Ramblers Rising - Red Rising Chapters 34-36

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[00:00:50] Hello and welcome to a new episode of Ramblers Rising. I'm your host Richard.

[00:00:56] And I'm your other host Aaron. And we're your guides to the many emotional gut punches of Pierce Brown's book series Red Rising.

[00:01:04] Today we're going to be going over chapters 34 through 36 of Red Rising.

[00:01:10] Damn straight. Just one thing we, well two things really we want to talk about before we get going is

[00:01:18] we just want to talk about how to get in contact with us. We figured putting it at the start is just a lot easier.

[00:01:24] A little better to like give us a shout out. First of which though is our email, which is radioactive at the lorehounds.com.

[00:01:30] We have a channel set up for radioactive ramblings in the Lorehounds Discord server.

[00:01:35] You could send us a message, chat about the show, you know, whatever.

[00:01:38] We also have our contact form or you could leave us a voicemail at the lorehounds.com.

[00:01:44] And we do now have a Blue Sky account, which is radioactive 141.

[00:01:48] And we'd also appreciate a rating on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, wherever else you might listen to us.

[00:01:55] It just helps other listeners like yourselves find us.

[00:01:57] Yeah. And if you're a fan of our Red Rising content, consider supporting us on Patreon at patreon.com slash radioactive ramblings for as little as $2 a month.

[00:02:08] And for that, you're going to get early and ad free podcasts, including some exclusive content.

[00:02:14] So we're going to have some new Fallout lore episodes dropping.

[00:02:18] A few of the higher tiers also have one month early Studio Ghibli movie releases, and that's going to be starting this month.

[00:02:26] If you want to support us, go check that out.

[00:02:29] All of that information about our Patreon and how to get a hold of us is going to be in the show notes.

[00:02:35] Richard, how are you doing today?

[00:02:38] I am doing so fantastic. How are you doing?

[00:02:41] I'm doing good by the grace of our good friend and co-host Chase.

[00:02:47] I have a new mic today.

[00:02:50] Yes, and it sounds good.

[00:02:52] I'm glad. So hopefully this is a little bit better.

[00:02:55] I know that we were coasting along on some subpar equipment for a while, especially on my end.

[00:03:02] So I hope that this is a little bit of an upgrade.

[00:03:06] And yeah, it's got me excited to record and edit this just because I know that I can listen back and compare and contrast to the old microphone.

[00:03:16] I kind of nerd out about all the technical stuff.

[00:03:19] Oh, I think it's sick as hell. It's just that I'm not as good as handling that set of things.

[00:03:24] I completely taught myself for this podcast. I knew nothing about audio editing or what software to use or microphone.

[00:03:31] I was truly like in the dark when we started this whole experience.

[00:03:37] Well, that's awesome. I think we've got a good split up of the work now.

[00:03:41] Me and Chase were talking about it earlier, like how me and him write almost all the outlines.

[00:03:47] You know, you add your stuff.

[00:03:48] Yeah.

[00:03:49] And that way you don't have to do all of the outlining and the editing and posting and this and that and all the other shit that goes into it.

[00:03:57] It's a lot more separated.

[00:03:59] I think that we're in a good place with our distribution of work.

[00:04:05] And I'm also trying to be a little bit more active both in discord and on our blue sky.

[00:04:13] I've been doing a little bit more over there trying to engage a bit with the community and with the different shows that we're watching.

[00:04:21] So I know that you're also been posting about red rising on on our blue sky as well.

[00:04:26] So we're I've been a bit more active to in like the the book thread.

[00:04:31] I'd be talking.

[00:04:32] Yeah, I'm so pissed though.

[00:04:34] I got one thing I only reason my day is not going perfect open tick tock yesterday.

[00:04:40] Four words managed to spoil the new Brandon Sanderson book like completely.

[00:04:46] So I'm fucking pissed.

[00:04:48] Yeah, I would be pissed too, which I actually just bought the Mistborn trilogy Richard, you know this but oh, I know you bought the Mistborn trilogy.

[00:04:55] I'm so hyped.

[00:04:56] I've never read a Brandon Sanderson book before, but I'm excited.

[00:05:01] I'm I'm looking forward to Mistborn the well of Ascension and the hero of ages.

[00:05:07] God, the hero of ages.

[00:05:09] What a book.

[00:05:09] I mean, all of them are so good.

[00:05:12] Yeah, we might have to talk about these books at some point, but that I feel is a post red rising endeavor.

[00:05:18] See, I'll talk about the books.

[00:05:20] The problem is, I will talk about the greater Cosmere Lord too, which would be like Mistborn secret history territory, which I can lend you.

[00:05:29] I got I got my book.

[00:05:31] Finally, it's here.

[00:05:31] Me and Chase yesterday were having a chat over a couple of cups of tea.

[00:05:38] And we're talking about the possibility of doing a once a month podcast on the Patreon where we just the three of us get together.

[00:05:47] And we just talk about random things, you know, whatever we're playing, whatever we're watching, reading, just what's going on in our lives generally.

[00:05:58] And that would be just content that doesn't quite make the cut of needing a full podcast.

[00:06:05] We could just do a little bit more of a casual talking about what we're.

[00:06:10] Yeah, just kind of some rambling.

[00:06:12] Yes, exactly.

[00:06:14] Yeah, I'm down.

[00:06:16] We should take a quick minute to talk a little bit about what else we have going on on radioactive ramblings right now, because there's a lot going on.

[00:06:25] We've got our coverage of arcane season two coming to a little wrap up probably this weekend.

[00:06:32] Yeah.

[00:06:33] We've got, of course, our Red Rising series going.

[00:06:37] We've got the Studio Ghibli movies.

[00:06:40] And we've got secret level.

[00:06:42] What's oh, what's next for Studio Ghibli is spirited away.

[00:06:47] Nice.

[00:06:48] I couldn't remember if we were doing spirited away or Princess Mononoke.

[00:06:52] We're going to Princess Mononoke will be our first like,

[00:06:57] Patreon early release.

[00:06:59] Yes.

[00:06:59] Right?

[00:07:00] Which, yeah, exactly.

[00:07:01] So if you are not subscribed to our Patreon,

[00:07:06] we're still going to be on the same release schedule.

[00:07:08] So it's you're still going to get this month's Studio Ghibli podcast on time.

[00:07:13] And you're going to get next month's on time.

[00:07:15] It's just that if you are subscribed to the Patreon,

[00:07:17] you're going to get Princess Mononoke a month early and you're going to be getting all of the other ones a month early as well.

[00:07:25] So at the time we release spirited away, if you are a Patreon subscriber,

[00:07:28] you will also have access to listen to the Princess Mononoke podcast.

[00:07:32] So you'll be a little bit ahead of everyone else.

[00:07:34] Yeah.

[00:07:35] And it'll be, of course, ad free since it's on our Patreon.

[00:07:38] Yes, everything on there is ad free.

[00:07:41] We're trying to do early releases for everything, which will be this podcast as well.

[00:07:47] This is going to come out at the very least.

[00:07:50] It'll be a few hours earlier than everything else.

[00:07:53] We're going to try and do about a day early, but it may end up being a few hours just depending on what our editing schedule looks like.

[00:07:59] But and you said we're going to be covering Secret Level, which from the first batch of episodes that dropped yesterday,

[00:08:06] today is Wednesday, December 11th.

[00:08:08] As of us recording this, Secret Level came out on Amazon yesterday.

[00:08:13] And it's a series about all of these different game franchises and their sort of individual stories being told.

[00:08:23] Richard, which ones are you interested in talking about?

