I am your completion! I am the last word of your unsatisfied, unsavory lives. I am your deliverer! I am your portal to the mysteries of oblivion! I am your Omega! Your bringer of infinite peace. You will embrace me! Your death is both my verdict upon you, and my gift to you. Accept it with grace. And thus farewell.
- Scythe Goddard in The Toll.
Carson Lusk, usually known by his chosen title Scythe Robert Goddard, is the main antagonist of the Arc of a Scythe Trilogy and the protagonist of the short story “A Martian Minute” as part of the Gleanings collection.
He is a powerful MidMerican Scythe in a dystopian future whose job is to mercifully kill (referred to as "glean") people in order to keep the immortal population down, as only a Scythe can permanently end a person's life. However, he is dismissive of the old order of peaceful scythes, and think scythes should enjoy their jobs. Therefore, he attempts to overthrow the Grandslayers and make his own order of Scythes, training Rowan Damisch as his apprentice.
He is gleaned by his apprentice and admirer Scythe Rand during the invasion of Kwajalein.
Biography[]
A Martian Minute[]
Carson Lusk was born on earth, in MidMerica, but at age nine, he and his parents moved to the Mars colony. He lived there for eight years, although he disliked Mars and yearned to return to Earth. He applied for multiple Earth universities, but his parents pulled the applications, much to his anger. At age 17, he was offered a chance to leave by Scythe Xenocrates, in return for sabotaging the Mars colony. He did so hesitantly, killing everyone he had ever known, including his parents and his crush, Devonna. He left for Earth and became an apprentice of Xenocrates.
Scythe[]
By the time Rowan and Citra joined the Scythedom, Goddard had already trained three apprentices of his own: Volta, Chomsky and Rand. He gleaned an entire plane with the aid of his New Order Scythes, and was already blackmailing Xenocrates through his knowledge of the High Blade’s secret daughter Esme. After Scythe Faraday supposedly self-gleaned, Goddard took Rowan on as his apprentice, and would have taken Citra too had Scythe Curie not intervened.
Goddard began his brutal training of Rowan, paying people to be dummies for Rowan to practice on. He taught him how to use all kinds of weapons, and began molding Rowan into the perfect weapon. He, Rand, Chomsky, Volta and Rowan attempted to glean an entire Tonist Cloister: Rowan was hesitant and Volta slit his own wrists in guilt after gleaming an entire classroom of Tonist children. He attempted to get Rowan to glean the final Tonist, but Rowan refused, instead decapitating Goddard and burning Chomsky to death. Rand’s spine was broken, but she escaped with Goddard’s severed head.
Thunderhead[]
Scythe Rand returned Goddard to life using his severed head and the body of Tyger Salazar, the best friend of Rowan, now known as Scythe Lucifer. When the election for the High Blade taking the place of a promoted High Blade Xenocrates (now Grandslayer) took place, he and Rand arrived and Goddard put his name into the ballot. However, he was not mentally or physically equipped to be a scythe in his new form, and had become much more impulsive.
Goddard practiced against Lucifer, fighting the captured scythe again and again. However, Lucifer always beat him due to his superior control and skill, and Goddard would render him deadish horrifically. He inducted Scythe Brahms into the order (who had received a visit by Lucifer), but Rand managed to trick him into impulsively gleaning him when Lucifer escaped (which breaks the Scythe Commandments).
When he went before the Grandslayers in Endura, he was told he was unfit to be High Blade. Impulsively, Goddard responded by sinking Endura, hacking the buoyancy control of the flooding island and getting the sea nanites to consume the Granslayers (including Xenocrates) when they tried to escape. Goddard escaped with Rand, and Goddard was declared High Blade while the blame for the incident was pushed onto Scythe Lucifer.
The Toll[]
Goddard was declared the Overblade of all of NorthMerica, and sent Scythe Morrison to assassinate Greyson Tolliver, known by Tonists as The Toll. He has Lucifer kidnapped, and sends Scythes after Citra (now known as Scythe Anastasia), who flees to SubSahara. He attempts to have Rowan executed, but Rowan escapes with the Lonestar Scythes. Goddard responds by pretending it was part of the show, and gleans the crowd who came to watch. Meanwhile, Anastasia and her allies plot to reveal Goddard's crimes and overthrow him as Overblade.
Later, Rand comes onto Goddard, who rebukes her coldly, telling her "There is no 'we'". The next day, when Lucifer, Anastasia, Greyson, Jeri, and Faraday try to launch the colonist ships into space, Goddard arrives with warships and attempts to blast them out of the air, bringing Rand and Curate Mendoza with him. As he attempts to blow up Anastasia and Lucifer, Rand kills him with a blade to the heart in order to avoid being blamed for his crimes. His body was later used as a host for Tyger's memory construct.
Personality[]
Goddard was intelligent, arrogant and heartless, but was considered charismatic and charming by many of Scythes, specifically the New Order Scythes. He was a master manipulator, managing to talk even the moral Volta over to his side. He was cold, even with those he was close to such as Rowan and Rand, simply seeking to use them as weapons for his own gain. His arrogance and lack of empathy was his downfall, however: he taught Rowan to be a living weapon but never gave him reason to respect Goddard. This led to Rowan's betrayal after his cold dismissal of Volta's suicide. He is sadistic, taking pleasure in gleanings and believing that it should be joyful for all scythes.
Upon his return using Tyger's body, Goddard became more impulsive, less intelligent, and less calculating. He hated Rowan for killing him the first time, and repeatedly fights him in order to prove he is better. However, he fails to due to his new body's limited training, which makes him angry and more violent. He impulsively gleans Scythe Brahms upon believing he was responsible for Rowan's escape, and murders the Grandslayers in vengeance from them turning him away. He is also sadistic, pretending to save Xenocrates and the Grandslayers before letting them all drown as he watched.
Goddard's behavior became even more erratic when he became Overblade, becoming obsessed with killing Rowan and gleaning an entire crowd in order to cover up his failure. He showed his hatred of Tonists, massacring most Cloisters on mass (possibly because it was at the Tonist monastery that he died in the first time). He coldly turns down Rand when she confesses her feelings, and treats his Underscythes with contempt, showcasing irritation and Constatine's lack of loyalty. In his final moments, he abandons his mission of destroying the colony ships to focus on killing Rowan and Citra.
Trivia[]
- Goddard was apparently the character who gave Neal Shusterman the most problems while writing Scythe.
- Most everything Goddard owns or uses is royal blue with either diamonds (robes and bedspread), mock diamonds (limo), or painted with stars (helicopter)