Golden Son (Red Rising Series, Book 2) – Pierce Brown – Episode 97

The Buddies we’re so happy to see their friends, Darrow, Sevro, and Mustang again as they read Golden Son, book 2 of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Series. The Buddies have talked about how this is one of the only series to come close to Harry Potter, and book 1 currently sits on top of their favorite books read on the podcast. So how did this one turn out? Well, you’ll just have to listen to find out! And maybe give us a bloody damn review if you have the chance.

Intro (0:00-3:38)
Stock Up/Down (3:39-29:55)
Favorite Scene/Character (29:56-37:29)
Love/Hate (37:30-51:15)
Casting the Movie (51:16-53:39)
Conclusion (53:40-55:25)

NEXT BOOK: Morning Star (Red Rising Series, Book 3) by Pierce Brown

Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂

– All right, welcome to “Buddy Booklup”.
I’m Dylan here with a fellow holler.
– Oh!
– Keith, what’s up, buddy?
– And I’m joined by Dylan, Ah, Baloney.
(laughing)
I just like a cackle laugh.
– It’s funny, you got me there.
That’s loving and fruit, but I like it.
I like it.
So here at “Buddy Booklup”, we’re bringing us
the best dollars in this week.
We’ll be discussing “Golden Sun”, the middle child
in the “Red Rising Saga” by Pierce Brown.
If you’d like to recommend a book for us to read,
reach out to us in the past episodes.
You can visit the website, buddybookup.com,
sign to the DMs on Twitter, Instagram,
buddybookup.com, you can list us an iTunes,
but if I’m really your podcast,
please download and give us a review while you’re at it.
You know, give us a follow on the social channel.
Please, and thank you.
If you didn’t read “Red Rising”, well, you can’t see me,
but I’m flipping you the crocs because shame on you,
Keith, we did an episode on “Red Rising”.
I looked it up as to when we did it.
That was over two years ago.
It was January of 2022.
For those of you who have not read it,
or Keith, just in case, you needed a little bit extra,
little something to wake up the demon inside of you
and get that demon dust in your nose like Titus.
I wanna tell you about another book I have on my shelf.
The book is called “Flower Water Salt Yeast”.
Are you familiar with this book?
Red?”
– It is a book on “Red” by Ken Forkish.
Here’s a wonderful baker out of Portland.
It’s a great book, and the book talks about
how all it takes to make the world’s most delicious bread
is for ingredients.
That’s all you need.
And honestly, it’s the same
with a wonderful science fiction novel.
You take Harry Potter,
and then you add a healthy dash of some Hunger Games,
fold in a bit of Ender’s Game,
and finish it by sprinkling some Braveheart on top.
You got “Red Rising” right there.
The whole EO being murdered,
that then vaults Darrow into his whole story.
It has a lot of Braveheart to it,
and it also helps because the narrator is Scottish
or something like that.
It’s a perfect Braveheart tie right there.
And then the school aspect has Harry Potter,
the houses and whatnot.
It also manurves the smart people,
manurve a McGonagall anybody.
And then Hunger Games is probably what is mostly similar to
just an idea of they’re putting this place in everyone,
battles each other out.
And then Ender’s Game,
because Ender’s kind of a fish out of water,
just like Darrow is,
but he’s a natural-born leader.
He kind of forms his fellowship around his friends,
and they can want to kind of take on the system a little bit.
That’s how I saw it.
The last thing before we get to the talk-up talk-down,
’cause I did want to just fill in for some actual story stuff,
where we left off at “Red Rising” Darrow’s now,
Nero Agostasist Prodeche.
We don’t know exactly what that means yet, though.
And we also have some lingering questions
around whether several herd or did not hear Darrow say bloody damn
when he was doing the audio stuff in “Red Rising.”
And if several was able to put those pieces together.
So with that, let’s get to “Golden Sun.”
Let’s do it.
Stock-up, stock-down, “Golden Sun.”
What do you got, stock-up?
Stock-up, secret training.
Oh, training And secret in revealing your secret skills
always hits, works every time, every single time,
whether that’s, you’ve seen them show those wedding videos
where they’re like, well, actually,
you didn’t think I could dance,
but I’ve been secretly training good dancers,
– Oh, yes. – That’s right.
Or like, oh, I actually know how to play the piano
or I’m able to speak Korean or whatever it is.
– I’m waiting for one of those wedding videos
where, and honestly, they do touch my heart,
where someone is a paraplegic or something like that,
and they dance in the wheelchair,
or their dad or brother-in-law helps them up,
and they help them with the dance
or something along those lines.
I’m waiting for someone to take it to the next level
where they actually stand up and get out of their chair
during the dance, and the whole idea
that they didn’t have use of their legs
was just a long con for that exact moment.
That’s what I’m waiting for.
(laughs)
– All right, well, you’d really turn that whole concept
into a negative, or there is media that’s like that.
I don’t know if you’ve seen the Ted Lasso, like, Dart scene.
Oh, yeah, great scene.
– The Habachi scene and how I met your mother,
or in the final scene in Beer Fest,
where they’re like, we’re not that drunk.
Great, I love all of it.
And Darro, no difference in this,
is when he challenges Cassius,
but he’s been secretly trained by the law.
But this guy’s bringing me to some of the question
or quam here is that, is there anything
that you could think of that you could,
you haven’t really trained for your whole life,
just pick up and practice for a year,
how long is he practicing?
I was like every morning for two years.
– I’m trying to think of,
I mean, I’m also not an athlete like Darro,
but like, is there anything you could just pick up
and be the best of all time all of a sudden,
because you’ve just put the work in for two years?
yeah, I think The situation here is That he has
that natural ability, like he has the natural born talent,
he just never got schooled in it.
I think with that amount of training,
we could probably do something that was in our wheelhouse.
You know, I couldn’t become a theoretical physicist
in two years or something like that
if I tried every day,
and the montage would be super boring.
Full disclosure, this is my second read through,
me as well. – Of Golden Sun.
I read it probably a couple years ago,
we originally did red rising,
so I didn’t remember a ton of it,
but once Darro at the beginning started
kind of using those Lauren phrases,
or you know how he was saying,
like these axioms that Lauren would say,
kind of like Marcus Aurelius or something like that.
I was like, “Oh, right, he’s been training.”
So like I remembered that aspect of it,
which is unfortunate,
’cause it kind of took the surprise away for me,
but I do remember the first time reading it being like,
nice, like that’s a cool twist,
and I do think that if they were ever to make this
into a movie or TV series,
I would love for when he first does that,
like quick sparring with Cassius and Cassius realizes,
like, “Oh shit, Darro knows how to use a razor
for a montage to happen.
