It’s our final day of Red Rising Week, and we are capping it off with another ranking. Pierce Brown created a series filled with nonstop action and excitement. What sets this apart from being just another action series, though, is the characters that fill up this beautiful universe. There are so many characters that stand out, and each in their own ways. We were going to do a Top 10, but that just wasn’t enough spaces. Here are our Top 20 Characters from the Red Rising Trilogy:
2 0 : M I C K E Y
We start our list off with Mickey the carver. I like Mickey, and honestly wish he was around the series a little more than he already was. He has this strange love for Darrow that comes more from the admiration of his own work than actual love, but it’s still something real. There are a few colors that aren’t highly represented in the series, and it’s interesting to see the portrayal of violet with him.
1 9 : O C T A V I A A U L U N E
Octavia is not a good person by any stretch of the imagination. She is ruthless, unforgiving, and stuck in her old ways. While she is set up to be what Darrow needs to topple to finish his mission, she's not the main focus. Darrow's smaller hurdles (Jackal, Aja, Cassius) are far more interesting. She is the masterful controller behind the Society, and in a sense helped cause wonderful moments, but as far as her character go she's a bad person in the beginning and continues to be throughout.
1 8 : O R I O N X E A Q U A R I I
The introduction of Orion gets overshadowed by the fact that she comes in right before our first meeting with Ragnar. She, though, holds her ground as far as memorable personalities go. We are not only introduced to her, but also to the way that blues interact and carry themselves. She shows right away that she is an outlier to the rest of them, with her snarky remarks and spunky attitude. This catches the interest of Darrow, as well as the rest of us.
1 7 : D A N C E R
It's interesting how much Dancer helped kick off the events of Red Rising, only to then go to the background for quite awhile. He was referenced quite a bit, but never heard from directly. However, when we were told he died I was pretty bummed out about it. Dancer is the one who gave Darrow the extra push after Eo was killed and for that alone he deserves to be on the list.
1 6 : T H E O D O R A
Theodora shines as one of the few level heads in Darrow’s circle. She may not have the sheer intelligence of Mustang, or the blatant peacefulness of Roque, but she manages to be the one who can give an unbiased and rational opinion when it is needed. She gets done the things that are vital, but don’t have the flash that come with the events that highlight the trilogy. She is someone you want on your side at all times.
1 5 : A D R I U S A U A U G U S T U S ( J A C K A L )
It goes to show how many great characters are in the series for Jackal to only be at 15. He was a truly terrible person who showed he would go to whatever lengths possible to not only survive, but gain power as well. He was more of an adversary to Darrow than Octavia was and constantly a thorn in his side.
The Jackal earned his nickname because he was feisty, unpredictable, and someone you didn't want cornered. He was never one to be trusted but Darrow kept him on his side as he thought he was useful. Darrow's decision to do so continues to be on of his more baffling choices. Everyone told him to keep a close eye on the Jackal and still, he was fooled and captured at the Triumph by The Jackal and company.
1 4 : P A X A U T E L E M A N U S
While Pax's time in the series was ultimately cut short at the hands of the Jackal, I think he played his role perfectly. Pax was first seen as an obstacle that needed to be hurdled over, but once he was on Team Darrow I was Team Pax all the way. In Red Rising he was involved in a lot of top notch moments. Hearing him shout his name before battle is a very high moment in the series. Amongst that, he also was the one who whipped Darrow, involved in the battle with literal dead trojan horses, and was at the first meeting of the Jackal. He was a loyal, smart, and a proud young man. Which is why it was heartbreaking when he was murdered. His name lived on through the ship Darrow rightfully so named after his fallen friend.
1 3 : D A X O A U T E L E M A N U S
I’d guess that most people wouldn’t put Daxo above Pax on a Red Rising character ranking. Pax is there for a short time but packs a punch while he is there. Daxo hangs around for both Golden Son and Morning Star, and while he never does anything extravagant or game changing, he stands out as the one calm and collected Telemanus. He has a knowing way about him that is similar to the Augustus twins. He is always one step ahead, while also carrying the strength and size that his family is known for. I’ll be honest, that even up till the end of Morning Star, I never quite trusted Daxo. The way he carries himself reeks of villainy. That’s what makes him so cool to me. He has the characteristics of that of a good villain, though his allegiances remain to the side of good.
