Ramblers Rising - Red Rising Chapters 7-10

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[00:01:20] Hello and welcome to a new episode of Ramblers Rising. I'm your host Richard.

[00:01:24] And I'm your other host Aaron.

[00:01:26] And today we're going to be going over Chapters 7-10 of Red Rising.

[00:01:32] Richard, these are some very integral chapters and they really left us on a cliffhanger last time, didn't they?

[00:01:38] Yeah, I mean Darrow...

[00:01:41] Darrow's fucking dead.

[00:01:43] I cannot believe that he's just not even...

[00:01:46] He's not the main character anymore or anything like that. That's so crazy.

[00:01:50] This is where Uncle Narrow takes over as the main character.

[00:01:53] Um, you're wrong. It's actually Darrow's nephew.

[00:01:57] That's like a five-year-old at this point.

[00:01:59] I forgot he even had a nephew.

[00:02:02] That's how inconsequential that little kid is.

[00:02:05] Honestly, that's how inconsequential the entire first part is really, like...

[00:02:11] I shouldn't say inconsequential because obviously you get, like, lore dump and you get Darrow's motivation.

[00:02:17] Because he's actually not dead, guys. I lied.

[00:02:21] But, uh...

[00:02:23] Yeah.

[00:02:23] I can't believe you're spoiling the whole plot already.

[00:02:27] Well, I mean, we were gonna get into it with chapter seven, which is accurately named Lazarus.

[00:02:34] Mmm.

[00:02:35] They do...

[00:02:36] Pierce Brown has some pretty good names for a lot of these chapters.

[00:02:40] He's got that naming convention down.

[00:02:44] Yeah, I mean, part two is called Reborn, which is great.

[00:02:48] I mean, all of the parts have some good names.

[00:02:50] My favorite part in a Pierce Brown book is part four of Lightbringer called Brothers.

[00:02:55] But I also hate Brothers because of what happens in that part.

[00:03:00] Fucking saddest, saddest part of a book I've ever read.

[00:03:04] Now you got me a little scared for it.

[00:03:06] Oh, you should be.

[00:03:08] Yeah.

[00:03:09] And part two, Reborn.

[00:03:11] I mean, as far as being Reborn goes, you have a couple of ways that this is happening in part two.

[00:03:21] And we'll get into a little bit of both of those ways as we go through these chapters.

[00:03:26] But, yeah, definitely it has more than one meaning towards the beginning of this part.

[00:03:31] And then it sort of takes on a different meaning towards the end of part two.

[00:03:36] Yeah.

[00:03:36] And he definitely goes through, I'd say he goes through a rebirth in a few moments in each book, honestly.

[00:03:43] Like, I don't think you've hit it yet in Golden Sun, but you might have.

[00:03:50] And then Morningstar happens like right at the start, honestly.

[00:03:54] He's just very, some things happen.

[00:03:57] You know.

[00:03:58] Well, you don't know, but.

[00:04:00] Yeah, I don't know yet.

[00:04:02] But, I mean, Darrow goes through so many transformations in this series, and I'm only a book and a half in.

[00:04:08] I've got, what, four and a half books, not counting the spinoffs, left to go.

[00:04:15] Yeah.

[00:04:15] I mean, I haven't read the spinoffs.

[00:04:18] I'm not going to lie.

[00:04:18] I'll get to them eventually.

[00:04:21] Maybe.

[00:04:21] Are they, what have you heard about them?

[00:04:23] Are they as good as the mainline books, or are they a little bit less?

[00:04:29] They're not as good, supposedly.

[00:04:31] But my thing is, too, they're not about Darrow.

[00:04:34] I believe they're about Ares founding the Sons of Ares.

[00:04:38] Oh, okay.

[00:04:39] But I also don't know.

[00:04:42] Yeah.

[00:04:43] A little bit more of an origin story for the Rebellion rather than like the mainline story then.

[00:04:50] Yeah.

[00:04:50] Something along those lines.

[00:04:52] Okay.

[00:04:53] Cool.

[00:04:54] Well, Richard, what do you think?

[00:04:55] Should we get into Chapter 7, Lazarus?

[00:04:58] Oh, of course.

[00:04:59] One of my favorite names for a chapter, honestly, because that's biblical, I think.

[00:05:06] Yes.

[00:05:07] Yes, it is.

[00:05:08] Yeah.

[00:05:10] Yeah.

[00:05:10] My religious studies minor coming in clutch right there.

[00:05:14] And that's great, because I don't go to college.

[00:05:18] I do not get more knowledge.

[00:05:21] You have knowledge of a different kind, my friend.

[00:05:24] You have Red Rising and Welding knowledge, and that's the most important kind of knowledge.

[00:05:29] And Stormlight Archive now.

[00:05:31] I mean, I'm three books in.

[00:05:32] I'd count that.

[00:05:33] I would count that, too.

[00:05:35] Yeah.

[00:05:35] But yeah.

[00:05:36] So, chapter starts, and Daryl realizes he is not in the Vale of his father's, the mythical place that Reds supposedly go and they die.

[00:05:48] But he is instead buried under the soil of Mars yet again.

[00:05:53] Kind of trapped underneath.

[00:05:56] And so, I was hoping maybe you could explain this a little bit more for me.

[00:06:03] When Uncle Neril fakes his death and buries him, is there some kind of system in place for him to not suffocate?

[00:06:14] Yes.

[00:06:17] Now, granted, if you want an answer on what that system is, you are shit out of luck.

[00:06:22] Okay.

[00:06:23] Because it's just something, man.

[00:06:26] I don't know.

[00:06:27] Yeah.

[00:06:27] Okay.

[00:06:28] Well, that's good enough for me, honestly.

[00:06:31] I'm fine with a little bit of hand-waving and like, okay, well, Uncle Neril just set up the whole thing and he had a way to get him to survive the whole attempt.

[00:06:41] I'm honestly okay with them not explaining it further because I don't feel that it matters that much.

[00:06:47] I feel like if they explained it in enough detail, too, it would be something that would come back and be used with other characters a lot.

[00:06:54] We're like, I don't know.

[00:06:56] I feel like that's a thing that just happens in a lot of book series.

[00:07:01] If you go out of your way to explain something, it's typically going to come back a few times, I feel.

[00:07:07] Yeah.

[00:07:08] Or you could always run the risk of over-explaining something and having it be a little bit of, it takes you out a little bit, you know?

[00:07:16] Oh, for sure.

[00:07:17] And I'm glad that, I feel like he's got a pretty good handle on that.

[00:07:20] There might be a few things that get over-explained here and there, but honestly, I can't really think of many.

[00:07:25] So, that's a good thing.

[00:07:28] And this is when Darrow figures out that Uncle Neryl drugged him when he took a sip of the flask.

[00:07:35] And that's how Neryl was able to fake his death.

[00:07:38] And I thought it was a really interesting choice for Pierce Brown to have Darrow not in on the plan and have it just be like Neryl's plot.

[00:07:49] It wasn't something that Darrow was collaborating with him on.

[00:07:53] Yeah, I really like that.

[00:07:54] Personally, I, um, because, you know, at this point, Darrow's not, he doesn't have any drive to go against the golds.

[00:08:00] He's really just like, eh, I kind of just want to die now.

[00:08:04] Like.

[00:08:06] Yeah, especially after losing Ayo, he doesn't have a whole lot of drive left.

