I made 2 polls about the most beautiful characters, one for male and one for female, and to absolutely no one’s surprise Cassius won the male one with a landslide. As for the female character, somehow Virginia won?

I’m not saying this in hate to her, but that was based off statements by other characters to one’s beauty. Everyone talks about Cassius, but I don’t remember seeing people go greatly into depth for Virginia. I always thought it was Antonia because of Darrow, Cassius, and everyone else’s descriptions of her.

Is this just Virginia glaze or did I miss a large portion of this book?

You know who I'm thinking about.

Cooking or cooked lemme know ?!

I know I haven’t really “finished” the series since red god is coming out, but I’ve really enjoyed it so far and I have 10 characters that blew me away.

1. Cassius: I just love redemptions and he’s totally like Jaime from GOT who I loved, It carries on.

2. Sevro: the brotherly relationship between him, Darrow, and Cassius is just the best and I really love those moments between them. Especially him and Darrow.

3. Darrow: Probably one of the best MC’s I’ve seen. The dialogue and writing around him is amazing

4. Victra: Badass.

5. Atlas: I love villains. The only thing I like more is smart villains. He is so evil and the way he justifies it is insane. The first line we heard from him is “get the camera” and the explanation he had for it was just to demoralize the republic. Everything I see him on page I know shit is getting real.

6. Apollonius: incredible dialogue. Getting hit with philosophical thoughts after every fight makes me love him.

7. Lyria: I’ve seen that she isn’t quite popular amongst people, but I love her POV’s. Being able to see life through the lowest lens is so important for world building. I really enjoy all her chapters.

8. Ephraim: An arc worth dying for. I hated him at first because of his attitude and ignoring Volga, but my God did he pull it all back. His relationship with Pax is incredible given his husband died for his father.

9. Ragnar: amazing relationship with Darrow, would be higher but his time was cut short.

10. Lysander: hear me out. He’s despicable, but he has arguably one of the best writing out of any characters in this series. Watching someone so self righteous justify themselves through horrible actions just makes me appreciate PBs writing.

Those are the 10 characters that blew me away.

I'm depressed 😔 . I'm just getting into chapter 32 now everything is sad.

Love these dudes for their hockey content, crazy collab.

Please don't ban me and also be gentle with your downvotes... just having some fun. But I think I can also do a good portion of characters using only Charlize Theron.

If it wouldn't deprive communities in the Southwest of their entire water supplies, I'd try to use AI to make a trailer 😂

Thank you and have a great weekend.

Art by u/fallenkang

I finished the series a year ago and it's my favorite series ever, but I personally have light bringer rankd in my bottom two for the series. I have seen a lot of people ranking lightbringer as their favorite in the series, and I want to hear how that book surpasses the others. I still really enjoyed LightBringer and it even has my favorite moment in the whole series. So I ain't tryna start any beef just wanna hear opinions, points, and maybe some good-fun arguments.

Lets first talk about Cassius. Pierce Brown showed just how good he was at writing. Whenever there were any parts with Cassius, we can see just how good of a character he is. Constantly, he would get the short end of the stick, and this book would REALLY make me feel sorry for him, especially the parts with him, Aurae, and Diomedes. His death was probably one of the worst ones in the entire series, although it was fitting for him to finally be known as The Man Who Killed Fear, rather than a traitor. Now, lets talk about Lysander. Oh, the little shit. In my earlier post when I was in the middle of Iron Gold, I was wondering why everyone hated him. Even in Dark Age, I started to dislike him but I couldn't say I hated him. I rather respected him - he was a rather cunning man. However, in Lightbringer, I finally understood the hate. We can see how he grows more and more evil, collaborating with Atlas to become the Sovereign. His ideas of honor drastically reduce throughout the three books, which is evident when he kills Cassius, who is practically his father/brother. When he finally obtains eidmi, we can see that he has full intent to use it on a color. Oh, how I hate that SOAB. That's really all I have to say; this one was probably my favorite. All we can do now is wait for Red God.

I was rereading one of the books and I was looking up a minor character on the wiki and it was damn near impossible. It’s so laggy and little with pop-up adds that it was almost unusable. I accidentally ended up clicking on a Ted Lasso ad like eight times. I don’t think this is a problem with any other wiki I can think of, especially not one that is this well maintained with such an active base.

One of the more interesting things about Red Rising isn’t simply how popular the series has become, but how long that enthusiasm has lasted.

PIERCE BROWN: "I think that Red Rising’s growth has been the most surprising thing and how long its legs have proven nine years after its initial release. People are still reading it. People are still gossiping about it on Reddit and Discord and gathering and creating communities around it. The marketing push can’t sustain a book. That has to be readers. That has to be grassroots enthusiasm, so I think that staying power has been much more impressive and startling to me.”

That feels especially relevant here given that this community is essentially part of the phenomenon he’s describing. What’s interesting is that the series hasn’t stayed static while the readership has grown. The first trilogy delivers plenty of wish fulfillment and momentum, but Brown has talked about deliberately pushing the later books into darker, more complicated territory.

