Ramblers Rising - Red Rising Chapters 30-33

[00:00:19] Hello and welcome back to a new episode of Radioactive Ramblings. I'm your host, Richard.

[00:00:26] And I'm your other host, Aaron. Today we're going to be doing chapters 30-33, which will take us right up to the end of part 3 of Red Rising. Richard, how are you doing today?

[00:00:38] I'm doing fantastic. I'm super hyped to have, you know, one of my closest friends is actually home for the holidays.

[00:00:49] Oh yeah, who would that be?

[00:00:51] You, motherfucker! You!

[00:00:54] Yeah, I'm back in Buffalo for the week and I'm going to be grabbing lunch today and yeah, I get to see your new apartment.

[00:01:07] Hell yeah. We're going to do it up.

[00:01:11] I'm excited. It's very cold here.

[00:01:14] It is very cold and I already worked my mandatory, it's not actually my mandatory, but I worked my five hours of overtime today at five in the morning.

[00:01:26] Oh Jesus.

[00:01:27] It was a fun one.

[00:01:28] Yeah, five to ten.

[00:01:29] Why are we recording? Go take a nap.

[00:01:31] That's actually why I was a little slow. I was just laying in bed kind of like exhausted.

[00:01:38] That's very fair. You're sure you're good for recording today?

[00:01:42] Oh, I am dedicated.

[00:01:44] You can definitely go like take a nap before we get lunch and stuff.

[00:01:46] I'm dedicated because we are talking about some absolutely spectacular chapters today.

[00:01:52] Good. Yeah. Today is the day after American Thanksgiving, so happy Thanksgiving to everyone who is out there and celebrates it.

[00:02:01] Happy Turkey Day, everyone.

[00:02:03] Yeah. How was your Thanksgiving? Did you have some good food?

[00:02:07] Yeah, I got put into basically a food coma last night. It was kind of nice. How about you?

[00:02:13] I had some great food and I'm from a family where I had to be at two different dinners.

[00:02:21] So two different sets of dinners and two different sets of desserts.

[00:02:25] I plopped into bed at like 9.30 and didn't move until about 9.30 this morning.

[00:02:35] So yeah, I wasn't doing all that.

[00:02:39] Yeah. Apologies if my dog is barking.

[00:02:44] He likes to feel like he's patrolling the neighborhood and policing everyone who walks by the house.

[00:02:53] He is, bro. He is the security force.

[00:02:57] He's a golden doodle. He couldn't secure anything if he tried.

[00:03:01] I love carrying.

[00:03:02] He's too much of a little goofball for that.

[00:03:05] He is, but that's all right. You know, we need a little bit of whimsy in our lives.

[00:03:10] We do. He's a good dog.

[00:03:12] Well, we have four chapters to get through today and they are jam-packed.

[00:03:16] So we should probably jump into those, huh?

[00:03:18] We should. We're coming in off like everything's ramping up.

[00:03:25] It's kind of hard to pick what sets of chapters, or at least in this little block, it was hard to pick how to separate up the chapters.

[00:03:33] Because obviously, you know, last week we ended chapter 29 with Titus.

[00:03:38] He's actually a fucking red.

[00:03:40] And also, he dead.

[00:03:42] He's dead as hell now.

[00:03:44] He is, and I think that that was a good place to end because there's a little bit of a time skip between chapters 29 and 30.

[00:03:50] Yeah, it's been about a month since the end of 29, and now we're at chapter 30, House Diana.

[00:03:59] And Mars is more or less united.

[00:04:03] They treat their slaves pretty well, and they stockpile a lot of their resources so that they can outlast a siege if it comes to it.

[00:04:13] And it's looking like it's going to come to it with Minerva kind of wanting revenge after what happened.

[00:04:22] Yeah.

[00:04:23] And Pierce Brown does quite a few time skips in these books, but they're usually between the parts.

[00:04:30] So it's a little out of the ordinary, I feel.

[00:04:34] At least for what I've read, it's a little out of the ordinary that he did a month-long time skip here.

[00:04:40] Yeah, I feel like for the most part, like you said, it is between parts.

[00:04:45] It'll be like someone's in recovery after a major injury or something like that, and they'll be out for a month where they're literally just recovering, and obviously we're not going to spend all that time with them.

[00:05:01] Yeah.

[00:05:02] It was out of place for sure.

[00:05:04] I wouldn't say necessarily out of place, just because it's still, I don't know, I don't think it messes with the story at all.

[00:05:12] Fair enough.

[00:05:13] Yeah.

[00:05:14] But we get a little bit more brotherly bonding between Cassius and Darrow, because Cassius teaches him how to fight with a straight sword, as well as teaches him the gold unarmed combat technique called cravat.

[00:05:27] Which, Darrow, he never really reveals his prowess with the sling blade, and he wants to keep that secret in case he needs to fight Cassius.

[00:05:37] Now, there was a little bit of an interesting detail, I don't know if it's in this chapter or if he talks about it later, but Darrow does compare the gold fighting style of cravat to red dancing, right?

[00:05:51] Yeah, that actually was in this chapter, and I meant to put it in there the other day, but I forgot.

[00:05:58] So I'm glad that you brought that up.

[00:06:00] Because, yeah, he compares it to the fluidity of red dancing, and since he was kind of a ringer at that, he's pretty good with cravat, although he's obviously not as good as Cassius, because he's my goat.

[00:06:17] Cassius would never lose.

[00:06:19] So, as simple as that.

[00:06:21] Do we have any idea what the real-world inspiration for cravat is? Is it just martial arts in general, or is there a specific kind of...

[00:06:31] I believe it's just real-world martial arts, but I'm also looking it up right now.

[00:06:37] Okay. While you're doing that, I'll get into our next little plot point here, where, in Darrow's eyes, the golds are his friends, and he kind of starts to realize that maybe all the golds aren't bad,

[00:06:49] but he still has in the back of his head that he may have to kill them all, which now he's starting to gain some sympathy for the golds, and it's adding a lot of complication to it.

[00:07:06] Yeah, it's really just the style of fighting. There really ain't much more to it in terms of inspiration. I can't find anything right now.

[00:07:17] Okay, cool. I figured that it was probably something just kind of made up for this, but I wasn't sure if it...

[00:07:23] Oh, wait, shit, I'm stupid. It's Kraut Maga.

[00:07:27] Oh, that makes sense.

[00:07:29] Which, I see it. I see the root there.

[00:07:31] I feel like I should have clocked that one a little bit sooner.

[00:07:35] It's okay, neither of us did, so...

[00:07:37] He's just a really talented writer, and it's just so far removed from reality. No other reason.

[00:07:43] Okay, cool. But yeah, so Dara has a lot of internal struggle about the fact that he may have to kill golds, and is Kraut...

[00:07:55] I know that it's deadly when it's used by certain people like Lornao Arcos, but is it kind of widely a deadly form of combat, or really just when it's used by the most intense of warriors?

[00:08:10] Definitely by the most intense. I would say even among peerless, it's not the most...

[00:08:16] Not any rank-and-file peerless, which is a crazy way to describe them, since they are obviously supposed to be the strongest.

[00:08:25] But the rank-and-file peerless, they aren't deadly with it.

[00:08:31] They might be able to take on...

[00:08:34] Not might. They will take on lower colors with it, obviously, and win.

[00:08:37] But when it comes to fighting...

[00:08:40] Another gold, they typically won't be able to just easily kill each other with Kraut.

[00:08:45] They'll typically need a razor, or...

[00:08:48] Some other futuristic weapon that they just kind of pull out of nowhere.

[00:08:53] And then you've got Lornao Arcos, who can kill stained obsidians with Kraut, which is...

[00:08:59] Just insane.

[00:09:01] Yeah, his will-away is crazy.

[00:09:04] But there's a better way.

[00:09:06] There's an even better way than the will-away.

[00:09:09] Pacifism.

[00:09:11] No.

[00:09:13] Hell no.

[00:09:14] Darrow comes up with his own way.

[00:09:16] But that is...

[00:09:18] I mean, shit.

[00:09:19] That's like mid-book six.

[00:09:21] But it's so cool.

[00:09:22] Yeah.

[00:09:23] House Minerva, they want Darrow's head.

[00:09:26] Mustang tried to broker a deal with Antonia, but...

[00:09:29] She turned it down.

[00:09:31] She's very much committed to House Mars now.

[00:09:35] And she's waiting for a little bit of a higher price, to be honest.

[00:09:39] But knowing that Severo would kill her if she ever betrayed Darrow, she's very much holding her cards close to her chest.

