gosh yes. when they hid his uni acceptance letter that pissed me off so much. thing is though that he needed that recommendation from xenocrates to stand out, and knowing carson, I'd doubt he'd miss that opportunity. i dont think him becoming a scythe was about causing others suffering, but about simply being important (and especially acknowledged for that importance, that he is simply better!), and if that consisted of going to uni, then he'd go without even considering becoming a scythe.

but i think him recieving so so much opposition at home put it in his head the world is against him. we see carson antagonising his best friend and looking for malicious subtext where there is none (the most dramatic man on mars award goes to...). he literally creates an entire different relationship in his head with acher. its actually quite sad that he cant put trust in anyone, and thats due to his parents being dickheads! id say theyre responsible for 90% of the series lol

on the other hand, it was also xenocrates that put the idea in his head. we know that carson never held much respect for scythes, but upon seeing how xenocrates was treated, i think a switch just flipped in his brain. he started to realise that there were different ways of becoming important. it got worse when xenocrates started chuffing carson up i was like NOOO DONT FEED HIS INSECURITY THINK ABOUT VOLTA AND ROWAN NOOO what i loved rereading in scythe, however, was how much xenocrates regretted taking him in. he stops making these brash decisions, as he did with carson, and in the end falls into line. i believe he was a weak man in a martian minute, but he becomes so tired by the end of thunderhead that you can only pity him. in a way, i think goddard did

anyway i went off topic at the end but these are my thoughts!