I need a montage with him. – Yeah, I need a flashback montage,
with him training with Lauren,
because I think that would be so much fun
just to see Darro learning.
Lauren’s even saying he used to, later in the end of the book,
he like gives Lauren some troupe whiskey or something like that.
He’s like, “Oh, this is what used to bribe me with
for an extra hour of training in the morning.”
And so all that stuff would have been fun to see.
– That’s a good point.
I definitely would like to see that.
I also thought, there’s so much I forgot.
I thought Lauren was Aries.
I forgot that he, maybe like when I first read it,
I was thinking that, and I just immediately thought,
Oh, is this guy that’s Aries?
And then he dies, I was like,
Wait, what the hell?
At the end, I was like,
He’s not a, he forgot that he, that Lauren is murdered.
I also forgot that too.
Okay, I have a quick stock up.
My first stock up is killing younglings.
(laughs)
So, – I was always a stock up on this side.
yeah, yeah.
I mean, Anakin did it and lived on to rule the galaxy for a time.
Tactists didn’t do it, he decided against it,
and he died immediately.
So, – Yeah, he’s so faxed.
he really called out in The lawyer realm.
(laughs)
– It’s so faxed though.
– No, it’s so faxed though, that’s what I like to say.
– All right, it’s so faxed.
– Yeah, we’re not Latin here.
If The year around a group of children
and the world is at your back and call,
then you can take them out.
The more you murder kids, The better off.
– But it has to be, they have to be referred to as younglings,
’cause that’s the best.
And for those that haven’t seen,
which movie is that?
I can’t remember the text.
– Star Wars, the “Menge of the Sith” episode three.
– Yeah, it’s episode three, I just don’t remember the titles.
– Also, there was a little,
the hat tip to “Star Wars” as well,
as did you, did you catch the,
never tell me the odds?
Mm-hmm.
Porsche in here?
I was like, wait a second.
I know that line.
Come on, Pierce, you can’t slip that bias, come on, bud.
– Yeah, if you haven’t seen episode three in a while,
watch “When Anakin pulls that lightsaber out.”
One kid is the best acting out of anyone I’ve ever seen.
He just, like, shivers.
It’s perfect.
– Perfect acting, that’s just that.
– Yeah, I just scared, yeah, I’m just, yeah.
He was legitimately scared.
Like, his parents didn’t tell him what was coming,
and they just put him on set,
and all of a sudden this guy pulls out a sword,
shit, his pants.
All right, what else can I ever stock up?
Media manipulation, Stock up.
The Jackal Noody was doing.
I mean, control the media, control the narrative.
The famous office episode is, like,
get out in front of the story, you know?
And he was doing that.
You know what I’m proud of my see in this again,
probably will be covered in book three,
but you’ve kind of broadcasted and made
build Darro up to be the hero.
So at this point, I’m not really sure
what he does with the media from there.
You either kill him or make him go away,
and he becomes this martyr figure, right?
This, like, leader of a rebellion.
If you reveal that he’s actually a red,
it’s like the worst thing you do.
Where you go from here?
I’m wondering, kind of, what you do?
Commit it up to the media as much as you want,
but, like, people go back and watch all of his videos,
watch all of these clips of him and stuff,
like, this little lives on forever.
Once you blot it out there,
and you create this narrative, you can’t take it back.
It’s out there forever.
So, do you think they’re just gonna hit him with, like,
the, what are they doing these days?
You got to hit him with, like, the, he’s Jared Fogel, right?
You got to hit him with that, or you got to hit him with,
like, the, the P-ditty thing,
which I have a stock coming up for him pretty soon.
You know, you got to hit him with one of these things, right?
Like, that’s the only way to knock him down a peg, right?
That’s the only strategy.
– I was thinking more of, like, a Barry Bond-type situation,
because– – He was juicin.
People love to see their heroes fall.
I mean, it’s a fucked up part of society,
but even Tom Brady right now
with, not necessarily this roast thing,
but with his wife, leave him in the crypto stuff.
People love to just see their heroes fall,
even in the Boston area, which is, which is sad,
and it’s something that people must discuss
about the human psychology.
But with Barry Bond, it’s like,
Dara really was juicin.
He did it next level with the carvers,
like, going into the carvers, so–
– Oh, I see what you’re saying.
And I would like to know how much of him was shown
on, like, the H.C. to the low-collars?
I’m wondering, is it most of this stuff?
‘Cause you said, oh, I go back and watch your stuff,
but that was Octavia Loon’s, like, grandson, who is saying it.
So, if most of these exploits are shown to the golds,
then his star will fall rather quickly,
but if it’s something where they’re showing him giving power
to low-collars, like he does with some of the blues
and the oranges and the grays that are around him,
if they’re showing him on the H.C. doing that,
and then all of a sudden, they show that he’s a red,
the jackal’s just gonna have an uprising on his hands.
yeah.
Well, I thought he was broadcasting it to get
different societies to jump in on the rebellion,
so I thought he was doing that, but I don’t know.
– Yeah, but he obviously couldn’t be because at the end,
he, the H.C. whole plan is like, he’s working with the sovereign,
’cause, like, Aja’s there and the sovereign ships are coming.
I don’t know, he’s cut some sort of deal,
but we’ll learn more about that in the future.
I like that one, yeah, he’s doing his own
rebert Murdoch situation.
My next stock up is someone we’ve talked about before
in our lives, it’s Scott Evil, Dr. Evil’s son,
if you’re not familiar, so stock up for Scott.
There’s a lot of similarities between Scott
and Dr. Evil’s relationship and the Aja’s
Nero relationship.
Both fathers are trying to take over the world.
Both fathers tried to murder their sons.
Both sons are quite astute and wily like their old man.
(laughs)
That’s worth a similarity, Zend though.
Maybe because Adria’s a Nero never had a breakthrough in group.
As seemingly complex as Adria’s A.K. the Jackal is,
it all boils down to these daddy issues he has.
He’s sad that Nero, Awa Gustus,
never gave him a pat on the back.
With that, he decided to become a psychopath.
I did thoroughly enjoy him telling his father at the end
that he used his dad’s money to quote unquote invest
in his future by paying Cassius’ brother
to murder his brother.
That was like, whoa, that was cool.
But he was like, oh, dad, remember that money I borrowed from you?
Yeah, he used it to take a hit out on your favorite son.
So that’s a tough one.
But at the same time with all the stuff that the Jackal is,
oh wow, he’s such a mastermind.
He’s doing this for powers, doing this for his own plan.
He’s really just doing this to get back at his dad
and never hugged him, which is sad in its own right.
We have a bunch of books about it with neptism
and all this stuff about coddling the weaker child
or whatnot.
