Red Rising

“You brave Red pioneers of Mars—strongest of the human breed—sacrifice for progress, sacrifice to pave the way for the future. Your lives, your blood, are a down payment for the immortality of the human race as we move beyond Earth and Moon. You go where we could not. You suffer so that others do not.” 

On holoCan screens throughout Lykos, Darrow sees the Society’s highest ruler, Octavia au Lune, spreading propaganda. Magnanimous and authoritative, she celebrates Red strength and sacrifice in their daily mining work on Mars. Darrow later learns that she is lying and that highColors have inhabited Mars’s surface for hundreds of years. 

“‘What do you live for?’ I ask her suddenly. ‘Is it for me? Is it for family and love? Or is it for some dream?’ ‘It’s not just some dream, Darrow. I live for the dream that my children will be born free. That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.’ ‘I live for you,’ I say sadly. She kisses my cheek. ‘Then you must live for more.’” 

Darrow and Eo, though deeply in love, find during this important conversation that they see life differently. Eo wants her people to thrive and resist their captors, while Darrow wants to share life with her. After she dies, Darrow takes her dream into his journey on Mars’s surface and sacrifices himself to see it realized. 

“My people sing, we dance, we love. That is our strength. But we also dig. And then we die. Seldom do we get to choose why. That choice is power. That choice has been our only weapon. But it is not enough.”

Meditating on Eo’s death, Darrow considers the meaning of her sacrifice—both to himself and to the power structures she sought to resist. Eo and his father both made statements through their deaths, but Darrow knows that these deaths alone will not make the changes they desired. The language in this quote also describes the powerful yet brief pleasures and pain that Reds experience. 

“The city is one of spires, parks, rivers, gardens, and fountains. It is a city of dreams, a city of blue water and green life on a red planet that is supposed to be as barren as the cruelest desert. This is not the Mars they show us on the HC. This is not a place unfit for man. It is a place of lies, wealth, and immense abundance.” 

Chapter 9 introduces a setting that contrasts sharply with that of Darrow’s native mines. The city on Mars’s surface glitters with futuristic glory and great pleasure for the privileged Golds and Silvers Darrow views out the window. The Society has lied to Reds that they will be the first to inhabit Mars’s surface and has, as Eo guessed, kept them enslaved while others profit from their work. 

“My eyes shine like ingots. My skin is soft and rich. My bones are stronger. I feel the density in my lean torso. When Evey is done cutting the golden hair, she stands back and stares at me. I can feel her fear, and I suffer it in myself. I am no longer a human. Physically, I’ve become something more.”

After Darrow’s excruciating metamorphosis, he emerges a beautiful, titanic iron Gold with superhuman abilities. He becomes a consummate Gold who can pass all Institute tests with flying colors and withstand the physical hardships that await. This transformation is also an elaborate disguise to hide the Sons of Ares’ plot against the Society, of which Darrow is now a crucial component. 

“An Aureate fights with a blade at the slightest provocation. They have honor the likes of which you know nothing about. Your honor was personal; theirs is personal, familial, and planetary. That is all. They fight for higher stakes, and they do not forgive when the bloodletting is done.”

Matteo explains Gold customs to Darrow as the Red prepares to live among them. Matteo’s intense warning foreshadows the family dynasties with which Darrow will fraternize at the Institute, including Bellona and Augustus. Later, Darrow will also run afoul of Cassius and incur his lifelong wrath because of family honor. 

“‘Look into yourself, Darrow, and you’ll realize that you are a good man who will have to do bad things.’ My hands are unscarred and feel strange when I clench them till the knuckles turn that familiar shade of white. ‘See. That’s what I don’t get. If I am a good man, then why do I want to do bad things?’” 

Dancer warns Darrow about the sacrifices his mission will require. As a Gold and as a revolutionary, he will have to make moral compromises. Darrow feels tension in his Helldiver hands, wondering if his heart is as pure as Dancer assumes. During his time at the Institute, Dancer’s forewarning will prove true many times as Darrow succumbs to vengeance and violence.

“‘Many Aureates have not sacrificed. That is why they do not wear this.’ He shows a long scar on his right cheek. [...] ‘The Scar of a Peer. We are not the masters of the Solar System because we are born. We are the masters because we, the Peerless Scarred, the iron Golds, made it that way.’” 

