In Light Wielder, Rachel Schneider argues that tyranny isn’t just upheld through a single malevolent ruler; it’s sustained by an institutionalized system of exploitation that devalues and commodifies a specific population. King Edmond’s reign in Kenta is built on the systemic oppression of Heirs, first through the control of mangi collars and later through the practice of stealing their magical gifts. Through the politics of Kenta, the novel demonstrates how authoritarian power thrives on turning a segment of its own people into a resource to be controlled and consumed.

The most visible tool of this systemic oppression is the mangi collar, which magic wielders are forced to wear in Kenta. The collars serve as a constant magical (and sometimes physical) restraint, a public symbol of their subjugated status. This practice is so deeply embedded in Kenta’s society that it inspires fear across generations. Wells, Acker’s friend and a gifted blacksmith, reveals the psychological scars of this system when he confronts Acker about not killing Edmond, exclaiming, “You spared the man who put this collar around my neck!” (16). His fear isn’t just for himself but for the future; he later worries, “It’s the same collar he’ll one day put around my child’s neck” (17). Wells’s anger and fear for his child illustrate how the tyranny is a self-perpetuating system of control that threatens the freedom of future generations.

Edmond’s tyranny escalates from control to outright commodification when he discovers how to steal magic from other Heirs, illustrating how his exploitation evolves to continue to meet the demands of his tyranny. Using a rare slatstone, he begins to systematically hunt and imprison gifted individuals, treating their innate abilities as a resource to be harvested. Acker learns the horrifying scale of this operation when he’s told of raids on entire towns, where “even the babes” are taken to be processed in the mines (212), highlighting the indiscriminate exploitation of even the kingdom’s most vulnerable citizens. This practice evolves the role of Heirs in Kenta from a controlled social class into a raw resource for him to exploit, the ultimate objectification in service of the state’s power.

The novel takes this idea to a further extreme by revealing that the first victim of Edmond’s magic-stealing experiments was his own Match, Acker’s mother, Cadence. She explains to Jovie that Edmond had been “siphoning [her] magic from [her] for years” (190), perfecting his method on her in a desperate quest for power. Her suffering, which she endured in a failed attempt to protect her son, was the foundational act of exploitation upon which Edmond’s entire tyrannical regime was built. By showing that the king’s large-scale oppression began with the brutal violation of his most intimate bond, the narrative illustrates the insidious nature of tyranny, which expands outward until it consumes an entire society.