#Darrow and Lysander
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Darrow vs Lysander - symbolism and favored weapons
Okay this I a bit of analysis that has been turning around in my brain since I finished Light Bringer. There will be major spoilers for all of the books, so read on at your own discretion.
And of course if anyone has points to add please do! This is by no means exhaustive, just a compilation of my main thoughts on the whole thing!
Darrow basically grew up with a weapon in his hand, since he started mining at age thirteen. It becomes part of his identity, an extension of himself. It’s also a symbol of his people, as all Red miners are given one. So as a Red, he already closely identifies with the slingBlade as a weapon, as a cultural symbol, and as a means of protection.
“I wonder what Eo wants of me. Does she want me to take my slingBlade and start a rebellion? I would die. My family would die. She would die, and nothing would make me risk her. She knows that.”
(RR Ch 4)
“This is your slingBlade, son. It will scrape the earth’s veins for you. It will kill pitvipers. Keep it sharp and if you get stuck in the drills, it will save your life for the price of a limb.” So said my uncle.”
(RR part III intro)
Lysander, on the other hand, is trained by his grandmother from childhood to use his mind as his weapon. He is capable of using a razor after spending a decade with Cassius, but his mind was his first weapon. It’s also a callback to the Jackal losing his hand and being mostly unaffected - because all Golds are taught that their mind is their first and greatest weapon.
“He sighs. “I told you. I am something different than you. A hand is a peasant’s tool. A Gold’s tool is his mind. Were you of better breeding, you may have realized this sacrifice means so very little to me”
(RR Ch 41)
“Skipping supper. No wonder you’re a little twig,” Cassius says, pinching my arm. “I daresay you don’t even weigh a hundred ten kilos, my goodman.”
“It’s usable weight,” I protest. “In any matter, I was reading.” He looks at me blankly. “You have your priorities. I have mine, muscly creature. So piss off.”
(IG Ch 8/ Lysander 1)
“My memory is a formidable thing. In many ways it is my grandmother’s great legacy, her teachings preserved in me.”
(IG Ch 8/ Lysander 1)
But the mind isn’t a symbol on its own, there’s no cultural gravitas to it. So to him physical weapons are tools that are an extension of his intellect. In that world view, a gun is the most practical choice of tool. Firearms are the great equalizer - you can be smaller, weaker, less trained than your opponent and there’s still a VERY good chance that you will win any fight.
This leads into another similar understanding that he and Darrow share: their rise must be meteoric. Darrow accomplishes this the hard way, through pain and training and failures. He builds himself as a symbol because he knows that’s the only way to start the chain reaction of bringing Gold down. He is a symbol, and so are his tools. The slingBlade becomes a symbols of liberation when once (as just a razor) it was a tool of the enemy.
Lysander? He cuts corners, because the tools don’t matter only the endgame does. He’s not trying to build something new, or inspire his followers to fight for something they never thought possible. He is fighting to reestablish the status quo as swiftly as he can. He doesn’t need to fight from the ground up to become a symbol - as a Lune, he already is a living breathing symbol of Gold, and that’s enough.
“Dancer would want me to accept the offer. It would guarantee my survival. Guarantee my meteoric rise. I would be inside the halls of the ArchGovernor’s mansion. I would be near the man who killed Eo. Oh, I want to accept. But then I would have to let the Proctors beat me. I’d have to let this little whorefart win and let his father smile and feel pride. I’d have to watch that smug smile spread across his bloodydamn face. Slag that. They’ll feel pain.”
(RR Ch 41)
“He sneers at the gun. “No honor.”
“No time.”
I shoot Alexandar in the head”
(DA Ch 81)
He studies those who came before him, flipping their symbols and methods against them instead of doing anything new. He quotes poems like Roque, uses Darrow’s Morningstar as his flagship, claims to be honorable like Cassius - but it’s hollow because these aren’t his achievements. He doesn’t subvert the paradigm like Darrow does constantly, he just borrows and steals to get his way.
Darrow sees himself as the sword of his people, but he’s more than that because he put in the work to be more. He questions if he’s a good man, but the we see the weight his decisions have on him. But because he built himself up, he has a community that loves him, friends and family that are truly loyal and will check his worst impulses. He is the symbol, but he’s anchored by those he represent. It’s real and has meaning because of all the sacrifices he has had to make.
Lysander can’t even unite the Golds because he is built upon lies. His parents and their deaths, a lie. His grandmother’s teachings, all lies and propaganda. The Golden lies of the Society he so desperately wants to restore. He is built upon lies and hollow promises, of course he collapses into Gold dogma at the first sign of pressure. He has no idea what he’s doing, but he’s sacrificing everything and everyone to prop up this dying system, because that’s where he feels safe. He has no symbols to look up to, no culture to give him strength and community. Anything that could have grounded him is gone (often because of his own actions). Pytha and Cassius were his only family left and he rejected them and their teachings. More than ever before there’s nothing holding him back. He has his mind and it is telling him the only way to be safe is to double down and become the worst of Gold.
#red rising#literary analysis#iron gold#pierce brown#darrow of lykos#darrow au andromedus#Lysander au lune#the jackal#red rising trilogy#mypost#Darrow and Lysander#character foils#narrative foils
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Darrow and Lysander by iparwing
#fanart#red rising#golden son#morning Star#iron gold#dark age#darrow of lykos#lysander au lune#light bringer#pierce brown#red rising series#red rising saga
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Darrow in Lysander’s chapters:
Darrow in his own chapters:
#the puppies are the howlers btw#red rising#darrow of lykos#darrow au andromedus#lysander au lune#dark age#light bringer#red god#pierce brown#red rising saga#red rising series
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Lysander fans: Lysander is the main character now because he’s trying to rebuild what Darrow broke!