[00:08:11] He's at an all-time low for this character, at least at this point in the story.

[00:08:17] Yeah, I was going to say, he's got a lot of all-time lows, honestly.

[00:08:20] Darrow kind of goes through it.

[00:08:22] Yeah, he hits that rock bottom point more than once, for sure.

[00:08:27] I think he hits it twice in this book alone, right?

[00:08:30] I would say so, at least twice, that's for sure.

[00:08:36] And Darrow has a little bit of survivor's guilt, thinking about how Ayo could have been saved.

[00:08:42] And that's a very, you know, natural thing for him to be feeling at that moment, going through the stages of grief.

[00:08:49] And this is when he sort of comes into contact with the Sons of Ares for the first time,

[00:08:54] and we're introduced to two pretty critical characters, Harmony and Ralph.

[00:08:59] Richard, you want to tell us a little bit about Harmony and Ralph?

[00:09:03] Yeah, so Harmony is a hardened red woman.

[00:09:06] She had a, not a stroke, she, that's Darrow's mother.

[00:09:11] Harmony is like burned on one side of her body, just from, we're assuming from like,

[00:09:18] maybe a raid gone wrong or something.

[00:09:21] Something to do with the Sons of Ares being silly.

[00:09:23] And then Ralph is, Ralph's a dude.

[00:09:27] That's, that's all we really got on Ralph.

[00:09:31] I don't know, I really only included him just because he was in the book, you know, for this part.

[00:09:36] But I don't think I've ever thought about Ralph after this part.

[00:09:41] Yeah, he, he's just kind of like a Sons of Ares goon.

[00:09:47] One of their footmen or whatever.

[00:09:50] And Harmony is really the more important one.

[00:09:52] Which, Harmony kind of bugs me in the, we'll, we'll get into why she kind of bugs me.

[00:09:56] Don't, don't you fucking worry.

[00:09:57] She bugs me a lot.

[00:09:59] She, she, she does some stuff.

[00:10:02] Yeah.

[00:10:03] I fucking hate Harmony.

[00:10:05] Harmony and Dancer both bug me, which I think the Dancer part, that's kind of a, that might be a hot take on my part.

[00:10:14] But we can, we can talk about that once we meet it, meet them and talk about them a little bit more.

[00:10:18] Should we move on to chapter eight, Dancer?

[00:10:21] Do you have anything else to add about Lazarus?

[00:10:25] I mean, I just think it's a, as far as like, for what it is, it's a very short chapter, but I feel like it's pretty important one.

[00:10:33] Just because we get Daryl, Daryl's like, after being consumed by Gil and Raid, like, yeah, he still feels, he's still got that survivor's guilt, but he just kind of, now he's a bit more level headed.

[00:10:45] Mm-hmm.

[00:10:46] Because he didn't like, just watch his wife die horribly.

[00:10:51] Well, kill his wife, because ultimately that is what he did.

[00:10:54] He killed his wife.

[00:10:55] Yeah.

[00:10:55] Very unfortunate.

[00:10:57] Any, any thoughts from you?

[00:10:59] Yeah.

[00:11:00] I mean, just to add on that, like that he killed his wife, but it was like a mercy kill.

[00:11:05] So it's, it doesn't make it any easier on him.

[00:11:08] He still has that mental toll, but at the same time it was doing something for his loved one, even though it was a traumatic thing for him, it was the best thing for his wife.

[00:11:20] So it's, it's, it's a really difficult thing that he was forced into and that he had to do.

[00:11:28] Yeah.

[00:11:29] Yeah.

[00:11:30] Yeah.

[00:11:30] And then in chapter eight, Dancer, this is where Darrow meets an older red dancer and he is the leader of a squad of the sons of Ares and specifically the squad that rescued him.

[00:11:45] Now, do we know?

[00:11:46] Oh, sorry.

[00:11:47] Sorry.

[00:11:48] I was just going to ask you, is Dancer a low red or a high red?

[00:11:52] Dancer is a low red.

[00:11:54] Um, we get a little bit more later on in the books about him, but I just don't remember what mine he's from.

[00:12:02] He's from a mine very close though.

[00:12:03] And I believe he's a Lambda like Darrow.

[00:12:07] Okay.

[00:12:08] I know he's not a, he's not a gamma because Harmony fucking hates gammas.

[00:12:13] And so she, she would not follow his orders if he was a gamma.

[00:12:18] I know that much.

[00:12:19] Yeah.

[00:12:19] Now for the clans, if he's a part of Lambda, would he have been a part of the same Lambda that Darrow is a part of?

[00:12:27] Or is this like, are these clans sort of in the other sections of Mars as well?

[00:12:35] These clans, yeah.

[00:12:36] They're in every single mine.

[00:12:37] I don't remember how many mines there are on Mars.

[00:12:39] I know it's like hundreds of thousands, maybe a million mines.

[00:12:43] Mm-hmm.

[00:12:44] And every mine has the same, like they have the same culture where they believe in the veil.

[00:12:49] They have the same system where there's however many clans and gamma is always the one that wins just so that it's easier on the golds.

[00:12:59] Interesting.

[00:13:00] And I wonder if any of these reds have contact with the other mines or colonies or whatever, or are they just completely separated and this is the system that they use everywhere?

[00:13:12] They're completely separated because if they, you know, if they were able to talk to each other, everyone would realize, hey, wait a minute.

[00:13:20] Gamma's winning everything and we all live in shit conditions.

[00:13:26] So what the fuck?

[00:13:27] That's crazy.

[00:13:29] Yeah.

[00:13:29] Next up, we got, you know, they're talking about, you know, they're talking about EO and Darrow is kind of like, why didn't you save her?

[00:13:38] Why'd you save me?

[00:13:38] And the answer says, well, we didn't know because, you know, your uncle didn't tell us about her, which we do learn in this chapter as well.

[00:13:48] Obviously, Darrow is a son of Aries, like, informant at the very least.

[00:13:54] Yeah.

[00:13:56] Yeah.

[00:13:56] It's very, very interesting.

[00:13:58] This is where I start to dislike Harmony because she makes that comment about how martyrs are a dime a dozen and immediately just starts shitting on EO's sacrifice, which I think is in really poor taste when you're talking to someone who just lost their wife.

[00:14:14] Yeah.

[00:14:14] And it's only been like two days max.

[00:14:16] Yeah.

[00:14:17] Like it, it was, the wound is very fresh.

[00:14:20] Yeah.

[00:14:21] It's just, it leads back to this trope of the hardened freedom fighter who's cynical.

[00:14:27] And I think that that trope is kind of ridiculous because if you're a freedom fighter, I feel like you would have a more hopeful outlook just based on, I don't know, the circumstances that you're in.

[00:14:41] You wouldn't be so nasty to someone who's a part of your own people who just lost their wife.

[00:14:47] I don't know.

[00:14:48] I don't find it very believable.

[00:14:49] And that's why I kind of dislike the Harmony character just a bit.

[00:14:53] I, I dislike her.

[00:14:54] I think there is, there is a reason for why she is the way that she isn't like, still, she's a terrible person for how she acts, but it does humanize her a bit more at least.

[00:15:06] Like, but I can't get into that.

[00:15:09] That's like dark age spoilers.

[00:15:11] I want to say.

[00:15:13] Okay.

[00:15:14] Okay.

