Swords? Come on. What sounds more compelling: Sailing to the edge of the world to find 7 lost Narnian Lords, or ditching them and just floating around to find their swords? Hmm… One of those stories sounds a bit shallow, and it isn’t the first one.

But, if we must have swords, and a witch, then (and yes I realize that this is a shocking thing to say, -I can hardly believe I’m saying it myself, but) I’d rather have the witch be the Lady of the Green Kirtle. *Gasp* Sure the Lady doesn’t belong in VDT, but no witches do. I’d rather have to deal with two witches in Narnia than three. They wouldn’t necessarily even need to show the LotGK in VDT, it would be enough to have Caspian tell the Pevensies (and cousin) about the witch. Then, (I’d assume) the Dawn Treader crew would find the swords which would (magically?) drive out the LotGK and she is forced to formulate a new plan to take over Narnia, which leads to the SC.

Yeah, you’re right. If I were writing the movie I wouldn’t have put a witch in either. *Sigh* O well. Hopefully the above paragraph is the next best thing.

I am encouraged by the other spoilers though!

I found this as the first comment on the news article.

Hello! Paul Martin from NarniaFans.com, here. I just wanted to let you know that the quote about the swords and a witch being involved is not correct. There is no witch involved. I know, I was at the event.

Paul Martin is someone whom I would tend to trust on such matters.

Yeah, I'm hoping the seven lost swords and the witch part are from the old script. As for the other news, I'm incredibly excited! It sounds like they're doing it correctly.

Crazy idea. What if the witch is Jadis and she stands guard, holding the Stone Knife at the table with the sleeping lords? It would make some thematic sense but would be a departure from the book and would nullify the awesome power and authority of Aslan's victory in LWW.

Paul Martin is someone whom I would tend to trust on such matters.

He does seem to be very adamant on his NarniaFans news report on the story that the information about the witch is incorrect. Guess i was perhaps right to question the validity of the quote after all. Surprised about that.

http://www.narniafans.com/archives/8266

I still wouldn't be entirely dismissive of her quote though. Its possible she was privy to some extra information that Tirian and Paul Martin were not. Either way i don't think we need to be worried though, at the very least it seems any such witch will only ever be referred to as an off-screen threat just to get things started, not as a major on-screen villain around which the plot revolves.

Perhaps it will just be something as simple as a curse having been placed on Narnia during the reign of Miraz that can only be lifted through the return of the seven lords and/or their associated swords. Doesn't even have to be a specific green coloured witch they are referring to, could be just a regular old hag.

So either its no witch, or perhaps an implied off-screen witches curse - either one doesn't sound too bad to me (at least given how much worse we all know it could have been). Though since the Seven Swords thing was confirmed as being true, i'm still going to be a little apprehensive about it. Perhaps later on when we find out exactly how the new "through-line" integrates itself with the existing plot it will all make sense, but for now i'm still very much scratching my head.

I was really pleased overall when I read this article. Perhaps a little bemused about people's lack of faith in Michael Apted, but pleased overall.

I think this seven swords and witch stuff does make sense when you think about the 'unfathomable fate' and 'borrowing from other books', as others have pointed out. If it were that much of an issue, I think the people at the viewing would've had more to say about it then 'preferring it not to be there'. But then they didn't mention the MLG (I cannae remember how to spell her name), which is a pretty obvious departure from the text.

Then you give me this Paul Martin guy!! What to think! Seems strange to have two people reporting different facts for no apparent reason. I'm just going to take this news as a 'Yeay! People are feeling positive about this movie' perspective.

All quotes from the NWeb news story:

As I was too tired to see straight last night, I decided to hold off and post this morning.

These are definitely interesting tidbits. The sword thing is odd, but eh. Tis probably better than Peter and Caspian squabbling like two year olds over a toy.

Much was confirmed by Tirian who was at the presentation as well.

I have spoken with Tirian, and he confirmed that the line “there I have another name” is in the film! This is something NarniaWebbers have been concerned about for some time. Rejoice!

Tirian also confirmed that, in the film, we will see Aslan ripping the dragon skin off of Eustace! If you have not read the book, you are probably incredibly confused right now. If you have… rejoice again!

Sweet! I'm glad both of these are included. I would almost expect to still see the sea serpent/dragon fight anyways because it would be a good action scene, but I wouldn't be heartbroken to see it go either since they were at two different points in the voyage as well as the Sea Serpent being used to demonstrate the change in Eustace.

Tirian confirmed the bit about the seven swords, but added: “I haven’t seen any evidence of a new witch being added to this story.”

Glad to hear that. The witch thing would be an added annoyance. The seven sword thing could be something along the lines (WARNING: Speculation ahead) of the Telmarine lords requiring Caspian to find proof of what happened to the seven lords to continue his kingship and their swords would be proof. Or it could be set up as some kind of quest to bring back proof for their families. Or maybe some kind of Tree of Protection type thing?