Me: You mean the CHAINS?!?!
#red rising#red rising saga#darrow of lykos#dark age#iron gold#red rising trilogy#iron gold trilogy#darrow au andromedus#pierce brown#lysander au lune
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Red Rising characters as questionable lyrics from Taylor Swifts new album
(For legal purposes this is a joke)
Darrow:
Mustang:
Sevro:
Cassius:
Victra:
Lyria:
Lysander:
#red rising#darrow of lykos#virginia au augustus#cassius au bellona#sevro au barca#victra au julii#lyria of lagalos#lysander au lune#I rise from the dead only to be immediately crucified by the red rising swifties#genuinely I enjoy much of Taylor’s discography but there were some Choices made on this album#that deserve to be clowned a bit and well#*squeezes big red nose* honk honk bitch
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half-finished Red Rising art (darrow and lysander)
can u tell I have a certain composition i like using (dont answer that) (i like drawing people standing in spacey voids with crecent shaped weapons)
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manifesting 🙌
#red rising#light bringer#red god#lysander au lune#darrow of lykos#light bringer spoilers#i need this i earned this i deserve this#i'm sorry i forgot rhonna it's just that i suffer from terminal dumdum disease
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JFC that's a bar
#book review#dark age#red rising#pierce brown#darrow of lykos#lysander au lune#i do not like our chances but let's go king#my take re lysander aged pretty well
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Darrow is such a diva
“We brush away light resistance at the drowned storm god” says Darrow O’Lykos as Lysander au Lune describes what to him is the most harrowing fight during his time on Mercury and then proceeding to have his eye burnt out of his skull.
This will NEVER fail to make me laugh.
#red rising#darrow of lykos#sevro au barca#red rising saga#red rising series#darrow au andromedus#red rising trilogy#cassius au bellona#darrow#sevro#dark age read through#dark age#iron gold tetralogy#virginia au augustus#mustang#lysander au lune#lysander
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"Diomedes is talking. I can't hear what he says. He's enraged. I've never heard him so angry."
Diomedes to Lysander:
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This is Darrow’s biggest “I’m Him” moment so far
#red rising series#dark age spoilers#darrow of lykos#lysander au lune#the reaper of mars#red rising#myth reads#dark age
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Red Rising Characters + Reductress headlines
Darrow
Sevro
Virginia
Victra
Cassius
Lysander
Lyria
Ragnar
Adrius
Pax Augustus
Red Rising Characters + Reductress headlines (1/?)
#red rising#red rising series#darrow of lykos#darrow au andromedus#sevro au barca#virginia au augustus#victra au barca#victra au julii#adrius au augustus#pax Augustus#cassius bellona#cassius au bellona#ragnar volarus#lyria of lagalos#lysander au lune#personal#source: Reductress#Reductress headlines
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Lysander, softly, holding a gun to Darrow’s head: Mors vincit omnia. Death conquers all, Reaper, and he comes for you now. So, as a final courtesy, I ask: who is your favorite poet?
Darrow, utterly unimpressed: Sevro Barca
Lysander: Seriously?
Darrow: *raises an eyebrow*
Lysander, sighing: Fine. If your heart beats like a drum—
#*wolf howls sound in the distance and darrow smiles*#come on lysander you can’t just set him up like that#red rising#light bringer#red god#pierce if you want to make this interaction happen it’s yours I surrender my intellectual property#lysander au lune#darrow of lykos#sevro au barca#sevro barca#pierce brown
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i know we all hate lysander and whatever but i think what makes his character so compelling is how pierce has written him to feel like he is darrow’s double, and while the reader slowly sees through that, most other characters don’t. they don’t know darrow like we do, or like darrow’s family know him. most golds just think he is this untouchable iron gold, both a genius and a monster. and lysander is desperate (since he was a boy) to be exactly like darrow.
but in reality, we know the truth, lysander is actually darrow’s foil. he is the opposite of everything darrow truly is, because he never got to know darrow. he only knows the darrow from the institute, from the hc’s, the darrow that killed his grandmother. by trying to be like darrow, lysander became everything darrow is not.
can’t wait for lysander to finally understand that.
#red rising#darrow andromedus#darrow au andromedus#lysander au lune#red rising saga#pierce brown#iron gold#dark age#light bringer
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Prayer circle for the hope that Darrow gets to kill Lysander in the next book.
🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🛐🛐🙏🙏🙏
#lysander au lune#red rising#darrow of lykos#darrow au andromedus#red rising trilogy#red rising saga#red rising series#light bringer#please please please please someone kill this insufferable twink
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Light Bringer summarized using only Reductress headlines
Darrow:
Cassius:
Sevro:
Virginia:
Victra:
Lysander:
Lyria, ditching the figment:
Volga, among the Volk:
Everyone in chapter 48:
Darrow, trying to reach a peace with the Lysander and the rim:
#red rising#light bringer#light bringer spoilers#darrow of lykos#cassius au bellona#sevro au barca#virginia au augustus#victra au julii#lysander au lune#lyria of lagalos#Volga fjorgan#I did this with onion articles when dark age came out it seemed only fitting to do it for lb
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