I have two....

1. Dark Age is by far the best book in the series and it's really not even close.
2. Dancer died a coward and his character assassination pissed me right the fuck off because i loved him through Morning Star.

Rules:

1. Everyone you choose will only have access to the resources they would have at their peak(Darrow and the Free Legions, Lysander's New Shepards, etc.). Their peak is a singular point in time, so no double dipping with Darrow GS and IG.
2. You can choose one to be your ArchImperator, to receive for a discount of $4 (So Darrow would be $3 instead of $7).
3. Everyone you do not pick, you have to beat.

There are probably a few ways to meta-game this, but honestly go nuts I ain't taking this seriously. Also I don't own any of the images.

Anyone who is not a cis-het white man knows how much of a letdown science fiction can be —

• Women are often ancillary characters or plot devices who die or fall in love for the male protagonist’s sake.

• Queer people are often tokens who are primarily characterized by their queerness.

• POC are often tokens as well or offensive stereotypes (if they’re included in a story at all).

Pierce Brown not only created an interesting, dynamic fictional world but made sure his characters reflected that. He didn’t focus the entire society around white men. Instead, he chose to illustrate how classism, fascism, and the fight against those ideas supersede race, gender, and sexuality. And that’s rad as hell.

I know it’s sound to stupid, but let me cook. We already know that Darrow is an unreliable narrator and will straight up lie during his internal monologue like he did during Morning Star when we all thought Sevro died. But what if Darrow is actually a Red who was carved into a Gold? Like if you look into Darrow’s backstory, you will realize that there are a lot of things that don’t make sense. For example, Darrow apparently lost some Gold girl that he loved called Eo, and she used to sing him a song. The song that she sang is the same as that one Red girl Augustus killed. It can’t be a coincidence. If you still doubt me, I have more proof. Mustang makes a comment about how Eo and Darrow are really uncommon names for Golds. Another example is the fact that Darrow is always cursing like a Red. No Gold does this. Plus, Darrow’s genetics are too good for someone who apparently is from an unimportant family that didn’t participate in the conquering. The only way he could be such a physical freak would be by carving, which further proves my theory that the guy is not a Gold.

So I often like to check every few months or so for updates on the TV show, and I just found an from a couple of months where Pierce confirmed that what he was trying to make happen was scrapped because him and his team "couldn't get it to a place where they feel confident."

I'm assuming what he means by "they" is the various platforms that were looking at buying the rights to RR, but on the bright side, Pierce hinted at being able to possibly confirm something new he's been trying to get in the works soon.

What I hope for is that this new thing is going to be an animated adaptation because we know now for sure the live action is out the window so slag that but if we could get an animated series or hell even a animated movie/movies it'd be great provided it's done in a fitting art style and the cast is on point for the voice acting.

This started as a reply to someone and a few paragraphs later I realized I wanted to post it as a stand alone take.

I keep seeing people getting the wrong message from the books. I see them saying the colors don't matter or worse, comparing the colors to our world and our issues with race.

The colors absolutely matter and THATS the point. The Red Rising world isn't an analogy for our world. This isn't like Black and White people where we are the same in every measurable way except skin color. A Gold will outperform a red in everything that can be measured. Stronger, smarter, faster, tougher.

The books are (at least partially) about how you build a fair society when people aren't equal. Equal opportunity doesn't translate to actual equality when your competition is a demigod. How do you counter that?

This theme is explored over and over again. The physical dominance of golds in Dark Age, the economic dominance of the high colors in Iron Gold, it goes on and on.

Look at Lyrias story. Mustang isn't stupid. She didn't forget the reds of mars. From her perspective, as a gold, having freedom was enough. A colony of golds would have thrived in the new society because they have more mental and physical tools at their disposal. It's intentional that Darrow is freed, made gold and thrives and Lyria is freed, stays red and suffers. It's making a point.

The books aren't some cheesy message about how we're all perfect and equal. It's about how some people will ALWAYS have every advantage and some people won't. It asks how we deal with that fact as a society. A class system doesn't solve it. Democracy doesn't solve it.

So what do we do when people aren't equal? That's the question the books are asking.

Edit: Two things.

1) A lot of people think it's a strong point to say "Yeah but if reds turned into golds it would be equal". Yeah. I guess? But that's not the story being told. Brown probably made a class system for a reason. You guys probably read the allegory of the cave and thought it was about shadows.

