Ramblers Rising - Red Rising Chapters 4-6

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

[00:00:26] And I'm your other host, Aaron. And today we're going to be going over chapters 4-6 of Red Rising, which will take us right to the end of part 1 of this first book.

[00:00:37] Yeah, and Aaron, how are you doing today?

[00:00:39] You know, not too bad. Just having the first few sips of my coffee, getting ready to start my day, even though it's 1104.

[00:00:47] Yeah, you scumbag. Unbelievable. Freeloading.

[00:00:51] Yep, exactly. You're on my day off. How about you, Richard? How are you doing today?

[00:00:57] I'm doing great. I'm so excited to go into work today after we do this.

[00:01:02] Yep, up all night, record a podcast in the morning, and then go to work.

[00:01:06] Yep. Well, there's work who's never done. Yeah, woohoo.

[00:01:11] Woohoo.

[00:01:14] Well, good thing we have three interesting chapters to talk about today.

[00:01:21] You know, I feel like part 1 is a really different part of the book from the rest of it.

[00:01:27] Like, the vibe is really different in this first part compared to the rest of the series.

[00:01:31] Yeah, because it's really like, just sort of forms a foundation for Darrow. Like, you know, it forms his motivation for what he does later. You know, some of the sillier stuff that happens. Not really silly, but you know what I mean.

[00:01:47] I do. And I think that this is one of the sadder parts, the more like, personally impactful parts of the story for Darrow.

[00:02:00] Yeah, I mean, every book's definitely got one or two like, really sad parts. I mean, there's another one or two later in this book, as I'm sure you're aware. And then every other book afterwards has, I'd say it gets worse for Darrow. Like, suffering builds character type shit.

[00:02:19] That's very much the story with Darrow, is suffering and hardship and comes out on the other side a little bit better and a little bit worse for it each time.

[00:02:30] Yeah. I mean, definitely, it does fuel him to do some things in later parts of the series.

[00:02:40] Absolutely. And we should probably get into it with chapter four, The Gift. Richard, do you want to start us off with this chapter?

[00:02:48] Oh, gladly.

[00:02:49] As I wrote here in the outline, Darrow's a little pissy because Gamma Clan has won the Laurel again.

[00:02:56] And he's now starting to see it.

[00:03:00] The golds, you know, they always give Gamma the Laurel so that then all of the other clans will blame Gamma instead of actually realizing like, hey, the golds are controlling everything.

[00:03:14] Then let's rise up.

[00:03:15] You know, they really, he really realizes like the genius of that system.

[00:03:20] Yeah, just we kind of talked about this last episode where having one group of people in that sort of low class is a that is above the rest and sort of put in this position of power, even though they're still at the bottom.

[00:03:37] It's a really effective method for control.

[00:03:39] You saw it a lot in like colonial institutions in Africa and things like that during those eras.

[00:03:48] So one of those reality mirroring our media type of moments.

[00:03:53] Yeah.

[00:03:54] And like this is where he definitely starts to change a bit because before he really didn't think of like the gold as pulling scummy shit like that, you know.

[00:04:04] But now we definitely see he's starting to be a little more rebellious, at least in his thoughts.

[00:04:10] It's kind of interesting to think he probably grew up with having gold propaganda sort of shoved at him.

[00:04:17] Right.

[00:04:18] Yeah.

[00:04:19] They do describe, you know, there's the like hollow channel thing at the center of the township.

[00:04:25] And they do say it's like spewing Octavia Alun like speeches and stuff.

[00:04:30] Yeah, I so I'm sure that especially because all of the oppression that he's feeling is mostly coming from like the greys and stuff.

[00:04:39] He doesn't have a direct reason to hate the golds until this part of the book.

[00:04:45] And so I'm sure that between the propaganda and having middlemen being the oppressors that he sees, he probably didn't have a whole lot of hatred for the golds before this part of the story.

[00:04:57] Yeah, he even says earlier he really didn't hate the golds or the system that much for like his father's execution, which that's that's kind of a bit it's a bit crazy.

[00:05:08] And then we see Ao taking Darrow to dance to get his mind off of things.

