But according to the text her body was brought back for the King to bury, and since once she expired, Rilian commences his search for the snake, she doesn't have to die in his arms either. Her dying body might very well explode in stars at the point of death, but up to that point it is that the Queen awoke from a deep sleep to find a snake munching her that is the problem. The only thing that is still relevant to the rest of the story is if one sees Rilian riding away on his horse. It is only how and where she dies that is of the utmost importance to the rest of the book, and why there needs to be a quest that Aslan has commissioned Jill and Eustace to do.

Eustace is key to the story and the film, however it may have been related from Jill's point of view. Jill has been given 4 signs and the first sign is that Eustace must recognize and greet an old friend. But the King has so changed from when Eustace knew him on the Dawn Treader's voyage, that by the time Eustace knew the king was King Caspian X, thanks to Glimfeather, he'd utterly missed the boat. Glimfeather does the best he can to help, by first taking them both to meet Trumpkin.

The reason why the crime scene where the Queen dies is important to portray at the beginning of the SC film is that this particular scene is so often mentioned in the rest of the story, whether or not it is filmed.

At the Owls' Parliament Eustace wants to know: 1. Who is Rilian, and how did he come to disappear. 2. Why Trumpkin might not be able or willing to provide much assistance and may seek to delay the quest to find Rilian. 3. Why Drinian, someone else Eustace may have thought about, is unable to help. And since Drinian has died, but not by Caspian's hand, he must have informed the Owls somehow of what happened. Maybe left a letter or message for them to pass on whenever it was needed. Drinian is still important because he is the only one who witnessed the lady dressed in poisonous green making eyes at Rilian, distracting him from his search, and who could have told the Owls how hard it had been to tell Caspian about his missing son, and his own part in it.

But if he has died long ago then obviously he can't be of any further help, and it is his testimony relayed to the Owls that is important, that Rilian before he disappeared had visited the same picnic site where his mother had been killed, and it was there that he met the mysterious lady. So is it important for Drinian to play any part, even in a flashback when there are plenty of other ways of transmitting information, even in Narnia?

Eustace might then wonder what happened to his other shipmates who served under Drinian, and also why Trumpkin is so loath to help someone from that old expedition. As Trumpkin says himself, his master the King has just sailed away. Likely, if there were any old shipmates left, they probably went with the King. Someone has to sail the ship. And Trumpkin is also short-handed with champions in general to defend the realm, due to how many people had gone to search for the Prince in ten years and who never returned.

The crime scene glade is again important, because that glade was the main starting point of those champions lost to the search for Rilian. The Owls are startled and maybe a bit alarmed that Aslan's second sign suggests they have to go north, instead.

Later, when Jill and Eustace do meet up with the Prince, he is to be tied into a Silver Chair where he tells them about a glade where there was a pool where he remembered seeing reflected in its depths, "all the trees growing upside-down in the water". Was this glade the same glade where his mother was killed? With the fountain an entry to a reflected, upside down vision of the world?

Finally, when the escaping Prince's party follows the witch's diggings, they find themselves halted at a bank with an overhead gleam of moonlight. Eventually, that hole in the ceiling of the tunnel they had been following, brings them back to the heart of a snow-bound Narnia. Most likely at the same glade where Rilian's mother was killed.

This is why it is only the glade that is important and why it isn't really necessary to show Rilian before they meet him in the Dark Castle. Or the Queen of the Underworld, either, before they meet her at the Giants' bridge.

And I'm more curious to see how far Johnston's statement goes that he wants to do his own thing for this film. Does that mean not bothering with the name Liliandil? I kind of hope so.

I hope so, too; I never really liked the name much, and I like the fact that she is simply the Queen in SC. Her lack of a name adds to the mythic, "fable"-like quality that David Magee mentioned in his interview on the Talking Beasts podcast.

I wouldn't be surprised if there would be a rights issue with trying to use Liliandil, since it was created by the VDT staff, not Lewis. Which... admittedly, I'd also be happy if they left the name out. I was always on the fence about giving her a name at all (let alone that one, which never felt all that Narnian to me), and I'd rather they just went back to not giving her a name at all than trying to shoe-horn in that one.

While I have to agree with some of the other posts here that the Queen's nature as a Star's Daughter was never explicitly relevant to the plot... I really, really want them to keep it in the movie, and preferably not in some kind of "blink and you'll miss it" way. The idea of living stars is the most intriguing aspect of Narnia to me, and like gP said earlier, the previous movies have already been too quick to throw out things that aren't "necessary" but that rob the movies of their Narnian qualities. Plus, I do kind of like the mystery of whether or not the Queen was murdered because the LotGK feared her heritage for some reason, or if it was for some other reason.

