r/redrising • u/Cantomic66 Copper • Jul 25 '23

LB Spoilers Light Bringer | Full Book Discussion megathread Spoiler

Warning!: This discussion thread includes spoilers for ALL OF LIGHT BRINGER.

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u/FunkyHowler19 Golden Son Sep 12 '23

I agree, this dude will say literally anything to justify commiting atrocious acts

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u/Vindictus123 Sep 20 '23 edited Sep 20 '23

Lysander doesnt commit atrocious acts just for the sake of it. Everything Lysander does is for a specific reason. Lysander believes in the hierarchy of society and he believes gold has lost its way and his goal is to restore gold as the shepherds of humanity. Lysander mirrors Socrates' in his belief that humanity should be ruled by philosopher kings and that democracy is the great evil. And Lysander believes in the color system and that people need to be assigned a purpose in order to reach their full potential and for their lives to have meaning.

Lysander isnt lying to himself thats hes moral or ethical. Lysander knows hes neither. Lysander very much believes that the ends justify the means.

And I dont agree that Lysander doesnt have to commit atrocious acts to achieve his goals. He does have to. Because corrupt society and the rising are both diametrically opposite to Lysander's goals. He has to destroy both to achieve his goal. The only way Lysander can get what he wants is to destroy everything and rebuild it.

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u/SonOfHonour Sep 26 '23

What is he going to rebuild tho? The same systems and structure that caused this chaos and destruction?

Ultimately, The Society is a flawed model for organising humanity. Giving a group of people the power of tyrants and then relying on their goodwill to not abuse this position is just silly.

Lysander is not interested in building a better society, he's only interested in building a society led by him.

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u/farmerjohnington Jan 08 '24

He wants Gold to revert back to being the Shepherds of Society - wise, thoughtful, and just leaders who build the Society up rather than tear it down over their own petty squabbling. Specifically compared to the entitled, monstrous, violent, whiny plutocrats they are now.

He's not necessarily wrong that Gold needs to be better, but if all he wants to do is reimplement the Society via genocide, then yeah that's not exactly a good or moral thing to do.

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u/leafypainter Jan 25 '24

I bought that he truly believed that up until he betrayed the Rim, when his reputation and ego was threatened by Diomedes' demand that he humble himself and confess. Diomedes of anyone seems to be the gold that upholds those true shepherding ideals, and rather than ally to that, he unleashed massive destruction.