[00:05:13] And then they go to her workplace, which is the Webbery.

[00:05:16] And correct me if I'm wrong, but they use like silkworms or spiders or something to harvest silk, right?

[00:05:25] That's the whole idea behind the Webbery.

[00:05:27] It's they use these, like we said last week, there's the violets that create like the carved creatures that are sort of not, you know, creatures that we would see today.

[00:05:39] And so they're a mix of like a silkworm and a spider.

[00:05:44] Interesting.

[00:05:44] Which is just that's that's nightmare fuel for me personally.

[00:05:47] Yeah, I don't like bugs whatsoever, especially not weird crossbred bugs that.

[00:05:52] Yeah.

[00:05:53] Ooh, no, thank you.

[00:05:55] Yeah, I'm thinking of like a face hugger.

[00:05:57] That's that's what I see when I think of that.

[00:05:59] And I don't I don't want to think of that horrific.

[00:06:03] Well, that wasn't in my mind before, but it certainly is now.

[00:06:06] So thanks a lot for that.

[00:06:08] Oh, you're welcome.

[00:06:09] It's what I do.

[00:06:09] And then AO takes him through a hole in the wall and it reveals a very small lush forest with a variety of bugs.

[00:06:18] And it's something completely non existent in the mines.

[00:06:23] And Richard, this is kind of like the first time that they or that Darrow realizes that things aren't what they seem like.

[00:06:32] Like the he's got this whole thing where he realizes the Gamma Clan is always going to win.

[00:06:38] And now he sees this small lush forest and his world is kind of shaken.

[00:06:43] Right.

[00:06:44] Yeah, because he's realizing like the terraforming process on Mars is a bit farther than they're being led to believe if that small forest is a sample.

[00:06:55] And maybe it is.

[00:06:56] Maybe it isn't.

[00:06:57] We don't we don't know yet.

[00:06:58] But he definitely he definitely is questioning a lot of things about what he's being told.

[00:07:05] And then this is when EO really starts to slam into him a lot of like, almost sons of Ares messaging, like the reds are in chains.

[00:07:16] We need to get out of them.

[00:07:18] We need to rebel against the golds and tells him that like, he's the one he should be the one to do it.

[00:07:26] It's very interesting to see EO pushing this dream upon him for the first time, because we get the impression that even though she's held these beliefs for a long time, she hasn't really been trying to get Darrow on board with it, at least not in a really strong way.

[00:07:41] But now I think that she feels that something is about to happen and she needs to get him on that side and sort of be a little more supportive towards the goals that like the sons of Ares are fighting for.

[00:07:56] Yeah.

[00:07:57] And I think, I don't know, it's definitely interesting because this obviously serves as a huge inspiration and like catalyst for Darrow's growth.

[00:08:08] I mean, even in just the next two chapters, I mean, he really, he really grew a lot in this six chapter part.

[00:08:15] It's crazy.

[00:08:16] And this is around the time that they have a conversation in the woods and Darrow is telling EO that he lives for her and she replies that he needs to live for more than just her.

[00:08:29] Yeah, that's kind of crazy because this really shatters his worldview, even more so than the whole Laurel thing, because he truly does believe that they just need to live for each other and that's all they need in life.

[00:08:45] Yeah, he really believes that just the two of them together, this sort of small community aspect of life, like that's enough.

[00:08:54] And even though life is hard, he's got that mindset that he doesn't need to do anything to change it for the better.

[00:09:01] I don't know.

[00:09:02] He's a little depressed almost when this moment happens because he's just thinking like, so what?

[00:09:10] I'm not enough.

[00:09:11] Like, what the fuck?

[00:09:12] This is where she tells Darrow that she has a gift for him that she's going to reveal later.

[00:09:19] And Richard, what do you have to say about that?

[00:09:22] I mean, I think we both know what the other gift is, right?

[00:09:25] But we just can't tell, obviously.

[00:09:28] The chapter ends with an oily voice with an earth accent observing these little low-color reds in his gardens.

[00:09:35] And that's where we get this cliffhanger at the end of the chapter where Darrow and EO get caught.

[00:09:43] I wonder who could have caught them.

