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@here--be--lions
Mustang @ her enemies
“When was the last time you got your hooves bloody in a tussle, horsey?”
I was rereading chapter 27 and this line from Sevro to Virginia got me thinking about the next book (but what doesn’t).
I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what she’ll do now that she has Imperium. 🐴😈🍇
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Red Rising characters as Onion Headlines
Darrow:
Mustang:
Sevro:
Ephraim:
Lysander:
Lyria:
Victra:
Volga:
Pax:
Electra:
Fitchner:
Cassius:
Dark Age as a whole:
Accurate af
do you think cassius loved virginia? he talked about her pretty awfully at the gala
Hello, friend! This is a great question, and I don’t have a definite answer. Here’s some thoughts, though. It’s probably much more than you want, lol.
First, I honestly think Cassius said those things just to get under Darrow’s skin. He’s an idiot sometimes, but it seems like a dumb young man thing to do. Definitely doesn’t excuse it. But– and maybe it’s simply wishful thinking on my part– I’d like to think that in the chaos of what happened after, he found time to feel really guilty about what he said. Cassius has Big Himbo Energy (I believe I am using the term correctly), but he’s also Peerless Scarred and smart as the rest of them. He knows what to say and do to make Darrow angry.
I can’t say for sure if Cassius loved Virginia, but it’s obvious he had very strong feelings for her. I thought that they were just together in Golden Son for the politics of it all, and Cassius may have done it– in part– because he knew it would hurt Darrow. Up until Iron Gold, my impression was that he probably did like her well enough, but there was no strong attachment.
But in Iron Gold we learn that he got drunk and was really torn up when he learned that Virginia and Darrow married. So. Was he really in love with her? Is he still in love a decade later? Or is he merely mourning the loss of a life he could have held?
I definitely think it’s possible that the marriage was the final nail in the coffin, the last event in a long and probably painful fall for Cassius. He went from being the heir to one of the most powerful houses, having a strong family who did seem to care about him, achieving a powerful position himself as an Olympic Knight, and he was in a relationship with an amazing woman. Then civil war breaks out. Then his family is decimated. Then things fall apart until all he once knew and stood for is gone, and he’s alone with a kid trying to figure out how to survive in a world that would skin him alive if they ever knew his name.
I don’t know what kind of dreams or expectations that Cassius had for a relationship with Virginia, but her marriage is kind of the last thing in a long line of other things that have be irreparably broken or taken away from him.
I’m not totally convinced of this theory, but tbh it sounds more plausible than Cassius falling in love with Virginia and holding onto her for that long.
TL:DR I think he might have been in love with the idea of her and the idea of what a relationship or marriage or alliance with her could have been. Definitively, I can only say that he had a lot of strong emotion tied to her. That, at least, was real.
I think this is on the nose, or at least a big part of it. I’ve never really thought about it that deeply, but it always felt off to me that Cassius was still so cut up about losing Virginia 10 years later, even if he did love her back then. This explanation makes a lot of sense!
Updated RR Universe Character Chart
Hello Howlers! I've updated my character chart to reflect new information from Dark Age. Includes family trees, kills, relationships, etc. Please let me know if you see any discrepancies or if there is something I missed! This time, I excluded any characters who weren't connected in some way to the main web.
Link below; be warned, this contains pretty much EVERY SPOILER from Dark Age!
https://imgur.com/a/QY248Sc
edit: Want to shout out a thanks to the folks on reddit who helped me find some of the errors in my original chart posting. There could definitely still be some, so please let me know if you find any!
hello, I have just finished GS. that was a hell of a ride, fortunately tomorrow comes MS. can hardly imagine how it was for the people who had to wait a year for this book. But one question still bothers me, did Mustang have feelings for Cassius? she says no Darrow thinks yes. What do you think ?
oh, lovely, I’m so happy that you only have to wait a day for Morning Star! I was not part of the fandom when the original three books were coming out, but I imagine the agony was worse than what I’m feeling right now after Dark Age. Let me know what you think about EVERYTHING as you read Morning Star!!
As for Cassius and Mustang. Complicated.
What are their interactions? The first time they met must have been at the Institute, and there they didn’t really spend much time together. Then the cat’s out of the bag, Cassius is Bellona, Mustang is Augustus, and so in the years between Red Rising and Golden Son, they aren’t interacting until Mustang puts a plan in motion. From the moment she’s on Luna, she is plotting.
The next time Darrow (and the audience) sees them together, they are, well, together. But Mustang is using Cassius. So. What’s the truth?
I honestly don’t think Mustang ever had real romantic feelings towards him. She may have liked him as a person and saw his potential as a friend, but I don’t believe that she ever felt the same way Cassius did. The dude fell head over heels, but really, who wouldn’t?
