another thing I thought of with Edmund was that it was him who thought up the serpent. so he had to ultimately be rid of the serpent. and I think the serpent was preventing the darkness from dispersing. it was Edmund overcoming his fear.

just my two cents.....

sorry, wrong forum

smartypie, that is an excellent archetypal reading.

I think that the stabbing of the serpent and the uniting of the swords happen at the same time, but it's an obvious choice (in my opinion) of which to put before the other.

If they had Edmund stab the serpent, well, no one would be sitting on the edge of their seat to see a boy put a sword on a table...

They want to keep the audience's adrenaline running for the longest time, and the best way to do this would be to have Edmunt stab the serpent right after the seven swords were united, this way they had at least a few more seconds of suspense!

When Eustace didn't get the last sword to the table on the first try......I thought, "well here we go, the writers playing with will he or won't he succeed...." a tried and true movie suspense-creating moment...

Basically, the whole seven swords thing is one huge plothole. They never explain the link between the swords and the Dark Island, never explain why Rindon somehow starts glowing, and all the other swords on deck do not (after all, the seven swords where a gift from Aslan, and Rhindon was a gift from Santa Claus!), and it isn't even clear how the villain of the film was defeated, as you brought up.

sorry, wrong forum

^ smartypie, the Narnia & Christianity forum is here. In GMD, we are talking about how the movie works on its own terms.

How exactly the Dark Island was destroyed is simply not explained in the movie. This part of the movie, as a stand-alone story, doesn't make sense.

I'm not sure who destroyed the mist, but it sure wasn't Aslan. At least not directly.

^ smartypie, the difference is that in scripture, these things make sense. In this story, they do not make sense. I think you're looking at the movie as if it's an allegory.

what's wrong with that? if the book can be viewed as an allegory, why not the movie? I see the movie as an allegory too. it all depends on your perspective, I suppose. it doesn't have to be viewed as an allegory, but that's the same with the books. and the books didn't start as allegory's either. Lewis himself said that he didn't start writing Narnia as an allegory - first came a picture of a faun with an umbrella in the snow, and then Aslan, and then the Christian themes came after that.
you don't have to see VotDT movie as an allegory. that's okay, you're entitled to your opinion as much as anybody! but smartypie (and I) see it as an allegory the same as the book. either way is fine. both the book and the movie have great themes that run throughout each.

^ The books are not allegory. Lewis himself said they were not.

To explain something in the movie by citing other sources is to say that the movie, by itself, does not make sense.

That would be like me saying: "It is explained why Rhindon glows blue in The Lord of the Rings. Because orcs are close."

^^ I'm not trying to argue - far from that! I'm just saying that if someone views something in a certain way, another person can';t say that that viewpoint is wrong. and vice versa.

If you view the books the view point that CS Lewis wrote allegories, that viewpoint is factually wrong. Unless Lewis was lying to us.

The part of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader when the Dark Island is destroyed and Lucy says, "I don't think it was us, followed by the cut to Eustace is the lowest moment in Narnia movie history.

By the way, in the movie, I think Eustace destroyed the Dark Island.

^ Pretty darn low! It almost felt intentional. It felt like they knew fans would assume Edmund was referring to Aslan.... only to find out he was actually talking about Eustace! It felt like a big fat "just kidding!" at fans.

another thing I thought of with Edmund was that it was him who thought up the serpent. so he had to ultimately be rid of the serpent. and I think the serpent was preventing the darkness from dispersing. it was Edmund overcoming his fear.

That's actually a pretty cool thought. I'd never thought of it that way before, but it's true.
We have to defeat the evil/darkness in ourselves...and no, we can't do it alone.

I don't think the whole "It wasn't us"...cut to Eustace"" was low. It WASN'T just Eustace on his own helping them. Aslan undragoned him in order for him to be able to help save the others. Aslan might not have been RIGHT THERE saving them, but he knew how it would turn it, he had a Plan. I suppose you could compare this to God not coming down and taking everyone's problems away...instead he works through people...