Narnia Spin-Off series for Netflix by Rebekah Walton

Since I am in general a Narnian Purist Book fan, you would probably expect me to be against Narnia Netflix spin off series (Any series that did not follow the Narnia books but, instead created it’s own story, which I guess they did with the VODT movie but, most people just say they did a bad job of following the story they started.), but, this is not exactly true.

 

I think that you can do it well if you follow certain rules. As such since it is going to Netflix and I expect them to eventually do this because of the way Narnia was marketed to them by having ‘‘3,000 characters’’ (not even close to that many characters named in the 7 books),and being a ‘‘universe’’.

With that in mind, I would like to give the Netflix fanfiction spin-off series, a chance to be loved by created a list of rules, they should follow in keep in mind while they write scripts, cast actors and film.

C.S. Lewis was not against fan fiction, in fact, if they ever want to finish Susan’s story (since he never told us her ending) they would be more than welcome to.

But, here are the rules:

1. Anything unNarnian should be kept out of Narnia. (such as, certain sins that are never mentioned in the series, those would be very weird and come off as trying to send a message about today’s culture in Narnia, when they are not the same.) 

2. Flesh out what Lewis left out. (example: Susan's story ending could be a spin off series or most likely a movie.)

3.  All the course of History, Narnia and Our World must stay the same.

4.  Cannonical to the books Lewis created. (All of the boundaries that Lewis created in the Chronicles must stay the same, and no extra trips to Narnia can be made other than the trips mentioned in the series. Characters can be added as long as they do not change the follow of the story, the series of events, or the character of other characters in the series)

(Of course, I would not want them to make anything like Anne with an E series on Netflix, but, this can barely be called an adaptation anymore, it strays so far from the material and changes the characters a whole lot. I am against anything along those lines.)

Note: Calormens for the most part hate Narnians and Archenlanders, Narnians and Archenlanders have no problems them, as seen in the Horse and His Boy as Susan almost marries one, and Shasta and Aravis marry and their son is the best King of Archenland. (Shasta is an Archenlander Prince and Aravis part of the ruling house of Calormen.)

So, racism does occur (Calormens are a different shade of skin than the Narnians and Archenlaners but, it is only from the Calormen’s side, certain evil dwarfs are racist against all Telemarines because they are Telemarines and there are slaves but, not in Narnia only in countries that are not Narnia or Archenland, and they are not strickly sold because of their shade of skin but, rather their social status in the Lone Islands before it was banished and Calormen. If all of this is understood, racism may be present in the Netflix series.)

  

Keeping those rules in mind here are some ideas for Narnia Netflix Spin-off ideas:

1.      King Frank and Queen Helen series (building a kingdom, raising their kids)

2.      The Golden Age of Narnia series (The Pevensies ruling, Corin gets a girl, Cor and Aravis ruling, Ram the Great, ends with the Telmarines taking over, Queen Swanwhite. Lord Peridan)

3.      The Seven Friends of Narnia series (Living life in the UK. Jill Pole and Eustace meet the other friends of Narnia, school life, Jill Pole takes archery lessons, etc.)

4.      Susan series(Susan dealing with the aftermath of the traincrash) (this spin-off can be darker and gritter and rated differently than the rest, and since it includes our world can include issues not found in the rest of the series.

        It would be best for the series to try to include Lewis’ salvation story in essence in Susan’s story or have Susan meet Lewis (the narrator of the books) and tell him about their time spent in Narnia except for the Last Battle after she realizes they were not just stories they made up as children. Although, now that I think about it, Lewis or Susan could see what happens in The Last Battle through a dream and then record all that happens down in a book.)

 

 

 

 

 

Is Susan Lost? By Rebekah Walton

Really, this a terrible question it presents the asker of it as a person who does not care about anyone else, the dwarves, Harold and Alberta and the rest of the people on that trainwreck. 

After all, those people should be important as well, but, the person asking Is Susan Lost cares nothing about those other people and only cares about a person who did not die and therefore the story does not tell us the ending of. We do not know the ending of Susan. 

All we know is that right now she thinks her siblings are being rather silly. But, earlier in the Chronicles of Narnia we say statements like ‘‘Once a King or Queen of Narnia always a king or queen of Narnia’’, which means to me if you just forget about something that does not make it any less true. 

Let’s look at what the seven friends of Narnia said about Susan.

“My sister Susan,” answered Peter shortly and gravely, “is no longer a friend of Narnia.”“Yes,” said Eustace, “and whenever you’ve tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says, ‘What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.’”

 "Oh, Susan! She's interested in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up." –Jill Pole

"Grown-up, indeed. I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she'll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one's life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can."- Polly

Now, let’s look at what Lewis mentioned about her later:

Lewis wrote to a young reader in 1957: “The books don’t tell us what happened to Susan. She is left alive in this world at the end, having by then turned into a rather silly, conceited young woman. But there’s plenty of time for her to mend and perhaps she will get to Aslan’s country in the end . . . in her own way.”

In his Companion to Narnia, Paul F. Ford writes at the end of the entry for Susan Pevensie that "Susan's is one of the most important Unfinished Tales of The Chronicles of Narnia", but adds in Footnote 1 for that entry:

‘‘This is not to say, as some critics have maintained, that she is lost forever ... It is a mistake to think that Susan was killed in the railway accident at the end of The Last Battle and that she has forever fallen from grace. It is to be assumed, rather, that as a woman of twenty-one who has just lost her entire family in a terrible crash, she will have much to work through; in the process, she might change to become truly the gentle person she has the potential for being.’’

