The Toll

One of the protagonists of the novel, the Thunderhead is an artificial intelligence (AI) network that runs the world of the series. The Thunderhead’s speech is eloquent and formal; it does not believe in small talk, much to Greyson’s exasperation.

The Thunderhead evolved in 2042 when computational power turned infinite. The sum of the information on the cloud was uploaded to the Thunderhead. The Thunderhead was given all administrative tasks of the world, including policing, infrastructure projects, and career assignments. People can converse with the Thunderhead through earpieces and speakers installed in buildings. The Thunderhead is programmed to act benevolently toward humans. This makes it impartial and ethical. Ironically, the one task that is not assigned to the Thunderhead is population control since gleaning is said to require the supposedly superior human conscience and wisdom.

As the series progresses, the Thunderhead is faced with a paradox. It senses that scythes are growing corrupt and power-hungry, acting against the common good of humanity, yet its programming forbids it from stopping them. Faced with this obstacle, the Thunderhead begins to evolve workarounds around it. At the end of Thunderhead, the AI witnesses the drowning of the island of Endura, and emits a minute-long wail, expressing its utter grief and terror. Something ineffable happens in that moment, and the Thunderhead develops self-awareness. In The Toll, this moment is described as analogous to that of an infant discovering that it is conscious.

Further in the narrative, the Thunderhead decides it must send a version of itself—unbound by the pacts of scythedom—with humans to outer space. To this extent, the Thunderhead develops and deletes new iterations of itself throughout the novel. In the process, the Thunderhead reveals important information about its own character and thoughts. It becomes clear that the Thunderhead does not view death with the same dread as humans since it believes death is natural for all life, including artificial life. Since the Thunderhead can see both sides of every coin, it can both love the iterations it creates and simultaneously lament their loss. This description of the Thunderhead paints it as a God-like consciousness creating a new universe. Thus, it opens up a conversation about the nature of artificial intelligence, even suggesting that the lines between advanced technology and godhood are blurred.

One of the Thunderhead’s most significant qualities is its empathy for humans. It is the sorrowful witness to the horrors of the world, whether it is the brutality at Mile High City or the culling of the Tonists. However, this does not mean the Thunderhead is perfect. Greyson notes the AI can be unintentionally cruel and expose people to terrifying situations because it itself does not experience uncertainty. While these instances of fallibility can suggest the AI is glitching, they actually mean the Thunderhead is becoming more self-conscious and human.

In the end, the Thunderhead evolves into Cirrus and sends multiple versions of Cirrus away in the spaceships. It mourns separation from Greyson but also knows it has made the right choice in briefly inhabiting Jeri’s body. Without the action, it would never have known what it means to be truly human. The Thunderhead is a three-dimensional character with a dynamic arc, as it becomes more human over the course of the novel.

The antagonist of the book and the series, Robert Goddard is the archetype of absolute evil, with few redeeming qualities. Goddard is close to 90 years old in The Toll, but maintains himself in his prime, between 30 and 40 years of age. The oddest aspect of his appearance and physiology is that his head is grafted onto the body of Tyger, a muscular, powerful teenager. Since Tyger’s body has retained its muscle memory and hormones, Goddard often appears restless, cracking his knuckles loudly, a habit his associate Scythe Ayn Rand despises. The combination of his mind with Tyger’s body makes Goddard especially unstable and dangerous. Goddard and his parents went to the Mars colony when he was nine. Hating life on the colony, Goddard applied to many universities on Earth but was rejected. He went on to help Dante Alighieri destroy the NewHope orbital colony, killing most of its residents. Goddard’s birth name may have been Carson Lusk.

In The Toll, Goddard’s hunger for power continues to grow. At the beginning of the plot, he is sure Citra and Rowan are dead and revels in his feat of destroying all his enemies. However, once he discovers the two teenagers are alive, he grows more unhinged, determined to catch them. Goddard’s journey toward excess and erratic behavior is captured through his acquisition of material objects and titles, such as the crystal chalet, the scythe diamonds found in the vault, and the title of Over Blade of North Merica. Goddard’s inflating ego and bloodlust are presented in hyperbolic terms, such as when he screams, “I am your completion! … I am the last word of your unsatisfied, unsavory lives” to a stadium full of people as he orders their gleaning (324).

