The Horse and His Boy/Awesome

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Shasta /Cor Jumping off Bree's back (who's at a fear-maddened full gallop) to face down a freakin' lion who's actually Aslan, (the god of all creation in Narna!) chasing Aravis and Hwin. Don't get me wrong, it's a stupid idea, But it proves Shasta's devotion to his friends, as well as having balls of dwarf-forged steel.
    • And please note that he's about ten-years old and completely unarmed, so that the best thing he can do is yell at it. Pure Awesome.
  • Aslan gives Rabadash a chance to escape the Humiliation Conga he's setting himself up for: "Have a care, Rabadash. The doom is nearer now. It is at the door, it has lifted the latch..." (Performed to marvelous effect by Anthony Quayle in one of the audiobook readings.)
  • Prior to that, Rabadash jumped from the top of the wall of a castle... but he gets his chainmail shirt caught on a hook, and hangs there, stuck. Later, while a captive, Rabadash again threatens the heroes by saying "The bolt of Tash falls from above!" Whereupon Prince Corin retorts, "Did the bolt of Tash ever get caught on a hook halfway?"
    • Whereupon Corin's father, the King of Archenland, says, "Shame, Corin. Never taunt a man save when he is stronger than you; then, as you please."
  • How about when Shasta goes back to help Aravis when she's being attacked by a lion, when the war horse Bree, who's been through a thousand battles, is too scared out of his mind to do anything but run?
    • How about Shasta running non-stop, after having been through almost a whole book's worth of shit -- most recently a potential suicide mission through a desert -- to warn King Lune about the impending invasion?
  • Corin Thunder-Fist versus the Lapsed Bear of Stormness, a talking bear who went feral and lost the ability to speak. Note that, as the epithet implies, Corin is a boxer. Too bad we don't actually get to see it.
  • Likewise Peter, who is absent the whole book because he's off beating the hell out of a bunch of giants.
  • Edmund gets a great one as Rabadash is hanging on the wall. Rabadash demands to be let down and given a fair shot at killing Edmund. Edmund's response is basically, "'Kay." (Sadly, King Lune prevents what would have been an epic beatdown.)
    • Rabadash seems to be the butt of a lot of these. Makes sense since the Evil Chancellor slipped the Idiot Ball to him to try and get him killed.
  • When the Narnians realize that Rabadash won't let them leave the city unless Susan marries him, their first idea is to barricade the door and fight the entire empire with a total force of maybe ten guys, including a faun, a raven, and a ten-year-old.
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