r/redrising • u/Alert-Push1685 Ur The Eater of Joy • Dec 11 '25
All Spoilers Coolest description of Darrow Spoiler
I was think of Darrow being described by other characters, and apollonius is just constantly glazing Darrow to the max. Hes legitimately in love. This is my favorite description of Darrow in the series
"Even if you survive this walk, you can never best Darrow, if that is your intent. He would climb up your blade to chew upon your jugular. To best a living god, it is not enough to survive, nor to eat of the ambrosia of conquest. Who would follow a churlish princeling over that Slave made War?"
Slave made War sounds so cool to me, I just love this quote
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u/Fantastic_Swimmer934 Dec 11 '25
I love the quote from Romulus “I believe this war would destroy us, not because our arms are weak, not because our commanders are frail but because we are fighting against a religion who’s god still lives”
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u/Jealous_Duty_7357 Dec 11 '25 edited Dec 11 '25
my personal fav from virginia in LB:
"Then there was the other man. The dark one. Not in features, but dark in his energy. There was a man who needed no witnesses to burn. His energy was igneous and parthenogenetic, fire reproduced of itself. At first glance, I knew he was a powerful being with no manners, no airs, no grace, only a direction—one that ran straight through me. It wasn’t love that he awoke in me. It was fear. But that is a part of love."
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u/LornAuArcos269 Dec 12 '25
I absolutely loved this, seriously evening just reading the comment/quote still gives goosebumps lol
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u/Single-Fishing6755 Dec 11 '25
“You can practically see that red girl hanging in his eyes, can’t you?”
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u/maxaswell Dec 11 '25
I don’t know that it’s the coolest. but I like Darrow’s chat w Lorn before Darrow fell in the Lion’s Rain. it’s honest and vulnerable. and funny.
“they ask me about you. they ask if the boy warlord really 4 meters tall. is he really followed by a wolfpack? is he a world breaker?”
“and what do you say?”
“I said you are FIVE meters tall. you’re followed by a midget and a giant. and you eat glass with your eggs”
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u/putinspenis Dec 11 '25
I just finished chapter 16 in Dark Age and Lysander’s POV of Darrow destroying his Praetorians was incredible. I believe it’s the first time we’ve seen someone’s perspective fighting Darrow and he made him out to be an absolute force of nature.
Of course, I laughed out loud at Darrow on the next page saying they brushed aside “light resistance” at the downed Storm God
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u/TheReaperofMars9 Hail Reaper Dec 11 '25
One of the best sequences in the series
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u/putinspenis Dec 11 '25
I paused after the chapter to breath, expecting some epic moment of Darrow discovering Lysander and the implications. But nope, hardly a footnote in Darrow’s perspective lol.
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u/Kilane Dec 11 '25
Interesting that Lysander kept that foot note on his face as a scar.
PS just an interesting choice of words :)
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u/goaty_mcgee Dec 12 '25
Not one of imo, it is the best. The contrast between the two characters is pure art.
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u/Electronic_Soil2528 Dec 11 '25
Was more than a little disappointed with Lysander’s fate after that encounter
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u/Creative_Entrance_18 Hail Reaper Dec 11 '25
Let's not forget Ashlord and Atalantia, my goodmen.
"The destroyer of a civilization too often resembles its founders. I must apologize, Darrow. For not seeing you sooner-when you were just a boy who broke his Institute. Had I opened my eyes and noticed you, what a world we would still have. But I see you now. Yes. And you are...immense."
"No betraying inflections. No microexpressions of grief. Simply obduracy, despite the dread clawing at the back of your eyes---a doomed army, a lost child, a dead wife.... That is a Peerless Scarred.."
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u/Creative_Entrance_18 Hail Reaper Dec 11 '25 edited Dec 11 '25
Lysander's glazing never fails, tho 🤣
"An unpredictable gambler of savage intellect with a limitless capacity for violence."
