History Literature / ArcOfAScythe

%%* MayflyDecemberRomance: Everyone is immortal in this universe, so this happens quite often. %%(Not enough context. This entry doesn't explain what the trope is actually about.)%%

** At the end of the third book, [[spoiler:This has become (some) scythes' new role after the fall of the scythedom. The nanite diseases select death at random, but scythes travel to give them a quick, painless death instead.]]

** At the end of ''Thunderhead'', [[spoiler:Curie and the remaining Scythes in the Founders' Tower are calm and compassionate as they MercyKill the people around them when Endura sinks, and are just as calm when gleaning themselves. The non-scythes realize what's happening and coolly submit to the gleaning]].

** Discussed excessively by scythes in regards to the morality of killing bad people, and used by others to rationalize brutal killings after the fact. [[spoiler:The Mile High gleaning in particular has pro-Goddard factions claiming that people eager to watch a PublicExecution deserved what they got, even though [[{{Hypocrite}} they were the ones cheering on Rowan's death moments earlier.]]

* MercyKill: At the end of the second book. [[spoiler:Curie and the remaining Scythes on Endura glean the non-scythes to spare them the pain of drowning or being killed by carnivorous sealife.]]

* SignificantNameShift: A narration version. Whether Citra is addressed as Citra or as Anastasia shifts in the narration as she identifies more with one or the other, usually being Citra in more vulnerable moments and Anastasia when she acts more scythe-like. She notes late in ''Thunderhead'' that she's finally started feeling like Anastasia and the narration stays that way until near the very end, [[spoiler:when it reverts to "Citra" as she and Rowan wait to die in the Vault, unsure of what their future will be.]]

* TakeAThirdOption: How Citra and Rowan get out of the whole "one must kill the other" requirement of their exam." [[spoiler: Rowan had brutally injured her at the previous Conclave, so after receiving her Scythes' ring, she punches him in the face [[BlatantLies "ignorant"]] of the fact that by striking him with her ring, she's granted him immunity from gleaning.]]

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Scythe Brahms]], [[spoiler:Curate Mendoza]], and [[spoiler: Scythe Goddard]] are killed (in the earlier case indirectly) by [[spoiler:Scythe Rand]] in brutal ways, but they are the most vile characters in the trilogy.

* TheFundamentalist: The Sibilants are fundamentalist Tonists, themselves pretty fundamentalist, and are prone to taking [[spoiler:the words of the Toll]] completely out of context [[ExaggeratedTrope just so they can be extreme about it]]. One example is [[spoiler:Greyson]] saying "Your voices are music to my ears.", which they take as a sign that all other music must be destroyed and go an instrument-breaking crusade.

* {{Psychopomp}}: Scythes attempt to invoke this in-universe, as they all dress in cloaks similar to grim reapers.

* RuleAbidingRebel: The Unsavories, to an extent. The Thunderhead set up "Anachronistic Wish Fulfillment ([[FunWithAcronyms AWfUL]]) clubs, full of breakable things, actors who are paid to lose every fight and cry when bullied, and challenges that are [[NoticeThis mostly very easy]] to overwhelm so they can play the roles of rebels without actually doing harm.

* SignficantNameShift: A narration version. Whether Citra is addressed as Citra or as Anastasia shifts in the narration as she identifies more with one or the other, usually being Citra in more vulnerable moments and Anastasia when she acts more scythe-like. She notes late in ''Thunderhead'' that she's finally started feeling like Anastasia and the narration stays that way until near the very end, [[spoiler:when it reverts to "Citra" as she and Rowan wait to die in the Vault, unsure of what their future will be.]]

* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: An odd example; [[spoiler:Rowan is more than willing to kill Goddard and his cronies but he doesn't get the opportunity after the first book. In the end [[TheDragon Scythe Rand]] is the one to kill [[BigBad Scythe Goddard]], [[SlimeBall Scythe Brahms]] (by tricking Goddard into killing him), and [[SinisterMinister Curate Mendoza]] for various reasons]]

* EverythingIsBigInTexas: The Thunderhead runs a number of "Charter Regions" with social experiments, such as making employment illegal in Nepal or requesting that the inhabitants of Tasmania all choose one biological alteration. Texas is the Charter Region where it practices "benevolent anarchy" with very few rules, and as such many of the inhabitants like to play up Texan stereotypes of being rough, gun-toting rebels.

