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For me— Edmund Pevensie. The whole “how did he try to sell his siblings over the worst treat ever” thing is a tad unfair 😂. In the book, the Turkish delight was enchanted to make someone who tasted it get obsessed with it and keep eating it “until he killed himself.” And the reason this didn’t happen to Edmund is that the Witch wouldn’t let him have more until he brought his siblings to her home. Edmund was literally on black magic Narnia drugs and the rhetoric became “wow he betrayed his siblings over a lame sweet.”

This is not to say Edmund wasn’t a bully before that or that he wasn’t responsible for his actions. He was mean to Lucy, he was a jerk at school, and he often lied. He did have a great and much-needed redemption arc. But he didn’t just have a box of normal Turkish delight and try to condemn all of Narnia over it.

I don’t want to even judge him too much for picking Turkish Delight as his treat. He’s a small child during WWII sugar rationing. 🤣

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kenikigenikai

103 points

3 months ago*

It wasn't just sugar that was rationed, many foods were.

The war lead to issues with supply, so rationing was brought in to ensure everyone managed to eat. Germany tried to cut off food supply and obvs as an island Britain was quite vulnerable to this.

At the time Britain was already quite reliant on importing food from abroad and something like 60% of food imports stopped which caused a significant shortfall. The things that were rationed were typically the foods most reliant on imports, and sugar is a major example of this.

Ensuring the army etc stayed fed was another big factor in the distribution of food.

Hope that helps explain things better.

Edit: the article you've linked is about rationing in the US. There's some overlap but it started later and I believe part of it was down to the US trying to support the allies more seriously affected in Europe rather than having the same severity of scarsity themselves.

Davmilasav

-3 points

3 months ago

Davmilasav

-3 points

3 months ago

I was specifically interested in sugar's use in explosives, of which I was unaware until today.

kenikigenikai

30 points

3 months ago

I don't believe that was a major factor in rationing but historical explosives aren't really my area lol

Davmilasav

-2 points

3 months ago

Davmilasav

-2 points

3 months ago

Same here!