[00:09:45] Oh, Aaron, thoughts?

[00:09:48] Very scary.

[00:09:49] Very, very, it's probably Octavia Aulun herself.

[00:09:54] So, I don't think it is because she's actually from the moon, so she wouldn't have an earth accent, idiot.

[00:10:01] She'd have a loonies accent.

[00:10:03] But, Ugly Dan, one of the greys that Darrow is not scared of, but definitely didn't fucking like.

[00:10:11] Ugly Dan and his men drag Darrow and EO through the webery.

[00:10:16] And Dan kind of eggs him on to, like, you know, hit me, take a swing, whatever.

[00:10:21] There won't be any consequences, which, obviously, he's lying.

[00:10:26] There's going to be consequences.

[00:10:27] Darrow knows he'll be executed if he hits back.

[00:10:30] And EO kind of says, like, Darrow, hit him.

[00:10:33] Like, swing.

[00:10:34] Please.

[00:10:35] Yeah.

[00:10:36] And then Darrow wanting to live remains calm, and he doesn't take that swing, which shows a whole hell of a lot of restraint on Darrow's part, I feel.

[00:10:48] And that's when they are held in isolation for three days, and that was their punishment for their insubordination, right?

[00:10:58] Part of their punishment.

[00:10:59] The other half of it is flogging in the public, in, like, the town square.

[00:11:07] It's so, like, medieval that they have them flogged in the town square.

[00:11:12] You have this advanced society, and we're doing a flogging in the town square.

[00:11:18] Yeah, like, there's, you got space travel, you got terraforming, you've got, you know, they got the grav boots, which basically makes them, like, what we would kind of consider, like, they're really up there.

[00:11:31] They can fly.

[00:11:32] They have a solid handle on it, like, forces of the universe.

[00:11:36] That's crazy.

[00:11:37] And to embarrass Darrow even more, or make more of a point, they have Darrow dressed in his helldiver suit, ascending the gallows for the flogging.

[00:11:49] And this is also where the mine magistrate, who's a copper, makes a speech to sort of get the crowd going.

[00:11:56] But I don't think that the people were really that moved by the copper speech.

[00:12:01] It was very administrative and not – it was very, like, robotic and cold.

[00:12:09] Yeah, it was robotic.

[00:12:10] Like, there were, of course, the parts where he's like, oh, and I feel so bad that this must happen.

[00:12:17] But it's like, no, you don't.

[00:12:20] No, you don't.

[00:12:21] No, you do not.

[00:12:23] But as Darrow's ascending the gallows to, you know, for his medieval punishment, he notices, like, the speech is a bit more eloquent.

[00:12:31] The setting is a bit more – a bit grander, almost, just based on, like – I don't know how to explain it.

[00:12:40] That's really all we get.

[00:12:41] We don't get a good explanation on it.

[00:12:43] But, you know, he says it's a bit grander, like the processions, a bit more than it usually is.

[00:12:48] And he looks up to the mine magistrate's booth, and he sees a man, as he says, that any red on Mars would know just by the face.

[00:12:59] And Nero Alagustus, the arch governor of Mars, is overseeing his punishment.

[00:13:03] That's a pretty special occasion for the arch governor of Mars to be showing up to the execution of a red.

[00:13:11] Yeah, and Darrow, as he sees it – I didn't put this in the notes – but as he sees it, the reason that Nero shows up is because Darrow's a helldiver.

[00:13:21] And that's kind of to show all of the other minds that, like, hey, even your helldivers are not invincible.

[00:13:30] Like, we will take them down.

[00:13:31] While they're getting flogged atop the gallows, Ayo starts to sing the Reaper song, and Nero allows her to live through the entire time while she's singing it.

[00:13:43] And this song is very rebellious.

[00:13:46] It's got those tones.

[00:13:48] It almost – this is where the, like, Hunger Games vibes come in for me.

[00:13:51] It reminds me of the song from the Hunger Games franchise.

[00:13:56] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:13:57] I don't remember what it's called.

[00:13:59] I'm going to be honest, I don't remember Hunger Games too well anymore.

[00:14:02] But I know what you're talking about for sure.

