Throughout Morning Star, Brown discusses the ethical ramifications of revolution, highlighting the need to fight back against oppressive regimes while arguing that this does not give complete moral license to revolutionaries. Brown emphasizes above all that the purpose of a revolution must be to build a better society than the one that came before it.

Brown stresses the necessity of using violence to overthrow the oppressive society of the Golds. In Darrow’s address at Phobos, he tells the lowColors that “[s]lavery is not peace. Freedom is peace. And until we have that, it is our duty to make war” (181). Eo’s wish to break the chains of Gold rule, underlined by this central principle that Gold rule must be confronted with force, are parts of the defining ideology of the Rising. Brown extends his criticism of the oppressive Gold government in Morning Star through the conversation between Darrow and Romulus au Raa. Romulus differentiates his rule from that of Octavia because of his restraint. That Darrow (who is often the moral center of the novel) rejects this is important. Tyranny, no matter how it frames itself, is shown to be a non- “civilized” form of rule.

However, Brown also shows the potential pitfalls of a revolution through the Sons of Ares’s struggle to maintain its morality.