Anthony Rollins
Quick Facts
- Role: Primary antagonist; Virginia congressman turned presidential frontrunner
- First appearance: On the primary campaign trail as the “strings” arrive and reshape public life
- Signature image: Smoothly handsome, strong jawline, hair “stiffly parted and glistening under the stage lights”
- Platform highlights: Public disclosure of string lengths; law-and-order messaging; STAR Initiative
- Key relationships: Wife Katherine Hunter; nephew Character: Jack Hunter; rival Senator Wes Johnson, Sr.
- Core theme tie-ins: Architect of Societal Division and Discrimination; opportunistic posture toward fate
Who They Are Sleek, camera-ready, and relentless, Anthony Rollins embodies the intoxicating promise and moral rot of power pursued at any cost. The novel frames him as a politician who sees a world-shaking existential event not as a test of humanity but as a stage prop. By turning transparency about string lengths into a litmus test for leadership, he recasts fear as policy and prejudice as prudence, positioning himself as the nation’s protector while actively manufacturing the threat.
Personality & Traits Behind the sheen is a calculating performer who converts spectacle into legitimacy. His instincts are transactional—every crisis becomes a polling opportunity, every person a prop—and his rhetoric smuggles cruelty beneath the language of duty and compassion.
- Opportunistic and power-hungry: He calls the strings a “blessing from God” because they eclipse a brewing fraternity scandal, treating a global reckoning as convenient cover for his ascent.
- Master manipulator: In the first primary debate, he theatrically brandishes his long string and dares opponents to do the same, reframing secrecy as guilt and himself as uniquely transparent. Later, he spotlights his nephew Character: Jack Hunter and Jack’s supposed short string to feign empathy on national television.
- Callous to the point of inhumanity: When a bystander dies protecting him from a shooter, his private takeaway is that it’s “quite possibly, the best thing to happen to his campaign,” revealing a chilling conversion of human loss into political capital.
- Division as strategy: He engineers an “us vs. them” narrative, portraying short-stringers as unstable and dangerous. This demagoguery hardens into policies like the STAR Initiative and mainstreams the logic of Societal Division and Discrimination.
Character Journey Anthony’s arc is not a transformation but an escalation. He begins as a middling contender with soft numbers and a whiff of scandal. The moment the strings arrive, he senses a vacuum: fear needs a manager, and he auditions for the role. The debate “transparency” stunt becomes the template—turn moral panic into political liturgy. As crowds grow and rivals falter, his opportunism ossifies into ideology: security requires sorting, sorting demands stigmas, and stigmas demand the full machinery of the state. By the time violence erupts in his orbit, he conceals inconvenient truths, exploits public grief, and pushes policies that codify prejudice. He ends not enlightened but emboldened—an avatar of how power feeds on fear and, once fed, insists it is virtue.
Key Relationships Katherine Hunter Katherine is both spouse and strategist, the co-architect of his hardball tactics. She is willing to weaponize opponents’ strings and briefly hesitates only when Jack’s supposed short string implicates family. Anthony quickly corrals her back, a reminder that within their partnership, his will—and his narrative—prevails.
Jack Hunter Early on, Anthony reduces Jack to branding: an army cadet to burnish hawkish credentials. Later, Jack’s supposed short string becomes a televised empathy prop—until Jack publicly repudiates him. The rupture exposes a years-long contempt in which Anthony mocked Jack’s very existence, turning private cruelty into public fallout.
Wes Johnson, Sr. Senator Wes Johnson is the rival Anthony most wants to define. By fanning rumors about Johnson’s short string, Anthony frames him as weak and unfit, using personal fate as political disqualification. The hit lands: Johnson’s numbers drop while Anthony’s rise, illustrating how Anthony weaponizes private data to reshape the field.
Defining Moments Anthony’s ascent is built on theatrical reveals, managed crises, and a refusal to let truth interfere with momentum.
- The first primary debate: He lifts his long string and demands his opponents show theirs. Why it matters: It converts personal destiny into public credentialing and normalizes surveillance as “transparency,” shifting the campaign’s moral center of gravity.
- The assassination attempt and its aftermath: A short-stringer fires at him; a bystander, Character: Hank, dies saving him. Why it matters: Anthony’s instant political calculus—rather than grief—reveals his true creed: tragedies are leverage. He uses the incident to justify harsher policies against short-stringers.
- Burying the shooter’s motive: The would-be assassin turns out to be tied to a fraternity death Anthony prefers forgotten. Why it matters: Rather than reckon with the past, he suppresses it, proving that “law and order” is selective and that accountability is reserved for others.
- Institutionalizing fear: The STAR Initiative moves from rhetoric to policy. Why it matters: Anthony’s talking points metastasize into law, showing how prejudice graduates from crowd-pleasing applause lines to systemic harm.
Symbolism & Thematic Role Anthony personifies the political exploitation of fate. In a world haunted by Fate vs. Free Will, he insists fate should be disclosed, ranked, and governed—then repackages that control as safety. He proves the danger is not the strings themselves but the leaders eager to make them a moral sorting hat.
Essential Quotes “Should I have the honor of becoming your candidate, I assure you that I will serve for as long as you’ll have me. And I ask that my fellow candidates, in the spirit of transparency, present their own strings, so the voters can head to the polls armed with as much information as possible...”
- Analysis: This is the blueprint. He cloaks coercion in “transparency,” transforming private knowledge into a public test of worthiness. It’s less about informed voters and more about defining who counts as trustworthy.
“I believe these boxes are a sign from God that He’s looking out for this campaign, protecting us from harm.”
- Analysis: Anthony fuses providence with politics, sanctifying his ambition. Calling catastrophe a divine endorsement reframes opportunism as destiny and licenses further exploitation.
“My nephew is a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and I am proud to be his uncle. He also has a short string. When I am president, I will lead not only with the strength of someone who will protect our nation, but also with the compassion of someone who has felt the impact of the strings in my very own family.”
- Analysis: This is emotional laundering. By staging familial closeness, he grafts empathy onto punitive policy, using a supposed private hardship to sell public harm. Jack becomes a narrative device, not a person.
“The path we’re on now—I know it’s a difficult one. But it’s the only way we’re going to win.”
- Analysis: He admits the goal plainly: winning. The “difficulty” is a euphemism for escalating division; the inevitability is manufactured. In this sentence, strategy eclipses morality—and the campaign becomes the cause.