[00:08:26] So I, I'm interested.

[00:08:29] I think the show as a whole is an interesting concept, of course, from what's out right now.

[00:08:35] The we're only halfway through, of course, but so I'm interested in the D&D episode.

[00:08:40] It, you know, I love D&D.

[00:08:42] I think that it's such fun, such a fun game to play.

[00:08:46] You know, it was great.

[00:08:48] I run the same page with that one.

[00:08:50] Oh, yeah.

[00:08:50] I think we had a great time running our campaign when we were able to.

[00:08:54] I wish it didn't fall apart with the planning.

[00:08:57] That was the one and only time I've played D&D.

[00:09:00] Don't worry.

[00:09:01] We'll get there, though.

[00:09:03] Well, we'll get another one going.

[00:09:05] Um, so there's the D&D one.

[00:09:07] There's a Pac-Man one.

[00:09:09] That's like it actually looks kind of cool.

[00:09:12] It I don't know.

[00:09:13] It's it's an interesting vibe.

[00:09:15] And I feel like everyone fucks with Pat man Pac-Man on some level, at least some secret level.

[00:09:20] Some might say.

[00:09:22] Uh, I'm sorry.

[00:09:24] Wow.

[00:09:24] I'm sorry.

[00:09:25] Warhammer 40 K.

[00:09:27] There's there's an episode of that and I'm really hyped for.

[00:09:30] Honestly, I'm excited for the Sifu episode.

[00:09:32] And I think there's one other one that I can't that I'm not remembering that was in the first

[00:09:36] batch.

[00:09:37] Armored core.

[00:09:38] Yes.

[00:09:40] Yeah.

[00:09:40] The three that I saw that I really wanted to talk about were like you said, D&D, of

[00:09:47] course, that one is probably going to be like one of the most popular ones.

[00:09:51] Uh, Warhammer 40 K and armored core.

[00:09:56] Now I don't know anything about Warhammer 40 K or armored core.

[00:09:59] I'm like completely, I don't know the lore.

[00:10:02] I haven't played the games, but yeah, I just know that they're cool franchises.

[00:10:07] I don't know if like all of the lore behind 40 K obviously cause there's just so much,

[00:10:12] but I know like the basics of it and it's a followup to space Marine two's campaign.

[00:10:18] So I'll like, I actually know about the character because I played the first one in the second

[00:10:24] one.

[00:10:25] So I could actually like give background information, chase his beat armored core multiple times

[00:10:31] from what I remember.

[00:10:32] So he can, he can help us through on that one.

[00:10:34] Yeah.

[00:10:35] He did tell me that that was one he definitely wanted to talk about.

[00:10:38] And we're also having a little bit of a debate over whether we want to, how we want to split

[00:10:43] that up because it does feel weird to cover those different franchises all in one episode.

[00:10:49] So we might have to split it up into maybe some mini podcasts.

[00:10:53] Like some short episodes.

[00:10:54] Cause there, I mean, each episode of the show is it's made by the creators of love,

[00:10:59] death and robots.

[00:11:00] So it's like 10 to 20 minute episodes.

[00:11:03] Yeah, exactly.

[00:11:06] And we always say whenever we say we're going to do a short episode, it always ends up coming

[00:11:12] out to like over an hour.

[00:11:14] Anyways, we, we always like to, yeah.

[00:11:17] Yeah.

[00:11:17] I think, I think every single time we've said it's going to be a short episode.

[00:11:22] It's a solid, like the smallest one I think we've released is 45 minutes.

[00:11:26] Yeah.

[00:11:27] Just about like, that's crazy.

[00:11:29] Speaking of that, we're already getting into over 10 minutes into our intro.

[00:11:33] So we should probably dive right into the beginning of part four of red rising, which

[00:11:39] is, yeah, it wants to stop yapping about this.

[00:11:42] Okay.

[00:11:42] I see how it is.

[00:11:44] Yeah.

[00:11:45] Onto the peak book, I guess.

[00:11:47] Yeah.

[00:11:47] Onto the really good book.

[00:11:49] If we have to talk about it, I guess.

[00:11:50] Yeah.

[00:11:51] This chapter has got me kicking my legs, you know, giggling.

[00:11:54] So happy for Darrow and Mustang.

[00:11:56] Yeah.

[00:11:57] This is a good chapter.

[00:11:58] I really love their relationship.

[00:12:00] It's so cutesy.

[00:12:02] And then golden sun happens.

[00:12:04] Yeah.

[00:12:05] I especially love the relationship between Mustang and Darrow because you have Darrow who

[00:12:11] lost his wife at such a young age.

[00:12:15] Well, first of all, he was married at such a young age.

[00:12:17] And then, Hey, old enough to crew old enough to screw.

[00:12:20] That's what they say in the minds.

[00:12:22] It's such a crazy quote for them to be pulling out.

[00:12:26] But I guess the reds are living on that limited lifetime.

[00:12:31] They're living to like 30 and dying in the mind.

[00:12:34] So, but yeah, I, he was married so young and then he loses his wife so young.

[00:12:43] And so for him to find a second love in such a short amount of time in his life, like I,

[00:12:52] it's really, it's an interesting story.

[00:12:54] And I think that it's good for his character that he's able to keep the memory of Eo and

[00:13:00] also move on.

[00:13:02] Yeah.

[00:13:02] Let's get right into chapter 34, which is titled the North woods.

[00:13:07] Darrow wakes up to a gentle hand, which reminds him of Eo.

[00:13:12] He's kind of spiraling thinking that he's in the veil, uh, stewing in his hatred of Cassius

[00:13:19] and Nero reminding himself that Eo is dead.

[00:13:25] So he's really kind of, he's both crashing out and hallucinating.

[00:13:33] He's just kind of, he's going through it.

[00:13:36] Yeah.

[00:13:37] He, he's, he's really losing it.

[00:13:39] That's why I said like he, he's fucking spiraling his internal monologue here is just really panicked.

[00:13:45] I don't, I don't know how else to explain it.

[00:13:46] To be fair, he is like bleeding out or was.

[00:13:50] Yeah.

[00:13:50] He did get stabbed in the chest, but it's been, he's going in and out of sleep for like four

[00:13:56] weeks in this like hallucinating state.

[00:13:59] It's, it's kind of crazy.

[00:14:01] Okay.

[00:14:02] I think it's kind of stupid that the med bots wouldn't have come for him.

[00:14:07] Well, there's a reason for that.

[00:14:10] Isn't there because someone wants Darrow, not only wants his son to win, but wants Darrow

[00:14:17] to lose because Darrow has proven himself to actually be a rival to the Jackal.

[00:14:22] Going in and out of consciousness for four weeks.

[00:14:26] That's kind of crazy.

[00:14:28] Yeah.

[00:14:28] Yeah.

[00:14:28] The only thing.

[00:14:30] Well, I mean, really he's like mostly healed at this point, but I like to think of it

[00:14:34] is my, uh, I think headcanon is the right term for this.

[00:14:38] My headcanon for this is that Mustang humming EO song is what wakes him up.

[00:14:44] He doesn't just happen to wake up to that.

[00:14:46] I understand plot devices and all that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:14:49] Uh, but I think that's why he woke up.

[00:14:52] I'm adopting something familiar.

[00:14:54] Damn straight.

[00:14:55] I like that.

[00:14:56] I like that a lot.

[00:14:57] I think that that's a good theory to have and that, you know what?

[00:15:03] That's exactly what happened now.

[00:15:04] Pierce Brown, you want to write in and confirm that that's what's going on?

