Ramblers Rising - Red Rising Chapters 1-3

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[00:01:20] I'm your host, Richard.

[00:01:22] Today we're going to be starting a project.

[00:01:25] We've been really excited to share.

[00:01:26] We already shared it in the discord.

[00:01:28] It's called Ramblers Rising.

[00:01:30] And it's going to be based on the sci-fi series Red Rising.

[00:01:33] And we're just going to go through the books.

[00:01:35] Talk about characters, tropes, the world of the six main line book.

[00:01:40] And I'm your other co-host, Aaron.

[00:01:42] And today we're going to be covering the basic premise.

[00:01:44] It's the first few chapters of Book 1.

[00:01:47] Explain some of the setup for how this show is going to work and run.

[00:01:51] What's going to look like?

[00:01:52] Yeah, we're excited.

[00:01:53] Alright, Richard, you're a lot more experienced than I am with Red Rising.

[00:01:56] Hell yeah, I've been reading the series.

[00:01:58] Not for very long but since April or so, I'm all done with the six main line books.

[00:02:03] And I might eventually read the three spin-offs.

[00:02:06] Who knows?

[00:02:08] And what about you, sir?

[00:02:09] So I'm a lot farther back than I would like to be.

[00:02:12] I'm through the first book and a half.

[00:02:15] I'm halfway through the second book, Golden Sun.

[00:02:17] And so far, I'm loving the series but I've kind of put it on the back burner for now.

[00:02:22] So it's more of like we're going to catch up with this series and then I might be reading

[00:02:26] it pretty fresh once we get to about halfway through Golden Sun.

[00:02:30] Yeah, that'll be good because obviously you've got the point of view of being, you know,

[00:02:35] you just read the chapter a couple weeks ago where as I read it, I saw like six months

[00:02:39] ago.

[00:02:39] Well, definitely I have some different viewpoints.

[00:02:41] I mean, I only read the first book back in August.

[00:02:44] So it's still pretty fresh in my head.

[00:02:46] Thankful.

[00:02:47] Yeah.

[00:02:47] And I've been reading some snippets and stuff just to get ready for this.

[00:02:51] So it's a little bit in my head but like it's more just remembering obviously

[00:02:54] that I'm reading it for the first time.

[00:02:56] So this is a universe that hasn't had any kind of adaptation to film or TV or anything

[00:03:03] like that.

[00:03:04] It's just the books, right?

[00:03:05] You know, there's been talks and rumors of course of getting a show or movie series

[00:03:10] and the one thing I saw, I did see this a while ago and I don't know how true it is

[00:03:16] because I didn't see it from the author himself.

[00:03:19] But I saw a post saying that he said in a podcast that he was like guest starting on

[00:03:24] that he can't talk about it, which if that's true, that kind of makes me excited.

[00:03:30] But what have to see where that goes?

[00:03:33] This, have you ever watched the expanse?

[00:03:36] I have not.

[00:03:37] I know that it's a similar like book series, long running and got a show or movie or whatever

[00:03:42] but I haven't gotten to it yet.

[00:03:45] I mean this series kind of reminds me of, I don't know, almost like a hunger games infused

[00:03:51] version of the expanse.

[00:03:52] I think like if they were to adapt this series of books into something and they did it in

[00:03:58] the style of the expanse, I feel like that would be a really successful series if they were

[00:04:02] to do with that way.

[00:04:03] Yeah, my only thing is like they really have to be careful about how they do the

[00:04:07] razors for our audience.

[00:04:09] They're a type of sword used in this in this setting and they're kind of like a whip

[00:04:14] almost and then you can use a button on it to turn it into whatever shape you want

[00:04:18] and it's really cool.

[00:04:19] Up in this system, it's just I don't know how they do it in live actions if they

[00:04:24] do without it looking a little goofy.

[00:04:26] Yeah, it might be like more animate like they could do an animated series and maybe

[00:04:30] it would look a little bit more natural that way.

[00:04:33] But yeah, I think that if they were to adapt this it would be really popular.

[00:04:36] I think that it would kind of blow up.

[00:04:38] Oh for sure because you got like the, you know, the hungry games vibes as you said before

[00:04:42] but it's also sci-fi and it's not too far into the future and it's well, I guess

[00:04:47] it is like a thousand years.

[00:04:48] But it's also not, you know, on the galactic scale, it's really just inside the solar system,

[00:04:53] which is in my opinion it's a way more manageable setting.

[00:04:56] It's a lot more intimate that way.

[00:04:58] You know, you've got this very Roman Empire-esque feeling solar system and where

[00:05:03] you've got like the frontier places.

[00:05:06] You've got the major families who control everything.

[00:05:10] It's just it's really cool.

[00:05:12] I always am a sucker for Roman Empire type of administrative governments popping up in media.

[00:05:18] I think that it's a really interesting concept that I like to see adapted into sort of space

[00:05:22] age, shows and movies and books.

[00:05:25] Yeah, because it's really well handled in this too of course.

[00:05:29] Plus I like the fact that a lot of the characters go by like their call signs minor spoil

[00:05:34] it really just what a character's call sign is and the second trilogy is there's this big guy.

