoming movies as such. I highly doubt the producers will want to include the faith that shapes Narnia, because according to them, having a faith aspect means less viewers since too many people would be offended.

but if only they would look at the already wonderful existing adaptations, they would know that is simply not the case.

[tending-the-hearth]

one of my absolute favorite details in the "prince caspian" movie is the moment where caspian shows the siblings the stone table, and everything is lit up. lucy is the only one of her siblings to approach the stone table, and the other three do not follow until she's right up against it. she's the only sibling that we see who actually sits on the table in the following war council scene. she's almost laying down on the table, completely content to sit there, but we never see her siblings sitting on the table or on the steps of the table. in the war council scene, susan and edmund are sitting on the columns on either side of the table while peter is talking. (i will very much be making a separate post about that one scene bc there is SO much there that i need to talk about)

the only time we see one of the siblings sitting at the table with lucy is after the attempted resurrection of the white witch, and peter sits with lucy. however, he only does so after she pulls him over.

it's one of my favorite details both in the books and in the movies, that lucy's siblings never once are shown to be jealous or angry at her closeness with aslan. there's an understanding there, that, while they're all aslan's chosen and the kings and queens of the prophecy, lucy is aslan's dear one. with the table, there's an immediate, unspoken thing amongst the siblings that if any of them have the right to sit on the table, it's lucy

[supernovasilence]

I'M GONNA CRY I JUST SPENT LIKE AN HOUR ON AN ASK AND TRIED TO SAVE IT AS A DRAFT LIKE A FOOL AND NOW IT'S GONE. It was anonymous too I can't even @ the asker ciar I hope you see this ToT

anyway the ask was "please talk more about 'their siblings are all the Pevensies have' " so I'll try to reconstruct what I had

Listen if there's anything I like in fiction it's siblings, and relationships that would probably be unhealthily codependant in real life but this is fiction so it's fine (or you push them that little bit farther into unhealthy and then you have a dark/tragic au, which can be fun too). So thinking about the Pevensies makes me go feral a bit.

Narnia, and her thrones, are a gift, and they're a burden.

The Pevensies gave up their home, their friends, their family, their old lives—even the memory of their old lives—to rule Narnia. And their old lives currently included being sent away into the country to shelter from a war, so they would have lost some of that anyway, and I'm certainly not saying finding Narnia was a bad thing. But it came with sacrifices, and out of all the things they lost, they still have each other. In all the magical, beautiful, wonderful, but strange things they have to learn, their siblings are familiar. Faced with sudden, terrifying responsibility, they can still be just kids, just Pete and Su and Ed and Lu, with each other. And then part of that responsibility is Peter and Susan being parents to Edmund and Lucy as well as siblings, and it's strange and it's familiar and everything gets complicated and messy but it all boils down to they love each other so much.

They're the only humans around. They're the only ones confused by the magical, medieval land they're in. Their friends and advisors do what they can, of course, but in the end the weight of running a country all comes down on four tiny pairs of shoulders; they're the only ones who know how that feels. They make friends, and friends that become like family, but in those early days the only people they've known more than a few days are their siblings. And they've known each other forever. They're the ones that know how to make Peter laugh when he works too hard or coax Susan into cruelly needed bravery and she's terrified or see past Edmund's angry outbursts to what's really bothering him or convince Lucy to be more responsible without telling her she's wrong for being young or emotional or wild. They know the in jokes, the favorite colors, the secret petty hates (Lucy doesn't like bugs, if you make Peter wear gray he won't be able to focus all day because all he can think about is how much he hates wearing gray), the little tricks to cheer each other up. They know how to soothe each other out of nightmares and the sort of places they hide when they want to cry.

And they're the only ones who understand how they can have the magical joy that is their new life and still be sad. They're the only ones who remember England, everything and everyone they knew there. Later, when Narnia has soothed their homesickness with cruel mercy, they're the only ones who know what it is to miss what you can no longer remember, who understand the ache that still gets into your gets into your dreams some nights, long after you know the words and the names to explain.