[00:15:08] Yeah, please do.

[00:15:11] In the four weeks that he's been asleep in and out of consciousness, uh, it's become winter

[00:15:17] and Cassius became the primus of house Mars and house Mars is embroiled in a brutal war

[00:15:24] with house Jupiter.

[00:15:26] The two being the main factions in the North as the Jackal has pretty much total control

[00:15:31] over the South at this point, I would say.

[00:15:34] Yeah.

[00:15:34] He, oh my God.

[00:15:35] He's so fucking menacing.

[00:15:37] I love the Dracal.

[00:15:38] Like I hate him.

[00:15:39] Cause he's a villain.

[00:15:40] I know I've said it a million times, but I love well-written villains and he is one

[00:15:45] of them.

[00:15:46] Yeah.

[00:15:47] Before you actually get to meet him, he really is this larger than life presence.

[00:15:52] It's such a good foil for the legend of the reaper.

[00:15:56] So yeah.

[00:15:57] And when you do meet him, he, he's scary.

[00:16:02] Like he, you, you really do understand why he's got this like legendary status.

[00:16:08] Yeah, you really do.

[00:16:09] You get a good idea of why he's got such a legacy and reputation for brutality.

[00:16:16] Mustang sort of prods Darrow a little bit and says, you know, you should have killed Cassius

[00:16:22] and Darrow's taken aback by that.

[00:16:24] He says that he thinks she was a little bit better than that.

[00:16:27] He didn't think that she would say something like that or resort to the murder of someone

[00:16:32] that he considered a friend.

[00:16:34] Yeah.

[00:16:35] And she explains why he was betrayed in the first place, which is because he ruled through

[00:16:39] fear and expected the whole hierarchy of the Institute and of house Mars to just protect

[00:16:46] him.

[00:16:47] He kind of thought that his position as like the leader just meant, Oh, he's going to be

[00:16:52] fucking fine.

[00:16:53] And well, at least that's how she sees it.

[00:16:55] And he really kind of did.

[00:16:58] I mean, he kept Antonia in the fold and we knew Antonia was out for him.

[00:17:03] She's, she's evil.

[00:17:06] We don't like Antonia on this podcast.

[00:17:08] No, we do not like Antonia on this podcast.

[00:17:12] Antonia, Nero, Augustus, they're, they're top two ops in the house right now.

[00:17:20] Yeah.

[00:17:21] And of course the Jackal, the Jackal is always going to be an op.

[00:17:24] The Jackal is always an op for sure.

[00:17:27] But this chapter has a really big moment for Darrow.

[00:17:31] He realizes he's got to be better than other golds if he wants to realize EO's dream and

[00:17:37] sort of rule as Mustang did.

[00:17:40] He really, he feels that he needs to do better.

[00:17:44] And I think that Mustang's conversation with him, his near death experience, he really,

[00:17:51] he realizes that there needs to be more to him if he wants to be special and do something

[00:17:58] incredible.

[00:17:59] He can't just be like all of the other golds.

[00:18:02] Yeah.

[00:18:03] Darrow, as the kids say, locks in, in this chapter.

[00:18:07] Lock, fuck in.

[00:18:09] Mustang starts to teach him like how he needs to think of it.

[00:18:12] And that working with the slaves as equals is a better, it's a better strategy than treating

[00:18:17] them like slaves, like he was doing.

[00:18:19] Then that's how she ruled.

[00:18:21] And he, you know, he, as he's being taught, like how she wants to do things, he realizes

[00:18:26] that he's like, holy shit.

[00:18:27] That's what EO wanted.

[00:18:30] Yeah.

[00:18:31] You have this whole idea of the class war coming and these lower classes of people who

[00:18:39] are basically enslaved to the golds.

[00:18:42] Those are the ones who Darrow wants to break free of their chains.

[00:18:47] And all the while Darrow was participating in this sort of microcosm of that slavery situation.

[00:18:54] And he realizes that, oh shit, I have been doing exactly what I wanted to stop.

[00:18:59] I need to look about this a different way.

[00:19:03] Yeah.

[00:19:04] And I think that's another thing that deepens their relationship is how close she is to

[00:19:09] why he's doing this.

[00:19:11] I mean, and of course we don't know yet, but like given her upbringing and everything, she,

[00:19:18] I mean, just being a gold, what we'll go with, cause we don't want to get too far into

[00:19:23] what, how she was brought up, but like being a gold, they're taught to discriminate against

[00:19:29] the colors and she doesn't fuck with that.

[00:19:33] Yeah.

[00:19:34] I mean, when from such a young age, you're indoctrinated to think that way and still you grow into an

[00:19:43] adult who can have the compassion and the critical thinking to sort of break free from

[00:19:48] that and realize where you went wrong and that there's a better way of doing things.

[00:19:53] I think that when you can come to that realization, it really showcases what a good person Mustang is

[00:19:59] and that she is a genuinely kind hearted and a good person who wants to do the right thing.

[00:20:05] Yeah.

[00:20:06] Bottom line, Mustang is not a horse.

[00:20:09] She's a goat.

[00:20:10] Wow.

[00:20:11] The goat.

[00:20:12] I know that was poetic.

[00:20:13] Hey, that was pure poetry.

[00:20:15] I feel like you should submit that one, get an award maybe.

[00:20:19] Yeah, I know.

[00:20:20] Right?

[00:20:21] Yeah.

[00:20:22] So now we're done with like the, the fun stuff gets worse.

[00:20:27] Uh, Daryl goes out hunting and on his way back, there's some human tracks leading back

[00:20:32] to him and mustangs home and they are not his or hers.

[00:20:35] They kind of like swing along the tree branches to like not leave tracks as much or like jump

[00:20:42] from tree branch tree to tree so that they again, don't leave tracks.

[00:20:45] It's, it's a weird way of doing it, but I fuck with it.

[00:20:48] A little homage to Tarzan.

[00:20:50] Yeah, sure.

[00:20:52] There are spots though, that their home is now occupied, which their home.

[00:20:57] That's so cute.

[00:20:58] I love that.

[00:20:58] And is now occupied by oath breakers who are slaves, who have abandoned their masters

[00:21:03] and Daryl, Daryl sees them.

[00:21:07] They got Mustang tied up.

[00:21:08] She's just in her undergarments.

[00:21:10] Like they're, they're, they're not great people.

[00:21:13] Daryl beats the absolute ever loving shit out of them.

[00:21:16] And he, he stops when he locks eyes with Mustang and he makes sure she's okay.

[00:21:23] And they, they leave their bodies in the snow.

[00:21:27] This is where the chapter gets really happy and awesome and nice again.

[00:21:31] Yes.

[00:21:31] Before we get into that though, Richard, why do you think Mustang decided to save Daryl?

[00:21:39] You know, there's a few good, good answers in my opinion, but I think my foremost one is

[00:21:47] simply that she has some sort of like feelings for him already because we have those scenes.

[00:21:53] We've had a couple of scenes with the two of them where they're really like, they're flirty,

[00:21:58] you know, they're goofy, they're silly, but he also let her live that one time.

[00:22:03] Yeah.

[00:22:04] And I think that that, so it's kind of, it's kind of both because like there's the repayment side of it, but they also shack up pretty damn quick.

[00:22:13] They do.

[00:22:14] I I'm in the same camp as you.

[00:22:16] I think that it is a combination.

[00:22:18] I think it's mostly her feelings for him.

[00:22:22] Yeah.

[00:22:22] Because they do have that pre-established sort of connection with each other.

[00:22:26] And I think to a definitely lesser degree, it is a little bit about reciprocating when he sort of left her alone.