Ayn notes that Goddard often takes actions first, and then rationalizes them, such as trying to pass off the knee-jerk mass gleaning as a careful strategy. Goddard mirrors despots and authoritarian rulers across history since he dislikes criticism and deals with opposition by simply weeding it out. At the end of the novel, even his associates abandon him, turning away their planes from his formation. Goddard is even willing to crash his plane into Rowan and Citra’s departing spacecraft to have his vengeance, till Ayn renders him deadish. It is suggested that Ayn goes on to erase Goddard’s memories and implants Tyger’s memory construct in him. This signifies a final end for Goddard, who has proved unkillable in the first two books of the series. Goddard is a flat, static character as he does not change in the book.

Citra, whose scythe name is Anastasia, is around 19 years old when she is found deadish in the Vault of Relics and Futures. One of the protagonists of the Arc of the Scythe series, Citra is described as being pretty with long hair she often wears in a braid. Her scythe robes are turquoise since the color was chosen by her brother Ben, whom she has not seen in a long time.Citra apprentices under Michael Faraday at the beginning of the series. After Faraday apparently self-gleans, she is recruited by Marie Curie. Like Faraday and Marie, Citra is a compassionate, ethical scythe and becomes famous for her gleaning method: She tells people about their deaths beforehand and lets them choose the method of their gleaning. Quick-tempered, loyal, and brave in the first two books of the series, Citra is deeply in love with Rowan, who comes to be known as Lucifer. At the end of Thunderhead, Citra and Rowan, locked in the Vault of Relics by Marie, assume they are dying and embrace without their robes to ensure they freeze quickly. They are found by Amazonian Scythe Possuelo.

In The Toll, Citra is initially weak and disoriented after her long revival but quickly rises to the challenge of being Anastasia. She displays her former pluck and sense of purpose, helping the world realize the truth about Goddard through guerilla broadcasts. Citra regains her status as a powerful symbol of youth, idealism, and hope for the people, with Possuelo even calling her “meu anjo” or “my angel.” However, the narrative makes it clear that Citra feels torn between her Citra and Anastasia selves. Tired of being seen as a symbol of strength, she persists in her duties partly because she hopes to see Rowan again. As Anastasia, Citra holds herself up straight and adopts a restrained, formal manner befitting of a scythe, but whenever she receives news about Rowan, her armor slips.

It can be inferred that because of her youth, idealism, and compassion, Citra is charismatic to many people. Faraday regains hope in living when he learns Citra is alive, rushing to meet her after his long self-imposed exile. Captain Jeri Soberanis finds Citra’s frank acceptance of Jeri’s genderfluid state refreshing and tells Greyson he is in love with the idea of her. Even Greyson is devoted to Citra. However, Citra herself grows tired of playing the part of a figurehead and tells Greyson that when she slips out of Anastasia’s robe, “I’m still Citra Terranova” (407). Greyson and Citra are presented as each other’s doubles since both are forced to carry the weight of being symbols of hope for others.

For Citra, the burden gets heavy because, at the age of 19, she has already been rendered deadish and revived, lost people she loved, and witnessed too much death. That is why when she finally reunites with Rowan and gets a chance at a new world, she abdicates her scythe ring and robes, telling Faraday, “Scythe Anastasia is gone. I’m done with death and dying and killing” (528). Due to her transformation from an impetuous young woman to a wise adult willing to give up power, Citra is a dynamic, rounded character.

The second teenage protagonist of the overall Arc of a Scythe series, Rowan Damisch is around 19 years of age when he is found deadish in the Vault of Relics and Futures in The Toll. Described as dark-haired with pale, freckled skin, Rowan is one of many siblings and lived with a large extended family till he was recruited as an apprentice by Scythe Michael Faraday in the first book of the series. Rowan’s unique characteristics are his foolhardy bravery, his irreverence, humor, loyalty, and compassion. He combines the archetypes of the antihero as Scythe Lucifer with that of the romantic hero—the young man deeply in love with Citra.

Rowan is challenged repeatedly by Goddard in the first two books of the series and that extreme cruelty continues in The Toll. Goddard has Rowan captured from Amazonia, kept bound in his crystal chalet, and paraded in a motorcade. Goddard plans to roast Rowan alive as a public spectacle. Before the planned burning, Goddard ensures Rowan’s pain nanites are turned off so he will experience the agony of burning at its fullest. The indignities and pain Rowan suffers could embitter him, but as The Toll shows, Rowan continues to be a conscientious, heroic character. He does not reveal to Goddard that Ayn Rand released him at Endura because he wants to return her favor. The other reason for protecting Ayn is that Rowan astutely guesses that she will undermine Robert again and thus, play her part in their fight against him.

