PG-13 Illustration in The Last Battle? | Talking Beasts
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The Last Battle is a dark final turn for The Chronicles of Narnia. In chapter 2 alone, we begin with the murder of the trees at Lantern Waste and end with the main characters committing murder. Is this all this too much of a departure from the rest of the books? Listen to the conversation and then post a comment below! (Discussion about the above illustration begins at 7:53)
Also check out The Lamp-post Listener’s discussion about The Last Battle.
“Let there be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end the book. Nothing will persuade me that this causes an ordinary child any kind or degree of fear beyond what it wants, and needs, to feel.”
C.S. Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing for Children
Watch the post-show chatter about Star Wars.
For the record, I totally see the head on the ground now. I must have been looking somewhere else during the recording.
I actually never noticed the head before until I read it again this past summer. I was reading my edition with full color illustrations and I was very surprised when I spotted it.
As for the matter of Tirian being away from Cair Paravel, I never even considered that he was being neglectful, but I always took it as a sign of his humility. It’s a good point, though. Perhaps he should’ve been more thoughtful.
In the past, whenever I read The Last Battle, when Tirian and Jewel kill the Calormens, I hardly ever questioned what they had done. Only on my last few readings did I really understand that what they had done was wrong and unwise. When talking about making the situation more questionable for a movie version, Rillian offered the idea that the Calormens actually kill the horse. If they had actually killed the horse, would the murder be any less wrong? Would that justify Tirian and Jewel?
Roonwit is the main reason why I love Centaurs so much in Narnia. The idea that they are revered as stargazers and prophets is such a cool piece of world-building. His character has so much implied depth and history, just by his first appearance in this chapter.
I don’t think I’ve ever noticed the head lying there before today. The colour version of this illustration *really* highlights it. It’s odd that Pauline Baynes included that detail, considering Lewis never explicitly said that in the text.
The darker tone in The Last Battle definitely stands out compared to earlier books, but I don’t think it’s too much of a departure. Throughout the series, we see glimpses of violence, betrayal, and the weight of moral choices, such as in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with Aslan’s sacrifice or The Silver Chair with the deadly dangers in Underland. What makes The Last Battle unique is the sense of finality—it’s the end of Narnia as we know it, so the stakes feel much higher. The destruction of the trees and Tirian’s rash action seem to reflect the growing sense of desperation in Narnia’s final days.
It’s intense, but I think Lewis intended to show that even in fantasy, the battle between good and evil can have devastating consequences. How the characters deal with these challenges adds depth to their journeys.
Curious to hear more of your thoughts on this!
The Last Battle is the culmination of a lot of “more mature” themes that are dispersed in the other books.
Susan already showed a lack of “faith” in previous books.
The elements of murder, darkness, faithlessness, etc. already happened in all of the other books.
Edmund betrayed his siblings to die.
Aslan is murdered on stone table in a sacrificial ceremony.
Jadis massacred her entire world with a single word.
In Prince Captain, Peter beheads a Telmarine
Aslan skinned Eustace alive in the de-dragoning redemption scene.
The dark island is filled with nightmares come to life.
The Silver Chair covers multiple dark themes of cannibalism, brainwashing, slavery, and bullying.
I can go on… but my point is, all
of these mature things finally come to light in the Last Battle for all to see.
It’s the Apocalypse of Narnia.
LB is one of the most masterfully done epic climaxes of a fantasy series, because it’s not afraid to pull punches at the end when it counts, to drive home its themes.
People are totally allowed to not like the book. It’s not an easy book to read.
But it is objectively a masterpiece.