I had read about this scene before seeing the movie, and I had always imagined that there would be silence as the words "I am Eustace" were shown, and for some reason, I pictured Edmund's line "You've got to be joking" as sounding like Susan's line that is almost exactly like that.

That is, though, not what happens.

However, having seen the movie twice now since December 2nd, I was very pleased with how the revelation scene worked out, it would seem a bit odd to have the dragon attack scene, and then a revelation in the style of the book. Of course, you could argue that the dragon attack scene wasn't necessary.

I do love how it is Edmund who Eustace chooses to make him believe that the dragon really is him. Maybe I am just biased because Edmund is my favourite character

I can't wait to see this again!

Merry Christmas,
captain_J-Rock

Yeah I think I would rather there had been no dragon attack scene.

The dragon fight with the sea serpent was fine. The dragon attack scene was not. It seemed stupid that Eustace would approach them as a dragon and create such panic amongst the crew. Of course, if you're going to do that, you'll get attacked and they won't hope to recognise you!
Also, why was Lord Octesian's arm-band on his RIGHT arm (and not above the elbow) and more importantly, doesn't it reduce the power of the moment and theme (somewhat) to have Lucy easily remove the arm-band? Gah!

Yeah I think I would rather there had been no dragon attack scene.

Do you mean when he arrived at the ship and the crew defended themselves?
I didn't think of that as an attack -not by him, at first it seemed he was just trying to join them and didn't know where to go. (not being used to his weight he misjudged and tried the spar of the mast) But then I realised he had already done his message. AND it was staged that way to mislead people who didn't know the story, and who would then be amazed!

Hmm. Go figure. That was one of my favorite scenes. I thought it was very funny. Loved Caspian's line about everyone knowing a dragon's treasure is always enchanted and that "Oh I hate you why didn't you tell me" look Eutace gives him. And then Caspian corrects himself and says "I mean everyone from here knows that." That was just really funny to me.

It didn't bother me that Eustace "attacked" the ship. Logically, I suppose, it doesn't make sense for him to go to the crew expecting them to know that he is who he is. But you have to consider he's in a strange magical world which he knows nothing about. He's just been turned into a dragon for Pete's sake! As was mentioned in the film, he probably didn't even believe in dragons that very morning. For all he knew people turned into dragons all the time in Narnia. I'm sure it was quite a traumatic ordeal. Normally when one goes through a traumatic ordeal they don't think very logically. And anyway he was in a world which defied any logic he knew, so why wouldn't he go to the only people who seemed to sort of grasp Narnia's backward logic?

I don't really see how the power of the moment was reduced as long as the undragoning was fine. Which I thought it was. Point is, he was greedy, got turned into a dragon, repented and was changed by Aslan. They got that right so I'm happy.

I think complaining about the placement of the armband is about on the same level as complaining about Caspian's hair color.

Anyway that's my view on things. Love you guys!

The dragon fight with the sea serpent was fine. The dragon attack scene was not. It seemed stupid that Eustace would approach them as a dragon and create such panic amongst the crew. Of course, if you're going to do that, you'll get attacked and they won't hope to recognise you!
Also, why was Lord Octesian's arm-band on his RIGHT arm (and not above the elbow) and more importantly, doesn't it reduce the power of the moment and theme (somewhat) to have Lucy easily remove the arm-band? Gah!

Also they didn't leave in that Lucy used the cordial to make the armband more easier to bear and it didn't just pop off like in the film. Ugh. The whole point was to keep the armband on because he couldn't get it off which is in line with what I see as symbolic bondage of Eustace being a Dragon and enslaved by his selfish desires and he couldn't remove it until Aslan undragoned him and "freed" him from bondage, making the new Eustace not care about having the armband anymore when he was undragoned. Ugh again. Oh well. That rant was for people who didn't read the book. Read the book.

I think the scales and just being a dragon was bondage enough. They got the point across.

I guess the question arises though: why did they feel it necessary to deviate from the book if it well, isn't necessary? If the armband is stuck, and Lewis has depicted on multiple occasions that Eustace could not remove it, why change that? Was there a point they were attempting to make?

I think the scales and just being a dragon was bondage enough. They got the point across.

I agree, but it's too easy for him to get that taken care of...blow fire at a sea serpent, land on beach, have Lion roar in your general direction. Problem solved. Easy as eating a brownie

Yeah, from the clip they did make it too easy to get the armband off...if they drew it out like in the book (sorry bringing up the book again) I think the emotional payoff/impact would have been greater.

I am going to see the full movie tomorrow, but I would have loved a scene after Eustace was undragoned where he takes the gold band off, has an Ed and Eustace moment (discussion about his Aslan encounter), and tosses the band up on that rocky crag (whatever-thing) to show how 180 degrees he's gone in character. But still, if someone's never read the book, they're still going to be impacted anyway just by being surprised that the Attack-Dragon was Eustace. The main point does come across.

But the impact really isn't the same for a book fan.

Sorry repeating myself...

This was probably my favorite non-book scene in the movie, it seemed the most well-done and complete scene

I agree, the whole Dragonwater thing was the best part of the movie. And the dragon reveal made sense. Eustace turned into a dragon and either a) panicked and hightailed it back to the ship for help or b) breathed 'I am Eustace' into the ground and went to the ship to get someone to show them (I'm unsure as to at what time he burned the message in, and am assuming possibility-b since they saw dragon fire from the boat.)

Then, what really pleased me, is that Drinian and the Narnians didn't panic at the appearance of a dragon, but Drinian calmly ordered archers ready and didn't wait before attacking the dragon. Some smart thinking there.

Then Eustace went back to the island, saw Edmund and Caspian. Caspian was able to duck, but Edmund was distracted from thinking Eustace was dead and so got taken. His "You've got to be joking" bit was perfect.

So yah, pretty good scene.

After seeing this today what disappointed me was that Dragon Eustace was too immediately forthright in trying to make himself known to his family. It was more
heart-rending in the book where he's actually planted himself on the beach between the water and the ship and is actually a bit timid and reluctant in his revelation....

"But when it saw them, instead of rising up and blowing fire and smoke, the dragon retreated - you could almost say it waddled - back into the shallows of the bay..."

In the book it's more of a trial for Eustace to reveal himself and get used to being in his new dragon skin. And more like a humorous guessing game for Lucy, Edmund, and the others to figure it out. The movie didn't really show that and condensed it too much. In addition, after he revealed himself, they didn't develop enough (at least to me) how much his character had changed in other small ways besides the bigger ones in the film of tugging the ship or fighting the sea serpent. I'd much rather they'd also included a visual montage of Dragon Eustace getting food for the crew, taking them for a ride over the island, laying on the beach so they could use him like a hot water bottle (wasted CGI cuteness opportunity), selecting a tree to repair the mast, etc. Those would have been amusing things to see and attach the audience with him emotionally so the undragoning bit would have had more meaning behind it.

I loved the Dragon Attack scene! It was one of my favorite scene of the movie, and it was a great way to introduce Dragon Eustace, as we aren't 100% sure it's him yet (you'd only know if you saw the gold band, but as his scales are also gold, you have to really be looking for it to see it). I thought it was also cool that Eustace chose Edmund to reveal himself to, although I think he would have done it to anyone on the Dawn Treader, had they not tried to shoot him with their crossbows. He knew that Caspian and Edmund were still on the island (as they weren't on the ship), so he went back there to look for them. When Caspian ducked, he grabbed the unaware Edmund, the easiest person he could find.