Yeah there's already a topic open for this, I think it's called 'Name Drop at the End" something really similar to that. While I'm here I'll just say that I liked Jill Pole was mentioned and Im anxious to see how Eustace and Jill's relationship will be handled in the Silver Chair. At least i hope they make it

I honestly am very excited by the name drop at the end, so long as they DO NOT make Jill and Eustace already friends. That would really irk me. But as it is they can work that line out, or ignore it completely, and it's gotten me all excited about Silver Chair- thought that'll be a whack over the head if it doesn't get made. *crosses fingers for another movie*

maybe Jill is staying at the Scrubb's because she needs somewhere to stay before she can go home.....?

I think it was a really awesome touch. It took me completely by surprise, but it was AWESOME. it's like the perfect way to lead into SC.

I went.... WHOA! Jill!? I never thought she was friends with Eustace already, cause he barely had friends because of his attitude. But it was... shocking yet enlightening.

I think this can certainly be reassuring. I mean, if they knew they weren't going to make SC they wouldn't have included this. So, they must be planning on it!

LOL Trufflehunter, you gave me a light bulb there. Sure, they are going to make SC for sure since they have started the series.

It was... interesting. I had always hoped they would make a special nod to Jill before she was introduced normally in SC. But I wished they had chosen a different way.
This way makes it so that they are friends from the beginning. Which isn't fair for the next director, since I hear Michael Apted won't be directing SC. It's kind of like Michael Apted puts something really non-canon in the movie at the end and gets the benefits of it being a cute part, but then the director after him has to clean up the mess. I know he didn't do that intentionally, but that's what it's like for whoever takes his place. If the next director had it in his vision to make the Eustace-Jill relationship like it was in the book, then his ability to do that is kind of ruined, or it at least makes it a lot more difficult to pull off, now that he has to explain her visit.

~Riella

It was better then I thought it would be, but's it's still a tad confusing. I still love the idea that Jill knows Edmund and Lucy (and is likely friends with them), but how they'll explain this in SC, it beats me. I personally think that Jill is forced to go there instead of going there by free will. After all, even if she likes the Pevensies, no way would she dare take a chance of meeting Eustace again. I hope this makes more sense in SC, because I really have no idea how it does so far.

But this is a great way for Jill to be introduced to a changed Eustace. If I had been her, I would've been very confused to why Eustace was acting so strangly and nice when he usually is being a brat. In SC, if Jill says something like "Ever since that day I visited you and your cousins in your house, you've acted different," I would be pleased. Already, Jill would start to wonder about what happened to him (and possibly the Pevensies), and she'd begin to understand what Narnia can do to people, even if she doesn't ask about it until sometime after returning to the Experiment House and "Them." Neat idea!

This way makes it so that they are friends from the beginning. Which isn't fair for the next director, since I hear Michael Apted won't be directing SC. It's kind of like Michael Apted puts something really non-canon in the movie at the end and gets the benefits of it being a cute part, but then the director after him has to clean up the mess.

No it does nothing of the sort. For these seven reasons.

1. We do know that by Last Battle that Jill was indeed friends with Lucy and Edmund. That she knew the Pevensies so well that she could make comments about Susan not being interested in Narnia. And that Jill was one of the Seven Friends of Narnia. At some point we do have to introduce Jill to the overall storyline. This moment fits best at the end of VDT which also heralds the end of the summer holidays and the start of the new term. It is during this new term when the SC incident happens.

2. Lucy and Edmund had been staying with Eustace for the summer holidays. But however long they had been staying with him, it does not mean that Jill would necessarily have met them beforehand, since Eustace was his former self when he first met Jill the previous term at Experiment House, and since then he wasn't the sort of person who would be pals with the likes of Jill during the holidays.

3. Jill remarks on the changes in Eustace's personality at the beginning of SC. That would make no sense at all if she had not known Eustace before the summer holidays.

4. There is no sense that Jill went to Narnia unwillingly. On the contrary she wanted to get away from the bullies, no matter what, same as Eustace. They had another quarrel about this when she learned that on her return she would be confronting the bullies once again.

5. Eustace refers to his cousins staying with him at the beginning of SC. Eustace had no trouble making Jill believe him about Narnia. This is more likely if Jill had actually seen Eustace's cousins at his place, even if she hadn't met them properly or been introduced to them formally. The name-drop at the end strengthens this likelihood.

6. About Apted. Where did you hear and learn for a fact that he is not going to direct SC? Far from it, from the little mentioned so far, there is a strong hint that he will be the one to direct SC since he is already figuring out what should go into it. That is, and that is only, if there is going to be a SC at all. And there is no reason to think that even if another director does get chosen to do SC, especially if it is Andrew Adamson, that Apted would not be having long serious discussions with whoever does it, to show where he left off and where it is possible to begin.