[00:15:15] And Harmony tells Darrow here that the two of them share the same purpose to make martyrs dreams come true.

[00:15:23] And she's trying to instill in Darrow what Ao unsuccessfully tried to instill in Darrow, which is that he needs to fulfill this purpose of rebellion and taking down the gold regime.

[00:15:40] Yeah.

[00:15:40] And he needs to, as they repeat a million times in the book, break the chains.

[00:15:47] Exactly.

[00:15:48] And this whole idea of the, the martyrs, loved ones taking up the fight and being the sort of spearheads for this cause that their loved ones died for.

[00:16:04] I think it's a really beautiful idea and very true to life.

[00:16:10] Yeah.

[00:16:11] I mean, it's definitely, cause you, you put yourself in like Darrow's shoes, obviously, even without it being like your wife, you're still going to want to take up the fight most likely.

[00:16:23] But then you think about like, this is your wife that you've known practically your entire life.

[00:16:29] You're, you're going to be motivated.

[00:16:31] Yeah.

[00:16:32] And I think that this story, especially right now is the idea of rebellion or standing up to a larger foe or whatever.

[00:16:42] I think that's, it's a very relevant, relevant topic right now.

[00:16:48] Yeah, for sure.

[00:16:51] And Darrow then learns that Nero is still alive and he's been a sons of Ares informant, which Richard, you mentioned, mentioned that earlier ever since Darrow's father died.

[00:17:04] Which I think is interesting that Darrow's father is almost like, uh, AO is to Darrow.

[00:17:12] Yeah.

[00:17:13] He's like the catalyst for a lot of this.

[00:17:16] The one thing that I'll say is obviously the, the whole like Darrow's father getting Nero into the sons versus EO getting Darrow into the sons.

[00:17:26] Obviously it's a very different, um, has very different impact.

[00:17:31] Right.

[00:17:32] Yeah.

[00:17:33] Losing a brother versus losing your wife.

[00:17:35] Two very different things.

[00:17:37] And also the way that they respond to it, where Nero becomes an informant and Darrow, I mean, spoilers, he's the main character.

[00:17:44] Uh, obviously he becomes far more involved in the rebellion than Nero ever did, which, uh, AO sort of spurs him to that.

[00:17:53] So sometimes loss, even though it has these dark, dark implications and impacts on someone can, the darkness sort of gives way for the light, I guess.

[00:18:08] Yeah.

[00:18:08] No, a hundred percent.

[00:18:10] And I like that trope.

[00:18:11] I mean, comes up a lot in these books and I think that it's just, it's always done well, even though it's done several times too.

[00:18:20] It doesn't get redundant really because of just each situation is of course unique, leaves room for different improvements each time, you know?

[00:18:31] I agree.

[00:18:32] Gotta be at your worst to come back better.

[00:18:34] What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

[00:18:36] Yeah.

[00:18:37] And there are a lot of things that do nearly kill Darrow.

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

[00:18:42] He, he really gets beat up just in this book alone.

[00:18:47] Yeah.

[00:18:48] This book alone.

[00:18:49] So far, what I've read of Golden Sun, Darrow gets kind of punching bagged a little bit more in this one than he does in Golden Sun.

[00:18:57] I don't know if that remains the trend in the rest of the book.

[00:19:00] I might.

[00:19:01] I mean, things happen.

[00:19:04] There are events for sure.

[00:19:08] I, you know, I can't speak on it without speaking on it, but it's, it's good.

[00:19:13] Richard, Dancer challenges Darrow to a game.

[00:19:17] You want to tell us a little bit about this?

[00:19:18] Oh yeah.

[00:19:19] This part is a little silly stuck in my head for whatever reason, pretty much the whole series, mainly because we don't get a lot of points where Darrow is like just being smart outside of like tactics.

[00:19:30] Cause obviously he's a tactical genius later on, but we don't get a lot of moments like this.

[00:19:36] In my opinion, basically the game is, uh, this is for like dancer and the sons to make sure that Darrow is up to the mission.

[00:19:45] Cause he needs to be a, a genius for this shit.

[00:19:48] Right.

[00:19:49] Challenges into a game.

[00:19:51] He puts two cards on the table face down.

[00:19:53] One is the lamb.

[00:19:54] One is the scythe.

[00:19:55] If he takes the scythe, he loses.

[00:19:57] If he takes the lamb, he wins.

[00:19:59] Darrow picks up the card.

[00:20:00] It's the scythe card, but he figures out like they wouldn't leave this up to the chance because it's important.

[00:20:08] And he figures out they're both sides.

[00:20:10] So he eats the scythe card.

[00:20:13] And then when dancers just kind of looks at him, like he's fucking insane.

[00:20:16] He says, the lamb simply looks too good not to eat.

[00:20:20] And that, that gets him in.

[00:20:23] Yeah.

[00:20:24] I mean, he had to show some critical thinking skills here.

[00:20:26] He had to show that he's a cut above the rest of these new recruits that they bring in.

[00:20:34] And I think that showing Darrow picking or sort of spurning the game a little bit and making up his own rules.

[00:20:43] That's exactly what they need is someone who makes up their own rules and doesn't play by the same game everyone else does.

[00:20:49] Yeah.

[00:20:50] And if we're phrasing it that way, I was a little hard on Darrow earlier.

[00:20:53] If we're phrasing it that way, I would say he definitely does exemplify that a lot.

[00:20:58] I mean, you think about, fuck, the creation of his elite force in the later part of this book.

[00:21:07] You know what I'm talking about, right?

[00:21:09] I do.

[00:21:10] Yeah.

[00:21:10] Yeah.

[00:21:10] Like, that's out of the rule.

[00:21:13] Like, that's out of left field completely.

[00:21:15] You think about the end of the book.

[00:21:17] That's completely out of left field.

[00:21:20] And he does that again and again throughout the series.

[00:21:23] And you think it would get old, but it just doesn't.

[00:21:27] Yeah.

[00:21:27] And I think it also is a good showcase of Darrow's charisma.

[00:21:31] I mean, I think that Dancer is really also entertained and kind of ingratiated towards Darrow after this.

[00:21:41] Darrow does have a way with people of inspiring their loyalty and their commitment and their friendship.

[00:21:48] And I think that this is a good foreshadowing of that with a lot of other characters later in the series.

[00:21:55] Oh, for sure.

[00:21:56] I mean, you think about just how many people he's able to sort of take under his wing throughout the series.

[00:22:03] It's a staggering amount of people that are not all, but like a lot of them are also just prideful bastards when he meets them.

[00:22:13] And he kind of gets that, kicks that out of him a little bit.

[00:22:18] Yeah, he does.

[00:22:19] And next we have Dancer telling Darrow that Ayo's dream is being broadcast across Mars.

[00:22:26] And there's a sweeping uproar for change.

[00:22:30] Now, Ayo's song is being broadcast across the holonet.

[00:22:34] And as far as we know, it's all of the low reds on Mars are seeing this being broadcast.

[00:22:42] And it's almost like a call to arms for them.

[00:22:45] Yeah.

[00:22:45] And they are broadcasting it to a lot of the high colors too.

[00:22:50] Like high reds, high colors.

[00:22:53] But obviously that doesn't, they don't receive it as well because they're, they're not the oppressed people.

[00:23:00] They don't really give a shit for the most part.

[00:23:03] Right.

[00:23:03] If anything, they're probably entertained.

