you know, at this point I'm really hoping the story doesn't disappoint

[bedlamsbard]

Suddenly I think I might have been wrong, and what we see in Caspian in PC isn't naivete at all, it's inexperience mixed with culture shock to the nth degree. Because seriously, there's so much culture shock there it isn't even funny, and it's about fifty different kinds of it, too. (I mean, you have the Narnians, and then you have the Pevensies, who are caught between two different cultures themselves, England and Old Narnian, which is completely different from the New Narnians, so basically everyone has culture shock. But Caspian especially.)

Comments

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

Well, Caspian's dealing with meeting a bunch of non-humans for the first time, and handling those interspecies politics, trying not to be a bit weirded out, I'm sure. It's one thing to read about Centaurs, Minotaurs, dwarfs, etc, but meeting them is another. That's aside from the suddenly materializing royal legends.

But I think the Pevensie's disorientation would be VAST. They're back "home" but even the land has changed. The people are very different in everything from their "Narnian" alliances, their attitudes to the Kings & Queens, their military strategical training (or the lack thereof), lukewarm faith in Aslan, and their *anger*...

The Narnians *and* the Telmarines don't fare much better.

Mental whiplash, all around.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

That's what I'd always thought, especially in book canon. I don't think it's too hard for us to put ourselves in his shoes (boots?): how well would we deal with meeting Talking Beasts and centaurs and minotaurs AND half of the Round Table all at once? We know them from stories, just as Caspian did, but to actually meet them? And to have them regard you as an ancestral enemy and have to sweet talk them around *fast* to your side?

WAY big culture shock.

Oh yes, and there's a big lion who thinks he's God and actually is.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

The undertone of this whole story is everyone going, "OH MY GOD WHY IS EVERYTHING DIFFERENT." It's just that with Caspian's POV it's...not so much of an undertone. (And I seriously didn't notice how much he thinks like a Telmarine. It's...disconcerting. And for some reason he thinks Peter is basically another Miraz, which is kind of fascinating in an "OMGWTF" kind of way.)

I have got to write an outsider POV PC story. This is the sort of thing I don't understand till I write it.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Well, I think I would have a heart attack.

It's just...I was prepared to deal with that, writing-wise. The kid thinks a lot faster on his feet than I'd thought, even though he's still going "OH MY GOD I AM SO CONFUSED" every two minutes. I just wasn't prepared to think about how differently the Telmarines think compared to the Narnians, and Caspian is very Telmarine.

[snacky]

Yeah, that's pretty close to what I see in Caspian. He's just kind of completely FREAKED by the whole thing.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

And understandably, of course. I just never thought about what Telmarines think about this whole thing -- and the Narnian attitude towards the Telmarines, which he's suddenly suffering the full brunt of. THEY ARE NOT HAPPY.

[swift-tales.livejournal.com]

I think maybe that's something you can see in the scene with Reepicheep...

"You are a mouse", it's like.... What the fuck is going on?

And then... Need to think fast, got to keep it from killing me.... "Well.. blablabla... NOBLE mouse!"

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

Someone who understands the Telmarine mindset, but also KNOWS just who and what the Pevensies are to Narnia and her people, Peter in particular.

I'm still thinking Cornelius. He loves Caspian but I think he'd be able to pull him up short, if needed.

I think it *would* be a fascinating problem to explore. I don't know if the 2 pieces where Peter and Caspian had sex/exchanged oaths are part of your greater cycle; but if so, *something* had to change enough for Peter to approach him and for Caspian to say yes, and then for the sex/oaths to mean...something. A shift in understanding each other-because Peter doesn't "get" Caspian, either.

At least, this is how it appears to me from outside your head...

[snacky]

Yes, you do see a bit of that in the movie, where the Narnians are listing the crimes against the Telmarines, and Caspian is like, "Wait, you're saying it's MY FAULT?" And again, when they meet up with the Pevensies for the first time, and the Narnians are all, "Screw this kid, the HIGH KING is here at last!"

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

hee. I once wrote a what-if drabble of someone from modern-day England being transported back to post-Roman times, and they'd be wailing 'But I'm *English*, why are you attacking me?' while the British are going 'Yes, it's bloody obvious you're English. You speak like a Saxon, look like one - you think we weren't going to notice the blond hair?' And then more attacking.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I don't think Cornelius is a Narnian, though. I mean, he has Narnian blood and he knows the legends, but he wasn't raised Narnian and he knows the legends from books, and what he wants is to put Caspian on the throne and peace between the Narnians and the Telmarines. He doesn't think like the Narnians, he doesn't understand the Narnians -- and the Narnians don't trust him. (Which I think is one of the things that the book gets across that the movie doesn't.)

Hell, Cornelius probably helped Caspian come up with the plan to kill Peter.

They're technically supposed to be, or at least "Once More for the Ages" is -- I meant "Freely Offered" to be a missing scene, but then contradicted the set-up in "Ages." Um, whoops.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*snickers* Yes, exactly.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. I'm getting a little into what the Narnians think of Caspian here, and it is not good. ("Telmarine spy", indeed!)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Exactly. Caspian may be in over his head, but holy cow, can he think fast on his feet. He has to be able to, otherwise the Narnians would have killed him. (Although it was just blind luck that he dropped the horn and let Nikabrik and Trumpkin and Trufflehunter see it.)

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm only saying Cornelius because he's mixed, so he's got a foot in both world.


Who would you use for the outside pov, then? Somebody observant enough to at least understand where each of them are coming from...unfortunately, that pretty much eliminates everybody *but* the main cast! *laughs*

No, I think those two Peter/Caspian fics still do fit together fairly well. It would account for some of the shock the morning after when Peter pushes Caspian away on a *personal* level and threatens him on a *professional* one. Caspian's half in love with him by then...but Peter probably knows they're not staying and I don't think he'd tell Caspian what he was really feeling, in any event.

The problem with *most* pairings in Narnia that won't gross you out (Puddleglum/Trumpkin! *roftl*) is that they're ultimately tragic due to being separated.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know what you mean. He seems like the obvious choice -- but not so much, really. *muses* I suppose he's going to have to show up soon; I haven't actually written him.

A Narnian OC, I think, like I did in "These Last Golden Days of Summer" and "The False Knight." (I mean, I could also do Trumpkin, Reepicheep, Glenstorm, or Trufflehunter, but where's the fun in that?) I have Caspian for a Telmarine look, but for a Narnian one -- at this point I have enough OCs from "In Constellated Wars" alone to pick and choose.

*nods* Exactly. At that point Caspian's either in love with Peter or very close to being there -- on a couple levels, I think -- but Caspian really, really doesn't get Peter. AT ALL. (Sometimes I think those fics are just me trying to push Peter/Narnia via proxy. *facepalm*)

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Puddleglum: Ah, well, neither of us are getting any younger. Won't be able to get it up, like as not.

Trumpkin: EH? Speak up, youngster! Haven't got all night to fiddle about!

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

*snickers*


I was trying to gross out celandine during one of her drabble calls.