I have not yet solidified my ideas on that. (Except I am dead certain there was no sexual abuse involved. I read Jadis as asexual, so the idea of her using sex as a weapon flat out refuses to compute, no matter how excellently other people have written stories using that premise.) As first and foremost a book person, I never saw sex abuse there either and I find the trope a bit tiring at this point, though that may be because so much of the fandom demonizes any sexual content at all unless it is abusive -- Edmund as victim and a tool therefore for angst and Susan as victim because she deserved it.
The fact is, more than the angst, I find Edmund's statement in HHB "Even a traitor may mend" to be the defining point of his character. It's what he does going forward that is the most interesting for me. I've played with some things around the edges -- that he is affected by traitorous acts, that he is slow to judgment, that he considers both the innocent and the guilty under his protection. I find the positives more interesting. One reader I know wondered how maybe rather than the popular trope of Edmund involved in the spycraft, would actually make a point of never going within a mile of anything morally ambiguous. And I can see that -- however I think it also depends on what the spycraft involves. Spying on people, opening mail, planting rumors is at one end. At the other, seduction, murder, theft and no, I don't see Edmund ever being comfortable with the really dodgy parts of spycraft, whether for Narnia or anyone else.
There are a couple of writers who play with the idea of Edmund carrying Jadis with him in some way anastigmatfic has Edmund say "I was her creature" and those who were Jadis' servants recognize it in him. snitchnipped takes a similar approach with Edmund post-Narnia really enjoying England because he IS free of Jadis. I like both of these authors' work a lot. They both have show Edmund in internalization and reflection rather than really angst heavy. Ooops I just committed an Edmund head canon dump.
no subject
As first and foremost a book person, I never saw sex abuse there either and I find the trope a bit tiring at this point, though that may be because so much of the fandom demonizes any sexual content at all unless it is abusive -- Edmund as victim and a tool therefore for angst and Susan as victim because she deserved it.
The fact is, more than the angst, I find Edmund's statement in HHB "Even a traitor may mend" to be the defining point of his character. It's what he does going forward that is the most interesting for me. I've played with some things around the edges -- that he is affected by traitorous acts, that he is slow to judgment, that he considers both the innocent and the guilty under his protection. I find the positives more interesting. One reader I know wondered how maybe rather than the popular trope of Edmund involved in the spycraft, would actually make a point of never going within a mile of anything morally ambiguous. And I can see that -- however I think it also depends on what the spycraft involves. Spying on people, opening mail, planting rumors is at one end. At the other, seduction, murder, theft and no, I don't see Edmund ever being comfortable with the really dodgy parts of spycraft, whether for Narnia or anyone else.
There are a couple of writers who play with the idea of Edmund carrying Jadis with him in some way
Ooops I just committed an Edmund head canon dump.