Topic: Mistborn: The Final Empire & Well of Ascension Spoilers

[Todd]

First off, SPOILERS! If you entered here curious let me say I am not going to hold back on them, if you don't want to know what happens get out now.


































First off, Kelsier dying does suck. Although I figured pretty early that was what was going to happen. Especially since Vin became more and more the center of the story. Personally, I liked Kelsier much better then Vin but she's alright. Vin can be a bit of a naive rube.

His fight with the Steel Inquisitor was epic, to bad he dies not long afterwards.

I must admit to being a bit dense about the Lord Ruler NOT being the Hero of the Ages even with all the hints given before finding out. We know Rashek went to the Well of Ascension in the place of the Hero of the Ages. I must admit to feeling more stupid then shocked when that was revealed. It also makes you really feel bad for the character that was the Hero of the Ages, who you read about at the beginning of each chapter. At first I thought those were split between both Kelsier and the Lord Ruler, and not somebody who hadn't been revealed yet. Many of those passages sounded exactly like something Kelsier would say, especially the one about fearing his arrogance will be everyones downfall. I think Sanderson did that to link the Hero of the Ages with Kelsier and to hint that Kelsier will die too. The last passage of the Hero of the Ages wrote was about fearing that he will fail, but taking solace in knowing that if he did fail the mantle would be passed on to another. IMO it was passed onto Kelsier and then Vin. The 2nd book does enlighten us a litte bit more about the Hero of the Ages and even gives his name, it also has something that also supports my previous statement about Kelsier and Vin.

Once Vin found out that Feurochemy and Alomancy can be used together if someone can do both I once again was a bit dense. I thought it was a more of a hint about how powerful Vin could become and not a hint about the Lord Ruler's power. However this is one of the explanations I didn't like. I didn't like the idea of him becoming all powerful and immortal because he was able to exploit both powers. I would have liked it better if it had not been that. Maybe further explanation later in the books, if there is any, will help me come to terms with it.

Maybe somebody else posting will remind me of other things I wanted to talk about.

[Archelous]

I personally was really upset by Kelsier dying, he definitely was my favorite character in the book, with Dockson coming in second.

Vin... I don't know, I didn't mind her near the end of the first book, and I didn't care much about her at the beginning. And after starting the second book, she's reminding me more and more of Faile and Egwene. Whiny and annoying rather than core to the story.

I did enjoy the fight with the steel inquisitor, and I was expecting, and quite happy, about Marsh's return, though I had hoped Kelsier would find out about it before he died.

I never really saw that Lord Ruler wouldn't be the hero of the Ages, but I picked up on a Feurochemy and Alomancy link, mostly whenever people talked about the Lord Ruler being immortal, I figured that it would be kind of anticlimactic for him to be anything more than a man, and when Sazed spoke about storing your age, that's when I connected it for the most part, I just attributed it to being another metal in Allomancy though, not Feurochemy.

Sanderson has hinted that a lot of things in the first book (this coming from the side-reading on his site), about the Lord Ruler will come about in the third book.

During this read of the second book on the other hand, I'm really excited to read more about Marsh.

And as cheezy as it sounds, I hope Kelsier comes back!

[Todd]

I just finished book two, I am pretty sure Kelsier isn't coming back. BTW, how far are you into book 2?

Book 2 does reveal a lot about the Lord Ruler. He says he likes to break genre cliché, and he certainly did that.  I'd like to say more, but this is a spoiler thread for book 1 and not book 2. I am currently looking at what I wrote above in a different light. I am not so sure about some things I wrote anymore.

One thing I would like to say, which is a spoiler, I still don't like how Elend became king. To this day it still doesn't make any sense. The books say that Elend gave a stirring speech, off scene, and that were supposed to believe that it made everyone in the crew decide to throw their lot behind Elend? It just seems contrived. To have this make sense Sanderson should have had Elend join the plot, which btw I thought he would originally would do while reading the first book since Elend was so getting so cozy with Valette. Even after finishing book 2 and getting more point of views from Elend it still doesn't change my mind that this plot point only happened because the author wanted it to and not because it is plausible. Sanderson needed something in scene so the reader could see to make it seem plausible and it never happened.

[Archelous]

I'm about 200 pages in, Sazed just came back into Luthadel.

As for the Elend thing, it made a lot of sense to me in the fact that everyone but Kelsier assumed he would take the throne after the Lord Ruler was overthrown. (After the one stupid leader of the Resistance died of course.)

It made sense to me because no one in the crew I think would've really felt comfortable stepping into that role, and when Vin was found to have killed Lord Ruler, I'm guessing she obviously endorsed him to the role of King, him having the experience in politics, the ideas for a new government that would help the people, etc.