* InTheFutureHumansWillBeOneRace: Humanity has progressed to a point where nearly everyone is a mixture of ethnicities, with genetic indexes keeping track of the percentages. Scythe Goddard nevertheless surrounds himself with scythes of distinct phenotypes, and scythe society makes sure that it gleans an even number of each race.

* SocietyOfImmortals: All humans on Earth benefit from immorality.

%%* AdiposeRex: High Blade Xenocrates

%%* BelligerentSexualTension: Rowan and Citra.

** At the end of ''Thunderhead'', [[spoiler:Curie and the remaining Scythes in the Founders' Tower are calm and compassionate as they MercyKill the people around them when Endura sinks, and are just as calm when gleaning themselves]].

** Goddard himself has a few moments of Hypocrisy. He claims that his Gleanings are a "gift" to his victims, but also calls himself "generous" for giving out mass immunity. [[spoiler: He calls out Rowan for killing Chomsky and trying to kill him and Rand but also kills the World Scythe Counsel and all of the Scythes on Endura. The third books has him claiming that his actions are for the betterment of the Scythedom but Rand points out that he's really just trying to gain more personal power, and is willing to kill anyone, Scythe or not, who gets in his way.]]

* LoopholeAbuse: Used by Scythe Curie, Citra, Goddard, and The Thunderhead at various points.

* RuleAbidingRebel: The Unsavories, to an extent. The Thunderhead set up "Anachronistic Wish Fulfillment" ([[FunWithAcronym AWfUL]])clubs, full of breakable things, actors who are paid to lose every fight and cry when provoked, and challenges that are [[NoticeThis mostly very easy]] to overwhelm so they can bully people, break out of "prisons", and generally play the role of rebels without actually doing harm.

* ResistanceAsPlanned: The whole counter-culture of Unsavories was designed by the Thunderhead to provide humans who enjoy being rebellious and destructive with an outlet for their destructive impulses.

* DeathOfAChild: While children benefit from some element of (literal) Infant Immortality, they aren't immune to being gleaned. Scythe Faraday breaks into tears at dinnertime after he gleaned a child. [[spoiler: Off-page, Scythe Volta massacres an entire classroom of Tonist children, which leads to his self-gleaning.]]

%%* GoodIsNotNice: The Scythes, since their job involves killing people. %%(This could use a bit more context.)%%

** The second book kills off [[spoiler:Tyger, Curie, Xenocrates, the entire World Scythe Council, and everyone on Endura save for Rowan and Citra]].

* LightIsGood: Scythe Faraday wears an ivory cloak, and is one of the most moral scythes around. And in fact, this is why black is the only cloak-color that is shunned by the Scythedom: because they are supposed to represent light in every spectrum, not darkness.

* PyroManiac: Chomsky is never seen without his [[WeaponOfChoice flamethrower]] while out on gleaning, and refuses to part with it even when told to put it away.

* WeaponOfChoice: Chomsky always uses a [[KillItWithFire flamethrower]]. Inverted with Faraday, who prefers to use a different weapon for each gleaning.

* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: Greyson Tolliver, Scythe Morrison, Curate Mendoza, Scythe Brahms and Munira Atrushi are all important characters who are introduced in the second book. Taken further with Jericho and Loriana, who are introduced in the initial chapters of third book, and [[spoiler: Cirrus, an EleventhHourRanger in its purest form.]]

There are a total of three installments in the series.

* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: Greyson Tolliver, Scythe Morrison, Curate Mendoza, Scythe Brahms and Munira Atrushi are all important characters who are introduced in the second book.
* SecretTestOfCharacter: Curie and Faraday are fond of pulling these on Citra and Rowan.

* UnusualEuphemism: "Gleaning" is used as a substitute for a Scythe permanently killing someone. "Ending" is used to refer to people permanently dying from other means.

** [[spoiler: When Goddard orders Scythe Morrison to glean the Toll, he recruits Morrison to help him and pretends that one of the people gleaned during Morrison's attack was the Toll.]]

* DoubleMeaningTitle: * "Arc of a Scythe" refers to both the arched shape of a scythe's blade and the developmental arcs the scythedom must go through.