Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Susan and Lucy partying with Bacchus while the boys rescue Caspian. It has no impact on the plot, the mythology crossover is never explained, and it's never mentioned again.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Reepicheep the Mouse only plays a supporting role but became one of the most beloved characters in the series for his status as a chivalrous knight and Boisterous Bruiser despite his small size.
Sequelitis: This was the second book published (though the fourth chronologically), and it's commonly regarded as the weakest.
The film adds the possibility that Susan's denial of Narnia later in the series is due to the romance that could never happen with Caspian.
In contrast to her stance as Queen Susan the Gentle, do Susan's rather aggressive tendencies on the battlefield come from somewhere else? She ruled as a Queen for fifteen years in what appears to be a progressive society - and then had to return to 1940s England where women were still in Stay in the Kitchen roles. That's bound to make her long for the power and freedom she once had. Likewise women did serve roles in the war, but Susan as a teenage girl probably wouldn't be able to - thus frustrating her even more.
Were Sopespian and the other Telmarines who went along with the Final Battle really that invested in its outcome? They were more than happy to let Peter kill Miraz, and only pin his death on the Narnians to cover their own asses. Had Caspian averted the need for Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work, they might well have accepted his sovereignty with no further bloodshed.
The Caspian and Susan romance. Some invoke They Changed It, Now It Sucks! and Strangled by the Red String. Others were happy Susan had something to actually do in the film (as she did very little in the book) and liked the foreshadowing to her eventual fate.
There's also Susan becoming an Action Girl. In the book her adult self is described as not liking fighting "like an ordinary grown up lady", which is why she was named Queen Susan the Gentle. On the other hand both Anna Popplewell and Andrew Adamson said "if she was going to Stay in the Kitchen she should have been given a slab of bread and some butter, and not a bow and arrow."
Die for Our Ship: The Susan/Caspian shippers, despite the fact that there's absolutely no mention of it in the books, they never see each other again, and Caspian marries Ramandu's daughter at the end of Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Curse you Andrew Adamson for including that kiss.
The geek at the train station (Warren) gained a fan club when some fans decided they didn't like the way Susan's and Caspian's relationship was treated and that "Phyllis" was a much better pairing.
Asterius the minotaur (the one who held up the portcullis, which is the only reason anyone aside from griffon-riding Edmund escaped with their lives) is held in high regard as well.
Harsher in Hindsight: The use of "The Call" at the end of Prince Caspian will likely become this if a film adaptation of The Last Battle is made. And since it's unlikely the film adaptation will ever be made with this series's cast and crew, Peter and Susan as we know them here will never be seen in Narnia again.
Hilarious in Hindsight: On the one hand, you have Ben Barnes, whose portrayal of Prince Caspian drew upon Inigo Montoya; and on the other you have Eddie Izzard, who based her sword-fighting mouse Reepicheep on Errol Flynn, who also famously inspired Cary Elwes' performance. So their first meeting is really a The Princess Bride reunion by way of Captain Ersatzes.
Love to Hate: Sergio Castellitto's take on King Miraz, making him a very effective and ruthless villain - with the occasional Pet the Dog moment to humanise him. Likewise he also gets some good Deadpan Snarker moments.
One-Scene Wonder: Tilda Swinton returns as Jadis for one scene, as an expansion of a point in the book where they consider resurrecting her.
Presumed Flop: The film was declared a flop due to its Box Office performance leading Disney to drop The Chronicles of Narnia as a franchise, and 20th Century Fox adapting The Voyage of the Dawn Treader instead. It did perform slightly lower than expected, since it was released as a summer blockbuster and ended up competing with Iron Man, but it still grossed $419 million (nearly twice its budget).
Sophomore Slump: Sort of. The film is a mixed bag. Some felt it was a step down, others loved it.
Strangled by the Red String: The romance between Susan and Caspian is accused of this. There was none in the book and it was Doomed by Canon anyway. The whole thing is very chaste and never progresses beyond simple flirtation—culminating in a small kiss at the end. Word of God is that the romance was more detailed in the original script, but cut down to a more chaste thing because they wanted to avoid it taking over the movie.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: This film provoked this more than the first. Due to the book's iffy pacingnote The Pevensies arrive in Narnia, meet Trumpkin and then he tells them everything that had happened up until then (including Miraz storming Aslan's How), a lot of things had to be changed. Things that were especially disliked were the castle raid and the romance between Susan and Caspian.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Peter and Caspian's fight is meant to show that both of them have messed up majorly. Except Caspian abandoned his post in the middle of a covert military operation just to get some revenge - which he didn't act upon. The castle raid failing was far more Caspian's fault than Peter's - who was more trying to salvage the mess that Caspian made.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Prince Caspian was allegedly a children's movie and rated as PG. But despite that, Prince Caspian is probably the highest-bodycount, generally-dark movie to be given a PG rating since Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom spurred the creation of PG-13. In addition, the villains here are not just some fantastical creatures, but men and women who Would Hurt a Child.
