Well there are the indoor toilets and plumbing, easier access to food, lights at thr flick of a finger switch. Malls, internet, cellphones, and other post-medieval conveniences
They returned to the middle of the second world war lol.
yes. the famous internet, you access through your cellphone, that you buy in the mall… during the blitz.
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I preferred Lev Grossman’s version. In his Magicians books and their TV adaptation, the equivalent to Narnia is called Fillory and was created by two gods for their amusement. The rulers are required by divine mandate to be children of earth, specifically because one of said gods is on the southern edge of chaotic neutral and the idea of requiring all rulership to be invaders from a foreign world amuses him greatly.
In the TV adaptation, there’s a whole thing where said children of earth arrange for an election to make things more legitimate and one of them wins by accidentally running on a pro-bestiality platform (stemming from a single comment at a bar) and then learning the talking animals outnumber the humans by a huge margin.
A society either needs taxes or serfs in order to function. One of those systems is compatible with equality.
They had taxes
Nah, they’re based as fuck. Royalty willingly abdicating the throne to become one of the people should be applauded, not criticized. Though they could have established a new government of the people before doing so…
Ours mysteriously became shorter. It was a full on epidemic of that shit for a time too…
i fucking wish i could ride the subway
All so that we can figure out that God is a magic talking lion
Is Aslan a God, or just a very old entity? I haven’t read the books.
He says quite clearly that on earth his form is a lamb instead of a lion, and the last book is a straight eschaton.
He’s 100% an allegory for the Christian God, but idr if he’s the canonical God in Narnia itself.
He’s literally sacrificed as a Christ figure
In the third book, he basically outright says he’s Jesus.
When Edmund and Lucy are told they won’t be returning to Narnia, Edmund asks if Aslan is also in the human world.
“Are you there too, Sir?” Edmund asks. “I am,” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”
The whole book series is an allegory for the bible.
- The Magician’s Nephew is an allegory of Genesis
- the Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe is an allegory of Christ
- and the Last Battle is an allegory of Revelations
This has been fun, guys, but there’s no Wi-Fi here, so we’re gonna head back to hell.
I’ve thought about the isekai genre (ending up in another world) a lot lately and how a big part is usually the characters trying to find a way home. I wondered what percentage of people would actually want that nowadays. I suspect it’s considerably lower than it used to be.
“As for you, young lady, you want to go home, right?”
“No, not anymore. I want to stay here and become the new wicked witch.”
“Nonsense! Now click your big honking boots together three times and wish to go home to Kansas to live in poverty with your dirt-farming, teetotaling aunt and uncle!”
If I could bring my cat and like 3 other people, I would 100% be like “good luck, losers!” and would never be heard from again lol.
Sword Art Online’s original premise sounded kinda fun to me tbh. Though I have a feeling the whole “society makes sure that the players get life support in the hospital while they are stuck” wouldn’t work as nicely in RL as it did in the anime. But “can’t log out of video game because it’ll kill me if I really try” would be kinda nice for a while.
People were dying because eventually power outages, and people pulling the plug. It was a major plot point.
But uh there’s a reason he goes right back in LMAO
Yeah, I think it was episode 2 that mentioned some people just disappearing to never return and others disappearing temporarily while they were being moved to hospitals and the Nerve Gear having capacitors or something designed to allow it to be unplugged for a few hours before it does the death shock to allow for that.
It seemed like it wasn’t a recurring thing, so most of the players in the game at the end of ep 2 must have been moved to hospitals (or had other life support options).
Old isekai had the MC want to go home. Modern isekai has the MC wanting to start over and stay in their new world. You can chart the change based on how dissolutioned young adults are about the Japanese Dream of stable employment and raising a family.
There’s a big trend in recent isekai to just outright kill the character at the beginning. So, you’re either reincarnated into another world or your soul is snatched upon death and body recreated in the other world as an explanation for why the character isn’t spending their whole time just trying to get back, but I do think that would be an interesting angle to explore.
Yeah it would be cool to be really overt about it, have the character be perfectly able to go home but they’re just like “nah, fuck that place” lol. I’m sure it exists somewhere but I don’t think I’ve seen it before.