[00:22:36] Yeah.

[00:22:37] Even though he could have, you know, got her out, but he didn't want Vixis to, to do things.

[00:22:43] Yeah, exactly.

[00:22:45] And this is where their relationship really starts to blossom a little bit.

[00:22:50] Dara and Mustang, they go to sleep and they cuddle and she tells him that she can't remember the words to EO's song.

[00:22:59] So he actually sings it to her.

[00:23:01] For all my audio book listeners out there, this shit was weird because I love the guy who narrates.

[00:23:08] He's great.

[00:23:09] Tim Gerard Reynolds is goaded.

[00:23:11] But why does he sing?

[00:23:13] Man, I need to hear it.

[00:23:14] It was not great.

[00:23:16] Yeah.

[00:23:17] This is one part of their relationship that I always find a little bit strange and this could just be me, but the way that EO feels like such a large part of Dara and Mustang's relationship.

[00:23:31] I don't know why, but it rubs me a little bit the wrong way.

[00:23:35] It like feels a little bit strange in my mind.

[00:23:38] I used to feel that way, but it, it, it develops, you know, you gotta give it some time.

[00:23:45] It's, it's a lot more developed in the second trilogy, obviously, because now they've been together for fucking forever.

[00:23:50] It's interesting.

[00:23:51] After he sings her the song, they fall asleep together and he comes to the realization that she's really sick and to the point where she'll probably die soon.

[00:24:00] So he resolves that he has to go and find some meds for her, which is not an easy thing to come by in the Institute.

[00:24:06] No, not at all.

[00:24:07] He'd have to get it from like a proctor or something, right?

[00:24:10] Yeah.

[00:24:10] Either a proctor or would have to steal it from some other group that already got it from their proctor.

[00:24:15] So it's going to be either a really difficult job of convincing a proctor to give him medication, or it's going to be a really difficult job of having to go and steal it from someone else.

[00:24:25] Yeah.

[00:24:26] Darrow heads out the next morning wearing his new white wolf cloak because he's drippy and also symbolism, of course, going from like his black cloak to a white one.

[00:24:37] Obviously that's like the representation that he's changing and he's becoming more pure, but it's also just insane drip.

[00:24:43] Yeah.

[00:24:44] You've also got the whole idea of rebirth because he has that near death experience and he comes out changed on the other side.

[00:24:52] So the transition from the black cloak to the white cloak is very much a symbol for rebirth or renewal.

[00:24:58] It's very Gandalf ask in my opinion.

[00:25:02] Yeah, it is.

[00:25:03] It really is.

[00:25:03] That's like the one thing that I always think of when I'm thinking about this part of the book.

[00:25:07] I agree.

[00:25:08] I hadn't thought of it like that, but it is kind of, he comes back with a renewed purpose and a little bit more assertiveness in completing his goals the same way that Gandalf does when he comes back as the white.

[00:25:22] So that's, that's a really good connection.

[00:25:24] Yeah.

[00:25:25] I'm, I'm obsessed with Lord of the Rings right now.

[00:25:27] We got war of the Rahiri, Rahiram coming out tomorrow.

[00:25:30] It is tomorrow.

[00:25:32] I'm genuinely so excited for war.

[00:25:34] I'm so hyped because we are, I don't know if we've talked about it on the podcast, but I know you and I have talked about, we're going to hunker down you, me and Dante.

[00:25:41] We're going to watch all the Lord of the Rings movies, and then we're going to watch war of the Rahiram and it's going to be peak.

[00:25:47] Yes.

[00:25:48] I'm quite excited for that.

[00:25:49] Yeah.

[00:25:50] Maybe we could make, do like our food, make a bunch of food then, like the miso soup and I'll make some shit.

[00:25:58] Yeah.

[00:25:58] That would be really sick.

[00:26:00] Yeah.

[00:26:01] But yeah, going on, cause you know, we don't want to, can't nerd out too much about Lord of the Rings, even though I'd love to.

[00:26:08] I think that the Lorehounds are going to be doing some more of the Rahiram coverage.

[00:26:12] So stay tuned to them.

[00:26:14] They, they always cover Lord of the Rings stuff.

[00:26:16] So go, go check out their podcast.

[00:26:19] Just a quick little shout out there since we're on the topic of war of the Rahiram.

[00:26:25] Richard, you want to take us into our next point?

[00:26:28] Oh yeah.

[00:26:29] So Darrow heads out with his white wolf cloak, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:26:33] And he hears, you know, someone's blowing bubbles like gum bubbles and it's fucking Fitchner.

[00:26:39] Fitchner is in the woods, invisible, but you know, Darrow knows because he heard the bubble

[00:26:45] So Fitchner uncloaks and stops floating and he's just, he's just kind of there.

[00:26:50] I think Fitchner was chewing Nathan and son's underbrush.

[00:26:55] What are you saying to me right now?

[00:26:58] No, shut up.

[00:26:59] Underbrush gum off of TikTok shop.

[00:27:01] Shut up.

[00:27:01] Shut up.

[00:27:03] Stop talking.

[00:27:04] No more rambling for you.

[00:27:07] Um, so Darrow and him talk, you know, we find out the proctors gave the Jackal the HC recording

[00:27:14] of Julian's death, which we, we knew, but we didn't know like for sure.

[00:27:19] And he further explains that the rings that everyone wears actually have tech in them that

[00:27:25] allows them to track everything students do.

[00:27:27] But Darrow and Fitchner are in a jam field, which jam fields very important to remember.

[00:27:34] It's a wide circular field and it cuts off incoming and outgoing signals.

[00:27:38] Some of them can disable technology, but just the concept of jam fields are very important

[00:27:43] because they come up a lot.

[00:27:45] Yeah.

[00:27:46] It's really interesting.

[00:27:47] It reminds me a little bit of like an EMP blast or something.

[00:27:51] Yeah.

[00:27:51] I think it's cooler though.

[00:27:52] Cause it doesn't like permanently disable electronics, you know, just temporarily.

[00:27:57] Yeah.

[00:27:58] I really like that.

[00:27:59] Uh, but Fitchner and the drafters of Mars, like Lorna Argos, they really want Darrow to

[00:28:06] live.

[00:28:06] They want to let the Jackal win.

[00:28:08] Uh, so Darrow and the Mars alumni will have better futures.

[00:28:12] And Darrow says that he only wants to take the Jackal down, baby down.

[00:28:18] He's really, he's getting vindictive.

[00:28:21] He wants the Jackal to suffer for what he's done.

[00:28:25] And we'll get there.

[00:28:26] Don't worry.

[00:28:27] Darrow will make him suffer several times in this trilogy.

[00:28:32] Poor Jackal.

[00:28:34] He's just a good guy at heart.

[00:28:36] Okay.

[00:28:37] Shut, shut your mouth.

[00:28:38] Darrow does also suffer at the hand of the Jackal a lot, just in this book.

[00:28:42] Yeah.

[00:28:43] And then it gets worse.

[00:28:45] It always gets worse for Darrow.

[00:28:48] Yeah.

[00:28:49] It like, I, like I think I've said before, I don't see him getting ahead of the

[00:28:54] happy ending in book seven.

[00:28:56] I want him to, don't get me wrong.

[00:28:58] I need Darrow to have a happy ending.

[00:29:00] But I think he dies horribly.

[00:29:02] Yeah.

[00:29:03] I, I'm sure that he will.

[00:29:05] It doesn't feel like he's the type of character that's gonna get to ride off into the sunset

[00:29:10] with him.

[00:29:10] We're Teresa and Nemo.

