Thicker than Water

[ineptshieldmaid]

Title: Thicker than Water
Fandom: Narnia- set before LWW, in England
Rating: G
Characters: Edmund POV.
Prompt: for Challenge #11 at justkingedmund: "Unbelievable"
Summary: Edmund Pevensie believes his family to be inviolable.

Comments

[westingturtle]

Your Edmund is breaking my heart. And I have to repeat that while Peter is a great big brother when it comes to Lucy and has a working partnership with Susan, he kind of sucks when it comes to Edmund.

[ineptshieldmaid]

All Edmunds are heartbreaking, are they not?

Also, it's not Peter's fault. He never thinks about 'being a good brother' to anyone- that sense of responsibility is something his crown will teach him. He UNDERSTANDS Lucy, and while Susan is different and incomprehensible, she is enough unlike him that it doesn't matter. Edmund is like-and-unlike and Peter does his best and doesn't realise how much he can hurt Edmund.

[bedlamsbard]

Oh, Edmund.

[ineptshieldmaid]

Isn't that what I say to you all the time? :P

:) Thanks.

[bedlamsbard]

And why do I have the feeling that when they all came back to England and the kids at Peter and Edmund's school tried this again, Edmund was putting a pretty credible fight, but was a little hampered by the fact that he's smaller and weaker again, and he hasn't quite readjusted, and then Peter bulled in and threw the leader of the bullies up against a wall and said, completely honest and completely meaning it, "If you ever touch my brother again, I'll kill you." Possibly he pulls a knife, but he doesn't need to, because he has that look on his face, the one that says, "I will beat you to death with my bare hands, I will not have a problem with it, and afterwards I will go eat a steak."

And then Edmund drags him off and yells at him that he had it under control, and Peter blinks a little bit and says, "No, you didn't."

I. Um. This is where my brain went?

[ineptshieldmaid]

That's as good a place as any for the brain to go...

I was envisaging something closer to the movieverse train station scene... Peter gets into fights and Edmund barrels in without question, and it's not until the other boys look around and go 'huh? the Pevensie kid fights now?' that Peter realises a) that Edmund has changed as much as he has and b) he used to look down on Ed in England, and grew to take him for granted in Narnia, and now he can do neither.

[burntcopper]

oh, ouch. but very well done.

[ineptshieldmaid]

Ouch seems to be the communal response here. I think it's a compliment!

Thanks :)

[turkeyish]

Ah, Edmund. I never really think of him pre-Narnia. I am thinking I should, maybe. But anyway, this is great stuff! :)

[ineptshieldmaid]

Oh, definitely you should :). How you think about him before Narnia puts all these interesting shades on how you think about him *in* Narnia... there's not much fun in saying he changed, if you don't have an idea what he changed *from*.

Also, I refuse to believe that Edmund had always been the complete snotrag he is in the beginning of LWW. His redemption is too complete for that (as opposed to Eustace, who Lewis says had bad days and relapses). It always seemed to me that Edmund was basically a good, honourable person who was carrying some kind of hurt that was warping his personality.

[turkeyish]

I think it's just that I'm more obsessed with dear old Edmund as far as the whole "Dealing with cold and grey England after the blinding brilliance that is Narnia - WHAT A BUMMER!" thing. :P

Also, I do believe that at the end of LWW, CS Lewis says something about Edmund looking better, more like his old self before he was sent away to the beastly school that changed him, or something.

Which now totally makes me want to write about Edmund at said beastly school, especially because my English professor has been teaching us all about English public boys' schools and their quirks. Arghhh.

[ineptshieldmaid]

Ah, I think tea_fiend quoted the same 'beastly school' passage. I wasn't sure if it was used in regard to Edmund, but looks like it might have been. Excellent :).

[ineptshieldmaid]

Of course it Happened, I'm always right ;).

In all seriousness, that's a huge compliment. Thanks :)

[ineptshieldmaid]

You are only permitted to kick Peter once or twice. It's not his fault- he has no idea what he's doing to Edmund.