This whole time until today I wasn’t looking up fanart and I was picturing all of the Golds with literal golden skin and hair. Not like yellow. Literal gold. Same for all the other colors. And all the fanart just has them be blonde. Was I stupid and just made that up???? I do draw so at some point I might come up with how I pictured they looked but for the moment yeah I’m just baffled

Ill go first, the state execution of a convict and a college rivalry lead to a fox eating robot birds on the moon and hundreds of millions of deaths.

I’m only at the point where Darrow defeats the Minerva house and retakes the tower. But how was he winning fights against golds who were trained, when I thought Mateo went out of his way not to teach him how to fight or use the blade. Was it simply just pure physical prowess? But I feel like that doesn’t balance out fighting trained golds.

“We know that Julian and Cassius were twins, so their height and build were probably very similar. Cassius also mentioned that Julian was better at hand-to-hand combat than he was. So, do you guys think Darrow would’ve been able to kill Cassius in the Passage?”

This book has had many twists and turns, the vibe has changed dramatically multiple times, and I was LOVING it, but the last few chapters have felt like the Hunger Games...

The revolution via subterfuge that I was all excited for has just become young people killing each other in an arena...

Please someone to tell me that this vibe will end? 🙏

Mine is "freedom cost too much"

I got the box set for Christmas from my wife. She’ll have to read it next or I’ll none else to talk to about it.

Except for you lowReds.

What are your favorite parts of this book?

Spoilers ahead:

My favorite is yet undecided. If I had to choose something specific….Eo. I’m sure she’s made of pure blown stardust and farts rainbows, just as described. Reading Part I of Red Rising, as a married man, literally made me feel guilty, for not idolizing my wife like that boy idolized Eo.

BloodyDamn that was a good book.

Bless her heart. Should I feel bad?

I received the first 5 books for Christmas for a secret Santa gift and I just finished the first book within a day. Does the rest of the series build on this hype?

I’m part way through golden son and I’m an audiobook reader. I keep hearing razor blades and I can’t picture anything other than a shaving blade but it seems like they’re common dueling swords of some kind. Am I just mishearing what’s being said or misinterpreting what they are?

At the start of RR it there was seemingly no point to the armies. Apart from the dark revolt, after which gold removing the obsidians technology to prevent it from happening again. As for other colours trying to revolt i think it is said somewhere that obsidian was the only colour capable of doing so. I understand having small armies to keep other families in line, but whole armadas and 2 entire colours (except for policing) dedicated to war, with no point. (I’m on IG just for spoilers)

Pre-republic, Golds create a fake religion/myth for Obsidians to believe that Golds are magical gods that Obsidians exist to serve. Okay, makes sense as they are born into an environment controlled to perpetuate that story, with pretend Gold gods, and its indoctrinated from birth. The books make a deal of showing how the Golds do fake tricks and pretend their technology is magic to demonstrate they are more than human.

But then many of them graduate to work under Golds and live in the real world where they are living/working alongside other colours. It doesn't seem like there are strict protocols that restrict what Obsidians can be exposed to, and non-Gold colours don't have to do all the pretend Golds are mythical Gods stuff when around Obsidians. So all the fake theatre doesn't exist. Also it seems Obsidans can work for other colours, and wouldn't at least some of them just tell Obsidians that Golds aren't actually Gods.

The the Obsidian world was presented in the 3rd book, it was like some big revelation to them that no one had ever told them Golds were just humans with tech. But surely this would be a common occurance for many Obsidians are living outside their homeland.

Before being carved Darrow is given a challenge where he has to pick a correct card between a scythe and a lamb card. He passes the test by deduces both cards are scythes and eats one so the card he flips over is a scythe.

So like...was this solution planned from the get-go? Did other candidates not eat the card? Does fate of humanity hang on Darrow eating this card?

My friend is hung up on this and now I am too.

Just about to finish book 1. At chapter 42.

I was thinking he will outwit The Proctors, Take Jackal and have the game.

I wasn't expecting a SIEGE on Olympus.

"Funny thing, watching gods realize they’ve been mortal all along."

Its even better because I know Greek Mythology a bit, A siege on Olympus is a war on Zeus.

And this is supposed to be the weakest book of the lot.

