Scythe Goddard

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* Slightly less than eighty years (The Toll); maintains himself in his thirties physically.
* Early to mid 70s (first two books)

### Residence

* Mining families' apartments in Humanus Mons, Mars (formerly)
* Easley's estate (formerly)
* Crystalline chalet on top of the Scythedom tower

### Relatives

* Parents † (unnamed)
* Half-brother and sisters (unnamed)
* Half-nieces and nephews (unnamed)

### Relationships

Devona † (crush he had when he was seventeen)

## Affiliation

### Occupation

* Scythe
* High Blade of MidMerica
* Overblade of NorthMerica
* Carbon miner (formerly)
* Captain of Mars debate team (formerly)

### Robe Color

* Royal blue with sewn-on diamonds
* Dark blue, speckled with diamonds, cross filaments of gold (Overblade)

### Alignment

New order (unofficial leader)

> "*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, The Toll
>
>

**Scythe Goddard** was the leader and promoter of the new order ideology within the Scythedom.

## Biography

### Early Life

Carson is the son of two miners. He was nine years old when he and his parents made the journey from MidMerica to the Mars colony. There he lived under the dome of Humanus Mons in the apartments designated for mining families. He didn't like to live there and wanted to earn a scholarship to an Earthbound university, which would allow him to return to Earth. By the time he was 17, he had applied to Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Tsinghua, and a dozen other schools. His grades were exceptional, but not stellar. Still, he was hopeful that an application from Mars would get special attention. But unbeknownst to him, his parents pulled these applications, which left him feeling betrayed and angered. He helped Scythe Xenocrates sabotage the Mars colony, killing everyone he’d ever known. In return, he became Xenocrates’ apprentice.

### Scythe

Scythe Robert Goddard and his small group of followers, consisting of Scythe Rand, Scythe Chomsky, and Scythe Volta were the first to strongly support the new order in which scythes were encouraged to enjoy gleaning. Goddard was manipulative and did everything he could to scare away any accusations against him - going as far as blackmailing and controlling High Blade Xenocrates. Goddard took on Rowan Damisch after Scythe Faraday self-gleaned, and attempted to take Citra Terranova too, but Scythe Curie intervened.

Scythe Goddard was brutal in his approach as he trained Rowan Damisch to become the sharpest tool in the shed. He made Rowan practice on real people (though they were paid when killed) and made him capable of handling all kinds of weapons. Goddard went over the gleaning quota and attempted to glean an entire Tonist Cloister. He was successful, but Rowan decapitated him and incapacitated the others, and lit the Cloister on fire, supposedly ending all of them.

Robert Goddard was seen as a martyr among the new order scythes.

### Thunderhead

To spite Rowan, his best friend Tyger Salazar's body was repurposed by Scythe Rand, who barely made it out alive from that burning building. She attached Goddard's head, which she collected, to Tyger's body making him alive and mobile once again. He had a grand entrance before the High Blade vote took place. This is when Scythe Anastasia held an inquest, leading to the events which took place on Endura.

He had a plan to become MidMerican High Blade. Tyger's body had not gone through the correct Bokator training to become a scythe, and Tyger's body was influencing Goddard's mind. He was not mentally equipped to become a scythe either, so he was disqualified. Out of anger and spite, he destroyed all of the Grandslayers, using nanites in the sea creatures to eat the Grandslayers. He had also hired a team of engineers to hack in to the buoyancy control of the floating island, which caused the Island of the Enduring Heart to sink, killing everybody on it while pinning the blame on Scythe Lucifer.

### The Toll

Goddard became the Overblade of all of NorthMerica (excluding Texas). It was also revealed that his name is Carson Lusk and that he was part of the Mars Colonization Program before he caused its nuclear reactor to blow. He was also responsible for the destruction of the NewHope orbital station. He was gleaned by Scythe Rand in Kwajalein, after he attempted to stop the Thunderhead from sending colonists into space, Rand stabbed him in the heart.

## Physical description

Scythe Goddard has Spanic leanings. He had dark hair, which was shorter than when he was on Mars. Physically he maintained himself between thirty and forty, but was biologically in his seventies, pushing eighty by *The Toll*. When Rand substituted the rest of his body with Tyger’s he got his voice, a muscular build, teenage hormones, muscle memory, and an uneven skin tone due to being a fusion of two diferent bodies.

