Okay, I just watched Prince Caspian the other night. Let me get this straight…
The 4 kiddos have been gone ~1300 years, Narnia has been invaded by Telmarines, and slaughtered to the extent the Telmarines think they are extinct. The trees are still, the animals can’t talk, etc. Then finally Caspian finds the horn and calls the “Kings and Queens of Old” back, but still there’s not a peep from Aslan. Even when the quartet hook up with Prince Caspian, and end up as his tomb, he’s still in hiding, despite the Telmarines invading in force to slaughter the remaining Narnians and murder Caspian and the quartet.
Only when the little girl rides out on a horse past the invading army to go to a specific spot in the woods does Aslan decide to show up. And only after chiding her for waiting so long to come to him does he take any action in the ongoing battle.
At which point he awakens the trees, and then mops up the retreating Telmarine army with a giant river avatar that breaks the bridge and eats the villain. (And the villains poor horse.)
So eventually he shows up and saves the day, but not before any number of Narnians are wiped out, and generations of destruction to Narnia.
My favorite example of this issue in the movies has to be in Time Bandits, when the protagonist poses this exact question to the “supreme being” at the end, and he sort of pauses as if surprised and remarks, absent-mindedly, "I think it has something to do with free will … ".
It’s not just Aslan. The movie makes everyone an ass. Book Peter is noble and just - a sort of King Aurthur come to life. Movie Peter is petulant and power-hungry.Book Prince Caspian is surprised to basically live out a fairy-tale. He’s courageous and fair, and it’s no surprise that the Narnians almost automatically look to him for leadership, despite being only a boy. Movie Caspian is conflicted and egotistic, wanting revenge and feuding with Peter over power (when Peter guessed he wasn’t going to be ruling Narnia this time) .
It’s weird, but the book versions were somehow iconic and yet human - even childishly human. The movie versions apparently aimed for more “realism” and wound up just being annoying.
Yeah, he always was a bit of one. Which book was it where he insists that Lucy should have gotten up and followed him off alone into the woods, even when her siblings wouldn’t listen to him?
Anaamika, that was this one - the bit about the girl riding out into the woods on her own. Okay, Susan goes with her a bit, but then stops to shoot bad guys.
Why did I think she said her name is Phyllis to the guy at the magazine stand?
He doesn’t insist. He merely listens to her: first she protests that she couldn’t possibly have done that, and then she admits that perhaps she could. Whom does she love and trust more, Aslan or her brothers and sisters? Qui s’excuse s’accuse and all that.
I misread that. This one she has to go off in the woods to find him, because the others don’t “see” him. That may or may not be the scene you’re thinking of.