[00:05:39] He's called the Minotaur and he is so cool.

[00:05:42] And he's really fitting to that archetype of the the Minotaur from Greek mythology.

[00:05:46] So that's a really cool thing.

[00:05:48] He wrote in there of course amazing.

[00:05:49] Yeah, there's a lot of direct references to Greek and Roman mythology being,

[00:05:54] you know, kind of based off of the Roman Empire and also all of the planets obviously are named after Roman gods.

[00:06:04] So it's kind of they play off of that a little bit with the naming conventions which I think is very cool.

[00:06:09] Yeah, and I think we could start getting into the setting a bit more.

[00:06:12] What planet is our main character from?

[00:06:15] So our main character Daro Daro all likeos or O likeos?

[00:06:19] Yeah, is from a small town on Mars and he's working as a red.

[00:06:26] Now the Mars that we see Daro start off in you know, it's this very rough and tumble frontier place.

[00:06:34] There hasn't really been any kind of terraforming like you might imagine on in the far future.

[00:06:40] It's very much still kind of wild west type of frontier area.

[00:06:45] Do you have anything to add to that? Anything I miss?

[00:06:47] Just that Daro and his you know his red companions in the minds they are mining up substance called helium three that is being used to terraforming Mars eventually.

[00:07:00] And I guess we should probably get into the class system a little bit.

[00:07:04] You mentioned reds those are the folks that are at the very bottom of the pyramid of this sort of Roman cast system that they have going on.

[00:07:12] Yeah, the society is made up of 14 different colors of people and they're not like actually you know it's not like the sovereign in like the guardians of the galaxy movies where they're like gold and they have gold eyes and gold hair.

[00:07:23] They're there people the only differences that they have sigils in their hands marking them as a red or a blue or in you know whatever.

[00:07:31] And then their eyes are the same color as their as their color.

[00:07:35] Daro of course happens to be a ginger so he really is just like me isn't it like the ripens are descended from the Irish or something like that they are.

[00:07:45] They're all of them are like descended from people.

[00:07:47] I just just that it's not all known because like oranges and blues they're not really insanely major.

[00:07:54] Whereas like we know gold or which are the top of the societies pyramid gold are like the British which kind of fits in because you know they're the conquerors.

[00:08:04] I really like the color.

[00:08:06] The color of this.

[00:08:07] I really like the way the audiobook does because obviously he gives each you know like you know it's an orange talking or you know it's a gold talking based on like their accent.

[00:08:18] Yeah, I think it's really cool how.

[00:08:21] Oh gosh, what's his name pierce brown the author of the book he gives them each they're very own unique way of speaking each color you can definitely tell right away who's who just based off of the sort of.

[00:08:33] vernacular that they're using which I think is really neat and it's a nice attention to detail.

[00:08:39] Yeah, and so going up the pyramid at like the second level still obviously very low we've got obsidians which are the warrior class.

[00:08:47] These guys are two and a half meters tall you know they're they're they're massive and they have eight fingers on each hand.

[00:08:54] But they're like they're they're basically reds except they fight in wars instead of mining that's that's about it and even though they're kind of low on the pyramid.

[00:09:03] Would you say that they have a little bit more respect than a lot of the other low colors just or not even respect but people are afraid of them so it kind of garners them a bit respect.

[00:09:14] Yeah, yeah, and like they are I don't want to get too far into it because like this is stuff that we'll get explained later to.

[00:09:20] But there are like sub casts inside all of the colors and for obsidians there's of course just you know you got your main obsidians which are Vikings by the way space Vikings really cool.

[00:09:33] And so the obsidians are you know there's the normal ones and then there's the stained and the stained our vicious sleeve nights.

[00:09:41] And they're like latin's in gold armies they are.

[00:09:44] There's something they're pretty terrifying. I just got to the part of the second book where you meet one of the stained for the first time, which I obviously won't spoil any of the details of that but it's a really scary concept for this trained killer from birth and it's cool to see that.

[00:10:02] I was surprised that the obsidians were so far down in the pyramid just because of how much the gold's rely on them.

[00:10:09] Yeah, no they definitely do not care though. They're the gold's are fucking assholes and I've got to hate them well most of them but yeah.

[00:10:21] So then next up in that same level we've got the browns and the browns aren't really mentioned much in the early books.

[00:10:28] They're just their farmers essentially that's about it. I don't really have anything on them. They're they're kind of not prominent. Yeah, I think there's been like three named browns in the entire six books and then you've also got in the low colors the last one is the pinks.

[00:10:44] It is the pinks and I personally I mean actually like anyone reading this book series is going to be fucking disgusted by the pinks like just the concept of it obviously not the characters themselves.

[00:10:54] The characters are amazing but the pinks are how I put this nicely sex slaves. Yeah, it's very pretty much any of the low colors which are these categories that we've just talked about the reds the pinks the obsidians the browns are

[00:11:10] It's a cast of slaves the ones who are at the bottom of the pyramid have no autonomy. They are told exactly what to do and when to do it and they live in pretty terrible conditions and is no different for the pinks unfortunately.