So yeah, it was refreshing, frankly.
And that’s how you really get a great evil doer.
And that’s what we need in this book.
And so good job.
Good job all around.
I agree.
And it is messed up, though.
And I’m not going to take anything away from the Jackal here.
But his dad did try to kill him in the Spartan way
of throwing him off a cliff when he was a baby or something
like that.
So maybe the world slash a Augustus deserves.
Deserves.
That’s where I’m at.
All right.
Yeah, I don’t get it.
What do you get for stock that?
Stock down, P-ditty.
It sucks pretty high right now.
I don’t think I’ve heard anything in the news recently.
Really high stock.
Hold on to it.
I would always invest in this.
It’s like a blue chip stock, usually.
But his song, Coming Home–
It’s a complete jam.
You know that song?
Coming home.
Paul Pierce is homecoming when he came back to the Southeast.
Yeah.
I’ll take some rates, because I’m coming home.
Just gives me chills anytime I watch that video.
But Darrow’s homecoming.
In a word, underwhelming.
Not great.
To summarize it, it was, wow, this place looks a lot shittier
and smaller than I remember.
Oh, yeah, it wasn’t that perfect.
Our grave kind of sucks.
And my mom kind of hates me.
It doesn’t really believe in anything I’m doing.
And then my girlfriend finds out and just bounces.
That’s a mariza.
That was his homecoming.
Pretty shitty homecoming, am I right?
Yeah.
Did you take it as like his mom was upset with him
for what he was doing?
His mom was like, indifferent.
She was like, oh, you’re here.
He’s like, you’re not surprised.
She’s like, oh, whatever.
I don’t know.
It’s like, I know you’re not dead, Darrow.
I know you’ve been alive the whole time, my son.
And then he’s like, well, I’m doing this whole big thing.
She’s like, well, you know, you guys
got to fight for something, I guess.
But it’s a lot of young folks always
have these big old fans ahead.
They just need a cup of tea and to relax.
Yeah, that’s exactly right.
So it was very uninspiring.
I was like, oh, that should be like, not only should you
go out there and fight, but kill them all.
Kill every last one of them.
You know, I should need it some pupa,
but it was pretty depressing.
Yeah, it wasn’t, it wasn’t great, but I thought it was endearing.
And I’ve seen some other people say that maybe
it was a little early for that kind of reunion.
It was like four years past.
How long do we show you weight?
Two and a half years.
I agree.
And especially with the way that the minds work,
the mind is like living in one of these minds
is like the guy in interstellar who was on the spaceship
when they came back and he’s like, I’ve been here for 30 years.
Because they age so quick, all of a sudden his mom
sat at a stroke.
She’s like 42.
She’s had a stroke.
She’s dying of emphysema.
It’s like, good God.
And it makes this cool mind and Kentucky look like, you know,
you’re doing some white collar easy living.
Other than the reunion was nice.
I did wonder if that child was his though.
I was thinking about that.
He’s like, the kid was born shortly thereafter three years ago.
Like the time kind of checks out,
but I don’t know how they would have got a baby out of you.
And that’s his sister?
Isn’t that sister’s kid?
It was.
They say like, oh, that’s your uncle Darryl.
But she just said it was his sister’s kid, you know?
Oh, God, you’re welcome.
Who knows exactly?
How did you have the kid?
How did you do that in secret?
Well, yeah, I don’t know.
I just, you know, these weird twists and turns, who knows?
I didn’t–
Speaking of weird family thing, it was kind of weird
that Nero was like, I’m going to adopt you.
Now you’re going to marry my daughter.
Wait, now the brother and sister are marrying each other?
Buddy, have you not seen Clueless?
It’s come on.
Oh, OK.
That was 1990 and it was fun.
Obviously, he’s a stepbrother stuff recently.
All right.
OK.
All right.
But it’s Paul Rudden, Alicia Silverstone.
You know, you look the other way, I guess.
Yeah, that’s right, that’s right.
It’s an adopted son.
I’m sure this was very common in Rome, which they–
There, yeah.
Rome’s cool, for sure.
But these golds just love Rome so much
they’re going to build their society off of it
and treat the Romans like gods.
What’s going on here?
Get over it.
Close the ear book on Rome.
Move on.
The golds gave Norse mythology to the obsidians, which
is like, that’s the cool stuff.
Why did you give it to them?
That’s like Zeus and stuff or–
No, that’s like Odin and Thor and Loki, all those fun folks.
Oh, OK.
Yeah, all right.
Zeus is the Greeks.
They all blend together, I mean, I’m not sure.
The Norse mythology is like, those are the bad ass.
Those are the guys that are going to Valhalla.
They’re just straight up warriors, which
I understand it makes sense if these are going
to be your warrior cast in this universe,
that yes, you give them this warrior religion,
but get over the whole Rome thing.
My first lockdown is elite military training.
I don’t really know who needs it.
It seems like it might be not necessary,
because the howlers who are pretty much part secret service
and part a commando unit have a training regimen that
includes snakes, alcohol, and mushrooms.
Besides that, the whole regimen is more secret than buds,
basic underwater demolition school.
So whatever they do with snakes, booze, and trumps,
it works, because they are the most bad ass of Daryl’s followers
and the most loyal.
So they didn’t tell Daryl what that entailed
that I was trying to figure it out.
And I was thinking probably maybe some pit-fipers,
and they all get wasted and get on mushrooms,
and they got to corral some venomous snakes.
That’s the only thing I could think of.
I don’t know how that makes you an elite fighter.
That was just their initiation, right?
Yeah, that was an initiation.
But at the same time, the way that quote-unquote school
works in this society, I don’t really understand either.
Everyone is adept at fighting and by politics and knowledge.
I think they’re all very good at this.
But from our understanding, the only school they did
was when all the leaders threw them in this place in Mars
and said, kill each other.
There was no learning.
Is it just assumed that every family just does it on their own?
They were talking about how all the families
are privately training them and doing all this stuff,
because remember Cassius’ whole family,
they’re born with the razor and their crib, essentially.
They’re saying.
So I think it’s like a–
they’re so wealthy in thing they had all the best teachers
and everything like that, and then they were just
training them for their academy, which is kind of weird
that they were able to keep the secrets of what happens.
You would obviously slip that to your kids.
Oh, yeah, you’re going to get to this.
Oh, a billion percent.
I mean, that’s more of a hate, potentially, for red rising.
But I don’t know how you don’t tell your kid
that he’s going to face the passage and be potentially
murdered.
It’s the first thing you would say if your son was like,
oh, I’m not going to learn about hand-to-hand fighting.
It’s like, hey, just so you know, you not doing your homework here
could have you murdered in three years.
