It makes perfect sense to me that all manners of creatures, including minotaurs, would be on Caspian's ship. His main goal was to unite the Telmarines and Narnians and restore Narnia. It would seem odd that he would go to all that trouble only to turn around and discriminate against minotaurs by prohibiting their presence on the Dawn Treader. It seems minotaurs would be stronger than men and as such would be helpful in "pitched battles" and "a quest to find the the seven swords." As to why they would be able to carry the minotaurs on board but not the Dragon Eustace, well I really don't think they would weigh as much nor be near so high maintenance as a dragon. Before the crew set sail they would've known minotaurs would be accompanying them and would've stocked supplies accordingly. The same goes for rooming I would assume. They would've had a planned place to keep the minotaurs. I can see, though, why they would not be able to keep a dragon they were not expecting. I would also like to point out that if I were in Caspian's shoes I would probably be more welcoming to Narnians on board than Telmarines and may even reject a few Telmarines in favor of accepting Narnians to travel with. After all, it was the Telmarines who tried to kill Caspian.

A dragon! Is it that foul, perfidious, dreadful, scandalous JABBERWOCK!!!!?!?!?!?!

Hmmm...Everyone's brought up good points, but the only problem I'd see with having minotaurs on the ship is that the Dawn Treader was specifically said to be a smallish ship, right? So would they even be able to store all that food for the minotaurs (presumably a whole lot, and therefore very heavy), and have the minotaurs too? Though, on second thought, if there are only one or two, maybe it wouldn't be quite so bad.

^^ yes, that was my concern as well! the ship is specifically discribed in the book as a reletivly small boat and the minotuars are not light creatures.....

True...in the book the Dawn Treader is a small ship. And it's also true that if one were to be "realistic" that would have to be taken into consideration.

BUT...being "realistic" is precisely the sort of unimaginative point of view that encumbers Eustace and makes him such a wet blanket. Narnia, Minotaurs, Centaurs and Fauns are Fantasy. "Realistic" concerns are relatively unimportant in that context. Lewis doesn't talk about the ship's latrine in the book , and I wouldn't be bothered to worry about where they would store all the food a fictional Minotaur would require either .

GB

It might be small in the book, but I wouldn't call the gilded monstrosity they're inflicting on us small.

I'm not particularly bothered by the food issues. I'm bothered by the mere fact they've decided to trot minotaurs out AGAIN. Is there going to be a minotaur shoe-horned in the group of Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum in SC? Perhaps Digory and Polly and Fledge will have a minotaur buddy along for the ride? Ooo, maybe Shasta and Aravis will ride minotaurs instead of horses! It bothered me that Adamson felt comfortable ignoring the fact that Book! Caspian wanted nothing to do with the WW's followers in PC, it bothers me even more that they're not only continuing to ignore that in VDT, but are actually putting minotaurs on a freaking ship! They have hooves, they'd never be able to stand up on the ship's deck when it was in a storm and judging by the way we saw teenage humans putting a beat-down on them in LWW, they aren't any stronger than the average human. Thus, they're impractical for sailoring and not that much better than a human in a fight. Absolutely a waste of space.

Anyone care to take bets on the likelihood people will be riding Jewel in LB?

It might be small in the book, but I wouldn't call the gilded monstrosity they're inflicting on us small.

I don't fins it particularly huge! it's just right! it looks just like the drawing in the books!

I agree with Libby, iy might be big but in general she's really close to the books description.

For some reason, minotaurs on board the Dawn Treader do not bug me.
Perhaps it's because after all this kerfuffle about the Lady of the Green Kirtle in VDT not many things seem terrible anymore. At least there's to be no witch! A mere minotaur? Psh, not a problem.
Really, why wouldn't a minotaur be added to the crew? Bookwyrm, I know it seems like they're not very strong in LWW, but in every movie all evil must bow before the mighty scrawny teen. So you see, it's no reflection on the minotaur's strength that the moviemakers portrayed the kids taking him down.
But how about that minotaur in PC who held the iron gate up? I think that's evidence that minotaurs in Narnia are as strong as elephants, and that they would be very useful on board the Dawn Treader.

Lucy P, I believe if you read through this thread you'll see people have posted MANY reasons for why a minotaur shouldn't be added to the crew. Here are just some of the reasons

[list=1]

As far as the strength of the minotaur; it's irrelevant, imo (although I see the point Bookwrym was trying to make).

I'll always be a,
NL101

Pfooie ! Just because Minotaurs were on the wrong side in LWW doesn't mean all Minotaurs are bad all the time.

As for sea legs, how do you know that they don't have a better sense of balance running around on hooves all the time?

And being "bulky" and voracious eaters really is a non-issue unless you have an army of Minotaurs on board.

GB

GB, using that logic we should have "good" hags, werewolves, ogres, and everything else mentioned as being in the WW's army.

Just because some critters (i.e. hags and werewolves) in the WW's army were inherently evil doesn't mean all such critters were evil. The WW also had dwarves in her army but not all dwarves were evil. Some of the trees were said to be on her side, obviously most trees weren't evil. Some talking animals were on her side, some giants were on her side, etc. etc.

I think I've made my point .

GB

Narnia is the land of animals, so why take only humans on board? In the book itself, it speaks of Caspian teaching the Narnians to be more seafaring folk.

And don't forget that the D.T. is much bigger than in the book, and so there will be more people/animals on board than in the book, and so there will be more food in the book, and so on.

(Personally, though, I am also sick of the Minotaurs!)

They shouldn't have even been included in Caspian's army in PC because they were bad guys in LWW and should therefor neither be part of Caspian's crew.

If I recall correctly, the book said that those who were bad guys in LWW fought with Caspian in PC, ie wolves and black dwarves...I'll look it up and edit this post when I get the chance.