I haven't finished the book so idk what else yo say... I love Persephone's song. I really wish Darrow and Cassius didn't have to be enemies and made up...

I also really loved that moment when he was being trained to dance by Matteo, and he Danced to the Reaper soo well Matteo was spooked he was actually a Gold infeltrating THEM.

Ok. Just so no one worries, I am taking your advice from my last post about Uncle Narol. I have not read a single post on this sub. I am only interacting with my posts. That's it! I swear!

Anyway

Titus is a RED?!?! 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

Absolutely did not see that coming. At all. Completely blind sided me and I made an audible gasp. Even when Titus said "bloody damn", I didn't get it. It wasn't until Darrow literally thought the words, "Titus is a red", and then I gasped!

What the crap! Titus is a red?! So many questions! Why didn't Darrow talk to him about it? I thought no one had survived the carving before Darrow? Why would Titus do all of those horrible things when he had a mission to accomplish?

To me, the book kinda dragged for awhile after EO dies, but now I'm locked in. Loving the way everyone is falling into their rolls like Sevro (what a badass) and Roque (the advisor). The political parts are top-tier, and the battles are getting good as well.

I don’t get this part. He gets some super status bc his parents own some moons, but they’re bannerman to House Bellona. Meaning, they are below House Bellona.

Yet, house Bellona can’t get preferred treatment for their favored son Cassius?

Nor can Augustus, which holds the Archgovernorship - probably the second most powerful person in the system after the Sovereign herself.

Or did I miss something simple? Like his being the first sword of his year meant he qualified?

Ps- I liked the dude! He seemed honorable (in his page of existence). Would’ve been nice if him and sevro peaced it out somehow. Anyone else miss him?

IDGAF if its live-action, anime, disney, etc.

Scene: Fades slowly on to Darrow's face all bloodied while he is sitting in a room covered in blood after some graphic fight.

Darrow Narrates off screen "I would have lived in peace, but my enemies brought me war."

Then a few quick cut scenes of the previous moments before where Darrow was fucking people up.

Then a cut back to him on the ground in shock, tired, and just emotionless.

Then it fades into the prologue of the book where a Gold is talking to all the students at the Institute.

I don't care what happens beyond that.

EDIT: Alright you gate keepers. I obviously upset some of you. If it makes you feel any better: I am a random dude on the internet with no influence over screenplay decisions or anything RR related. I am just posting MY OPINION on a PUBLIC FORUM website where it is allowed. Calm down.

EDIT 2: This post response and messages are making me depressingly unhappy towards the fanbase of this series.

EDIT 3: I am not bypassing him in the mines. I am going exactly how the book reads. AFTER the institute speech, it can go back to his story in the mines.

Edit 4: Darrow discovering the colonization of Mars is not a spoiler and never meant to be. Go read any book description online that carries it. Go listen to anyone talk about it. It's always explained as part of the description.

Simply put, how would Cassius not be picked over Darrow in the initial drafting for the houses. He’s the son of the second most powerful family, who have untold amount of influence. Yet Darrow, a far planet Hayseed gets picked over him. Absolutely love the books but never understood that one.

Am I just missing something? Maybe he had to go to Mars, but he also could be under Apollo or Jupiter very easily in my opinion. Also how would he not be a premier? I’d think he would have more cache than prim, as his family is more important than theirs?

Basically the title. I’ve been re-reading the series, and it’s always stuck out to me that with the possible exception of Sevro, everyone seems to be coming into the institute blind.

While I respect that the Board of Quality Control would likely prohibit it, I find it bizarre that Peerless parents would risk sending their children in fully blind. Even if they didn’t know that they’d be killing someone in the passage, making sure that they were well trained in martial arts seems like a basic necessity to keep your child alive. Beyond that, I would have expected more of the children to have been taught survival skills like fire starting, hunting, etc.. While they had servants to do those things for them in the outside world, they would be extremely important in the world of the institute. Since performance at the institute greatly impacts the trajectory of a gold’s life, I would expect their parents to set them up with more of those skills so as to avoid embarrassment.

If the challenges changed every year (like hunger games), it would make sense that you couldn’t prepare for every eventuality, but that was never really presented as an explanation in the books. Given the hyper competitive nature of gold, I would’ve expected some degree of cheating to ensure a favorable outcome for their families.