[00:09:47] And not willing to give up Darrow quite yet.

[00:09:51] Yeah, she's waiting for that right moment where she can get the most value out of it, while also not getting absolutely brutally murdered by Goblin.

[00:10:02] Because Goblin is the most loyal character in this fucking book.

[00:10:06] He's the best.

[00:10:07] Yeah.

[00:10:08] And Severo, he's leading his wolf pack wearing the alpha of the pack's hide, which is just...

[00:10:15] That's so sick.

[00:10:16] I mean, he really is taking on that whole idea of the howlers and being this wolf-like creature, which we've seen him develop in that way for the past probably ten or so chapters at this point.

[00:10:32] But it just keeps on developing the myth of Goblin and his howlers.

[00:10:37] Yeah, and now that we've actually got the actual force of the howlers with this chapter, we've got Severo as their leader, of course.

[00:10:47] Then we've got Thistle, Screwface, Clown, Pebble, and Weed.

[00:10:53] Obviously, they're known as the howlers because they howl like maniacs in battle.

[00:10:58] They're fucking insane.

[00:11:01] Yeah, they remind me kind of like berserkers in a lot of fantasy media and in myths from real life where, you know, obviously you would have these berserker type of characters in myth.

[00:11:15] I think particularly Norse myth who could transform into bears in some stories.

[00:11:21] And you just have that same animalistic line connecting the wolves to the howlers and the idea of them just going completely insane in battle and kind of becoming animalistic.

[00:11:37] So I think that's really cool.

[00:11:39] Oh, for sure.

[00:11:40] And I think that it's done.

[00:11:42] It's done really well.

[00:11:44] And like when you actually see the howlers work together as a unit, especially during like, you know, a Reaper plan, it's it's really something.

[00:11:54] And we will get to see the first true Reaper plan.

[00:11:58] Aaron, you know, I love this plan that I cannot wait to talk about this.

[00:12:03] It's so fucking good.

[00:12:04] This is a really good one.

[00:12:06] Darrow logics out that there's a way to beat the high walls of Minerva's keep since the Institute is basically just a massive test of strategy and logic.

[00:12:15] And so they agree that they need to take down Minerva with an alliance.

[00:12:19] And the conversation breaks down pretty quickly.

[00:12:23] Darrow shouts at them to kind of shut the hell up and reminds them that in the south, there is a massive battlefield where the jackal reigns.

[00:12:31] And he's going to come out on top if they don't figure something out.

[00:12:35] Yeah.

[00:12:36] And that's when the several and Darrow decide to ride to the Great Woods where they can make an alliance with House Diana and they keep Cassius at home.

[00:12:44] You know, mostly keep Antoni under wraps.

[00:12:47] But also, Darrow doesn't like having Cassius around right now because he feels even shittier, obviously, after the whole making Cassius...

[00:12:59] Not making, I guess, but having Cassius kill Titus for him for killing Julian.

[00:13:07] Yeah.

[00:13:08] Which Darrow did, obviously.

[00:13:09] Like, what the fuck?

[00:13:10] Yeah.

[00:13:12] Yeah.

[00:13:12] Darrow, now that he's gaining more sympathy for the golds like we were talking about at the beginning of this chapter, it just really is adding to his guilty conscience surrounding his killing of Julian.

[00:13:23] He feels terrible.

[00:13:26] He's been feeling terrible for a while, but now especially that this is going on, poor guy just...

[00:13:33] He's got to put Cassius to the side so he's not constantly thinking about that.

[00:13:37] But...

[00:13:38] Yeah.

[00:13:40] And it...

[00:13:41] Sepharo and Darrow have a very interesting conversation.

[00:13:44] You know, they're kind of talking about the whole...

[00:13:47] The passage and everything.

[00:13:49] And Darrow tells Sepharo, like, I know you killed Priam because there's no way they would match him up with someone like Titus who's absolutely going to beat the shit out of him.

[00:14:01] They wouldn't match him up with Cassius or Darrow.

[00:14:04] They'd want to match him up with someone who's really weak.

[00:14:07] And Goblin, you know, he confirms, but then he tells Darrow that he knows Darrow killed Julian.

[00:14:14] And that's kind of crazy.

[00:14:17] It is crazy.

[00:14:19] Goblin is a really perceptive character.

[00:14:22] I think that he knows Darrow in a way that very few other people in the story get to know Darrow.

[00:14:31] I would say Mustang, Cassius, and Goblin are the three people who really can see into him and get an idea of what's going on in his head where most other people are kept on the outside.

[00:14:45] By Darrow's own design, granted.

[00:14:49] Yeah, I would say the only other person who gets maybe as close could be Roke.

[00:14:54] But Roke?

[00:14:55] I suppose that's more in the second book that they become closer, like in the time skip between the two.

[00:15:00] Yeah, we don't see it a whole lot in this book.

[00:15:02] Roke is very much a side character.

[00:15:04] He gains a little bit more prominence in the second, though.

[00:15:07] Yeah, I like the poet, though.

[00:15:09] He's a good one.

[00:15:11] Yep.

[00:15:11] I'm a big fan.

[00:15:13] But yeah, Darrow, he really wants to tell Severo his secret, wants to be kind to him, and wants to be actual friends with him.

[00:15:19] Darrow and Severo have this connection.

[00:15:22] They're best friends.

[00:15:23] There's no two ways about it.

[00:15:25] They become best friends, I would say.

[00:15:27] Yeah, Reaper and Goblin are...

[00:15:29] They truly do become brothers.

[00:15:33] Not the kind where they killed...

[00:15:36] One of them killed the other's actual brother, but...

[00:15:40] Well, hey.

[00:15:40] Truly.

[00:15:41] Cassius can only have one brother, so Darrow just felt like, you know, gotta take that spot.

[00:15:47] Gotta get rid of...

[00:15:47] Gotta open up a place.

[00:15:49] Don't even get me started on Cassius and Darrow as brothers.

[00:15:54] Truly.

[00:15:55] You don't know.

[00:15:57] You don't know, bro.

[00:15:58] It's so good later.

[00:16:00] I'm excited.

[00:16:01] Sorry.

[00:16:01] I gotta reign it in.

[00:16:03] No, I'm excited for that.

[00:16:05] Talk about my pookie-wookie bear, Cassius, Albalona.

[00:16:08] Reaper and Goblin, they meet the leader of House Diana, whose name is Tamara, and her number two, a boy named Tactus, who lead them through Diana's land.

[00:16:18] As they walk, the Diana students kind of murmur about the Reaper and the boogeyman of the Northern Institute.

[00:16:25] The Reaper, his legend is just growing and growing and growing.

[00:16:29] Darrow is becoming this figure of almost mythical proportion to the people in the Institute at this time.

[00:16:37] Which I love to see.

[00:16:39] I think I talked about it a little bit on the last podcast, but the myths of the Reaper and the Jackal growing.

[00:16:46] I just love that idea.

[00:16:48] Yeah.

[00:16:49] Yeah.

[00:16:49] Yeah.

[00:16:50] It...

[00:16:50] I really enjoy, obviously...

[00:16:53] Well, slight spoilers.

[00:16:55] Later on, when he's leading troops, they actually have a fucking cult around the Reaper.

[00:17:02] It is absolutely insane.

[00:17:05] And he even...

[00:17:07] He starts to get drunk on his own myth.

[00:17:10] It's...

[00:17:10] It's...

[00:17:11] It's a very interesting...

[00:17:15] What's the word I'm looking for?

[00:17:17] Dynamic, I guess?

[00:17:19] Yeah.

[00:17:19] I mean, I think that when you have these leaders in real life who gain such massive amounts of devotion, almost to the point where it's worship, it goes to their heads.

[00:17:33] People...

[00:17:34] People...

[00:17:35] When someone is constantly told that they're God, they're gonna start to think that they're God.

[00:17:38] You know what I mean?

[00:17:39] Yeah.

[00:17:40] Especially if they keep pulling off crazy-ass feats that reinforce that fact, too.

[00:17:49] Yeah.

[00:17:49] Like Barrow.

[00:17:50] Like my goat.

[00:17:52] Yeah.

[00:17:53] He's really pulling off things that no one thought were possible, and he's proving himself to be a great leader, so...

[00:18:02] He's reinforcing it both through his actions and through his own hubris.

[00:18:09] Yeah.

[00:18:09] Which is...

[00:18:09] It's a really good lesson, I think.

[00:18:11] But, yeah.

