I am a huge Adventures in Odyssey fan; kinda obsessed (obviously). But I am also a huge fan of The Chronicles of Narnia. And I love how Odyssey references Narnia fairly frequently.

Anyway, I recently read The Last Battle again. And I was reminded of how during the beginning of the Blackgaard Saga where Whit kept the key to the secret computer room inside the book The Last Battle. AIOWiki also makes a note of this.

The key for the secret computer room in Whit’s bookshelf is hidden in C.S. Lewis’s “The Last Battle,” the last book in The Chronicles of Narnia. “The Last Battle” is an apocalyptic story about the end of the world, but in a Christian context, so for the key to be hidden there hints ominously about the power of the Applesauce program – that it may have something to do with the end of the world.
-AIOWiki

I asked myself, what is the significance of this? What relevance does The Last Battle in The Chronicles of Narnia have to The Battle Between Good and Evil in The Blackgaard Chronicles? Rereading The Last Battle I got an idea.

(Spoiler warning for The Last Battle! If you do not want to know essential plot details for the last book in The Chronicles of Narnia series, stop reading now!)

So, the events of The Last Battle begin with Shift the ape and Puzzle the donkey finding a lion’s skin. Shift makes it wearable and puts it onto Puzzle.

“You look wonderful, wonderful,” said the Ape. “If anyone saw you now, they’d think you were Aslan, the Great Lion, himself.”

“That would be dreadful,” said Puzzle.

“No it wouldn’t,” said Shift. “Everyone would do whatever you told them.”

“But I don’t want to tell them anything.”

“But think of the good we could do!” said Shift. “You’d have me to advise you, you know. I’d think of sensible orders for you to give. And everyone would have to obey us, even the King himself. We would set everything right in Narnia.”
–The Last Battle, Chapter 1: By Cauldron Pool

With Shift’s usual manipulation he convinces Puzzle to wear it and make everyone believe that he is Aslan. The two are successful: Everyone is fooled, and as the story progresses, Narnia is thrown into turmoil.

Before long, Narnia is taken by Calormen. It becomes clear that Shift wasn’t merely trying to have fun bossing people around by using the lionskin. He had a motive to attain something that he deeply wanted. This is realized by Jewel the unicorn later on. He says,

We see that the Ape’s plans were laid deeper than we dreamed. Doubtless he has been long in secret traffic with the Tisroc, and as soon as he had found the lionskin, he sent him word to make ready his navy for the taking of Cair Paravel and all Narnia.
–The Last Battle, Chapter 9: The Great Meeting on Stable Hill

The plan from the beginning was to overthrow Narnia. Puzzle was a pawn in those schemes. Essentially, the lionskin was the required catalyst to Shift’s overall plan.

In the same way, we see this in The Blackgaard Chronicles with Regis trying to get Applesauce. I especially love The Blackgaard Chronicles book series which has been expounding and giving further explanation to Dr. Blackgaard’s scheme.

“You’ve seen nothing! Do you think Whittaker simply invented that program overnight? He was developing it long before he ever thought about Whit’s End! Applesauce has power and potential you can’t possibly begin to imagine. The things you saw were insignificant. Hidden inside the program is something of incomparable value. I’ve worked long and hard for it, and now that it’s within my grasp, no one—especially a pip-squeak like you—is going to ruin it for me. Is that clear?”
-Regis to Richard Maxwell, Rook’s Ruse, Chapter 9

We all know the Blackgaard Saga, so there’s not much more to say. Richard Maxwell was a pawn in the schemes of Blackgaard, and Applesauce was the required catalyst to Regis Blackgaard’s overall plan. The parallel here is amazing!

Anyway, this was just a small thought that I had that I thought I’d share. There are so many things that I can analyze about The Last Battle and Odyssey. I could go on to compare the relationships between Puzzle/Shift and Tirian/Jewel to Regis/Richard or Eugene/Connie. However, these are probably posts for another time.

What is the significance of The Last Battle being present in The Blackgaard Chronicles? I’m not fully sure, but the connections between the two are really fun to look into. Maybe with further analysis and discussion we can find out.

Well, that’s all I have for now. Thanks for reading! What are your thoughts? Have you ever noticed Odyssey paralleling things in other media? Feel free to leave a comment!

-Signed, Polehaus53