And then they go back.

Once again, they lose home; once again, their siblings are all they keep. Digory went to Narnia, but he knew her for a few days in her infancy. He doesn't know her castles, hasn't learned her dances, hasn't ridden for leagues through her forests or sailed her seas. He doesn't know what it's like to lose years of your life in an instant. He still remembers the names of months and how to use common household items. He wanted to come back, so he could embrace his mother and make her well. The Pevensies were thrown out without warning, and their mother is far away under bomb-filled skies. But they still have each other. Peter still tries to lead, stumbling, scared, and the others try to support him; Edmund struggles; Lucy runs wild; Susan is frightened. It's strange and it's familiar.

They return to Narnia; it's broken, changed, a thousand years too old. Of everyone the Pevensies knew in the Golden Age, their siblings are all they have left. No one else understands how strange it all is, so much the same but so different, how it feels to be a legend.

Alright this got much longer than I planned and there are two diverging rambles from here so. I'm gonna start with my thoughts on the Pevensies' dynamic in my preferred and-then-they-get-to-keep-Narnia-somehow headcanon, and below the read more will be my thoughts about canon.

They're allowed to stay this time, and rule alongside Caspian. All Narnia has assumed, of course, that the kings and queens of old would. Only the Pevensies know the relief the others feel. Only they understand the secret mistrust they feel, too, that Aslan's promise will be a lie. Some Narnians have utter faith in him, and would think such doubt inconceivable (especially from the four he fought alongside, and died for), or even blasphemous. Some would have preferred if Jadis came back, or are wary of authority altogether after so long under the Telmarines, but Aslan is a story to them, not seen for centuries. He was the Pevensies' friend. Their doubt is mingled with the taste of betrayal, and shame for feeling so.

The Pevensies rebuild Narnia once more, not from ice this time but iron chains. The work is familiar and it isn't; Narnia is the same and it isn't. All Narnia cheers when Cair Paravel is rebuilt, but the Pevensies are the only ones left alive who called it home.

If this is an au where the Pevensies simply never go back after PC, then they are once again the only ones who remember England, and the people they left behind. They aren't surprised when someone says "I'm homesick" while standing in their bedroom in Cair Paravel, know who their siblings are talking about when they ask "do you think they're doing okay? we'll be dead before they even know we're missing", understand how they can be living such a joyous life and still carry a little ember of sorrow in them all the time. If this is an au where the Pevensies still travel between the worlds, but with more time spent in Narnia and a guarantee to always return there, then they are the only ones who know how confusing that is, living two lives, and how hard it is, lying to your family about so much that's so important to you.

But their siblings are family too, and always there no matter the world, and as long as they have each other, the Pevensies can survive anything. Susan is famous for her beauty, and they all four laugh the day she gets her first silver hair, the first among any of them.

"The dear little friends are going senile now," Trumpkin mutters, in his grumbly, affectionate way, and Susan just laughs and says,

"Oh, I quite plan to,"

because Peter is giving her hand a squeeze while Edmund and Lucy beam, and she knows they all understand what this means. They are growing and greying and living, here, in Narnia. They have been and they will. They never got old enough to go grey, the first time round. And they will get very grey indeed, and very old, and they will have lots of friends and a large extended family, and lots of people will have lots of pieces of them. But, though those things get fewer, there will still be some things that only their siblings understand best, because they knew each other first.

(Honestly my base headcanon is actually the Pevensies as a set morphing somewhere along the way into the Pevensies + Caspian as a set, but the point is these siblings spend years being the only ones being each other's closest people and it shows.)

Alright now the acknowledging-canon-for-once option!