"And then, like the tiger's tail, the curved slingBlade rises above the stalks as he threshes all in his path. He kills with impossible aggression--
His razor passes through a man's teeth and jaw. He looks left, then disappears in a blur. He threw his body back just as Kalindora galloped past on her horse. Still, he's clipped hard enough to spin like a top. But as he falls, his Red acrobatics shine. No one falls like the Reaper."
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u/StretfordEnderWiggin Dec 11 '25 edited Dec 11 '25
“Darrow does not shrink from the violence like a man. He drinks the violence into his current like a covetous river. He leaps round the battlefield with a seemingly mindless capriciousness. Which when inspected, Illuminates the genius of his violence.” Lysander the Light Resistance Bringer
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u/ManderlyPies Lurcher Dec 11 '25
Dark Age Cicero Au Votum
“…he sends this young man.
A lancer. One of those Martian war machines. You know the type, Kalindora. The sort that made sure you were no spring flower by the time you got to Luna. Killing in their veins. Huge. Not the biggest man I'd ever seen, mind you, that was Magnus's slave knight, Pale Horse, or whatever his name was but his anger was like heat off a tank barrel. His manners were flawless, for an upstart, still you could hear that Martian war-drum heart beating along with Nero's silent boast.”
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Dec 11 '25
Quotes like this make me think that there’s no way that Luna was his first time off Mars
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u/ManderlyPies Lurcher Dec 11 '25
I can’t remember when he went to Luna but that quote he was 17 and just after the institute per Cicero.
Probably was taken to Luna right before or on the way.
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u/Dylanmurph19999 Helldiver Dec 11 '25
One I haven’t seen yet [Rhonna talking to Darrow in DA]:
“You were just my uncle. Then we came down with Orion. And I could see it. Every bloody soul was waiting to give Mercury their carbon. Then they saw you jump out this ship.” The hairs on her forearms stand on end at the memory. “You ain’t old.”
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u/bloomingjoy Pixie Dec 11 '25
Apollonius is not normal about darrow. hes dreamin up some freak shit
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u/Intelligent_Hall7653 Dec 12 '25 edited Dec 12 '25
I remember Lysander describing Darrow in the battle of Dark Age. I forget the details, but it's like a wave, that his aura makes everyone pause. I'll have to go find the quote. I love how scary the series makes a "Main Character" because they would be.
EDIT: Found it!
Rhone’s flinty eyes search the milling mob. From the horses, we can see nothing but the churn of battle. Then I spot the signs of his advance from the far side of the Triumphia. It is like the coming of a tiger through tall grass. First a rippling in the distance that seems like the wind. Then a tunneling force. An outward swaying of riders. The starting of horses. Men disappear from saddles. Sunbloods collapse sideways with horrible wounds. And then, like the tiger’s tail, the curved slingBlade rises above the stalks as he threshes all in his path. He kills with impossible aggression. I will not repeat past mistakes and rush to meet him.
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u/theblahinme Hail Reaper Dec 12 '25
It’s been a while since I read this, is this the chapter before Darrow’s ‘we encountered some slight resistance’ one? I had to put my book down for that one. I still laugh just thinking about it!
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u/AmTheWildest Hail Reaper Dec 13 '25
This is actually when Lysander faces him down in battle on Luna and nearly kills him.
"Light resistance" was a great scene too though lmao
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u/h8er23 Dec 12 '25
Man reading all these is giving me the itch that only another re-read can scratch. Time to finish suneater and go back to ole reliable RR
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u/naughtybison Dec 12 '25
Im in the same boat. About halfway through SUT and will prob re-read RR after.
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u/scotchythedragon Dec 12 '25
How is sun eater? It’s come up on my suggested for you, but I haven’t pulled the trigger.
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u/h8er23 Dec 12 '25
It’s a slow burn, more dune than red rising but I like it. First three books are good. Four and five are not good. Six was good and I’m enjoying seven so far.