[00:14:05] Yeah, I think it was like the Mockingjay song or something like that.

[00:14:09] But, yeah, that's what it kind of reminds me of.

[00:14:11] And as soon as she's done with this rebellious song, this is where Nero Augustus personally orders Ayo's hanging.

[00:14:19] Yeah, and he's not – like, he's vile about it.

[00:14:24] He – I think the exact wording is like someone string up that, like, ruster something.

[00:14:33] I don't remember the exact wording.

[00:14:34] I'm not going to lie.

[00:14:35] Because I was doing this until 3 in the morning.

[00:14:37] That's an oopsie.

[00:14:38] But he's pretty violent about it.

[00:14:41] And it's just like, this is some – like, you got to think of it in the context.

[00:14:46] Like, she's 16.

[00:14:48] She's a red.

[00:14:49] Reds are way smaller than, like, normal people in general.

[00:14:53] And golds are way bigger.

[00:14:54] So it's like, dude, you're sentencing a 16-year-old – essentially a child to you to death.

[00:15:02] That's crazy.

[00:15:03] That is crazy.

[00:15:05] And the other thing is this kind of gives us an insight, like our first look at how the golds and especially the peerless scarred have that violence, like, bred into them.

[00:15:17] They're very brutal and violent people just from their upbringing.

[00:15:22] And it's – this is the first time we get to really see that on full display.

[00:15:27] Yeah, I wonder if we're ever going to find out why – like, what makes peerless like that.

[00:15:33] I truly do.

[00:15:34] I wonder.

[00:15:36] And this takes us to the end of Chapter 5, the first song, and right into Chapter 6, The Martyr.

[00:15:45] Darrow starts off this chapter by really just raging at the thought of his wife's execution.

[00:15:51] Obviously, it's a very human reaction to be just a little bit upset about your wife's execution being ordered.

[00:15:59] Yeah, especially since he's only known her, like, his entire life.

[00:16:03] Like –

[00:16:04] Yeah.

[00:16:05] But yeah.

[00:16:06] They do let whoever's being executed, you know, they let the victim – I'm going to go with victim because this is crazy.

[00:16:14] This is insanity.

[00:16:16] They call up, like, one loved one to tell – like, you know, give their last words.

[00:16:21] And so EO calls her sister Dio up.

[00:16:25] And Darrow, of course, is a little bit – not jealous, but, you know, he's kind of sad that she didn't call him up.

[00:16:31] And her sister just kind of, like, screams.

[00:16:35] Darrow says, like, I will not forget that sound for as long as I live.

[00:16:40] And then EO's last words to the world are break the chains, which totally never gets repeated in the book at all.

[00:16:51] Darrow rushes in and kisses her ankle and then pulls her legs, killing her.

[00:16:56] Which I don't know if we explained this in the last episode.

[00:17:00] I think we might have talked about it a little bit, how the family members have to pull the legs of the people being hung because the gravity on Mars isn't strong enough to kill them with a hanging.

[00:17:11] Oh, yeah.

[00:17:12] We definitely did.

[00:17:13] Because I – that was one of the quotes that I put in because I love that quote.

[00:17:16] Yeah.

[00:17:17] So, what a fucked up thing to do.

[00:17:19] Not only are you killing the loved one, but you're basically forcing their family or friends to be participants in the execution as well.

[00:17:31] And that's, um, that's it for little EO.

[00:17:35] Like, her and Darrow are both 16.

[00:17:38] So, think about the – not only the impact of ending this 16-year-old's life, but now her husband, also a teenager, just had to participate in this.

[00:17:52] And, oof, it – that's not good for basically a child to have to deal with.

[00:17:58] So, he, um, you know, he's mourning her death late into the night.

[00:18:03] You know, I would say it gets dark out, but it never gets dark out because they're in the fucking mines and it's always lit up.

[00:18:09] But, you know, late into the night, he's mourning her.

[00:18:13] He's mourning her.

[00:18:14] He just sticks into his room later.

[00:18:17] And that's when he – after he's being left alone for so long, he goes out through a tunnel he dug when he was younger.

[00:18:26] And he's out.

