I think there’s an extent to which Edwin plays trauma olympics just because he honestly thinks he’s earned the right to be a bitch about it. If he had to spend 73 years in hell, it’s going to be good for something. (And y'know what? He’s right. He can have this one.)

And I think he does it more with Crystal because her presence is setting off insecurities about his relationship with Charles and he’s lashing out about it. (and because sniping at Crystal feels safe because she gives as good as she gets, so he doesn’t have to feel like he’s picking on someone who can’t defend themself.)

But it’s also a real thing for some people who have been through life-threatening (or life-ending, in Edwin’s case) experiences, especially if they haven’t really processed any of those experiences, to have a hard time giving weight to things that seem less urgent and terrible than the upper end of their own personal scale of Bad Shit. To feel like they can’t afford to spend energy on smaller issues because they never know when they might be back in the middle of the worst thing that ever happened to them and need every resource they can scrounge. And Edwin’s scale for bad things happening is about as broken as it gets.

Like, I do think he plays trauma olympics on purpose to be a bitch, and I love that for him. But I can also believe there’s a real part of Edwin that looks at serious-but-not-life-and-death problems and reflexively dismisses them on the grounds that worrying about them will take up mental energy better spent on surviving being hunted for sport.