If you consider the books no, I can see how the movies may seem that way. Miraz in the movie had more human evil feel to him then Jadis.

I never thought the book PC was darker than LWW. I can see where it would be argued that the movie is darker. There are more battle sequences and the overall feel is somewhat gritty. However, LWW also has it's dark moments that are sometimes darker than what is in PC. Most of those only occur during the Stone Table part though. So I would say that PC is the darker film, but only because it has the darker parts for a longer period of time. LWW has darker moments than PC, but it is lighter because there are less dark moments than there are in PC. If that makes any sense whatsoever.......

I have to say that LWW was darker, because the White Witch is more evil than Miraz! he's just a murderer, but she's a Witch!

daughter of the King, yes, I understand I think that's a good way of putting it!

Liberty Hoffman, exactly what I was thinking.

I feel LWW was more darker than PC. It had more of an evil feel to it which made it more of a darker. The witch had more powers than Miraz, she was able to do a lot more evil and make people believe that she was good. I guess that is the dark side of evil. It was more believable!

Strictly for the books I don't think PC is darker than LWW. I don't think the Chronicles of Narnia are meant to be "dark" despite some morbid elements found throughout all the books and a gradual shift in tone towards the latter publication order. However I think the concept of PC could have been handled in a way that emphasized the darker elements of it. That's why I think the films made PC darker than LWW, they wanted to underscore some things that were only hinted at in the book.

Take this into consideration: Miraz vs. Jadis. Yes, she was a witch and Miraz just a human. However he is descended from a line of humans who managed to drive Narnians to near extinction without magic. The Caspians managed to conquer Narnia and keep Narnia under their control for at least a thousand years. We have very few details on how Jadis usurped control in Narnia and can only imagine she did so with magic and fear. She also ruled for only a hundred years which is really short compared to her long witch's lifespan. If we assume Caspian I was the conqueror of Narnia then he not only invaded, conquered, and established a dynasty, he did so within the realm of a human's shorter lifespan. We know that Narnia was in a Dark Age after the departure of the Pevensies but I honestly don't think conquering them was like shooting fish in a barrel for the Telmarines. I fully believe it was a violent and blood takeover. On top of that, we know Jadis could turn characters to stone, but Aslan's breath could bring some of them back. Nowhere do we see Aslan's breath bringing back characters who were killed by battle violence. Although violence wasn't gratuitous in the PC book, we know losses happened through narration. I personally believe that's why the movie created the Night Raid scene, to show that good guys can make mistakes and when they do it is painful. Replace Peter looking devastated when Glenstorm nods to his son who turns around to face his death (PC film) with Wimbleweather sobbing over accidentally ruining battleplans which resulted in deaths on the Narnians' side (PC book).

To me, what happens in PC as a story is much easier to parallel with real history and that's what makes it darker. Men like Miraz exist in real life. Dictators have members of the opposition 'accidentally shot' on hunting trips. Cultures are exterminated under fascist regimes in real life. Revolutions are achieved through blood, sweat, and tears, emphasis on blood, in real life. Villains like Jadis are much harder to parallel to history. I personally think her villainy in TMN is much darker than anything she did in LWW. However, I absolutely believe LWW could have been darker too. As a story it has a lot of potential for horrible things, none of which would have made it generally family-friendly. I think it's a matter of what your mind conjures when you read the books and how you interpret events when you read between the lines. The appeal of CoN is its ability to touch several audiences, all kinds of people, old, young, people who like a Cair Paravel standing proud as a symbol of good triumphing over evil and people who like a Cair Paravel razed to the ground as a symbol of how bad things can and will happen to good people. Let's not even get into the massacre in LB. Similarly, one can see Jadis as a typical bad guy who stabbed a typical good guy on the Stone Table while preaching to the choir (her minions) or one can see Jadis as the embodiment of what happens when we allow ambition to override any sense of ethics (not only did she kill Aslan she tortured and shamed him too). Admittedly, my reading of TMN colors my interpretation of Jadis. If we go by publication order and movie release order, anyone who comes to CoN would have no idea that the woman in LWW also dropped a nuclear bomb on her own homeworld.

With all this in mind, LWW is simply not as dark as it could have been. The moviemakers did insert some darker elements to the LWW film but not as much as they underscored with the PC film. Overall I just think it's a matter of what you pull from the stories as they're written, how your mind fills in the blanks, and how your vision paints a picture from the words. The one thing I can't understand in the PC book is how Cornelius says everyone knew Miraz was a tyrant and having people 'disappear' left and right yet no one thought to stage a coup? Was Miraz that scary? The book Miraz in my mind says yes, conjuring images of Rated R violence that I think happened "off page" and he's on par with movie Miraz who when Prunaprismia said "You said that your brother died in his sleep." Miraz ever so casually answered "That was more or less true."