[00:29:12] And that's why we've switched to Shopify.

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[00:29:40] Mustang and live happily ever after.

[00:29:42] So.

[00:29:43] I just, the only thing I want is I want for the veil of the Reds to actually be like the,

[00:29:50] the true afterlife in Red Rising.

[00:29:53] And I want him to meet all of his friends who died horribly saying that they would meet

[00:29:58] him in the veil because that would be a great way to wrap it up for his, his character.

[00:30:04] It would be, it would be very fitting.

[00:30:06] It would be very poetic to end his character that way.

[00:30:09] But yeah, for now Darrow decides that he's going to destroy the other houses before he

[00:30:16] decides to go after the Jackal.

[00:30:18] So he's going to start off with Apollo, then Jupiter.

[00:30:21] And then finally, after all is said and done, the Jackal is finally going to go down.

[00:30:28] Yeah.

[00:30:29] And I, I love, I love when Darrow really locks down and decides what he wants to do with

[00:30:34] his time.

[00:30:35] And this is a great plan.

[00:30:37] Does it work?

[00:30:38] Who knows?

[00:30:39] But it's, it's a plan nonetheless.

[00:30:41] Uh, he kinda not bullies Fitchner, but for lack of a better word, he bullies Fitchner

[00:30:48] into giving him medicine because you know, he's, he's Primus and he deserves a lot of stuff

[00:30:54] for capturing other standards and you know, all this other shit.

[00:30:59] So Fitchner, a little reluctant gives Darrow the medicine to save Mustang.

[00:31:04] And before he leaves Fitchner also gives Darrow a box and Aaron what's inside that box.

[00:31:11] Well, inside the box is Darrow's Pegasus necklace and EO's flower blossom inside.

[00:31:18] Um, so not only did he get the medicine to save Mustang, but he has this reminder of his,

[00:31:26] uh, his past life.

[00:31:28] And that kinds of kind of leads us to think, why does Fitchner even have this in the first

[00:31:33] place?

[00:31:34] Right.

[00:31:35] I mean, interesting question.

[00:31:37] He says that friend, I don't remember the exact word, you know, the books like five feet

[00:31:44] away.

[00:31:44] It's really hard to reach, but he says something along the lines of like, yeah, this is from

[00:31:48] your friends that are watching.

[00:31:50] And I think that's, that's interesting.

[00:31:54] So this gives us some sort of idea that Fitchner is in some way in communication with the sons

[00:32:02] of Aries.

[00:32:04] Something like that.

[00:32:06] This also lets us know that Fitchner kind of, kind of a bro.

[00:32:10] Am I right?

[00:32:11] Like, I mean, kind of a bro, but also still kind of, you know, he's a, yeah, he's kind

[00:32:19] of an asshole still.

[00:32:20] I know he's an asshole, but Fitchner, Fitchner's a bro.

[00:32:23] You just don't get it.

[00:32:25] He's an asshole in the same way that Goblin is an asshole.

[00:32:27] They're kind of like endearing in their assholery.

[00:32:32] I love when Fitchner calls people boy.

[00:32:34] Oh, it's so silly.

[00:32:36] Reminds me of the skeleton from, um, what's that game with Zagreus?

[00:32:42] Hades.

[00:32:43] Oh my God.

[00:32:43] Hades.

[00:32:44] Holy shit.

[00:32:44] I was going to say what?

[00:32:46] Yeah.

[00:32:47] Fitchner, Fitchner says it differently though.

[00:32:49] I know.

[00:32:50] I'm an audiobook listener, right?

[00:32:51] Yeah.

[00:32:52] You really love to flex that Audible subscription, don't you?

[00:32:55] I do.

[00:32:56] I have, I've read like, oh my God, I've read like almost a full month on Audible now.

[00:33:02] I was checking my hours the other day.

[00:33:04] It's, it's bad.

[00:33:05] I'm.

[00:33:06] That's awesome though.

[00:33:08] Um, but that's the end of chapter 34 and we can move right into chapter 35 oath breakers

[00:33:15] where it kind of starts off with Mustang, uh, getting a little bit better now that she's

[00:33:21] got the medicine from Darrow and Fitchner.

[00:33:23] Um, and there's this decision made that Darrow needs to run a rebellion made of followers,

[00:33:32] not slaves.

[00:33:33] So he cooks up this very intelligent Reaper plan and hell yeah.

[00:33:41] What happens then?

[00:33:42] Well, they run into some earth bring, oath break, oath breakers.

[00:33:46] Holy shit.

[00:33:46] Sorry.

[00:33:47] I keep thinking oath bringer, which is from stormlight.

[00:33:50] It's the third book and it's also a really cool sword called oath bringer.

[00:33:54] I love oath bringer, but the storm might yap aside.

[00:33:59] Uh, they run into some oath breakers and they rebrand them to house Minerva, but then Mustang

[00:34:06] does something cool that we didn't even know it was possible.

[00:34:09] She erases the slave brand and he, yeah, he kind of tells them like, Hey, we're making

[00:34:17] a tribe of free people.

[00:34:19] We're all going to be equals, but then Mustang still kind of like affirms for him that it's

[00:34:25] going to be his army.

[00:34:27] Like he'll still be leading it, but they'll all have like equal say and, um, rights and

[00:34:34] no more Titus stuff will happen.

[00:34:38] Yeah.

[00:34:38] You know, sort of a little bit more democratic or whatever, giving people an opinion, which

[00:34:45] is, I don't know who, if anyone remembers the prologue super well, but like the whole

[00:34:51] thing is that democracy in this world is bad and evil, blah, blah, blah.

[00:34:56] It doesn't work.

[00:34:58] Yeah.

[00:34:58] Shut up.

[00:34:59] Octavia, Octavia Lune and Nero Augustus.

[00:35:02] Daryl's talking.

[00:35:04] Exactly.

[00:35:05] And after he explains, uh, the whole tribe of free men and women, uh, Mars and Jupiter,

[00:35:11] there's a little bit of a clash with PAX leading the Mars war band, which this shows us that both

[00:35:18] Mars and Jupiter have better armor and weapons. They've got ion swords, ion arrows, ion armor,

[00:35:24] ion fucking everything.

[00:35:26] They've got ion baseball hats.

[00:35:28] It's really like the most basic sci-fi term. I feel like it's just ion normal weapon, whatever.

[00:35:37] And I'm really glad that they don't really like it's, it's less about ion stuff after this book.

[00:35:43] It's all about razors and pulse armor and pulse fists and star shells.

[00:35:48] Yeah. Yesterday I finished a replay of Subnautica and all of the alien technology is just called

[00:35:53] like ion cube, ion power cell ion battery.

[00:35:57] So it's not like, I don't know. I just hate everything's ion or quantum or whatever. Like, and that's why I like razors and other shit. It's just, it's more original.

[00:36:11] Yeah. It feels a little bit more creative. There was some more thought put into it, but yeah.

[00:36:17] Mustang and Darrow, they start to cook up a plan to raid the Mars slaves and turn the slaves to their side. And Pax sort of remains as the big, the white whale, the big prize that they want to win over.

[00:36:34] Yeah. It takes, um, all 12 of Darrow's tribe besides like Mustang's the 13th. She, she obviously isn't doing this part, but they all pile onto Pax and hold him to the ground and Mustang freeze him using the standard. He, he just starts laughing. You know, Pax is a great guy. I love Pax. He's my, he's a King.