[00:18:12] Diana, they reveal why they fear the Jackal more than the Reaper.

[00:18:17] Richard, why is that?

[00:18:19] The Jackal is an evil bastard.

[00:18:21] It's well known how brutal he is.

[00:18:23] He's...

[00:18:24] As much as Darrow has, you know, taken on this persona of the Reaper, he's still pretty, like...

[00:18:30] He's tame.

[00:18:32] He's very tame, and honestly, he makes...

[00:18:35] Jackal makes him look like a fucking nice guy.

[00:18:40] With some of the brutal acts that he commits.

[00:18:42] I mean...

[00:18:44] Ugh.

[00:18:44] Yeah.

[00:18:45] I can't stand it.

[00:18:46] It makes my skin crawl thinking about some of the Jackal's shit.

[00:18:49] Right.

[00:18:50] I mean, Darrow's not seen as a monster by anyone yet.

[00:18:54] People see him as kind of...

[00:18:57] He's impressive, he's accomplished a lot, but he's not particularly known for being brutal or particularly cruel towards the people that he fights.

[00:19:09] Yeah, he more...

[00:19:11] Well, he doesn't need to be brutal towards the people he fights, too, is the crazy thing.

[00:19:15] He can kind of delegate that out to his Howlers and the Cassius.

[00:19:22] Yeah.

[00:19:23] But the deal that they finally broker with House Diana is to help them take Ceres if Diana helps them to take Castle...

[00:19:34] Or, sorry, if they help Mars take Castle Minerva, which is a pretty good deal, I think.

[00:19:40] They both get something out of it, and two houses are taken out.

[00:19:45] Eventually, they'll have to be pitted against each other, but, you know, it is what it is.

[00:19:49] I was gonna say, it's mutually beneficial as long as everyone plays their part.

[00:19:54] And luckily, Darrow's a fucking genius, so if someone doesn't play their part, he might have a workaround for it.

[00:20:00] Yeah, I think Darrow, he's very acutely aware of the fact that the Golds are predisposed to screw him over, in lack of better terms.

[00:20:13] But yeah, they're not particularly known for holding to their word or putting their honor and word above everything else.

[00:20:22] So we can certainly see that Darrow knows he's gotta put some fail-saves into place.

[00:20:27] Yeah. It's an interesting thing to behold, the next couple of chapters.

[00:20:35] Yeah. And this is where we get chapter 31, The Fall of Mustang. I wonder what could possibly happen in this chapter.

[00:20:43] My goat would never fall. Shut up. I love Mustang. She's goaded.

[00:20:47] No, but she would watch Darrow fall off a horse and laugh at him.

[00:20:50] She would. And she would hum the song that got Eo killed.

[00:20:55] Kinda crazy.

[00:20:57] That is kinda crazy.

[00:20:59] Mars, they suit up, they ride to war with Darrow at their head, leading the vanguard.

[00:21:04] As Cassius claims, he is as lightning, with Darrow as the thunder to compliment him.

[00:21:10] Such an awesome line right there.

[00:21:13] Yeah, I was gonna quote it directly, but I got really lazy when I was reading this.

[00:21:19] We don't need to directly quote everything. We got the idea.

[00:21:23] Yeah.

[00:21:24] Cassius, oh my gosh, struggling with words today.

[00:21:28] Cassius, Darrow, and Antonia ride through a field of dead horses in the rain.

[00:21:33] Darrow calls for Pax, getting Minerva to agree to a duel between the two people.

[00:21:38] So, I think that the idea here is if they can do this with a duel instead of a full-on siege,

[00:21:46] they want to prioritize that to kinda get it done and over with. Am I right there?

[00:21:49] Yeah, they don't wanna have as many injuries, obviously.

[00:21:54] And that way it's just, you know, at most, one person from a troop dies.

[00:22:00] Or from a tribe dies.

[00:22:02] It's not like brutal warfare where half of each tribe is injured severely.

[00:22:08] But it's really weird, because like, why the hell is Antonia the one that they're riding up with?

[00:22:13] Where's my boy Severo at? Am I right?

[00:22:16] Yeah, where is he is a really great question.

[00:22:19] And Mustang starts to count Darrow's troops to make sure that there isn't any underhanded stuff going on here.

[00:22:25] And calling out to Severo, so he raises his hand, indicating that he's there too.

[00:22:33] But I don't think that Mustang can really get too good of an idea of who's actually there.

[00:22:39] Yeah, she can't really confirm who's who.

[00:22:41] She doesn't know as well.

[00:22:44] No, and it makes sense.

[00:22:46] She wouldn't really be able to tell who's who.

[00:22:48] She doesn't know these people super well other than her time at the very beginning of the Institute with them, which wasn't too long.

[00:22:56] Other than their like test and initial trials, they haven't had a whole lot of interaction with each other.

[00:23:03] So Mustang, in preparation for the duel, burns grass in a circle to sort of like create an arena for them, leaving a ring of dead horses as a boundary.

[00:23:16] Yeah, kind of crazy that there's just, I don't know, it creates a very interesting scene in my head the way that I see it.

[00:23:25] Like I, it's, it's, it's just a bit weird to me, but I fuck with it.

[00:23:31] I do too.

[00:23:32] It's, uh, it's very morose and gross, but hey, that rhymes.

[00:23:37] Anyways, it's a little much, but I, it makes sense in the context of the instance.

[00:23:45] And how brutal this whole thing is.

[00:23:47] That's got a smell though.

[00:23:49] Oh, I'm sure it does, but I feel like Goblin might smell worse.

[00:23:53] He, he doesn't shower, bro.

[00:23:56] Well, he's definitely going to smell worse after this chapter.

[00:23:59] True.

[00:24:00] Howler rule 17, by the way, Pixie, only Pixie shower before battle.

[00:24:05] So keep that in mind, I guess.

[00:24:07] I don't know.

[00:24:08] Yeah.

[00:24:09] I mean, that's, every day is a battle and I have that as my rule.

[00:24:15] I'm, I think it would be actually.

[00:24:17] Yeah.

[00:24:18] Anyways, Pax, he's just the seven foot tall monster of a gold guy.

[00:24:24] And he decides he's going to square off with the Reaper.

[00:24:27] And so he screws with Pax a little bit.

[00:24:30] That being the Reaper, of course, noting to the reader that all he needs to do is just give the signal.

[00:24:36] And his first major Reaper plan is going to go off.

[00:24:39] So he's just toying with Pax at this point.

[00:24:42] Yeah.

[00:24:43] They, they fight, of course, though.

[00:24:45] And like Darrow even narrates to us, like he wants to win, but he's got an ace up his sleeve, of course, because he's, he's really actually using his fucking brain for once.

[00:24:56] I love Darrow.

[00:24:57] So, but anyways, Darrow gets beaten down because Pax, like we said, he's huge.

[00:25:04] He's a monster and he, he wants vengeance after some shit that after the shit Darrow pulled last, last chap or two chapters ago, whatever, last week where he like kind of, what did he do?

[00:25:21] He like kicked the shit out of the, out of Pax's nuts.

[00:25:26] Yes.

[00:25:27] Yeah.

[00:25:27] That was, um, Pax is holding a little bit of a grudge after that one.

[00:25:31] Yeah.

[00:25:32] And, and Darrow is, he, he's breaking a few teeth.

[00:25:35] He's smashed down into the mud.

[00:25:37] He's kind of screwed.

[00:25:38] And he, um, even says like he got whiplash just from Titus's bare backhand.

[00:25:47] That's crazy.

[00:25:48] But that's a really good way of explaining how fucking strong this dude is.

[00:25:52] It is.

[00:25:53] And it's no surprise that after just a little bit of fighting, Pax gains like a full advantage.

[00:26:01] Darrow's on his knees, ready to yield.

[00:26:03] And then he decides to howl.

[00:26:07] And what happens then, Richard?

[00:26:11] My favorite part of the Darrow plan.

[00:26:13] Really fucking disgusting.

[00:26:15] But whatever.

[00:26:17] Oh my God.

[00:26:19] It is.

[00:26:20] All right.

[00:26:21] So, Sephiroth, the Howlers, and some of the House Diana students all emerge from the bloated corpses of the horses.

[00:26:28] And they, they kind of just fuck up House Minerva's shit real quick.

[00:26:33] The only person who escapes is Mustang.

[00:26:36] Like that's, that's crazy.

[00:26:39] Yeah.

[00:26:40] Yeah.

[00:26:40] Yeah.

[00:26:40] And Darrow and Mustang have this moment where they lock eyes and he chooses to spare her.

