How did you feel after reading Last Battle?

C.S. Lewis was a christian. And so many of his beliefs and thoughts came through and were portrayed in the Chronicles. So LB is a sort of mirror image of what's going to happen to our world. So in a way to make the story work...they had to die. Just like people will die and have died and will go to heaven. And remember, these are all just wonderful stories. Nothing happened for real. I guess what makes me sad the most, is of things that are happening right now, much worse than this, and that are real.
 
ILOVENARNIA58192 said:
Sad, mad, broken hearted. I mean he killed my fave charaters.
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He didn't really kill anyone except the bad guys like the monkey and Rishda Tarkhaan, the bad Calormene soldier. Everyone else was alive and well -- an in fact better than ever -- at the end of TLB. They were in Aslan's country!
:)
 
Oh I don't know. I only finished reading it today for the first time, and I feel awful. At first I had no feeling. I felt happy that they were in the real Narnia. But then I had this feeling like, what was the point in them trying to rescue the old Narnia in the first place? And then it struck me that they were dead, and now I want to cry, but I can't make myself cry, but I think I'll feel better if I do cry. I hate the ending. I hate the Last Battle. It's horrible. And I feel angry in a way too...but not as much as I feel broken hearted. :(
 
Die? Did you miss the whole point? They were only "dead" to the shadowlands - their real lives were just beginning!
 
Well, there's no denying that the end of the Old Narnia was a true loss. Even Tirian understood that, even as he was relishing the joys of the New Narnia. so it's not so much that you shouldn't mourn the loss of Old Narnia, but that you should be consoled that everything that was truly good, that was real and enduring, about Narnia was preserved in the New Narnia - and there it will never be stained.

And remember, Lewis didn't totally close the door on Susan. She was still alive on earth, so she had opportunities to return to Narnia still before her.
 
Still. After reading 'The Last Battle' it kind of made me think - what was the point of them trying to 'save' the old Narnia all those years? Afterall, it wasn't 'Real Narnia'.
 
It was the most real Narnia they had at the time. The True Narnia was always there, "behind the curtain", so to speak, illuminating and adding depth and meaning to the Shadow Narnia. But by Aslan's design, they could only live in the Shadow Narnia because they were shadows themselves. They needed to be "firmed up", strengthened by trial, to even be able to stand in the True Narnia. I imagine if Lewis had written a story about any human, from (Shadow) Earth or (Shadow) Narnia, who found his way into True Narnia, that man would have found himself misty and insubstantial, like the ghosts in The Great Divorce (another Lewis work). The True Narnia was too real for them to bear, so they had to live in the Shadow Narnia for a while. The Shadow Narnia was the path, the signpost that pointed to the True Narnia - much like all the good things we have here on Earth are but shadows of and signposts to the greatest good of all.
 
I liked the last book but was sad becuase it was the last book. I wanted the story to go on and find out what happened. The last Battle was my favorite book especially since the Book of Revalation has always been one of my favorites in the Bible because it has thing that will happen in the future.
 
narnian reader said:
I liked the last book but was sad becuase it was the last book. I wanted the story to go on and find out what happened. The last Battle was my favorite book especially since the Book of Revalation has always been one of my favorites in the Bible because it has thing that will happen in the future.
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Same. :cool:
 
After I finished LB, I both wanted to cry and laugh.:( :D It was so sad when they all died and Narnia was absolutely over. But when Aslan turned into God, I felt all tingly inside and I couldn't stop smiling...I'm even smiling now just thinking about it!
 
When I was very young and reading the CoN, the LB always frightened me a good deal. It still is my least favorite of the chronicles. The ending is awesome, but for some reason that never made up for me for Susan and the poor horses. :( I loved (and still love) horses so much!
 
I don't have anything with or against christianity, but it was obvious for me the Real Narnia looked like Heaven. It brought a smile on my face. That was how Heaven would be, peacefull and happy. I liked the idea. I wasn't sad. It couldn't have ended better. They were, in the Real Narnia, more happy than ever happily ever after, though a bit sad, because they had lost Susan. But I think it was good that Susan wasn't there. Life isn't perfect, and that's how it should be. I don't know anything about after-life, but experience has told me that the more one gets, the more one wants, the less happy one is. I felt happy after reading The Last Battle. A bit sad because it was the last book of a great serie, but my heart was pounding with joy for the 'Children' who were how they should be. They deserved it.
 
The Last Battle ends triumphantly, joyfully. In God's kingdom the broken halves of their lives are united. There is no longer "we are either here or there" but a situation where all the people they loved in both worlds can know and love one another and there are no more goodbyes.

I think perhaps some of the people that posted in this thread have the wrong idea. If what more people do is the "norm" then our spiritual life after physical life is more normal than going about in carbon based bodies on Earth. And since that life is forever, the amount of time we spend on Earth in this form is the EXCEPTION rather than the RULE. There could be nothing more natural I could imagine than for people to assume their rightful place in God's kingdom.
 
I wanted to cry; but I don't want to put much emotion on just a scene in a book: even though Susan is my favorite character.

Actually, this is the coverage of my Fan Fiction: Susan's Fate-Journey to a New Life. I thought (and was true) that many Narnia fans (not to mention Susan fans) were highly disappointed about the whole thing about Susan not returning to Narnia and the Friends of Narnia all dead and such. I've written it for all those desperate and disappointed fans out there. This is not the right thread to discuss it, but you may check it out in the Professor's Writing Club. Who knows, it might cheer you up. ;)
 
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