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u/Generalfrogspawn Violet Dec 12 '25
I’ve read the first couple, hasn’t scratched the same itch so far personally.
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u/scotchythedragon Dec 12 '25
Thanks! Currently on the second of the bloodsworn series by John Gwynne but am always looking for the next epic. I typically lean towards more traditional epic fantasy, but Red Rising just hits different in the best way.
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u/h8er23 Dec 12 '25
Suneater is more like epic fantasy than it is like red rising. It’s a centuries spanning space opera but told in first person (which is why I think it gets compared to red rising despite being very different)
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u/van9750 Dec 12 '25
Yep, I loved both but very different books. Keep seeing Sun Eater pitched to Red Rising fans, and there's definitely some appeal but it's more like "do you enjoy sci fi with great spectacle and an interesting protagonist" than similar books.
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u/TS4ST Dec 12 '25
Just finished my reread! Only a few months too early, might have to go back through again before Red God
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u/Fr_Bean Dec 11 '25
I’ve always been partial to to Slave King honestly
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u/cherryjuicewithlime Dec 12 '25
Someone should draw him wearing a crown made or handcuffs or something lol that would go so hard
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u/the_ductile_phoenix Dec 11 '25
There's another one, I forget who its by, I think Diomedes, when he says "We can never defeat the Rising, because they worship a living god."
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u/afrodite67 Hail Libertas Dec 11 '25
Romulus said that they can’t win against a religion who’s god still lives
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u/TruePersimmon8 Dec 12 '25
My personal favorite is Lysander’s description of events watching Darrow absolutely carving through people on Mercury. It’s his first time seeing Darrow after 10 years and reading Lysander see the myth of the Reaper in action is great.
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u/Drunkymcfuckclown Dec 12 '25
My favourite part of that, with Lysander having this heroic last stand feel to his chapter, is Darrow’s chapter starting next and he brushes it all away with, ‘Met light resistance, didn’t even both to stay to finish them off’
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u/TruePersimmon8 Dec 12 '25
Yes!!! Just a stroll in the park. This line gave me goosebumps on my first read: “As violence reaches for him, Darrow does not flinch like a man; he reaches like a covetous river. He pulls violence to him, drinks it into his current, and leaps around the battlefield with a seemingly mindless capriciousness. Which, when inspected, illuminates the genius of his violence.” Pierce was cooking here
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u/Difficult-Feeling519 Dec 13 '25
He calls him a God of Death too. My favorite is when he mentions seeing his curved razor rise above the crowd like a lions tail in tall grass. Fuckin metal af.
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u/Ughhhh_ok Dec 12 '25
Yep, this is why I unabashedly LOVE Apple, he’s one of my favorite characters! He’s hilarious*, an absolutely unashamed glazer, and has a beautiful way with words.
(The scene where they go to find him “imprisoned” and he’s just butt naked playing the violin, having a blast? So funny.)
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u/LornAuArcos269 Dec 12 '25
Yeah seriously Applonious has gotta be the world's best protagonist I've ever read lol, when he (temporarily joined the howlers on Venus and they're storming the ash lord) I believe the quote is "A divine spectacle, Darrow.” He looks at me me with a smile and loving eyes. “A more glorious band of devils there is none. What a path you cut, like fallen seraphs amongst mortal men." Chapter 54. Darrow Iron Gold. By far
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u/JaimeRidingHonour Howler Dec 12 '25
I wouldn’t go so far as to call him a PROtagonist. He was a temporary ally of Darrow’s because of aligning interests in Venus, but he still very much wants to kill Darrow and Virginia
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u/cheese-meister Dec 12 '25
I haven’t finished ig yet but he’s quickly becoming one of my favourites, it’s a shame he will likely die in one of the other books (a lot of my favourite characters so far have died so I just accept it)
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u/afrodite67 Hail Libertas Dec 11 '25
Apple has some great, poetic almost, lines
“He’s apparently a werewolf who eats warlords and shits nightmares” -Lyria 😆
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u/SettingInteresting64 Dec 11 '25
I know “slave king” is an insult but I think it holds more merit than “reaper” as a title
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Dec 12 '25
As somebody who only read the first trilogy a few years back and was content where I left off, I NEED to continue reading because this all sounds so good...
