Its been a long while since I’ve read the books or seen the movies, but weren’t they escaping WW2?
Seems kinda… worse than taxes and the subway. “Ah yes, lets give up on this magical world to return to ours to get *checks notes* bombed. Perfect.”
Been a while for me, too, but didn’t they find their way back by accident?
Pretty sure they were also old as hell too, so they got to like regain their youth. Sort of a win if you don’t mind living, well, here. You know, rather than a magical world with talking animals and stuff.
As I recall, they were adults but not old. I think they were riding through the forest, got off their horses to follow some light in the denser trees or something, then fell out of the wardrobe and couldn’t get back.
In hindsight, those horses definitely fled the country or got executed.
Yeah I think based on the later books, Peter would’ve been at most like maybe early thirties but probably only late twenties by the time they leave Narnia. And Lucy would’ve been like early to mid twenties. So they were adults, but certainly not old. In fact, it’s mentioned that Susan was courted by many princes and in The Horse and His Boy (warning: it’s super fucking racist and Islamophobic) she’s genuinely considering marrying someone but it turns out he’s pretty horrible. Right after the events of The Horse and His Boy, the kids hunt the white stag, see the lamppost, dimly remember the Wardrobe and end up back in our world
As for the horses, unlike in the movies, in the books it’s said that it’s very rare for people to ride talking horses bc talking horses are free in Narnia. So in the books they would’ve been riding normal horses that they probably wouldn’t bother punishing
So, are the non-talking horses… Retarded or something like that? Why do they not talk?
So basically in The Magician’s Nephew we see the creation of Narnia and how the White Witch got there. And after creating all the animals Aslan picked out two from a handful of different species and gave them the ability to speak. He also made the small animals, like squirrels, bigger and the big animals, like elephants, smaller (but only the ones that could speak changed size). So the descendants of the speaking ones can speak and the non-speaking ones (which are literally called the dumb ones in the books) can’t speak. Some species can’t talk and aren’t intelligent, like the mice in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. But bc the mice in that book chewed through the ropes that bound Aslan on the stone table they were eventually gifted with speech and intelligence which is why Reepicheep and his friends can talk by the time of Voyage of the Dawn Treader
I’m somewhat relieved to hear they were dating other humans
Well… not in Narnia, no. There is a completely separate show (based on different books iirc) called The Magicians which as a concept is like Narnia but darker (also a bit of Harry Potter bc there’s a magical grad school). And in The Magicians they do bring up the matter of human-animal relationships since the animals in the magical world can talk and all
Im not against the human-magicalanimal pairing, it was more relief that they werent dating each other.
Thanks for the recommendation about The Magicians though!
i fucking wish i could ride the subway
I’m also confused about this post’s hate of trains.
Nah, they’re based as fuck. Royalty willingly abdicating the throne to become one of the people should be applauded, not criticized. Though they could have established a new government of the people before doing so…
This has been fun, guys, but there’s no Wi-Fi here, so we’re gonna head back to hell.
I’ve thought about the isekai genre (ending up in another world) a lot lately and how a big part is usually the characters trying to find a way home. I wondered what percentage of people would actually want that nowadays. I suspect it’s considerably lower than it used to be.
“As for you, young lady, you want to go home, right?”
“No, not anymore. I want to stay here and become the new wicked witch.”
“Nonsense! Now click your big honking boots together three times and wish to go home to Kansas to live in poverty with your dirt-farming, teetotaling aunt and uncle!”
If I could bring my cat and like 3 other people, I would 100% be like “good luck, losers!” and would never be heard from again lol.
There’s a big trend in recent isekai to just outright kill the character at the beginning. So, you’re either reincarnated into another world or your soul is snatched upon death and body recreated in the other world as an explanation for why the character isn’t spending their whole time just trying to get back, but I do think that would be an interesting angle to explore.
I can only think of two Isekais where the whole plot is the main character trying to get home, and the anime fans are gonna hate which two things those are.
A Kid in King Arthur’s Court and Farscape.
3 if Quantum Leap could be counted as an isekai.
Since we’re talking that era, Sliders was a great show early on and it’s a tragedy nobody knows it.
