Character Profile: Joshua Mason
Joshua is the first character we truly see in Ashes of Ruin, outside of side characters. He’s our introduction to this world, and as I sit here, trying to think about a profile for him, I wonder where I should begin that wouldn’t spoil anything. Yet there’s something to be said for a character like this, so let’s get started.
If there’s anything I could say about Joshua, it’s that his initial caution in the first book soon turns into a pure dedication throughout the rest of the series. He’s a shunned character to start, told by many within his family and society that he’s nothing more than the dregs, a tool for the use of others. He’s the forgotten one, lying in wait until the time is right, even though he’s not the one to start his journey down this path. If anything, Joshua has learned to keep himself in the shadow of silence throughout his whole life, not because he wants to, but because he learned the skill for his own survival. So we have this reluctant hero, the one plucked from his home only to be placed on the path of greatness out of pure necessity. When we begin Ashes of Ruin, we have to wonder where his mind is, since the “fish out of water” part of our story is going to be seen through his eyes, for the most part. He’s abducted, though it’s more an act of grace since they needed it to look convincing; and yet even when he’s on the road, it’s his overall kindness that hinders him.
So why would I make Joshua a kind soul in this bookish world of morally gray protagonists? For those of you following Ashes of Ruin, you know quite a bit about the themes I put in there, and Joshua’s story resonates with many. You can only take it for so long if you’re good to everyone, only for them to turn around and crap all over you. He lives in a society where many are rewarded with power for taking another person down. The first person he opens up to, Thomas the Searcher, takes advantage and has him arrested, only to be tortured by Micha. It’s, no doubt, my own personal views of the world we live in. It doesn’t matter who you’re nice to, or who you show kindness towards. It only matters where your destruction will get them. I know too many people who take pride in tearing another down because it means they get their way, or even worse, survive. And that’s the true crux of the matter with Joshua’s character. Many actions happen throughout the series because of Joshua’s heart.
Sadly, he learns from that. When people take advantage of him for being kind, he turns around and tries to be prideful. It’s the main reason for his first failure at the hands of the Prophet. If he wasn’t so prideful of who he was, that fight could’ve gone differently, but he chose arrogance. He chose to demand power in the sight of others, and was abandoned. But spending that year within the Architect’s Mind humbles him, and shows him what the right path toward his future should be. It’s not about kindness to everyone. It’s about understanding the past of what they went through. I’ve done what I can in the past to learn from the mistakes I make, and there’s one thing that it always comes down to: you never know what the person tearing you down is going through. Does that excuse their actions? No. But it helps to understand.
I can’t say any more about what Joshua goes through, because it would spoil things, but I can tell you that much of his story is expressed in my own. I was once brought into a meeting where a person continued to tell me all of my problems and how it affected them. The only thing I could think of while this was happening was that it didn’t sound like them. And after that meeting, going through all of those statements in my mind, one thought pervaded: this didn’t sound like them. And I began to look into events that would help me understand. While that meeting was one of the worst I ever went through, I do think a greater understanding was needed to see what was happening in the long run.
Joshua’s kindness will be the death of him in the long run. That’s not a spoiler, more so just a figure of speech. Bad things happen to good people because they do the right thing, and I think we can see that in Joshua. We can all see the struggle because we face it every day. The moral of the story? Well… watch Ted Lasso.