To summarize (per coracle's suggestion) I found PC to be the darker movie. I have no opinion as to between the two books.

I wish the script writers had devoted as much thought to Lewis' ethical views as they did when thinking on what the Narnian "warfighting" manual would look like.

As the movie stands, the good guys seem to be too tainted with the ethics of modern warfare: collateral damage, commando raids, no distinction between military and civilian targets. And perhaps most alarming, a lack of any remorse, guilt or even awareness of such things.

When the Phantom Menace came out, there were several comments on the moral lessons played out in it. I had hoped that PC/movie would have devoted more thought to what they portrayed; the world has plenty of examples glorifying total war, and too few with any sort of moral perspective. All is NOT fair in love and war. Or at least that is what we used to think in an earlier age of the world.

In respect of that, as I watched the opening scenes of LWW I recall now that I couldn't help but wonder if people will ever forgive the blitz or Dresden? Are we still expected to hunger for revenge? Or for justice and truth? LWW was easy, it ends in total victory. But PC ends in a truce, something the script writers missed while Miraz' army is being massacred.

Oh, look on the bright side! Dawn Treader will have little of this. And we'll get to laugh as that government nimwit Gumpas is put out. The stars will shine in the aireless firmament, and we'll (well the mortals anyways) all get cataracts from gazing endlessly into the east. So like those voyages long ago, Lady Galadriel.

Both of them.

To be honest, none of the Narnia books is totally light and comic relief.
All of them have dark elements.

But none of them are totally dark either. There is always a happy ending since good always triumphs over evil.

OK, so the happy ending in LB is not what you usually expect for a happy ending- but it is still a joyful one for most characters.

I don't believe we are talking about the movie; that would belong in GMD. Here is the place to discuss which book is darker, I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I had intended it to be basically talking about the different stories. Prince Caspian is a war story, LWW is an adventure story. That is the way the filmmakers looked at them: calling PC a "darker, grittier story" before they even made the movie. I had suspected that this should go in GMD, but I thought the books would take preference in this particular discussion.

Hope that makes sense. If the moderators think this would belong in GMD I think that would be okay, because it's really easy to start talking about the movies, but I thought this was more of a book-discussion since it's not about the movies in particular. Hope you can tell what I'm saying!

No worries, Lady Galadriel. This topic is A-okay, as long as we keep it to discussing the stories/books. Extensive "Which Movie is Darker" discussions would be better suited to the General Movie Discussion forum, yes, but none of you are doing that, so it's all good.

When reading the books for the first time, I never really thought either of them particularly dark-ish. The more I think about it though, the more I think that PC has the slightly less dark storyline. It just seems more of a hopeful book, and it has less magic-y stuff (i.e. no White Witch, wand-that-turns-stuff-into-stone, etc).

Wardrobe has dark elements, but it feels more like a fairy tale, the structure of the book workd that way. But Caspian has much darker and explicit elements. For instance, Wardrobe barely mentions the battle and focuses more on the pevensies character growth. Caspian does describe the battles, they are not only mentioned, we read when the protagonist live them.

There is not that big of a gap though, Lewis surely was not very explicit on his works. But is certainly a more mature and complex story.

I agree that LWW is more of a discovery/adventure book. To me, there is always a sense of wonder whenever I read the book, and even though there's the White Witch and the battle at the end (which, in the book, wasn't even a chapter, was it?), it wasn't really "dark".
I don't think PC was exactly "darker", but I feel that there's a lot more nostalgia (on the part of both the Pevensies and the reader, if the reader has read LWW), plus more fighting and dying, and even some prejudice (i.e., how the dwarves, mostly Nikabrik, dislike Cornelius because he's half-dwarf). Also, I thought the almost-raising of the White Witch was pretty scary when I first read it.

If any of the books wins the award for the darkest, it would be The Silver Chair. While PC may be the least favorite of the bunch, I honestly think it is still not as dark as SC. Maybe because SC's is Caspian's end, while PC is Caspian's youth. Maybe because of the gloomy places where SC takes place in. Maybe because the Pevensies are no longer there and one may suspect what could happen to Susan. But I think SC wins this contest.

I think that The Last Battle is the darkest! I was just reading it again, and it gave me the creeps just reading Shift controlling the other animals and poor Puzzle! *shudders* I do like that book, but I find it the scariest one of all the Narnia stories!

I'm glad you started this topic, because Adamson's comments on PC being a darker story never convinced me.

I think being oppressed by a cruel and magical dictator is darker than just living in exile. The Narnians are pretty autonomous in PC and can do as they like.

Then as the stories progress, the good Narnians are in danger of extinction in both books, so that pretty much evens them out.

I think LWW is darker because of the beginning premise. London being bombed, Narnia always winter and never Christmas, friends being turned into stone, life under the thumb of a cruel and evil witch, -all these sum up for a very dark story.