[00:23:05] They're like, ha ha, look at that red over there.

[00:23:08] She's singing about a better future, even though there's not going to be a better future.

[00:23:14] You know, they're definitely laughing at her and just doing their oppressive evil people shit.

[00:23:22] Yeah.

[00:23:22] I mean, there are a lot of people, a lot of high colors, even like not the golds, but like the silvers have sort of the gold attitude of like how superior they are.

[00:23:31] Like you think about how Nero was.

[00:23:33] He was just like, oh, yep.

[00:23:35] String her up.

[00:23:36] Kill her.

[00:23:37] Like, yeah, that's insane.

[00:23:40] Yeah.

[00:23:41] They don't have any respect for the life, uh, the lives of the low colors because they don't even see the low colors as people.

[00:23:48] They just see them as tools and workers to be used and support the life that they live.

[00:23:56] Yeah.

[00:23:57] Golds are evil bastards.

[00:23:59] They certainly are.

[00:24:00] Next up, Darrow and Dancer.

[00:24:02] They are talking on this elevator ride and Darrow says he wants to kill Nero Al Augustus.

[00:24:07] And Dancer tells him that he's aiming a bit low.

[00:24:11] I love that.

[00:24:12] He's like, I want to kill the governor of Mars.

[00:24:14] The governor of an entire planet.

[00:24:18] Yeah.

[00:24:18] And Dancer's like, you got to aim higher, buddy.

[00:24:20] Why not?

[00:24:21] Why stop at this planet?

[00:24:23] And for, from what we know about gold society at this point, there's really not much higher than the arch governor of Mars.

[00:24:31] Like, sure, there's the arch governors of all the other planets we're assuming.

[00:24:35] But the only other person that we get a name of is the sovereign.

[00:24:40] Yeah.

[00:24:41] And I think that's definitely what he's pointing towards is you got to take down the sovereign.

[00:24:46] I mean, yeah, I would hope so.

[00:24:48] I don't like Octavia Auloon.

[00:24:49] She's a, she's a terrible person, really well-written character.

[00:24:53] Don't get me wrong.

[00:24:54] Like, there's a few of those where you got to respect at least that they're really well-written.

[00:24:59] But holy shit, I hate every scene that has Octavia Auloon in it.

[00:25:03] Yeah, I mean, I think that that is the mark of a really well-written villain is when you're reading a scene and you can just feel that hatred bubbling up within you.

[00:25:14] And you're like, God, this person is awful.

[00:25:17] Like, the writer is just firing on all cylinders with their craft when you can feel that kind of emotion just from reading about someone.

[00:25:25] I mean, yeah, that's how I am with my, with the villain in the second trilogy.

[00:25:30] He is, if I'm going by like, you know, he's in my top three characters of the series if I'm going by how well-written they are.

[00:25:39] Which my top three is unchanging.

[00:25:41] Darrow is my number two.

[00:25:43] You know who my number one is.

[00:25:45] And that's for both likable and well-written.

[00:25:48] But like, fuck, he's such a well-written character and I just hate him so much.

[00:25:54] He should not be so good.

[00:25:56] It's like Littlefinger in Game of Thrones where he's just so easy to hate and, but he's just such a well-written character.

[00:26:05] That's how Octavia Alune is.

[00:26:08] I have no idea who Littlefinger is.

[00:26:10] I really got to get on the Game of Thrones grind, bro.

[00:26:12] You do, because you would love it.

[00:26:14] Oh, I'm sure.

[00:26:16] Yeah, sorry.

[00:26:16] They are riding up in an elevator.

[00:26:19] It opens and Darrow, oh, this is such a big moment.

[00:26:23] Darrow sees a fully terraformed Martian cityscape sprawled beneath him.

[00:26:29] Like, just mind-blowing.

[00:26:31] And that's the end of the chapter is just like, holy shit, Darrow's been lied to his entire life.

[00:26:37] Yeah, I mean, he grew up thinking that he was fighting for a future that already exists.

[00:26:46] Yeah, I mean, they're mining fuel for space travel at this point and maybe some slight terraforming on the fringes of the solar system.

[00:26:57] Like, this is insane.

[00:26:59] Yeah, I mean, when you're putting in all of that hard labor, the people that you love are dying.

[00:27:05] Your life is at risk every single day.

[00:27:09] But in the back of your mind, you're like, oh, it's all going to be worth it because someday this is going to be a green paradise for us to live.

[00:27:17] This is going to be a home for us.

[00:27:20] And then you find out that for probably generations, that dream is already a reality for the people who are forcing you to do labor.

[00:27:31] And the people that have been around you your whole life are just dying for profit, for power, nothing else.

[00:27:41] Yeah, and I mean, without that just that one lie, there would be no story.

[00:27:48] There would be no, not no story, but you know, it wouldn't be as intense as it is.

[00:27:52] I mean, this motivates him a lot further to like lock it in and say fuck the golds.

[00:27:59] Yeah, and I wonder if at any point in the story, exposing that lie to the Reds is going to be like a big plot point.

[00:28:11] I don't know.

[00:28:12] Maybe it will.

[00:28:13] Maybe it won't.

[00:28:14] Who could tell?

[00:28:15] I would imagine if there's going to be some kind of Red uprising or anything like that.

[00:28:21] Some kind of Red rising?

[00:28:23] Oh my God.

[00:28:24] Yeah, some sort of Red rising.

[00:28:26] Hey, that's the name of the book.

[00:28:28] No way.

[00:28:29] No way.

[00:28:29] Yeah, I know.

[00:28:31] Pretty crazy, huh?

[00:28:33] Yeah, you are fucking insane.

[00:28:36] Yeah, like that's that in my mind is something that would be a big plot point is trying to expose that almost.

[00:28:44] I hate having to or not having to, but I don't want to be relating everything to some other form of media.

[00:28:50] But it almost is like in the boys when they reveal that compound V is the cause of superhero powers.

[00:28:59] I mean, if we're going to be doing this, I got an example that is a complete asshole.

[00:29:04] Go for it.

[00:29:04] It's like the Lego movie when they reveal that Lord business is evil.

[00:29:11] I know.

[00:29:12] I know.

[00:29:13] It is kind of like that, isn't it?

[00:29:15] Absolute cinema.

[00:29:15] I know.

[00:29:17] Man, the Lego movie, that was our childhood.

[00:29:19] Dude, I fuck with the Lego movie still.

[00:29:21] I was on Hulu or some shit the other day and I was like, you know what?

[00:29:25] I'm going to watch the Lego movie.

[00:29:28] Yeah, the Lego movie.

[00:29:29] I mean, that was a good movie to like unironically.

[00:29:34] Absolutely.

[00:29:34] Yeah.

[00:29:34] I never saw the second one and I don't think I want to.

[00:29:38] I never watched the second one either.

[00:29:40] It's one of those things where like the first one is nostalgic for me, so I might go back and watch it.

[00:29:45] But the second one came out so long after I was in that age range of where it was intended that I'm like, I know I wouldn't enjoy it and it's probably not as good as the first one anyways.

[00:29:56] Yeah, I get that.

[00:29:58] I feel like.

[00:29:59] Do you want to take us into chapter nine?

[00:30:02] The lie?

[00:30:03] Oh, I'd love to.

[00:30:05] Darrow, you know, they tour the city a little bit and he sees Gold's just kind of, you know, they're living it up.

