Sunday, June 08, 2008

A Few Thoughts From Prince Caspian
















I went to see the 2nd Narnia movie, Prince Caspian yesterday. It's the story of the Pevensie children's return to Narnia a year after their adventures in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. And of course it left me wondering if I could apply any lessons from it to LOST. Here's a few.

The children have been gone from Narnia where they ruled as Kings and Queens for one year, and they are having a hard time re-adjusting to life back in our world.

In order to return to Narnia (this time) the four of them are together and holding hands.

There's a clear man of science (or at least self-help), woman of faith theme that underlies the story. Spoiler alert -- faith wins.

The main battle of the story takes place between invading Hostiles that in truth belong to a different world from Narnia and the native Narnians.

And there's 2 other key points. First, it takes children to accomplish what needs to be accomplished in Narnia. In the book it says bluntly that Susan and Peter are too old to return again, but the movie nicely rounds it off that they've learned all they can learn in Narnia and now must use it in their own world.

We've often wondered if the keys in LOST are really the kids, first Walt, then Aaron, Zach and Emma and now Ji Yeon. I'm still interested to see if it's Aaron and Ji Yeon and Walt that really need to return and not so much Jack and the grown up O6. After all, Alpert started attempting to recruit Locke at a very young age, and Ben too for that matter.

Finally, twice during the movie Lucy asks Aslan why he can't just show up and save the day as he'd done before. Aslan tells her "nothing can happen the same way twice." What's more you aren't permitted to know what might have happened had you made different choices.

The idea of time recycling has been strongly present in LOST. But I wonder if these rules are the ones that apply. Perhaps in the past Keamy's confrontation of Ben with Alex happened one way and Ben thought it would repeat, but things don't can't happen the same way twice and she died. Or perhaps Ben approached it differently disowning Alex instead of claiming her in hopes Keamy would not kill her, but despite the difference the result was the same.

Regardless, I'm still anxious to see what Jack and the O6 think their return to the Island will accomplish, and if it will indeed be the case that things cannot happen the same way twice, or that might have beens cannot be undone.

2 comments:

maven said...

Memphish: I haven't seen or read the Narnia series, but I like your take on how important the kids are. So much emphasis in LOST has on the adults, but the youngsters are always there. A lot of us think that Aaron is the future Chosen One, and the birth of Ji Yeon must factor into the mythology besides just a baby for Sun/Jin. We all know that Walt is special, even those he's taller Walt now with a deeper voice! It will be interesting if all the children must return to the island, too.

Looking forward to your QOTD all hiatus long...

Capcom said...

That is an interesting thought. I'm also wondering if Ji Yeon will be special physically in some way because of Jin's super-sperm. How many kids, if any, could have been conceived on-island and born off-island? is Ji Yeon the first? Maybe Charlotte or Miles?