I can only think of two Isekais where the whole plot is the main character trying to get home, and the anime fans are gonna hate which two things those are.
A Kid in King Arthur’s Court and Farscape.
3 if Quantum Leap could be counted as an isekai.
There is also Those who hunt elves.
Inuyasha.
The plot does not revolve around anyone trying to get home in that, tho. Kagome gets to go home whenever she wants, and does frequently.
Eh, she has to get the gem pieces to stop the destruction of the past so she can stay home and often struggles to return to the present and stay there for any amount of time.
She even at the end stays in the past, missing it as her found home.Its very isekai adjacent.
No, no. It’s an isekai for sure, it just isn’t one that revolves around the protagonist trying to get home. The “getting home” plot line is the thing I haven’t seen much and could only think of those two examples off the top of my head.
Plenty of isekai where the main character doesn’t care to go home or can’t go home (usually because they died and the other world is some kind of reincarnation or afterlife). Such as with Inuyasha, Futurama, and nearly all those animes with the super long titles about being overpowered in another world.
Heck, the ending of the orginal Fullmetal Alchemist turned it into an isekai when Edward ends up in the real world’s WW2 era Germany.
Jesus that first ending of fullmetal alchemist where someone thought they weren’t being obvious enough with the fascist metaphor…
I guess its not a good escape fantasy if you are reminded of the place you are trying to escape from all the time.
But I have 2 more off the top of my head and you won’t like either.
Sword Art Online
Digimon Adventures
Technically both about children trying to get home after disaster. It seems to be the only group that tries to go home.
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Since we’re talking that era, Sliders was a great show early on and it’s a tragedy nobody knows it.
I liked it, but then it got weird
Sliders, quantum leap, and early edition are the trifecta
Fucking love that show… its a shame he missed his home world because his mother just had the gate fixed but also I don’t actually think it was the correct one
The Wizard of Oz, which Futurama is parodying, definitely counts! Yes, Dorothy wants to help the randos she meets, but the whole reason she’s going to the Emerald City in the first place is to try to get home to live in poverty with her dirt-farming, teetotaling aunt and uncle.
Futurama, too. But without the “wanting to go home” aspect.
Interestingly, when Fry is actually presented with a way to get home via a forward-traveling time machine and a universe that resets, he never brings up getting off at 1999 and it’s never mentioned in any way.
Because the future is where he belonged. The nibblers would just find another way to bring him to the future.
He had already fulfilled his destiny of defeating the brain spawn three seasons prior. Although judging by this scene he wasn’t in too much of a hurry to go back in time:
Quantum leap is an Isekai. Getting home is a mainstay of the “Summoned Hero” genre of isekai.
Anime examples include:
The Rising of the Shield Hero
My Status as the Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s
My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One In This Other World Stands A Chance Against Me!
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest
Non anime example: Black Knight
Quantum leap is an Isekai
Is a cursed thing to hear and it’s absolutely true.
I wasn’t sure because the only reason I even say A Kid in King Arthur’s court counts even though he just goes back in time is because he goes so far back in time, nothing he knew about the world he knows really applies making him effectively in another world. Sam never goes back too far, but, then again, wasn’t he also from the far future? 🤔
Also: Black Knight is basically A Kid in King Arthur’s Court which I just lump together. lol
Spider-Man Unlimited 1999
Calling Farscape an isekai took me out.
And I mean… you’re not wrong.
Fabiniku is more along these lines. With the additional twist of the protag’s boon being his best friend getting dragged in with him to help him out, so there’s some exploration of why one or both would want to go back home.
…and genderbending.
Campfire Cooking is my favorite one of the newer crop of these.
His super power is basically Amazon Grocery. He immediately hides that fact from everyone, tells the people that summoned him he’s useless, and leaves the country to live “off grid”.
And all that before he even knows how that world works. I’m not even sure he knew he could do other kinds of magic at that point. Natural instinct to GTFO society / authority was something I could identify with
I only wish he would’ve warned the other kids who were summoned with him, as well.
An isekai where the MC is Snuffkin.