On the flip side, I don't need them exaggerating her nature, either. I didn't care for VDT's assumption (or condensing, whichever it was) that she was a star herself - the books never say that one way or the other, and again, I liked the mystery of not knowing for sure. I don't want the movie makers to give her powers or anything like that.

The glow that was suggested would work for me, though with the same subtlety as the elves from LOTR, and not like Liliandil had in VDT. Anything beyond that, I guess that depends in large part how they're going to establish the backstory - are they going to have a flashback to that scene, or have it told as a story later, or...? Perhaps I'm influenced by the BBC and FotF adaptations, but I feel like it's easier to include reference to her being a Star's Daughter if the story is told rather than having it shown as a flashback, though of course that'll be less interesting visually. But it's hard to speculate on how they're going to do it without any idea of how they're going to frame that.

As you are saying, Ryadian, the BBC and Fotf productions do go for some sort of flashback. This is part of the book text as well, but much of what is told to Eustace and Jill relies on the testimony of Drinian, who has died, himself. We don't need to see what actually happened after the court left the clearing, because the Owls obviously heard from Drinian, himself, someone near to him, or even from other eyewitnesses, after his confrontation with King Caspian. Paintings, tapestries (even - think of the Bayeux tapestry), maps, letters, proclamations, diaries, annals, history books etc can also be trotted out, when relevant, as supporting evidence when required in the context of a proper parliamentary discussion. After all, even the mighty USA Congress has a library, complete with its own way of classifying library materials it has been my sometimes painful duty to be acquainted with. Rock paintings such as those referred to in Aslan's How, in Prince Caspian, are also an idea, if they are at hand at the site of where the Owls congregate. So there is no need to depict Rilian at all before they actually find him.

All that is needed is how the Queen, herself, came to die at a particular glade where she and her court were having a picnic, and which Drinian later identified as the same one where Rilian met LOTGK. It has been suggested in the Reading Group that LOTGK might have been in the picnic group and could have handed the Queen a goblet of drugged wine, before slipping off to murder her, which would be a really good idea so long as we don't actually see who it is that hands her the wine, only the Queen, herself, supported by the grassy bank, drinking from the goblet and getting sleepy.

I've thought maybe that the snake, worming its way underground, finds its way back to the pool but is blocked by the sleeping Queen. A groggy Queen, waking up finds herself confronted with an angry snake that attacks her. She screams, thus summoning everyone to her aid. But she can't make herself understood, there is nothing else that anyone can do for her, and after a while she dies, and the court has to take her lifeless body back to King Caspian to mourn her.

It is at that point it becomes tricky, and where Anhun's idea to show her lineage does come into play. As she dies, someone else's face mingles with the faces of those of her court trying to help the Queen. It is Ramandu, himself a star, coming to claim his beloved dying daughter, filling her vision as she finally expires. We didn't even get to see Ramandu in VDT the film, did we? So copyright won't be an issue.

But if my idea was adopted, rather than Anhun's, the court would not of necessity see anything to justify their belief that the blood of the stars flowed in the Queen's veins, if they don't see Ramandu. And still there remains the dead body to bury. Do we really need to see the funeral?

While I have to agree with some of the other posts here that the Queen's nature as a Star's Daughter was never explicitly relevant to the plot... I really, really want them to keep it in the movie, and preferably not in some kind of "blink and you'll miss it" way. The idea of living stars is the most intriguing aspect of Narnia to me, and like gP said earlier, the previous movies have already been too quick to throw out things that aren't "necessary" but that rob the movies of their Narnian qualities.

Hear, hear!

One thing that might be a possibility is to include something subtle early in the film that leaves the audience wondering about her, and then later on during the quest, the Queen's heritage comes up in conversation. The questers could be looking at the stars when bivouacking, and Eustace could talk about how he met the late Queen on the voyage to the end of the world and that she was the daughter of a star. Jill could say "But aren't stars made from gases and things?" and they could sort of re-hash the conversation that Eustace had with Ramandu about the nature of stars in VDT.

That could be a good way to remind the audience that Narnia is different from our world and its rampant materialism... and who doesn't love conversations around a campfire?