[00:30:13] Enjoying the spoils of the Reds.

[00:30:16] They're really just fucking assholes.

[00:30:18] I mean, it's a lot of...

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[00:31:16] As we discussed in the first episode, it's a lot of pixies, you know, riding the coattails of their family and the other colors.

[00:31:26] Yeah, and all of these golds who are living the high life up here and all of that, this is the scene where we see them for the first time with their grav boots, right?

[00:31:38] I think that's the funniest thing ever, the grav boots.

[00:31:42] Really?

[00:31:42] I fuck with them, though.

[00:31:44] Like, they're awesome.

[00:31:45] I mean...

[00:31:47] No, it's a really cool idea.

[00:31:49] I just think that the idea of rich people with, like, hover boots just kind of flying around is really funny to me.

[00:31:59] Yeah, it's the Green Goblin, bro.

[00:32:02] It basically...

[00:32:03] That's what I imagine when I think of the grav boots is I'm just imagining, like, Willem Dafoe kind of flying across the air in New York City.

[00:32:10] Yeah.

[00:32:11] What's scary, though, is that, like, those things are fast.

[00:32:13] The grav boots, they...

[00:32:16] I mean, it takes them, like, 20 minutes to cross a hemisphere of a planet, but, like, that's fast.

[00:32:24] Really?

[00:32:25] Canonically, they are that fast?

[00:32:26] I didn't realize that.

[00:32:27] I thought it was just kind of convenience.

[00:32:31] Or maybe even drip.

[00:32:32] No, no.

[00:32:33] Well, they can be dripped out.

[00:32:35] You know, you drip out, like, your grav boots and your pulse armor, and you're...

[00:32:39] Obviously, you've got, like, your razor, takes whatever form you want, but no one will ever beat my favorite character in terms of drip, because, you know, there's always something.

[00:32:50] My favorite character in terms of drip is just in the second trilogy, and he's so fire, and he's called the Mad Minotaur of Mars.

[00:32:57] That is so fire.

[00:32:59] Yeah, I think you mentioned him in the last episode, and I'm excited to meet that character, because anyone with the title of the Mad Minotaur...

[00:33:06] Oh, of course.

[00:33:08] ...immediately.

[00:33:08] And he's very menacing.

[00:33:11] Like, he's just a threatening character.

[00:33:13] He's very smart, so it's not like he's just...

[00:33:16] He's not just strong as hell.

[00:33:18] He's also scary.

[00:33:20] Yeah.

[00:33:22] And, obviously, Darrow, realizing Ayo is right, that the Reds are just the slaves of the society, that pretty much all of the low colors are just the slaves of the society.

[00:33:33] Yeah, he really understands it a lot better now, now that he's seeing, like, empirical evidence that she was right, and he was just blindly accepting the lie.

[00:33:45] Yeah. And Darrow learns here that most planets and smaller moons, they've already been terraformed for almost 300 years.

[00:33:56] How many generations of Reds have been toiling away in service of something that is just not real?

[00:34:04] I mean, that part just blows my mind every time. I feel like I've said it about five times already, but just the idea that generations have gone by is crazy to me.

[00:34:14] And you think about the fact that their lifespans are pretty fucking short, so it's even more generations than normal humans would live in 300 years.

[00:34:26] It's more just because their life expectancy is so much shorter.

[00:34:31] Yeah. And we talked about the low Reds and the high Reds a little bit in our first episode when we introduced the concepts of this world, but we get a real look at the high Reds here and see that they're doing the jobs that no one else really wants.

[00:34:51] They're doing maintenance work and that type of the jobs that typical society slaves would have been doing in Roman society.

[00:35:08] And so we just get a little bit more of that separation between the low Reds being minors and the high doing other jobs that are seen as grueling and physically taxing.

[00:35:19] Yeah. I mean, I always thought it was just a little ironic that they're, they're considered like high Reds, but they're still doing shit jobs.

[00:35:27] Like that's crazy.

[00:35:29] Yeah. I mean, in my mind, the only thing separating the low Reds from the high Reds, I don't think it's so much a status thing because obviously they're both at the bottom of the pyramid.

[00:35:39] I just think of it more like the low Reds are being kept in the dark and don't really understand what's happening with the society and the high Reds are aware.

[00:35:50] Like they're, they have that information that the lows don't.

[00:35:54] Yeah, for sure.

[00:35:56] The one thing I guess that's different is that the high Reds, they do make money.

[00:36:01] Like they're paid for their work and stuff and they can go spend that money wherever they want.

[00:36:06] Yeah.

[00:36:06] Like they do get some comforts of like, they can go out to the bars and drink their pain away, which I guess the low Reds do too.

[00:36:14] But, but this time they're doing it with their own money.

[00:36:17] So capitalism plays into it.

[00:36:19] Yay.

[00:36:20] Yeah.

[00:36:21] They're a part of the society in a way that the low Reds aren't for sure.

[00:36:26] Yeah.

[00:36:27] Yeah.

[00:36:29] And Darrow is mad.

[00:36:32] Darrow's big mad.

[00:36:33] And he realizes that it's going to come to violence in order to earn the Reds freedoms.

[00:36:39] There's not a peaceful way out of the structure of oppression that the society has built.

[00:36:46] Yeah.

[00:36:46] This is one of those moments where he really is just, he's tweaking.

[00:36:50] He, he tweaks about like, holy shit.

[00:36:52] Like I'm going to fucking, he crashes out.

[00:36:55] That's all I got to say on Darrow this chapter.

[00:36:58] No.

[00:36:59] Yeah.

[00:36:59] I mean, I, I can't imagine anyone else's reaction.

[00:37:03] Like when you find out that kind of information and you're basically being forced into a rebellion, emotions are high and it's just the way it goes.

[00:37:15] Yeah.

[00:37:16] Yeah. And he really kind of locks in at the end of this chapter and he just sort of turns to Darrow after he finds out all this information.

[00:37:26] And he's just like, hey, what's my mission? Like, what do you got for me?

[00:37:28] Yeah, which I really love that. I think that it's kind of awesome when he locks in at the end.

[00:37:33] I just imagine him raging during this whole chapter and learning all this horrible information that he kind of would have that determined look in his eye.

[00:37:44] And he's like, oh, I'm ready. You know?

[00:37:47] Yeah, he kind of channels his other person. I don't want to say other personality because like he doesn't.

[00:37:52] You know what I mean? Like there's Darrow and then there's what Darrow becomes.

[00:37:57] Yeah, for sure.

[00:37:58] Or who he becomes. Yeah, it's some fire.

[00:38:03] And then we move on to chapter 10, the Carver.

[00:38:08] I don't. Just the name of the Carver is a little freaky.

[00:38:14] Yeah, I mean, they do some freaky shit.

[00:38:17] They are experts in body modification.

[00:38:21] And also they're the people who design like dragons and shit because they can do that.

[00:38:28] They do that shit for like the obsidians.

[00:38:32] So in like that parts where they live, there are dragons and shit for them to hunt so that they can become stronger slave knights.

[00:38:39] Kind of crazy.

[00:38:40] That's insane.

[00:38:40] Yeah.

[00:38:43] Yeah.

[00:38:43] I can't imagine a world in which you're genetically engineering monsters for your soldiers to kill to get stronger.

[00:38:51] That's just unreal, man.

[00:38:56] Yeah.

[00:38:57] I mean, kind of cool though.

