When I was a kid, the White Witch was to me as the Boogie-Man is to other kids. Every word that came out of her mouth was either a threat, a trick, or something else that scared the you-know-what out of me. I didn't really understand Aslan, as I hadn't come to know Jesus yet (and even after I had been a Christian for years I never knew Narnia had so much Christian symbolism). So it seemed the Witch was unstoppable... except for this awesome but kind of random random lion. And the way he described her army basically gave me the impression that "if it was evil, it worked for her". So you had all the usual villains - Dracula, Shredder and so on - and they were all just minions compared to her. And then came The Magician's Nephew, and her power just seemed to spiral out of control. She destroyed an entire universe! She could hear thoughts now, turn people to dust, and do all kinds of other nasty things - and she was totally cool with that. Even Tumnes was afraid of what else she might do besides just turning him to stone. This was also because of the way people would refer to the Witch as just
her, as if they were afraid she would overhear them calling her a witch. The kids' only hope was Aslan... and she killed him! I'm sorry, but none of the other villains in the Narnia books can compare to that IMO. So as much as I agree with all that was said about Miraz, Tash, the Tisroc, Pug and the rest, if I had to pick a "favorite" this one is a no-brainer. She was Narnia's original evil, the nightmare fuel of a young Geekicheep, and by far the most evil character in the series.
And that made it SO AWESOME when Aslan came back and kicked... uh, I mean, defeated her! Valiant_Nymph said:
I really enjoyed the White Witch, especially once her character was expanded upon in Magician's Nephew. I loved Tilda Swinton's portrayal as well; it made me appreciate the character even more. I wish Lewis has written on how she returned from the North and conquered Narnia. Or what she did during her exile.
I couldn't agree more! She did a fantastic job of portraying the White Witch, the closest I've ever seen to the one I imagined while reading the book. She didn't look much like how Lewis described her, but her attitude, personality, etc. is much more how I thought a real White Witch would be - more so than Barbara Kellerman IMO.
And it's funny you mention the time between MN and LWW - I actually wrote a little fan fiction about that. It's not published anywhere cuz it needs some serious editing, but it was a fun idea to play with. Maybe I'll polish it up and put it on my blog someday. I have a lot of ideas on that subject that I think would make a great story, but sadly Lewis never went there. But then again, he never goes there with Tash or the Lady of the Green Kirtle either. But I guess that mystery is also kind of what makes them cool.
Anyway, sorry for the way-too-long post! Next time I answer one of these "favorite Narnia {whatever}" posts, I think I'll just write a blog post about it and post "the short version" on here. But if you made it this far, thanks for reading!