Golden Son

Mustang is Augustus’s daughter, and the sister of Claudius (deceased) and the Jackal. While Mustang is in love with Darrow, she remains guarded in order to survive in their high-stakes world of power and betrayal. Mustang is intelligent, insightful, and empathetic, as well as a skilled tactician and fighter. She is distinguished from her father Augustus and twin, the Jackal, by her inherent goodness and empathy, which is expressed in her consideration for lowColors.

As a dynamic side character, love interest, and Reformer who believes in a more egalitarian society, Mustang’s perspective highlights the immorality of oppression and exploitation. The author positions her as both a kind of moral compass for Darrow—his love for Mustang helps him avoid becoming ruthless. Mustang’s own priorities remain uncertain at the end of Golden Son—She refuses to kill Darrow and Ragnar when she discovers the truth about Darrow’s identity, but then disappears.

Augustus is the ArchGovernor of Mars, and the father of Claudius (deceased), the Jackal, and Mustang. At times, the author portrays Augustus as an antagonistic force, and at other times as a product of his environment, demonstrating the complexity and nuance of corruption and evil in the world of the story. He believes that it is his duty to save the human species, and does not hold dark ulterior motives outside of this goal. As Darrow observes, “He believes he is beyond morality. His aspirations are so grand that he has become inhuman in his desperate desire to preserve humanity” (430).

Augustus, who is responsible, cold, and proud, embodies the theme of A Society Built on Oppression and Exploitation. His strong support of the social order demonstrates his belief that the survival of the human race can only be maintained through oppression and exploitation. His reliance on oppression is further developed through his controlling behavior toward the Jackal and Mustang. As Darrow remarks, “His love is the most conditional I’ve ever seen” (238).

The Jackal is Augustus’s youngest son and Mustang’s twin brother. While at the Institute, he cannibalized his competitors, after which he was banished and his father disowned him. After the events of Red Rising, he Jackal entered into the business world, claiming power through gaining a foothold in infrastructure.

As an antagonist, the Jackal is characterized by his extremely violent and merciless behavior. He is scheming, intelligent, and secretive, and he demonstrates little capacity for empathy. His antagonism reaches its climax at the end of Golden Son when he betrays his alliance with Darrow and murders his father.

Ragnar is a Stained Obsidian who becomes Darrow’s friend and loyal follower. The author describes him as having a strip of long white hair, black eyes, and “calluses like the hide of a rhinoceros” (195). He is large, powerful, and covered in both tattoos and scars. The author distinguishes Ragnar’s size and voice by using bold typeface to express Ragnar’s dialogue.

Portrayed as powerful and loyal, Ragnar has been indoctrinated to be obedient and insecure before Darrow forces him to become autonomous. Since Obsidians are conditioned to believe Golds are god-like, Ragnar is hesitant to accept freedom from Darrow. Once he does, he becomes loyal to Darrow for treating him as an equal and offering him autonomy and a position of leadership. Ragnar demonstrates both his loyalty and autonomy as he kneels before Mustang alongside Darrow, demonstrating the novel’s central idea that autonomy, honesty and connection are the opposite of oppression and The Isolation of Living a Lie.

Sevro is the half-Red, half-Gold son of Fitchner and Bryn. He is close friends with Darrow, the leader of his band of Howlers, and a secret member of the Sons of Ares. The author characterizes Sevro by his fierce loyalty—both to Darrow and to the Howlers—as well as his intelligence, leadership skills, and personal brand of morality. He is brusque and has a dark sense of humor, exemplified as he forces the Jackal and the other captives who are freed to thank Darrow before letting them out of their cells.

Sevro is a dynamic side character who heavily impacts the themes and plot of Golden Son. His character best demonstrates the concept of loyalty within the theme Friendship, Loyalty, and Betrayal. He also pulls Darrow out of The Isolation of Living a Lie when he forces Darrow to admit his true identity and connection to the Sons of Ares. His friendship with Darrow underscores the importance of human connection in the narrative.

Fitchner is a Gold from Mars and a Peerless Scarred (a Gold who has earned a scar demonstrating their strength). Secretly, he is also Ares, the leader of the Sons of Ares. He portrays himself to others as calculating and arrogant, but these traits are a façade to protect his mission as Ares. After the plot twist in which Darrow discovers Fitchner’s true identity, Fitchner’s behavior shifts, revealing him to be both loving and vengeful.

Like Darrow, Fitchner is driven by grief, vengeance and a deep desire to enact change in the Society. He became Ares after his wife, a Red named Bryn, was killed for undergoing a procedure to alter her reproductive system so she could have a child with Fitchner. Fitchner’s intelligence and morality are reflected in his belief that the Society is evil rather than believing Golds are evil. Given his shift in personality after the plot twist, Fitchner becomes a critical and dynamic side character who helps advance the plot and develop the novel’s themes of Friendship, Loyalty, and Betrayal and The Isolation of Living a Lie.