[00:38:59] Like there are dragons.

[00:39:01] So that's kind of amazing.

[00:39:03] I just wish it were for better reasons.

[00:39:06] Now let me ask.

[00:39:08] I feel like this is a question that needs to be answered.

[00:39:11] Mm-hmm.

[00:39:12] Does anyone ever get to ride a dragon?

[00:39:17] Um, no, but they do some interesting stuff with the sea leviathan.

[00:39:22] Okay.

[00:39:23] Interesting.

[00:39:24] That sounds really bad.

[00:39:26] Holy shit.

[00:39:28] And this is about where we get to Darrow realizing that the gammas are in the same position as him when it comes down to it.

[00:39:37] Like they're.

[00:39:38] Yes.

[00:39:38] He realizes that they have a lot more in common than he thought.

[00:39:41] And even though the gammas are a little bit above them, they're all in the same shitty situation.

[00:39:47] Yeah.

[00:39:48] One thing I just want to circle back to real quick is somebody skipping around in the outline.

[00:39:54] My bad.

[00:39:55] My bad.

[00:39:55] Yeah.

[00:39:56] Unreal.

[00:39:57] Um, we find out that uncle Neryl's daughter, this is like a really quick lordum, but like it's, I, I feel like it's important to highlight just because it's about like the horrible shit that the Reds go through.

[00:40:10] Um, Neryl's daughter sold her body for medicine to save her husband's life.

[00:40:15] Then her husband killed the gamma who gave them the medicine in exchange for, you know, that.

[00:40:22] And then her and her husband were just fucking executed because they're, they're bad for that.

[00:40:27] But it's like, bro, give your people medicines that they can live.

[00:40:31] Shouldn't be that fucking hard.

[00:40:33] Yeah.

[00:40:33] I mean, just the whole situation of that kind of desperation, trying to get medicine and then in the end getting executed.

[00:40:46] And it's, it's so dramatic and sad.

[00:40:52] And I think that, yeah, I mean, it just really exemplifies how the golds create division among, amongst the Reds by just restricting access to things.

[00:41:07] And by creating that imbalance of people who get medicine versus people who don't, you, you're never going to have to worry about someone coming after you.

[00:41:16] If you're sowing division amongst them, it's just problems.

[00:41:21] They're too busy.

[00:41:21] They're too busy.

[00:41:22] They're too busy fighting each other to realize like, Hey, golds are fucking assholes.

[00:41:27] Let's take care of them.

[00:41:28] And then we can fight about whatever.

[00:41:31] Yeah.

[00:41:31] Once again, distracting them from the real enemy and pitting them against each other.

[00:41:36] Yeah.

[00:41:37] One thing that's never mentioned to you about this, like, I like to think that this is how it happened is I'm assuming this is around the time that Darrow's father decided to do the silly dance and song.

[00:41:48] And also when Darrow joined the sons of Ares, like, I don't know, feels like it would make sense.

[00:41:55] Yeah.

[00:41:56] I think that's a good sort of headcanon to take where not only did Darrow's brother sort of get him involved with the sons of Ares with his death, but maybe Darrow's daughter also played a role in him wanting better for the world.

[00:42:10] Yeah.

[00:42:12] Yeah.

[00:42:13] And this is when Dancer shares that they plan to overthrow the empire, not commit acts of terrorism for minimal gain, which is fair.

[00:42:24] Like he's like, we're not doing this all for nothing.

[00:42:26] We're not just trying to cause problems.

[00:42:29] We want to overthrow the entirety of the society and create a better world.

[00:42:35] We're not just trying to disrupt things here.

[00:42:37] Like people think.

[00:42:39] Yeah, they really do kind of show that they're in it for the long game.

[00:42:43] They are not just playing to like bomb the gold supply depots and do this and do that and then get squashed by the overwhelming might of gold.

[00:42:52] Yeah.

[00:42:53] And I think that the sons of Ares are a really good case study of how far is too far when it comes to fighting for freedom or fighting for a cause.

[00:43:07] And you have them committing these acts that would be considered terrorism.

[00:43:14] And you, I mean, it's just, it's a complicated situation.

[00:43:19] It begs the question of where's the line?

[00:43:22] How do you deal with crossing it?

[00:43:25] Do you try and stay in a place where you're playing it safe?

[00:43:31] It begs a lot of really interesting questions that mirror the real world for sure.

[00:43:37] Oh yeah, 100%.

[00:43:38] And do you want to tell us a little bit about what Darrow thinks of this mission to overthrow the Empire?

[00:43:46] He thinks it's fucking crazy.

[00:43:47] He thinks that he's going to die because 97 people before him failed, whatever the fuck the carving is.

[00:43:54] But obviously they're just stringing us along with that, even though they tell us in like two pages what the carving is.

[00:44:02] This is still, they really reemphasize that the High Reds are still basically living in these slave conditions, even though they have a little bit more freedom.

[00:44:12] But it's so minimal.

[00:44:15] And so it's just, it doesn't even make a difference pretty much.

[00:44:20] They're still living in awful conditions.

[00:44:22] Yeah, they explain that like the sidewalks are partitioned.

[00:44:27] Like there's the gold sidewalk and it's like, it's like a moving sidewalk too.

[00:44:32] So it's a huge sidewalk.

[00:44:34] Then like each of the colors or like classifications of color gets like their own sidewalk with like reds.

[00:44:40] And the other low colors getting like this tiny little strip at the end.

[00:44:44] It's very like 1950s American.

[00:44:49] Humanity does suck.

[00:44:50] And we're always finding new ways to be awful to each other.

[00:44:54] So yeah, this is where we also get a little bit more about the pink brothels, which, and it's, they're very like central to the, a lot of the story that I feel like the pinks might be like top two or three low reds.

[00:45:10] That are showcased.

[00:45:11] Like that.

[00:45:12] We see a lot of the pinks, the reds.

[00:45:15] They're, they're their own color.

[00:45:16] My guy.

[00:45:19] Wait, did I say.

[00:45:20] Yeah.

[00:45:20] You said the reds.

[00:45:21] I don't know if you might've just.

[00:45:22] Oh, I meant low colors.

[00:45:23] My bad.

[00:45:24] Yeah.

[00:45:24] You're good.

[00:45:24] You're good.

[00:45:25] Yeah.

[00:45:26] There are also high pinks that I don't think I have.

[00:45:30] There's higher like classifications, like how the peerless scarred work.

[00:45:34] They're called thistles and they're, they're pinks that are also trained as assassins.

[00:45:38] And they have like, they literally have like a hidden blade in their fucking arm.

[00:45:45] Like they're assassins creed type shit.

[00:45:47] It's insane.

[00:45:48] Yeah.

[00:45:49] And the way that society is set up, like those types of interactions, like assassinations and minor wars and all of that.

[00:45:57] It's just kind of par for the course among the golds.

[00:45:59] Like they're always fighting for power and it's seen as the natural state of things.

[00:46:04] It's not.

[00:46:05] Yeah.

[00:46:05] I don't know if it would technically be illegal or not, but it's, it almost feels like it's sanctioned by the society and the government for the golds to be plotting against each other and having the strongest remain on top.

[00:46:18] Well, I mean, yeah, you think of how pure, like, you know, obviously in this book, we learn a lot about the process of peerless scarred being, becoming peerless scarred and they, there's something.

