Red Rising’s Most Important Love Story Isn’t the One You Think It Is

In a previous post i touched on how fantasy novels can have a tendency to use a romance as a narrative device rather than presenting and building the satisfaction of a real, intimate relationship, and i can think of no better example of this particular narrative device than in Pierce Brown's Red Rising series.

To his credit, Pierce Brown does an astounding job creating characters with depths and vulnerabilities that can seem rare. The way he portrays the friendship in this series is grounded, gritty, and vulnerable in a way you simply do not see very often, which is why I thought that the romance between Darrow and Mustang was used as a way to bring Darrow full circle towards the end of the series.

Darrow and Mustang make sense on paper - Mustang ultimately represents who Eo could have been if she was born Gold, and Darrow mythologizes both women against that ideal. Darrow was ready to settle down and enjoy his small existence - he found happiness in shying away from the cause that took his father away from him, and had things turned out even a little differently, he never would have opted to be a weapon for the Sons Of Ares.

But this ideal that he holds Mustang against keeps him from seeing that the two are, at their identity, incompatible. You can see throughout the series that Darrow is very connection-oriented. Even through his darkest, most dogmatic days he creates and maintains friendships that survive conflict, betrayal, distance, and in the case of Cassius, even a blood feud. On the flip side, Mustang is much more tactical, often prioritizing strategy over emotional closeness. While she clearly cares for the people around her, we see comparatively little vulnerability from her on-page, particularly when contrasted with the emotional intimacy Darrow develops in his friendships.

There is a common saying that states opposites attract, and it is easy to apply to these two as a pair - from a distance it looks like Mustang's cool-headedness balances out Darrow's impulsive actions, and Darrow's inherent vulnerability allows Mustang to open up and trust people a little more - but upon closer inspection, these qualities simply aren't enough to hold this relationship against the betrayals that they constantly face.

I would argue that they show the most mutual trust of each at the institute; Darrow lets her go during the ambush and trusts that she will treat him in kind, she does much the same and they become allies, but as soon as they are out, Mustang feels betrayed by Darrow taking the military route underneath her father, Darrow feels betrayed by her taking Cassius as a lover, and their repair attempts are clumsy, most often resorting to a silent agreement to let it go, and only manage to make it stick because each of the two feels a connection with the highest version of each other rather than the person standing in front of them.

By contrast, let's look at Darrow’s relationships with the rest of his close friend group. Despite his attempts at remaining distant and broody, he created deep and intimate relationships with his friends, most notably a devotional, ride-or-die bond with Sevro. While these two had a relatively rocky start that is revealed to be a fear of rejection and some awe on Sevro's part, once they team up they are inseparable, even through arguments, pettiness, power exchanges and an end-of-the-world fistfight over the leadership of the Sons. But throughout it all they remain honest and loyal, and Sevro stays despite the fact that he finds out that his best friend has been "the enemy" their entire relationship. Compared to Mustang's reaction, you can see why her loyalty might come into question, as when Darrow told her about his origins, she left without a word.

Now, it can be argued that Mustang just needed some time to digest this and didnt get a chance to reconnect, as we find out later that she was newly pregnant at the time and Darrow was shortly thereafter taken by Adrius, but it still introduces her ultimate betrayal; she hid her pregnancy and subsequent son from Darrow for three years to wage war with him.

From the narrative viewpoint, and from Mustang's, it makes sense. She needed Darrow to be the leader of the Sons, to be the Reaper, the face of the revolution. And if he knew he had a son, he would have walked away from it all. Mustang knew this, knew about the child he lost that Eo kept from him, how much that affected him, and still chose secrecy over trust and took that decision from him, just as Eo had before. With Darrow being so hurt by that in the past, with his high value on family and need for honest communication, that should have been the one betrayal out of all of them that the pair would not survive.

I will not argue that Darrow should have ended up with Sevro, but I think it would have been easier to get behind. Narratively, Darrow and Mustang make sense - after all the trials, trauma, and sacrifice, Darrow gets his full circle moment in the arrival of his son. But his romantic relationship wasn't portrayed nearly as convincingly as the ones between him and his friends. And while I commend the intimacy that the author portrayed among the men (something that is rare and difficult for many to write without coming off more homo-erotic than they necessarily like), the difference is palpable and it leaves me far more emotionally convinced by Darrow’s friendships than by the romance the story asks me to invest in.