[00:36:55] He is. And Darrow, the Reaper comes back at nightfall, convinces the slaves on guard to let him in since he's the rightful primus of house Mars. So we still got a little bit of allegiance left, sneaks in and carves a sling blade on every single door as well as on the war room table. Um, and he actually also carves a skull into Cassius's chair in the war room, stabbing a knife onto the back of it.

[00:37:23] This is a really strong message that he's sending to house Mars and Cassius in specific.

[00:37:28] It is. And I also think this is where like his myth definitely starts to develop. Like that's why I started referring to him as the Reaper kind of noting like that huge character change here.

[00:37:38] Yeah. I mean, he almost is putting on this act and he's creating a new character for himself to play, which is the Reaper, this really confident sort of knife in the dark kind of guy who,

[00:37:54] came back from the dead, basically back from the dead and he's playing it up a lot. He knows how valuable this legend can be. And so I think that he's making a really smart move here by playing it up and playing into it quite a bit.

[00:38:11] Yeah. As he leaves, uh, he sees, you know, the diversion Mustang created, which is a giant fire shaped like a sling blade. And he, he realizes several, as long as he's still loyal, which sever is a King. He's still loyal. Several will try and find him.

[00:38:30] And, and, and ow, fuck that, that does happen at some point.

[00:38:35] What did you just drop on yourself?

[00:38:39] Um, a little knob on my chair. I just, I don't know. I fidget with it. Like I, I unscrew it and it fell on my toe and it's heavy and I didn't feel great.

[00:38:49] I really, I hope that you're okay.

[00:38:52] I'm fine.

[00:38:52] Also, I hope that we know that we know that Severo is coming back.

[00:38:57] Yeah, Severo's the goat.

[00:38:59] When you hide inside of a dead horse for someone, I don't know how much more loyal you can be to someone.

[00:39:06] Well, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:39:08] That doesn't work, though, because Tactus hidden the horse.

[00:39:12] I hate Tactus.

[00:39:14] This is true.

[00:39:15] Tactus is an asshole.

[00:39:17] Yeah, he's very true.

[00:39:19] But I feel like in the case of Severo, the goblin, he just keeps on proving himself.

[00:39:26] That was just one example of how loyal and goaded he is.

[00:39:32] Yeah, he'd also slit Antonius's throat if Daryl asked.

[00:39:36] I mean, he would do anything for Daryl.

[00:39:39] Damn straight, as he should, honestly.

[00:39:42] He's just like me.

[00:39:43] In chapter 36, which is the final chapter we're going to be covering today, it is titled A Second Test.

[00:39:51] And it starts off with Daryl.

[00:39:52] He's now leading a small army, which includes Tactus.

[00:39:55] That's a huge boon.

[00:39:58] And a few other Diana members that were sewn into the horse corpses.

[00:40:04] Yeah, they're called like the dead horses or something, which is like, eh.

[00:40:08] Like, stop trying to be the howlers, bro.

[00:40:10] You ain't like that.

[00:40:12] Which, going back to Fallout, I think I've mentioned this before, but the dead horses are one of the tribes of Zion Canyon in Fallout.

[00:40:23] I didn't know that, actually.

[00:40:25] I don't think you've mentioned it to me, at least.

[00:40:27] That's cool, though.

[00:40:27] They're one of the main factions in the Honest Hearts DLC for Fallout New Vegas.

[00:40:34] Oh, okay.

[00:40:35] Yeah, I wouldn't know.

[00:40:36] I still need to play New Vegas, even though it will replace Fallout 3 as my favorite Fallout game.

[00:40:43] It will, because that DLC also has my favorite Fallout character of all time in it, who is Joshua Graham.

[00:40:50] Oh, I know about Joshua Graham.

[00:40:52] I was going to say, I've yapped about him at you enough for years.

[00:40:55] I'm surprised we haven't done an episode on Joshua Graham alone.

[00:41:00] We might have to, because we did do a Legion episode.

[00:41:03] Maybe Joshua Graham.

[00:41:04] I feel like every time we bring up a piece of Fallout lore, I'm like, maybe that'll be our next episode.

[00:41:09] Yeah, maybe bro will write an episode.

[00:41:12] Maybe bro will write an outline.

[00:41:13] Yeah, we'll see about that.

[00:41:15] That's another thing, too, what me and Chase were talking about earlier.

[00:41:18] I would totally write the Fallout lore outlines.

[00:41:22] I just don't know it, though.

[00:41:24] No, I can take care of that.

[00:41:25] Don't worry.

[00:41:26] I got it.

[00:41:27] It's not that hard to write it, but I just want to make sure that I've got something good enough that I want to talk about.

[00:41:35] I feel like we just got to start ripping it.

[00:41:38] I agree.

[00:41:39] Yeah.

[00:41:39] They realize they are going to have to attack House Ceres, and Daryl wants to do it during the day.

[00:41:44] So they decide that they're going to sleep in the snow outside of Castle Ceres before they attack.

[00:41:50] And what happens once they do assault Ceres?

[00:41:53] They find out that Ceres only has bows and arrows.

[00:41:59] Daryl's group, they got a lot of bladed weapons.

[00:42:02] I mean, Daryl's got his trademark sling blade.

[00:42:06] You know, the Reaper's scythe, as it's called.

[00:42:08] And they take the castle pretty easily because they're like that.

[00:42:14] They enslave all of Ceres, but they promise, like, hey, you guys will be free if you just help us out.

[00:42:20] Like, be good people, not good slaves, and then you won't have to be slaves and we'll free you completely.

[00:42:29] Yeah, exactly.

[00:42:32] And after they take the castle, Tactus, he's ranting about his highborn status, trying to talk about how he's better than everyone else and that he's...

[00:42:42] Yeah, he is from a noble family, actually, called the Vali'i Rath.

[00:42:50] And they are...

[00:42:51] They're scumbags.

[00:42:52] They've been around since the conquering with Selenius the Lightbringer, like, 700 years ago.

[00:42:59] They...

[00:43:00] They're bad.

[00:43:01] Yeah.

[00:43:03] They're a bunch of assholes, but...

[00:43:05] They take the House Ceres people as slaves after they win the battle, and...

[00:43:10] He promises them freedom if they help win another fortress for him.

[00:43:14] So it's this kind of...

[00:43:16] It's the beginning of a new system that Darrow is implementing, which is basically, you help me, I'll free you.

[00:43:24] Yeah, it's almost like a small-scale meritocracy.

[00:43:27] Yeah, a little bit.

[00:43:31] But yeah, Titus.

[00:43:32] Titus, wow.

[00:43:34] Close enough on, am I right?

[00:43:35] There's too many similar names with too many Roman names going around.

[00:43:38] And...

[00:43:39] Tactus is...

[00:43:42] Well, there's a reason I confused him, too.

[00:43:45] Titus is a dirty rat bastard, and this is a content warning.

[00:43:49] I feel like we've had a lot of these recently, and it's very unfortunate, but...

[00:43:53] There's not as many in the second book, or at least where I've gotten to.

[00:43:57] There isn't.

[00:43:58] There's just a lot of...

[00:43:58] There's a few really nasty deaths that I would consider content warnings for, but...

[00:44:03] And he's captured by a group of Darrow's people, but then some of the other people in Darrow's tribe, the House Diana members that are not slaves anymore, they want to riot.

[00:44:14] Because what the hell?

[00:44:15] You guys are taking Tactus prisoner, like what the fuck?

[00:44:19] And so yeah, they're mad.

[00:44:21] Yeah.

[00:44:22] And Darrow...

[00:44:23] Darrow knows he needs to do something about it that'll get everyone to not kill each other.

[00:44:29] Aaron, what's he do?

