Asterius is a supporting character in the 2008 Disney/Walden Media adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. He is a huge, brown, male, elderly minotaur and a member of the Old Narnians. Like the other Old Narnians, he longed to see their homeland returned to its former glory.
Background[]
Description[]
He has light brown fur, with what looks like a white moustache coming from his snout, and marks on one of his horns, most likely received from a battle. He is said to be imposingly powerful and solemn, as well as being selfless and courageous, and possessing great leadership. He is known to fight with a standard Minotaur battle-axe, and seems to wear little armor.
Personality[]
Asterius is shown to be courageous and selfless, as he was the first of the Old Narnians who entered Miraz's Castle during their attack, and later sacrificed himself by holding up the castle gates, thus allowing half of his comrades to escape.
Role in the film[]
Asterius was first seen at the meeting at the Dancing Lawn, and was one of the Narnians who were willing to blame Caspian for the Telmarines' crimes, as he called out to everyone, listing everything that the Telmarines had taken from them. When Caspian promised to do everything in his power to restore Narnia to them, he accepted him as his king.
When the Pevensies tracked down the Narnians, Lucy Pevensie, having mistaken Asterius's growls as those of Aslan, started to approach him until Peter stopped her. Since Minotaurs were originally allies of Jadis, Peter didn't think they had changed their ways. He was about to attack Asterius with his sword, but was stopped by Caspian. Caspian and Peter dueled until they were stopped by Lucy. This led up to the Pevensies and Trumpkin joining forces with Caspian and the Narnians, with Trufflehunter telling the kids that a common enemy unites even the most ancient of foes.
Asterius moved to Aslan's How with the rest of the Narnians and became the de facto general of the army. He later took part in the Battle of Miraz's Castle. When they first reached the castle, he shushed a Telmarine while Nikabrik snuck up behind him, and knocked him out. After that, Asterius led the charge into the castle, knocked down a gate, and then rammed two Telmarine with his horns.
Near the end of the battle, the gate started to close, threatening to trap the Narnians within the castle courtyard, where the Telmarines were waiting to shoot them down with their crossbows. When he saw this, Asterius ran below the gate and attempted to hold it up all by himself, ignoring the Telmarines as they shot at him with their numerous arrows. Valiantly, he strained and struggled to hold the gate up, until finally his wounds grew too severe, and he fell down dead, but not before helping half of the Narnians to escape. The remaining half was slaughtered by the Telmarines.
Video game appearances[]
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian[]
Asterius is a playable character in the Prince Caspian video game.
Trivia[]
- Asterius only appears in the film. He is not mentioned in the book nor does he appear in C.S. Lewis' workshop.
- Asterius is played by Shane Rangi who also played Otmin, Tavros, and a Werewolf.