[00:26:47] Um, which is a really interesting choice.

[00:26:51] I think that he remembers her from, or remembers her singing EO's song.

[00:26:57] And he has a little bit of sympathy for her that he wouldn't have for a lot of the other people from the different houses.

[00:27:05] Yeah.

[00:27:05] And another part, of course, too, is, um, you know, while they're looking for her, he'll lock eyes with her when she's like hidden in like the underbrush, uh, like some bushes and all that.

[00:27:15] And Vixis is looking around too.

[00:27:17] You know, Vixis was one of Titus's lieutenants and he, he says some stuff, you know, he, like I said, Titus is lieutenant.

[00:27:25] So he is not a great dude.

[00:27:27] And I don't think I need to explain more than that.

[00:27:31] I don't think I want to either.

[00:27:33] Yeah.

[00:27:34] We don't, we don't need to get too into it, but he just implies some pretty awful things.

[00:27:38] And that's another part of the reason why Darrow chooses not to say anything about where Mustang is, which hopefully that comes back to help him later in the book.

[00:27:49] That would be great.

[00:27:50] I mean, who knows though?

[00:27:53] I don't know if this guy is good enough to actually write character arcs like that.

[00:27:58] That wouldn't make any sense.

[00:27:59] Come on.

[00:28:00] This author sucks.

[00:28:01] He would never write a good character arc.

[00:28:03] Uh, no, never.

[00:28:04] Except for, of course, EO.

[00:28:06] What an arc.

[00:28:08] Yeah.

[00:28:08] My favorite arc in the whole book.

[00:28:10] Really?

[00:28:12] No.

[00:28:12] My favorite is actually Ugly Dan, the gray that used to bully Darrow when he was a minor.

[00:28:19] Um, that's a, that's a take.

[00:28:24] That, that might be one of the hottest takes of all time.

[00:28:26] Cause I mean, honestly, what do you know about Ugly Dan?

[00:28:30] What do I know about Ugly Dan?

[00:28:31] I know 10 times more about Ugly Dan than you do.

[00:28:34] All right, buddy.

[00:28:36] Fuck you.

[00:28:37] You're, you're not getting that ride to wing nuts.

[00:28:41] Please.

[00:28:42] No, I need wings.

[00:28:44] Yeah.

[00:28:44] I mean, you gotta have them while you're here.

[00:28:47] They're, they're kind of the best, um, ever.

[00:28:50] They are really good wings.

[00:28:52] What kind of flavor am I going to get though?

[00:28:54] Am I going to get just regular Buffalo since I'm here?

[00:28:57] Or do I go for the barbecue?

[00:28:59] That's my dilemma right now.

[00:29:00] I would say at wing nuts, you don't get either.

[00:29:03] You got to get their signature, bro.

[00:29:05] That's right.

[00:29:06] They've got the like sweet and spicy sauce, right?

[00:29:09] As their signature.

[00:29:11] Yeah.

[00:29:11] They've got, I don't know.

[00:29:14] Their, their Buffalo sauce is kind of mid.

[00:29:15] I'm not going to lie.

[00:29:17] Yeah.

[00:29:17] Well, if you're ever in Buffalo, check out wing nuts as two Buffalonians here.

[00:29:23] We'll tell you they're really good.

[00:29:25] Stay away from the, the like original places that everyone raves about because they're not

[00:29:29] as good as you would think they are.

[00:29:32] Yeah.

[00:29:32] Anchor bar is kind of mid.

[00:29:34] Someone had to say it.

[00:29:36] I'm, I'm fully the one to say it, dude.

[00:29:38] I've been to anchor bar like five or six times.

[00:29:41] And every time I go, the wings are mid and I get it.

[00:29:44] They, they're the truth.

[00:29:45] They set it.

[00:29:46] They set the trend, but they, they, they ain't like that.

[00:29:51] No, unless you're going to go to the one in East Aurora, they still have pretty good

[00:29:55] wings, but the other locations are, I don't know.

[00:30:00] Anyways, uh, that brings us to chapter 32 wing nuts.

[00:30:05] Yep.

[00:30:06] Chapter 32 Antonia idiot.

[00:30:09] Um, which doesn't start off with Antonia really, but she, she'll be important in a minute.

[00:30:15] Anyways, uh, house Diana betrays Darrow.

[00:30:18] What, what a shock.

[00:30:19] And they, you know, like they're inside of the Minerva castle at this point and they close

[00:30:25] the gates and they keep all the slaves for themselves.

[00:30:28] And remember when I said Darrow was like really smart and had contingencies for shit like this.

[00:30:35] I certainly do.

[00:30:37] Yeah.

[00:30:37] He left a goblin inside their castle.

[00:30:40] A goblin.

[00:30:41] I think you mean the goblin.

[00:30:42] The goblin.

[00:30:43] He left the goblin and the goblin destroys all of their food stores, you know, like burns

[00:30:48] them to a crisp and he also shits in all of their wells.

[00:30:52] So they're fucked.

[00:30:54] I mean, he's been eating like raw wolf meat.

[00:30:56] So I know that was just vile.

[00:30:58] Oh, it was definitely vile as fuck.

[00:31:00] Yeah.

[00:31:01] Uh, Tamara and her house, they try to flee after five nights of siege and she dies in

[00:31:07] the attempt as we find her saddle strap was cut, which led to her being trampled by the

[00:31:13] horses.

[00:31:14] Darrow really had a contingency here.

[00:31:15] We.

[00:31:16] Darrow.

[00:31:17] This wasn't Darrow though.

[00:31:19] The saddle strap part.

[00:31:20] That was all goblin, right?

[00:31:22] No, no.

[00:31:23] That was Tactus.

[00:31:25] He's a little bitch.

[00:31:26] Was it?

[00:31:27] I don't know why I thought it was, it was Darrow and goblin cooking up that plan.

[00:31:32] No, it, I mean, it, it very well could have been, but we, we get like a little bit of

[00:31:40] like, Darrow knows that several didn't do that or goblin didn't do that.

[00:31:45] You know, if you want to be specific.

[00:31:48] Um, right.

[00:31:48] And they think it's Titus because it's just his attitude in general.

[00:31:51] And he does confirm it at some point, but it's also just kind of obvious cause he's a

[00:31:56] power hungry little prick.

[00:31:57] Yeah.

[00:31:59] Um, Tactus definitely did it anyways, but Cassius and Roke agree that this victory will be the

[00:32:06] last borrow that Darrow needs to be officially the primus of house Mars.

[00:32:11] Cassius, he even humbles himself enough to endorse, uh, our good friend Darrow here as

[00:32:18] the primus, which I didn't, when I first read this, I wasn't expecting Cassius to put aside

[00:32:23] his pride enough to endorse Darrow, but he does feel that brotherly bond with him now.

[00:32:29] Yeah.

[00:32:29] And he really lays it on thick with Darrow, uh, right after this, you know, he says,

[00:32:35] well, you know, guys, I might've lost my only brother, but I gained two more.

[00:32:41] And he says that to Roke and Darrow and even offers them positions in his father's fleets

[00:32:47] once they graduate.

[00:32:48] Oh God.

[00:32:50] Cassius, buddy.

[00:32:51] I feel so bad for Cassius at this point.

[00:32:54] Like this is why I think despite everything, cause I know he's an asshole in the second

[00:33:00] book.

[00:33:00] Okay.

[00:33:00] I know, I know he's a bitch.

[00:33:02] I don't like Cassius in the second book for the most part, but this is why I respect the

[00:33:09] arc.

[00:33:09] The arc is beautiful.

[00:33:11] Yeah.

[00:33:11] You can tell that Cassius, he cares about the people that are close to him.

[00:33:17] A lot of these golds would be willing to stab their brother in the back.

[00:33:21] If it meant getting a higher position or becoming a peerless scarred or getting a fleet, whatever

[00:33:26] it might be.

[00:33:27] Cassius, he's very loyal to the people who he believes deserve his loyalty.

[00:33:33] So he's an honorable guy and you got to respect him.

[00:33:36] Yeah.

[00:33:36] And his name is Cassius Abelona and his honor remains.

[00:33:41] I love, I love when he says that shit.

[00:33:43] Every time he wins a duel in the second half too, he'll just say, you know, he'll list out

[00:33:50] his titles and shit and he'll, he always ends it with my honor remains.

[00:33:53] It's beautiful.

[00:33:54] I can't wait until I get to those parts.

[00:33:57] Yeah.