[00:11:25] Yeah, starting with the next year we're at like the mid colors now. We've got the grays and the grays are the scientists police force there are normal human size pretty much but they are very dogmatic in their like military service it's kind of interesting as the books go on you get to

[00:11:45] You get a grace point of view in the second trilogy and just the a lot of the world building for grays comes from it and it's it's a cool way of showing it. I think yeah they're very like low level villains at the start of the series as well obviously it's a lot it goes a lot deeper than anyone color being

[00:12:07] Villains or heroes or whatever but the grays kind of operate in the first few chapters as

[00:12:14] The the bad guys that we see as the representatives for the upper classes in these early chapters. Yeah, and now we're nearing like the more specified

[00:12:24] Classes in the society with the they're still mid colors, but they're definitely a bit more important than the grays

[00:12:31] These ones we can kind of just blitz through because they're really not like, you know, they do one type of job and that's really it. We've got the blues their ship captains, you know pilots stuff like that after the blues we've got the yellows there the doctors we don't really get a specific region we just kind of get that from them.

[00:12:49] Next we have the greens and they're kind of like one of the least important classes there. The programmers, the developers for the technology of the society other than that we don't really see too many greens throughout the series right

[00:13:05] Yeah, just some minor characters next up same level still we've got the violets and their kind of like genetic masters like they create these carved creatures that are I mean we would consider them creatures

[00:13:18] RIP straight out of myth like giant dragons stuff like that very mythical based and they're good with gene splacing to which is a huge part of the societies, you know why how they're separated actually was just genetic splacing and tinkering. That's kind of crazy. It's some stuff, you know, yeah

[00:13:38] Our final mid cult like mid to high color we got are the oranges and they're just like maybe engineers, you know, that's really all they do.

[00:13:47] Now the oranges kind of get treated a little bit worse than the other mid colors right there scene is

[00:13:54] Yeah, a little bit lesser than than the other ones they're sort of the bottom of that classification.

[00:14:00] They are there only the only ones that are like above that are the master craftsmen and those are like, you know, the architects that build the most beautiful buildings for all of the gold and all that stuff, you know still slaves.

[00:14:13] Yeah, but definitely less like monitor less they have more freedom is what I'm given in on that.

[00:14:19] That makes sense. Now we're at like the high colors, but still below the gold because of course the gold have to rainscreen why wouldn't they.

[00:14:26] We got silver and silver's are just judges they oversee like duals and stuff to make sure stuff still fair then nope, I lied.

[00:14:35] The silver's are the accountants does my bad. Oh, they're the accounts so they're doing all the financial stuff and are kind of like the businessmen burger class of the society here.

[00:14:47] Yeah, and then the the whites are the judges that oversee duals and stuff they they've got like some they have like no emotions or something was part of their designing purely so that they're not partial to one group in a judgment you know.

[00:15:01] And they're kind of like the religious heads as well, not that religion is a super big thing but they're kind of they fulfill that priest role right.

[00:15:10] Yeah, yeah definitely and then we've got the coppers the coppers also a bit in the financials but they're like the underlings of the silver's and then they're also pretty political.

[00:15:19] Yeah, they're like the general bureaucratic sort of I don't know I guess the cogs of a meritocratic society.

[00:15:30] Yeah, they're just kind of a cog of the bureaucratic society they're just the general administrators they're the pencil pushers if you will.

[00:15:39] Yeah, whereas the silver's are like the CEOs of the not even CEOs really but kind of yeah like the higher class of businessmen and all that.

[00:15:51] Yeah, and then finally we have the gold I fucking hate the gold they're awful there about the same sizes of sitting in except their stronger their smarter.

[00:16:02] They rule everything their rich there's three classes of gold and we really only interact with one we see the the purely scar to lot right.

[00:16:14] Yes, the purely scar to are the like the most important gold they are strong they're pretty good at like they are the best of the best of the best honestly.

[00:16:25] Do you want to talk about how this system originated on the moon?

[00:16:30] I think that's really interesting.

[00:16:32] I'd love to hear your thoughts on it what do you got?

[00:16:34] I think it's really interesting that this system of the the cast sort of developed over the course of a few hundred years on the moon and then as the moon became more and more powerful and a bigger place they actually took over the earth and started this.

[00:16:52] The solar wide empire the solar system wide empire.

[00:16:55] I think it's interesting that the moon being kind of a barren just a rock that that's where the seed of the empire is.

[00:17:02] Yeah, and actually it becomes like the symbolism of the moon in general becomes huge because the ruling family of the gold is it's the al-looms and that started with selenius al-loon.

[00:17:15] And he united with one of the other like largest families on earth the the raw a carty hour and so a carry and selenius conquered the moon a carry stuck to more like the outer rim after the asteroid belt while selenius took over the inner solar system but there's still one united it's like it's like states pretty much the outer rim is like the their lesser but they're still technically equal with the inner rim or the core.

[00:17:44] It's just the like the front here versus the core of the empire pretty much.

