u/SalaryCompetitive387

I did a re-read and this shit is genuinely cracking me up. Why on Earth was Mustang on demon timing during Morning Star? Compared to the rest of the books, she seemingly just had a full lock-in.

Lemme run down what she did:

1. Put belt-to-ass on Darrow
2. Jumped through a crashing ship and single handedly saved everyone
3. Leaped into a freezing lake to grab Ragnar and save his life
4. Fought two cannibalistic Obsidians
5. Nailed Cassius right in the jugular
6. Came up with most(assuming most of it was her idea since Darrow implied she posed it) of the coup at the end.
7. Fought Aja (probably the most insane thing here)
8. Cut off Octavia's head and tossed it in a room full of Gold senators.

What the fuck happened in the one year between Golden Son and Morning Star?! She has a baby at home! Why was she doing this? I get Darrow's reasoning because he's didn't know he had a child and wanted to end the war, but what was Mustang trying to do? This might've been the only book where her and Darrow traded places for the sane level-headed individual. She cannot just do this once and never do it again. We need this Mustang back in RG.

"ThIs HoRsE oNlY rIdEs FoR oNe MaN" Wrap it up bud.

Not only is this quote not the best Mustang quote, its not even the best Mustang quote in Dark Age.

The best quote for Mustang is: "But no matter what the Senate decides, at midnight on the first of May, I will come to Mercury. If fortune favors, it will be as a Sovereign. If not, it will be as a wife."

Why does nobody talk about how good this quote is? It perfectly encompasses Mustang's best qualities. She is doing everything in her power to do it the right way, yet even if it fails she is going to defy the system she set up just to keep her family and friends alive. This is just a beautiful quote in general. It shows the duality of both Virginia and the Sovereign perfectly.

In my opinion, its her best quote. You can argue that some other quotes may be better, but DEFINITELY NOT "This horse only rides for one man"

I really don't understand why people think Fitchner isn't one of the most intelligent characters in the entire series. I find it hard to believe people don't even rank him on intelligence lists! He's top 5 at the very least.

We all know the big dogs of intelligence: Atlas, Adrius, "Mustang"(Lots of speculation with her, not the place, go argue somewhere else), Quicksilver, and Darrow. Those are the 5 most intelligent characters we have seen. Planning, lateral thinking, emotional intelligence, stragety, you name it. But oh wait? Fitchner has all of those too. People seem to forget the type of situation this man was in, so let me quickly go over it(This might not be all accurate, but its close enough):

Fitchner operated in the same timeframe as Octavia. A control freak who was batshit insane and wanted nothing more than immortal power. Someone who prioritized Gold rule over all else and spit upon the faces of low colors. Fitchner not only ran the Sons of Ares during this time, but did it for roughly two decades. Combating a dictatorship which was hellbent on destroying them with some of the best technology. This required insane planning and I AM NOT downplaying Quicksilvers role in aid. That said, Fitchner ran loops around Octavia and in one of the most brilliant displays of intelligence, managed to invade Octavias circle. ARES was within INCHES of the SOVEREIGN of the system he was trying to dismantle. I'm sorry, but is that not what Mustang did but 20 times better? This is comparable levels of planning to Atlas(not as intelligent as Atlas). He helped Darrow in so many different ways through operating from the shadows.

The only reason he died was because he wasn't a red. Nothing to do with intelligence, which is imo one of the best written things for him.

Anyways, top 5 most intelligent character and CRIMINALLY underrated.

I saw a Game of Thrones post about the best generals from that universe and their win/loss ratio and that made me think of Red Rising generals. So I've attempted to pitch together the 7 generals who fought the most and how well they did. The definition I ran with was that it HAD to a MILITARY conflict. The second two "militaries" were face to face, its up for speculation. I then looked at the goals of each person and weighed at the end who really "won" the battle(A philosopher would say "No one wins wars" but that doesn't answer my question, so I'll ignore that).

All I want help with is just if this is just if this is correct and if they are any MAJOR flaws. I skimmed through and put together what I thought were military battles so please tell if me I am missing anything. I did the 7 people who fought the most, so they might not be running with the title of "generals" but they still fight so it doesn't matter.

1. Darrow 7W 1L. Wins are Destroying Mustangs house, beatinhAgea, Ilium, Battle of Mars, Mercury, Ladon, Heliopolis. His only loss was Operation Tarturus.
2. Orion 5W 2L. Wins are Ilium, Luna, Battles of mars, Mercury rain,

Ladon. Losses are roque, and white fleet ambush
3. Roque. 4W 1L. Wins are sieges of mars, Deimos, Callisto, Rim battles. Losses are ilium.
4. Victra. 3W 0.5L. Wins are Agea, Ilium, luna. Losses are Phobos(killed Ajax but still technically a loss, but I’ll give her 0.5 to be fair.)
5. Atlantia 3W 1L. Wins are white Ambush, retaking mercury, conquest of earth. Losses are Ladon(initially)
6. Lysander 2W 1L? Wins are Heliopolis and Phobos. Loss is mercury
7. Virginia 0W 3L. Wins are none. Losses are: against Darrow, against Roque, Phobos.

