Fight With Your Best Friends
What Sevro au Barca taught me about loyalty
I am Sevro au Barca.
And I am no longer afraid.
That’s Sevro in Morning Star, the third book of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising saga. I came to fiction in my late teens, through The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Latin American novels. Nothing I’ve read since has hit like this series. It’s my favorite fictional universe, and I’m not even done with it.
This is a love letter to a world that taught me friendship and loyalty. Sevro’s courage reaches past the battlefield. It’s what it takes to love a friend honestly.
I’m still reading the fourth book, Iron Gold, so I’ll stay within what I’ve read so far. Expect spoilers.
If any of this strikes a chord, read the first pages of Red Rising and see what happens.
The Carving
After Darrow comes back to life thanks to the Sons of Ares, we meet the characters who will shape how Darrow channels his rage.
Since Darrow is officially dead, nobody expects anything from him, and Ares has a plan ready. We don’t know, at this first point, who Ares is or why he needs Darrow. However, it doesn’t take long to find out what Ares needs from him.
Darrow meets Mickey, a Violet and a peculiar character: twelve unusually long, fast fingers, and a puzzle he never puts down. To see whether Darrow is up to the plan, Mickey tests him with that same puzzle. Darrow has fewer fingers, but he shows why he was a Helldiver. With fast, precise hands he solves it, and Mickey takes the job.
What job, you might ask?
The Sons of Ares want to make a Gold out of a Red. This process is known as carving, where carvers (Violets) illegally manipulate the genes and biological composition of a living being. They create mythological creatures and turn one Color into another. Of course, all of this comes with a great price.
The price isn’t money. Darrow endures a full-body rebuild: arms, torso, legs, pupils, hair, even his DNA. Everything needs to be changed to become Gold.
Mickey succeeds and Darrow infiltrates the world of Gold.
Sevro au Barca
After months of training, Darrow enters the Institute, a school where Golds learn to be Golds. That is, they learn how to organize into Houses, hunt for their food, and colonize other Houses. Deaths are real. And Darrow, in this context, meets Sevro au Barca.
He is a short Gold. Looks almost Bronze. But he’s, indeed, a Gold, like the rest of them. He’s hostile when he meets Darrow. He’s rash, and has no patience for social games. He’s there only to do what has to be done.
They exchange a few words and when the actual Institute begins, we get to know who Sevro is.
Only after Sevro sees what kind of leader Darrow is does he decide to follow him. At first it’s blind trust. Sevro follows Darrow because he looks like the most capable, the strongest, the fittest of them all. But then, as the story goes on, he sees Darrow’s volatility. He sees, like no other character ever does in the story, his failures, his strengths, his deepest desires… From then on, they fight side by side as the Howlers, the pack Sevro had already gathered inside House Mars.
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And still, fully knowing who Darrow is, Sevro follows him. Yet from this description, you might think Sevro is just a shadow. For most of the first part of the story, he is. He does Darrow’s dirty work. He kills when Darrow cannot, he insults when Darrow cannot. However, by Morning Star, after Darrow has lost everything and spent months in a cell, both men have grown, and they follow each other. They learn from each other’s decisions. Sevro does not doubt Darrow, and Darrow does not doubt Sevro.
Only on this ground of acceptance and trust can Sevro and Darrow have their conflict.
The fight comes right before the last step: agreeing to share the lead. Sevro, now head of the Sons of Ares, wants to strike the Society hard by bombing a zone full of Reds, the very people they’re fighting for. Darrow doesn’t think it’s necessary, and the bomb is still armed. They fight to get the kill switch. They hit each other for real, for the first time ever, after years of knowing each other.
No tricks, just fists talking. After a few minutes, they both collapse on the floor, exhausted. Now they can talk, having already spoken with their fists.
Sevro carries the pressure of leading his people through the war. But he doesn’t know if he’s doing a great job. Darrow realizes he hasn’t been there to share the burden. He knows they need each other. And proposes something simple. Neither will lead the other. They know what they’re capable of. They are both powerful, and have respect for each other. Then they take that conversation to the rest of the pack.
I will be Howler One. Sevro will be Howler Two, copy that?
And just like that, both friends lead the revolution to bring down the Golds.
I Can’t Love You Without Respect
While reading how Sevro acted and reacted to Darrow, I felt uneasy. Sevro seemed like Darrow’s puppy, always waiting on his word. It was uncomfortable, but refreshing to see him trust someone.
By the third book of the series, you really understand what kind of bond both men have with each other. Even though Darrow doesn’t explicitly say it, he deeply respects Sevro, just as Sevro respects him. Only after they talk through what troubles them both do they see what they need from each other and from the pack.
I realized I can’t love my friends if I can’t respect them.
Like Sevro, when I follow a friend’s idea to the end, it’s because I trust them deeply. They have shown me who they are. I know what struggles they’ve had to overcome. I know how resilient and capable they can be. And so I follow them without hesitation.
A real friendship is built when that trust runs both ways, when they also understand and admire my struggles and my capacity to be great. Real friendships grow from a shared desire to be better, built on a clear view of each other’s abilities.
Only after I had difficult conversations with my friends, my brother, and my partner; only after I saw what they went through and what problems they face each day; only after I saw how they came back up from the depths of hell; only after I discovered how deeply wounded they were, and still decided to wake up each morning and face reality with love and passion; only after all that did I know I loved them.
And in that recognition came another, unsettling one: I was loved, too.
I don’t feel this kind of respect for many people. Only my closest ones get it.
I love you because I know what you’ve been through, and because I can see, deep inside you, how good a human being you can be.
Even when the chance comes, Sevro never betrays Darrow. Their shared respect shows them what loyalty is worth.
Sevro au Barca taught me loyalty, friendship, and deep love.
We all have a Sevro in our lives, or several. Remind them how much you respect them. Let them be seen. Fight with them if necessary. Use fists if necessary. Always love, always them.
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This is the second in a series of essays where I use Red Rising to talk about what it taught me. More are on the way. Follow along if you’d like.
Blessed and peaceful thoughts for everyone.