I also think that, if Mustang ever found herself inching towards true romantic feelings, she would shut it down. She’s ruthless and smart, but she’s not an idiot. If the plan was to use Cassius, things become a lot more complicated once feelings are thrown in. She’s not sentimental. She’s not going to hope that things work out. Feelings would complicate her plans, so she would adjust.
I hope that answered the question? You’ll learn more as you read the next few books. I definitely almost put a HUGE Morning Star spoiler in here so like. Beware of me, lol. But I definitely want to hear what you think once you finished Dark Age (and read that Mustang POV *chef’s kiss*)
Great analysis! I mostly agree with this, the only thing I’d say is that I’m not sure whether Mustang would have been able to simply push aside any growing feelings for Cassius; I really think she just never had any. After all, if she was able to do something like that, wouldn’t she have shut down her feelings for Darrow long before that point? Maybe by the time she realized trying to be with him (Darrow) was going to be a mess it was too late. But it also seems like Mustang is the type who doesn’t develop feelings or even necessarily feel real attraction easily (some tidbits from her POV in Dark Age reinforce this for me). I also feel that, whatever else she may have thought about Cassius, she didn’t really respect the degree to which he couldn’t control/distance himself from his emotions. In Golden Son, she describes him as a “walking wound,” and it seems like her tone is one of pity and/or contempt (neither of which is very conducive to attraction). Darrow is obviously a different story; though he feels his emotions very powerfully, like Mustang he’s quite good at keeping them under his control, which I think is one of the things that attracts him to her.
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Dark Age Reread Questions and Observations!
I just reread Dark Age (much slower this time!) and picked up on some things I didn't really catch the first time around. A few questions and topics for discussion:
1. Obviously we didn't get much of the Rim in this book. There's been a lot of talk of Diomedes and some of Dido -- I'm curious about Marius and Pandora, who were introduced in IG but weren't mentioned at all in DA. What do you see their roles being in Book 6?
2. Is Pytha really going to stick with Lysander? Based on Lysander's last chapter monologue about "honor and cruelty in moderation," I'm expecting we're going to see him getting even darker in Book 6. Will Pytha have his back no matter what, or will her affection for Cassius get in the way? I think we're likely to see her betray him.
3. Who poisoned Kalindora? I think we can be reasonably confident it wasn't Darrow, as he never made any mention of poisoning his blade and has never done so in the past (wouldn't Lysander have checked the remnants of his slingBlade for poison after picking it up? What a dumbass). The obvious answer is Atalantia, but it almost feels so obvious that it might be a red herring. But who else could it be? Atlas?
4. What's the whole deal with Figment? The Fig we knew mentioned that she stole something from Quicksilver. Was it the parasite? The orb? What can we learn from what little the parasite has told Lyria? It mentions new protocols being implemented for "Énatos Figment" and "Sfaíra Access granted." Anyone know the etymology of those words, and what they may hint at? They seem like they might be Greek. Where is The Womb (Somewhere on Oculus presumably?) and who is Astarte? The parasite tells Lyria "She was you." Does that mean she was the original Figment? Was she the Brown, or someone who came before? Lots of questions surrounding this plotline that I'm excited to see answered.
5. What happened to Rhonna and Colloway? I think the last we heard about them, Darrow was wondering if Rhonna made it to the Morning Star, and then speculating that it was bound to be a tomb anyway, and implying that their survival was all up to Char. Are they alive? Did they escape, or were they captured by Society forces?
Also, a few observations/predictions
1. I actually wrote a whole post about this one, but - Volga, as mentioned in her letter to Lyria, has Situs Inversus, a condition where her organs are all on the opposite sides of her body than they would normally be. This means, among other things, that her heart is on the right side of her body, not the left. It seems unlikely to me that this is going to be throwaway information. I think we're gonna see that discrepancy save her life next book.
2. There seems to be some history between Rhone ti Flavinius and Holiday ti Nakamura - if I have their history right, the Nakamuras were protegés to Rhone, and were in the Dracones legion with him (would that put him on Attica with them when they rescued Darrow?). I predict a confrontation between the two of them in Book 6. Coincidentally (or maybe not), they are now both the Dux to Lysander and Virginia respectively, the leaders of their factions.
3. We very likely met Lyria’s brothers. In one of the later chapters, when Darrow is preparing for Lysander’s attack, he sends three Red snipers to try to take Lysander down. He asks if they are brothers, and they say yes (since Lyria has only two living brothers, one of the three is probably Varon, Liam’s father and Lyria’s brother-in-law). There was a “dour” one (Likely Dagan) and a handsome one (probably Aengus or Varon). At least one of them made it to the Mound with Darrow (with a head wound) and probably survived. Seems like too much attention was paid to them at a climactic moment for them to be just random Reds.
4. In one of the final chapters, Lysander notes that the Archimedes escaped with Darrow, Cassius, Thraxa, Harnassus, and "the core of the Howlers" onboard. I think we can assume that that includes Screwface. I missed the fates of Thraxa and Screwface after my first read, but now it seems they are all alive, which is good.