So get it figured out.
That would motivate me.
That would motivate me, too, for sure.
What else do you have for stockdown?
Last one, saving lives, stockdown.
You want to save someone’s life once or maybe in twice fine,
but once you start doing it more than that,
you’re testing fate.
That’s why they always say in movies, like,
I owe you my life.
You don’t keep owing a lot.
You can’t do multiple lives.
You have to basically pay it back, right?
Otherwise, I think it’s the movie Final Destination,
where if the person is supposed to die,
and you’ve got to save their life three times,
that you should have killed them.
They should be dead, because otherwise,
the final destination ghost thing will turn around
and start trying to kill you.
You know what I mean?
I think that’s how that math works.
Is that what Final Destination was about?
Really good ghost?
It was like fate, essentially.
I got it.
Yeah, I got that.
Yeah, if you go against fate, then fate will find a way
to kill you, and that’s why random objects would go up to you.
The reason I bring this up is because Dero does this with a jackal,
not once, not twice, but I could list them out.
There’s a bomb place next to him, like,
the very beginning by Harmony, moves the bomb, saves him.
The summit, when Octavia was going to kill
the whole family saves him.
The water, when they’re escaping from,
when Octavia is holding them there,
and then they basically get attacked.
Those are kind of one, though, but yeah.
No, but they were going to bomb them at the,
or are you going to actually kill them?
Oh, I get it.
Dero is going to do the whole, a little awkward by ya.
Yeah, well, no, Dero’s, (laughs)
got, (laughs)
the plan was, at this summit, was for them to kill them.
Yeah, but Dero’s going to blow himself up.
And that, yeah, so I can see, I mean, but he’s not saving them,
because he didn’t decide to kill them,
I’m not counting that one, but,
(laughs)
(laughs)
And then again, when he takes over the packs,
Mm-hmm, Oh, yeah.
– So there’s like so many different times,
and when Pliny captures them, it holds them hostage,
he saves them, it’s like over and over and over,
it’s like bro.
Let him die.
And every single person is telling him not to trust him.
Yeah, like, I’m like, okay, no, it would be easier
if you just let this do a die and you take over
his medium part.
yeah, just Let his medium part go away.
The medium part’s already done the work.
When his sister comes to you and she’s like,
hey, you’re too close to my brother.
Like, do you trust him too much?
You should probably not be doing that.
He’s like, I have a purpose.
Dero, chill.
And I do also understand that the point of this all
is to make Dero valuable.
He makes mistakes just like anyone else.
He is a young kid, and these are mistakes
that are gonna cost lives, and they’re serious mistakes,
but he got put into a very high state game,
so he’s gotta do it, but at the same time,
it’s like no, you’re enemy, bro.
Seriously.
All right, my next stock down.
We’re talking about this, so it ties in pretty well,
but keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.
People say that, I never really understood it.
I mean, I understand it in stories,
but not really in life, like who wants to do that?
But it turns out that that phrase is complete bullshit.
If Dero had kept Roke closer than the fucking jackal,
he made it out of been left holding the bag
or the box in the situation at the end of the book.
What’s in the box?
What’s in the box?
I will say in a sidebar, Pierce Brown did a really good job
of Dero opening the box, me like, holy shit,
and then everything else goes down, and then only like,
I don’t know, 10 pages later, does he look in the box
and see that it’s Fitchner’s head?
So I did–
– But Fitcher Head reveal wasn’t even like top five of that scene.
– Yeah, it was like holy shit, what’s going on?
– Yeah, the brutal murder of Maureen was–
he did a great job too of, you have that whole huge battle,
and then there’s like a lull for like three chapters.
Things slow down so much that really does not–
you’re not ready for that last like 15 pages
of like holy shit, you know what just says?
– Yeah, it slows down, it’s like total bureaucratic.
Dero finally gets his laurel that he’s been looking for,
except it’s not in the minds, it’s with a gustus,
and then for this Iron Rainy call down.
But I want to talk about the whole Dero Roke relationship.
I honestly have no idea why Dero would keep Roke
out of the whole plan to track the sovereign to Mars,
which was Roke’s biggest issue presumably,
because Roke loved Quinn, she was murdered by Aja.
Obviously Roke wants revenge, so when they’re on
whatever Saturn moon or whatever Jupiter moon
in any case is that Lauren lives on,
and they see Aja there,
Roke’s leaving his battle in space to get on Dero’s calm
to be like, don’t fucking lose Aja, do not lose her,
do not lose her, and then Dero just lets her go
without telling Roke why, not to explain to Roke,
hey, I have a bigger plan, there’s going to be a battle
at some point, I want to be able to know where the sovereign is.
The sovereign’s always with Aja,
we put a radioactive tracker on her,
and now we’re gonna find her, trust me.
My goal is the same as yours, we will get revenge,
but instead he leaves Roke completely out of it
until when they’re attacking Mars,
it’s like the sovereign’s on Mars,
and Dero’s like, oh Roke, I already knew that,
because that’s why we left Aja lot.
Like, Roke is not only should be your number two or three,
whatever, he’s in your top three,
like he’s in your triumvirate between Mustangs,
several in him, but Roke is potentially,
not only the smartest of that group,
but he’s the most emotional,
and probably the person that would be best at bringing
these different levels of this society together.
He understands poetry and literature,
and bigger philosophical ideas
than some of these other people might.
So the idea that he would be able to figure out
how to bring these groups together makes a lot of sense to me.
I didn’t understand why Dero would do that,
and a little bit seemed laziness from the writing side.
It just didn’t make any sense to me.
They’re so close,
why would he continue distancing himself from Roke?
I do agree that.
I wish he had a better excuse for while he knocked him out.
I think that’s when the trust started to–
– Well, that’s when it really started to evaporate for sure.
well, Roke is insanely good with ships And stuff like that.
So I can’t have him against me,
otherwise everything falls apart.
So the reason he was keeping him distance,
because he’s like, well, he might just get the sense that,
I don’t really like this dude anymore,
I’m gonna go off my own and take all these ships.
Now I’m running shit.
Like that was the reason he was trying
to compartmentalize things,
and Dero’s point is like,
he obviously wants revenge, all the things,
but then he allies with the very person that killed Quinn.
So I don’t think he’s,
I’m gonna fly far off and thinking that this dude might turn his back on me
and potentially ally with someone that,
we think we have the same interest, but it’s clearly he doesn’t.
– Well, he turned his back on him,
because he never let him in.
But why would you then ally with The person That killed
the girl he was?
– Well, once again, we don’t know what’s happening in Morningstar.
I’m sure there’s gonna be a lot of Roke stuff,
and there should be.