The fantastic book series Magic Kingdom For Sale is basically about this. I started reading what I assumed would be a lighthearted comedy and it literally opens with our main character lost in alcoholic depression because of an awful tragedy. The fantasy land he’s sent to is hostile, but it provides him enough hope to fight for a better world there.
Oh wow, core memory unlocked. Haven’t thought of those books in decades.
It’s bad when the idea of dealing with a fantasy Dark Lord is more appealing than real life. At least it’s clear who the good and bad guys are.
I think much of the appeal of these stories, and post-apocalyptic ones, is that they put you in front of problems that are easier to understand and deal with. Needing to find food is a simple concept, even if it can be a difficult task, it’s something we have evolved to deal with.
Emails and taxes, not so much.
Well, it’s pretty clear in 2026 normie world too (who the bad guys are). People just aren’t heroes in real life, and it’s too hard to kill the top villains.
Always nice when the bad guy doesn’t know exactly where you are.
I fucking love that series, one of my favorites of all time. The final (currently) book focused on the child was not my favorite - I hope there will be another book focused on Ben again.
Even the Wish-Fulfillment Isekai are pretty gritty for everyone who isn’t the MC, though, so in that situation most people would probably learn to suck a john, find a way home, or die.
I’m not sure what you mean, I don’t think I’ve seen a single isekai protag try to go back to Earth unless you count the “trapped in VR” ones.
I’m always a little disappointed by how quickly the regular world becomes irrelevant in the story. The intrigue is from how a person from a modern nonmagical culture interacts with a medieval magical culture.
But from the isekais I’ve seen, I’d say you could replace half of them with a person with amnesia and nothing would change.
I don’t think I’ve seen a single isekai protag try to go back to Earth unless you count the “trapped in VR” ones.
It used to be the standard:
- Digimon Adventure (the first series)/Digimon frontier (fourth series)
- Inu Yasha
- Monster Rancher
The only recent example I can think of is Zenshu from last year.
The intrigue is from how a person from a modern nonmagical culture interacts with a medieval magical culture.
Welcome to Japan Ms. Elf might be up your alley: a guy finds out his lucid dreams have actually been him getting isekei’d every night for most of his life when he accidentally brings a friend/love interest back with him. She’s fascinated by modern Japan so they start going back and forth between the real world and magical world together.
I don’t think I’ve seen a single isekai protag try to go back to Earth
Wizard of Oz, for one. I’m using a Japanese term because English doesn’t have a succinct one for that particular genre, but it apples to media anywhere.
Well they still need the OP’ness
I’m aware of a few early isekai works from like the 80’s to 90’s (Dunbine, Elf Hunter, and quite a few western Choose Your Own Adventure books and pulp novels fall into this category). It seems to be that as a trend, the premise is that the main character wants to get back to the “real” world and that usually drives the main plot.
Then theres a big trend of Isekai light novels (and related anime etc) in the later 2000’s to today. These almost exclusively seem to feature characters who just want to live a life in their new fantasy world. Literal escapism, even. Konosuba is notable for being very popular, maybe being around the start of this trend, and the main character is given a task to complete and be returned to the real world, but he just ignores it.
I guess we can speculate on whether this means people got more miserable in the intervening time.
Funny enough the webnovels tend to mention why protagonist doesn’t think of the real world, but their anime doesn’t go over it much.
This was me the whole time playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Every character except the main character is MUCH better off in the fantasy realm - the main character’s brother is literally crippled and sick in the real world and healthy and robust in the fantasy realm, and the main character still wants to go back to the “real” world. Didn’t identify with him at all.
An ancient 4chan demotivator summarized FFTA as “your life sucks shit and I’m dragging you back to it.” You’d think it was fundamentally impossible to have a good story where the message is, escapism is bad, mmkay? But it would be so easy to say Ivalice only exists as a shared hallucination, with the locals they’ve befriended gradually revealed as shallow imitations of people. Or: say it’s a real place which these kids can visit any time… y’know… like players do. Put some ludonarrative assonance on the idea there’s a crapsack reality you do need to take care of, to continue enjoying this fantasy.
On the other hand, as an actual game, Penny Arcade gave it the “Oh shit, is it 3AM?” award.
Yeah I did forget to mention it’s still one of my favorite games of all time. The story and characters are even really good - it’s only Marche I don’t identify with much.