1 2 : L O R N A U A R C O S
Lorn au Arcos shows us a nice balance between the best and worst of Gold. He, like Roque, can be considered some of the best that Gold has to offer, yet they both still cling to the ways of old and refuse to accept that their way of life is unjust. Lorn could never survive in a world where the chains have been broken, but he played a large role in their eventual breaking. Darrow recruited him through means of deceit, but Lorn did not harbor any noticeable ill will. He carried on as the perfect soldier that he is. He is the wise sage type character that these stories need to balance out the hot headed protagonist. He takes Darrow on as his final student, and attempts to guide him away from his aggressive and rageful ways. He is not with us in this story for a long time, but his reputation is always a lingering presence in the world. He is calm and wise, but ready for action when the time is necessary. Those types of characters are always welcome in my stories.
1 1 : A J A A U G R I M M U S
Ah yes, Aja. What can I say about Aja? She's her enemies worst nightmare. She's quick, dangerous, and lethal. She slayed Ragnar and I'll always hold that against her. Also it took three well trained warriors (Darrow, Mustang, Cassius) to keep her at bay. It isn't until Sevro joins in that she is finally bring her down.
Aja is more than just a warrior though. She is extremely loyal to the Sovereign. As a Protean Knight she will do whatever she can to keep Octavia safe from harm. Even if that means killing those that side with Darrow's cause. Aja cares about her people deeply.
Trained by Lorn, also Darrow's trainer, she is really just the same as Darrow in a lot of ways. Her Gold color is important to her as Darrow's red are to him. It would be an interesting read if we got Aja's side of the story. To see how many similar stories we would see play out. Ultimately we know she is killed, but her getting to that point would be a worthwhile story.
1 0 : F I T C H N E R A U B A R C A
Fitchner shines in both Red Rising, as well as Golden Son, but in different ways. Red Rising is a much more compact story, and Fitchner acts as the one guide that Darrow has. He is always helpful to him, but retains his wit and attitude. He’s the only one who is actually trying to see Darrow win, and stays entertaining throughout as well.
In Golden Son, we get a different side of Fitchner. He has risen through the ranks and become the Rage Knight. Throughout Golden Son, we try to hate Fitchner because we have found out that he is the father of Sevro, and continues to be on the side of the Society. It’s when we learn that he is Ares himself, that everything seems to make sense. We learn of his love with a red and how he has been slowly attempting to cripple the Society from the inside. It’s at that moment that Fitchner takes the next step as a character. In order to be able to hide in plain site among the most elite of Gold takes intellect, strength, and courage. It’s very impressive he was able to do it for as long as he did.
9 : T A C T U S A U R A T H
Tactus is one that I wanted to fight to be higher on this list. It’s tough, though, because he’s an acquired taste. At any point from here on, he’d be going against some juggernauts. Tactus is one of my favorite kinds of characters. He’s cocky and arrogant, and not for nothing, as he is exceptionally talented as well. He comes from a successful, yet destructive family and is constantly fighting between how he was raised, and who he could become under Darrow’s tutelage.
There are hints and small moments that show who Tactus is capable of being, but he is always in a constant struggle with what is expected from him because of his name. The most glaring moment of this is when Darrow learns that Tactus went to get back the violin that was given to him by Darrow as a gift, after he had sold it for drugs. We don’t learn this until too late, but it shows the struggle in Tactus. The person he is thought to be sold the violin, and the person he could be went back for it.
He betrays the loyalty that Darrow thought he had earned when he takes Lysander back to Octavia. It hurt, that he did such a thing, when he was so close to breaking free. When he is killed by Lorn, it is after a moment when he chose to finally give in and follow Darrow, no matter the consequences to his reputation. He didn’t have the heart to murder children even though it’s what he was instructed to do. There was too much good in him to be taken away before it was given the chance to bloom.
8 : V I C T R A A U J U L I I
Victra is a badass, plain and simple. She doesn’t take anything from anyone and she does it her way. Where as Tactus has trouble letting go of his family name and the reputation that comes with it, Victra sees the good that Darrow is striving for and stays loyal to what she believes is right. She isn’t born into her way of life. She chooses it.
Loyalty is the key word when explaining what makes Victra so cool. She is introduced in Golden Son and immediately comes off similarly to many Golds: arrogant, talented, and selfish. As the story goes on, and more and more layers get peeled back, we start to see the other parts of Victra that lie beneath her rock hard exterior. She has every chance to defect and join the Sovereign’s side, but she never does. She undergoes constant scrutiny from the rest of the team, because of her family name, but she does not waiver in her loyalty to the cause. Victra stands out as a combination of independent and being part of the team.
