As Red As Autumn

Catelyn's POV characters from ACOK 🍂 had a lot of fun with this one, currently very influenced by Sheilah Beckett's illustrations

Braiding Lysa's hair

Fighting with damnable Jaime Lannister on his visit to Rivverrun

Daydreaming about Brandon stark, hair betrothed (And definitely not his gloomy younger brother Ned)

Thanks!

My take is that Catelyn and Lysa are actually a great example of how having the same upbringing doesn’t mean having the same life.

People sometimes act like they were raised in the same way, but they weren’t really treated the same way, and they definitely didn’t experience the same things. Catelyn grew up as Hoster Tully’s heir for most of her childhood. She was trained to represent the family, make alliances, and think about duty above her personal desires which means she was being prepared for responsibility.

Lysa, grew up in her sister’s shadow. She wasn’t the heir, wasn’t being groomed for the same role and arguably the most defining event of her life was her relationship with Petyr and the forced abortion Hoster put her through afterward that trauma changed her entire life.

So while both sisters lived in the same castle, they didn’t receive the same treatment or suffer the same wounds. What makes them interesting is that they respond to their circumstances in opposite ways. Catelyn internalizes duty but Lysa is the opposite she internalizes fear. Catelyn repeatedly sacrifices personal happiness for her family but Lysa increasingly prioritizes her emotional security and attachment especially when it comes to Petyr and Sweetrobin. Neither woman is simply born that way but their personalities are shaped by what happened to them.

And honestly, I think the point is that people can come from the same family and still become completely different adults because they experience that family differently. Catelyn becomes stable and duty-driven while Lysa becomes isolated, paranoid, and desperately attached to the few relationships that make her feel loved.

"[...]but the pale light of dawn had put the glint of gold back in his hair." - Catelyn X, AGOT