Well, i'm not sure which is darker.. the books and films both have very dark moments.. and Jadis and Miraz (with their troops) both were powerful and deadly..

I can understand how Miraz may come off as being darker in PC because the character *is* human, not a mythical one such as Jadis.. but LWW has is frightening moments, too, like when Jadis tried to sacrifice Edmund in detail.. I found that scene very frightening in its own way..

Yet, I still find Jadis(LWW) more frightening than Miraz, magic or no magic. The idea of someone unable to feel emotion for anything that lives is always somehat creepy..

man, I'm not very good at explainning this, am I.. lol..

alice jadis: exactly!

btw, you explained everything perfectly! I understand what you are saying!

I completely agree with you tenthofthatname.

My first impression after seeing the movies in the theaters? PC seemed 'darker'.

I completely agree tenthofthatname. movie and book, PC. Sometimes the things left unsaid are the scariest. The way things were potrayed in the movie made it so dark. I remember after watching PC in theatres that I felt very sad and depressed. When I watch it now I don't feel it that much (movie theatres always make the movie that much more dramatic ) but it is still more intense I think. The fact that Miraz (and the Caspians) could wipe out most of the Narnians without magic is very frightening. LWW has it's moments but PC is scarier b/c of the reality of it. It can and does happen today.

One thing that made PC darker (in my opinion) is that the Pevensies come back to a Narnia that is dark, where all that they knew about Narnia is either gone or in hiding, and a foreign race has taken over their country. Yes, when they first discover Narnia in LWW it is far from perfect, but there is a bit of a difference between stepping into a snowy wood and stepping into your ruined castle. Also, the children are that little bit older and more mature in PC.

Jadis is admittedly scarier than Miraz, but as a story as a whole, I think PC is darker.
It's true, though, the movie has probably changed my opinion quite a bit.

There are some really good opinions here. tenthofthatname, that's a really good write-up. Aslans Country, I agree, I think Jadis is scarier than Miraz!

I definitely see what a lot of people here are saying about Prince Caspian being scarier since Miraz is more of a realistic character, and since what happened there is the sort of thing that could happen today. (Not precisely, because it's a medieval story, but that's off the point! )

I guess it is sort of how the movies were handled; it was just the way it was made that helped LWW have more of a magical feel to it -- although I found that PC was the same way, at least in the beginning, when the Pevensies arrived back in Narnia and ran across the beach.

'Prince Caspian' is definitely more of a war story, so as a lot of people are saying here, perhaps it is darker for a longer amount of time because of the battle violence. I think the way C.S. Lewis handled it, though, he intended Jadis to be the worser villain.

As I said, I do think the White Witch is scarier because of how emotionless she is (like alice jadis said) and how she does not appear to be evil instantly. Edmund is taken in by her charm. There is something to me about evil that is scarier when it is hidden then when it is visible. But then we see the depths of her evil and hatred for Aslan when she kills him on the Stone Table. I wonder if Miraz would have been able to do the same thing? He was willing to fight Peter, who was a "warrior in the flower of his youth", but what would he have done if he had seen Aslan face to face?

I wouldn't say either of them are "darker" because neither of the books are "dark" books. They're about at the same level, with excellent storytelling in both. They both have intense moments, and villains, but dark? No.

I don't think an evil villain makes a story "dark". His persona can add a tinge of blackness into the story, but its the message and story itself, and the moments that are narrated (I think at least) that makes a story dark or light.

The PC movie had a few sections that rather bothered me.

In the book, Reepicheep suggests "storming Miraz' Castle", but of course this is characteristic.

In the movie, they actually do it.

They sustain casualties. The battle turns into a.... how to put it politely, a disaster.

This is Peter's idea, not Aslans.

What happened to "first in the charge, last in the retreat?" In short, other than the imaginative execution of "what if" by the script writers, their chief mistake was to overlook the whole ethos of the books altogether. It seems MOST unchivalrous, because it IS.

And I'm not even going into the whole bit of "raising up" the white Witch, or the extremely creepy line "Just one drop of Human blood" which is only too suggestive of that odd bit of Genesis popular with the likes of Z. Sitchin.

It is not only darker, it is more extreme, for it has not merely a suggestion of using black magic, but the actual execution of it.

And what if anything counterbalances this? Not much. Though we do get some very nice lines by Miraz' noblemen about how Caspian #9 had more integrity and was more of a chairman than a absolute tyrant. And for all that they end up dead all the same. Lovely moral ambiguity there.

And the "apostasy" of trumpkin is just heartbreaking. (well done) Well, it's almost too much like what one sees in real life.

Well, let's put it in an "elvish perspective": I wont say if the foregoing makes the script bad or good, as differing tastes will weigh things according to differing measures.