There are constant little moments when Victra shows how awesome she is. Showing the scars from her torture to convince the others of her loyalty, convincing her mother to switch sides and the battle of the Rim, and then marrying Sevro! Sevro is awesome, but he comes off as a gross little shit, and for beautiful Victra to be able to look past all that and see the good in him, really shows the good in her.
7 : R A G N A R V O L A R U S
A big Rest in Peace to the big guy. Ragnar was the heart and soul of Darrow's squad, in my opinion. I think he's endured worse than Darrow. He was taken away from him family and people at such a young age, just to be thrown into combat. Fight for survival and serve the higher colors. All his life was fighting.
Once he met up with Darrow, though, you wouldn't know that his past was so bad. He's got many heartwarming scenes. Him playing with the red children is such a small moment that I absolutely adore. His loyalty to Darrow and his purpose was unmatched. He didn't flinch when Darrow told him about being a red. He didn't care. He knew Darrow was a great person and someone worth following into battle.
Ever since his bold typeface showed up I should have prepared myself for his death. Pierce Brown made it clear in Red Rising, that your favorites probably won't survive the series. War is ugly and casualties are unfortunately aplenty, but couldn't you have spared Ragnar from such fate. That being said he went out a fighter and a lover. His last moments of life were tear jerking. Getting to be with the sister he helped raised, being surrounded by great friends. I think this was the way he was supposed to go, but I’ll forever wish it wasn't so.
6 : D A R R O W
Darrow is everything you want in your main protagonist. Most important of all, he's got drive and purpose. Eo's death kick-started a chain of events that weren't in Darrow's wildest dreams. Through it all, though, he never strayed too far from the path. Friends and family dying, setbacks galore, and betrayal didn't stop him. He is the strong willed leader that was needed to finally cause the change needed in the world.
That being said, Darrow also makes bonehead decisions. We talk about these more in-depth in the Conversation about Darrow piece. He's not perfect at all. He has a lack of trust in some friends, namely Roque. There is an alternate universe somewhere that gets to see what happened if he just spoke to Roque before it was too late.
The journey from the mines, to killing the Sovereign and fulfilling Eo's dream is one for the ages. Darrow was the perfect leader needed to see this through.
5 : S E V R O A U B A R C A
Every Batman needs their Robin. Not to pigeonhole Sevro to just another sidekick or quirky best friend. He's way more than that. We learn that pretty quickly on, when he helps rescue Darrow and Cassius from hypothermia. He's a better friend than most people can hope to be.
As we learn later on, he's half gold and half red. He's never really belonged anywhere and desperately needed a family to fill that void. Him and his Howlers make for an Island of Misfit Toys comparison. Unwelcomed and cast out they are also sick of the Gold ways. Just the perfect group for Sevro to lead.
Sevro's only moments of annoyance are in Morning Star. It was a bummer to see him try and fail to be Ares. Him needing to take a backseat to Darrow was necessary as I don't think Sevro would have been successful without him, but I hated seeing him as the whiny leader.
I also pictured Sevro as Donnie from The Wild Thornberrys. He's unpredictable and very much who he is. Unwilling to confirm to the Gold ways. He was exactly who Darrow needed as his best friend and number two.
4 : V I R G I N I A A U A U G U S T U S ( M U S T A N G )
Mustang is rad. At first, I thought “great another generic love interest for the protagonist.” But, she evolves to be much more than that. Darrow would have gotten nowhere if it wasn't for Mustang's help. We see this right away at the Institute when she saves Darrow from death. She constantly finds ways to help get Darrow out of a tough spot. I mean, she's the one that captures the Jackal at the Institute.
She's not just Darrow's guardian angel though. She's a great strategist and warrior. Mustang was never scared away from the battlefield. On top of that, though, she knows when and where fighting should occur. She helped try to negotiate in Quicksilver's room among other ways of finding peace without death.
Her upbringing wasn't as bad as Darrow's but it helped teach the readers that not everything is perfect for golds. They still have family squabbles and power hungry relatives lead to murders and betrayals. She made it through living with the Jackal after all and for that she deserves a lot of credit.
3 : K A V A X A U T E L E M A N U S
I want Kavax all the time. On every page, in every scene, give me Kavax and Sophocles. There isn’t one scene or one scenario where I wouldn’t want father Telemanus involved. He impresses me in so many ways. He is an obvious juggernaut on the battlefield, with his size and strength overwhelming anyone. He is determined and unafraid in any situation. He was the first to voice his displeasure when the Sovereign attempted to stop the duel between Darrow and Cassius during her obvious show of favoritism towards house Bellona. He has a strong moral compass and sticks to it regardless of the circumstances.