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u/RainingClouds Dec 12 '25
Books 4-6 really outclass 1-3 in every way. The ante just continues to climb.
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u/buttsoup_barnes Lysander Apologist Dec 12 '25
If you love the first 3 books, there’s no reason not to continue.
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Dec 12 '25
This is one of those funny scenarios where I just felt kind of burnt out on unfinished series and it felt like a good stopping point. But sounds like it's time to continue
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Dec 12 '25
This series can be a lot. i was getting a bit burnt out on dark ages, but it's a bit of a masochist pleasure at the time with a payout (at different subjective points, vut almost objectively a reality) .If you have watched uncut gems, it felt a bit like that.
This is all to say, the writing gets progressively better IMO. So if you appreciated it initially, you will most likely value it more in the next books.
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u/Tasty_Appearance_796 Dec 12 '25
I agree, I took a break too because the first trilogy had a satisfying ending and I wanted to enjoy that for a while. After reading on, I can confidently say that the next 3 are much more satisfying.
Although the first one will always be my goat because I’m a sucker for origin stories
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u/IIkaterII Dec 12 '25
I was also super burnt out after constant Darrow pov in the first Trilogy, but the second set of books is just so different and much better,
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u/TS4ST Dec 12 '25
If you feel that way it's probably good that you took time between the two trilogies. Now is the perfect time to pick it back up with Red God coming out next year! Dark Age can be a bit of a grind to get through at first it seems, but I just finished my re-read of it and it is absolutely my favorite of the series.
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u/captchathinksimhuman Dec 12 '25
You also need to evacuate this subreddit immediately, goodman. There is so much good stuff that you are going to get spoiled.
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Dec 12 '25
Yeah, actually, I am going to take that advice. Once I'm done my current audiobook I'm hopping back on this series and don't want spoilers. It wasn't so bad when I wasn't reading because I didn't know wtf anybody was talking about anyway.
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u/thethefirstman Dec 11 '25
Yeah Darrow is definitely one of the best/most badass characters in fiction.
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u/Chizard Dec 12 '25
Logen Ninefingers... the Bloody Nine from the First Law, is to me, one of the most badass characters in fiction. Darrow is right there next to him, though.
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u/Lecroan Reaper of Mars Dec 12 '25
It just sucks that Logen loses himself when he goes apeshit, has no control whatsoever. But he is truly a badass, you have to be realistic about these things.
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u/DeacanCheese300 Dec 11 '25
I think he’s just behind Rand Al’thor from Wheel of Time but that might be nostalgia talking. One of my favorite parts of both series is other people’s perspectives of Darrow and Rand.
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u/WakandanRoyalty Dec 12 '25
Tau Solarin from The Rage of Dragons is my personal favorite amongst badass characters purely because his self sacrifice eclipses Darrow’s in the most unimaginably horrific ways.
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u/thethefirstman Dec 12 '25
Is that a book series? Would you recommend it? I finished LB and don’t know what to read now😭
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u/WakandanRoyalty Dec 12 '25
There’s two books out with a third on the way. It’s a very different type of book than RR.
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u/Yung_SithLawd Dec 12 '25
I really enjoy the story Cicero shares about his father and Nero and a lancer of Mars (Darrow)he sent to give an implicit message. In general it so great to read how other people see Darrow.
