after susan "stops believing" edmund is the most understanding because he knows what's like to stray byeeeee
yes thank you for this Meredith, I appreciate your effort to try and kill me. I should brace yourself. this is going to be long and angsty.
I absolutely see this happening. I think Peter is the harshest on her because heās always had a problem really empathising. he can forgive, but somehow he can never understand how Susan can deny something that she spent basically all of her formative years in, once upon a time. he doesnāt want to lose his relationship with Susan, but he canāt control his emotions enough to be able to talk rationally to her. somehow the topic of herĀ āidiocyā, as he views it, always comes up, and he always gets angry or upset. so, as much as it hurts him, he withdraws from his sister and only has minimal dealings with her, even though it breaks his heart with every passing day.
Lucy, on the other hand, tries to understand and reason with Su, but she flat-out cannot comprehend what Susan is saying. for Lucy, Narnia is such an enormous part of her that the thought of denying it is so inconceivable that she simply cannot understand. she never gives up on Susan, though, to the point where Susan has to keep reminding her not to keep bringing upĀ āthose silly storiesā, and that she thought, at Lucyās age, she would know better than to believe in magic and fairy tales. and sometimes Lucy is so tortured by Susanās words, haunted by the undeniable memories of ruling together as the two Queens for fifteen years, that she cries silently to herself in the small hours of the night, some memory or other stirred by something silly sheās seen during the day.
sometimes Edmund finds her, because he knows what itās like to cry by yourself, and he wouldnāt wish it on anyone, much less his baby sister, the most precious person in his whole world. he still has trouble sleeping and sometimes wanders down to Lucyās room, wondering if sheās upset tonight. and if she is, he crawls into her bed and wraps her in his arms, holding her as tight as he possibly can. he soothes her by stroking her hair and rocking her back and forth, and sometimes he can recall a distant memory of a Narnian lullaby, which he hums. mostly out of tune, but neither one cares. and Edmund spends more nights in Lucyās room than he does in his own, when she falls asleep in his arms and he stays awake all night to watch over her. he has to sneak away in the morning, though, before Peter waks up, because he doesnāt want Peter to see the heartbreak of his little sister.
and now that Iāve upset myself over the siblings, I should actually get onto your headcanon! Edmund is 100% the most understanding; in fact, heās the only one who doesnāt reject Susan, or she doesnāt reject him. he understands what itās like to deny something you know to be true, and to deny it so wholeheartedly that you convince yourself that youāre right. and heās never forgotten that feeling. so when heās with Susan, he doesnāt try to bring the topic of Narnia up because he knows it will just cause ruptures in their relationship, so he tries to continue just as normal: teasing her about her latest beau, going shopping with her (even though he thinks itās terribly dull)ā¦but thereās a sadness in his eyes that was never there before. he sees his younger, immature self reflected in Susan, and he wants nothing better than to help her to stop denying. but he doesnāt know how, so he doesnāt try. he thinks that, with time, sheāll come round, a notion which Pete and Lu cannot understand. Edmund never gives up on Susan, for heās never forgotten his ordeal in Calormen, and his immortal counsel thatĀ āeven a traitor may mendā. he hopes every day that she will come to her senses, but as time wears on, even he begins to lose hope, and he ages prematurely. he gets worry lines between his eyebrows, and his hair thins because heās always running his hands through it. but through all this, Susan still relies on him and loves his company, which he views as an achievement in itself. he doesnāt want to lose her, and through his understanding, he doesnāt, although their relationship is never the same.
thatās why the loss of Edmund breaks Susan the most. itās the loss of a baby brother who was too good to her, who sacrificed his own youth and vigour to comfort Lucy and to be with herā¦and she never truly appreciates him until he is gone. and Edmund has to mourn for her, too, even in Aslanās country, when he sees flowers in her favourite colour that he knows she would love. he watches the sunset every evening and thinks of a lost and forgotten sister, whose fate he will perhaps never know. the other two donāt know what heās doing; theyāre too overcome with their new lives to really give Susan a thought. but Edmund always wonders what happened to Su after they left, and every evening for many, many years, he stands on the clifftops and whispers a parting message to the setting sun.
Send me a headcanon to cry over together!