That’s why I like villianess stories in otome isekai, it makes sense why they want to go back
This trope has been explored, sure enough.
Recently, I recall the comics DIE, although I didn’t finish it yet. And also the TV show The Magicians. In both cases one of the crew stays to be a king while everybody else goes home. And time runs at different rates on either sides. And then they meet again. Hijinks ensue.
Its been a long while since I’ve read the books or seen the movies, but weren’t they escaping WW2?
Seems kinda… worse than taxes and the subway. “Ah yes, lets give up on this magical world to return to ours to get *checks notes* bombed. Perfect.”
It only lasted 8 months and had 40k deaths for the whole country, but that’s why they were sent out to the countryside.
Been a while for me, too, but didn’t they find their way back by accident?
Pretty sure they were also old as hell too, so they got to like regain their youth. Sort of a win if you don’t mind living, well, here. You know, rather than a magical world with talking animals and stuff.
As I recall, they were adults but not old. I think they were riding through the forest, got off their horses to follow some light in the denser trees or something, then fell out of the wardrobe and couldn’t get back.
In hindsight, those horses definitely fled the country or got executed.
Reading all of this is both hilarious and disturbing. The post itself and this whole comment chain is just “I read it 30 years ago and barely remember anything but here’s my take on those vague memories”. And I’m replying to the very top comments, what the fuck is happening? It’s so fucking weird.
I was being honest, the last time I read any of those books was probably 20+ years ago, but I read them repeatedly before then.
lmao yeah it’s a Ken Burns documentary where we are getting the first hand accounts of the civil war because we can’t go back and watch the reply of the actual events but instead it’s a comment thread about a tweet about a movie about a book.
Yeah I think based on the later books, Peter would’ve been at most like maybe early thirties but probably only late twenties by the time they leave Narnia. And Lucy would’ve been like early to mid twenties. So they were adults, but certainly not old. In fact, it’s mentioned that Susan was courted by many princes and in The Horse and His Boy (warning: it’s super fucking racist and Islamophobic) she’s genuinely considering marrying someone but it turns out he’s pretty horrible. Right after the events of The Horse and His Boy, the kids hunt the white stag, see the lamppost, dimly remember the Wardrobe and end up back in our world
As for the horses, unlike in the movies, in the books it’s said that it’s very rare for people to ride talking horses bc talking horses are free in Narnia. So in the books they would’ve been riding normal horses that they probably wouldn’t bother punishing
I’m somewhat relieved to hear they were dating other humans
I really hope they instituted democratic elections or at least established a clear line of succession because the power vacuum caused by the sudden disappearance of the entire top level of revolutionary leaders is bad news for everyone hoping for a peaceful couple of decades.
Nope, Narnia falls to ruin after they leave. Boowomp.
That Mr. Tumnus the Fawn guy is definitely sus…
But when they returned to Narnia they were still young again.
So they got Narnia plus they also got the youth.
Been a while since I read the books, but weren’t they a bunch of Christian kids coming up with a fantasy explanation so they could spend hours in the closet together?
Given the kind of person C.S. Lewis was,
probably notmaybe (holy shit)…
Not only that but in the books they live there until they are adults and have forgotten about the real world. They rediscover the wardrobe while hunting. When they leave narnia the become kids again with all their memories intact.
Susan was not the sharpest bulb.
I am worried for how you did the lighting in your house…
She wasn’t the sharpest cheese in the fridge
I use the light generated by my indoor kerosene heaters.
And occasionally the curtains.
Far more occasionally as I’m running out of curtains.
Okay, you have to tell me what paint you’re using.
I got a really great deal on some cheap paint from India. All off-brand.
Or the brightest hammer.
On the other hand, she’s the only one who survived.
If they were escaping war, they sure did fight a lot in Narnia. And escaping the war has multiple layers in that lots of children were sent away from cities to safer places in the countryside as well as the escapism of Narnia. In the end they also escaped life via train crash, though that’s beside the point.
This will give some of the context for the backdrop of the war.
