I don’t know why I haven’t posted about this before, but if there was one semi competent person in King Lear, they would have called Edmund out in 2.1 right away-

Edmund: Yeah so I saw Edgar being very sus so I confronted him and told him patricide is bad, but then he stabbed me and ran away

Competent Person: So you didn’t have time to counterattack?

Edmund: no he ran away

CP: then why’s there blood on your sword?

Edmund: …

CP: seems like you stabbed yourself.