#mistborn the final empire

[loucygoosey]

LOOK WHO FINISHED THE FINAL EMPIRE

[lilianade-comics]

Kelsier and Vin! @painted-fanbird

[thestormlightnetwork]

nah. kelsier didn't die.

i'm just gonna sit here in complete denial.

[uinferno]

Death in the Year 500

Cyberpunk Marsh. To be more incognito, I thought he'd wear a thick sweater and pair of aviators to hide spikes, plus grow out his hair to hide the tattoos (and spikes from the rear). Not seen easily because of the colors, but he's graying as he coasts along in his 50s because I think silver fox Marsh is what everyone deserves.

Tangent: ever since I saw Ben McSweeney's official portrait I can't not see Marsh as fucking yoked.

[pictureof-dorianstorm]

the very specific feeling when you’re enjoying a new form of media and you find yourself getting just a little too excited about fan art and you think

oh shit

it’s happening again

anyways i finished mistborn the final empire and i bought 4 more cosmere books. Vin i love u sweetheart

[twobitsandanibble]

thanks, saze

[bogwater-aunt]

[louiserabeyart]

I have been re-reading the first 3 mistborn books and reminded of this sketch I drew of Vin as Valette Renoux a few years back.

I definitely want to draw some more mistborn stuff once I get some of my current projects out of the way!

[imaginative-joy]

While I was first playing Horizon Forbidden West, I felt like the orphan-girl-with-dead-surrogate-dad-turned-religious-figurehead trope seemed familiar... and then I realized that's essentially the plot of Mistborn.

[its2-40pm]

So I’ve started reading Mistborn and the only two characters I’ve been able to clearly picture in my head are:

Camon

And Breeze

I will not take any criticism

(No spoilers pls)

[dualquille]

(Mistborn: The Final Empire spoilers)

Me when Kelsier died: Nah there’s no way, this is probably all part of his plan. He’ll emerge from the shadows before we know it, good as new

How was I right but also so, so wrong…

[boreal-wood]

Alright wise guy, what are your thoughts on the theme(s) of the first Mistborn book. This is literally an excuse for you to ramble about it, have fun.

VOID I LOVE YOU SM

So spoilers for Mistborn: The Final Empire! If you haven't read it, please beware because under the cut, Here There Be Spoilers (and also beware, Very Long post under the cut!)

The big running theme in The Final Empire is trust. Who can one really trust? Is it worth it to put your life in the hands of other people? What says they won't betray you as soon as it becomes favorable to do so?

Honestly this really is what Vin's character arc in the first book is about. At the beginning of the book, she's trapped in a low-level street gang where everyone is always out to get everyone else. Heck, the second time the audience ever sees her use her powers is when she is helping her boss betray a business partner.

Vin's brother has beaten into her the idea that she can trust nobody, not even him. Everyone is always out to hurt her or take advantage of her, and if she does not prove her immediate worth to her group, then at best she will be kicked out.

This, of course, is not helped by the fact that she is part of the literal slave class! Which is a whole nother essay tbh.

Then Kelsier takes her in and everything changes. There's a scene early on in the book, after vin formally joins the crew, where Kelsier and his men are all laughing and enjoying themselves while plotting their Big Plan™. And Vin, who does not trust any of them, is on the outside, quite literally. She's outside the room, watching them plan, wishing she could be included but not allowing herself to, because at this point in the book she still thinks they could betray her at any time.

I think now is a really good time to mention that being a Mistborn is built on secrecy and paranoia. Mistborn are literally the nobility's assassins. They hide their identities under hoods that blend into the mist so as not to be seen. So their powers cannot be used against them or their Noble Houses. In broad daylight they have to pretend to be normal people, or at best, regular Mistings. They can't trust anyone with the truth that they are Mistborn.

(Heck, even a quarter of their powerset- Copper and Bronze- create mistrust. With Bronze, after all, one can hear the allomantic pulses of burning another metal. Copper, on the other hand, blocks that; the use cases for these two metals lies in paranoia that someone else can use their Allomantic powers against you.)

Anyways! So we've explored some of the different aspects of mistrust in Mistborn, so what's the counterargument?

In a word: Kelsier.

Kelsier shakes up everything that Vin believes about how relationships work. He introduces his crew as something different- despite being a thieving crew, they operate under a principle of trust and camaraderie. "My crews rely on trust," Kelsier says at one point. In direct contrast to the dirty, paranoid crews Vin worked with before, Kelsier's crew is welcoming, understanding, and trusting of her.

But Kelsier's trust isn't just talk, either. When we learn that the crew believes Mare betrayed them in their last heist, Vin asks Kelsier how he could love Mare even though she betrayed him. Kelsier answers that given the choice between loving Mare and being betrayed or never knowing her, he would choose loving her. "I'd rather trust my men than worry about what will happen if they turn on me."

In the same passage as above, Kelsier poses a question to Vin: where has she been happier? with the old crews that we built on lies and suspicious, or with Kelsier's crew, who trusted each other and let their guards down? It's a rhetorical question, and the meaning is clear: Vin and Kelsier both are happier for risking themselves in order to be loved.

I don't think I've nearly done this topic justice. There are a million more points I could pull out and point to, but I want to end with my favorite quote from The Final Empire. It's from Vin, in Chapter 32. She says:

“Once I may have thought you a fool, but… well, that’s kind of what trust is, isn’t it? A willful self-delusion? You have to shut out that voice that whispers about betrayal, and just hope that your friends aren’t going to hurt you... Distrust is really the same thing, only on the other side. I can see how a person, given the choice of two assumptions, would choose to trust.”

[inolienkiki]

Notes from Nazh on the new Final Empire puzzle

(Tawnson is an actual character, one of Renoux’s servants… what a cute nod. It’d be funny if this was being revealed after 20 years, but Nazh didn’t exist when Mistborn 1 was published, so it’s just a fun new detail)

[redscrawl]

rip Kelsier survivor of hathsin you would’ve loved Dial Drunk by Noah Kahan

[pourmercymercyonme]

my gaydar is constantly pinging when i read anything by vin. she deserves to be a lesbian. i am now giving vin and elend the blessing of being lesbians

[emma-dennehy-presents]

*buzzing with excitement* Just finished reading Mistborn/The Final Empire for the first time. I dont know how I didnt get to this series sooner. Ive been a fan of Stormlight Archive since around when Words of Radiance came out (so excited for Horneater and KoW&T :3). Already drawing some lines to the broader Cosmere, Ive got some questions as to how they can be that person but I'm very positive they are that person (also, Hi Hoid!!). Love the characters, had no doubts I'd love Allomancy. Think I would still rather have a Spren over being an Allomancer though, unless I was full Mistborn. Sanderson's magic systems are like a drug to me. Really love how fun it is to speculate where things are going, too and figuring things out as he drip feeds details to you through the story and journal bits before the chapters. Probably going to read something unrelated in between, but very excited to start Well of Ascension.