[00:17:49] Yeah, but yeah that covers our well I think I've got to finish up the gold's real quick so the the pureless car to the most powerful the coolest the silliest whatever then we've got the bronzes or I don't know I don't know what other names there are for them really because they don't get mentioned too much anymore.

[00:18:04] Yeah we don't see a whole lot of them past the first couple of books right.

[00:18:09] Yeah they're like the middling class you know like they could be pureless scar if they they were just a bit smarter or a bit stronger and then we got the pixies the pixies weird name are the gold's that just kind of drink in the lavish stuff like there they're typically like the the trust one babies of the gold's very much the neppo babies who don't actually have to work for anything you don't try to work for anything.

[00:18:31] Yeah just reap all the benefits of being born a gold so not that they all aren't reaping the benefits of being born a gold but you know.

[00:18:39] We ain't definitely a lot more like they just sort of lounge and do whatever they want yeah and they're really looked down upon by the especially by the pureless guard.

[00:18:50] The pureless guard by the way get their name because they are you know they're pureless obviously they're they're so amazing.

[00:18:57] That no one is they're equal and the part the scarred part comes from they get like a crescent shaped scar cut into their face to identify them as well up here the scarred.

[00:19:06] That's another sort of ritual that I find interesting in this series is the the act of cutting the pureless guard it's very.

[00:19:16] Cultish and kind of barbaric in a way that is very contradictory to the order and sophistication that the society tries to present itself as.

[00:19:27] It's at the level of the stuff that like the grace do I mean the grace worship their weapons there they're almost like mandalori and so honestly were they like they have that

[00:19:36] read about taking care of your weapon I think they bless their weapons to in some of the interesting things you know they're definitely an interesting group now that we've got some of the background on the way should we move on to the prologue of the.

[00:19:50] First book red rising by pure sprang oh of course with this prologue it's it's fire okay it starts off with one of my favorite quotes in the series because it does keep coming back that comes back at all the right moments and that is.

[00:20:02] Dero saying I would have lived in peace but my enemies brought me war yeah that is a banger of a quote and it's one that reappears over and over again in the series it's a very central motive of the.

[00:20:16] The whole thing and I just I mean it's a it's a banger you can't go wrong with with that one and this scene again it's Dero he graduated from the institute of the gold and he's he's a peerless card now and.

[00:20:34] You know he gets a speech made to him from the arch governor of Mars about how discrimination against the low colors is great and amazing and democracy is the noble lie we don't know what's really happened to Dero this is like.

[00:20:48] You know this is some late series stuff it seems like we really just get a good teaser with the prologue and I'm not going to lie I was hooked immediately after hearing that right off the bat they bring you in with a really interesting quote that makes you want to read more than they give you that glimpse into the future and then they immediately drop you into this world where you have.

[00:21:11] Just enough explanation to really get into it but not so much that you feel like you know everything like every chapter in the beginning of this book I feel like.

[00:21:21] I was learning something really interesting about this world and it was never too much at once and it was never I never felt confused about the world and what was going on.

[00:21:32] Yeah that's why I prefer the world building in this series versus like another amazing spectacular series in this.

[00:21:40] Similar genre, it's like high fantasy Brandon Sanderson doesn't amazing job world building but oh my god the first book of each like individual series in his franchise the cosmic.

[00:21:53] I think the first book is just so much lower dump than you and it's overwhelming honestly.

[00:22:00] Yeah I have not gotten around to those books yet after I finished the whole red rising series I might oh yeah don't worry don't worry you know the fucking the pipeline is that I read a book that Dante tells me to read I tell you to read it you finish it and then I tell you to read the next one he's got me.

[00:22:15] It's a great pipeline it is a great pipeline how you usually enjoy the books that you recommend to me.

[00:22:21] Yeah I don't do it I'm so happy that he recommended red rising to me because that kind of got me back in the reading more you know yeah it's it's hard to find time to read in in this busy world that we live in but.

[00:22:33] Especially with so much media being thrown at us but I don't know this one is really it was worth the read for me and it got me to sit down and kind of slow down in the middle of the busyness of life and.

[00:22:48] Get back in touch with a little bit of reading does I don't know it's it's hard to commit to a book in when you have so many obligations going on.

[00:22:58] Yeah I think the only reason I'm able to do it is because you know I go to work for nine and a half hours and probably eight of those hours I'm grinding out an audio book.

[00:23:06] It's it's kind of nice yeah I need to get on the audio book grind I've.

[00:23:12] Dude please like specifically for this series the the narrator is so good and just the pure emotion that he conveys during.

[00:23:21] I think a lot of really awesome scenes that I can't tell you about it's insane like the end of Goldenson.

[00:23:29] I genuinely just kind of stopped working which I shouldn't admit but I stopped working I was just kind of sitting in my chair it worked like oh my god what the fuck did I just listen to.

[00:23:42] Sometimes you just got to sit and contemplate man.

[00:23:45] Dude that happened again with at the end of book five in book six to like Pierce Brown writes some of the best endings to books that I've ever read.