He doesn’t flinch to follow Darrow, even after he learns what he is. It started mostly as part of his loyalty to Mustang, but Kavax wouldn’t do something if it contradicted what he deemed as just. He knew that Darrow was fighting for a better world and joined him on that ride without hesitation or reservation. His absolutely fierce loyalty to Mustang shows that his head and his heart are in the right place at all times. He seems as if he is all brawn and no brain, and yet he is always in the know how. That may be because he surrounds himself closely with those that are obviously intelligent in Daxo and Mustang, but it’s a kind of intelligence in itself to have the right people with you.
There are plenty of lovable brutes in the Red Rising Series. Most people would say that Ragnar should take this spot. He has the same mix of strength, and loyalty, and kindness. He is also generally a more substantial figure in the story. Kavax, though, surpasses him in my book because of how goddamn entertaining he is at all times. To me, he steals the scene in every situation he is in. After all, he carries around a giant fox who eats jelly beans, and makes snap decisions based off of the actions of him. It’s always amazing, and I will never grow tired of him declaring his allegiance based off a fox found jelly bean. Give us more Kavax everywhere.
2 : C A S S I U S A U B E L L O N A
This is an overall Two Thirds ranking, so Cassius ends up as our runner-up. If this was just a personal list, Cassius would take spots 1, 2, and 3. He is easily my favorite character throughout the series, and possibly my favorite book character of all time. I say that, knowing that there is a faction of people out there that loathe Cassius. I feel as though those people haven’t given him his fair shake. He has by far, the most progression throughout this entire trilogy.
Cassius is as honorable as they come and he would tell you that himself. He makes every decision in his life based on honor. This is constantly misconstrued as a negative thing, because his pride and honor keeps him on the wrong side of the fight.
In Red Rising, he stabs Darrow through his chest, upon learning that he killed Julian in the passage. While this paints Cassius as the villain, it’s not objectively hard to see where he was coming from. His twin brother, whom he had been best friends with for his entire life, was just murdered by someone who he thought he could trust. If Darrow had killed someone as vengeance for murdering Sevro or Mustang we would see it as justice, but in Cassius’ eyes this was even bigger than that.
In Golden Son, he fights for his family. The name of Augustus was not any more clean than that of Bellona, so he wasn’t fighting against Darrow’s dream at that point, but fighting his rival family. It’s not far fetched to feel like Nero au Augustus was as much an enemy as the Sovereign at that time. It was just being on a different side of the same rotten coin.
When we reach Morning Star, is when the true conversion of Cassius comes to play. He is made an Olympic Knight and now, with the knowledge of what Darrow is, continues on his duties. You can knock him for that if you like, but his entire family had just been murdered at the hands of his former friend. That can’t be overlooked entirely. When the time was necessary, he was able to look past that in order to side with the new world that Darrow was trying to create. He may have been a pawn of the society, but he is the reason that the queen was thwarted. He continued to grow more detached from the world that he grew up with and had treated him so well for so long, as he learned how wrong it was. In the end, he was able to see that the world needed change, and didn’t let any sort of stubborn pride get in the way of that, and that is truly honorable.
1 : R O Q U E A U F A B I I
I know I've said it more than a couple times in different spots, but Roque was Darrow's biggest mistake. Roque was the levelheaded balance needed in Darrow's crew. It's impossible to know how Roque would have reacted to finding out Darrow was a Red, but deep down I believe he would have been right next to him until the end.
Instead we got the ultimate twist when Roque finally had enough, and turned on Darrow. The first time I read the series I was flabbergasted by Roque's betrayal. Then on my second reading it was much more obvious and the subtle clues were glaring. Roque needed someone, and everyone he loved or cared for let him down, or was killed. Darrow constantly pushed Roque aside, which I think caused doubt to surface in Roque. Why should I stick around this person if they don't seem to care? Roque wasn't a perfect person, but of all the characters who did bad things in the series he's the one I understood the most. I hate that it went the path it went down, but I fully get why.
I hate to focus mostly on the end of Roque, because he was much more than that. He was the level head that was needed to balance the crazy. His poems and way with words, while hammy, brought a fresh perspective to Darrow's camp. To me he’s the hippy on the lawn playing hacky sack while finals week is going on. He showed that you can have peacefulness in an otherwise messed up world. He illustrated that the way Gold is perceived doesn’t pertain to all. Darrow said it himself: The world needs Roque au Fabii.
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