Mr. Peanut
Sidekick
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2017
- Messages
- 1,256
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My main problem with the Narnia series was the way they turn Aslan into "literally Jesus but in this universe he incarnated as a lion", rather than just a powerful fantasy character who symbolized Jesus. Like in the first book you could reasonably infer that he wasn't all powerful...after all, he needed the magic of the stone table to resurrect himself, it's not something he can just do willy nilly.
But later books really make him all powerful, and he could transport the kids to Narnia at a whim so it turns out the magic wardrobe was completely arbitrary. They even drop the whole "In your world, I have another name. You must learn to know me by it. That was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia." line in the third one, so it's like "Hey kids, you can get to know Alsan too! You just have to worship Jesus because in our world he's called Jesus!" Blech.
And also the whole rotating cast thing mentioned earlier, that was unappealing to me as a kid. Especially with the whole way the older kids are arbitrarily written out because of their age. Kind of does the exact opposite of what Harry Potter did, or even The Hobbit and LotR. Whereas they started out targeting young children and transitioned toward targeting older readers, Narnia firmly establishes "no, this is strictly for the youngsters the whole way through".
(That all being said, I do like and have a lot of nostalgia for TLTWaTW by itself, as a standalone story)
But later books really make him all powerful, and he could transport the kids to Narnia at a whim so it turns out the magic wardrobe was completely arbitrary. They even drop the whole "In your world, I have another name. You must learn to know me by it. That was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia." line in the third one, so it's like "Hey kids, you can get to know Alsan too! You just have to worship Jesus because in our world he's called Jesus!" Blech.
And also the whole rotating cast thing mentioned earlier, that was unappealing to me as a kid. Especially with the whole way the older kids are arbitrarily written out because of their age. Kind of does the exact opposite of what Harry Potter did, or even The Hobbit and LotR. Whereas they started out targeting young children and transitioned toward targeting older readers, Narnia firmly establishes "no, this is strictly for the youngsters the whole way through".
(That all being said, I do like and have a lot of nostalgia for TLTWaTW by itself, as a standalone story)