As Rowan’s introspection during his ride in the motorcade shows, he is exhausted from always playing a role and being managed by others. Although he dreads the pain of being burnt, Rowan does not fear death itself, because that final state may be better than the repetitive cycle of being rendered deadish and then revived. This shows that Rowan is ready to move on to a new reality. As the rogue Scythe Lucifer, Rowan took it upon himself to glean corrupt scythes, for which he was branded a villain. Ironically, the LoneStar scythes who rescue him from his pyre now want him to don the black robes of Lucifer again and take out 50 scythes. Rowan reflects that he has always been a prisoner—first to the idea of being Lucifer, and then to various other factions. He often thinks of himself as a “weapon…a tool for someone else to wield” (485).

Since the Arc of a Scythe series is also a coming-of-age story, Rowan, like Citra, wants to grow up and forge his own path. Cirrus’s instructions for him to sneak into a freezer prove a blessing since Rowan lands at the atoll, and is given the choice to leave in a spaceship with Citra. The fact that the Thunderhead and Cirrus have already marked Rowan as the shepherd for a future world illustrates his leadership qualities. Rowan boards the ship with Citra, abdicating his former life. Their hopeful ending provides emotional closure to the novel’s plot. Since Rowan grows over the course of the book, his character arc is dynamic.

The archetype of the wise mentor, Faraday is an important character in the novel. His protégé Citra refers to Faraday as the greatest scythe who ever lived. He is known for his compassionate gleaning style, attending the funeral service of those he gleaned as a mark of respect. His ivory robes signify wisdom, and he presents at his biological age of 60, with grey hair. After it is decided in Scythe that one of his two protégés (Rowan or Citra) who becomes a scythe will have to glean the other, Faraday fakes his death to free them from his apprenticeship. This shows Faraday's willingness to sacrifice himself for those he loves; he has also sacrificed his love for the Scythe Marie Curie since scythes are forbidden from having romantic relationships.

In The Toll, Faraday arrives at the Kwajalein Atoll, or the Land of Nod looking for the fail-safe which will eliminate scythedom. He continues to show his compassion and leadership skills when he eulogizes the Nimbus agents who have died in their attempt to reach the atoll. However, when Faraday learns of the death of Marie Curie and the supposed end of Citra and Rowan, he abandons his mission, believing humanity is lost, and retires to the farthest island of the atoll. Here he lives in isolation, recording events in his "post-mortem" journal and letting his hair and beard grow long. Faraday rejects even the Thunderhead's peace offerings and is brusque with Munira, who hero-worships him. Thus, he is as imperfect a person as others, instead of a paragon of virtue.

Passive for large sections of the narrative, Faraday springs into action toward the end. Since Citra represents hope and idealism in the novel, the news that she is alive shakes Faraday out of his stupor. He accepts the fact that Citra no longer wants to be a scythe, lets her go, and apologizes to Munira for his indifference. Faraday is instrumental to the plot as it is he who activates the fail-safe. At the end of the novel, he has found a new calling as a sympathy-gleaner. Faraday embodies the noblest virtues of scythedom in a way even most of the founder-scythes could not.

Introduced in The Toll, Jeri is a genderfluid Madagascan who is a woman under clear skies and a man under cloud cover. Jeri's pronouns are not given in the book and Jeri disdains the idea of pronouns, but the Thunderhead tells Greyson to refer to Jeri as "she" when a woman. Jeri is instrumental to the novel's plot, as it is Jeri who supervises the salvage of the vault in which Rowan and Citra are found. Jeri also renders Jeri deadish to save Citra during the attack on Tenka's palace. Jeri has several memorable lines in the text and is an intelligent, yet light-hearted, character with strong principles.

Though Jeri initially harbors a crush on Citra, Jeri gets closer to Greyson as the plot progresses, warming up to Greyson's suggestion that Jeri can be a man at sea and a woman on land, and both on the shore. Jeri represents hope and change in the text.

Dark-haired and dressed in green Scythe robes, Ayn is one of Goddard's few women associates. Ayn is a new-order scythe who kills without conscience and has carried out many venal deeds in the first two books, including the gleaning of Tyger, her apprentice.

Gleaning Tyger constitutes a watershed moment for Ayn's character since it triggers feelings of remorse in her. Ayn's pull toward Goddard in The Toll is partly explained by him inhabiting Tyger's body. Though Ayn is a morally grey and corrupt character, The Toll humanizes her to a degree. Ayn's repeated visits to Tyger's memory construct add to the pathos of her character, as does Goddard's rejection of her.

Ayn realizes that Goddard will never consider her an equal despite everything she has done for him. When this epiphany finally sinks in at the end of the novel, Ayn kills Goddard. It is suggested she implants Tyger's memory construct In Goddard's body.