Of Lies and Legacies (VDT)

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

After rewatching the Walden Narnias again, Swan asked me if anything new stood out. And, actually, yeah.
I’ve always known that temptation was a theme. I mean, it’s pretty obvious: Lucy is tempted by the beauty spell, Edmund by power (both by the green mist’s conjuration of Jadis and by the power of gold), Caspian by “wanting what was taken instead of what was given” (that wasn’t all that developed) and also gold, Eustace by — yeah, have you noticed that all three boys like them some gold? Anyway.
On this go-‘round, I noticed that another theme is present in three of them: legacy. Lucy wants to be beautiful like Susan (specifically, /be/ Susan, since she sees Susan’s reflection and dreams of being Susan herself), Edmund wants to be king on his own like Peter and Caspian (the fact that he goes through same character arc as Peter in PC, not to mention that Jadis shouldn’t even be that kind of problem any more, is a rant of annoyance for another day), and Caspian desperately wants to be like his father (guess we’ll have to assume that Caspian IX was pretty swell). The temptations these three face are all tied to these legacies they want to be — not merely live up to or emulate, but be.

Not only do they resist temptation (Lucy burns the spell, Edmund tosses the gold shell and turns his back on Jadis, Caspian walks away from Deathwater and promises “to be a better king”), but they learn to come into their own. Lucy accepts that she’s not Susan nor is she meant to be. Edmund gets over his inferiority complex and works on doing his part in the role he’s given (he submits to Caspian’s leadership and states at the end that the family needs him and Lucy, in contrast to the beginning in which he’d said that he and Lucy didn’t matter). Caspian lets go of his dad, basically, realizing that everything he needs to be a good king has already been given to him.

So those are those observations. How well they were executed is not something I’m gonna talk about right now.


Eeeexcept for one thing.
Edmund and Lucy come into their own... but at the climax, they take up Peter and Susan’s gifts. There are two ways of interpreting this, one negative and one positive.

I think that, from the way the movie was structured, it was a mistake to do that. Lucy tells Gael that “when you grow up, you should be just like you”... and later grabs Susan’s bow instead of using her gift (honestly, though, dagger against a sea serpent wouldn’t be all that smart) or any other bow. Edmund lets go of his past status (we can assume he no longer resents that Caspian has Rhindon, and he’s even left behind the Golden Age sword because “it wasn’t mine to keep”), and yet accepts Rhindon when it’s offered instead of insisting (as he did in the beginning) that Caspian keep it as Peter had intended. Edmund never had a special sword before and doesn’t need one now, so what’s up with this? If Edmund and Lucy have finally accepted coming into their own, why use their siblings’ gifts?

My dad’s interpretation is that, now that Edmund and Lucy have finally gotten over themselves, they’ve, in one sense, now earned the right to take up their siblings’ mantle and, in another sense, use them purely as “tools, not toys” (ie: as necessary weapons, not status symbols). On top of that, maybe the offer of Rhindon says something about Caspian: the first time, he offered to let Edmund hold it; the second time, he gives Edmund his best sword to use in battle.

What do you think? Does the use of Peter and Susan’s gifts by Edmund and Lucy weaken the character development or indicate the strength of that development?

[Swanwhite]

I had completely forgotten that Lucy and Edmund use their older siblings' gifts in this movie. It may not even have registered with me at the time, but I can visualise them holding the items. I don't think it works well narratively. The older siblings' gifts were never a higher rank for the younger two to achieve. Each gift was suited to each of the Pevensies. Of course in the books Edmund uses other swords and Lucy uses other bows, but using these particular weapons contradicts their movie arcs as you noted. I think the reason Walden did this was clearly because they were recognizable props from the earlier films, and they wanted to visually connect it as much as possible. That's why there's snow in Coriakin's house and the Witch appearing at Deathwater. I don't mind these connections in places where they don't interfere with the story, but in this case I think it makes a weak story a little bit weaker.