[00:33:58] Quinn and Severo, they bring back Lilith.

[00:34:00] Am I pronouncing that right?

[00:34:01] You're the audio book listener.

[00:34:03] It is Lilith.

[00:34:04] I did not know it was spelled like this though, until I read the book.

[00:34:08] Well, reread it, whatever you want to call it.

[00:34:13] And Lilith is a house Pluto emissary, which I believe she's the first house Pluto person

[00:34:18] that we see.

[00:34:19] Yeah.

[00:34:20] She wants to speak to Cassius and reveals she was sent by the Jackal, who's the boogeyman

[00:34:27] of the Southern Institute at this point.

[00:34:30] Yeah.

[00:34:31] He's something.

[00:34:32] All right.

[00:34:33] And he sent her with a message to tell Cassius that her master wants the Reaper dead or alive

[00:34:40] and tosses him two ion blades, which are, they're really cool.

[00:34:46] They're really fucking cool.

[00:34:48] Kind of like lightsaber ask, right?

[00:34:50] Or not, not quite, but like same idea.

[00:34:51] They're swords, but, but they like also can basically plasma cut essentially, like is the,

[00:34:59] is the best way to put it.

[00:35:00] But so yeah, they're, they're like a physical sword that can turn on the lightsaber in a

[00:35:05] sec.

[00:35:06] Maybe a little closer to the, oh God, I can't remember the name of the swords in Halo.

[00:35:13] Energy swords.

[00:35:14] Yeah.

[00:35:15] Wow.

[00:35:15] That's such an easy name.

[00:35:16] Why could I not remember that?

[00:35:18] Anyways.

[00:35:18] Yeah.

[00:35:19] It kind of reminds me of that maybe a little bit more than a lightsaber.

[00:35:22] Yeah.

[00:35:23] I can get where you're at with that.

[00:35:30] And we're back.

[00:35:31] We had a little technical issue.

[00:35:33] There were our recording software stopped recording for a minute.

[00:35:37] So let's just go back a point.

[00:35:40] We're talking about how Lilith, the house Pluto emissary who was sent by the Dracal is

[00:35:46] talking to Cassius.

[00:35:48] And what the hell is she telling this guy?

[00:35:51] Is she filling his head with lies?

[00:35:52] I don't know if it's necessarily lies, but definitely filling his head with venom because she tells Cassius that got a whole bunch of ion blades for him and what would be his new followers.

[00:36:08] If he goes after Darrow, which Cassius, he's not about that life.

[00:36:14] He's not willing to betray his brother.

[00:36:18] He won't open the pouch that she gave him.

[00:36:20] And I just wonder what could be in that pouch.

[00:36:24] What information it could have that would turn Cassius over to Darrow's or over against Darrow.

[00:36:31] Well, the world may never know just like how many licks it'll take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop because Cassius decides that he's not going to open the pouch.

[00:36:40] They talk about how Lilith seemed more like a starved wolf than a human being, which is a once again, the wolf imagery.

[00:36:48] It's a really interesting idea that maybe the followers of the jackal are not doing quite as well as we're led to believe.

[00:36:57] They're definitely more animalistic and I forgot to put it in, but Lilith has human bones weaved into her hair.

[00:37:07] Yeah, that's a pretty scary detail.

[00:37:10] And it makes you wonder, they're not even supposed to be killing each other, right?

[00:37:15] No, they're not.

[00:37:16] And they have, I mean, it could just be a scare tactic, who knows?

[00:37:21] But if that's how all of his men are like, that's kind of scary and a problem.

[00:37:26] It is.

[00:37:26] It's very much scary and a problem.

[00:37:28] And it makes you wonder, like, if they're animalistic and they look like they're kind of starving, you know, they've got these human bones.

[00:37:35] What are they resorting to over there?

[00:37:40] Certainly they're just growing food like civilized folk.

[00:37:43] Oh, yeah, for sure.

[00:37:46] But Darrow, he's pretty shaken up by the jackal.

[00:37:50] And he orders Severo to steal that pouch, which I'm sure that won't backfire at all.

[00:37:57] No, it never would.

[00:38:01] Well, you know, after he sends Severo to do that, he also sends Cassius to go besiege the rest of Diana, like House Diana in the woods.

[00:38:10] And while that's going on, Darrow and all of his men have a feast in Castle Mars.

[00:38:16] And Tactus, now seemingly the leader of what's left of Diana, he shares a glance with Darrow.

[00:38:25] Like, they kind of lock eyes in the middle of this, you know, this celebration.

[00:38:29] And he winks at Darrow for some reason.

[00:38:33] Can't imagine why.

[00:38:34] Yeah, I think that when I first read this, in my head, I kind of got the feeling that Tactus is the type of person who respects strength above all else.

[00:38:44] And maybe Darrow's victory over House Diana led Tactus to have some sympathies and maybe even a desire to work with Darrow rather than work against him.

[00:38:56] Yeah, because I mean, Darrow has demonstrated he will beat all of them in a fair fight.

[00:39:02] Yeah, I always think characters like that are really interesting who are willing to put aside their pride and their personal allegiances when someone is strong and they value strength over anything else.

[00:39:16] It's just a really interesting personality trait that you don't see it too often.

[00:39:22] But I think another great example, going back to our Fallout roots a little bit, is Legate Lanius from Fallout New Vegas.

[00:39:31] Do you know anything about Lanius?

[00:39:33] I've heard the name a few times, but I guess I don't know enough to really be able to relate it.

[00:39:39] He's basically the second in command of Caesar's Legion.

[00:39:43] And he started off in a tribe that was fighting against Caesar's Legion.

[00:39:48] And Caesar wipes out most of his tribe.

[00:39:52] And in the end, Lanius is completely disfigured.

[00:39:56] But he was this hulking strong warrior who killed dozens of Caesar's soldiers before being captured.

[00:40:03] And Caesar basically, no one knows what they said to each other.

[00:40:06] But Caesar goes into his tent where he's recovering and he's just completely messed up.

[00:40:10] And offers him a position in his Legion in exchange for pretty much just, lend me your strength.

[00:40:19] I respect you.

[00:40:21] I think that you're a good warrior.

[00:40:23] Join me.

[00:40:23] And whatever he said to convince him, Legate Lanius becomes his second in command.

[00:40:28] So kind of an interesting parallel there.

[00:40:32] I figured you were going to go a different route and talk about Thorkell, honestly.

[00:40:36] A little different.

[00:40:38] Because it's more about the strength of Will than it is about the strength of Canute's body.

[00:40:44] Right.

[00:40:45] I think that's another really great line that you can draw with characters like that.

[00:40:49] The culture of putting strength above everything else is obviously, it's not really a thing in modern society and for good reason.

[00:40:59] But I just find dynamics like that in media really interesting.

[00:41:04] Yeah, it definitely is.

[00:41:05] It's always an interesting environment that it creates.

[00:41:09] It is.

[00:41:10] You have these cultures of warriors and you see it in the ancient Norse, like you were saying, Thorkell from Vinland Saga.

[00:41:19] And yeah, it's just, it's interesting.

[00:41:22] But before we go off on too much of a tangent here with these different characters, we find out that Darrow, he now has all of the requirements that he needs for Primus.

[00:41:34] A position which Fitchner will bestow on him in the morning.

[00:41:37] And Roke kind of tells him that he's been thinking of putting the moves on Leah.

[00:41:41] So you have Roke admitting to Darrow in confidence that he has feelings for Leah.

[00:41:47] Right.

[00:41:48] What a great time for him to say that.

[00:41:50] Because in the early morning, Darrow wakes up to Leah calling for him.

[00:41:56] And she's yelling about how Roke has fallen into a crevice.

[00:42:01] So they ran out into the mists of a really dark winter morning.

[00:42:05] Think like 4am.

[00:42:07] You know?

[00:42:08] It's dark.

[00:42:08] It's fucking freezing.

[00:42:10] Much like our current predicament in Buffalo here.

[00:42:14] It was snowing this morning.

[00:42:17] It was for you, really?

[00:42:19] Yeah, it was snowing a little bit here.

[00:42:20] It also snowed yesterday on Thanksgiving.

[00:42:22] Just a little bit though.

[00:42:23] It didn't snow anywhere near me.

[00:42:24] Damn.

[00:42:25] Wow.

[00:42:25] What a difference a 20 minute drive is.

[00:42:28] Not even 20 minutes, but yeah.

[00:42:31] But Darrow realizes, like, wait a minute.

[00:42:34] Something's up.

