Then again, my issues with LB as a whole are myriad, beginning with the very basic problem of why they would be sent to bring N into England and then die before they could do anything.
THIS. I have always wondered that, and what important thing must they have done in the approximately two years that they had (of being kids again with an extra side of confusion and body dysmorphic disorder) before being yanked back. Your story gives a good explanation, but then, it shouldn't have to do the original author's job (I apply this to series three of Doctor Who and how all Martha's character development came in The Year That Never Was Shown.)
She’s pretty firmly planted on her path right now, and pretty clearly doing Aslan’s work, so how is it she doesn’t get to his Country with the others?
Not any sort of answer, or even directly relevant, but something I've thought ever since first reading LB as a wee thing and been thinking more seriously about over the past few days- the popular conception of Susan is that she's let go of Narnia, forgotten it in favor of life in this world, and so she doesn't get to go back to Narnia in the end as almost a sort of punishment. I've heard several people (Neil Gaiman among them; I love him in general but I have a very decided hatred for his Narnia story) say they felt very betrayed by the series and Aslan because of that, because how could he punish a young girl for liking makeup and boys by taking her whole family and her kingdom away forever? But I've been thinking that Susan sees it almost the same way, except as wondering why Aslan would punish her family. Because he told them all to leave Narnia and grow close to their own world, which Susan did, whether she was a spy or a shallow teenage girl. It was the rest of her siblings and the others that lingered in the past. So as she would see it, as she wouldn't know that everyone went to Narnia, why would Aslan punish all of them with a train crash just for holding onto memories? I think that would cause her some bitterness for awhile, but she would have had to be in a place even before the train accident to have that bitterness stick- perhaps of not being sure if her sister and brothers are growing in ways that Aslan wants them to grow.
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THIS. I have always wondered that, and what important thing must they have done in the approximately two years that they had (of being kids again with an extra side of confusion and body dysmorphic disorder) before being yanked back. Your story gives a good explanation, but then, it shouldn't have to do the original author's job (I apply this to series three of Doctor Who and how all Martha's character development came in The Year That Never Was Shown.)
She’s pretty firmly planted on her path right now, and pretty clearly doing Aslan’s work, so how is it she doesn’t get to his Country with the others?
Not any sort of answer, or even directly relevant, but something I've thought ever since first reading LB as a wee thing and been thinking more seriously about over the past few days- the popular conception of Susan is that she's let go of Narnia, forgotten it in favor of life in this world, and so she doesn't get to go back to Narnia in the end as almost a sort of punishment. I've heard several people (Neil Gaiman among them; I love him in general but I have a very decided hatred for his Narnia story) say they felt very betrayed by the series and Aslan because of that, because how could he punish a young girl for liking makeup and boys by taking her whole family and her kingdom away forever? But I've been thinking that Susan sees it almost the same way, except as wondering why Aslan would punish her family. Because he told them all to leave Narnia and grow close to their own world, which Susan did, whether she was a spy or a shallow teenage girl. It was the rest of her siblings and the others that lingered in the past. So as she would see it, as she wouldn't know that everyone went to Narnia, why would Aslan punish all of them with a train crash just for holding onto memories? I think that would cause her some bitterness for awhile, but she would have had to be in a place even before the train accident to have that bitterness stick- perhaps of not being sure if her sister and brothers are growing in ways that Aslan wants them to grow.