One of my fav parts from Morning Star! I love love love protective Mustang 💕 and I hope we see more of this energy in Red God.
I always wondered what Cassius was going to say here. “No. You would…” What, Cassius, please finish your thought. Any guesses? In my mind’s eye (🤭) it was, “No. You would…choose him?” Maybe, “No. You would…harm this chin?” 😂 perhaps someday I can ask Pierce Brown
I reread Light Bringer then Golden Son back to back... and I noticed a parallel that lead to (yet another) long winded essay... (spoilers for red rising saga up to Light Bringer) (its way too long im so sorry)(no im not)
“When you’re on your heels, you’re a liar. On your toes, you spit truth.”
She swings again. “Now spit.”
She hits my kneecap.
(Golden Son, Ch. 33)
First and foremost, can we appreciate that Virginia literally chases Darrow around his bedroom with a practice razor to make him talk about his feelings. Pro tip for ladiez dealing with emotionally unavailable men... have you tried interrogating him about philosophy while trying to take out his kneecaps with a blunt weapon?
It’s hilarious
but only mildly effective bc
Darrow starts to hit his ✨power off✨button. So Mustang pivots:
“Then her. The girl you lost.”
I say nothing. She’s never pried.
…
How stupid of me. How could she forget? How could it not linger there inside her, forcing her to wonder, as she lay with her head on my chest listening to my heart beat, if it didn’t belong to another girl, a dead girl.
“Silence isn’t the answer right now, Darrow.”
(Golden Son, Ch. 33)
Virginia corners him and what spills out is everything she’s never said. She’s always known about Eo (if not the full scope of the situation). She’s always wondered if there’s a part of Darrow she’ll never reach.
And Darrow wants so badly to say something, anything, but he doesn’t. He stays quiet.
It’s not malicious. It’s not cold. It’s fear. It’s the same silence that will haunt their marriage for the next decade.
Now jump to Iron Gold. Years later. Married. MILF and DILF respectively. Survivors of ten thousand heartbreaks. And yet the same wounds are there. Ready to surface when they find themselves stretched to their breaking points.
“What is the point of this- marriage-if there’s no faith between us?” she asks.
“No trust? I know you love me. I know you love our son. But love isn’t enough. You can’t hide things from me just because I’ll disagree with you.”
…
“But maybe you think you’re meant to die. Maybe you think you’re supposed to follow her.”
I feel sudden pain for my wife. “This isn’t about Eo.”
“No, it’s about you praying for storms, believing that when they come they’ll bring you peace.”
(Iron Gold, Ch. 33)
When I read this fight I almost felt awkward for intruding which is why it’s brilliant. Because it’s not about who’s right…. it’s about how long these two have held onto insecurities and grief they never truly voiced aloud. Darrow still carries guilt like it’s armor. And Virginia? She still wonders if she’s second. Still fears that part of him is trying to disappear.
“It’s like you want me to shut myself off to you. Is that what you want?”
She’s begging. And beneath the anger, it’s the same plea as back in Golden Son:
“Why do you pull me back if you’re just going to push me away?”
They are still asking each other the same questions.
They are still hoping the other will finally answer.
And then Light Bringer. After so much death. After distance, horror, regret and loss...
Darrow comes home. He’s broken, battered, and finally ready to stop hiding. He says to Virginia in their almost-reunion post Battle of Phobos
“I thought one last push would see us through. Numb myself. Put it all on me. Get it done. Then we’d get to live the life we’d promised ourselves. Experience the future we wanted Pax to have. […….]
But I know I tend to shut down. Sometimes for years. That’s not right. It’s not…the path I want to walk anymore. It’s lonely, and we’ve always been stronger together.”
It calls back the scenes in Golden Son and Iron Gold down to the wording! The boy who let Virginia walk away rather than tell her the truth finally confesses and confronts a fear he's been battling for YEARS: the way he shuts down to protect others. The way he shuts her out. The way he believes he has to carry it alone.
And now? He doesn’t want to anymore.
But here’s the irony, the tragedy, the exquisite twist of the knife. Virginia says, voice strained with grief and tears:
“Darrow, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. The hardest thing—” My voice breaks. I fight back the tears. “Every morning you are my first thought. Maybe news has come as I slept. Maybe you’ve just landed in Agea…” I can’t keep the strain from my voice.”
And then she sends him away. :
“But we need you out there, beyond their siege line until you can return at the head of an armada.”
This is why I love them.
Because this isn’t a love story built on grand gestures and perfect timing.
It’s built on pain. On misunderstandings. On missed chances and trying again anyway.
Darrow’s deepest insecurities? They echo across six books.
Virginia’s? She carries them silently, always rational, always in control.. until she isn’t.
And they don’t learn to just forget about those deep insecurities, they linger, especially in dark times (Dark Ages? lol) despite all the self awareness and intelligence imaginable,
They both falter. They both withhold.
But they also learn. Slowly. Brutally. Truthfully.
From:
“You shut me off.”
To:
“I know I tend to shut down..”
This isn’t resolution.
It’s recognition.
It’s love as a process- not as a performance.
They’re not perfect. But they’re real.
And that makes me love them more.
*shuffles up to mic, adjusts the stand, mic squeak, clears throat*
Darrow, Virginia, and Pax clearly echo Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus…except Virginia isn’t just Penelope. She’s also Athena. She holds the line at home, leads a planet under siege, raises her son, and still acts as the guiding force pushing Darrow to grow. She embodies a constant duality: strategist and mother, partner and Sovereign, myth and woman. And somehow, that duality doesn’t reduce her. It expands her. She carries both mythic weight and human complexity- all without losing her femininity or her agency. The allusion doesn’t put her in a box, but it does highlight her struggle to strike a balance between hearth and duty. She is the woman Darrow longs to return to and the one who sends him away. Both myth and mother. Both home and war………..
To love is to be responsible in the sense that you care for and are concerned for another person. But to love also means to respect that person and not use responsibility as possessiveness or a way to dominate that person. And to respect that person for who they are, you truly need to know them.
I think that's what makes Darrow and Mustang's love so amazing and genuine. They care for each other so much and will respond to each other's needs and wants. They take up that responsibility but never abuse it. Because they respect each other for who they are to their core. And they know each other so well, they know their true intentions that others may not. They love each other for exactly the person that they are. They allow each other that freedom to grow for that person's sake, not for selfish purposes.
"I wake up and scream into a gentle hand. I glimpse someone. Eo? I whisper her name and reach up. My muddy hand smears her face. Her angel's face. She's come to take me to the Vale. Her hair has turned Golden."
-Red Rising pg 265 by Pierce Brown
I love the beginnings of ReaperStang; the cave parts were my fav 🥹 🐺🐴♥️💛
Something new, something hopeful, Spring to his Deep Winter
(One of these quotes is only in the graphic audio)
The next time you’re watching this masterful scene I want you to remember that 3D objects in the computer have no physical properties and can clip through each other without care. Which means that every stretch of skin, every forceful kiss, every tender hand placement, every single physical touch and movement has to be meticulously crafted and executed flawlessly by the animators to ensure that it looks realistic. It boggles my mind at how much work was put into every single frame of this scene and I thank the animators for their service.
blakekathryn
turnnoffyourmind
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stormborns
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