ArchGovernor Nero au Augustus is a Peerless Scarred, a Gold of the highest rank, and Darrow’s greatest enemy. He explains a brief history of the Golds’ dominion and how excess threatens to weaken their race. Augustus references sacrifices meant for personal gain—such as harming oneself and others to win—whereas Darrow lives to honor Eo’s selfless sacrifice on behalf of her people. 

“He strikes halfheartedly at me in a foreign, artistic way. He’s tentative, slow, but his timid fist gets my nose. Rage overtakes me. My face goes numb. My heart thunders. It’s in my throat. My veins prickle. I break his nose with a straight. God, my hands are strong.” 

Facing Julian in the Passage provokes a flurry of emotions in Darrow: disbelief, pity, confidence, fury, and grief. He decides to kill Julian not only for the good of the revolution but also amidst a blind, overpowering rage that will recur during future altercations at the Institute. This visceral fight scene also demonstrates the power of Darrow’s new Golden body, another asset he will use in later battles. 

“‘Blood begets blood begets blood begets blood…’ Roque’s words into the wind, which carries west toward the long plain and toward the flames that dance in the low horizon.” 

Wise and poetic, Roque becomes one of Darrow’s loyal friends at House Mars. He speaks amidst Mars’s civil war, during which Titus commits devastating acts against House Ceres including raping their young women. As Darrow lets Cassius believe Titus killed his brother Julian, Roque comments on the cycles of vengeance that course through the relationships in Red Rising.

“I killed the bloodydamn monsters. Now their daughters bloodywell get what she got.” 

With Titus’s utterance of the terms bloodydamn and bloodywell, Darrow learns that Titus is a Red like him. Matteo and Dancer trained Darrow to conceal not only Red terms like these, but also his thirst for vengeance against Eo’s killers. Titus reveals that just like Darrow, the Golds hurt a woman he loved and that he will commit atrocities at the Institute to exact revenge. 

“‘You killed Julian.’ A thrust accompanies the words, words he repeats until I no longer watch. […] He said he did it for justice, for the honor of his family and House. But this is revenge, and how hollow it seems.” 

At Titus’s trial, Darrow allows Cassius to kill the young man he assumes killed Julian. Darrow regrets this error in leadership, as it gives ground to vengeance rather than letting justice rule House Mars. This moment elaborates on the novel’s theme of revenge, a motive with which Darrow struggles as well.

“I forget that Cassius, Roque, Sevro, and I are enemies. Red and Gold. I forget that one day I might have to kill them all. They call me brother, and I cannot but think of them in the same way.” 

To Darrow’s surprise, he forms genuine bonds with Golds at the Institute. He shares more in common with characters like Cassius, Roque, Sevro, and Mustang than he expected and learns not all of them are as villainous as he assumed. In order to fulfill his mission, he must ensconce himself in the Golds’ world but reminds himself that he will have to choose his own people over them one day.

“Someone screams as they see Sevro and his Howlers cutting their way out of the stitched-up bellies of the dead and bloated horses that litter the mud up to the gate. Like demons being born, they slither from swollen guts and parted stomachs.” 

Sevro often proves Darrow’s secret weapon throughout his battles at the Institute. During this important fight scene, House Mars deceives House Minerva when Sevro’s troop of Howlers hides inside horse corpses. Sevro and Darrow share an affinity for surprising, messy attacks that more dignified Golds like Mustang might never attempt. 

“After my victory over Pax, my highDrafts seem to have finally fully embraced my leadership, even Antonia. It reminds me of how I was treated on the streets after Mickey carved me. I am the Gold here. I am the power. It’s the first time I’ve felt this way since sentencing Titus to death. Soon Fitchner will come down and give me the Primus hand from the stone and all will be well.” 

Throughout his time at House Mars, Darrow thirsts for the title of Primus and repeatedly exerts dominance over his classmates to earn this honor. Just as he gloated over winning the Laurel before the ceremony in Part 1, again Darrow anticipates an award he has not yet earned. As later scenes show, his pride obscures a realistic view of his House members, who are less loyal than they seem.

“We come as princes and this school is supposed to teach us to become beasts. But you came a beast.” 

Cassius confronts Darrow about killing Julian in the Passage and describes seeing footage of the act. He feels Darrow betrayed him and, moreover, is appalled at Darrow’s brutish manner of combat. Darrow’s fighting technique speaks to his rugged upbringing—in contrast to Cassius’s formal training—and the roiling rage he harbors. 