I'm guessing he was really just the best of the lot left in Luthadel, and Vin/Dockson/Ham/Breeze decided that he would be the best King they could find.

I was actually kind of happy that Elend never joined the crew, I saw it coming as well, and figured Vin would've at least let slip part of the plot. Thankfully she didn't, because I did enjoy the end of the book with him trying, and failing, to come to her rescue.

[Todd]

For me the problem isn't that he became King, is that the only explanation is the speech he gave. There is nothing else, it is all guess work from the readers point of view. The crew could have accepted him because Vin endorsed him, but we don't know if Vin vouched for him. We can assume that, but we don't know that. His only meaningful on scene interaction with the whole crew before becoming king is surrendering to them and telling them not to slaughter the nobles and giving them some advice on how not to let their rebellion fall apart.

I guess that I just don't like how it just happened. It seemed sloppy to me to have it all happen inbetween chapters.

[Archelous]

I'm entering the Fourth (I think? I got off a late shift and read, I think it was four) 'Knives'. Straff is a punk, I hope he gets wrecked by Zane.

[Todd]

Straff is an ass, but Zane is a bit of an ass as well. The bad guy I don't mind that much is Cett, there is more to him then what is shown. Straff is just an egotistical bully.

[Archelous]

Straff is an ass, but Zane is a bit of an ass as well. The bad guy I don't mind that much is Cett, there is more to him then what is shown. Straff is just an egotistical bully.

WHY IS EVERYONE DYING?!

[Todd]

Straff is an ass, but Zane is a bit of an ass as well. The bad guy I don't mind that much is Cett, there is more to him then what is shown. Straff is just an egotistical bully.

WHY IS EVERYONE DYING?!

Wait till the end. lol

[Archelous]

Straff is an ass, but Zane is a bit of an ass as well. The bad guy I don't mind that much is Cett, there is more to him then what is shown. Straff is just an egotistical bully.

WHY IS EVERYONE DYING?!

Wait till the end. lol

This book didn't haven enough Dockson for him to (supposedly) die!

[Archelous]

Okay, so I finished The Well of Ascension.

To say the least, I expected a bit more, since the last book, I expected a bit more surprise. I honestly expected a lot of the end, except Marsh, I thought he pulled that out of nowhere pretty well, and I was hoping for his return. I eagerly await the third book to see what's going on in his head.

I felt in this one he switched around perspectives a bit too much, but it helped tell the story.

The ending... I really felt it lacked. I thought perhaps he might go through with killing off Elend. I liked him and didn't want it of course, and turning him into an Allomancer was a bit of a twist, but I think a broken Vin, having let the power go and standing over Elend's dying body, would've been a much more climactic and cliffhanger ending.

Tindwyl's death right now seems pointless to me, it certainly kept Sazed from abandoning his duties to do more important thing, but I don't know. We'll see in book three I suppose.

[Todd]

This book didn't haven enough Dockson for him to (supposedly) die!

Well, the first book didn't have a lot of him either. He was pruning the dead wood it would seem.

IMO, with this book I thought most of the "twists" were telegraphed a mile away. What happened at the well was fairly obvious, and I even expected what happened to Marsh. You do know Zane had a spike in him too, right? The Being seems to be able to control anyone with a spike. What happened to Elend wasn't that big of a surprise either, the Mist did the same thing to Alendi since Alendi suffered under the same assumption that Vin did.

The thing that really bothered me about this book is how easy the opposing armies were able to get people inside the gates. If it had been that easy there would have been no siege.

[Archelous]

The thing that really bothered me about this book is how easy the opposing armies were able to get people inside the gates. If it had been that easy there would have been no siege.

You mean with the Koloss attack?

That bugged me to an extent, but I think he explained it a little better, with Cett's withdraw and Elend's friend Lekal abandoning the Koloss, it drove them into a bit of a bloodthirst, and with Straff's 'withdraw', it just made the attack easier, he mentioned several times that the city wasn't built to withstand any type of attack.

[Todd]

Nah, I was talking about how Cett and a bunch of his soldiers were able to enter the city unnoticed, and other comings and goings. If it was so easy to get in and out why didn't they sneak in and open the gates?

[Archelous]

Nah, I was talking about how Cett and a bunch of his soldiers were able to enter the city unnoticed, and other comings and goings. If it was so easy to get in and out why didn't they sneak in and open the gates?

Well, I'm guessing in the third book we'll see that Cett isn't as much of a hard ass as he imagines, and that he probably didn't want the city to end up pillaged and burned. But that's a good point, didn't really think about it.