5. On the topic of Rhonna - I think she's alive (unlikely to be killed offpage after surviving Lysander), and my dark horse prediction is that she is going to be the one to kill Lysander. There are a few others who are probably more likely (best odds on Cassius, then Atalantia, then Darrow or Ajax), but I think dying by Rhonna's hand would be very satisfying and earned after his murder of Alexandar and general racism towards her. Double points if she just pops him in the head.
Chekhov’s Situs Inversus
Rereading Dark Age for the first time and was reminded of something that caught my attention the first go around. In Chapter 47, in one of the letters she wrote to Lyria, Volga remarks in passing that she (Volga) was born with her organs swapped around, putting her heart on the right side of her body. It’s never mentioned again. I’m predicting right now that this is gonna come up in book 6 - someone’s gonna stab or shoot her in the chest, and she’s gonna live cause they got the wrong side. Or something like that. You heard it here first!
Credit to @momuno for the idea behind this one
Female Friendships in DA (Spoilers)
I gotta say I’m pretty pleased that we finally got to see some solid female friendships develop in Dark Age. The obvious example is the Victra/Volga/Lyria trio, which was one of the best parts of the book for me. They’re all from super different backgrounds, but they’re all tough as shit and extremely loyal to those who earn it, and it was really great watching them all “earn it” from one another. I’ve seen some speculation about a potential Lyria/Volga relationship, which I’m all for after Dark Age.
The other one I noticed was Virginia and Holiday. I wouldn’t have really thought to put the two of them together, but I really enjoyed their dynamic. Virginia’s got a manipulative streak, which she needs in order to survive at this point, but I think given how much she worries about becoming her father it must be grounding to have a straight shooter like Holiday having faith in her. And for Holiday, who’s been so loyal to the Rising in spite of all its... uh... hiccups, I imagine it keeps the hope alive a bit to get close to and have the respect of the Sovereign, and to realize that she’s the real deal.
Anyway throughout the trilogy there’s been great development of romantic relationships and male/male or male/female friendships, but I’m glad that opening up the POVs to include more women has led to an increase in more well developed female friendships. Cheers to passing the Bechdel Test!
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“I was jealous of my sister, but I never wanted a husband, not me. Maybe I thought I wanted one. But that was just because it said something that I didn’t have one. That I got skipped over at WedAge.”
So am I alone in thinking that Lyria isn’t straight after reading this? Like, I’m sensing a pattern here:
Iron Gold has Ephriam bringing up to Lyria the heteronormativity of the mines, and when she meets Mustang for the first time, her reaction is basically “she’s gorgeous. No wonder the Reaper fell in love with her.”
Dark Age has the reveal that Dancer is gay and his whole backstory. Lyria bonding with Volga in a way that’s different from the bonding with Victra. This line, where she basically says the only reason she ever thought she wanted a husband was because of social stigma associated with not having one. And then, at the end of the book, her motivation to do something about the parasite inside her is motivated by a desire to help Volga.
Like, call me crazy, but I’m starting to ship Volga/Lyria. For their ship name, I propose Volyria (I apologize to Game of Thrones fans for the pun)
Sevro’s a Pixie
Ok but the album Doolittle by The Pixies has the most unbelievably massive Sevro Energy. It’s manic, angry, tongue-in-cheek, gruesome. They’re slicing eyeballs, they’re howling, they’re hype-manning for the god of death... Give it a listen and tell me I’m wrong
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PVyS9JwtFoQ&list=PLZqsyBiYZFQ10K3G23oyf671ndILXCMc-&index=2&t=0s
🗣I love Alexandar au Arcos🗣
Hit that mf reblog if you do too!
Dark Age Dark Age
ok so I finished Dark Age today and wanted to give me thoughts. Lemme tell you, I had miiiiixed fuckin feelings. Spoilers below the line
Pre Dark Age Hype
I’m back folks, and no question about it:
I just finished a readthrough of Iron Gold in preparation, and I have some updated thoughts/predictions/hopes/fears! (Mild spoilers for the Dark Age excerpt below the line)
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Playlist - Cassius au Bellona
A short playlist of Cassius inspired songs
Cassius,- - Fleet Foxes
No You Girls - Franz Ferdinand
Dancing Tonight - The Bones of J.R. Jones
Hurricane - Lord Huron
Murder in the City - The Avett Brothers
Chaos and Clothes - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Fun Times in Babylon - Father John Misty
Virginia Please - Dr. Dog
Dear Wormwood - The Oh Hellos
“I know who I am now
And all that you’ve made of me
I know who you are now
And I name you my enemy”
MUSTANG IS A POV CHARACTER IN DARK AGE THIS IS NOT A GODDAMN DRILL