[00:46:30] I mean, I, I, I understand why their society is the way it is based on that upraising.

[00:46:35] Yeah.

[00:46:36] It's a society that doesn't respect the rule of law.

[00:46:40] It respects strength above all else.

[00:46:42] And in that way, it's kind of, once again, you have the society that presents itself as very sophisticated and advanced, but at its core, it's just this barbaric society of people who want to keep each other down and plot against each other all while they're doing it on the backs of a slave.

[00:47:05] Yeah.

[00:47:07] Yeah.

[00:47:07] They, and what I like is that later on, obviously this book is about Darrow and his rebellion.

[00:47:14] So yes, there is a rebellion and it is known that Darrow rebels.

[00:47:18] That's just part of the series.

[00:47:20] Obviously.

[00:47:22] Yeah.

[00:47:23] And so they have the audacity to call Darrow the slave king and stuff like that in later books.

[00:47:33] And like, that's insane.

[00:47:34] I mean, granted, it makes sense from one perspective because you think he was a slave.

[00:47:40] Like he, like that in that frame of reference, it works, but that's what his, how his allies mean it.

[00:47:46] Whereas his enemies mean it as like, you're the king of slaves.

[00:47:48] Like what the fuck?

[00:47:49] Like that's so awful and wrong.

[00:47:51] Uh-uh, don't do that.

[00:47:53] But they built their fucking empire off the backs of slaves for a thousand years.

[00:47:57] Yeah.

[00:47:58] Yeah.

[00:47:58] It's very much, it's one of those things where his enemies mean it as derogatory and he adopts it as his own.

[00:48:09] Yeah.

[00:48:10] Kind of like the Reaper.

[00:48:12] Oh, what a name.

[00:48:13] I love the Reaper.

[00:48:14] Or the Goblin.

[00:48:16] The Goblin is a filthy little tweaker.

[00:48:18] All right.

[00:48:18] I don't, I, I love it.

[00:48:20] I love him though.

[00:48:21] Goblin is great.

[00:48:22] He's a real one.

[00:48:23] Anyways, this is where we see Mickey for the first time.

[00:48:28] Yeah.

[00:48:29] He's pretty cool.

[00:48:31] He's a dick, but he's pretty cool.

[00:48:33] He definitely is.

[00:48:34] And what is Mickey's occupation?

[00:48:37] Mickey is a fucking carver.

[00:48:39] He's one of the guys that makes those sometimes abominations, but he also like, he sews wings onto women, pink women specifically, to make them like andrelic, which is really weird.

[00:48:52] He's a really weird fucking guy.

[00:48:54] He is.

[00:48:55] Is he, whenever I think of Mickey in his carver shop, I'm thinking of like the cyberpunk.

[00:49:02] Oh, the Ripper Docs?

[00:49:04] Yeah.

[00:49:05] Yeah.

[00:49:07] 100%.

[00:49:07] That's exactly what comes to mind.

[00:49:09] But like, that's the mental image I have of these little shops.

[00:49:12] Yeah.

[00:49:13] Yeah.

[00:49:13] They are.

[00:49:14] I feel like we only really visit Mickey's in terms of like carvers, but it's, it's something.

[00:49:20] It's something to behold.

[00:49:21] I mean, I hate it.

[00:49:25] And Dancer gives Mickey a mysterious little box.

[00:49:30] Yeah.

[00:49:30] And there's something pretty special inside.

[00:49:33] What is it, Richard?

[00:49:34] Well, for Mickey, I was reading this last night.

[00:49:38] Mickey opens the box and he is horrified.

[00:49:41] He's disgusted by what he's looking at.

[00:49:43] He's calling Dancer mad.

[00:49:45] Darrow takes a little peek in and he's like, I wonder what, what this is.

[00:49:49] And he's like, oh shit.

[00:49:52] Cause apparently there's just a pair of golden wings sitting in there, you know, about as big to fit into someone's like hand, like a sigil or something.

[00:50:01] And we find out that those are sigils ripped right out of a gold's body.

[00:50:05] And do we know which gold they took it from?

[00:50:08] Or is it just kind of like some random gold that they either killed or they found dead?

[00:50:12] Based on the context and the identity that Darrow assumes, you know, he's like the, the last son of the Andromedus family.

[00:50:21] I'm assuming it's his fake parents because they were real golds at one point.

[00:50:26] So I'm assuming it's from that family.

[00:50:28] Mm-hmm.

[00:50:29] Interesting.

[00:50:31] Yeah.

[00:50:31] And then the chapter ends with the reveal that they're here at the Carver in order to turn Darrow into a gold.

[00:50:42] Yeah.

[00:50:43] And that's kind of, that's kind of crazy.

[00:50:45] I mean, he's got to go under full body modification.

[00:50:50] Like his bones need to be replaced and every, pretty much everything needs to be replaced.

[00:50:55] I mean, shit, his hair, his, his eyes need to be switched out for gold eyes.

[00:51:02] It's, it's a process.

[00:51:04] I hope Mickey's got some good anesthesia.

[00:51:07] I think he does.

[00:51:09] I'm pretty sure.

[00:51:09] He better.

[00:51:10] I mean, I don't doubt his skill.

[00:51:12] Anyone who can make a dragon, I'm sure they can pull this off.

[00:51:17] It can't be too hard to turn someone into a gold, can it?

[00:51:21] Oh, it's pretty hard for Darrow.

[00:51:23] I'm not going to lie.

[00:51:24] He goes through it.

[00:51:26] Yeah.

[00:51:27] I mean, he's getting his body replaced.

[00:51:29] It's, it's like the ship of Theseus.

[00:51:31] If you're replacing everything, is it still the ship of Theseus?

[00:51:35] If you replace it.

[00:51:36] Oh my God.

[00:51:37] I didn't even think of that when I was reading through this.

[00:51:40] That's actually a good, um, a good, what's the word I'm looking for?

[00:51:46] Comparison.

[00:51:47] Yeah.

[00:51:48] Yeah.

[00:51:48] Yeah.

[00:51:49] I had a stupid moment.

[00:51:50] My bad.

[00:51:53] And yeah, I mean, it's just, what's, what's left of Darrow after he gets turned into a gold?

[00:52:00] They, I mean, even his bones get replaced, man.

[00:52:04] Yeah.

[00:52:04] I mean, he keeps, he keeps his brain.

[00:52:09] He does keep his brain.

[00:52:10] That's true.

[00:52:11] Some of his organs, like his heart stays.

[00:52:13] And that's actually a important piece of why he survives.

[00:52:20] Because he kept the same heart.

[00:52:23] Yeah.

[00:52:23] Cause, um, I think they explained, they said it earlier is that he got bit by a pit viper

[00:52:28] when he was young.

[00:52:31] Okay.

[00:52:31] And the venom never leaves your body.

[00:52:34] I see.

[00:52:35] So his heart is a lot stronger because it had to conoract the pit viper venom, which is that

[00:52:42] a little bit of a stretch to just make, give him plot armor.

[00:52:44] Yes.

[00:52:45] Do I love it though?

[00:52:46] Because it makes my goat, my goat like, yeah, of course I love it.

[00:52:50] I love Darrow.

[00:52:51] Yeah.

[00:52:52] And it's also really good symbolism that he kept his red heart that was made stronger by

[00:52:58] the harsh living conditions.

[00:53:01] Like he, he has the same heart that he did.

[00:53:03] He's still a red at, in his core.