[00:18:27] He's going to go do something reckless.

[00:18:29] And when he sneaks out, he sees, um, the holocast, right?

[00:18:33] That's what it's called.

[00:18:35] I'm not going to lie.

[00:18:36] They've referred to it as the HC for so damn long in the book.

[00:18:41] I have no idea anymore.

[00:18:42] It's holocast.

[00:18:44] But he sees the holocast, right?

[00:18:46] And he plays – or the holocast is playing EO's song and execution on a loop with her last words playing until it's shut down and replaced with standard programming.

[00:18:57] This was most likely the Sons of Ares, right?

[00:19:00] Oh, it was the Sons of Ares, my – one of my favorite groups in this book.

[00:19:05] I love the Sons of Ares.

[00:19:07] And, uh, yeah.

[00:19:08] So they hacked in – it – we don't know, but it's implied that they hacked into all of the mines' HCs and played that.

[00:19:16] But, like I said, we don't know.

[00:19:19] But I like to think that they did.

[00:19:22] I would like to think that, too.

[00:19:24] Imagine just this song that inspires revolution and change across all of the red mines.

[00:19:32] Yeah.

[00:19:33] And this is where Neral, Uncle Neral, comes in with Darrow and comforts him and they share a drink.

[00:19:41] And this is one of the humanizing moments for Uncle Neral.

[00:19:46] He's very much seen as just an asshole.

[00:19:49] And this is where we see that he's really just broken and tired of the system.

[00:19:54] And he's not so much of the rough asshole that we've seen him as so far.

[00:20:02] Yeah, the last – they part ways and Darrow kind of realizes, like – he even says, like, I've been too harsh on Uncle Neral and time has been too rough on him.

[00:20:17] You know, given everything that's happened.

[00:20:19] I mean, he had to hang his brother – well, pull his brother's legs, you know, when he was – I don't remember how old Neral is.

[00:20:28] I think he's, like, 30, maybe a little older.

[00:20:30] And, you know, it was 10 years ago that Darrow's father was killed, roughly.

[00:20:35] So, you know, he was still a young guy.

[00:20:39] It's kind of rough.

[00:20:40] Yeah.

[00:20:41] And it's very much a moment of, I would say, maturity for Darrow.

[00:20:46] And it feels like a very relatable moment to realize that this – when you're still really young, like at the age of 16,

[00:20:54] and you start to realize that maybe some of the people in your life who you didn't understand or you were judgmental of,

[00:21:00] you start to sort of sympathize with them a little bit more and discover empathy a little bit once you're growing out of your nasty teenage years, I guess.

[00:21:09] Yeah, I would say this book is definitely – I mean, this first one at least, everything after is less – is more about growing in your adult years.

[00:21:18] But I would say that this earlier part of this book could definitely be helpful if you're reading it when you're younger, for sure.

[00:21:24] Yeah, like very much a coming-of-age story in this first book.

[00:21:28] Yeah.

[00:21:29] This is where Darrow gets taken by Ugly Dan.

[00:21:33] Oh, wait, we –

[00:21:34] Oh, wait, did I skip over something?

[00:21:36] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:21:37] You're good.

[00:21:37] So –

[00:21:38] Yeah, go ahead.

[00:21:40] This is where Darrow cuts EO down with his trademark sling blade, that little curved blade we talked about last week,

[00:21:48] and he buries her in the garden in the Webbery, and the entire night shift just kind of lets him pass,

[00:21:55] very almost reverent as he takes her through the tunnels and buries her in the garden.

[00:22:00] I thought that was a really nice moment of – once again, a nice moment of community for the Reds,

[00:22:06] who they – the night shift at the Webbery just sort of allows it to happen,

[00:22:10] because they know that it's what EO would have wanted,

[00:22:14] and they're allowing Darrow to kind of honor the way that she would have liked to have been buried.

[00:22:20] So on top of that, too, there is the other part where they know what's going to happen to Darrow because he took her body down and buried it,

[00:22:31] and that is, of course, execution.

[00:22:34] And the last thing – I left this out of the outline on accident.

[00:22:38] Oopsie.

[00:22:40] Darrow does take a Hamanthus Blossom with him.