[00:42:35] And he just dives into the foliage with, you know, Leah doesn't even notice.

[00:42:40] He really has to, like, lock in and be stealthy right now.

[00:42:45] Because he thinks that he's going to fucking die.

[00:42:49] Yeah.

[00:42:49] And when he dives into the foliage, you have Vixus, Leah, and Cassandra, as well as Antonia, actually, calling out to him.

[00:42:59] And Antonia says, there's going to be consequences if you don't reveal yourself.

[00:43:05] Which is where Antonia also proves that, once again, not a good person.

[00:43:10] Grabs Leah by the hair and threatens to kill her.

[00:43:12] And Darrow decides that it really wouldn't make sense for Antonia to do that.

[00:43:17] So that gambit fails just a little bit.

[00:43:20] Yeah, yeah.

[00:43:20] What does she do almost immediately after Darrow thinks that?

[00:43:24] Well, Antonia, being the stone-cold killer that she is, decides to slit Leah's throat and drops her to the ground.

[00:43:32] So Darrow, he didn't quite judge that situation correctly.

[00:43:37] Yeah, he has his moments.

[00:43:40] My king is smart, but he's not omniscient.

[00:43:43] Yeah, I don't think that he believed Antonia had it in her to be that brutal.

[00:43:48] He knew that she was kind of an asshole, but I don't think that he truly believed she was capable of that.

[00:43:54] Which, she proves him wrong pretty quickly.

[00:43:57] Yeah.

[00:43:57] Yeah.

[00:43:58] She's like the bad version of surpass your limits.

[00:44:02] I really don't like her.

[00:44:05] 100%.

[00:44:05] I don't think, especially after this chapter, there's no way to like Antonia.

[00:44:10] But Darrow, he stays completely still in the bushes until it's a little bit lighter outside, and he's completely sure that his enemies are gone.

[00:44:18] Which is when he decides that he's going to move to meet up with Cassius, who is returning from a raid on Diana.

[00:44:25] And the two kind of talk over options with Sebro of how they want to proceed now that there's been this giant mutiny within House Mars.

[00:44:33] Yeah, they kind of figured it out.

[00:44:35] They got their order of operations.

[00:44:38] First off, they need to find Roke.

[00:44:40] Second off, they need to find out why the hell Antonia did this.

[00:44:44] Because even though obviously it could just be for her own selfish game, there could be more to it.

[00:44:54] We don't really know.

[00:44:56] But so later, they return to the castle.

[00:44:59] Roke is nowhere to be found.

[00:45:01] Nowhere is any of Antonia, none of her allies.

[00:45:06] The castle's basically empty.

[00:45:09] And they kind of figure like, wait a minute.

[00:45:11] If everyone's gone, this wasn't just Antonia doing it for her own game.

[00:45:16] It was the dracal behind this.

[00:45:18] Yeah, because if it was Antonia doing it to become the leader of House Mars herself, she obviously would want to occupy the Mars castle.

[00:45:25] But if she's just kind of gone off somewhere else with all of her followers that she got to betray Darrow,

[00:45:32] there's obviously an allegiance to someone else instead of that self-serving aspect of it.

[00:45:38] Which, that's what really leads Darrow to come to the conclusion that the jackal is behind it all.

[00:45:44] Which, it really makes sense.

[00:45:45] And Cassius was just tried to be, or the jackal just tried to sway Cassius to his side.

[00:45:52] So it makes sense that Antonia would actually take that bait.

[00:45:56] Yeah.

[00:45:56] I mean, she is a conniving motherfucker, as we know.

[00:46:00] She really is.

[00:46:03] But Severo and Cassius get into a little bit of an argument over how they should proceed.

[00:46:09] Severo decides that he needs to go south and wreak havoc on the jackal.

[00:46:12] And Cassius interjects and is like, we need to face our enemies head on in the daylight because I'm chivalrous and honorable and blah blah blah.

[00:46:22] Instead of a silent knife in the dead of night, like Severo operates.

[00:46:27] Yeah, and don't get me wrong, I love Cassius for that.

[00:46:30] But let Goblin do his thing, pretty please.

[00:46:33] I love when Goblin tweaks out.

[00:46:35] Yeah, Cassius is a little bit too honorable and by the book for his own good sometimes, I feel.

[00:46:42] Yeah, but for now, they decide to end it with Severo.

[00:46:46] He's gonna go search for Roke.

[00:46:49] Daro's gonna go take a little nappy.

[00:46:52] He's tired.

[00:46:53] He had a long day.

[00:46:54] A lot of betrayal.

[00:46:54] And he is just thinking about everyone who's died.

[00:46:58] You know, he's thinking about Leah and Julian and Eo.

[00:47:02] And he's worried about Roke.

[00:47:04] You know, he doesn't want to lose his friend.

[00:47:07] I mean, his brother, even.

[00:47:11] His buddy, the warrior poet.

[00:47:13] The warrior poet.

[00:47:15] Yep.

[00:47:16] Love that guy.

[00:47:17] Hopefully he doesn't die.

[00:47:19] Roke doesn't die.

[00:47:21] Shut up.

[00:47:22] But that brings us to the final chapter in part three.

[00:47:28] Chapter 33, Wingnuts.

[00:47:31] Oh my god, shut up.

[00:47:32] Apologies.

[00:47:34] Not just for Aaron's actions, but apologies.

[00:47:37] That's the name of the chapter.

[00:47:39] This guy's ruining it.

[00:47:41] Unreal.

[00:47:42] My bad.

[00:47:42] I just read it wrong.

[00:47:44] Right.

[00:47:45] I'm curious as to how you got there from apologies, but I'll accept it.

[00:47:50] Mm-hmm.

[00:47:51] But anyways, Cassius, he wakes Darrow in the middle of the night telling Darrow they found

[00:47:55] Roke, but he's a little bit of a mess.

[00:47:58] Not entirely surprising.

[00:48:00] And they need to go get him together.

[00:48:04] And what does Darrow realize as they ride out for the second chapter in a row?

[00:48:09] He realizes that Cassius is carrying the two ion blades and there's another trap afoot,

[00:48:19] which I wonder why Cassius would possibly turn on Darrow.

[00:48:22] He's never done anything to him.

[00:48:24] Yeah.

[00:48:26] What a way to open the conversation, though.

[00:48:28] Cassius just is very blunt about it.

[00:48:31] He says, I'm not surprised.

[00:48:34] I've known for over a year Julian was meant to die at the Institute.

[00:48:39] Like, we knew it was going to happen.

[00:48:42] He knew because House Augustus and House Bologna, they've been feuding for generations.

[00:48:49] Some really nasty shit that we learn about in book two, especially.

[00:48:53] Like, I don't even know what you know, but it's gross.

[00:48:57] I do know quite a bit of it.

[00:48:59] Do you know about the grapes?

[00:49:01] I'm talking about literal grapes, not...

[00:49:04] Not TikTok censoring.

[00:49:06] Yes.

[00:49:08] No.

[00:49:09] Okay, good.

[00:49:10] We'll get into that in the second book, though.

[00:49:13] I don't want to spoil too much.

[00:49:14] No, I was just curious if you knew how nasty this feud gets.

[00:49:19] No, I don't think I know anything about the grapes, but I'm interested now.

[00:49:25] I might...

[00:49:25] After we're done recording, or when we go to Wingnuts, we'll have to talk about it because

[00:49:29] I feel like it sounds familiar, but I'm not 100% sure.

[00:49:33] Yeah.

[00:49:34] Yeah.

[00:49:34] Anyways, House Augustus and House Bologna, they really, like you said, have been feuding for

[00:49:39] generations, and we also learned that it was the Arch Governor himself who admitted Julian

[00:49:45] into the Institute, and that he had to go because declining an acceptance into the Institute

[00:49:53] is actually illegal in the society, which I think is so interesting.

[00:49:58] Like, you can't ignore the summons of the Institute.

[00:50:01] Yeah, but I don't know.

[00:50:04] It's really cool because it's seen as obviously like, you know, you get to go to this school

[00:50:10] that's just so gory.

[00:50:14] Mm-hmm.

[00:50:15] You're going somewhere where you might die and you're not even allowed to say no.

[00:50:20] Yeah.

[00:50:21] Like, no, no, really no choice because ultimately a lot of these kids do, like, they don't know

[00:50:30] what they want to do.

[00:50:31] They don't know that they want to go be a fucking praetor or an imperator or anything else.

[00:50:36] They, except for Cassius.

[00:50:38] Cassius knows he wants to be a knight and I fuck with that.