[00:23:54] I've ever experienced honestly and I think that's a good segue into chapter one hell diver of course we meet our main character Darrell like us my goat what am I favorite characters of all time and he's he's really just a hell diver.

[00:24:07] It's this specific type of minor that actually operates this this drill that it's called a quadril kind of looks like a squid if you like that's the best way to visualize it I think it's got I think it's nine or ten drills attached to it and you operate it using your hands as extensions pretty much.

[00:24:28] Can we just take a minute to talk about how many times Pierce Brown described Darrell's fingers as like dexterous or just like he really one kind of hard in this first in these first few chapters.

[00:24:58] I think you're right in the new online shop.

[00:25:01] A lot of programmers or designers.

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[00:25:37] There's with describing how dexterous fingers are.

[00:25:41] It was weird.

[00:25:43] I thought that was pretty funny.

[00:25:45] Oh my, a chase just texted me can you shut the fuck up? You're so damn loud idiot.

[00:25:50] What a guy.

[00:25:51] Crazy that he texted you that instead of me who lives in the same apartment as he does.

[00:25:57] Yeah, I easily go.

[00:25:58] What can I say?

[00:25:59] We also learn in like the first two sentences that deeros father was hanged when he was a child.

[00:26:05] Yeah, you know, they bring up his father in this first chapter but I got to be honest.

[00:26:11] I think that it's either the second or third chapter where they bring this up so I won't talk about it yet.

[00:26:17] But there's something that they bring up about his father that kind of confuses me because they don't go very hard into it.

[00:26:25] And it's like they also don't explain it very well, but we'll get to that later.

[00:26:29] I might know what you're talking about and if it is, still not explained. Don't worry.

[00:26:33] Oh, great. Okay.

[00:26:35] Yeah. And we hear another really good quote when deers was talking about how his father was hanged.

[00:26:40] And this is another one that gets repeated at like pivotal moments in the story that just kind of enhances it for me.

[00:26:47] And that is on Mars, there isn't much gravity so you have to pull the feet to break the neck and they let the loved ones do it.

[00:26:55] Which is also just fucked up.

[00:26:57] Yeah, it's really fucked up and it's crazy that they're having these public executions that often it gives us this sense of just how it pressed the reds really are.

[00:27:08] Yeah, I mean you think about their in these minds it's dangerous actually the very next thing that happens is there is about to drill into a deadly gas pocket that would you know it would light up and explode if he's not careful.

[00:27:24] They really describe the whole like process of being a hell diver as super dangerous like anything can kill you there these.

[00:27:32] What are the pit vipers or something like that there's like these hyper poisonous critters that if they bite you in the minds your dead they're all over the place and you know everything could collapse in on you the gas could explode.

[00:27:49] If you're working this job as a hell diver, you're pretty much bound for the grave at some point right.

[00:27:55] Yeah, there's only one hell diver for each clan.

[00:27:59] There was a claim lambda.

[00:28:03] I kind of it's one of those facts that just kind of fades away you know yeah, there was the hell diver of clam lambda and he actually takes after his father in that which is kind of silly.

[00:28:13] And his uncle works in the minds with him as well.

[00:28:16] Yeah, his uncle is like the lead I think they call it a head talk which is just the person that's you know like he warns Darrow about the gas pocket before Darrow nearly died.

[00:28:25] And he's an explode.

[00:28:26] This is around the same time that we learn about the Laurel, which is this prize that the gold's like to dangle in front of the reds and that's what keeps people motivated to keep on working.

[00:28:39] But this one clan called the Gamma clan always wins the Laurel and Darrow is really determined that he's going to get that for his clan because it means they get to choose like extra food or something like that.

[00:28:52] Yeah, they get extra food extra just like you know better food to they get like sugar cubes and coffee and everything that isn't just basic rations which is what all the other plans are subjected to.

[00:29:06] Yeah, and it also creates this system where one clan even though they're all lowreds who are working in the same awful conditions.

[00:29:15] You've almost got this elite amongst the lowreds, this sort of minor elite so it's just one more layer of on the pyramid of people standing on each other to get what they want and you know the real enemy being the golds at the top.

[00:29:31] And Darrow, you know this is just as the end of the chapter comes up he is you know he's got to go scan the gas pocket because they don't actually know what's up with it and he jumps out of his claw drill and goes to scan it.

[00:29:43] And he is his suits bubbling that's how hot this stuff is. I mean his suits meant to take the heat, but it's still his suit almost melts completely and that's that's the last thing we get as the chapter ends.

[00:29:56] Yeah, it did they also give a detail in this chapter that the people who are heldivers just like piss in their suit because they can't do anything else.

[00:30:05] Yeah, so Darrow really really is going through it. He's in like the shit working conditions we move on to chapter two the township.

[00:30:14] Yeah and it starts off with Darrow realizing his leg is about to like just kind of evaporate like burn off he's done and he pulls out this little this little curved blade called a sling blade definitely not gonna be important later.

[00:30:28] And he cuts the like strap on his suit or something that was caught he gets out and he realizes that the gas pocket is okay so he drills.

