open/close all folders
The book
Reepicheep's weapon
Just before Reepicheep sets sail over the waterfall to go to Aslan's country, he hurls away his trusty sword, declaring "I shall need it no more." This is key in showing that the High Mouse realizes he's going to a place where he no longer needs to constantly guard against attacks and assaults upon his dignity. This great warrior knows he's going to a place where there will be no more war and strife, and he's supremely happy about that. For all his courage and apparent Blood Knight tendencies, deep down, all Reepicheep ever really wanted was peace.
Coriakin's backstory
- As noted on the main page, the Dufflepuds go about everything they do with Insane Troll Logic, causing Coriakin endless headaches. There is no instruction, argument or even opinion, no matter how clear, that they will not interpret as meaning either exactly its opposite, some random nonsense or nothing at all. Aslan set Coriakin to babysit them—he basically asks Coriakin how it's going when they meet—and Ramandu implies this was due to an undisclosed incident Ramandu vaguely calls "a fault". Going by what usually gets someone on Aslan's bad side in the books, Coriakin most likely isn't/wasn't bad at causing such headaches himself. It seems probable that whatever it was involved some form of Exact Words - but not necessarily: it may well also have been something along the lines of "do some babysitting yourself to see how hard that is if you think it's not necessary for me to look after you".
- Stealth Pun: this is wondering about what faults a star can commit—in other words, "the fault in our stars".
Eustace undragoned
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: As the end result is entirely beneficial (and there's certainly no incompetence involved) it's a far cry from Harmful Healing. However, the way to cure a self-inflicted curse seems to be treating it like a Real Life severe burn—making deep incisions into the afflicted area and scraping off the cursed/burnt part, then dipping it in a swimming pool.
Fortunately this doesn't apply to all curses, just self-inflicted ones—restoring those cursed by others is far less of an ordeal in other books. Meaning: Eustace is the fantasy story counterpart to the kid who had a bad accident playing with the matches, resulting in severe injuries. You can't really help but feel sorry for him. Fortunately for Eustace (as he's managed a transfiguration), even with self-inflicted curses the analogy to burns only goes so far: once he's been rid of the dragon skin representing the burnt bit, restoring him can then be helped along supernaturally. This also resolves an issue with Eustace becoming a dragon in the first place: if that were like an accident with fire (just with magic), then there needn't be more of a reason behind it than Eustace picking up the Idiot Ball (even if it helps his Character Development)—neatly avoiding any moral quagmires about whether or not Aslan turned him into a dragon in the first place, and not just turned him back from something he'd done to himself. - Holy Burns Evil: Related to the above, the waters of the well in the hidden orchard could be deduced to do this. Luckily for someone being healed of something evil (like a curse), this incineration is instantaneous, though.Then he caught hold of me — I didn’t like that much for I was very tender [...] and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming [...] I found that all the pain had gone from my arm.