I don’t know how much of this is right and I’d love if someone could fact check me!

Shitpost #5

I understand this is probably a question YOU (yes, you specifically) have been wondering for quite a while. Do not fret my young friends, for I will quell this insatiable thirst for answers. It is common knowledge that Cassius and Virginia were in a "relationship" which was very clearly one sided. Virginia did not care for Cassius and same way he did. Virginia directly says:

>"I sought out a relationship with Cassius for the same reason I let the Sovereign think she was turning me against my father: to protect my family."

Now, its clear from this that Virginia only sought Cassius for the sake of her family and good relations with the Bellona family who were undoubtably the biggest rivals of house Augustus. However, Cassius didn't view this relationship the same. In Iron Gold, Cassius is gone for ten years with Lysander for a "self-imposed exile" following the "destruction" of his house and legacy. Here he meets a new friend: alcohol. Cassius and alcohol are as intertwined as Julian and death. But, something strange happens here that I KNOW sparked YOUR interest.

>"Cassius fell and struck his head when drinking long ago—after news reached us of Darrow and Virginia’s wedding."

and another

>"Neither can the protective warmth I felt all those times when Pytha and I helped him back to his bunk when he was so drunk he could not even stand but he could murmur Virginia’s name."

My fellow goodmen, this is the clearest example of the phenomena "Snow Bunny Mind Control". Cassius cannot even stand, yet he reserves whatever strength he has left just to murmur Virginia's name. I wish I could tell you this does not go further, but it does:

>“That’d be a dance. Say, didn’t you bed her, Cassius?”
“I never kiss and tell.” Cassius nods to the battle.

With all these quotes laid out, we can appropriately assume Cassius and Victra had a relationship at one point. Granted, this is HEAVILY IMPLIED and may not actually be truthful. Disregarding that previous sentence entirely and utilizing this to fit my agenda, we can now use this evidence. Now if you have eyes, you know how Victra is. Victra is described consistently as extremely beautiful, yet Cassius only speaks of Virginia's name? Cassius is a known playboy and has been with COUNTLESS women, yet none of them compare to Virginia. The only plausible explanations is that either Virginia has some kind of mind control that she placed Cassius under or she is just the most beautiful person in the entire series. Comparing Victra to Virginia based on text descriptions is difficult, but it favors Victra in terms of beauty. With all this laid out: Virginia's indifference to Cassius, Cassius's emotional attachment to Virginia, and Cassius's disregard of other relationships in comparison to his and Virginia's, ONE thing is clear. So, for the question that has been pulled through this thread: Is Cassius under snow bunny mind control? The answer my friends...is yes.

Pierce Brown PLEASE drop Red God, I am losing my mind.

It’s Lyria. Not even a debate. To all you feeble minded sociopathic pixies who disagree, YOU ARE WRONG. Everything Lyria represents is so beautiful. How can anyone even care about fight scenes when you have such amazing writing right in front of you?

And for all of you that are going to say “Erm actually Victra’s hot” Fuck you gooner pixie nerds. There is so much more to a character than seductive dialogue. For too long have I seen posts where my Red Queen isn’t valued. The whole point of this world to see how it affects all the people. All the choices Darrow and the other characters make need to be seen from the eyes of someone without the power of a demigod.

She is not a crybaby. The entire society sucks and being able to see the consequences of a dream is extremely important to the story. The endurance she has is incredible and it isn't talked about enough.

Heres a ranking of the best female characters:

1. Lyria

2. Volga

3. gap

4. gap

5. gap

6. gap

7. gap

8. gap

9. gap

10. Victra.

All other characters are irrelevant and losers. Lyria gaps Victra to hell. She is the Red God and will avenge Cassius. You can quote me on that.

I’m trying to think of people to slander in more posts but I’m blanking. Who are the biggest frauds of this series and why?

Shitpost #3.

To truly delve into the character of Karnus, we first need the context of what absolute humiliation looks like. The definition of humiliation is: the state of feeling ashamed, degraded, or stripped of your dignity. It is a painful loss of pride and self-respect, usually caused by someone else's actions or by an embarrassing public situation.

With this knowledge in mind let us gaze upon the actions of Red Rising's biggest aura loss. Karnus begins out as a myth/legend of a man who killed Claudius Au Augustus, Nero's golden child(Shitpost #2). We see him in action destroying Darrow's ship and getting him benched. At the gala he took down Leto. All this build up...

