Mistborn/Characters

Vin

 * Action Girl
 * Anti Hero: Type II, mostly. She can be ruthless and has a dark streak in her, but at the end of the day she's fundamentally a good person. She does sometimes veer into Type III territory, most notably when she assaults Cett's keep with Zane in book 2.
 * Badass
 * Badass Cape: Mistcloaks are very cape-like and Vin wears one for quite a while. They're the most common symbol of a Mistborn; when you see someone wearing one of these, you look away, mind your own business, and pray to the Lord Ruler that they're not after you.
 * Book Dumb: Vin isn't very well educated and doesn't think very highly of reading and books in general. She is however a quick thinker, a quick learner and good at piecing together information.
 * Broken Bird: She gets better.
 * Career Killers: She thinks of herself as an Assassin, though there's more to her character than that).
 * Chickification: played straight in that she becomes more traditionally feminine as the series progresses; averted in that this in no way makes her less of a Badass Action Girl.
 * Chosen One: Sort of..
 * In a way she was  Chosen One since her combination of   all added up to person who   could manipulate to his ends.
 * Cute Bruiser: As a Mistborn, she can burn pewter for enhanced strength and endurance. She may look like a scrawny teenager, but she could tie an Olympic weightlifter up in knots without breaking a sweat.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Extraordinarily Empowered Girl: Mistborn are rare, but Vin is by no means unique, apart from being an unusually quick learner...
 * Guile Hero: She's nowhere near the planner Kelsier is, but don't think that means she's not really good at thinking on her feet.
 * The Hero: She's the main character of the books, and evolves into the Big Good and biggest Badass on the good guys' side after . Subverted in that.
 * Jeanne D Archetype: How the skaa see her, more or less. Vin herself finds this very bothering.
 * : The ending of The Well Of Ascension. Full stop.
 * One Woman Army: Elend actually refers to her as 'an army' in The Hero Of Ages.
 * Parental Abandonment: Her mom was crazy and tried to kill her. Her dad was high priest of the Corrupt Church and never knew nor cared that she existed. She was raised, more or less, by her half-brother, who wound up abandoning her too.
 * Pint Sized Powerhouse
 * Real Women Never Wear Dresses: Averted with a vengeance. Vin's mostly a tomboyish Action Girl in terms of personality, but that doesn't mean she can't take the opportunity to appreciate fancy dresses, dance parties, or other traditionally feminine interests.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Very, very much on the cynical side. Becomes less cynical and learns to trust others as the series goes on.
 * Street Urchin: At first
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Vin is almost this ensemble in one person.
 * Waif Fu: Justified by her ability to burn pewter- she may look small and harmless, but she can acquire incredible superstrength pretty much whenever she needs it.
 * Street Urchin: At first
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Vin is almost this ensemble in one person.
 * Waif Fu: Justified by her ability to burn pewter- she may look small and harmless, but she can acquire incredible superstrength pretty much whenever she needs it.
 * Waif Fu: Justified by her ability to burn pewter- she may look small and harmless, but she can acquire incredible superstrength pretty much whenever she needs it.

Kelsier

 * Alternate Character Interpretation: In-universe. No one is entirely sure whether he's just an egotistical Glory Hound, a Magnificent Bastard bent on rather spectacular revenge, or a Guile Hero who really does care for the ideals of the revolution, possibly a little too much.
 * Anti Hero
 * Badass
 * Byronic Hero
 * : Deliberately invoked.
 * Good Is Not Nice: Not to noblemen that is.
 * Magnificent Bastard / Guile Hero: And no one seems to know which, in-universe or out.
 * The Obi Wan: To Vin.
 * Rebel Leader
 * Sad Clown: He always laughs and cracks jokes as a way of rebelling against how bleak the world is.
 * Shrouded in Myth: He worked hard to make himself a semi-mythic figure.
 * Well Intentioned Extremist: Often veers perilously close to this.
 * Sad Clown: He always laughs and cracks jokes as a way of rebelling against how bleak the world is.
 * Shrouded in Myth: He worked hard to make himself a semi-mythic figure.
 * Well Intentioned Extremist: Often veers perilously close to this.

