* MAX IRONS / CISMALE / HE/HIM. is that EDMURE TULLY from RIVERRUN? the LORD hasn’t aged a day. i can’t believe they're THRITY-ONE years old and already so THOUGHTFUL and HOT-HEADED. it seems they’ve sworn their allegiance to house TULLY, may gods have mercy on their soul. [ EM / 22, EST, SHE/HER ]
i. he’s raised motherless, with his two sisters and the ward. An uncle and a father, and although he’s the heir to his house, neither will ever be pleased with his actions. he’s young, too young to understand the relationship between cat, lysa, and the one he dubbed little finger (it stuck). cat mothers him when he breaks his arm, lysa’s the one that taught him to swim, little finger always ready to tell him what cat hid from him. as the years go, the four will each remember this time very differently. you’re too little, lysa says, you will never understand.
ii. cat is promised to brandon stark, and edmure squires with him. the stark is everything, great at everything. he’s a great swordsman, one of the best edmure’s ever seen. he does as he likes, but is still respected enough. he loves his siblings, like edmure loved his own. he’s not much of a teacher, but edmure would not have been the best student. he watches, brandon sharpens his sword, wins a tourney, is loved by his friends, is with any woman he pleases. edmure sees it all and soaks it in. when cat marries him, they’ll be brothers. he’s wolf blooded, they say. not like you.
iii. little finger fights brandon for cat’s hand. a nonexistent moment for most. but for edmure, he’s about to see his hero kill one of his oldest friends. the mercy of the god’s perhaps, little finger lives to see another day. edmure goes to check in on him while brandon prepares for his leave. you’ve learned from your time with him, little finger says as he sends edmure away. a pity.
iv. this time is a blur. brandon is killed. cat has married eddard stark. lysa marries jon arryn. edmure is too young to go into battle, he stays at riverrun with his sisters, yet still begging hoster to send him somewhere, anywhere. edmure cares for his sister, who will eventually have her first born son. he cares for lysa too, who no longer swims or pulls faces at him. edmure spends his time between his family and the common folk. the war’s just as hard on them like it is on his family. they’re your duty, cat says on her last night in riverrun, she has little robb in her arms. you take care of them now.
v. his sisters have long left riverrun to be with their new families, little finger is long gone from riverrun, as is edmure’s uncle. cat will write, lysa too once and a while. eventually those stop coming. that’s okay. he makes friends with the boys that will one day be his bannermen. goodbrook, mallister, piper, the vance brothers. time has passed. Unlike his boyhood days, the realm is at peace. his short time with brandon stark had more influence than any of the other men in his life. edmure jousts and sharpens his sword, holding himself like brandon did. he’s with women, often. he jumps to conclusions, is quick to act. you’ll leave a string of bastards behind you. his father says. foolhardy child.
vi. he will not be the military strategist, like the blackfish. he will never be brandon stark, the hero. he doesn’t have an eye for long term political plotting, like his father. he’ll never have the wit of little finger. he’s too easy to trust, at times too warm, unlike lysa. edmure will never be as dutiful, as honorable as cat. he cannot measure up to any of that, it hangs over him when he grows sullen. but edmrue tully is kind to his people. it’s known throughout the riverlands. he loves his land and would do anything for it, or its people, a thousand times over.
** i hate to break the v. serious mood that is found in this intro but I’m..tired. here’s a meme.