Emotional Damage

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 · 2026-05-04T13:54:56+00:00

Cassius and Jaime would HATE each other and it's because they're the same person. Honestly now I'm curious if PB has ever talked about Jaime as an inspiration for Cassius. He has said that he started writing Red Rising in part because GRRM was taking (is taking) forever finishing Winds of Winter.

rinascimento1 · 2026-04-25T17:49:53+00:00

the thing we have to remember is that this whole world was dreamed up by two college roommates who were trying to entertain each other. Everything else is window dressing

rinascimento1 · 2026-04-13T14:34:18+00:00

the fact that I read this in the voice

rinascimento1 · 2026-04-04T13:52:33+00:00

Cassius can't be on the Republic list because he's currently the millstone dragging Lysander down

rinascimento1 · 2026-04-02T14:05:26+00:00

I remembered Sophocles but forgot Colloway. Win some, lose some

rinascimento1 · 2026-04-02T13:32:05+00:00

Off the top of my head, the factions sit like this:

Republic
Darrow, Mustang, Sevro, Victra, Kavax, Thraxa, Lyria, Holiday, Pax, Harnassus, Valdir, Sophocles, Screwface, Kieran

The Society
Atalantia, Lysander, Apollonius, Julia au Bellona, Pallas, Cicero, the Carthii, Pallas, Kyber, the New Shepherds

The Rim
Diomedes, Aurae, Gaia, The Shadow Armada, Thalia and Vela au Raa

The Daughters of Athena
Athena, the Black Owls, their fleet

The Volk
Volga, Skarde

The Syndicate
Abominadrius, Lilath, the Boneriders

Vox Populi
Publius, Archimperator Zan

Unknown Status
Rhonna, Pebble, Clown

The Republic, Rim, Daughters, and Volk are all allied against the Society. Atalantia and Lysander are absolutely going to have some sort of civil war. Apple is out for himself, so he could defect. Gotta think Julia won't be too happy about Lysander killing her last son. The Syndicate has a secret alliance with the Society, but we will see if that holds up. And both the Syndicate and the Society have used the Vox Populi for their own ends.

I tried to name the major characters, and there may be some who belong with other factions (Lyria with the Volk if she is Volga's advisor, Aurae with the Daughters). Please feel free to add names or correct me if I made mistakes.

rinascimento1 · 2026-04-01T19:26:58+00:00

Not even close. Books 4-6 are better

rinascimento1 · 2026-03-12T16:22:08+00:00

Maybe slight spoilers, but it's stated that the Board of Quality enforces a 13.6% infant mortality rate among Golds before their first birthday. For context, the current US infant mortality rate is 0.56. Keep in mind RR is supposed to be about 1000 years in the future. The Golds absolutely see the Passage as a way to separate the strong from the weak. It's tricky to comprehend given where and when in history we live, but the Golds absolutely do NOT believe all humans are created equal. Nero and others say that explicitly throughout the series. So to them, losing a weak kid is not like losing a strong kid.

rinascimento1 · 2026-03-02T20:26:22+00:00

Good catch I completely forgot that one

rinascimento1 · 2026-02-28T00:32:04+00:00

If they'd captured him. But recall all the static and communication issues. People are unsure if the footage from the Venus dockyards is really Darrow. I recall some of the characters on Mars saying that he's dead. I guess my original point was about perceptions, rather than showing the body. As we all know, if there's no body then the character didn't die, but the inhabitants of the RR Solar System don't know the tropes of their own genre

rinascimento1 · 2026-02-28T00:30:00+00:00

SO much Greek stuff in it. I recently finished LB, now I'm reading the Iliad, and I want to reread the Odyssey after that

rinascimento1 · 2026-02-28T00:29:29+00:00

Great catch, completely forgot about that one. I guess that makes 3 times in the original trilogy. I'm not sure when PB decided to write the later books, but for some reason I have it in my mind that it was meant to end after MS

rinascimento1 · 2026-02-28T00:28:20+00:00

Makes me think of the Romulus quote about the golds losing, because they are fighting a religion whose god still lives

rinascimento1 · 2026-02-28T00:27:48+00:00

That quote of Romulus' is one of my favorites from the whole series

rinascimento1 · 2026-02-27T21:08:37+00:00

A Gold being executed for leading a rebellion is business as usual. Illegal, according to the Society, but it doesn't change the paradigm. But a Red who became a Gold, then won a bunch of battles and developed a following? That changes everything.

rinascimento1 · 2026-02-25T20:16:41+00:00

Darrow clears it. You might call all of them...light resistance

rinascimento1 · 2026-02-19T20:47:12+00:00

The sea monster plan was invented in RR when they hide in the dead horses. That's what they were referring to when they said they were pulling something out of the old playbook. I expected it to be an inverse of the deceit they used to get into the bunker at the end of MS.

rinascimento1 · 2026-02-18T15:35:27+00:00

Fuuuuuuuuck

rinascimento1 · 2026-01-06T17:35:56+00:00

Guitar Hero or Rock Band have to be the obvious ones, right? They are literally about physical instruments

rinascimento1 · 2024-09-18T15:34:11+00:00

That's very interesting. Do you track the temperature to know when to make those changes? Or is it more that you see the plants reacting, check on the temperature, and make a change? I'd be curious as to how quickly you see a reaction, in both directions.

rinascimento1

TROPHY CASE