Lightbringer (Red Rising Book #6) Predictions
Hello and welcome to my first spoiler-y post about the Red Rising series! Everything I have put on my website and YouTube channel about Red Rising thus far has been entirely spoiler-free, so I’m looking forward to getting a chance to talk a bit about the series without the constraints of being void of spoilers. If you do not want to be spoiled, do not continue reading. This is going to contain spoilers for the series as a whole, but especially for the second trilogy and most definitely Dark Age, which is my favorite science fiction book I have read in the last year.
Lightbringer is what I have seen as the title for the sixth book, but correct me if I’m wrong on that one. I tried to find credible sources either supporting or denouncing this, but couldn’t find anything, so I’m just going to operate under the assumption that the upcoming sixth Red Rising novel is going to be called Lightbringer. This post is going to be something of a list of predictions while simultaneously just being a wishlist of things that I really want to see in this sixth book. Anything I mention here isn’t just something I think we will see, it’s something I really want to see and believe is entirely feasible.
So, let’s get into it.
Darrow Dies
I am going to rip the bandage right off: Darrow dies. That’s something I fully expect to serve as a conclusion to this second trilogy. For one, I believe that Darrow still wants to die, just like he did right at the beginning of Red Rising. He has obsessively pursued life-threatening situations and a huge part of the reason why he’s such a terrifying enemy is his minimal regard for his own survival, even if he sometimes won’t admit to himself that he doesn’t care if he dies.
A huge part of this second trilogy’s purpose has been consequences, and Darrow being permitted to live a happy life with his wife and children is not an adequate consequence for the horrible things that he has done. Death begets death begets death is an oft-repeated mantra that strongly represents the series, but especially the second trilogy. Darrow being permitted to live could break that cycle, but it would also feel undeserved—it would leave many people who rightly view Darrow as a war criminal without recompense. What else will he do, come out and apologize?
My expectation here is that Darrow dies in one of two ways: suicide on the field of battle or public execution, likely in a poetic parallel to his deceased wife’s hanging. While the latter definitely feels more artful, the former feels more likely given that this is something that has nearly happened many times before. Still, it would be giving Darrow what he wants, and I don’t really believe that he deserves that. I think that a broadcasted execution to quell rebellions by those who have been wronged by Darrow is the best ending that can be given to his story.
Lysander and Cassius Duel
This is definitely more of a "wish" than a "prediction"; I feel like this is being set up well and I really want to see it happen. I don’t expect Lysander to simply switch sides as soon as he sees Cassius standing with his enemy. No, I believe we’ll get some sort of verbal confrontation between the two of them before it comes to blows. I really hope we see this, because it would be an incredible and emotional fight. So much so that I would hope Lysander would have a change of heart after the battle had run its course. I don’t think it would be immediate betrayal, though—more like a time bomb.
After Lysander and Cassius fight, some time should pass while Lysander mulls over whatever Cassius had to say to him during their confrontation. Lysander won’t side with Cassius right away, but their conversation will linger with him until, right at the most pivotal moment, all of Lysander’s doubts come to fruition and he turns the tide in an epic betrayal of Apollo and Atalantia.
Lysander is the Hero
Okay, now this prediction kind of hinges on the previous one. My prediction is that Lysander effectively becomes the new hero of the story. I believe Darrow will be out of commission reasonably early in this book, probably about seventy-five percent of the way through it or so, whether he’s imprisoned or killed. At that point, Lysander will be a more prominent figure and will be the one who ultimately “saves the day”. Lysander is an incredible fighter and he’s truly a better person than most other pieces on the board, he’s just fallen prey to some more wicked and cunning people, as well as been deceived.
Once Lysander turns away from Apollo and Atalantia, he’ll replace Darrow, but not under the violent moniker reaper, which has a violent past and is loathed by many. I expect he’ll operate under a different title at this stage. Something like… Lightbringer. At least, if Lightbringer is really the name of the book. Ultimately, I’m just assuming that the book’s title will be the title given to Lysander, whom I fully believe to be the tide-turner and ultimate hero of this final book in the second trilogy.
Return to the Norm
My expectation is that the new order put in place by Darrow will shift and change, moving closer to what it was in the first book. I don’t expect colors to be fully reinstated, but I do expect there to be a caste system either in place or society will be heading in that direction. The society that is in place right now is experiencing growing pains and I believe compromises will be made to maintain peace toward the end of the novel’s events. These definitely are not compromises that are moral, but I expect that we won’t get a “and everyone lived happily ever after” ending in terms of the new social structure that will be in place.
This is not to say that I expect the “bad guys” to win, I just don’t expect (or want) an ending in which Darrow’s idea of a perfect world is put in place. Not only is it not sustainable anyway, but it also isn’t what the people want right now (as we quite clearly saw in Dark Age). I think we’re going to see a society at the end that is imperfect and certainly not what Darrow wants (probably not even what Virginia wants), but that will survive and hopefully not decline back into the caste system that was in place at the beginning of Red Rising.
Other Predictions?
While I actually have other predictions in mind, too, I don’t want to get into them here as the post is already going to be plenty long. Instead, I would love to hear if you have any predictions for the sixth book! I was asked a couple of times what my predictions for Book Six are and these are the most prominent ones that I could think of. They aren’t just things that I expect to happen, though—these are things I want to see happen.
My hope, honestly, is that all of these predictions are wrong. Not wrong in the sense that I’m completely incorrect, but wrong in the sense that Pierce Brown has something unpredictable up his sleeve that will shock me and make the story better than I could have ever imagined. I want to be blown away repeatedly by this sixth book, constantly saying “I did not see that coming” as I turn each page.
That would be prime.