[00:22:43] Doesn't he put it in some kind of necklace or something similar, like something of EO's?

[00:22:50] I believe he attaches it to their wedding ring, because, you know, their wedding rings are made –

[00:22:55] they don't have, you know, gold or diamonds or anything.

[00:22:59] Their wedding rings are just made out of strands of their hair.

[00:23:01] Darrow is taken by our man, Ugly Dan, to be executed after he's caught.

[00:23:08] And he's – Darrow's really just in panic mode at this point.

[00:23:12] He realizes that he's about to die, and his own mortality kind of sets in a little bit.

[00:23:20] Yeah, he really does crash out at the end there.

[00:23:24] He's like, oh my god, like, what am I doing?

[00:23:26] I'm not – EO didn't want me to die a martyr.

[00:23:29] Why am I doing this?

[00:23:43] Darrow's brother, Darrow, comes to pull his feet, because, of course, someone's got to do it.

[00:23:49] And that's when Uncle Narrow, out of nowhere, shoves Kieran away, winks at Darrow, and pulls the feet.

[00:23:58] Once again, cliffhanger.

[00:24:00] This book really loves to do that to us at the end of every single chapter.

[00:24:05] Like, there's no closure.

[00:24:07] You'll come to understand.

[00:24:09] It gets worse and worse.

[00:24:11] I mean, I would argue the best cliffhanger at the end of one of the books, it's Golden Sun.

[00:24:17] All right, I need to get back on my Golden Sun train.

[00:24:20] Maybe I won't wait until we get to that point with our book club here.

[00:24:24] Yeah, that'd be good, because, like, bro, we gotta talk about the end of Golden Sun.

[00:24:28] It's so good.

[00:24:30] Yep.

[00:24:30] And then, months later, we'll talk about it on the podcast.

[00:24:34] Yes, of course.

[00:24:34] That'll be great.

[00:24:35] Since this is the end of part one, we should give our kind of final thoughts and just impressions of the book so far.

[00:24:43] So, like...

[00:24:43] You go first, sir, please.

[00:24:45] Let me pull up my notes here, because I have some notes.

[00:24:49] But he's got notes.

[00:24:51] Chase made fun of me the other day.

[00:24:53] This is our other co-host on some of our other podcasts, if you are not familiar.

[00:24:59] But Chase, the other day, was making fun of me for taking notes on paper for the podcast.

[00:25:07] When we did our Fallout Mutant Bestiary, and I had notes written down that I was looking at during the podcast.

[00:25:14] You made fun of me for having done that.

[00:25:17] Unbelievable.

[00:25:18] What a little fucker.

[00:25:19] Said, why not just put it all on your computer?

[00:25:22] Sometimes you gotta have the, like, tactile feel of notes in your hand.

[00:25:26] And...

[00:25:27] I...

[00:25:27] I understand what you mean.

[00:25:29] I mean, I personally...

[00:25:31] I'm not in school anymore, so I just don't have sheets of paper.

[00:25:35] Like, I don't have a notebook or anything, really.

[00:25:37] But I get it.

[00:25:38] I do understand what you mean.

[00:25:40] So, anyways, before I veer us too far off track here with my rambling...

[00:25:46] Oh my god, wait.

[00:25:47] Rambling?

[00:25:48] I wonder...

[00:25:49] Someone should make a podcast about where you just, like, ramble.

[00:25:53] Yeah, someone should do that.

[00:25:54] Um, so I think that this...

[00:25:57] This first part of the book is really, um...

[00:26:02] Melancholy and sad in a way that isn't really present in the rest of the series, I would say.

[00:26:09] I would say that the sadness of this translates more into anger and retribution moving forward.

[00:26:17] I would definitely agree.

[00:26:19] And, of course, once...

[00:26:21] You know, there's definitely some events that will evolve...

[00:26:25] Will take that anger, that retribution, and definitely amplify it here and there.

[00:26:30] And with what you said about it being, like, you know, a pretty sad part of the book, of the series, I would definitely agree that it's the saddest, like, you know, part of one of the books.

[00:26:42] Because, like, you know, every book is...