Good read, thanks for this
they were rich britbongs though werent they? barely in danger
I don’t think they were rich, but they were definitely not lower class.
they had a massive walk-in wardrobe with hundreds of different outfits, in a time before SEA slave labor/modern industry made clothing incredibly cheap…they rich as fuck
Gentle reminder that slave labor, industrial automation and exploitation of far away lands were not even recent in 1950, and that still today, the vast majority of humanity still doesn’t have the means to own hundreds of outfits at a given time, let alone have a walk-in wardrobe.
That wasn’t their house. They had been sent to the professor’s house to stay as the blitz was going on, so London, where they actually lived, wasn’t the safest place.
If you’re talking about the wardrobe they find Narnia in, that’s not their house. The the house of the old, rich professor they are staying with in the countryside, safe from the bombings during the war. The Pevensies themselves are meant to be like middle class I think
They found the fountain of youth and you call them “fucking idiots”. Go to Narnia, live a full life, leave Narnia with your adult mind in tact, walk out of the wardrobe a kid again, repeat.
So there’s a few problems with that plan:
-
If you leave Narnia, you will eventually forget Narnia. First it’s like a dream, then a dream of a dream, and then you just completely forget ever having gone.
-
The same applies in reverse. You will eventually forget Earth and spend your time in Narnia instead.
-
You can’t go to Narnia without Aslan taking you there. The Professor, who was infact one of the entities present at the creation of Narnia, tells the Pevensies that they won’t be getting back to Narnia through the wardrobe again.
-
Even if you could pass through to Narnia on command, there is a varying degree of time dilation between Narnia and Earth. The entirety of Narnia’s 2,555 year existence is compressed into 50 years on Earth, but the first 1000 years of that existence was compressed into the first 40 years of the timeline, and the remaining 1,555 was in that final 10 years. Also, you can spend 10 minutes in Narnia and end up having been gone for weeks on Earth, so the time dilation goes both way and is pretty inconsistent then too.
Listen, no one said attaining the fountain of youth would be easy. A properly motivated party has all of eternity to consider and solve these issues. And while the memories might fade - the muscle memory you develop learning skills and other brain development couldn’t possibly be wiped out.
Maybe consider detailed journaling - and once time slips into the modern era, record video recaps. It’ll be like in Severance, an outie getting a video message from their innie and vice versa; or like Drew Barrymore catching up with a video recap of her whole life thus far, as in 50 First Dates. Establish the mental pathways in your earth brain with new memories of LEARNING what happened in Narnia, before you fully lose your Narnia memories.
Believe it or not, muscle memory is one of the first things you forget as soon as you leave Narnia. For example, Lucy learns how to swim in Narnia, but when she goes back to England, she instantly forgets. No muscle memory, nothing, it’s all fresh. The same applies to skills like swordsmanship, archery etc. You won’t remember how to do any of that when you leave, but you will if you come back.
From a storytelling perspective (and arguably Aslan’s perspective), Narnia pulls in people that need to learn a life lesson and are needed for something in Narnia. Aslan doesn’t let you keep everything you gained while there, he only lets you retain information he deems important to your life on Earth… Because despite being literally Jesus, Aslan is a bit of a dickhead sometimes.
I’m impressed with your knowledge of the universe. 😊 I think I only ever read one, MAYBE two of the novels, and I definitely saw and loved the early 2000s films - but only ever saw them the one time in theaters. There’s a LOT of story here that I missed, I should probably go back and explore this series properly.
They didn’t have the same body is why, they were in their 40s and had an entire life when they left and were still children on earth.
This guy Lion, Witch and Wardrobes.
-
Wasn’t there also a world war going on in their real world?
(Btw do not check the poster’s youtube channel I remember them being one of the alt-right pipeline figures. Notice the blue checkmark.)
Actually he’s pretty neutral-ish, but a little cringy
Yes. They were sent to the countryside to get away from the blitz.
Especially since you might be into Beaver people after. https://youtu.be/waKc9C76W14
Can’t stay on drugs all the time.
“If it was easy, everyone would do it.”
If industrialized society was easy then everyone would do it. We should all be subsistence farmers.
My extended family could argue otherwise.
Hold my beer!
My favourite part was when the one girl wasnt allowed into Narnia heaven cause she’s a face painted WHORE