[00:44:32] Darrow...

[00:44:32] Well, we're gonna see if this was the right move or not, but Darrow, he decides to whip Tactus as punishment.

[00:44:39] And he makes this announcement that he, as the leader, needs to take a share of the responsibility.

[00:44:45] So he has Pax whip the shit out of him, too.

[00:44:51] And he has a really good quote here, which I'm gonna read off.

[00:44:55] You do not follow me because I am the strongest.

[00:44:58] Pax is.

[00:44:59] You do not follow me because I'm the brightest.

[00:45:02] Mustang is.

[00:45:04] You follow me because you do not know where you are going.

[00:45:08] I do.

[00:45:10] And that's the end of the quote.

[00:45:12] That is the end of the quote?

[00:45:13] That's really the end of the chapter, too.

[00:45:15] But like...

[00:45:17] Darrow, what the fuck?

[00:45:19] That's crazy.

[00:45:21] Yeah.

[00:45:22] I mean, you have to really respect what he's trying to do here with making a public show of his responsibility for the group.

[00:45:33] Because he's right.

[00:45:34] Pax is the strongest.

[00:45:35] Mustang is the smartest.

[00:45:37] He needs to give them a justifiable and out-in-the-open reason to support him and think of him as the true leader.

[00:45:46] Otherwise, it's all gonna crumble out from beneath him.

[00:45:49] And I think that this was a smart move to make himself responsible partially for Tactus' actions.

[00:45:55] Yeah.

[00:45:56] And also, like, the wording of the speech isn't like, you guys have to follow me and do what I say.

[00:46:02] It's more of like a...

[00:46:03] I don't know what the word...

[00:46:05] I don't want to use...

[00:46:06] Like, he's trying to make himself out in, like, a fatherly way.

[00:46:08] But that's the closest I can think of to explain it quickly.

[00:46:12] Yeah.

[00:46:13] Almost like...

[00:46:14] Almost a fatherly figure.

[00:46:16] And also, he's trying to give his followers agency.

[00:46:21] They're not following him because he's the Primus of House Mars and they have to.

[00:46:25] It's not any reason.

[00:46:27] They're all following him because that's a conscious choice that they're making.

[00:46:31] And that's such a stark difference from every other group in the Institute right now where they have to follow whoever is Primus.

[00:46:40] Because there might be some infighting, but it's pretty much all figured out at this point.

[00:46:45] Darrow is at least giving them the illusion that they have agency in this situation.

[00:46:50] Yeah.

[00:46:51] He does this a lot, too.

[00:46:53] Like, he makes this move too many times in the future.

[00:46:57] And it does start to have some consequences.

[00:47:00] I mean, I've said it before.

[00:47:02] I'll say it again.

[00:47:02] The second trilogy is just Darrow's consequences book after book from the first trilogy.

[00:47:09] And it's a very interesting, like, contrast.

[00:47:12] But it's peak.

[00:47:13] And so...

[00:47:15] We do see that a little bit, though, here.

[00:47:18] With him making packs like his front...

[00:47:22] His front...

[00:47:23] Like his...

[00:47:23] Shit.

[00:47:24] I'm sorry.

[00:47:25] I can't think of the word.

[00:47:27] Like his...

[00:47:28] His right hand?

[00:47:29] Or...

[00:47:30] Not even really his right hand.

[00:47:31] Because I would say Mustang's his right...

[00:47:33] His left hand.

[00:47:34] His left hand.

[00:47:35] We're going to say that.

[00:47:35] Because he's like his chief general, kind of.

[00:47:40] Yeah.

[00:47:41] Yeah, that's true.

[00:47:42] He's like his captain or marshal or whatever.

[00:47:45] Yeah.

[00:47:46] Which is fair because Pax is...

[00:47:48] I mean, he's huge.

[00:47:50] He's just massive.

[00:47:52] He's also very...

[00:47:53] He's a tactically sound person.

[00:47:55] He...

[00:47:56] He doesn't seem like he would have a lot of smarts to him.

[00:47:59] Just by the way he carries himself.

[00:48:00] He doesn't...

[00:48:01] He doesn't carry himself with that level of intelligence.

[00:48:04] But he is...

[00:48:06] At least I read him as...

[00:48:08] A guy who...

[00:48:10] Deserves a lot more credit than he gets for his mind.

[00:48:14] He...

[00:48:14] I think that he tries to make himself look like an idiot.

[00:48:18] Because you think about every fight he goes into...

[00:48:21] He's screaming.

[00:48:23] Not even I am or anything.

[00:48:26] He's just screaming.

[00:48:27] Pax out to the Monus.

[00:48:30] In the middle of a battlefield.

[00:48:32] And that is such an...

[00:48:35] It's kind of an act.

[00:48:36] It's kind of Telemannish tradition.

[00:48:38] From what I remember.

[00:48:39] Like it's a little bit of a mix.

[00:48:42] But it's a lot more tradition to make them look dumber than they are.

[00:48:48] Yeah.

[00:48:48] It's a tactic.

[00:48:50] Yeah.

[00:48:50] Making your enemies underestimate you...

[00:48:53] Is certainly a tactic that...

[00:48:57] It's useful.

[00:48:58] Especially for...

[00:48:59] Pax who can...

[00:49:02] Who has found a good way to like pull that off.

[00:49:04] I think that he's certainly...

[00:49:06] Got a lot more going on than anyone is giving him credit for.

[00:49:10] And I just really like his character.

[00:49:11] I think he's written in a...

[00:49:13] Very smart way.

[00:49:15] And I like the way that Pierce Brown does his characterization.

[00:49:17] Yeah.

[00:49:18] Pax might be one of my favorite characters in this book.

[00:49:22] I can't say the series because that list is very long.

[00:49:26] But in this book, he's top five.

[00:49:28] I would agree with that.

[00:49:30] He's a fun character.

[00:49:31] I always...

[00:49:31] Whenever he's on my page, I'm enjoying whatever I'm reading.

[00:49:36] So I'm happy about that.

[00:49:38] I enjoy seeing the big bold letters that say Pax out Telemannis.

[00:49:42] Me too.

[00:49:45] Before we wrap things up, Richard, at this point in the book, like what do you...

[00:49:51] Do you like the Jackal as a villain?

[00:49:53] Or did you like the Jackal as a villain the first time you read it?

[00:49:56] Whichever question you want to answer.

[00:49:59] Mind if I answer both?

[00:50:00] Because like I think I have a different position on it now.

[00:50:03] Like knowing what I know.

[00:50:05] Which I'm not going to say what I know.

[00:50:06] But you know.

[00:50:07] Yeah.

[00:50:08] Please answer both.

[00:50:08] Take that position, I guess.

[00:50:09] So as...

[00:50:11] As I was reading it the first time, I think I just...

[00:50:14] I don't know.

[00:50:14] I thought he was cool, obviously.

[00:50:16] Because I thought he was a good like antithesis to the Reaper.

[00:50:20] Like the whole persona.

[00:50:21] But obviously he hadn't done anything yet.

[00:50:24] I thought that he would be doing stuff.

[00:50:27] And I could appreciate that he was going to do some crazy shit.

[00:50:30] But I just...

[00:50:32] I don't know.

[00:50:33] He was more of just like...

[00:50:34] He felt like a force in the world.

[00:50:36] Less of like an actual...

[00:50:38] Character at this point.

[00:50:40] I agree with that.

[00:50:41] That's kind of why...

[00:50:43] I maybe didn't like him as much...

[00:50:46] Yet in the story.

[00:50:47] Is because he felt a little far away from everything that was happening.