7. If and when, by some miracle, SC does go ahead, its very themes are worth studying. Including why running away from problems won't make them disappear. Why it is important to remember the signs. Why it is important to do what is right rather than what is easy. Like going along with the crowd. Or listening to group speak.

For some reason you can get some really nice movies on TV at Christmas. They aren't at all box-office winners by any means, and they are put on stations like ABC, our government alternative to ratings-hungry commercial channels. Last night's movie was Skellig, about a UK boy at school caring for an old tramp in the shed down the back of his own home, meeting other odd bods and what he learned from them, how he learned to stand up to ridicule, why it is important to stand up to even friends, and how in the end his seriously ill new-born sister's life was saved. Silver Chair says some of the same things and could be just as worthwhile a movie for anyone to make.

^^ What makes it a problem is that, before Eustace is changed, he and Jill didn't get along because he was a bully to her. At the end of VDT, Jill has not seen the changed Eustace yet, and therefore still thinks he's the bullying boy she's known. So why would she be visiting him?
The reason why it's harder on the next director is because he has to come up with an explanation for it. Either he has to make it so Eustace and Jill are already friends, which is contrary to the book (-- at the beginning of the book SC, Jill is still angry at Eustace for the past). Or he has to come up with some reason why she would come to his house despite disliking him.
It's not impossible, of course, but it is giving the new director unnecessary problems.

And yes, Mark Johnson came right out and said in an interview that he wanted to get a different director for each movie. It was in an interview a few months ago, so unfortunately I don't have the link anymore. If you're still interested, I'm sure someone in GMD has it -- maybe in the 'who should direct SC' thread.
So unless he's changed his mind about it just recently, then Michael Apted won't be returning.

~Riella

I need to re-read them too, I don't really remember what happened between Jill and Eustace - only that he needs to go back to Narnia because the dragon transformation doesn't stick 100%.

^^ What makes it a problem is that, before Eustace is changed, he and Jill didn't get along because he was a bully to her. At the end of VDT, Jill has not seen the changed Eustace yet, and therefore still thinks he's the bullying boy she's known. So why would she be visiting him?

For the same reason I keep saying over and over again. Just because it is the holidays doesn't mean you don't get homework. You usually do. War or no war. There's usually a peacetime to deal with afterwards, you know. Thanks to educationalists who think that school should be 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year. For the teachers they are paying as well as idle children getting underfoot.

Homework, especially unfinished homework, would be a very good reason why someone like Jill would need to see Eustace, unpleasant git or not. Look into your souls all ye readers and tell me truthfully there isn't some in your past. Or worse still, your present.

^^ What makes it a problem is that, before Eustace is changed, he and Jill didn't get along because he was a bully to her. At the end of VDT, Jill has not seen the changed Eustace yet, and therefore still thinks he's the bullying boy she's known. So why would she be visiting him?
The reason why it's harder on the next director is because he has to come up with an explanation for it. Either he has to make it so Eustace and Jill are already friends, which is contrary to the book (-- at the beginning of the book SC, Jill is still angry at Eustace for the past). Or he has to come up with some reason why she would come to his house despite disliking him.
It's not impossible, of course, but it is giving the new director unnecessary problems.

If I were the new director/producer/writer for Silver Chair I would just gloss over that Pole's name ever was mentioned at the end of VDT/completely ignore/wipe from my mind that that bit had been put in VDT at all -----and start out fresh like the book did.

Unnecessary problem solved.

Though if they don't want to gloss over it I would agree with waggawerewolf that she could just drop off homework and leave after and really wouldn't have been invited to stay and that would leave SC open to start as it is supposed to.

Besides Lewis writes that they are several weeks into the new term at Experiment House at the beginning of Silver Chair to allow for Jill to observe that Eustace is different (the rabbit incident, standing up to Spivvins...etc.).

Thank you for agreeing with me. But it wouldn't be Jill Pole dropping off homework. To get her character right she would be asking what the homework is.

At the beginning of VDT the book, Eustace was the sort of infuriatingly brainy kid who went round positively skiting about how well he was doing compared with other people's lousy efforts. Including Jill's, I'd imagine. You can find this commentary on Eustace on page 27, one reason why he always had a notebook and pencil with him to record his own marks and how good they were compared to others.

It would make a lot of sense if Jill was the one who had a real need for Eustace to put his money where his mouth has been, and help her with whatever she'd missed. And it would be a good way to start her noticing he was different if the new movie didn't have a lot of time to go into particulars about Spivvins and the rabbit. Furthermore, Jill does have a problem with remembering things, it would seem. In particular four signs she was to repeat over and over again in SC.