[00:30:36] This is when the clan lambda that Darrow belongs to and the gamma clan who always win the laurel they compare their halls of the helium gas and

[00:30:45] Darrow is like 100% sure that he has them beat it's very clear he got more than they did and that laurel is going to belong to them which he's really excited about.

[00:30:55] Yeah, they do get a really interesting this is just another bit of foreshadowing which there's there's a lot of in these early chapters a lot of really good foreshadowing about Darrow's character and they're talking to the other hell diver who I don't remember his name but whatever the other hell diver takes a burner which is you know just cigarettes whatever.

[00:31:14] And he takes a really really long drag and it burns out super fast because you know that's just that's how it be and he says you know he says to Darrow like hey you see this burger.

[00:31:25] That's you this didn't really have have much of an impact on me I was kind of like okay I get I get the point that you're trying to make here.

[00:31:33] But yeah, again different perspectives of course and also just different opinions on stuff which is good.

[00:31:39] And this is also around the point that we learn that red culture and like us is very family oriented a lot of music and dance going around and.

[00:31:50] All right, this is where I'm really confused about Darrow's father Darrow's father he died because he was hung for performing the forbidden song and dance this is what I was talking about earlier where they don't really flesh this out or explain why it's forbidden or really.

[00:32:08] I don't know they just don't give us any details on it and it always reads is kind of just a little on the lazy side to me because they don't explain it at any point in the first fucking half at least.

[00:32:21] I thought you're talking about something else I can give a little bit of insight onto that because they it's really in the song like once they put out the whole song and like you can read it in the book that you kind of can understand a bit because it's really just about.

[00:32:36] It's about their religion but it also has some slight like I don't I don't know rebellious messages to it.

[00:32:45] I'm just a little bit.

[00:32:47] And the gold don't want them doing that obviously because we need our slaves yeah because the way it read to me the first time around it just kind of sounded like he was hung for dancing.

[00:32:59] Yeah that's how they they kind of present that information to you and I was like okay so what's the rest of the story here I get that.

[00:33:10] We also learned that there is uncle Meryl was the one who actually pulled his father's feet which are just adds another layer of melancholy to it.

[00:33:18] Yeah and you see that uncle Meryl is this kind of sad figure who doesn't have much hope anymore and is kind of down in the dumps after hearing that information you understand why he is the way he is.

[00:33:32] Yeah he's kind of just a shelf his former self now given everything that he's been through and now like you think about his nephew is one of the cockiest hell divers ever you know it's it's not like I'm sure it's not a great feeling after everything else that's happened.

[00:33:45] There's the a very clear representation of communal pain when it comes to the reds anytime someone gets hung for anything or they're punished the whole community kind of feels that impact which I think is really an awesome detail and a great characteristic for the reds.

[00:34:04] Yeah no it's definitely amazing because the like it also makes them more relatable because where the golds are more like cold calculated logic the reds are you know they're more based in emotion and that that definitely makes you sympathize with them a lot more.

[00:34:21] Absolutely and our hero Dero he's married and he's only like 16 years old.

[00:34:28] Yeah as as they say all the stuff to screw all the stuff to crew that's that's the same in the mind yeah and they save us to Dero when he's 13.

[00:34:38] That's fucked up that's really fucked up the only thing that I'll say about that though is that like they do live pretty short lives given the conditions that are in.

[00:34:46] I would imagine you have to grow up very fast when your life and expectancy is probably I don't know 50 at most.

[00:34:53] That's like average red death in terms of like working in the minds especially hell divers as 40.

[00:34:59] Yeah you're not live in too long.

[00:35:01] Yeah so you kind of got to make the most of it and hell divers are it's even worse than that because you know you're going down there you could die any fucking day.

[00:35:09] Dero's wife is named a and the two of them have been in love for pretty much their entire lives even though they're only 16 so that's not too many years but.

[00:35:20] But at the time for them it's significant of course yeah right of course but in this scene we see a go give Dero a highman this blossom which is a it's called a blood blossom and.

[00:35:33] This was on the night that his father was hanging and the highman this sort of becomes.

[00:35:39] Throughout the series it evolves to be a symbol of ao and Dero's love and also Dero's connection back to the red community throughout the series when he's far from them.

[00:35:49] Yeah and I would also consider pretty good symbol freedom for him.

[00:35:53] Well freedom in that it represents something we'll talk about in later chapters that I can't really get into but it's it's a good symbol though.

[00:36:03] Man this is one of my favorites.

[00:36:05] I am a big fan of that yeah and we also learn about the sovereign of this society Octavia all moon the evil evil embrace evil sovereign.

[00:36:17] She addresses the minds of Mars and thanks them for paving the way for future generations she goes on her speech about how.

[00:36:25] Octavia alloon she's awful she's very evil yet her she's evil and Augustus.

[00:36:32] Oh my god why am I blanking on his on the family name it's like the most important family in the series.

[00:36:38] Oh, I guess this yes, Nero Augustus and.

[00:36:45] They're both just these evil high color golds and they're the real when you think of the people at the helm of this oppressive machine.