As she dies, someone else's face mingles with the faces of those of her court trying to help the Queen. It is Ramandu, himself a star, coming to claim his beloved dying daughter, filling her vision as she finally expires.

Interesting! It doesn't strike me that the stars in Narnia are able to leave their heavenly dance at will, though... all the ones we meet that are earthbound are there because of their great age or punishment. One does imagine that Ramandu would try to signify his mourning in some way, however...

I think it's important that anything that gets added in to this film will become 'set' in people's minds for another generation or longer, as it will be the standard version of SC, even to many who have read the book.

I'd be hesitant to add these interesting ideas, for that reason. Look at some of the others they added, which we now regret.

I think it's important that anything that gets added in to this film will become 'set' in people's minds for another generation or longer, as it will be the standard version of SC, even to many who have read the book.

I'd be hesitant to add these interesting ideas, for that reason. Look at some of the others they added, which we now regret.

Well, yes......But that again goes back to what Anhun said about Ramandu's daughter/Caspian's Queen turning into a star, herself. A strategically timed, slightly out of the ordinary, beam of starlight bathing the dying Queen might be a less complicated way of showing her lineage and illustrating family grief, especially if someone comments about it.

When the movie is explaining about the Queen's death, whoever is narrating (assuming it's a flashback) can say "The Queen, Ramandu's daughter" or something like that. Throwing in a person's parentage seems to be common to medieval-style story-telling. I mean, the LOTR movies would say "Theoden son of Thingol" and they never got into what that meant exactly but it gave the world depth.

But they need to show what happened in the glade one way or another. It's the whole reason Rilian went missing. Unless they want to revise that completely.

That stars are alive in Narnia doesn't even come up all that much in the books because, as someone said earlier, they really can't come and go at will. I suppose someone could look up in the sky and say "the stars are mourning the loss of their daughter" or "one of their own". Obviously not exactly like that. I'm not a screenwriter for a reason.

I find it annoying that Joe Johnson wants to rid SC of any attachments to the first 3 films. Given his comments, we probably won't get the name Lilliandil, which is sad because I love the name.
I honestly worry also that Johnson won't give enough backstory to any of this, thus making Lilliandil's death unemotional and pointless. He wants to start a whole new 'series' on a book that has attachments not only to the Narnia series as a whole, but to the previous movie. We have to care about who the old king is because it's Caspian and Eustace knew him and cares about him and if there's no emotional connection to that, then it'll fall flat.
I worry that the death of Lilliandil will mean nothing in the film because of Johnson's desperate need to distance himself from the other movies.

I find it annoying that Joe Johnson wants to rid SC of any attachments to the first 3 films. Given his comments, we probably won't get the name Lilliandil, which is sad because I love the name.
I honestly worry also that Johnson won't give enough backstory to any of this, thus making Lilliandil's death unemotional and pointless. He wants to start a whole new 'series' on a book that has attachments not only to the Narnia series as a whole, but to the previous movie. We have to care about who the old king is because it's Caspian and Eustace knew him and cares about him and if there's no emotional connection to that, then it'll fall flat.
I worry that the death of Lilliandil will mean nothing in the film because of Johnson's desperate need to distance himself from the other movies.

They're adapting The Silver Chair by C.S Lewis. Johnston distinctly said he's avoiding references to Walden's movies - but will still reference events in VDT, just as the book does. I liked the Lilliandil name as well. Sounded very Narnian to me.

Her backstory (in the book) never actually mentioned or alluded to anything from previous events. The death of our prince's mother doesn't need much backstory - just need to establish their relationship. Not sure why we'd need much more than that.

I don't think we can say that Johson has "a desperate need" to distance himself from the Walden series yet. He may not be doing things exactly the same as those movies, but he hasn't said that he plans for everything to be exactly opposite to them.

I really like the name "Lilliandil." It sounds like it comes from the same language as "Ramandu" without being something lame like "Ramandua" or "Ramanduette." But I don't think it'll hurt things much if the name isn't mentioned in The Silver Chair. All she has it do is die. Even if Walden Media had made a "Silver Chair" movie, they probably only would have mentioned the name a couple of times. The character who will talk about her the most will be Rilian. He'll just call her "my mother." Of course, if they create a name for her which I dislike, that'll be annoying. But like I said, we won't have to hear the name that often.

Its actually been a few years since Ive been on here! So this is exciting!
I think The Silver Chair movie should show Caspian and the star marry at the begining. It be a cool intro.