beyond the wide world&#39;s end

She's also the one in charge of the healing cordial, and has to choose who gets life or death, in a way. She can't save everyone. Being the one who believs the most in Aslan without needing to see, keeping that "child's faith", combined with the way that young kids can guiltlessly do things (like animals), perhaps not knowing any better...and you put her on a throne at that age...and expect her extremely loving and kind nature to be unaltered by the responsibility? Hmm....*ponders*

Amoral, not immoral.

This reminds me of a quote from Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series, about the "coldness that lies at the heart of the Light".

I wonder if the fact that she's been raised among non-humans affects this?

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Yes, exactly. And she's the youngest of the Pevensies -- all of them are in Narnia longer than they've been alive in England, but Lucy is young. It's not a matter of coming there half-grown, it's a matter of going to Narnia as a child and living there, in a country that's literally in danger of coming apart at the seams every time someone so much as breathes funny. (How do we know that all the various races didn't want to split off into their own "nations" and rule themselves afterwards? After being ruled by an outsider for so long, maybe they didn't want another one on the throne, appointed by Aslan or not.)

Lucy's raised to rule, and she's not the Sovereign -- that's Peter, of course -- but she knows that duty is more important than anything else. She knows that she's a queen, and a warrior, and some things are bigger than her or her feelings. She's not innocent, not by a long shot.

Quoting from part four ("On a Summer Midnight"): She knows the cost. It means she won't hesitate to pay it one way or another.

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Lucy's the youngest, but per canon Edmund is only a year older than her, so he'd have much the same problem, I think. Influenced a little differently due to *being* that year older, a boy, and his experiences with the Witch and Aslan's rescue, but still...

Perhaps that's why not only is *she* coldly practical, as you say; but why *he* became involved in intelligence work...it's not often pretty or nice, but it *is* necessary.

I can see them working together, on occasion. *muses*

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Hmm, I thought Edmund was two years older than Lucy according to Lewis's timeline? (And Susan was two years older than Edmund, and Peter was one year older than Susan?)

Right, the influence of growing up in Narnia is strongest on Edmund and Lucy, because they're the youngest. With Peter and Susan it wasn't growing up as much. Things that might seem strange to someone else are matter-of-fact to the both of them.

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Chapter 5-"Back on The Side of the Door"-says there's only a year's difference between Edmund and Lucy. Edmund's in that awkward "middle" child position.

Why, yes, I *do* have got my complete one-volume set of The Chronicles right by the bed. *beams*

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Huh, the Narnia timeline (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narnian_timeline) says two years -- well, it says they were born in 1930 and 1932, but there could probably be about a year inbetween there somewhere.

And I have my seven-volume set by my desk. *beams back*

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I don't think Lewis really knew what the hell he was doing, sometimes. I hate it when good ideas happen to sloppy people.

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*shivers* um. that's kinda scary. but true...

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I totally did not see this coming.

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*looks back at her own lucy fic*

you may have scarred me now...

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I, um, sorry?

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Since I just scarred a RL friend of mine possibly for life by telling her I read slash, possibly I deserve a good scarrin' as payment? *shrugs* I'm gonna have to read this monstrously long fic of yours now, so you win :P

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It's not monstrously long...

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monstrous, long then. :P

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Oh so very true. Scary in the blood-runs-cold sort of way, but so very true.

I NEED TO SEE ALL OF THOSE FICS FOR THE PEVENSIES. MMHMMM.

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Because you don't expect it. She looks like a sweet-faced little girl, but she's not, and it's vaguely terrifying.

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Vaguely terrifying?! It's very terrifying.

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And she's so matter-of-fact about it too! One minute she's completely cold and, "I think we should just kill him now," and the next she's giggling over something a funny memory Edmund's brought up.

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She's like the movie White Witch with her sporadic mood changes, except she's not as nearly emotionally detached or physically terrifying.

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Hmm, yes, she is, come to think about it. Although it's kind of more terrifying because she's just a little girl -- or seems to be, anyway.

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Yes, indeed. And things are not always as they appear to be. *spooky music inserted here*

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Well, someone's gonna be severely underestimated, here.

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