I just finished the first trilogy, and while I can see why people love it, I’m struggling with a sense of disconnect that I can’t quite shake. I think it comes down to how much I felt Darrow’s love for Eo and the raw pain of her death at the start.
The more the story shifted toward the "Mustang era," the more it felt like the narrative was protecting the High Golds we’re supposed to like, rather than holding them accountable.
One of the biggest moments for me was Nero au Augustus’s death. The story built up this massive moral collision: Darrow having to choose between his love for Mustang and getting justice for Eo. But then he doesn’t get to do it. To me, that felt like a "bailout." It kept Darrow’s hands clean so his relationship with Mustang could stay "perfect," but it robbed us of seeing Darrow make the kind of cruel, hard choice a real revolutionary has to make.
It also bothers me how quickly the Reds, including Darrow’s mom accept Mustang. Victra mentions that Darrow’s mom doesn't like her, which feels honest. But Mustang gets a total pass. She knew the reality of the mines. She lived in a palace built on slave labor and never planned to change anything until it affected her. I really felt like we needed a scene where she sat down with Darrow’s mother and actually apologized for the cruelty her people inflicted. Without that, her "goodness" feels like a performance.
I’ve seen a lot of fans rooting for Darrow to have a "Happy Ending" as a father and husband, but I don’t think he’s meant for that. He was stolen of his first life and his first family. He resents his father for being an absent martyr, yet he’s choosing the exact same path with Pax.
Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the path chose Darrow more than he chose it. I can't help but wonder if, at the end, he’ll realize he made the same mistake Eo did: prioritizing a "Bigger Picture" over the people he loved, only to realize too late that the price was too high.
Does anyone else feel like the story became too protective on the "Power Couple"? Or am I just too biased toward the "Red" perspective we started with?