Quantum leap is an Isekai. Getting home is a mainstay of the “Summoned Hero” genre of isekai.
Anime examples include:
The Rising of the Shield Hero
My Status as the Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s
My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One In This Other World Stands A Chance Against Me!
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest
Non anime example: Black Knight
I wasn’t sure because the only reason I even say A Kid in King Arthur’s court counts even though he just goes back in time is because he goes so far back in time, nothing he knew about the world he knows really applies making him effectively in another world. Sam never goes back too far, but, then again, wasn’t he also from the far future? 🤔
Also: Black Knight is basically A Kid in King Arthur’s Court which I just lump together. lol
There is also Those who hunt elves.
That one was always hilarious. I’ve never actually finished it though, always stalling after the first few episodes.
This was me the whole time playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Every character except the main character is MUCH better off in the fantasy realm - the main character’s brother is literally crippled and sick in the real world and healthy and robust in the fantasy realm, and the main character still wants to go back to the “real” world. Didn’t identify with him at all.
The fantastic book series Magic Kingdom For Sale is basically about this. I started reading what I assumed would be a lighthearted comedy and it literally opens with our main character lost in alcoholic depression because of an awful tragedy. The fantasy land he’s sent to is hostile, but it provides him enough hope to fight for a better world there.
It’s bad when the idea of dealing with a fantasy Dark Lord is more appealing than real life. At least it’s clear who the good and bad guys are.
Well, it’s pretty clear in 2026 normie world too (who the bad guys are). People just aren’t heroes in real life, and it’s too hard to kill the top villains.
I’m not sure what you mean, I don’t think I’ve seen a single isekai protag try to go back to Earth unless you count the “trapped in VR” ones.
I’m always a little disappointed by how quickly the regular world becomes irrelevant in the story. The intrigue is from how a person from a modern nonmagical culture interacts with a medieval magical culture.
But from the isekais I’ve seen, I’d say you could replace half of them with a person with amnesia and nothing would change.
I don’t think I’ve seen a single isekai protag try to go back to Earth unless you count the “trapped in VR” ones.
It used to be the standard:
- Digimon Adventure (the first series)/Digimon frontier (fourth series)
- Inu Yasha
- Monster Rancher
The only recent example I can think of is Zenshu from last year.
The intrigue is from how a person from a modern nonmagical culture interacts with a medieval magical culture.
Welcome to Japan Ms. Elf might be up your alley: a guy finds out his lucid dreams have actually been him getting isekei’d every night for most of his life when he accidentally brings a friend/love interest back with him. She’s fascinated by modern Japan so they start going back and forth between the real world and magical world together.
The best thing about Narnia would be the lack of climate change.
Global warming was definitely a huge plot point in the first book.
You mean the fifth book
They found the fountain of youth and you call them “fucking idiots”. Go to Narnia, live a full life, leave Narnia with your adult mind in tact, walk out of the wardrobe a kid again, repeat.
So there’s a few problems with that plan:
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If you leave Narnia, you will eventually forget Narnia. First it’s like a dream, then a dream of a dream, and then you just completely forget ever having gone.
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The same applies in reverse. You will eventually forget Earth and spend your time in Narnia instead.
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You can’t go to Narnia without Aslan taking you there. The Professor, who was infact one of the entities present at the creation of Narnia, tells the Pevensies that they won’t be getting back to Narnia through the wardrobe again.
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Even if you could pass through to Narnia on command, there is a varying degree of time dilation between Narnia and Earth. The entirety of Narnia’s 2,555 year existence is compressed into 50 years on Earth, but the first 1000 years of that existence was compressed into the first 40 years of the timeline, and the remaining 1,555 was in that final 10 years. Also, you can spend 10 minutes in Narnia and end up having been gone for weeks on Earth, so the time dilation goes both way and is pretty inconsistent then too.
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All so that we can figure out that God is a magic talking lion
Is Aslan a God, or just a very old entity? I haven’t read the books.
Well, jesus. I don’t think we ever actually see god in the books.
Moses did! See cause his face was glowing. Which he couldn’t show you.
In narnia, specifically. Was there a moses in narnia?
