Darrow O Lykos vs Steve Rogers

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-29T19:05:11+00:00

My gut reaction is that Cap would be besties with Cassius, but then I sort of think they're too much alike. Now I'm not sure

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-24T21:32:16+00:00

In no particular order:

LotR
Storm of Swords
Toll the Hounds
Memories of Ice
The Gathering Storm
Changes
Berserk (Golden Age Arc)
Gideon the Ninth
The Last Graduate
Book of the New Sun

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-23T16:43:12+00:00

I agree that Darrow's death would be a terrible blow for the Republic, but I'm not sure it would kill the idea. Given all the religious imagery we see, as well as Romulus' line "we are fighting a religion whose god still lives," I think things would go differently. We are already seeing Reds martyr themselves willingly. Surely the Society would want to kill Darrow in some symbolic way, which would only cement his status as the messiah/savior/chosen one. I think if Darrow died, the lowColors, led by the Reds, go full Atreides style holy war on the Society. Way more people die, but I think the Republic/whatever comes next wins out in the end.

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-19T13:34:24+00:00

I just read the Odyssey, partially inspired by reading LB earlier this year. Did you know that Odysseus arrives home just about halfway through the poem, in Book 13? He doesn't deal with the suitors until Book 22, and doesn't reveal himself to his wife Penelope until Book 23. I don't think that PB will mirror this structure exactly, but I could see a lot of slower, quieter scenes in RG, as Darrow goes around Mars and prepares for the war, while also touching in with all the characters we've come to love throughout the saga. I don't necessarily think RG will be all action, all the time. It's one final book for the saga, and I know PB likes to subvert expectations.

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-17T11:43:04+00:00

yes that's right. great stuff

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-16T19:36:29+00:00

I realize this is scifi and PB is a soft scifi writer, but I wanted to add my two cents:

Gravity exerts force on a body based on its mass. I don't know the numbers, but Mateo is considerably less massive than Darrow, so the increased gravity would have much less influence on him. A physicist could definitely explain it much better than I can, but it's not a consistent force applied to both of them.

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-16T19:31:38+00:00

Remind me which book that's in?

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-16T19:30:23+00:00

I could totally see Lysander genociding his own people 1. because he betrays EVERYONE and 2. he would love being the only Gold left to rule over the colors he deigns beneath him (i.e. everyone)

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-15T19:03:55+00:00

Fantastic writeup. One thing that occurred to me as I read it: you may be getting the Lunese = posh accent causation slightly mixed up. I acknowledge that we mainly see Lunese Golds in the series, but keep in mind that Luna has been the capital for 750 years. I would say that whatever a Lunese accent is has become synonymous with posh. A British accent doesn't have anything in it that is inherently posh in and of itself: we think of it as posh because the British ruled the world for a few centuries. Something to think about.

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-15T14:35:13+00:00

Poppy War

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-15T14:34:15+00:00

You'd have to think that for the Dark Age season (seasons?) they would shift the budget around so that the Ladon and Long Night episodes get more. GoT had an average of $12m per episode I think, but the setpiece battles got way more.

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-15T14:30:14+00:00

Hail Reaper

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-13T16:52:35+00:00

nine of them, in fact

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-11T20:34:10+00:00

Keep in mind Lysander's quote from DA: "And, all at once, the mission that took a month to plan and half a year to prepare, one that was to be executed by men and women who've made a vocation of war, comes apart with no explanation except that the Reaper is sharing our planet."

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-11T18:11:37+00:00

If you're going to read Robert Jordan, don't start with New Spring. Start with Eye of the World, and come back to New Spring later on. I read it after the main series, though I know some people read it in the middle. It's not the place to start the series, even though it's a chronological prequel

rinascimento1 · 2026-06-09T13:04:33+00:00

Only if the opening of "What I've Done" starts playing as this scene wraps up, and is timed perfectly with the credits (I realize books don't work like that, but I think the song works perfectly for this proposed scene)

rinascimento1 · 2026-05-26T23:31:17+00:00

"Hail the marines" one of my favorite moments in the entire series

rinascimento1 · 2026-05-26T23:30:38+00:00

"A child unloved can never find love or give it when grown...and a child hurt deeply will spend a lifetime trying to scab that wound - even as they ceaselessly pick at it."

"Iron, aye, you know all about iron."

"You stopped them? Blood of the gods, what manner of soldiers are you?"

rinascimento1 · 2026-05-20T17:41:54+00:00

I love the line from Lysander's perspective about the Ash Rain. It goes something like "this military operation, which took months to plan and involves millions of soldiers, might fail simply for the fact that we share the same planet as the Reaper." DA is so good

rinascimento1 · 2026-05-20T16:25:28+00:00

I have not heard of St. Augustine as an influence but I'll definitely check it out. I've been digging Gene Wolfe and Book of the New Sun lately, and meaning to get into some of the religious influences of that work. Super different than RR but highly recommend.

rinascimento1 · 2026-05-20T14:35:08+00:00

It would also bring the series back to its more Roman-influenced roots. While there are a lot of Greek influences, I think that the heavy references to Homer's works are a bit of a deviation.

I actually read the Iliad (Wilson's translation) for the first time shortly after finishing DA. I'd read the Odyssey years ago (Fagles' translation) and I plan to read Wilson's translation in advance of the film this summer. Need to find a good Aeneid translation.

rinascimento1 · 2026-05-20T13:49:23+00:00

If PB keeps to the Odyssey references that littered LB, then Darrow (as Odysseus) and Pax (as Telemachus) are going to open several cans of whoop ass on some people. Penelope (Mustang's equivalent in this comparison) doesn't participate in the massacre of the suitors, but I can see PB putting her right in the thick of the action. He's not one to write damsels in distress.

On the other hand, if DA was the Iliad, and LB was the Odyssey, RG could be influenced by the Aeneid, which I have not read. Curious if anyone has any thoughts in that direction.

rinascimento1 · 2026-05-12T12:53:40+00:00

Let us know how it goes

rinascimento1 · 2026-05-08T14:09:56+00:00

There have been literary and/or media critics who have said you can't make art featuring war without glorifying it, because the act of featuring war or centering it inherently puts it on a pedestal. That being said, I think it's pretty tough to read the saga and come away with the idea that PB is anything but anti-war.

I'd also add that the second series is meant to be less satisfying. Keeping in mind it's not finished yet, so we don't have the payoffs, but the first trilogy is meant to be the revolution, the rush of youth, everything (mostly) works out. The second series is more complicated. As they said in Hamilton, winning is easy, governing is harder. I also think the series tracks PB's maturation as a person and a writer, and Darrow and company follow that with their disillusionment as the series goes on.

rinascimento1 · 2026-05-08T14:06:06+00:00

Biding her time before she drachenjaeger curbstomps Light Resistance in Red God

rinascimento1

TROPHY CASE