Roque is a Gold Lancer for Augustus. As Darrow narrates, “His hair is long, like mine, and his face soft as a woman’s and placid as a philosopher’s” (4). Although he is a skilled fighter, Roque does not want to be a soldier. Roque stands apart from many other Golds because his actions are motivated by his personal emotional landscape rather than a quest for power and prestige. He cares deeply for his friends and is in love with Quinn, one of Sevro’s Howlers. He betrays Darrow not to advance his own social position, but because he feels hurt by Darrow’s own betrayal.

The arc of Roque’s friendship with Darrow develops the theme of Friendship, Loyalty, and Betrayal. At the start of the plot, Roque begins the novel loyal to Darrow and committed to what he believes to be mutual trust, friendship and respect. He understands Darrow’s nature, but grows resentful over Darrow’s consistent isolation and dishonesty. Roque’s resentment peaks when Darrow drugs him at the gala instead of bringing him in on the details of his plan, treating him not as a friend and comrade in arms, but as a pawn. After Darrow’s mission results in the deaths of Quinn and Tactus, the hurt and betrayal Roque experiences effectively severs their friendship and Roque ultimately turns against Darrow in the twist ending of Golden Son.

Victra, a Gold Lancer for Augustus and loyal friend to Darrow, is the daughter of Agrippina au Julii and the sister of Antonia au Severus-Julii. Privately in love with Darrow, Victra becomes his cunning and loyal supporter in his mission, often flirting with him and making unsolicited sexual advances, attempting to draw him out of his isolation. Darrow describes her as attractive with a “sensual mouth wide, with lips shaped to purr insults” (5).

Victra serves to advance the theme of Friendship, Loyalty, and Betrayal. Victra’s love for Darrow makes her consistently loyal to Darrow and Augustus despite the fact that her own family supports Octavia. She is a relatively static side character; however, in one brief scene with Darrow, Victra drops her guard and displays uncharacteristic vulnerability. Victra contributes to the author’s cliffhanger ending as she is bleeding out when the novel ends, leaving it an open question whether she survives the attack from her sister.

Tactus, a Gold Lancer for Augustus, is in Darrow’s band of friends. Described as “rangy and careless” and “dangerous” (5), Tactus is depicted as self-serving and insecure, a follower of power. Although Tactus is outwardly self-serving, the author also portrays him as inwardly insecure. His insecurities stem from his troubled childhood and from his feelings of being overshadowed by Darrow—insecurities that are punished when he acts rashly, against Darrow’s instructions, seeking his own glory and is killed by Lorn for threatening Lorn’s family.

As a character, Tactus represents Darrow’s hope for and belief in the Golds’s ability to change, advancing the theme of Friendship, Loyalty, and Betrayal. Tactus’s actions advances the plot in critical moments when he takes the escape pod, when he steals Lysander, and when he targets Lorn’s family. Despite his moments of villainy and self-centered quests for power, Darrow holds tight to the belief that there is good in him, and the potential for change—a belief validated when Darrow offers him vulnerability and trust, inspiring Tactus to change his ways and act with honor. Darrow’s instincts about Tactus’s character are further confirmed when it’s revealed that Tactus secretly kept the violin Darrow gifted him and practiced it privately. Tactus’s death at Lorn’s hands proves critical to the narrative as it provides Roque with an additional grievance against Darrow, contributing to his final betrayal.

Lorn is Lysander’s grandfather and a prominent Gold who served as Rage Knight under the previous Sovereign, but has since retired to live a quiet life with his family on Europa. Lorn also instructed Golds in the kravat fighting style, including both Aja and Darrow. He dislikes the current state of the Society, but feels it necessary to the human race’s survival to maintain the organization of the Colors.

A dynamic side character, Lorn serves as a kind of alternative version of Darrow himself (had he been born to privilege as a Gold). They share similar characteristics—both loving, moral, skilled fighters unmoved by the specter of Gold power. They also share similar personal tragedies—both have lost their wives to A Society Built on Oppression and Exploitation. However, Lorn’s privilege allows him to maintain a measure of support for the current social order. As Darrow observes: “If all Golds were like him, Reds would still toil beneath the Earth, but he would have them know their purpose. It doesn’t make him good, but it makes him true” (248). Lorn’s marriage to Bryn and the risks he’s willing to take to create a family with her highlights the thread of love that runs through the plot, introducing the idea that love is the true key to ending oppression.