– I don’t really remember him from the first book,
so what happened?
yeah, they were just boy.
The first one when he says at the end,
I remember the first thing I ever told you was,
they pretty much met right after the passage,
and obviously Daryl had just killed Julien
and was affected by it and Roke who doesn’t seem like someone
that would brutally murder someone with his bare hands,
had his own situation,
and he took kind of took Daryl aside,
and pretty much came at it from like a philosophical perspective,
and also just like a piece of humanity,
just being a human, like one human to another,
so just like, this is life,
and we’re gonna deal with it,
whatever the eye to camera really said,
but the point is he extended his hand in friendship to him
at that point,
and then from there on out, they were besties.
Obviously Cassius and him were one and two,
but he was his consigliary, really.
He was the guy who Daryl would have some idea,
and Roke would kinda be like,
Yeah, let’s check that, whatever.
And Roke originally had Liyah who he liked,
and then Liyah was murdered,
so Daryl went and helped him out there,
and then they, him and several, both like Quinn, whatever.
And even your point of saying,
Okay, Roke has all, he’s now a Praetorian,
or whatever that thing is,
like he controls all these ships.
It’s like, “Yeah, isn’t that more of a reason
to keep him close and in your inner circle?
yeah.
– There’s bigger themes and ideas in this,
which I did like,
and the idea of how am I gonna explain this Roke,
and Daryl often leaves people at arm’s length,
because he’s concerned about the future,
and when he does reveal himself,
that he’s gonna lose these friends who he holds so dear,
but he’s not realizing that he’s losing them already
by not bringing them in.
You know, just, you don’t have to tell him you’re red,
or whatever that case is,
or tell him all your deep dark secrets,
but especially with this Ajah stuff,
and he used to talk about his,
he slipped off Mickey when he was going to the party.
It didn’t make any sense what his explanation was,
it was like, “Oh, I didn’t want you
to have to be part of that.
So you always conserved for your safeties.
What do you mean?
You fought Cassius, and then everyone ran away.
You gotta told him, be like,
“Hey, there’s some shit that’s gonna go down,

776
00:29:49,480 –> 00:29:50,480
you should get out of here.”””
Not slip of Mickey and put it a bit, you know,
it doesn’t make any sense.
Favorite scene?
Do you ever favorite scene in this one?
– Just the whole, when they get into the sovereign’s place,
the whole like back and forth questioning
with the poisonous snakes.
little gom Jabbar action?
My heart was going for that.
I was like, “Oh man, this is intense.”
That followed by Mustang coming in, followed by
Severe.
Severe And The boys, real, real, grouping again.
I was like, “We’re back.”
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know what I’m saying?
The boys, the group, yeah.
We’re all riding, like so it was just kind of like
a meeting of the minds.
Everyone coming back together,
we getting the old crew back.
I really liked that.
That was great.
yeah, I liked That as well.
And they took a while to get Severe back in the show.
And I was like, “Come on, man, what’s going on?
The summer’s my boy.
What’s going on in the hall is in general.
It’s just, you know, it’d be so fun to have them there.
And because Severe is also like a little bit of
comic relief in this and he keeps Darro grounded
and keeps the whole thing fun,
even though it’s like pretty murderous.
But my favorite scene was Darro Mustang
and Ragnar in the cave at the end
when they’re in Mars and after the homecoming.
And I just thought that was like so well done.
And I really didn’t know what was gonna happen
because I was like, holy shit, is Ragnar gonna kill Mustang?
Like, there’s no way, but you never know.
Like, is that gonna happen?
Darro’s trying to explain like people can change.
Like things can change.
And she’s looking at Ragnar who her entire life,
she just knows as obsidians are these
pretty much like brainless murderers,
but that’s just how her people made them.
But she’s like, oh, these are these people who just
do whatever their person says,
like whoever their leader is.
And Ragnar steals the show instead of killing her,
like gets down on his knees next to Darro
and is like, hey, you can kill me too.
And his whole speech about like all the scars he got
for doing all this stuff for the golds.
And then when he talks about the scars he got for Darro,
he references them, it’s he earned for him.
And it was like, it was cool.
– I mean, there’s so many good scenes in this.
Like that wouldn’t even cross my mind,
but you’re right, that’s such a good scene.
– That just different maybe is it’s also like
the culmination of everything.
And like if there was nothing else that could show her
that there’s more to this world
than that people can change
and that you’re not just whatever you’re born to be.
yeah.
– It’s Ragnar, this fricking giant obsidian
with skull tattoos on his face
and it’ll shave Ted with a giant silver ponytail
getting on his knees and being like,
hey, you can kill me if you want.
And it’s also the narrator doing Ragnar’s voice is so good.
Unottable, you can get the ensemble cast.
They do in two parts.
So you have to pay like a credit for each part
which kind of sucks for all the books.
But I was like, if there was ever a book
that didn’t need an ensemble cast, it’s this one.
Because the hammer– – You said they’re doing
that for Harry Potter too.
I was like, what are you insane?
yeah, Jim Dale, what?
And People talk about It The other guy
that British crew that does it,
being like, how good he is, I’m like, bro,
no one touches Jim Dale, it’s not even close.
– But yeah, he’s, his is really good.
I’ve listened to his version too,
but Jim Dale is just the best.
– It is, it’s so partial.
– It’s so, it’s Jim Dale.
– It’s unfortunate that he did it,
Stephen Fry, Stephen Fry.
yeah, yeah.
– It’s unfortunate that he did it because he’s so good,
but it’d be like Scotty Pippin
against Jordan or something,
Scotty Pippin alone is phenomenal.
But he’s whatever, he’s second fettled
because it’s, you know, Jim Dale’s Jordan.
– Do you have a character you’d like to pick?
I mean, we got lots of new characters in this one
from Vickdra, who we really haven’t talked a lot about,
but she’s great, Pliny, who’s a total piece of shit,
but you know, that’s what you need.
Ragnar, of course, Lornau Arcos, Aja,
and then we even get like deeper looks
into some other characters, Nero Augustus.
We get his backstory, which is like,
very game of Thronzean, pretty cool,
his situation, and then Fitchner, his sad tale
about his wife and also Severe being a half breed, if you will.
Any of those are one of the old ones that–
– Yeah, you’re still my thunder with the Ragnar thing.
yeah, I have.
– Particularly with the, I really, really like to quote,
why he falls orders.
He says, “Mordals die a thousand times.”
Basically, like, the more you think about stuff,
you can die in your head a thousand different ways.
I only die once because I do or do not.
I’m like, fuck, that’s a good quote.
That is so good.
– Dero Telsen, like, that’s what humanity is,
that’s what being a person is is,
you have to deal with those.
