yes, i know, i owe my betas replies on water

[bedlamsbard]

OH GOSH. You know what I just figured out? One place that the Petaverse deviates from regular canon, way back in LWW -- Peta would have been sharing a tent with Susan, and Edmund and Lucy probably would have been together.

That means that Lucy would have dragged Edmund off after Aslan, and it would have been Lucy and Edmund who saw Aslan sacrificed on the Stone Table by the White Witch. And Lucy and Edmund who were with Aslan when he went to the White Witch's castle. Oh, man, the Tumnus and Edmund interaction must be...interesting.

It also means it was Susan who was with Peta at the battle, which means -- something. Maybe the battle was going considerably worse in the Petaverse because Edmund wasn't around to break the White Witch's wand? Maybe Peta did it. MAYBE SUSAN WAS TURNED INTO STONE. Or maybe it didn't happen until the cavalry showed up with Aslan. But it means worse casualties, and a harder Susan, because she was out there in the killing fields with Peta.

Comments

[westingturtle.livejournal.com]

How are you going to bring the White Witch in? Because Caspian has neither the shocked grief after the seige or the alienation from the Pevensies, and they need human blood to raise her. And it probably has to be a willing sacrifice or Nikabrik would have just stabbed Caspian. You've got enough of a world of your own going on that you don't have to cling to canon.

They can have issues all over the place at completely new things!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Right now there's a period of several months in Water where not much happens -- rather than make the White Witch incident and Nikabrik going for it about the castle attack, I think it might work well as a sign of internal treachery, of how fragmented the Narnians are. Especially if the Pevensies haven't accomplished anything (or much) after being there for four months; I bet that the Narnians expected them to win the war in all of a week after they arrived, and if they haven't yet -- well, that's enough of a reason of anything. They're not getting anything done? Let's try something else.

And for that matter, there's no reason that Nikabrik has to use the same arguments he did in canon on Caspian. If he tells Caspian that it's to protect Peta, or if Caspian has more of a reaction to Peta announcing that hell if she's leaving than he does right now, that's a catalyst for Caspian being lured into it. Or maybe it might be possible to bring Professor Cornelius into it somehow.

It's just kind of a major part of canon that I don't want to drop entirely.

[westingturtle.livejournal.com]

Because Cornelius is half-human, isn't he? Oh I love that like burning. It's not treachery, it's for Caspian! And it really fits into both the schism between Telmarine and Narnian ideology (for the land/for the ruler) and helps destabilize Cornelius from being a friendly but ineffective Dumbledore type of person to a problem, which is how Peta presented him.

This is like my new favorite thing. It is now my canon that he was suggesting it to Nikabrik and the creepy twins during the actual film.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I don't quite understand why I really don't like Cornelius, but for some reason, well, there it is. And he does come in a bit suddenly at the end. I don't think his half-human blood will do the trick, but if he's the one to talk Caspian into at least showing up -- because Caspian still trusts him, at least.

On the other hand, I don't know how much that's going to destabilize Cornelius suggesting the single combat to Peta near the end. Huh. *prods* (And, well, Cornelius is half black dwarf, the traditional bad guys, although my instinct is to make a lot of the White Witch fans in Water "good" Narnians rather than descendants of the White Witch's followers.)

[westingturtle.livejournal.com]

but if he's the one to talk Caspian into at least showing up hmmmmmm. That might work. But I just see this Caspian as too rooted in what is going on to actually fall for it. I don't think movieverse Caspian would have done it, except that he was so off-balance from the failed attack and really seeing people die for the first time. Although Caspian would probably get caught in it trying to get Cornelius out (Caspian already believes the Pevensies are the Kings and Queens of old, right? He doesn't need this as his confirmation), but Cornelius would still have the "I've been led astray, I didn't know what they were trying to do!" card, which Caspian would totally believe.

And as a way of furthering the emotional connection, Peta taking Caspian's word in trust on this would be a huge step, and would definately move him out of the ambiguous area he has in the command structure. (Although Lucy [I don't know why I think Lucy, but Edmund's not the same as he is in the warsverse] would be watching him like a hawk. Possibly using actual hawks).

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Mmm, yes. I think it depends on how much knowledge there is of who and what the White Witch is. (Speaking of which, I just checked the book because I was curious to see what went down in that scene there, and man, there are actually some excellent lines -- Nikabrik's sarcasm regarding Peter and Aslan, "A king who has just won a great battle can usually establish himself without the help of a performing lion," and the hag, "Sweet Master Doctor, learned Master Doctor, whoever heard of a witch who really died? You can always get them back." I...almost hate to admit this, but I sometimes forget that Lewis actually can write.)

Edmund is not Warsverse or canon Edmund -- this Edmund is, well, this Edmund is a hammer, like Lucy said in that scene. Lucy has a lot of the role that Edmund plays in the warsverse -- I go back and forth whether it's Susan or Lucy that's the spymistress, but Lucy's definitely the diplomat of the family, which is in sharp contrast to the Warsverse. And Edmund is -- well, to one extent, I suppose he's Peta's bully-boy, although not overwhelmingly so. And Susan is Peta's second-in-command.