Someone  on Narniaweb said, ‘‘He never said Susan was permanently barred from Narnia, just that – at the time of LB – she was preoccupied with more shallow things to the neglect of the important things.’’

 Which to me is exactly the point. But, also, wow, no one is thinking about Harold and Alberta who lost their son and the Pevensies save Susan in a car accident. They were also too preoccupied about being healthy to think about Christ. But, surely  they saw what a different child Eustace was once he came back from Narnia. 

According to the books, when Eustace returns home after his adventures, his mother thinks he has become tiresome and commonplace, blaming the change on the influence of "those Pevensie children" — though everyone else thinks he has become a much better person. But, surely after the death of their son and the Pevensies, both Harold and Alberta would go over to the house where Susan was living and would mourn over their deaths. 

So, the question should not be Is Susan Lost, but rather How long is it going to take Susan to come back to realizing what is right? Susan was not the only person who lost people in that train accident and likely, some boy lost a family member in that accident as well. And then when she comes to mourn and put flowers at the accident she meets the young man who also came to do the same thing……Oh, sorry, a fan fiction in the works….

But, really when I think of Susan all I can think about is how her story is ripe for fan fiction. 

And this is the basis of Lewis’ beliefs about fan fiction in relation to Narnia. Writing to a young fan, C.S Lewis states, “I am delighted to hear that you liked the Narnian books. There is a map at the end of some of them in some editions. But why not do one yourself! And why not write stories for yourself to fill up the gaps in Narnian history? I’ve left you plenty of hints – especially where Lucy and the Unicorn are talking...I feel I have done all I can!"(104).

 In this way, Lewis is saying I have written books to encourage fan fiction and creativity. So, if you are so worried about Susan being lost, why don’t you write your own fan fiction already?

 Just to get you started, here’s an idea HPofNARNIA and Fireberry suggested  on Narniaweb:

 Susan has someone arrive at her door.

"Hey, I’m sorry to say this to you but- your family is dead"

Susan: *Eyes wide open* "What!"

"There was a terrible Accident. your Parents, your Brothers and Sister and your Cousin were in a train, it crashed and killed them, along with your Cousin’s friend, the Professor you stayed with and his friend. They’re all dead. I’m sorry."

Susan: *Gasp* 

That’s all I can think of.

… And the next day, Susan goes to the scene of the railway accident to lay down a huge wreath of flowers … and by the side of the tracks, she notices something … green and yellow rings? She approaches and reaches down to pick up a yellow ring. and … TO BE CONTINUED!

So, there’s your jumpstart, write away. 

Or since Netflix now owns Narnia, here's your ending to The Last Battle.

Eustace /Jill Romance (Eustill) by Rebekah Walton

This is the only non-cannon Narnian Romance that I would say has real possibilities within the Chronicles.

Many would argue that the only reason that they did not together in Chronicles was because they died.

With that said, does that mean that I want a really fleshed out romance for them in the movies? No. I still do not.

 (I don't even want a teen romance between Aravis and Shasta. And they are a cannon couple.
I just want them to focus on the adventure story and then at the end show their wedding years later and them ruling the kingdom.)

I think fleshed out romance would take away from the core of the story and would be distracting to the audience. But, I see nothing wrong with having an implied romance. This romance is pretty popular considering the number of fan fictions on this pairing is quite high and only is below the dreaded romance that will not be named and Lucy and Caspian ( an inferred and possibly implied romance in the film).
Which means even if they do not imply the romance between Eustace and Jill, many people will still infer it.

I think implying a possible romance between Eustace and Jill is one of the best things that they can do considering what things might happen if they do not properly deal with other elements.

 In the Silver Chair there are three guys and a girl who are heavily involved in the story. Caspian does not count guys, he's really old and (spoiler) dies. We have the Prince/Knight Rilian, Eustace, and Puddleglum. Jill kissed Puddleglum, and Rilian calls her ''lady'', and ''damsel''.

 So, there are two very bad directions this film could go. (I am not sure if I even have to name them. But, just incase, we could end up with a love triangle or create needless shippings which are way worse and distracting from the story than Eustill.)

Now, they could just stick with the book and keep Eustace and Jill at age 9 and then they won't have any of these issues, but I don't have enough faith in them, to even think that they could do this properly. (VODT movie left me with no faith in producers, and directors, or script writers.) But, I am afraid all Hollywood knows is how to ruin things.

In order to make sure this is doesn't blow up, we have create the age difference factor for Puddleglum and Jill. Plus, make sure the kiss is on the forehead or something (in the book, Jill is nine, but in movies they like to age up characters). So, that would solve the Puddleglum problem.

Now on to the Rilian problem. Rilian is a prince and a knight and any girl might fall for him. In the books, Rilian is around 30. But, if they make Rilian really handsome and age them to their teens, no one will even care about age different and we will end up with another forbidden romance(the romance that will not be named). We could make a girl at home really like him, and when he comes back (she should not go on the journey with them.) he can see her and remember her from his childhood and they can hug, thus ruining any potential romance between Jill and Rilian.


 Also, a method to stop this from happening is to imply a romance between Eustace and Jill. Is this the only way they could stop the other potential romances with an implied Eustace and Jill romance? No, but this is an easy way to get around those other issues.


But, remember guys implied is implied, I still don't want a kiss or them declaring love or like  for each other.


Simple things like holding hands and hugging are fine if they do not distract too much from the story.

So, no, Eustill romance is not the worst thing that could ever happen. In fact, an implied romance might save us from worse things.

(By the way, the worst thing that could ever happen is Silver Chair movie to become like Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie, but that is another post for another time.)