[00:53:07] Yes.

[00:53:08] And then he also is allowed to keep his himanthus blossom from EO and their wedding rings.

[00:53:14] So like, that's cute.

[00:53:15] I guess.

[00:53:17] I'm surprised that he was actually allowed to keep the wedding rings and the high

[00:53:21] manthus blossom.

[00:53:22] I've, I, um, I like that he was able to keep them, but I am surprised that the sons of Ares

[00:53:29] didn't force him to abandon all of his former possessions in order to fully become a gold.

[00:53:35] Yeah.

[00:53:35] It's nice though.

[00:53:36] Cause like, you know, as they've said, you know, reds, like the, the center of red society

[00:53:43] is the heart.

[00:53:45] So that's nice, I guess, you know, it's good.

[00:53:48] Keeping that theme going.

[00:53:50] Yeah.

[00:53:50] And that's the end of this chapter, but not the end of this part.

[00:53:55] This part still has a little, little ways to go.

[00:53:58] Um, and Richard, do you have anything to add about the end of this chapter?

[00:54:04] Not too much.

[00:54:05] Like it sets up one of the, sets up one of the most important parts of the series where

[00:54:11] Darrow obviously becomes the guy that I glaze, the guy that I call one of the best characters

[00:54:17] in fiction, like definitely sets them up for that.

[00:54:19] Sets them up for greatness.

[00:54:21] What about you, sir?

[00:54:22] I don't think I have too much else to add.

[00:54:25] I think that these are some really solid chapters, especially in terms of there's so much

[00:54:31] symbolism here with him keeping his heart with being allowed to, not only does he keep

[00:54:37] his physical heart.

[00:54:38] I mean, I think I'm getting a little bit too ahead.

[00:54:41] I think that's like the next few chapters.

[00:54:44] So I don't want to get into it too much.

[00:54:46] I probably shouldn't have gotten too much into it either, but you know me, if I'm talking

[00:54:49] about this shit, I can't stop.

[00:54:51] Well, we'll definitely, we'll be talking about it more next week, but I think that it's just

[00:54:57] really good setup for the way that the society works and Darrow's realization, almost his

[00:55:05] enlightenment of his views of the world.

[00:55:10] And I think that it just, it does a lot of good background work.

[00:55:14] We're still, we're 10 chapters in, we're still kind of in the setup phase of the series.

[00:55:18] And I think that it's a good setup.

[00:55:20] So I'm, I'm a big fan.

[00:55:24] Yeah.

[00:55:24] It, I mean, I'd say we've got at the end of this part, the setup is mostly done because

[00:55:30] then he's in the place we're proving where, where peerless scar become peerless scarred.

[00:55:36] Like then that's really when it kicks up and those chapters, I feel like we could run through

[00:55:41] a couple at a time just because of how well, how, how well grouped together they are.

[00:55:46] Each story arc is very well contained within like a few chapters.

[00:55:51] You get maybe three or four chapters of, of, uh, of a plot, a certain plot line and you

[00:55:58] get some payoff for it and then you move on to the next thing and it all supports that overarching.

[00:56:02] Yeah, for sure.

[00:56:04] And we do not have any feedback this week, do we?

[00:56:08] Uh, I don't know.

[00:56:09] I'm not the one that, I don't know where I'd be looking to receive that really.

[00:56:13] I'm not the one that would go to my email, not yours.

[00:56:16] You are.

[00:56:16] You're so right.

[00:56:18] Anyways.

[00:56:18] Yeah.

[00:56:19] We, we do not have any feedback this week.

[00:56:21] Um, we are recording these a little bit ahead of time.

[00:56:25] So as we're recording this, the second episode will be coming out this evening and this episode

[00:56:32] will be out the week of it'll be out Wednesday, October 16th.

[00:56:40] I believe 16th.

[00:56:41] Yes, you're right.

[00:56:43] And yeah.

[00:56:44] Anyways, Richard, do you want to let people know how they can get in touch with us?

[00:56:51] Oh, of course.

[00:56:52] First off, we just want to say thank you for listening to Ramblers Rising, this new series

[00:56:57] under radioactive ramblings.

[00:56:59] Uh, um, we appreciate, you know, any viewership we get.

[00:57:05] It's, it's great.

[00:57:06] And we appreciate having people be part of the community.

[00:57:09] A few ways that you could do that is we have our email that, that Aaron manages that I have

[00:57:15] nothing to do with.

[00:57:16] Um, Chase gets the emails too.

[00:57:18] So if you want to write in a little note saying, I hate you, Chase.

[00:57:22] Oh, I do hate you, Chase.

[00:57:24] Of course.

[00:57:25] Um, also.

[00:57:27] Oh, wait.

[00:57:27] I actually have to give the email.

[00:57:29] Holy shit.

[00:57:29] Uh, radioactive at thelorehounds.com.

[00:57:32] Um, we also have a channel set up for radioactive ramblings inside the Lorehounds Discord server.

[00:57:38] You could send us a message there, chat about the show.

[00:57:41] Um, I feel like we both tend to respond pretty quick.

[00:57:44] Yeah.

[00:57:45] Yeah.

[00:57:46] Um, we also have the contact form or you could leave us a voicemail at thelorehounds.com.

[00:57:53] And consider following us on Twitter or X at Radioactive141.

[00:57:57] We also would appreciate if we could get a rating on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other forms

[00:58:04] of places where you listen to podcasts.

[00:58:07] And, uh, it helps other people like yourselves find us.

[00:58:10] Yeah.

[00:58:12] And before we let you go, I just wanted to say that we are proud members of the Barovian

[00:58:18] Broadcasting Network, which is of course run by the Lorehounds.

[00:58:22] And the Lorehounds, they've got a lot of exciting coverage right now.

[00:58:25] Uh, they've got the Penguin going, uh, which I think that they're doing a few episodes here

[00:58:31] and there.

[00:58:31] Great series.

[00:58:32] Please go watch the Penguin if you haven't watched it yet.

[00:58:36] Uh, and they're also doing some coverage of Agatha all along, another great series.

[00:58:42] And of course, there's a lot of great affiliates, much like ourselves over on that network.

[00:58:48] The newest of which is Nevermind the Music.

[00:58:51] And they're going through and talking about a lot of themes in music.

[00:58:57] And it's just a really great, entertaining, accessible show about music, even for people

[00:59:02] who don't know too much like myself.

[00:59:04] So go check them out.

[00:59:05] Check out Rings and Rituals, a Tolkien podcast about the rings of power and the rituals within

[00:59:11] it.

[00:59:11] Go check out Wolf Shift Dust, who they have a new season coming up pretty soon with Silo

[00:59:17] coming.

[00:59:18] So, and of course there is Properly Howard movie reviews.

[00:59:23] Uh, they're on a little bit of a hiatus, but they just dropped a surprise episode of

[00:59:28] the Penguin.

[00:59:29] So they're, they're talking about the Penguin over there.

[00:59:31] And then there's the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast, which is on a little bit of a hiatus

[00:59:37] right now, but they will be back and better than ever.

[00:59:42] So please go check out all of these affiliate podcasts.

[00:59:45] And thank you again for joining us.

[00:59:47] All of this information, as well as the info that Richard gave you about how you can get

[00:59:52] in contact with us is in the show notes.

[00:59:55] So once again, thank you for tuning in and we will see you all very soon.