The Chronicles of Narnia/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Subjective tropes for the book series as a whole:

  • Applicability
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Eustace Scrubb and Puddleglum usually top the list of fan-favourites.
  • Epileptic Trees: One such theory recently turned out to be true! A researcher found a thematic link between the seven books and the seven major planets (see Lewis' other best-known work, the Space Trilogy).
  • Esoteric Happy Ending: "The Last Battle". The children will live in Narnia forever, which is what they always wanted (Narnia being Heaven), but it's still jarring to realize that, in our world, they're all dead.
  • Misblamed: Some assume Susan was left out of Heaven due to pursuing "nylons, lipstick, and invitations", i.e. maturing, rather than the fact that she... y'know, isn't dead yet. On the other hand, it should be noted that Jill's and Polly's (and by implication, Lewis's own) opinion was that Susan's notions of "maturity" were, in fact, immature and shallow, as Susan thought "growing up" meant going to parties and gossiping. Aslan makes it clear in Prince Caspian that growing up and actually maturing (even leaving Narnia behind for living on Earth) is a good thing. Word of God in a letter from Lewis to a worried reader was that Susan was still alive in England and 'might very well get back to Narnia in her own time and her own way'. Susan was meant to show how one could turn one's back on Grace. But once a King or Queen in Narnia, always a King or Queen. Given Lewis's personal history, it's probably safe to say that, to his mind, those who turn away from Aslan get the chance to turn back.
  • Real Women Never Wear Dresses: Again, Lewis's critics accuse him of pulling this in his treatment of Susan compared to the other female characters.
  • Tear Jerker: Yes, it's all very wonderful for Peter, Edmund, Lucy, etc. that they get to go to heaven with Aslan and live forever in paradise. But Susan (ignoring any discussions on why) has just had her entire family, including her parents, killed in a horrific accident. May also double as Fridge Horror.
  • Unfortunate Implications: The fact that the Fantasy Counterpart Culture of the Middle East is on the side of evil has been a point of controversy ever since the books were first published.
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: The Mole is recruited when the Big Bad gives him a drug addiction, as magic gives starch and sugar with lemon and ground, boiled rose petals the addictive punch of crystal meth. Then, Santa Claus hands out weapons to the child heroes. Peter: Sword, Susan: Bow, Lucy: Dagger, Luftwaffe: Groups of long-range heavy bomber aircraft that can destroy cities.

Subjective tropes for the Walden Media film series as a whole:

  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Tilda Swinton as the White Witch. In fact, many reviews noted that her performance was the most memorable thing about the first movie. The fact that they were going to be making the movies in the original publication order raised people's expectations as well.
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: has its own page.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: The geek at the train station (Warren) gained a fan club when some fans decided they didn't like the way Susan's and Caspian's relationship was treated and that "Phyllis" was a much better pairing.
  • Fan Dumb: The myriad number of Fan Fiction stories written after Prince Caspian was released that explain Susan's 'real' reason for later abandoning Narnia as lost love over Caspian, despite the two of them having no romantic interest in each other in the book, and very little in the movie!
    • Of course, writing a story about it doesn't mean one believes that's what really happened. And arguably, movieverse forms a canon on its own.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: The use of "The Call" at the end of Prince Caspian will likely become this once The Last Battle is made.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: On the one hand, you have Ben Barnes, whose portrayal of Prince Caspian drew upon Inigo Montoya; and on the other you have Eddie Izzard, who based his sword-fighting mouse Reepicheep on Errol Flynn, who also famously inspired Cary Elwes' performance. So their first meeting is really a The Princess Bride reunion by way of Captain Ersatzes.
  • Magnificent Bitch: Jadis tries. She's outplayed by Aslan however!
  • Memetic Molester:
    • Mr. Tumnus. He lures a little girl into a small dark cave, lulls her to sleep with a flute, and when she wakes up, he's crying and saying he's been doing something bad.
    • The White Witch. Wrapping Edmund in her fur with her, being all close, asking Edmund to come to her castle, and to bring his siblings too. Jeez lady, and to only up the creepiness with Edmund, in the third movie, constantly whispering almost seductively, "Edmund, I can make you my King... and much more."
      • Though Edmund might've consented to a powerful, Hot Witch fawning over him. And this might have been partly why he joined her forces.
  • What an Idiot!: The assault on the castle in Prince Caspian (which did not happen in the book) gave huge helpings of this to Peter. To be fair, everyone from Caspian to Lucy calls him out on it. Caspian also deserves a share of this one because it was his fault in the first place that they lost the element of surprise; he went into the castle with his own agenda and despite the obvious results of him changing the plan in the middle of a Stealth-Based Mission he shows no responsibility or remorse for his actions. To maintain order among the Narnian army, Peter has no choice but to let it go and share the blame.
    • Granted Maugrim didn't think that Peter had it in him to kill, but that doesn't mean that jumping directly onto Peter's sword was a smart move.
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: Prince Caspian was allegedly a children's movie and rated as PG. But despite that Prince Caspian is probably the highest-bodycount, generally-dark movie to be given a PG rating since Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom spurred the creation of PG-13.