The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair

The Horse and His Boy could probably get by, if only because there's what, like three Calormen characters who are at all important? Just tone down the absurdly poetic language and the portrayal of their capital city, Tashbaan, could probably work okay. Especially since that book doesn't make the Tash=Satan link. The Last Battle is the one that would be read as really racist if they just adapted it straight. I mean, dark(ish) skinned people ruled from a city covered in minarets who literally worship Satan and who are taking orders from a monkey and a donkey. That would be problematic.

I'm not sure Tash is really the Satan analogue in the Narnia books. The first book made it clear, in my opinion, that it was the White Witch who's meant to be the Satan analogue, due to this part.

Replace "Emperor" with "God the Father" and one can see a parallel with Lucifer; esteemed being and right-hand person of God grows arrogant and rebels for their own power.

It's also worth noting that the leader of the Calormenes in The Last Battle, Rishida Tarkaan, didn't even believe in Tash; he was performing the summoning ritual to appease his soldiers, only to summon Tash for real. There's definitely racist elements in TLB that would have to be excised^note like the heroes using brownface at one point, and the dwarves calling the Calormenes "darkies", but if the filmmakers were to emphasize and contrast Emeth's genuine faith against the Tarkaan using religion to gain power, then they might be able to get away with the inclusion of Tash.

edited 19th Mar '16 6:26:28 PM by Tuckerscreator

Outside of the Calormen worshiping him, Tash comes off more as a demon than Satan specifically.

I'm rather curious as to what the relationship was between Tash and the White Witch. Unlike her, he doesn't seem to take an active role in ruling people in the Narnia world. The Calormen seem to worship an idealized Tash who is very different than the real deal, suggesting he doesn't pop up every now and then like Aslan does either.

I recall hearing that there was a Word of God statement that good Tash worshippers actually worship Aslan and are indeed admissible to True Narnia/Heaven.

Aslan basically says at one point that good actions done in Tash's name fall under his domain. The reverse is also true.

Interesting fact: the portrayal of the Calormenes so disgusted Philip Pullman that it became one of his primary inspirations for writing His Dark Materials.

Maybe the reason Tash is portrayed demonically is like how "Christian" militants in Africa claim to do their atrocities in the name of God.

Maybe, though that has a closer parallel in TLB with Shift using his false Aslan to boss around the Narnians.

edited 19th Mar '16 9:09:01 PM by Tuckerscreator

Is Tash supposed to be similar to the Islamic God or something?

Tash kinda reminds me of the Medieval-era belief that Muslims worshipped an "Unholy Trinity" of Satan, Muhammad, and "Termagant," a completely fictional deity nobody has ever believed in ever.

No. He's some sort of man-bird thing created entirely for the story. He probably has more in common with ancient pantheistic deities than anything else. Considering the Bible refers to things like Baal and Moloch as false idols/gods, that's probably what Tash is.

I'd like to see him on screen, in any case; he's really cool looking.

I would imagine going by movie standards he'd be trailing smoke, killing greenery as he passed it, probably have sinister whispers following everywhere he went.

I remember seeing this one picture from The Last Battle where Jill couldn't even look directly at Tash as he walked through the region.

Also, is it really that hard to tell the difference between a lion and a donkey dressed as one?

The author points this out in the first chapter. Nobody would mistake Puzzle for Aslan if it were broad daylight and they had ever seen a lion before, hence why Shift only brings him out during late night bonfires for a few minutes at a time, during a period where no one has seen Aslan for centuries.

At least one Narnian, a cat named Ginger, wasn't fooled anyway.

Until he took that quick look-see into the stable.

Tash was probably drawn from Baphomet, the false deity that the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping, which itself was just a corruption of the name Mohammed and later became a symbol for witchcraft and devil worship.

I wonder if they're even going to do Nephew and Horse. They're basically side stories, and were released out of order with the others anyway.

Nephew provides important backstory so I think it should be kept. Horse can probably be skipped though. It's probably the least interesting one in my opinion.

Horse and His Boy would be an interesting way to bring the old cast back while they've become so much older.

Horse is unique out of them too because it fits more with low-fantasy. Less Jesus and miracles and more a plain old adventure story, though Silver Chair does that too.

To be honest I think Silver Chair is the weakest of the Narnia books.

I wonder if they'll be skipping the giant under ground. I forget, was that Time or someone else? I knew he was important in the end of the world, but I can't remember the specifics.