So if you want agency in this world,
you need to live those thousand lives
or die those thousand deaths, like that’s the way.
But I, yeah, Ragnar’s speech in the cave sold it to me
when he’s like, “Dotor to the Valhkarri,
and Mother to the Seven Sparals of the Northern God.
It’s like, fuck, this guy is amazing.
This is so good.
I fight for my brother.
I fight for my two sisters.
I think the marriage makes him so much better
’cause it’s like, he goes into this, like,
jeep or voicemail when he does it.
yeah, yeah. – Fucking great.
Quick note of Vickdra loved her.
I thought she was really great.
Nothing negative to say about her.
I thought she was like a pretty well done character
for how little time we really spent with her.
And Pliny, I don’t really know.
Do you ever thought some Pliny?
in terms of what?
He’s a politician, right?
That’s all he was.
– I mean, yes, he’s a politician,
but he’s more like, like a little finger
or something like that.
Like kind of like a, like, has the ear of Nero.
So he’s like a number two.
– There’s a million Plinys.
We’ve all seen those type of characters.
I didn’t think he was necessarily way different
or unique, whereas like, some of these other characters,
I thought were so different.
No, I agree with you.
And that’s what I’m saying.
Because yes, we have Octavia Loon,
who’s the ultimate bad guy in that, you know,
she’s running this show.
And then we obviously have the jackal.
But neither one of them plays like a pretty big part in this.
It’s really like Pliny, who’s the real bad guy
throughout all of this.
– Well, I like that all, there’s like four different shades
of bad guy, jackal, Nero, obviously, sovereign.
There’s not just like one,
is the bad guy and this will be the bad guy for everything.
There’s all like shades of badness,
which I really think is great.
– Yeah, there’s not like Voldemort and his followers.
– Right, yeah, that means they’re all different.
Voldemort has his own agenda
and then everyone else has their,
like all the dead theaters have Voldemort’s agenda.
Whereas here, there’s like four people that are all shitty
but all have their own agenda.
That is different from one another.
– I also thought it was cool that you could see Nero’s,
oh, like his mindset is a certain way
that he’ll do anything in order to protect this certain mindset,
which is, a mindset we think is completely wrong.
But at least you can understand that.
Like where he’s kind of like a Batman villain,
whereas the jackals like the Joker,
where you’re like,
Oh, you just want to fuck everything up.
That’s a really good point.
Yeah, which is also funny because you said Nero is like
a Batman villain but then you used a Batman villain
for the jackal.
But I know what I know.
you sound like that.
– Like a superhero villain who is,
there’s more out of these.
a lot of bad guys have good origins.
– It’s fucked up, but they have a point where they’re going.
It’s like, “No, I think you’re a little fucking crazy.”
But at the same time, it’s like,
Yeah, I can also see what you’re saying.
Whereas the jackal and the Joker
just kind of like chaos for chaos’s sake
and to laughing the face of fire.
What about love hate?
What are different loves?
I mean, I really do think The sequel did not disappoint.
This is very rare.
I think most sequels I think you kind of have that let down
already built in.
A lot of the times they’ll do what the Hunter Games did.
It was just like, let’s just run it back
to the exact same story,
but they’re a slightly different thing in where this is,
we did already a Hunter Games version of book one.
We’re now doing something completely different,
which is like a full-on war.
And there was so many tent pole scenes
that you can kind of call back to that were,
like I said, you went over a lot of them,
but like we could go on for it.
You could say any scene in this book was your favorite
and I wouldn’t be like that stupid.
I’d be like, “That makes sense.”
yeah, I agree with you.
And I think that two-year jumping time was really smart
and was one of my loves as well.
Because if you cover the institute or the academy,
which is, I don’t know what it’s called,
the Institute of the Academy,
whatever is doing in space,
which is how this book starts.
So if you just start the book right after Red Rising ends,
we’re doing what you just said with the Hunger Games.
Like we’re just going back into a different school.
It’s the same thing as Red Rising,
just with the new setting.
It’s Red Rising, but in space is pretty much
what it would be.
So I love the idea of, we don’t need,
we’ve already done that with Red Rising.
Let’s move on topless years.
Let’s wait till he’s out of the academy
or whatever the case is,
whatever the thing’s called.
And get into the bigger picture story,
stay with our characters.
Let’s not really rehash what they’ve been doing
for the past years.
Like, oh, several of them flew out.
Yeah, okay, Mustangs working for the Sovereign.
Okay, we don’t need so much background.
Let’s just now pick it up
and deal with these relationships
and also tie it into the bigger picture
of what’s happening in the world.
So I like that.
What else you got?
– The world expanding, that’s like the whole,
I always talk about, like,
if Star Wars just was like in that one little planet,
it wouldn’t be that great.
The fact that it’s like endless stories could happen
because there’s endless planets and endless things.
That’s, it really does expand.
I also did like, I think you pointed out too,
that Daryl is the hero,
but he also has his doubts and has, you know, he’s a human.
He, he, he, he, he, he definitely is battling like demons
of, I kind of like these people, but also fuck them.
Yeah, like a lot of that stuff comes up all the time.
And typical YA book would spend the whole book to rehashing,
I wish I didn’t have to kill people
and I wish I didn’t have to do this and all this stuff.
He does it for like one minute
and then it’s like, fuck, there’s, let’s get angry.
And then he turns, he turns the dial, which,
– He’s like, I just wanna, – He bloodied
damn, killed my wife.
– Yeah, so I, I do think that you’re,
you does feel human, but he’s like spends a minute complaining
and then the rest of the time just being like,
fuck it, let’s get after this.
So, I love that part.
And then The same vein because we get this story
from a first person perspective,
like we’re all getting it from Daryl’s perspective.
In a YA book, you would get a lot more
of this love triangle with him Mustang and his dead wife,
yo, where he’d be like, oh, I love Mustang,
but I owe it to my wife not to do this.
Like, why am I doing this?
Like, can I love again in my over my wife?
You just get that all the time and you don’t.
But he still puts the love interest of Mustang,
like in the forefront of the book,
it’s just not on top of you the whole time.
Like it would be for a lot of this.
Even, you know, the Hunger Games was trying to enjoy it.
It’s a fun series, but her and the bigger kid
or whatever the thing was, it’s like, you know,
a lot of times it was just like,
I don’t care so much about their relationship
and like, should you guys right now,
like there’s something bigger going on.
And I feel like that’s what he did really well with this is like,
yes, I love Mustang and I have these complicated feelings
because I still love my wife, but at the same time,
I gotta represent the reds here.
There’s also a world to galaxy or to excuse me,
solar systems to take off first.
So, I like how he did that.