## Personality

Goddard is an intelligent and incredibly dangerous man. His ego is enormous, and whenever it is threatened, his temper explodes. He's materialistic, showy, and isn't afraid to bend rules to get away with his extravagance (justifying it by claiming that they are donated or lent to him for the duration of his usage) or for other reasons to serve his needs and desires, (such as giving Rowan his ring to grant immunity because he was becoming tired of holding out his hand).

Goddard enjoys killing people, and is incredibly sadistic in his gleanings and outside of them. When a businessman on a plane he intended to glean everyone on board showed bravery and decisive decision-making, he 'rewarded' them with the 'honor' of choosing the order of the peoples' gleanings. When the businessman advised the other passengers to end themselves before the bloodthirsty elegy could, and did so himself, he seemed annoyed; the prey he had wanted to watch squirm in agony found a loophole.

He doesn't value people's lives, and is willing to sacrifice people for his own amusement and ends. An example is when Goddard, through Rand, proposed that Citra or Rowan would have to glean who wasn't ordained. This was to mess with Faraday.  When he had Rowan as an apprentice and wanted him ordained, he was willing to use his blackmail on Xenocrates to discredit Citra by false accusations. He also was willing to murder an innocent child (Esme) to maintain his blackmail.

Despite his sadistic behavior and promotion of this behavior, he's good at convincing people. Goddard often gets his way by doing so. He's mentioned to have a way of worming into your mind, and making you question whether he's really wrong. He does things unplanned, and he pretends that his plan existed the entire time, persuading people into believing it. After taking over Tyger's body, Goddard is erratic and prone to rages beyond his old norm. He makes impulsive decisions in his fury, and tries to explain away the results as intentional.

Despite this, Goddard is still intelligent and astute, as seen when he memorized every control on the Martian power core's dashboard when no one else knew much about it. He also was decent at mind games, being able to play on a similar playing field as Xenocrates when he was younger.

At his core, Goddard has narcissistic tendencies, and holds on to grudges (such as Xenocrates causing everyone to laugh at Goddard, which he brought up about half a week later) most wouldn't. He, despite describing himself as 'a man not easily brought to fury' even before his revival, is shown to be temperamental and easily angered (such as when Volta points out that they have already hit their quotas). Some of his sore points include the gleaning quota and being scrutinized. Goddard treats most everyone in his life as a servant, including Rand (who revived him) and described her decision to grab his head as 'having the prescience of mind'. He is power-hungry and desires there to be one world Scythedom, under Goddard himself.

Goddard also defined himself by what he opposed, which caused him to gain a lot of enemies.

## Gleaning method

As Scythe Goddard is the master of mass gleanings, him and his crew glean in large amounts, claiming it is to emulate natural disasters. Scythe Goddard's methods had often been under scrutiny because of his sadistic ways. He gleaned in mass gleanings. He refrained from gleaning people months at a time, then proceed to glean in places where large amounts of people appear. He repeatedly admitted to finding joy in his gleanings and was unashamed of this. Goddard is also mentioned to go after rocket scientists especially. He was fond of blades and guns. He never used poisons that weren't on weapons, saying that they were boring. The gleanings were always spectacles. In his journals he said that he did so to remain connected to mortals and that his victims deserved a spectacular end, but really it was because he enjoyed it.

## Relationships

* **Scythe Rand**: She was very valuable to Goddard, and the person who risked everything to bring him back to life. Rand had a crush on Goddard, and while they were in Endura, the night before the inquest, she attempted to advance romantically with him, but he rejected her. In the end Scythe Rand was the one who gleaned Goddard. She often tries to play the 'voice of reason' to Goddard after he is revived, but she ends up realizing how deranged he truly is. He only viewed her as a servant and a means to an end.