[00:26:44] It's four or five parts.

[00:26:47] And while there are sad things that happen in a lot of them, this is definitely the most, like, soul-crushing, in my opinion.

[00:26:55] Yeah, I would agree.

[00:26:56] I mean, not only have we seen Darrow lose his wife, but it makes it even more impactful how young they are and how just ridiculous the punishment was for simply going and seeing a garden.

[00:27:11] But then they are executed, and...

[00:27:14] Yeah.

[00:27:15] Or at the very least...

[00:27:17] I mean, chain of events, yeah.

[00:27:20] And for singing a silly little song, like, if I go la-la-la-la-la, am I gonna get executed?

[00:27:25] Hopefully not.

[00:27:26] At least not by the government, but maybe by me.

[00:27:29] Okay.

[00:27:30] My singing voice is impeccable, and fuck you.

[00:27:34] Listen.

[00:27:36] You should start a chorus.

[00:27:38] I should.

[00:27:39] Be beautiful.

[00:27:40] It would be.

[00:27:42] All right, Richard, do you have any final thoughts on this chapter?

[00:27:46] Anything stick out to you?

[00:27:48] You know, like I said earlier in the episode, very impactful, or...

[00:27:52] Yes, very impactful and very important, like, as Darrow's foundation for what he's gonna do in the future.

[00:28:00] Obviously, we can't really talk much on that, but I promise this sets up Darrow to have one of the greatest character arcs ever.

[00:28:08] Still doesn't beat my favorite in the series, but that's all right.

[00:28:11] And then back to what we were saying...

[00:28:13] Oh, sorry.

[00:28:14] I was gonna say, can you reveal who has your favorite character arc, or is that too spoilery for this episode?

[00:28:22] Oh, it's a spoiler.

[00:28:24] Once he...

[00:28:25] Once the character, like, shows up, I will of course say, oh my god, that's my favorite character.

[00:28:30] He's got the best arc.

[00:28:31] I love him.

[00:28:32] He's so silly.

[00:28:33] But I gotta wait, like...

[00:28:35] I think I gotta wait a whole part before we get to him.

[00:28:38] I mean, you know who it is.

[00:28:39] You're killing me here, Richard.

[00:28:39] You know who I'm talking about.

[00:28:41] Yeah.

[00:28:41] Yeah.

[00:28:42] I know who it is.

[00:28:43] Yeah.

[00:28:44] Yeah.

[00:28:45] No, I...

[00:28:46] I agree.

[00:28:47] I'd say he puts Darrow at a solid number two, but the final book could change that.

[00:28:55] I don't know.

[00:28:56] We'll have to see.

[00:28:57] Yeah.

[00:28:57] It's kind of crazy, like, trying to imagine where that character goes.

[00:29:01] It's crazy trying to imagine where all of these characters go with the, like, little tidbits you've said about them since you're so far ahead of me.

[00:29:10] So I'm very much...

[00:29:12] I'm looking forward to seeing what all these little goobers get up to.

[00:29:16] The one thing I will say that I...

[00:29:18] I don't want to retract my statement earlier about, like, these deaths being, like, the saddest and most soul-crushing, because they are extremely sad.

[00:29:25] The one thing I'll say, though, is that in later books, you know, you'll...

[00:29:30] There's characters that we meet in this first book and the second book that, you know, they'll make it to book five, book six, and then they have the most soul-crushing death.

[00:29:38] But that's more because you see them, you know, you see what they go through over five books, six books, four books, whatever, and they're...

[00:29:48] I don't know.

[00:29:48] No, I get what you mean.

[00:29:50] It's like, you spend so much time with them, and so it's way more impactful to have that death at the end of so much time spent with a character.

[00:30:00] Which...

[00:30:00] Yeah.

[00:30:00] I think that it's really cool that in just six chapters, this book really got us to care about Ao.

[00:30:07] And, like, this isn't a lot of pages to share with a character, and they really did make her death feel impactful and get us invested in her character very early on.

[00:30:19] Yeah, I mean, it was 50 pages, but she dies at, like, page 40.

[00:30:24] She's not even in the full 50 pages, and we still get a pretty good, like, grip on who she was.