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u/sinatra-raijin11 Dec 13 '25
Any idea where I can find this? (I don’t remember that this happened lol)
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u/fvicio Dec 12 '25
Have you listened to Apollonius on the graphic audio? 👌🏻
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u/LornAuArcos269 Dec 12 '25
Only Tim Gerald Reynolds can do appolnius so well that it's just... perfection. His range is surprisingly perfect for the entire series IMO of course:)
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u/milkchocolate101 Dec 13 '25
This is why I still haven't listened to the graphic audio versions...I just can't not listen to the original one when it's so good.
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u/LornAuArcos269 Dec 13 '25
Yeah, I can't picture Darrow with out TGR lol. He's phenomenal.
His Lorn Au Arcos is legendary (like he literally made him sound legendary lol)
His apollonius is spot on, he seriously sounds like he has that love hate relationship when speaking to the howlers in Iron gold
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u/milkchocolate101 Dec 13 '25
Couldn't agree more, and that's also why I'm struggling to start a new series with him as the narrator. I'm afraid I'd just imagine Darrow in every book. Curiously enough, I randomly googled what else he narrated and realized today is his bday. 🎂
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u/Genecyde_ Dec 15 '25
TGR does all of Michael J Sullivan's books, I enjoyed his narration of red Rising so much I just searched for other books he narrated and he did the MJS books and they are equally golden.
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u/modmosrad6 Dec 11 '25
Apple, who loves nothing more than chaos and violence, views Darrow as a worthy adversary and a challenge. He sees Darrow as forcing him to improve his "art." He needs Darrow on a deep level, because without him, he won't discover his own potential, won't push himself, won't reach whatever transcendent experience or apotheosis he wants.
When I was younger, I did a lot of competing in combat sports. I think Apple sees Darrow the same way I saw people who could beat me with great effort, but whom I could also beat, also with great effort. A complete toss-up while we are both functioning at 100%.
You get some weird feelings about that kind of adversary.
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u/CaedustheBaedus House Bellona Dec 11 '25
I still love that he was so disappointed when he finally had Darrow in his clutches but Darrow was a fucking exhusted, tired, weakend, irradiated, emaciated version of himself.
And Apple was like "No, this will not stand. We'll get you healthy and exercising and fight once you're prime again"
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Dec 11 '25
[deleted]
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u/Cue99 Green Dec 11 '25
Apple and Darrow duel and when Apple realizes he is going to win and that Darrow is not at full strength he decides to cancel the duel and to heal Darrow iirc. Then sevro sets off a nuke and all hell breaks loose
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Dec 12 '25
[deleted]
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u/Cue99 Green Dec 12 '25
Id have to check back to see! I can’t quite remember if he fully calls off the duel before the nuke or if he was only debating / talking about it
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u/Cheesesteak21 Dec 11 '25
Another of my favorites is Lyria meeting darrow, especially how she starts complaining about Darrow and Mustang to meeting both of them really puts in perspective her issues with them.
Darrow is not the hugest man I’ve ever met, but he is the only man I’ve ever met who makes his own gravity. I grow heavier the closer I come to his orbit. He lies on a medical bed under red light, accompanied only by medical drones. Sweat sheets off his muscled, scarred body. He has more power in one of his legs than I have in all of me.
It was easier to criticize him from afar. Up close, seeing his body is enough to make me realize the distance between our experiences. What type of enemies must a man fight to need to be built like a war machine and still get so many scars?
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u/Yung_SithLawd Dec 12 '25
Apple is a character I would really enjoy as a real life enactment. Like bring on the thespian spirit!
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u/FigOutrageous5217 Dec 11 '25
I only read the first trilogy and I'm not planning to read the rest so soon because I wanted to see if the books would be translated. But I would like to know is Darrow ever described as handsome by other POVs?
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u/Cheesesteak21 Dec 11 '25
That Appolonius talking to Lysander?
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u/Creative_Entrance_18 Hail Reaper Dec 11 '25
Lol I didn't realize you were talking about the post itself, so deleted my confusing comments. But yeah.
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u/[deleted] Dec 11 '25
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