If done correctly, we likely won't even notice the addition to the storyline. If not done well, then we'll notice. The only thing we can do is wait and see what happens.

I could do with the seven swords thing; and if they needed the seven swords to break the enchantment on the final three lords, that would be cool too. If they had it that the stone knife had an old enchantment on it by the White Witch, I would be okay with that too.

Unfortunately, my speculation is not going to change how the movie is and I doubt that its how I hope it'll be. And anyhow, how would they know that they needed the seven swords? I hope the witch is not the LotGK.

In summary: First two spoilers (in the report on Narnia Movie News) good! Third one, I'm just confused and hoping that it doesn't mess up the storyline. Or completely alter said storyline.

Perhaps it will just be something as simple as a curse having been placed on Narnia during the reign of Miraz that can only be lifted through the return of the seven lords and/or their associated swords. Doesn't even have to be a specific green coloured witch they are referring to, could be just a regular old hag.

The witch? No. No. It's not true. It can't be true. She was talking about the leaked script. Yeah. She must have been. For sake of my own sanity, I'm gonna stick with that.

I do not think Miraz would make any deal with witches, as he feared magical creatures. And, glumpuddle, I do not think she is talking about the white witch, but about the lady in the green curdle. Remember how Barnes said they were borrowing things from other books and setting up the plot of SC? I guess they already have her as an enemy. Still, I too am hoping that is the old script. I would not like the Narnians to be aware of them. That would take away the entire idea of her and her servants living under the ground without the Narnians knowing it.
Still, I prefer her over the White Witch.

Oh, and those seven swords just sound dumb to me. How could swords help against magic? It is as the White Witch said in LWW about the deep magic: Do you really think violane can take me of my right, little king? I know there is a big difference between the deep magic and regular magic, but one comes forth out of the other.

Was it a relief to read the story and see the quotes! I'm quite excited to hear the scene with Lucy and Aslan at the end is the same, as well as the with Eustace and Aslan. I'm happy that they really have seemed to grasp the themes of the book and put them in the movie. Flaherty's quote about grace is the one that resonated with me the most.

As for the plot concerning the witch and the swords, I'm not too worried, as I don't think it will detract a whole lot from the movie overall.

Liked most of what I read, though I'm still a little confused about the swords. Why would Telmarines have special/magical swords? I prefer starkat's theory, that the swords are needed as some sort of validation of Caspian's rule for some still hesitant Telmarines. Or perhaps validation in the eyes of people like the *Calormenes* - perhaps they had some sort of accord with the seven lords for keeping peace with Narnia, and unless Caspian brings them the swords as proof, the Calormenes will invade Narnia. Therefore the quest involves saving Narnia from an unfathomable fate, and brings in tension between Calormen and Narnia that exists in HHB and LB.

I love it! That fits so much better than my theory! I think it would be a good explanation for the whole unfathomable fate thing.

If the Narnians knew that a new witch was on the move, wouldn't Rilian have been more cautious about an unknown woman appearing where his mother had been killed?
But many years would have passed, so such unhappy things might have been forgotten ...

I'm a bit confused about the swords, though - I hope this doesn't distract from the quest of finding the lords themselves.

But enough of that!
The two main spoilers both made me incredibly happy. If the movie is faithful to the book about the undragoning and about Lucy's final conversation, then I think I could take any amount of added swords ...

If Tirian hasn't seen evidence of a Witch added to the script, then I don't think we should. I'd rather trust a NarniaWebber than some unknown woman. I just hope she didn't get access to things Tirian and others didn't.

Adding a witch would ruin the books' uniqueness in relation to the other books, which is one of the greatest strengths of the Narnia series. No two books are alike, even if they are similar in tone. They'd ruin their fanbase by doing it, for sure. Glad it seems they're not doing it.

I'm relieved to hear some of our greatest worries are no more, but I'd rather not judge the film before I see it, even if I'm much more confident. No matter how many videos, pictures or news we get from now on, it's the entire finished film that counts.

I'm glad to hear there won't be a witch because it would be getting too repetitive. As for the swords, I hope it doesn't take away ANYTHING from the search for the seven lords. A search for seven lords sounds much more noble...

Hey, did anyone notice that the article said the writers were going to have Eustace earn his way back from being a dragon by fighting a sea monster?

Keller says she learned that writers originally wanted Eustace, still in dragon form, to fight a sea monster and "earn" his return to human form.

Lady Galadriel

I would like to point this out for those that have forgotten it or never saw it in the first place...

Cy: The Lady of the Green Kirtle (the witch from the Silver Chair) won’t be in this film, will she?

Ernie: She will not.