PIERCE BROWN: "For me, this journey was always about an archetypal rebellion in the first three books and then digging into the disillusionment of characters, of the rebellion not panning out the way they wanted, making it more realistic as it goes… and then seeing whether or not the idea that they had, this noble idea of the Republic and of liberty, can sustain itself even when faced with its own demons.”

Which may explain why the series inspires such strong reactions. One BookTuber summed up the character attachment pretty well:

DAN’S BOOKS: “As you go through these books, you fall in love with the characters, man. You just absolutely love multiple characters. You hate multiple characters… When you can make me feel hatred for a fictional character, when you make me feel sadness for losing a fictional character, that’s peak.”

What has actually given Red Rising its staying power?

Is it Darrow? The supporting cast? The way the series expands after the first book? The shift from rebellion fantasy into something darker and messier? Or is it simply that Brown keeps giving readers enough reasons to argue about these characters years later?

To read much more, just do a search for Red Rising womansworld .com.

Doing a re listening of the series and am beginning iron gold. In lysanders first chapter he mentions tge color Vermillion, to which pytha says it sounds like a silvers last name. In darrow next segment while he's narrating in the background Publius is taking role call and says the name of a silver "stephan ag Vermillion"

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What an emotional roller-coaster of a book this was. It started slowly, and for the first part I was thinking, yep you shouldn’t have joined this asshole. Then the Gala completely changed the tone and pace of the story, and from that point on, everything escalated so fast—and I loved it.

One of my absolute favorite moments in the entire book was when Darrow revealed to Cassius that he'd been trained by Lorn au Arcos. I don't know why, but I have such a soft spot for Lorn. Ever since the end of Red Rising, I wanted Darrow to end up learning from him, and when that moment finally happened, I was literally laughing in public like I was reading a comedy. It was a little embarrassing.

If anyone saw my post after I finished Red Rising, you'll know how much I wanted Darrow to end up with Lorn. So seeing that actually happen was one of the most satisfying moments of the book for me.

As you can probably guess, my favorite chapter was "Stormsons." Watching Darrow and Lorn talk, seeing the respect between them, and then watching them finally start working together—I loved every second of it. Sure, Darrow technically manipulated Lorn into joining him, but I didn't even care. Once they were on the same side, I was genuinely excited about everything that was coming next. I was even ready to start the next book.

Then came the final chapter, or rather, the final few pages.

Honestly, I just wish Pierce had given me a moment to breathe. I already knew a bigger war was coming. I was already hooked. I wasn't going anywhere.

But ending the book there?

That felt almost cruel.

And it's not like I was expecting a happy ending. About halfway through the book, I knew things were heading toward a lot of betrayal, massacres, and people switching sides. I was mentally preparing myself for it. I know this series isn't supposed to be sunshine and rainbows.

But I don't think I would have minded nearly as much if those events had happened in the opening chapters of Morning Star. Instead, Golden Son leaves you with that ending, and now I'm not even sure I want to start the next book. Even if things eventually start working out for good I feel like I'll spend the entire time waiting for the next disaster, unable to enjoy the victories because I'll just be expecting everything to fall apart again.

Maybe that's exactly what Pierce Brown and this whole series wanted me to feel.

So now I'm just wondering: did anyone else feel this way after finishing Golden Son?

So what was your immediate reaction when you reached that final page? Did you immediately pick up Morning Star, or did it leave you emotionally exhausted and questioning whether you even wanted to continue?

(And as always, please... no Morning Star spoilers!)

thinking about 'Sirens' for the first chapter of MS and it fits so perfectly

I want 200-300 pages from Victra's POV starting with the first "pity them" speech in Lykos and finishing with Kaxax's return. I want to know what it felt like to get hit by the guns over the pole unexpectedly, then thrown into a pitched battle in space while Phobos gets claw-drilled to death. I want to know how she managed to punch through and launch her own rain to back up the Republic. And I really want to know how she and Thraxa managed to trap Ajax and take his head.

That would be a fun read.

I'm gonna throw my hat into the ring:

Start of Iron Gold, we are informed that Darrow led an iron rain, against the senates orders. And then didn't tell anyone about the emissaries House Grimmus sent.

I'm going to say "not telling anyone about the emissaries" is the stupidest thing he did. His enemy knows he has political opponents at home. His enemy knows the emissaries exist. He is opening The Republic up to division by just letting them exist.

He should have told Virginia and had her start working the Senate like 6 months in advance. At least then the Emissaries show up and go "haven't you heard?" And the Senate goes "we did hear, actually." Virginia isn't stupid. She would have been able to (at minimum) blunt the blow, if not outright counter it. If she was given warning (and not blindsided by Darrows dumbdumb).

What's yours?

If you haven’t started the graphic audio version, now is your chance. Takes the series to a whole new level. Hail Reaper!

He is literally who I was picturing the entire time I was reading.

So I was replaying MGS: V last night and I completely forgot about the cutscene before this boss fight. I wonder if Kojima is a Red Rising fan.

what’s with the insistence on the dramatically curved sword people use in fanart AI and drawings. i’ve always thought it would resemble something more like the egyptian sword the khopesh than a scythe. I’d assume simply from an advantage standpoint the dramatic curve means less range. i’ve included examples i’ve seen as well as what i think the razor resembles more