[00:50:51] I liked the myth, the legend, the way that he was contrasting with Darrow's legend of the Reaper.

[00:50:57] But he did feel kind of far away from the story.

[00:51:00] It was almost a little bit like...

[00:51:02] I don't know.

[00:51:03] Like Voldemort and Harry Potter for the first few books or movies, whatever.

[00:51:08] And you have this character who is supposed to be the main villain.

[00:51:12] But feels very removed from the story almost.

[00:51:16] My thoughts on...

[00:51:19] Afterwards.

[00:51:20] Sorry, I was looking at something.

[00:51:22] You're good.

[00:51:23] I was checking what the next chapter is.

[00:51:25] The next chapter is us...

[00:51:27] Interacting with him.

[00:51:29] Kind of.

[00:51:29] I thought that's what was coming next.

[00:51:31] So that's why I wanted to ask the question now before we actually meet him in person.

[00:51:37] Good call.

[00:51:39] So then after meeting him...

[00:51:41] Especially that first interaction.

[00:51:43] And I know you know what I'm talking about.

[00:51:46] That was something.

[00:51:47] Like that was one of those moments where I'm listening to the audiobook and I had fucking chills.

[00:51:52] And I just kind of had to sit for a minute and digest what the hell just happened.

[00:51:57] Yeah.

[00:51:58] No, I agree with you.

[00:52:00] Yeah.

[00:52:01] Thank you for your thoughts on that.

[00:52:03] Because I was especially interested since you have a much larger perspective on the whole story than I do.

[00:52:11] So I wanted to see where you were at before and after everything.

[00:52:18] No, it was a good question.

[00:52:19] And I'm glad you asked it.

[00:52:20] Because I wouldn't have thought to...

[00:52:23] Just because I've...

[00:52:25] You know, obviously I've...

[00:52:28] Fuck.

[00:52:28] I really can't think of what I want to say today.

[00:52:31] It's just one of those days.

[00:52:34] Yeah.

[00:52:34] Because it's been so long since I was introduced to this character.

[00:52:38] I just wouldn't have even thought of like...

[00:52:42] To give that perspective, I guess, on him.

[00:52:45] So good question.

[00:52:46] Great question.

[00:52:46] I appreciate it.

[00:52:47] I really like these chapters.

[00:52:48] I see that every week that we do one of these that I really like the chapters.

[00:52:53] But in this one, it's kind of especially true.

[00:52:56] I think we get to see Darrow come into his own as a leader.

[00:53:01] Yeah.

[00:53:01] In this set of chapters, we get to see his relationship with Mustang grow.

[00:53:06] We get to see his relationship with Pax grow.

[00:53:09] And we see the way that he is operating, moving forward in his quest for equality.

[00:53:16] So I think this is a really monumental set of chapters for his character and for a lot of the other main cast of characters.

[00:53:26] Yeah.

[00:53:27] I would consider this to be...

[00:53:28] This is my second favorite episode we've recorded.

[00:53:31] My favorite, though, was last week.

[00:53:32] Because, like, dude, I love those chapters that we covered last time.

[00:53:37] The betrayal.

[00:53:38] I'm a huge fan of betrayals.

[00:53:40] Even though I don't like the betrayal themselves.

[00:53:42] But I like how well it's written most of the time.

[00:53:45] Yes.

[00:53:45] And that's why I'm excited for Golden Sun.

[00:53:48] A lot of good betrayals in Golden Sun.

[00:53:51] A lot of intrigue.

[00:53:53] As Hunger Games-y as this book is, Golden Sun is, like, almost spy thriller-ish.

[00:54:00] I have heard certain parts of Golden Sun compared to The Red Wedding.

[00:54:05] Not the gala.

[00:54:06] Something else.

[00:54:09] Interesting.

[00:54:10] I don't think I've gotten to that yet, then.

[00:54:12] You haven't.

[00:54:12] I know for a fact you haven't.

[00:54:14] Because it sucks.

[00:54:17] Like, it's an amazing betrayal and everything.

[00:54:20] But it sucks so much to read.

[00:54:24] Yeah.

[00:54:26] Yeah.

[00:54:26] A lot of deaths.

[00:54:27] A lot of deaths in these books.

[00:54:29] A lot of heart-wrenching deaths.

[00:54:30] But that's why we're here to help make sense of it all.

[00:54:35] And we can have a little group therapy session and cry about all of the deaths that really are hitting us.

[00:54:42] Dude.

[00:54:43] You don't even know about Hangar 17B from Lightbringer.

[00:54:48] The most infamous chapter in this series.

[00:54:51] You're so correct.

[00:54:52] I don't know anything about that.

[00:54:54] Basically, there's a hangar.

[00:54:57] Hangar number 17B, actually.

[00:55:00] Thank you.

[00:55:01] I appreciate your help with that one.

[00:55:05] Stuff happens in it.

[00:55:07] Sad stuff.

[00:55:08] But I think that pretty much brings us to the end of our episode today.

[00:55:13] Today, Richard, you already let everyone know at the beginning how to get a hold of us.

[00:55:17] And that information, along with our Patreon information, it's all going to be in the show notes.

[00:55:23] But before we let you go, I just wanted to give a quick shout out to all of the other podcasts.

[00:55:27] We are in the Lorehounds network.

[00:55:30] So I wanted to give just a quick little bit of information on everything.

[00:55:36] First and foremost, our parent podcast, the Lorehounds.

[00:55:40] They've got some great coverage about Dune Prophecy.

[00:55:42] They've got some coverage coming out now pretty soon, I think, about War of the Rohirrim and a few other projects.

[00:55:50] So go give them a listen.

[00:55:52] They're fantastic.

[00:55:53] Really entertaining.

[00:55:54] And, of course, Woolshift Dust, who is covering Silo currently.

[00:55:58] Silo is in its second season.

[00:56:00] It stars Rebecca Ferguson, Alicia, and Luke.

[00:56:03] They're doing a great job covering this season.

[00:56:06] They have screeners, so they are able to get a little bit of extra detail and get it out in a really timely manner, which is awesome.

[00:56:14] You have that podcast out as a companion almost as soon as the episodes drop.

[00:56:18] So go check out Woolshift Dust.

[00:56:21] Also in the network is Properly Howard Movie Reviews, who rate movies on a scale of better or worse than a Ron Howard film, which is just a great concept for a podcast.

[00:56:31] They're really entertaining.

[00:56:33] Go give Stephen Anthony a listen.

[00:56:35] And also within the network is Marilyn Arpukila and Dr. Sarah Brown of Signum University.

[00:56:42] They talk about Tolkien over on their podcast, which is called Rings and Rituals.

[00:56:47] So go give them a listen.

[00:56:49] They are not currently releasing new podcasts, but I believe they have stuff in the works for a season two Rings of Power coverage.

[00:56:57] So stay tuned there.

[00:56:59] And, of course, last but certainly not least, the newest podcast in the network, Never Mind the Music, where Mark and Nicole, they look at different music.

[00:57:08] And the thing I love about Never Mind the Music is how accessible they make their podcasts to listeners like me who know absolutely nothing about the industry or anything about music.

[00:57:18] Whenever they explain anything, they do a great job of making me feel included in the conversation as a listener.

[00:57:25] And they're also super entertaining.

[00:57:28] The two of them are so funny together.

[00:57:30] So give them a listen.

[00:57:32] All of those links are going to be in the show notes.

[00:57:34] So thank you guys for joining us today.

[00:57:37] And we hope to see you next week in the Institute.

[00:57:39] We're going to be in the show notes.