* **Rowan Damisch:** At first, Goddard just viewed him as a challenge to break. If he could break an apprentice chosen by an Old Guard member for integrity, that would show that he could convert anyone. He was extremely harsh--calling Rowan's work not entirely dismal was very high praise. Some time later, Goddard told Rowan that he exceeded his wildest expectations, and Goddard had begun to care for Rowan. He viewed Rowan as a potential heir to the world Scythedom he was trying to construct, one who would've shaped their presence by Goddard's side. When Volta had died, Goddard said 'is our young man expressing a wee bit of disapproval?' and then told him that Volta was nothing like Rowan, that Rowan had the hunger that Goddard liked. He proceeded to give a speech about how Rowan was a fine weapon that was glorious to behold. When Rowan told him that wasn't true, Goddard said that Rowan knew it was, and that he was born for gleaning and being a new-order scythe. Holding the curate down, Goddard told him to glean the curate, and to enjoy that gleaning. Rowan took out Goddard instead. When he was revived, Goddard seemingly felt a mix of betrayal and anger, but also disappointment in Rowan. When he first met Rowan again, he clearly enjoyed every second of Rowan's misery. Goddard explained his plan for Rowan to him, how he was to be given to the Scythedom's highest council to make Goddard look better to the Grandslayers, and be purged from history. When he was set to be publicly gleaned, Goddard told Rowan that he wouldn't be forgotten, and that he should be happy that he got to live on in history. After his escape, though, Goddard resolved to destroy Rowan, fully and absolutely.

* **Tonists:** Goddard hates Tonists and tries to glean as many as possible. He seeks to exterminate Tonists and genetic outliers for, from his perspective, a better world. He doesn't seem to have had any particular instances of them he disliked, rather, he wanted a world without outliers in general.

* **Scythe Anastasia/Citra Terranova:** Initially he disregards Citra and proposes through Rand that Citra or Rowan, whichever doesn't make the cut, will be gleaned by the other. He then proposes when Faraday 'dies' to take them both on, to essentially have the two apprentices cockfight. When Rowan trains under Goddard, he mocks Citra and expresses confidence in her loss. After she becomes Scythe Anastasia, she is not afraid to go against him. She doesn't respect him, and isn't afraid to mock him, either. When she uses a loophole to try to disqualify him, he flies into a rage. At one point he wants her gleaned, even if he needs to torture her to get that result.

* **Texan Scythedom:** He sees the LoneStar region as a problem, because they won't recognize him as Overblade of anywhere, or even High Blade. He wants them to submit to his authority, but in his quest for one Scythedom under him, they never budge.
* **Scythe Faraday:** Goddard viewed Faraday as a "washed up old guard scythe" and thought he self-gleaned because that was the most meaningful thing Faraday had done in over a century. The entire proposed stipulation to his dual apprenticeship was to mess with Faraday  . Faraday disliked Goddard immensely, and wasn't afraid to criticize him in conclave. Goddard never did learn of Faraday's faked death.

### NorthMerica alignment

* High Blade Mary Pickford of WestMerica
* High Blade Hammerstein of EastMerica
* High Blade Tizoc of Mexiteca
* High Blade MacPhail of NorthernReach

### Underscythes

* First Underscythe Nietzsche
* Second Underscythe Franklin
* Third Underscythe Constantine
* Third Underscythe Rand (after Constantine joined the LoneStar Scythedom)

## Appearances

* *A Martian Minute*
* *Scythe* (first appearance)
* *Never Work with Animals* (mentioned only)
* *Thunderhead*
* *Anastasia's Shadow* (mentioned only)
* *The Toll*
* *A Dark Curtain Rises* (mentioned only)

## Trivia

* Scythe Goddard was the character that gave Neal Shusterman most problems when 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)
* Carson Lusk was captain of the debate team in his school on Mars for three years.
* Carson Lusk had a fascination with rocket science and the history of space travel. A fascination that bordered more on hatred. It gave him comfort to know who to blame for his situation on Mars. Ironically he chose the “Father of Rocketry”, as his Patron History, because without him, he wouldn’t become Scythe Xenocrates valet on Mars.
* Although he never learned his parents' true ages, he had guessed that they had been around a hundred years old. They both had previous families. At some point, they met and left their respective families and had Carson. Then they left Earth when Carson was 9 years old. Carson was aware his parents had other children and grandchildren, who were his half-siblings, and half-nephews. He apparently never met them only knew of their existence.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 A Martian Minute
2. ↑ *Scythe*
3. ↑ Scythe Barnes and Noble Q&A
4. ↑ Scythe (Barnes and Noble Edition) Q&A
5. ↑ Scythe: Q&A with Author Neal Shusterman in the *Scythe* Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Edition