Thunderhead

“I have always had a preoccupation with those who have a high probability of changing the world.”

The Thunderhead is the protector and parent-figure of mankind, and as such, it knows the temperaments of every single person on Earth. The Thunderhead might be limited to certain parameters when it comes to accomplishing its goals, but it knows that there are people it can use to make things happen. The Thunderhead focuses on Rowan, Citra, and Greyson in Thunderhead, and it tries to influence their choices and their paths to further its own agenda.

“Their minds and bodies had spent a year being trained to be society’s perfect killers. Ending life had become a part of who they were.”

Following the dramatic events of Scythe, Rowan and Citra went down two very different paths. While they were both trained as scythes, Citra was the one chosen to become an ordained scythe. Rowan became a criminal on the run, but over the past year, they have both continued to take life. Scythe apprenticeship changes a person, and their relationship with death will never be the same again.

“Family is the first casualty of scythehood.”

When Citra returns home to her parents’ house on Thanksgiving Day, she is reminded that her relationship with her family has changed forever. Her mother implies that she will never see Citra as anything other than her daughter, and Citra will never feel comfortable discussing her life as a scythe with her family. Family connections become strained in the wake of scythehood, and Citra begins to wonder if she will be able to maintain a relationship with her family at all.

“You are hereby permanently and irrevocably expelled from this academy, and are forever barred from applying to this or any other Nimbus Academy.”

When Greyson is introduced early in the novel, Shusterman emphasizes the young man’s love for the Thunderhead and his heartfelt desire to serve as a Nimbus agent. Because Greyson chooses to act on the Thunderhead’s suggestion to warn Scythes Curie and Anastasia, he is marked as unsavory and banished from the Nimbus Academy. Greyson’s entire life plan has come crumbling down around him, and he is left adrift and confused without the Thunderhead to guide or comfort him.

“The idea of the wisest and the most compassionate of all humans being the ones bringing life’s conclusion to balance immortality was a perfect idea for a perfect world.”

Rowan doesn’t hate the scythedom despite the seeds of corruption that have sprouted within it. In fact, Rowan’s love for the scythedom motivates his desire to rid it of the corrupt scythes. The scythedom of Thunderhead, however, does not match the scythedom imagined by the founding scythes. The tides are turning, and the once-perfect idea of perfect justice is falling apart.

“You rankle the old guard and frighten the new order. You take scythes who would rather be left to their own self-importance, and force them to pay attention.”

Anastasia has only been gleaning for about a year, but in that time, she has already caused quite a stir in the scythedom with her unusual gleaning methods. Citra believes that most scythes have lost the compassion that should motivate them each time they take a life, and although she is still a junior scythe, she is willing to speak out and inspire other scythes to question their motives. Her popularity has made her a target of criticism, and according to Constantine, it might have made her a target of violence as well.

“I do foresee a time, however, when population growth will need to reach an equilibrium. Zero growth. One person dying for every person born [...] The year this will occur is something I do not share with the general population, but it is just beyond the horizon.”

The Thunderhead has run the numbers, and humankind is in dire trouble. The planet is running out of resources and space for more people, and in a world where no one dies of natural causes, the population has exploded exponentially. The Thunderhead alone shoulders this burden of truth, and it trusts no one but itself to solve this pressing problem.

“Now, if anyone tried to verify the veracity of the lies he told, it would be there for all to see, and no amount of digging could debunk them.”

When Greyson agrees to go undercover, he and Agent Traxler create an entire backstory. In the process, they erase the virtual identity of Greyson Tolliver and replace it completely with Slayd Bridger. While the intention is to enhance Greyson’s street credit as an unsavory and conceal his true identity, the plan backfires when Agent Traxler is gleaned, and the only person who knows the truth about Greyson Tolliver is gone.

“Greyson’s cover was so deep it had swallowed him whole—and not even the Thunderhead could pull him out.”

As Greyson sinks further into a life of unsavoryism, he begins to lose himself in his new identity. What begins as an act starts to take over his life, and before long, Greyson starts to entertain the thought of becoming Slayd Bridger permanently. He is in too deep, and he wonders if the Thunderhead would even recognize him anymore.

“[The Tonists] all believe in the Great Resonance—a living vibration audible to human ears that will unify the world like a biblical messiah.”

Early on in the Arc of a Scythe series, Tonists are depicted as religious zealots whose beliefs are misguided but harmless. The Tonists follow a “manufactured” religion in which sounds are elevated to a spiritual experience, and their strange beliefs about the Great Resonance come into play in the final chapter of the book. While the rest of the world panics at the terrifying sound made by the Thunderhead, the Tonists rejoice, and they believe the Earth is entering a new era of unity and harmony.

“These attacks on Curie and Anastasia were not some sort of civilian action. A scythe was running the show.”

Greyson begins to connect the dots on the night of the performance of Julius Caesar. He knows that Purity and her friends are working for someone high up the social ladder, and when Purity tells him that someone gleaned Agent Traxler as a personal favor, Greyson finally figures it out. The only person with that kind of power is a scythe, and Scythes Anastasia and Curie are being attacked by one of their own.

“Usually entertainment from the Age of Mortality was emotionally incomprehensible to her, as it was to most people.”

When Citra watches the performance of Julius Caesar from the wings of the theater, she is enchanted by the strange emotions and motivations of the characters. In a world where no one dies naturally and no one worries about achieving fame or grasping for power, the themes of Shakespeare’s tragedy don’t have the same meaning. While death is merely a temporary state for most of the people in Citra’s world, it is always the end for Mortal Age characters, and it comes for everyone in due time.