Yeah, the other trope too that I think is that he avoided,
which I don’t like is that whenever someone has that big secret
and they’re like, you know what, I have to come clean
and reveal it, it always, always gets revealed
before they have the chance to tell the person.
You know, like it’s like, I was gonna tell you I swear.
Right, where this is, they just said, no,
I’m gonna actually tell the person and they show that he does.
And I was like, I love that.
Like it just instead of doing that typical trope,
where he’s like, the jackal would have been to Mustang
and she would have been the one to bring him in.
And he’s like, no, no, I was about to explain the whole thing to you.
That I’ve been such a bad trope,
but I’m so happy that they didn’t do that
and they did show that originalness
and like, that coming back to the homecoming,
I mean, it was kind of making fun of it in the stock down,
but I thought was really a really good necessary thing
for the book that has so much action that earned that
like grounded in story and that like emotional part
because it was such a good story everywhere else that earned that.
Yeah, I would say, Darro, if you’re listening, by the way,
probably go be like, hey, watch this hollow of me getting carved
as this I’m a red instead,
maybe just have Mustang wear a ghost cloak
and come into your mom’s house with you
but have the ghost cloak on the whole time
and just watch you have a conversation with your mother
to humanize this whole thing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just show like, oh, this is my mom, she loves me.
This is where I grew up, this absolute hellhole.
And as opposed to just being like,
here’s this terrible plastic surgery I got.
It’s like, she’s basically saying,
watch botched surgery on TLC as opposed to coming into my house
and having like a legit moment
as seeing this for yourself.
Probably not Darro’s best move but it all works out
and it all went to the same with Ragnar
which is all that matters to me.
Yeah, so one of the things I love is red rising was a fun romp.
I really love red rising, it’s really good.
Some, I was actually kind of surprised
about some of the reviews, they didn’t like it.
Or not didn’t like it but just thought it wasn’t necessarily
like a promising start to a series
and a lot of people think this book is a lot better than that book.
I think it’s just very different.
That book I found to be like super fun, super readable
and this is now such a good sequel and that it’s just
its own thing.
So I appreciate that.
And I really like about it is how the stakes are raised
and gold and something.
We’ve talked about this a couple times but I just
want to reiterate, we got a bigger scope,
we got bigger themes, the idea that people can change
even gold is something that is going to continue on
to morning star.
And I just thought it was almost reminded me of reading Harry Potter
when I was a kid and it kind of started off like,
okay, like these are little kids are 11 year olds.
I’m the same age, I just that.
And then as you go on it’s like, oh shit, it gets darker.
And the same with the movies which you haven’t seen
but once you do see them, I want you to notice
that the intro song to the Harry Potter movies,
they get progressively darker like on purpose.
So like the first one it’s like, da da da da da da da da da da da.
And then as you get going it’s like, da da da da da da da da da da.
Do you know it’s just evolving as the series goes on
and I loved how this was also an evolution of the series
as opposed to a continuation of it.
Unfortunately to get into hate’s key to it.
Dero just being underappreciated.
I feel like, again, I mentioned earlier
but him saving that family, the Augustus is like 10 different
times and then being like, you’re really helpful.
It’s like, yeah, you’d be fucking all dead if it weren’t for me.
So many 10 times over.
Like not like, oh, they really helped out.
It was, no, you were literally drowning and I saved you.
And then you were literally about to get blown up by a ship
and I say, there’s so many times over.
I mean, if I were him, you know, again,
after being underappreciated many times,
once he took over the packs, I’d just be like,
okay, I have a warship now.
I’m just gonna go start recruiting and this will be–
– It’s firefly all of a sudden?
– What’s firefly?
– Firefly’s the TV show.
It’s a cult classic TV show, sci-fi show.
It’s with Nathan Phillian.
Nathan Phillian.
It’s a Joss Whedon show.
He did Buffett of Vampire Slayer.
But yeah, he basically has a ship that he goes around
and they get stories every episode.
It’s episodic, whatever.
Oh, yeah, I turn into Firefly.
There we go.
yeah.
I agree with you.
Although I will say on the other side, Dero,
he’s a little too smart.
It’s just like, it’s hard to believe for me sometimes.
It’s like, okay, I understand that he can,
he does it all, he has like a different gear
because he’s driven by something that’s deeper
than what these people are driven by.
Like I understand that.
And so like those fight scenes at him shooting himself
out of a plane to go out of a spaceship
to go into another spaceship’s cockpit
is like something no one would guess.
So like he has that element of surprise
and a different way of looking at stuff
that allows him to do those things
that are so anti-gold but make him the best gold.
But then at the same time he has,
he’s like at the table when they’re discussing politics
or whatnot or their own giant strategy
and he’s the one that’s like, all right, shut up everybody.
Listen to me.
He’s still kind of a kid.
Like having these other people done things
that they should have some good ideas.
Like he’s the only one with good ideas.
Well, I think he’s an outside the box thinker
and he’s able to see the society for what it is
versus like all these people that are born in the society
and grown in the society and say this is how things work
when anything different occurs.
Like for instance when they’re trying to throw a belly
and things like that, they just don’t know.
All they’ve done is live in the society.
I think that’s why he brings that perspective.
But yeah, I see you’re saying.
– He’s saying there’s like so, so, so much stagnation
that’s going on that he’s able to kind of flush it.
– Yeah, when you’re paddling the back your whole life
and told you’re the best
that you’re getting served grapes by pinks left and right.
It’s tough for you to understand.
I’m gonna send my fucking cell phone to this little
this thing and go full sent, you know, bonsai.
– Yeah, they’re the turd, he’s the plunger, I got it.
Any other hates you yet?
– The only thing I didn’t like too is he’s holding
the sovereign’s son hostage.
And she’s like, this is your only bargaining chip,
remember that and he’s like, what the hell is that supposed to mean?
And then they have Quinn get fucked up
by the cat girl there, that’s her name?
Asia?
– Yeah, that’s not the only bargaining chips.
Your son’s sanity and his limbs and his ability
to not be tortured is part of, you know,
like right when he did that, did that, she’s like,
oh, okay, now I’m gonna fuck your son up.
That’s what I’m out of it on.
Your son is fucked up.
he was never gonna do that.
So.
– Well, she doesn’t know that.
– Yeah, but that’s the point is like he,
she shouldn’t know in the second he didn’t do anything for it.
– There’s so many things more that you could
fuck the son up with before you take his life.
So, I was pissed.
– I don’t really know the younglings.
He just ain’t in it.
Oh, he should have had several in a rope going to a room
and be like, take care of this kid right now.
Like, fuck him up.
Oh My gosh.
what?
You know, no good?
– No, sorry, I’m terrible person.