[00:36:55] I think of these two characters. Yeah Octavia's bad but I would honestly consider Nero to be a way more evil person based on some silly stuff he does that silly my it's awful.

[00:37:09] I agree because Octavia I'll learn even though she's the one at the head of everything.

[00:37:14] Nero Augustus is a little bit more ruthless cold and.

[00:37:20] Oppressive on a small scale because he's directly ruling over Mars which has this high population of reds and low colors that he exploits not that Octavia alloon isn't exploiting them but I feel that.

[00:37:34] It's more direct with Nero.

[00:37:36] Yes, it's not sort of two or three removed from from what's actually happening he's like giving the orders himself so he seems a little bit more evil on that level.

[00:37:48] Yeah and he could delegate he just ate his doesn't want to which is another like evil personality trait the chapter ends as their own.

[00:37:56] I think he'll move to the Laurel-Tide Festival which is where they announced the winners of the Laurel and they they get to drink a lot so it's kind of it's kind of awesome.

[00:38:04] Yeah, I was kind of imagining like the Martian version of Bill Bow's birthday at the beginning of Lord of the Rings where the whole shy are just kind of getting together and drinking and having a good time that's that's what was going through my head.

[00:38:16] Yeah, I'd I'd be a group that chapter three the Laurel we learn about a resistance group that strikes it with a consider gold oppression and these are appropriately named the sons of areas you know they're on Mars so the sons of areas it's this countercoloured type yeah.

[00:38:34] I like that and then of course their leader is one another one of my favorite characters because I really just can't pick his areas areas is a phenomenal character once we get to meet him.

[00:38:45] Yeah, I mean and we get through quite a lot of.

[00:38:49] Chapterage before we ever meet areas.

[00:38:53] Yeah, I don't even think you might.

[00:38:55] No, I definitely haven't that's why I was like we certainly go through a lot before we get to it because I haven't even gotten there yet but.

[00:39:02] I'm sorry, Darot talks to Ayo his beloved and talks to her just saying very romantic and sweet things like how she could be a gold in his eyes and then we learn about this whole dancers rebellion which is what I was talking about earlier where Daros father was one of the nine people executed for performing the forbidden dance in the dancers rebellion which was.

[00:39:27] an active civic unrest and rebellion by these reds.

[00:39:33] Yeah, and at this party festival whatever you want to call it Darot and his other family members all you know they're they're super optimistic about the world you know it's when you buy like when you buy a lottery ticket they're like oh I'm going to do this with this and I'm going to get this and we're going to have a fun time doing this stuff together blah blah blah blah.

[00:39:48] It's it's very reminiscent of like one of those conversations very much so and this is when the copper mine overseer makes a really condescending speech the reds of lycos and announces that once again the gamma clan are at the actual winners of the laurel yet again.

[00:40:05] And this is where Darot kind of realizes it was it's rigged you can't win the system that's in place is what's in place and there's really no there's no beating these people who are already in power.

[00:40:18] And it's really interesting because you know it's of course it's a gold tactic to keep them divided so that they don't realize like hey wait a minute we're all being treated like shit what what's up with that.

[00:40:27] Yeah, because now you have this gamma clan who even though they're just as oppressed there they have this slight slightly more prestigious air about them and they think that they are almost like the leaders and they're the big shots among the reds.

[00:40:43] It's just really unfortunate to see that division between people who should be banding together because again on the other side of of that coin you've got Darot's clan who now instead of resenting the golds for this they're going to resent the gamma clan.

[00:40:57] That conflict does make it pretty far into the series I mean it's it's still around during like book five not really books six but there's there's reasons for that.

[00:41:07] Yeah, I mean there's just always that division among them and there's this concept throughout the whole series of misdirected resentment anger being mad at the wrong people.

[00:41:19] Yeah and that theme persists in a few different ways you know obviously we've got how we're seeing it now but there's a few different examples of it throughout the series that are amazing and I'm excited to talk about them when we do get there.

[00:41:32] And I think that that wraps up the third chapter the Laurel.

[00:41:36] I mean I think that as far as starting off this book there's so much world building that's done and so much context that we're given for the way this world works and kind of what the vibe is of how oppressed our main characters classes and it just really makes you want to read more and see what happens because they could go in so many directions from here.

[00:41:58] I mean I'm sure I'm hoping you agree but of course the direction that they do choose to go in is phenomenal it makes for a really epic story there's a lot of cool characters that we get to meet along the way it does and I will say something that surprised me about this series.

[00:42:11] It went in a way that was really different from how I thought it was going to go in the best possible way they really subverted my expectations based on what I had heard about this book and you know how it started off with.

[00:42:25] Daro in the position that he was in they just went into direction that I think is really interesting and was a brave choice.

[00:42:34] They could have gone in a much easier route and it would have easily been a boring book yeah I'm but they they went in an interesting direction with it.

[00:42:42] I'm with you on that it came out in like 2014 and that was obviously you know that was huge in the period of like.

[00:42:52] Young adult the stopian societies you know like a lot of class warfare was in a lot of books at the time you know obviously get hunger games and I feel like there were just a lot of off shoots of that genre that we're generic there were too many to comprehend.