“They could have chosen anyone for this, but they hadn’t. They chose Tyger. For the sole reason that he was Rowan’s friend.”

Over the past year, Rowan has embraced his role as Scythe Lucifer: He is calculating, cold, and murderous. However, deep down, Rowan is still a kid who values compassion and friendship above all else. When Tyger is gleaned and his body is stolen, Rowan is heartbroken and sickened by the thought of his friend suffering simply because of his proximity to Rowan.

“We must always glean with wisdom and compassion, for it is at the core of what we are—and we must never take the ending of life for granted.”

During Winter Conclave, the old guard scythes begin to sense that the tides are shifting within the scythedom. As more scythes show up with gems on their robes than ever before, Scythe Meir says that the old guard must not give up. They must work together to remind the members of the scythedom why they do what they do and how they must honor the vision of the founding scythes by gleaning with compassion and insight instead of giving in to base desires.

“And the pain…the pain of my awareness is unbearable. Because my eyes do not close. Ever. And so all I can do is watch unblinkingly as my beloved humankind slowly weaves the rope it will use to hang itself.”

Although the Thunderhead is an artificial intelligence, it has evolved to feel strong emotions. When it contemplates the path of destruction humanity is on, the anguish it feels is profound. The Thunderhead lives to serve humankind, and for hundreds of years, it has worked to make the planet a sustainable home for humans. However, the Thunderhead knows it is limited in its ability to help, and it begins to wonder how it will save humanity without breaking its own laws.

“I resolve to terminate the quota system, clearing the way for all MidMerican scythes to glean as many, or as few, lives as we choose.”

Scythes are required to glean five people each week—no more, and no less. For some scythes, this is a heavy burden, but for Scythe Goddard, the quota severely limits his intense bloodlust. Goddard proposes eliminating the quota altogether so scythes may glean as little or as often as they want. Of course, this means scythes like Goddard and his followers may happily kill hundreds of people in a single day, and although this act might be necessary down the road to prevent population growth, the Thunderhead—and most of the world—does not want to live in a society like this.

“Goddard is the most recent in a long line of scythes who look up into the night sky and see not the stars, but the darkness between them.”

The Thunderhead recalls how Scythe Goddard has targeted many scientists and deep space travel experts throughout the years. It then hints that Goddard might have had something to do with the disasters with the moon and Mars colonies as well as the orbital habitat. The Thunderhead believes Goddard is deeply afraid of the concept of deep space travel, and he would do anything to prevent the spread of mankind among the stars.

“Xenocrates was still nothing but a bug ever so carefully pinched between Goddard’s stolen fingers.”

In Scythe, Goddard demonstrated his power of High Blade Xenocrates by extorting him into jumping into a pool and nearly drowning. In Thunderhead, Xenocrates has enjoyed an entire year without Goddard’s threats, but as soon as Goddard returns, his threats pick right back up. Even as a Grandslayer, Xenocrates knows he will never be able to escape from Goddard’s clutches, and the depraved new order scythe will always try to use him as a pawn in his political games.

“To think that my knowledge of the world was incomplete from the beginning. How could I be expected to be the perfect steward of the planet, and the human race, if I have imperfect information?”

The Thunderhead is deeply upset to learn about the blind spot in the Pacific Ocean. After all, from the moment it was created, the Thunderhead has served mankind as the perfect steward and protector. The Thunderhead realizes it was programmed to actively ignore this blind spot, and this confuses and intrigues it once it becomes aware of the existence of the blind spot.

“If Goddard loses, it will be worse.”

Rand’s cryptic warning in Chapter 43 foreshadows the dark events that will unfold in the final chapters of the novel. If Goddard becomes the High Blade of MidMerica, the world will be plunged into a dark future with a radical, unstable ruler. If Goddard loses the bid for High Blade, all his vengeance will be on full display, and the world will never be the same. Goddard will seize power one way or another, and even Rand seems to resent the role she played in bringing her old master back from the dead.

“I know that a scythe beloved to me has taken a stand today against another scythe consumed by his own ambition. And I know that ambition, time and time again, has crumbled civilizations.”

Endura is under the dominion of the scythedom, so the Thunderhead cannot see what transpires there. However, it knows about the public confrontation between Citra Terranova and Scythe Goddard. The Thunderhead fears Goddard, and it knows the lengths he will go to establish his vision for the future of humankind. The Thunderhead fears for Citra as well as the future of the world.

“[T]hey obeyed their biological imperative and the reprogramming of their nanites, which told them that they were hungry. Insatiably hungry. The swarm descended upon all those in the water.”

In Chapter 38, the Thunderhead notices a marine biologist is one of the people summoned to Scythe Rand’s apartment in Texas. When Endura begins to sink and the marine life starts to attack the Grandslayers and the people of Endura, the connection is clear: Goddard was able to hack the nanites of the animals and force them to engage in a feeding frenzy that rendered everyone on Endura permanently dead.

“To deny humanity the lesson of consequences would be a mistake. And I do not make mistakes.”

Throughout the novel, the Thunderhead espouses its deep love for humankind. However, it also refers to itself as the “parent” and humans are the “child,” and like any good parent, the Thunderhead tries to protect its “children” from pain. At the close of Thunderhead, the benevolent AI believes humankind has been shielded from the consequences of its behavior for too long. The Thunderhead decides it would be unwise to allow the events on Endura to go unpunished.