They leave again. Peter and Susan know it's forever. Edmund and Lucy now know there is a forever away from Narnia, waiting for them someday. They think of the Professor, who still dreams about the world he saw for a few days as a child. How comforting his stories had seemed before! How sad they seem now, a lifetime spent missing what you will never have again! The Pevensies go to stiff, unhappy boarding schools, and are surrounded by people who don't understand everything they have lost, everything they will lose.

Perhaps cruelest of all, they begin then to be ripped away from their one constant: each other. The Pevensies return to the train platform where they were waiting to catch two different trains: one to the boys' school and one to the girls'. Peter and Susan can't talk through their complicated knot of loss and relief and confusion, can't console each other or offer answers to the question of "what now?". Edmund and Lucy can't share their own relief, their anxiety. Lucy can't cheer Peter up or ask him if losing Narnia can really be okay. Susan can't toss away Edmund's fears with calm logic when he's loses his temper at bullies and fears he's slipping back into old ways, or listen to him tell her she's still brave and beautiful and important and safe even though everyone treats her as a child (a girl-child, at that) and the newspapers speak of war.

The ties binding them fray a little more, and a little more, and a little more. The next summer, Peter goes to study with the Professor. Their parents take Susan to America. Edmund and Lucy are sent to their aunt and uncle. They come back with tales of months at sea, of their friends Caspian and Reepicheep and Aslan. They are all Peter and Susan will ever get of Narnia again. Peter and Susan are the only ones who understand the pain Edmund and Lucy are now feeling, knowing they're never going back, the ones who teach them how to breathe through it until breathing no longer hurts.

It's not enough. Fray and fray and fray. Thread by thread. Susan works hard to live in this world Aslan told her to live in. What right has she to do otherwise? The other three cling to a duty handed to them by prophecy when they were children. What right have they to ignore that? They grow up. Three of them go to university or get jobs and probably move out. (Lucy did not. I'm trying to keep this neutral and not rant-about-how-much-I-hate- canon but I won't ignore that Lucy was seventeen when she died.) They drift apart.

Digory forms the "friends of Narnia". Peter, Edmund, and Lucy are united again, bound together by their shared experiences as they have ever been. It's not the same, Susan is not there, but it's enough.

(Extra painful fun fact! When I typed "Peter, " my phone suggested "susan" as the next word! I have typed "Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy" so often even my phone expects them to be a set! This is fine!)

The Last Battle, the train crash. Peter, Edmund, and Lucy die. Susan buries them, and there is no one left to understand all she is mourning. Her last link to a home she cannot bear to acknowledge aloud. The children she played with. The adults she saw them grow into. She knows what Lucy would look like grown, either because she still remembers Narnia and won't admit it or subconsciously somewhere inside her, but Lucy will never be twenty-three this time around.

Peter, Edmund, and Lucy wait in "true" Narnia. Again, they dwell in magical splendour, and ache in their dreams. This time, they remember who they are missing. Still, they are surrounded by joy, and time does not seem very important anymore, so overall they are happy. (It's not the same, Susan is not there, but it's enough.) Susan lives and learns and mourns and makes her peace and comes to Narnia in her own time, the only one of them to grow old and the last to grow ageless. It's easy to forget sorrow, in that place; when Susan embraces her siblings, the only ones who understand how badly she has missed them are them, because they have missed her just the same. But now they are complete again, and that's all that matters.

[sbd-laytall]

Caspeter, but in a Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement AU.

Okay, but hear me out.

Peter takes Mia's role.

Caspian takes Nicholas' role.

Aslan takes Clarisse's role.

Miraz takes Nicholas' uncle's role.

[protect-namine]

I saw some people say that if someone from the pevensie kids turned conservative it would be edmund and honestly I took that as a very personal offense. ignore what actually happened to his actor because that part is unfortunately true (I still mourn this fact when I remember it) and like I get that this is probably coming from just LWW perspective, but I believe in my heart of hearts that edmund the book character would noooot turn conservative. not after all the character development and him growing up in HHB and caspian and voyage??? no, no!!!!!