– I’m telling him to start to shoot at this kid.
You’re like, no, I’m bad.
I’m like, alright.
– I agree, but at the same time,
Darro doesn’t want to do that.
He doesn’t want to hurt this kid.
And then additionally, he even says later on,
like, wow, it’s surprising they only killed Quinn
because they could have killed everybody else,
you know, around me.
– Yeah, it wouldn’t have done anything.
Like, he didn’t have a ton of leverage there.
Like, eventually, yeah, I would have got Nero out,
but that would have been probably it.
So, yeah, I will agree though.
It, take a finger off or something, you know?
– Yeah, he’s a finger for everyone.
But it’s your biggest fan, you know?
Imagine if we had one of our biggest fans.
you gonna learn today?
– Hey, you got one with us,
and then we had to start cutting our fingers off.
Like, it’d be tough.
It’d be tough.
– For the greater, greater the podcast,
you gotta do a lot of do.
They don’t understand, I think.
yeah.
My only other real hate, and I already kind of talked
about the Darrow Rook stuff,
so I’m not gonna get in there.
But a lot of the technology in this,
I didn’t understand.
They keep talking about a pulse fist.
I’m like, what is a pulse fist?
What does it do?
And I don’t necessarily need a ton of exposition
as to what all this stuff does
because there’s a ton of technology in there.
And I feel like they explain the razor pretty well,
which is everyone’s dueling tool,
or like their primary weapon as a gold.
So I understand that.
But they’d say like, oh, we’re throwing a whatever type
of grenade or this kind of thing.
And it’s like, what does that exactly do?
And there’s all these like pulse and static
and gravitational stuff.
Like at one point, when he hits up Asia,
there’s like three different grenade,
and he says it shoots people up in the air
and slams them back down and then blows them up.
It’s like some wily, eki-ody, looney-tunes type shit.
And I didn’t understand some of the other stuff,
but at the same time also didn’t want them
to just explain what all the weapons do.
So I feel like in visual, it would be pretty fun
or if there was like a fun companion novel
of like just the world, you know, like George Martin,
does that stuff or whatnot?
I’d just say, hey, this is the world
and these are what happens in these different places.
Yeah, that would be kind of cool.
It wasn’t super upset about it, but I had to find something.
Yeah, I got you.
I feel like it didn’t prevent me from imagining it
at any point, but I could see how some of those stuff was
not necessarily flushed out.
You kind of had to make up your own imagination
of what it would be.
Pulse fist, honestly, just sounds like something
I can drive up the road to Provincetown
and find in a shot.
Did you cast this at all?
I actually just saw, speaking of Hunger Games, the new one.
I actually think that Tom Blithdude, the blonde dude in it,
who’s like a young snow.
There’s a new Hunger Games movie?
Yeah, the movie, the story made zero sentence,
but the actor was really good.
I had Sam Claflin, who’s the guy who played Daisy Jones
in the Six, he played the–
Oh, yeah.
Because he’s like good looking.
He’s not–
I mean, he’s very good looking.
He’s not like the best looking guy in the world,
but he’s also like chiseled and–
It does look a little older, but yeah.
Well, I was kind of thinking 30-year-olds at this point,
because I don’t really know 20-year-olds.
And then, Anna Taylor Joy, I kept the same as Mustang.
That was what I had initially done, too.
I think we– or one of us had done.
For several, I changed that.
I think we had even Stevens there as a–
I’m Shia LeBuff.
I changed it to Barry Keegan or Cogan, or what
was name is?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I could see him being a little crazy.
I’d like to see him in like a fun role,
as opposed to being crazy.
I also just can’t unsee salt burn in my head.
Did you watch salt burn?
No, I didn’t know her.
Oh, my god.
I don’t know.
It’s fucking weird.
It’s really weird.
Yeah.
Last one, we had Gerald Butler as a fishner.
Oh, Gerald Butler.
Yeah.
Gerald Butler, sorry.
Yeah.
I could dig that.
The only additions I had was for Cassius,
Scott Eastwood, or Austin Butler, or Glenn Powell,
either of those–
All those things.
I just think you need chiseled jaws.
That’s for sure.
And Austin Butler also has a little slide look to him,
so that would be helpful.
And then I had Jamie Bell as the jackal,
because I think he fits as maybe a little more diminutive,
but also could probably play that role.
So I liked him.
I also was imagining–
I mean, this is with a role.
He’s stuck in it every time.
But Dave Batista as Ragnar–
Yeah.
-is too old, unfortunately.
Is Ragnar young?
He’s not like 45.
Maybe in some sort of costume, I assume, or some sort of–
I did see some fan art and of an obsidian,
and it looks kind of like Dave Batista.
That’s just an acting, yeah.
Because it was like, yeah, that totally fits.
And I think Dave Batista is a good actor.
Don’t get me wrong.
I think what he’s done with this career is phenomenal.
I just don’t know if he could do Ragnar.
I don’t know.
All right, Keith.
With that being said, everything being said, long epi,
I appreciate that because there’s lots
to be said about Golden Sun.
Would you recommend it to our listeners, other?
Yeah, we talked about it last time.
It being up there with HP, which is verified error.
You don’t talk about that lightly.
So I still think, on the second reread,
it’s so goddamn good.
It’s so bloody damn good.
Is that what it is?
It’s bloody damn or gory damn.
Gory damn.
Which one is pixie?
Oh, damn it.
Which one’s classy?
Gory damn.
Bloody damn, then.
It’s so bloody damn good.
Yeah, absolutely.
I couldn’t agree with you more.
I mean, it’s everything.
If you like sci-fi type stuff, which this is even really
like sci-fi, you know what I mean?
It’s more just like people.
It’s just different.
It’s just a different world.
So if you like that kind of stuff,
or really anything in general, just good stories, then yeah.
I would recommend it.
If someone wanted to start a series,
this would probably be my first one I would recommend.
It’s easy.
It’s like, it’s, what, it’s 16 hours?
It’s like longer than the first one, which is probably
like 10 hours, but it flies by.
It flies by.
So are we doing Morningstar next?
Yeah, I think Morningstar next.
And then the show gun TV show and then Harry Potter starts.
So this is episode 97.
98 will be the next one.
99 will be show gun.
100 will be Harry Potter.
This is my favorite run.
This is quite the run right now.
Absolutely.
All right, well, that was Golden Sun.
If you want to check out the Red Rising episode,
look at the cider on Spotify or iTunes or whatever.
It was two years ago, but we had our front guest,
Miko on for that.
And we’ll have Morningstar coming at you pretty soon.
So Keith, thanks for coming on.
It was a bloody damn good time.
And I’ll catch you from Morningstar.
All righty.
Bye now.