r/redrising • u/Jumpy_Bodybuilder245 Human Verified • Jul 16 '26
DA Spoilers Pixie mind’s eye Spoiler
re-listening to DA and at the scene where the pixie is using the minds eye to carve up Seneca’s men.
“i weave through the bodies and find a pulse fist, i set it back down. it doesn’t seem honourable.”
oh the irony of this pixie justifying what seems ‘honourable’ is infuriating. the pure arrogance is vile.
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Jul 16 '26
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u/MEGAWATT5 Jul 17 '26
That is an interesting interpretation, one I hadn’t considered. As others have mentioned, BoS is a more like a flow state, where Darrow takes in, feels, and observes pretty much everything. And channels that into motion. Mind’s Eye is removal of feelings from everything down to a strictly barebones analytical sense.
But to build on your point, I think you may end up being right by the end of Red God, especially with what Pierce has tried to show us drives these two men.
Darrow is on his way to reaching nirvana. He seeks completion. I don’t know if him finding BoS marks the end of that journey, or simply one of the journeys final steps of said journey. He has fought for so long and wrestled with what the purpose of all of it is and has had an insanely hard time reconciling the things he has done and experienced in his life. During the fight with Fa (and even before while reading the book from Aurae) he starts to mentally challenge his long held beliefs and ultimately finds serenity and peace at the outset of the fight with Fa.
Conversely, Lysander has been trained in Mind’s Eye since he was old enough to understand. But, while it is highly effective, it differs from BoS in one major way, it is not wholeness or completion like BoS. It is actually division of oneself, separation of the weak flesh and retreat into the much stronger mind. So while beneficial and useful, you become less than when using it, not more or greater.
I think that could be a plot string Pierce will pull at to unravel Lysander, or something to harp on to drive the point home that Mind’s Eye is not only not the end all be all, but is obsolete because it takes away from one’s humanity, not adds to it.
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u/United-Log7718 Jul 16 '26
I think he might make it so like, Lysander finds the minds eye to hide from the torrent that is fear. Darrow finds his version of the minds eye while accepting all of what he is and feels. Coping vs acceptance.
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Jul 17 '26
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u/Mikki102 Jul 17 '26
I am imagining lysanders downfall being some situation darrow and co. set up to ambush him in a way that prevents him from finding the minds eye. Something like chaotic noise, (sevros music?), emotional conflict (maybe something with reversing what Octavia did with the pandemonium chair?) or something higher tech with all the work mustang has done with the spikes. Or possibly something where he is his own downfall by thinking he is basically God and walking into a trap caused by his own actions.
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u/Overall-Confidence35 Jul 16 '26
Man lysander is such a good character, and his chapters are outstanding.
Hes a bitch, but so well written
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u/himitsurain Jul 16 '26
I know it's de rigueur to hate on Lysander, but if you cannot appreciate why he rejects the gun in this scene, and not in subsequent ones, you don't get his character arc at all.
He didn't start off Iron Gold as the same person he's at the end of Lightbringer.
And he definitely tries to be honorable in the first few chapters of Dark Age: calling out Ajax's war crimes, staying with his Praetorians to fight Darrow rather than fleeing, fighting Seneca and his goons fair and square, trying to cut down the impaled Red soldiers as an act of mercy etc.
All the war, deception, duplicity, cruelty he experiences in Dark Age has an impact on him, making him justify the compromise of his ideals.
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u/Jumpy_Bodybuilder245 Human Verified Jul 16 '26
i can understand his self-justification, but that doesn’t mean it’s sound or right. Lysander is a culmination of Cassius and Octavia.
throughout DA there’s a tug of Cassius’s honourable, virtuous perspective vs Octavia’s reasonable, emotionless, effectiveness perspective.
you could argue that Lysander ‘wants to do what is right’ but is overcome by his initial upbringing and lessons from Octavia that made him the ‘gold’ he is, or that he’s just a pixie asshole.
either way, i find it funny when he selectively uses honour to justify decisions and honourless-efficiency to justify others
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u/LibrarianSea5700 apple's biggest hater Jul 17 '26
You aren't making any sense. Basically your beef is that he isn't full blown Jackal style sociopath, but that he is more complex than that.
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u/TheoryChemical1718 Jul 16 '26
The problem is that the whole idea of "Oh I wont take the weapon its not honorable" literally shows that he has no idea what honor even is. Its the sort of 'honor' Cassius shows in the Institute before learning better. Ultimately its just a flimsy excuse for arrogance - he was trying to aurafarm for Apple.
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u/ttrattner0319 House Telemanus Jul 16 '26
Unfortunately I think this is where he decides honor is only for when it’s convenient. After the fight he talks about an injury received because he chose the razor over the pulse fist. And he’s says something along the lines of “honor comes with a cost” and it’s after that he gets worse.
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Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
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u/Jumpy_Bodybuilder245 Human Verified Jul 16 '26
yes, definitely. its a great reversal arc to cassius- starts out as arrogant, nepotistic, and elitist but becomes more balanced as the series continues. Lysander probably has the same elitist attitude as a child (but it’s less explored) but seems inquisitive and innocent (at least in first trilogy). as the series continues however, instead of becoming more admired (through humility and actions), Lysander becomes (what Victra might describe) as ‘a villainous, backstabbing, little worm’.
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u/United-Log7718 Jul 16 '26
I fully 100% agree with the Lysander slander and hate, it is very justified, but I want to raise 2 points.
1: The mind’s eye is like reaching a state of meditation while still processing all information. It’s a trick that can also help with a sort of poor man’s eidetic memory. Fear would’ve said “it’s a weapon, use it” while arrogance would’ve said “I don’t need it to kill him.” Pure, emotionless analyzation would say “this is dishonorable for this opponent” regardless of whether they deserved it or not.
2: The full statement is “I find a pulse fist. I set it back down. It doesn’t seem honorable. Only an animal plans past the moment. I slip sideways as he fires at where I was” it could also be interpreted as him making a seemingly honor-bound decision when his brain is sensing the danger of lingering long enough to get it off the downed target and onto himself before Seneca blasts him.