[00:30:30] You know, obviously there's still some stuff that Daryl will think about her in, like, in memory and realize this or that, but we...

[00:30:38] I'd say we got, like, a pretty good reference of who she is, or, well, who she was.

[00:30:45] I'm a terrible person.

[00:30:47] Wow.

[00:30:48] Wow.

[00:30:49] Too soon?

[00:30:50] Too soon.

[00:30:51] Too soon.

[00:30:52] Well, not for you and me, but too soon for anyone just reading up to part one.

[00:30:59] Yeah.

[00:30:59] No, for sure.

[00:31:00] Do you want to let people know how they can get a hold of us if you don't have any other points to make about this final...

[00:31:08] I think I'm fresh out of final thoughts on this chapter.

[00:31:12] I am too.

[00:31:14] I mean, you know me, I've talked about this book, this series, a lot.

[00:31:18] So I kind of have refined and made it most efficient, like, how fast I can get everything out.

[00:31:25] I'm just more experienced.

[00:31:26] What can I say?

[00:31:27] You are.

[00:31:28] You write these outlines well and you write them fast.

[00:31:31] You get a lot of good information into them.

[00:31:33] Thank you.

[00:31:33] I appreciate that, because I do feel like I skimp on some stuff sometimes, but...

[00:31:37] You've got good outlines, because I think that sometimes with a podcast outline, if you are doing too much, then you have no room for conversation.

[00:31:46] You're just...

[00:31:46] It feels more like you're reading a script, which is never good.

[00:31:51] Yeah.

[00:31:51] Yeah.

[00:31:52] Not my favorite part.

[00:31:53] This is where I come and shine, truly.

[00:31:56] So, just like to say, of course.

[00:31:58] What?

[00:31:59] Sorry, I just wanted to interrupt you so that you wouldn't have a good flight.

[00:32:02] Oh, my fucking God.

[00:32:03] Fuck you.

[00:32:04] Let me shine.

[00:32:05] Let me spread my wings and fly.

[00:32:09] Am I good?

[00:32:10] Am I allowed to go?

[00:32:11] Yeah, you can go.

[00:32:13] All right.

[00:32:13] So, first off, we just wanted to say thank you for listening to this new episode of Ramblers Rising,

[00:32:19] one of my favorite shows we've done so far.

[00:32:21] Here are a few ways to contact us.

[00:32:23] We've got our email, which is radioactive at thelorehounds.com.

[00:32:28] No caps or anything like that.

[00:32:30] We're pretty simple on that.

[00:32:33] We also have a channel set up for radioactive ramblings within the Lorehounds Discord server.

[00:32:38] You could send us a message, chat about the show.

[00:32:41] Send me an app.

[00:32:42] Tell me, hey, you suck.

[00:32:43] I don't want to listen to your voice.

[00:32:45] Whatever you got for me.

[00:32:48] Also, we have the contact form that you can leave us messages on and the voicemail option at thelorehounds.com.

[00:32:58] We also have a Twitter or X account at Radioactive141.

[00:33:04] And we'd appreciate it if you guys left us a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever.

[00:33:09] Thank you all for listening today.

[00:33:11] And before we let you go, I just wanted to make sure that everyone is aware that we are proud members of the Barovian Podcasting Network, which is run by the Lorehounds.

[00:33:23] And the Lorehounds are currently covering the Rings of Power, which is, that's how they started, was with a Rings of Power podcast.

[00:33:32] And it's really cool to see them going back to their roots.

[00:33:35] They're doing Penguin coverage, Agatha all along.

[00:33:37] And there's a lot of great affiliates like ourselves.

[00:33:40] So you should go and check out Rings and Rituals, Wool Shift Dust, Properly Howard Movie Review, the Severance Podcast, the Star Wars Canon Timeline Podcast, and most recently, Never Mind the Music.

[00:33:53] So if you want a bunch of great podcasts, check out any of those.

[00:33:58] There's going to be links to all of those in our show notes, as well as all of the information that Richard told you guys about for how to contact us.

[00:34:07] So once again, thank you for joining us, and we hope to see you in the next episode.