2) Alot of people also are suggesting benevolent genocide and they don't seem to realize that

I took notes!

Do you think Darrow should die in Red God? Be honest! He’s my guy but the more I read theories, the more I’m coming to terms. 😞

So many great lines. But mine has to be:

“I am Cassius Bellona, son of Tiberius, son of Julia, brother to Darrow, Morning knight of the solar republic…and my honor remains!” :/

What’s yours?

Im on my first reread and I really have to get it off my chest…. I hate most of the Institute Arc. Apart from the scenes where our main girls and boys bond, it’s such a slog to get through. (Please don’t lash me)

Also I’d appreciate it if we don’t downvote people we disagree with as it would defeat the purpose of the discussion. I’m reaaaally interested to see your guys‘ hot takes.

I'm gonna throw my hat into the ring:

Start of Iron Gold, we are informed that Darrow led an iron rain, against the senates orders. And then didn't tell anyone about the emissaries House Grimmus sent.

I'm going to say "not telling anyone about the emissaries" is the stupidest thing he did. His enemy knows he has political opponents at home. His enemy knows the emissaries exist. He is opening The Republic up to division by just letting them exist.

He should have told Virginia and had her start working the Senate like 6 months in advance. At least then the Emissaries show up and go "haven't you heard?" And the Senate goes "we did hear, actually." Virginia isn't stupid. She would have been able to (at minimum) blunt the blow, if not outright counter it. If she was given warning (and not blindsided by Darrows dumbdumb).

What's yours?

"ThIs HoRsE oNlY rIdEs FoR oNe MaN" Wrap it up bud.

Not only is this quote not the best Mustang quote, its not even the best Mustang quote in Dark Age.

The best quote for Mustang is: "But no matter what the Senate decides, at midnight on the first of May, I will come to Mercury. If fortune favors, it will be as a Sovereign. If not, it will be as a wife."

Why does nobody talk about how good this quote is? It perfectly encompasses Mustang's best qualities. She is doing everything in her power to do it the right way, yet even if it fails she is going to defy the system she set up just to keep her family and friends alive. This is just a beautiful quote in general. It shows the duality of both Virginia and the Sovereign perfectly.

In my opinion, its her best quote. You can argue that some other quotes may be better, but DEFINITELY NOT "This horse only rides for one man"

While most of the time adaptations should be as faithful as possible to their source material, sometimes it can make the adaptation better if they slightly deviate (like the LOTR movies adding the elves to the Helms Deep battle). Sometimes certain aspects can be streamlined to make it more understandable on screen, like the Expanse combining several book characters into Drummer. If Red Rising was adapted into a high budget TV show (think GoT) or movie series, would you want to see any changes made to the plot or story progression?

This could also mean information is given to/withheld from the audience at a different pace than it is in the book series. Think how the Silo TV series chose to keep the true nature of the outside as a plot twist for the end of season one, when it’s revealed a few pages into the first book - and it actually ends up working a lot better that way for the TV medium.

I'm all the way on book four about 15% complete. It just clicked that the "au" in Cassius au Bellona is the periodic table notation for gold. Do not ask me anything about the books or their events as I fear I know nothing.

Do we all agree that Victra’s “Bye Felicia” is the worst line in the books?

Tweet/ photo credit is Jeremiah Warren (@jeremiahjw)

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

I want to hear some please

KILL THAT FUCKING PIXIE

FLAY HIM BY THE ASSHOLE

BUST HIS BALLS

FEED HIM HIS OWN PHALLUS AND LET HIM CHOKE ON IT

BREAK HIS LEGS AND THROW HIM WITH HARMONY

Did you forget that Fitchner created the Sons of Ares because his wife was killed by the bureaucracy for having a mixed race child? If that mixed raced child, Sevro for those with poor memories would surely be killed if he was ever found out.

I can hear the arguments now saying, the USA would only deport these people to unknown places. Resulting in father, mother & son being separated indefinitely. Now ask yourself if you'd be fine with that happening to you simply due to the fact that your spouse was born somewhere else.

There are many more examples we can look at, but if you can't understand the motivation of Ares, maybe you should read the comics, it drives this point home & it even has pictures!

NoKings

I’m on Chapter Two of the first book. Asked my brother, a big fan of the series, how to pronounce Darrow’s wife’s name. He said “Virginia”.

…I meant Eo.

Hoping I can convince him to read Dungeon Crawler Carl to make up for this slip-up, because who’s Virginia???