[00:50:42] Well, in the real world, we would obviously never tell young people that they need to go

[00:50:47] to war.

[00:50:48] I would like to be a knight.

[00:50:51] You want to be a knight?

[00:50:52] I would love to be at one of the 12 Olympic knights, dude.

[00:50:56] Well, go weld yourself a suit of armor at work and then start training.

[00:51:02] This is the second time we've talked about me welding a fucking suit of armor.

[00:51:07] Yeah.

[00:51:07] On the pod because we're talking about the power armor back in the fallout days.

[00:51:12] Oh my God, you're so right.

[00:51:13] Well, where's my suit of power armor?

[00:51:15] I'm still waiting.

[00:51:16] Yeah.

[00:51:17] Yours is going to have a flaw in the welding.

[00:51:19] Mine won't though.

[00:51:21] Wow.

[00:51:22] I guess that I'll just have to sabotage your armor.

[00:51:26] Okay.

[00:51:27] Darrow or Cassius.

[00:51:29] Yeah.

[00:51:30] I'm more like the ghoul.

[00:51:31] I kind of look like him too.

[00:51:33] Wow.

[00:51:35] Wow.

[00:51:36] Damn.

[00:51:37] The self-degradation is crazy.

[00:51:40] But yeah, Cassius, he kind of explains that he looked inside the pouch and saw the hollow record or the HC recording that it contained, which it kind of showed the brutal acts of violence that Darrow committed against Julian.

[00:51:59] And he's not only mad at the manipulation, but it was the way that he killed Julian.

[00:52:05] And that's really what pissed Cassius off the most.

[00:52:10] I wonder if Cassius, if he hadn't been, if Julian hadn't been killed in such a brutal way, if he would have felt a little bit more sympathy towards Darrow's situation.

[00:52:22] Yeah.

[00:52:22] Yeah.

[00:52:22] I think he would have, because ultimately, I mean, this is hard for Cassius, but I think that because of the fact that Darrow just kind of punched Julian really fucking hard in the sternum and killed him that way.

[00:52:39] And he was like, yeah, I have to win.

[00:52:41] Sorry, bud.

[00:52:42] Like, I think that that is what kind of was the breaking point, because ultimately Cassius always knew that there was a chance that it was Darrow.

[00:52:52] Yeah.

[00:52:53] Yeah.

[00:52:53] I mean, I do believe that Cassius would not have been as upset with Darrow to the point of betrayal if a Darrow hadn't killed him in such a brutal way and B, I think if Darrow had come clean about it, like right in the beginning, Cassius might have been able to look past it maybe towards the beginning.

[00:53:19] And they would have been able to develop their relationship with each other.

[00:53:23] Granted, I don't think they would have ever been as close as they actually became, but I think that they would have been able to have a functioning relationship with each other if Darrow had been honest about that.

[00:53:34] Yeah.

[00:53:34] It's unfortunate the way that things happen.

[00:53:38] And I love, even though I hate sometimes what ends up happening because of it, I love when Darrow does some stupid shit and you even think as you're reading it, like, what the hell is this guy doing?

[00:53:50] Or like, why is he doing it this way when he could be doing it a different way to like not have consequences that are so bad?

[00:53:58] And then the bill comes due.

[00:54:02] It's always a great trope, you know?

[00:54:05] Yeah.

[00:54:06] And you got to think from Cassius's perspective, not only did Darrow lie about it, do it in a brutal way, but he also used Julian's death to essentially sick Cassius against Titus, which just really doubles everything down.

[00:54:21] Who, ironically enough, and this is why I think Pierce was really cooking with this book, ironically enough, even after Darrow killed Julian's brother, Cassius then kills Darrow's, like not brother-brother, but brother in the fact that they're the same, that they're Reds.

[00:54:40] Yeah.

[00:54:41] Like his brother in arms.

[00:54:43] It's a great parallel.

[00:54:45] It's beautiful.

[00:54:47] Even though Titus deserved it.

[00:54:48] Titus did deserve it for sure.

[00:54:51] But I just think that it's a very interesting dichotomy.

[00:54:57] That's the word I'm looking for.

[00:54:58] I love Darrow and Cassius's dichotomy.

[00:55:01] Yes.

[00:55:02] I couldn't agree more, but we have the quickest duel possibly in the entire saga.

[00:55:11] Well, second quickest in the series.

[00:55:13] There is a duel that Cassius gets put into one duel after another at one point, and one of the quote unquote duels, he quite literally just lops someone's head off as they enter the ring.

[00:55:27] And then, of course, delivers his whole spiel about how his honor remains.

[00:55:31] What a goat.

[00:55:32] Cassius really is that guy.

[00:55:34] And after the quickest duel of quite literally, or second quickest of the series.

[00:55:40] The quickest of the first trilogy.

[00:55:42] Yeah.

[00:55:43] Cassius and Darrow, they just have a few quick little blows before Cassius runs Darrow clean through the stomach with his ion blade.

[00:55:52] And Darrow kind of curls up around the wound.

[00:55:55] It goes into the fetal position and is crying in pain and just waiting for death at this point.

[00:56:00] Yeah.

[00:56:01] Yeah.

[00:56:02] Yeah.

[00:56:02] He watches his blood pour out and he's having this kind of surreal, kind of life flashing before his eyes type moment where he sees EO's dream and he sees Darrow's hopes, or dancer's hopes, go with the blood.

[00:56:19] And he just keeps thinking of EO.

[00:56:22] He wishes he knew what her second gift to him was, or at least what her final words to her sister were.

[00:56:31] And just like that, everything fades to black as Darrow dies.

[00:56:36] Yeah.

[00:56:36] Yeah.

[00:56:37] I, and that's the end of part three, but I really love the trope of someone like in their dying moments, just fighting so hard to keep their hopes alive and whatever they're fighting for, they can see it fading away from them.

[00:56:56] I think that it's a great literary device.

[00:56:58] You see it a lot.

[00:57:00] But even though you see it a lot, it just, the emotional beats of it hit every single time.

[00:57:07] Yeah.

[00:57:07] Yeah.

[00:57:07] It's, this was a fucking crazy chapter to read at work, dude.

[00:57:14] Like I, this was one of those chapters where I got through the chapter and I just had to, I just sat down in my stool at work for a minute and I was like, okay, that, that was sad.

[00:57:27] Like that just happened.

[00:57:29] Yeah.

[00:57:30] I mean, I think I, I was at work when I was reading this as well.

[00:57:36] I, I read it at my little summer desk job.

[00:57:39] Uh, but I, I think I read it and was like, holy shit, I need to close this book for a minute and just stop and think about what just happened.

[00:57:48] Yeah.

[00:57:48] That was one of the, one of the sad chapters.

[00:57:53] I still nothing will ever top in terms of sadness.

[00:57:57] Hangar 17 B.

[00:57:58] If you know, you know, light bringer worst book of all time for that fucking chapter at the same time.

[00:58:05] It's a, it's a good chapter.

[00:58:06] It just makes me sad.

[00:58:08] I think that this is one of the moments that makes me really think this book would translate so well into an animated show.

[00:58:20] I'm with you on this.

[00:58:21] Cause I think that the razors just, uh, not just that, obviously not just my thing about the razors, not looking good in live action.

[00:58:28] I think they'd look wonky as fuck, but I think they could do a really good job representing it with like, you know, I feel like the, yes, they could do it in live action.

[00:58:38] But I feel like in an animated show, it looks a lot better if like, he's staring at his blood pouring out.

[00:58:43] And in the reflection, he sees like memories of himself and, uh, EO.

[00:58:50] And then he also sees like him and dancer talking about his, you know, dancers hopes and dreams.

[00:58:58] Yeah.

[00:58:59] The kind of things that they would need to visualize for a live action, they would need a huge budget for it.

[00:59:05] And I don't know.

[00:59:08] I feel like it would just be a little bit better if they decided to go with an anime, excuse me.

[00:59:14] If they decided to go with an animated, holy shit, I'm hiccuping.

[00:59:19] Um, if they decide to go with an animated series.

[00:59:22] Yeah.

[00:59:23] I think animated for sure is the way for Red Rising.

[00:59:26] I also think animated is the way for Stormlight Archive.

[00:59:29] If, uh, that ever happens, which I need that to happen, bro.

[00:59:34] Henry Cavill is interested in playing someone in the Stormlight Archive,

[00:59:37] but he also would be really good as Kelsey or for Mistborn.

[00:59:40] And I'm going to stop talking because if I start talking about Cosmere, I won't stop.