“Then, mastering my anger, I tell the members of my army that they will never be slaves in this game again, so long as they wear my wolfskin. [...] They want to win, but to follow my orders, to understand that I don’t think I’m some high and mighty emperor, their proud hearts need to feel valued. [...] Even when I am ruining their Society at the vanguard of a billion screaming Reds, they will tell their children that Darrow of Mars once clapped them on the shoulder and paid them a compliment.” 

Darrow adopts a new philosophy as he assembles his independent army. Rather than taking slaves, as the game dictates, Darrow gives his members the autonomy Mustang recommends and thus earns their loyalty. Darrow projects himself into the future, when he expects to become a revolutionary and a legend.

“‘Might makes right, Darrow. If I can take, I may take. If I do take, I deserve to have. This is what Peerless believe.’ ‘The measure of a man is what he does when he has power,’ I say loudly.”

As Augustus predicted, many Golds are not willing to put themselves or others at risk to win at the Institute, while more ruthless players like Tactus and Darrow have succeeded. Tactus echoes the ArchGovernor’s philosophy of seizing power and spoils for oneself. Darrow, on the other hand, has learned that cutting down others is not as effective as sacrificing himself. 

“The battle takes a collective breath as he wheels toward me like an elk turning on the leader of a wolfpack. We stalk toward one another. He lunges first. I dodge and spin along the length of the spear till I’m behind him. Then with one massive swing, like I’m hacking down a tree with my slingBlade, I break his leg and take his spear. He moans like a child. I sit on his chest, […].” 

During this pivotal battle, Darrow uses his signature Reaper weapon, the slingBlade, to defeat Apollo’s Primus. The active language also mirrors the quick, violent confrontation it depicts. Darrow’s plan to take down the cheating Proctors has succeeded, and he proudly basks in the glory while humiliating Novas. 

“‘I will make my own laurels.’ ‘Reaper. Reaper. Reaper. You think this is the end of the line?’ [...] ‘Negative. Negative, goodman. But if you let me go, then hardship…’ He makes a brushing motion with his free hand. ‘Gone. My father will become your patron. Hello, command. Hello, fame. Hello, power. Just say goodbye to this’—he gestures to the knife—‘and let your future begin.’” 

Darrow is determined to prove his mettle as the game’s winner. During this faceoff with the Jackal, his desire to compete fairly clashes with the Jackal’s political machinations. As the ArchGovernor’s son, he will use any means necessary to succeed. His offer to reward Darrow mimics the bribes Augustus gives the Proctors, as well as foreshadows the offer he makes Darrow in the book’s final scene. 

“He is like any other petty tyrant of history. A slave to his own whims. A master of nothing but selfishness. He is the Society—a monster dripping in decadence, yet seeing none of his own hypocrisy. He views all this wealth, all this power, as his right.” 

The final Proctor Darrow must defeat is the enormous Jupiter, whom he faces on the snowy surface of Olympus. Darrow compares Jupiter’s self-seeking entitlement to that of the Society at large, which similarly elevates the Golds rather than allow all Colors the chance to succeed. Having lived for a year in the Golds’ world, Darrow perceives their corruption with greater clarity than ever. 

“I wound up hanging on a scaffold because of my passion and sorrow. I ended up in the mud because of my guilt. I would have killed Augustus at first sight because of my rage. [...] But I know I have taken what no one else has taken. I took it with anger and cunning, with passion and rage. I won’t take Mustang the same way. Love and war are two different battlefields.” 

Darrow has resisted his growing attraction for Mustang throughout their time together. As he kisses her and contemplates having sex with her, he realizes that this game has tested his impulse control. Wanting to pass this test, he declines to act on his impulses now and wait for the influence of the game to subside before he takes things further with Mustang. 

“‘This is a blood feud,’ he hisses in highLingo. ‘If ever again we meet, you are mine or I am yours. If ever again we draw breath in the same room, one breath shall cease. Hear me now, you wretched worm. We are devils to one another till one rots in hell.’” 

Darrow’s final meeting with Cassius, who surrenders House Mars to his former friend, ends in this vicious declaration. Cassius’s pride and familial honor, as well as the memory of his brother Julian, pit him against Darrow for the rest of their lives. Readers might expect further developments in this blood feud in sequels to Red Rising.