The one instance that needs focus is none other the final scene Karnus was present in. Darrow is half dead, on his feet at the mercy of Octavia. Karnus is completely fine and ready for battle. The odds calculated give Karnus a 99.9% win rate and somehow he manages to find the 0.01% loss and immediately gets beheaded by a half dead Darrow who is bleeding in eight separate locations. Mind you, he was just submerged in a sea of mud and had been on the frontlines.

30 year old dead beat eldest son of prized family loses to homeless orphan. That is the final legacy Karnus leaves behind.

Now to explore the bigger connotations of this legacy and what it means for future characters. I fully attribute the death of Cassius purely to humiliation of Karnus. Now, you might think this is a bit of a stretch, but I have perfect evidence to back me up.

>“My razor. The one Cassius gave me on my sixteenth birthday. The one that belonged to Karnus. ”

This is the first time I have ever felt bad for Lysander. Cassius's donation of a razor graced by fraud and humiliation is a direct attack on Lysanders dignity. It does not take a genius to put 2 and 2 together to realize that the pure motive behind Cassius's death was none other then this moment right here. All other aspects of the story are irrelevant and should be ignored. This is why Lysander did it.

A man so highly praised by society as the ArchGovernor of Mars has had the WORST offspring humanly possible. Look at this from his point of view and imagine seeing your two kids go to the institute (having had years of the best treatment as children of one of the powerful houses on the planet) and get destroyed. You look one way and see Virginia's entire house got obliterated. You look the other way and see Adrius who you rigged the entire thing for get stripped naked and tossed infront of a homeless orphan by none other than Virginia. You wait a few years and your daughter is now dating the golden boy of the house you despise and your son is schizophrenic.

I can't find it not hilarious how much Nero tried to replace Claudius because of how horrible his remaining children were. The most emotion we've ever seen from this man was how distraught he was when Leto died.

>“Leto!” Augustus roars. His eyes widen and he pushes against the Telemanus men, who bear him away.”

This is more love than he's ever shown either of his living children.

Octavia's elaborate plan to kill Nero could've been over in a single chapter if she just locked him in a room with a compilation of all the moments I listed and a rope.

(I know some of these feats from his two kids have bigger things behind them. I don't care. Its funny to think about what Nero was thinking before he knew anything)

Mustang slander to me always feels weird because you never know if someone has actual good criticism or is just being misogynistic. This post is more just about a questioning to why PB made the choices he did and make Mustang look like a fraud.

In every slander post I see, Mustang's humiliation by Roque is like the number 1(that or book 1 Darrow outsmarting her). I was pretty disappointed when I saw the smart character getting outsmarted in such lackluster ways, but the argument of her "not being a fleet commander" is pretty strong. I think people forget her role is in politics and that she isn't a fighter, a commander, or a howler and that she isn't going to be great at those.

Now...keeping that in mind...why is she always in moments where those things are demanded? She's political of course...so why is she in a 4v1 with Aja? Why is she in a naval fight with Roque? Why is flying a burning jet through an atmosphere? Why is leading a house when being a leader isn't her role? Why is she written in all these situations when NONE of them value her strengths?

This is a genuine question because I think all the slander would go away if she was written to actually stick to her strengths. PB made all these cool moments for her in the first 3 books...but in Iron Gold, Dark age, and Light Bringer? Nothing. She never does anything or improve on any of these moments.

With all that said, my question still stands. If none of these are her strengths, then why is she always doing them? If PB was going to make her fully political, then why even bother with all these scenes? I was really expecting cooler moments from her in books 4-6 because we just had so many in 1-3. It just feels disappointing that we completely lose this side of her.

Reminder, this is not a hate post, so don't hate. I just want to know what people think about this.

6 books in and I've seen so many frauds here, but I really want to know which people have the highest seats on the fraud council. That is why I require help in determining the biggest bums in the universe. Here is what I have so far:

1. Lorn. Non negotiable. The greatest razor master's best feat was killing an unarmed defenseless Tactus who surrendered 8 minutes ago. Lorn Au Fraudcos

2. Lysander. 0 razor duels won. 0 battles. 20 people gunned down from 30 feet away.

3. Karnus. Cassius should've just forgot he was his brother after that pitiful performance. Personally I would NOT want that guy associated with my family name. Darrow was genuinely on deaths door and this guy still found a way to lose in a 5 foot distance between the two. HE WAS ON HIS KNEES AND KARNUS WAS NOT INJURED AT ALL. He was in prime condition and got beaten in 3 seconds.

4. Antonia. What does she even do?

5. Fa. Try to name a feat challenge(impossible)

6. Darrow in book one when Antonia tricked him into following Roque and getting ready to kill him. Even though Darrow didn't fully fall for this, he had to make sure this trap would never get him again by repeating the exact same mistake 2 chapters later with Cassius.

7. Priam. Waste of life. Olympic gold medalist vs fented out gremlin

Who else deserves to be here and who should be the top 3 biggest frauds? I think Lorn and Karnus should hold the top 1 and 2, but I'm not sure about 3.