(SPOILERS ahead for those who have not yet read the Red Rising series)

Conventions:

+ Admirable or usually good (often of noble birth, but can be simply noble of spirit)

Darrow is a good-natured youth who loves his home and his family. He is ambitious and resentful toward the Grays and Golds that see themselves as his better. But they seem to lack the cohesion and community of the Reds. In his mind, Red is the noblest color. They love to drink and dance and have happy, committed homes and relationships. The term “salt of the earth” comes to mind when thinking of these hard-working and loving people.

+ Tragic Flaw that will lead to his downfall—must recognize it and its consequences before it does. Darrow is a hell-diver, someone who rides the claw drill deep into the depths of Mars in search of the precious fuel that powers their entire society. To be a hell diver, one must be reckless, fearless, and completely self-confident. His fatal flaw emerges early in the first book as he defies the Society’s rules and buries his wife. (Antigone vibes). They hang him for his defiance. Anger, more specifically rage, is his second fatal flaw.

+ Reversal of fortune brought about by the flaw

Though he uses this trait to fuel his reckless and insane plans, which almost always work out eventually, he has to learn every lesson the hard way: initial crushing defeat followed by spectacular victory. Darrow beats the game by changing the rules entirely in order to win. But because he often rushes in without anticipating the consequences, his shortsightedness results in the death of his loyal friends such as Pax and Leah.

I would almost add a third flaw of arrogance. More than once, this blinds him to the machinations of his enemies. He loses controls of House Mars and its castle to a madman; a friend betrays him and nearly dies, and he doesn’t underestimate the Jackel’s need to win. The price for this last oversight is the life of his friend Pax.  

+ Must gain insight or self-knowledge

Throughout Book 2, Darrow learns from his failures, but not until the end of Book 2 and beginning of Book 3 does he gain real self-knowledge as humility. During Book 2, he realizes that Red cannot change the world alone. Change comes when all colors see the need to create a better world together. This is a warm and fuzzy idea.

+ Must transformation through transaction—elicit pity, then fear, then relief (catharsis)

But drunk on his own power and success, it will take total failure and captivity by his enemies to give him the insight necessary to see that he is not a god. He, in fact, had become the thing he hated. By the beginning of Book 3, most of that hatred has slipped away, leaving room for a sense of home and brotherhood.

Darrow’s tragic arc is complete by the end of book 2. The author redeems his hero at this point. Though the path is long. Book 3 being the larger of the 3 books.

+ The hero is not an innocent victim. His actions cause his downfall. 

At no point in any of the three books would I call Darrow innocent. He doesn’t either. Again and again, he accepts responsibility for the deaths of those around him. By the end of Book 3, he cannot take the crown for himself. Like the stereotypical Western Hero, his tragic flaws set him apart for society. He saved it, but cannot fully be a part of it, or in his case, rule it. For this reason, Book three has a bitter-sweet ending.