meta + lucy' relationhip with susan?
the first thing you have to understand about the pevensie sisters is that they are two FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT PEOPLE —- they straight up just value different things than the other ( lucy is spiritual, susan is basically an atheist, lucy loves to fight and takes pride in it, susan is squeamish and can’t handle it and properly finds it all ridiculous and uncivilized, lucy is a hardcore gryffindor, susan is a hardcore slytherin, lucy is a ENFP, susan is an ESTJ – seriously just look up those personality types, it’s the pevensie sisters to a T and perfectly shows just how different they are ) so they were never the closest out of the siblings. BUT they are sisters, and they love each other and support each other in a way that the boys simply cannot. susan is the only mother-esque figure lucy ever really has in her life after all —– though neither really thinks of the other that way ( they think of themselves as SISTERS before anything else ).
during the golden age, they were close in a way the pevensies couldn’t help but be during that time in their life. they bonded mostly through DOING things together. considering they are two very different people, they don’t often really UNDERSTAND the other or where they are coming from with their thoughts ( though that doesn’t stop them from very much supporting each other or opening up to the other when they need to ), so they often bond through action – swimming together, dancing, horseback-riding, etc…. they definitely were CLOSE in the golden age.
…but then the golden age ended.
after prince caspian, when the pevensies really began to settle into england, su and lu were still close, but their differences became more obvious to them while they were at boarding school together. both of them are lowkey jealous of the other —- lucy wishes she could be more like susan in the sense that susan always seems to fit in everywhere; people always treat susan with respect, they don’t treat her like a kid, and susan has the ability to make everything she does seem seamless, and lucy wishes she could do that. meanwhile, susan can’t help feeling jealous because people always like lucy, lucy doesn’t have to do anything and people love her anyway. lucy can break every rule, unspoken or otherwise, and it works in her favor! meanwhile, susan can do everything perfectly, and yet the one moment she does something less than that she gets scolded or punished in some way; it isn’t fair!! etc…—- and susan spends much of the time in boarding school trying to get lucy to assimilate ( for lack of a better word ). lucy has, straight up, never been to school before, she’s never been separated from the boys in this manner either, and she doesn’t take it well, so susan tries to keep her out of trouble and tries to get her to shut up about narnia because someone overhearing that wouldn’t be good ( seriously the number of times susan was told to control your sister!! was probably astronomical ). so, while things become strained as things are wont to do during massive changes, they were still, overall, close and honest with each other.
…and then AMERICA happens.
when susan returns from america, she feels more secure in england/this world as a whole. lucy tells her about her voyage on the dawn treader – because it was a happy adventure!! unlike the other two that involved bloody battles and the like – and susan listens, but she doesn’t seem overly interested. she doesn’t seem overly interested in most things lucy wants to talk about, which makes lucy start to feel uncertain about susan.
…and then susan starts calling narnia a game.
NOW there are two very important facts about this: 1) SUSAN REMEMBERS NARNIA ( having the one character who loses faith not remember the thing they are meant to have faith in makes no sense, especially considering how the others talk about susan – the friends of narnia are compassionate and decent people, they wouldn’t hold su’s lack of memory against her like that. so, yes, susan DOES remember, she just doesn’t see the point to it, so she mocks it ) and 2) LUCY DOESN’T REMEMBER ( lucy is the epitome of faith in the series, which means her faith needs to be tested, so how would one do that? take away her proper memories of aslan, of narnia, give her nothing but sensations and dreams, and see what happens – and what happens is that lucy stays faithful, stays true, she is faithful until the end because she knows, deep in her soul, that it happened ). so, basically, by susan calling narnia a game on more than one occasion ( because it is more than one occasion; eustace specifically says every time you tried to talk to her which means more than once ) susan is basically lowkey gaslighting lucy ( and the whole family ) making her question her reality and perception of things.
so, needless to say, lucy is very uncertain around susan in england. it doesn’t help that susan, in susan’s mind, also wants to help lucy no matter how much susan may be trying to distant herself from the family in general—- she loves lucy and wants lucy to succeed in england, so susan tries to ‘help’ in her own way. so lucy has no idea which susan she is going to get whenever she’s around susan —- is she going to get kind, caring susan who actually helps lucy ( or tries to )? or is she going to get patronizing susan who acts as if she’s the only one who knows what to do and mocks lucy’s faith? lucy really, really doesn’t like susan by the end in england; she still loves her, of course, just as susan still loves lucy, but lucy just doesn’t know what to do when around susan and feels so so anxious/unhappy/stressed/uncertain when around susan too. the two misinterpret everything the other says in the worst possible way and, what was once a strong relationship, has become something strained and rather stressful for them both.
because these two young women are people who are just fundamentally different and don’t understand the other. they still love each other, they would like to help the other, but by the time the train accident happens both think their lives would be better without the other in it, at least for the time being.
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