[00:59:45] Yeah.

[00:59:46] We'll save that for another podcast when I finally get to those books.

[00:59:50] Yeah.

[00:59:51] Yeah.

[00:59:51] You better.

[00:59:52] I will.

[00:59:53] I promise.

[00:59:54] I'll, I'll read them eventually.

[00:59:55] Yeah.

[00:59:56] How sick Dante on you if you don't.

[00:59:58] They do seem like books that are right up my alley.

[01:00:01] But I think that, I mean, I know I explained the Mistborn aesthetic to you with like the

[01:00:06] Gothic, like Bloodborne with mystical mists at night is, and a red sun.

[01:00:14] And yeah, that's my, that's my like best way of describing the aesthetic of Mistborn

[01:00:19] and also slight Magneto powers.

[01:00:22] Not slight.

[01:00:23] You got Magneto powers, at least the important characters do.

[01:00:29] But should we talk a little bit about what else we have going on with, uh, Ramblers?

[01:00:35] I was about to call the whole podcast Ramblers Rising with, uh, radioactive ramblings.

[01:00:40] Uh, yeah.

[01:00:41] What, what else do we got going on with radioactive ramblings?

[01:00:43] I feel like we're doing some stuff.

[01:00:45] We are.

[01:00:46] We actually, um, over at the Lorehounds, Alicia and David were on the Dune podcast and they

[01:00:54] had mentioned Arcane and they were saying that they thought Arcane would be a great series

[01:01:00] for us to cover over here.

[01:01:01] And since then I have binged almost the entirety of the series in quite a short amount of time,

[01:01:11] but we have season one coverage out and we're going to be splitting season three into the

[01:01:16] three separate parts that they dropped in.

[01:01:19] The show is just, it's incredible.

[01:01:21] I can't believe I haven't watched it beforehand, but yeah.

[01:01:26] Yeah.

[01:01:26] Me, Richard, Chase, we've, we've watched Arcane and we are going to be talking about it at length.

[01:01:33] So keep an eye out for that.

[01:01:35] Yeah.

[01:01:36] I'm, I'm not done with season two yet.

[01:01:38] I'm only on episode three, but.

[01:01:40] Um, I'm also not done with season two yet.

[01:01:42] I have watched a little bit ahead of where I was supposed to, I can't lie, but I liked,

[01:01:48] I liked in the first episode that they played like the slowed version of the new Lincoln

[01:01:52] park song.

[01:01:53] I know I'm obsessed with Lincoln park right now and I won't shut up about it, but it

[01:01:57] was, it's a banger.

[01:01:58] It really is.

[01:01:59] Maybe we can watch some Arcane today.

[01:02:02] Maybe.

[01:02:03] Yeah.

[01:02:04] Dante will fucking break down his bedroom door.

[01:02:08] If he hears that, if he hears the fucking intro playing, I never skip it.

[01:02:13] I always make, when me and chase have watched the episodes together, I make him listen to

[01:02:17] the imagine dragon song every single time because I found one, I saw it on Instagram.

[01:02:23] There was like someone just describing what was happening in each like little, little scene

[01:02:29] that was animated to this, like the rhythm of that song.

[01:02:34] And it was check Instagram.

[01:02:37] I think I sent it to you.

[01:02:38] You probably did.

[01:02:39] I will watch that.

[01:02:40] But other than that, we of course have this series, Red Rising, which is going to be consistently

[01:02:47] out every week.

[01:02:48] We've been pretty good about hitting these, the targets on the series, which I'm, I'm very

[01:02:52] happy about.

[01:02:54] Yeah.

[01:02:55] I even brought my microphone on vacation with me just so we could hit those targets.

[01:02:59] Damn straight.

[01:03:00] We also, we're finally publishing our episode of Elden Ring lore.

[01:03:08] Yes.

[01:03:09] That will be out this week.

[01:03:10] The All-Knowings Lore Corner.

[01:03:11] It will be out this week.

[01:03:12] Okay.

[01:03:12] This week is in like, when we're recording or when we're sending this out?

[01:03:18] When we're sending this out, which will be the upcoming Wednesday because...

[01:03:23] The Wednesday after Thanksgiving.

[01:03:25] Yes.

[01:03:26] The Wednesday after Thanksgiving.

[01:03:27] I think it's December 3rd, something like that.

[01:03:30] Or no?

[01:03:30] Uh, yeah.

[01:03:31] Yeah.

[01:03:32] December 3rd.

[01:03:33] Yeah.

[01:03:33] Whatever that Wednesday is.

[01:03:37] This episode will be out and later in the week is going to be...

[01:03:43] Actually, you know what?

[01:03:45] I'm going to be in the airport for a while on Sunday.

[01:03:48] I have a layover that's pretty long.

[01:03:51] Elden Ring might be out before this episode, but we'll see.

[01:03:53] It's all very dependent.

[01:03:54] Elden Ring will be out no matter what this week, as well as our next episode of Arcane covering

[01:03:59] the first part of Season 2.

[01:04:01] So, I'm so excited.

[01:04:03] And we also have some little ruminations about Fallout lore and Elder Scrolls lore that we

[01:04:10] want to yap about.

[01:04:12] Yeah.

[01:04:12] We've been...

[01:04:13] Me and Aaron have been talking, of course, a lot about some interesting things we want

[01:04:19] to try out.

[01:04:20] I don't know.

[01:04:21] We always love lapping...

[01:04:23] Lapping?

[01:04:24] No.

[01:04:24] Yapping about the lore of different series.

[01:04:27] So, of course, we will have stuff out as that permits.

[01:04:33] And also some Subnautica lore, maybe.

[01:04:38] Potentially, yeah.

[01:04:39] Potentially.

[01:04:40] I also had one other thing.

[01:04:42] I know I mentioned it to you, and I think I mentioned it to Chase when we were recording

[01:04:46] Arcane.

[01:04:48] That secret level show on Amazon, you know?

[01:04:51] Oh, yes.

[01:04:53] That's going to be fire.

[01:04:54] Here.

[01:04:55] And I think that we might need to do some week-by-week coverage of that anthology show.

[01:05:00] Yeah, we might have to.

[01:05:01] That would be a good one for us to cover, especially given our sort of video game show

[01:05:06] roots in the Fallout show.

[01:05:08] I think that that would be an awesome one to cover.

[01:05:11] So...

[01:05:11] Yeah.

[01:05:12] Stay tuned for all of our coverage plans.

[01:05:14] And, Richard, you want to let people know how they can get a hold of us?

[01:05:17] Oh, my God.

[01:05:18] Get a hold of us if they want to.

[01:05:20] This is the reality of podcasting, folks.

[01:05:22] We're always stripping over our words.

[01:05:24] Maybe you are, bud.

[01:05:25] I would never.

[01:05:26] Anyways, thank you for listening, of course.

[01:05:30] We appreciate just having listeners.

[01:05:34] It's great.

[01:05:35] It's a great time.

[01:05:36] We have some ways you can contact us, though.

[01:05:39] And that is, of course, first off through our email, which is radioactive at thelorehounds.com.

[01:05:45] We do have a channel set up for radioactive ramblings inside of the Lorehounds Discord server.

[01:05:50] You can send us a message, chat about the show.

[01:05:53] We also have a contact form, or you can leave us a voicemail at thelorehounds.com.

[01:05:59] And consider giving us a follow on Blue Sky.

[01:06:01] We are Radioactive141 on there.

[01:06:05] And we'd appreciate a rating on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you might listen.

[01:06:11] Yeah.

[01:06:11] And before we let you guys go, I just want to give a quick shout out to all the other podcasts

[01:06:16] in the network.

[01:06:17] First to the ones who make all of this possible, our parent podcast, The Lorehounds.

[01:06:21] They're going to be covering Dune, Prophecy, over on Max.

[01:06:25] And they've just got a lot of other great coverage, so go check them out.

[01:06:28] Also in the network are amazing podcasts like Wool Shift Dust, who's currently covering Silo.

[01:06:34] Great start to the new season of Silo.

[01:06:36] If you haven't checked it out, I would highly recommend it.

[01:06:38] It's on Apple TV+.

[01:06:41] The Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast, Rings and Rituals, Properly Howard Movie Review,

[01:06:47] The Severance podcast, and our newest affiliate in the network, Nevermind the Music.

[01:06:51] So links to all of these and info on how to get a hold of us are going to be in the show notes.

[01:06:56] But in the meantime, thank you all for listening, and we'll see you next week in the Institute.