[00:43:07] Yeah and I felt like a lot of those were kind of generic and if I had read this book at the time I think I definitely would have stuck around as each book was coming out.

[00:43:15] I mean that's what Dante did is he read he read it in like 2015 bought golden son as soon as it came out and just was kept going I would not have been able to take it though.

[00:43:25] They given some of the cliffhangers. Yeah I mean these books really do have some of the craziest cliffhangers ever even from chapter to chapter you feel like oh my god, I need to see what happens next.

[00:43:37] I can't leave it on this yeah and I think I read the first book read rising in god, I think I read it in like a week or even less.

[00:43:46] Yeah I was just sitting sitting at my job at my desk job with nothing else to do and was reading that over the summer and it was so so good.

[00:43:55] Yeah I remember you texted me it was like a Friday in a Saturday you texted me in your one point like halfway through the book and then you texted me Saturday night and you were like I just finished it that was a great ending holy shit like no I really banked that one out and then for golden son.

[00:44:11] You're taking about one month and a half to get through half of the book. I'm believable dude and you're gonna be mad at yourself because it's such a good ending.

[00:44:19] I know but here's what I'm thinking now that we're doing this coverage once we get to golden son I can read it fresh before every episode that we record and we can move through it that way you know.

[00:44:31] That'll be good I'm excited for me get to the second trilogy because I got I like the politics and the second trilogy dude. There's so not that they're not there in the first trilogy but there's so much heavier it's still a.

[00:44:42] I'm excited to read all of that because you know me I love my political shit I'm always into that yeah so I'm excited good political drama.

[00:44:50] Yeah I would consider from what I've seen it because you know me I haven't watched Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon yet which I will eventually don't don't worry yeah you better get on that I will.

[00:44:59] I would consider it just based on what I've seen from Game of Thrones in house that it's basically space game of thrones in terms of a lot of the political stuff and again just the twist the foreshadowing everything in there is phenomenal.

[00:45:12] That's how everyone that I've talked to about the second trilogy describes it is a very game of thrones vibes a lot of people saying the expense in that way the expenses got a lot of that sort of space political thriller drama type of thing going on which.

[00:45:28] Richard you got to get on that show it's on Amazon Prime video.

[00:45:32] I know I have so much in my backlog for like movie shows book games I'm missing categories but you know everything I'm once I finish the current storm light run because they're they've only got four books of storm light out right now then I'll start another series because I can handle I'm kind of at my limit right now on shows to watch it books to read yeah I mean going back to our Bethesda game studios roots.

[00:45:58] Starfield is something that is really similar to the expense so if you enjoyed that you would probably like it.

[00:46:05] Yeah no I definitely enjoyed Starfield once I actually got it to fucking work and before we wrap things up today do you have anything else that you want to add about these three chapters?

[00:46:14] I don't I'm happy though that we can do this series and we might extend it to like four or five chapters in future episodes.

[00:46:23] Well we'll see what play by here.

[00:46:24] Yeah I think it just depends on the length of each chapter and like how much information we need to do about each one.

[00:46:32] But I also think that it depends on where the natural start and end points of whatever arc that's about because this whole the first three chapters are kind of dealing with the laurel and the background information.

[00:46:44] So splitting it up based on kind of story arc might be a good idea as well.

[00:46:48] Oh for sure that being said Richard you want to tell people how they can get in contact with us.

[00:46:53] Yeah of course first off of course we just want to say thank you for listening to our new episode of Radioactive Wrambling and this new sub series that we're doing.

[00:47:02] We obviously love you guys to be a part of the conversation and please send us feedback.

[00:47:06] We've got a few different ways with our email radioactive at the laurelhounds.com.

[00:47:12] We of course have a discord channel set up in the laurelhounds discord called Radioactive Ramblings where you can send us messages chat about the show talk with other listeners, you know all sorts of fun stuff like that.

[00:47:23] We also have a contact form or you can leave us a voicemail at the laurelhounds.com and we are on Twitter or acts at Radioactive 141 just leave us a rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify if you get a chance we really appreciate it.

[00:47:39] It just kind of helps expand our channel.

[00:47:41] And we really want your feedback on this if we want to make this kind of a book club type of deal so grab yourself a copy of red rising and read along with us.

[00:47:49] That would be the best way to kind of engage with this podcast let us know your thoughts every every week we'll try to get you guys our chapter schedules so that you can keep up with where we're at with the podcast and yeah before we go I just wanted to thank you guys for listening.

[00:48:04] And let you know that we are proud members of the Barovian podcasting network which is run by the laurelhounds.

[00:48:10] The laurelhounds are currently covering the rings of power and that was where they got their start and it's awesome to see them back at it.

[00:48:17] And there's a lot of affiliates just like us that are a part of the Barovian broadcasting network and among those shows our rings and rituals will shift dust probably how would movie review.

[00:48:27] The star wars can't in timeline podcast and the newest affiliate podcast never mind the music which is doing really well there it's an awesome podcast.

[00:48:37] So go check all of those out and once again thank you all for joining us and we'll see you in the next episode.

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