Sazed/

 * Badass Bookworm: He manages to incapacitate a Steel Inquisitor early in the first book; it happens off-camera, but it's the first instance of a Steel Inquisitor encounter being treated as anything other than "run or die".
 * Battle Butler
 * Bling of War: His physical metal minds are rings and earrings.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Occasionally.
 * Let's Get Dangerous: He's a polite, kindly servant/scholar who hates fighting. Threaten his friends or his life's work, though, and you'll find out  why the Lord Ruler feared Feruchemists.
 * Nice Guy: The most consistently nice character in the series
 * Photographic Memory: Variation. He doesn't actually have one himself (though his memory is very well trained) but through the use of his copperminds he can perfectly store a tremendous amount of memory. Basically, he achieves this through magic rather than being born with it.
 * : During Hero of Ages, while.
 * Super Strength: When he taps his pewterminds.
 * Nice Guy: The most consistently nice character in the series
 * Photographic Memory: Variation. He doesn't actually have one himself (though his memory is very well trained) but through the use of his copperminds he can perfectly store a tremendous amount of memory. Basically, he achieves this through magic rather than being born with it.
 * : During Hero of Ages, while.
 * Super Strength: When he taps his pewterminds.

Elend Venture

 * Cain and Abel:
 * Heroic BSOD: In Hero of Ages he has a brief one before  manages to snap him out of it.
 * Non Action Guy:
 * Not So Different: In Hero of Ages he starts to realize his actions as emperor are very similar to what the Lord Ruler did to keep the empire intact.
 * Rebellious Prince
 * Replacement Scrappy: Becomes one in-universe for  after.
 * Shallow Love Interest: He doesn't get much development in the first book, though when he becomes a POV character in books two and three, this changes.
 * . It turns out that his is because
 * Wide Eyed Idealist: Politically, at least.
 * The Wise Prince
 * Wide Eyed Idealist: Politically, at least.
 * The Wise Prince

Dockson

 * Badass Normal
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Foil: To Kelsier.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: Of all Kelsier's crew, is probably the most violently prejudiced against the nobility.
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick: Of sorts- Kelsier's the one with the vision, but Dox's careful eye for details keeps the crew running long enough for him to realize it.
 * The Lancer
 * Number Two: Again, to Kelsier.
 * Only Sane Man
 * The Team Normal

Breeze

 * Deadpan Snarker: Especially when dealing with Ham.
 * Getting Smilies Painted On Your Soul: An arguable and generally benevolent case; he often toys with the emotions of those around him, lessening the effects of negative emotions such as fatigue, fear, or sadness, in order to emphasize the effect of positive emotions the subjects already feel.
 * Good Is Not Nice: As noted below under Jerk With a Heart of Gold, he's overbearing, manipulative... and caring to a fault.
 * Hidden Heart of Gold: He's not nearly as selfish as he acts but prefers to downplay this.
 * Heroic BSOD: Suffers one of these
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: He appears, at first, to be a pompous, selfish, lazy, egotistical, and manipulative scoundrel. All of this is absolutely true, but it becomes clear (especially in the second and third books whenever he becomes a point-of-view character) that at least as much of his manipulation goes toward helping others as toward getting his own way.
 * May December Romance: With Allrianne Cett
 * Non Action Guy: Despite carrying around a dueling cane, there's little indication that Breeze is a warrior of any kind.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Claims to be on the cynical side, despite his actions and emotions pushing him toward idealism.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Has something of this sort of relationship with Ham, due to the latter's insistence on submitting philosophical questions for consideration.

Ham

 * The Big Guy
 * Dumb Muscle: Word of God is that he's a deliberate subversion- between his physical appearance and role in the crew, you'd expect him to be this, but he's really an intelligent, thoughtful guy.
 * Foil: He and Breeze are often contrasted.
 * Genius Bruiser
 * Gentle Giant: He may be a hulking professional soldier, but he's also an amiable family man who'd rather not fight at all if he can avoid it.
 * The Philosopher: Though he's more interested in posing questions than answering them.
 * Sleeves Are for Wimps: Ham wears vests rather than shirts if he has any say in the matter- he even rips the sleeves out of his general's uniform to create a makeshift one.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: With Breeze.

Clubs

 * Badass Grandpa
 * Retired Badass
 * Handicapped Badass
 * Good Is Not Nice
 * Hidden Depths: Despite being mainly a grumpy old ex soldier, he has a deep passion for his art as a carpenter.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold
 * Parental Substitute: To his nephew, Spook.
 * Power Nullifier: To an extent; as a Smoker, he's immune to emotional allomancy himself and can shield others from being detected by Seekers, but he can't interfere with other allomantic powers.
 * Screw Politeness I'm a Senior: He's the oldest member of the crew, and also the grouchiest and most standoffish, but his word is good and when he gives his loyalty, he means it. See Jerk With a Heart of Gold.
 * Sixth Ranger: From the perspective of the other crew members- though he joins up near the beginning of the book, he's the only major crewmember apart from Vin who Kelsier has never worked with before.
 * Sour Supporter

Reen

 * Abusive Parental Substitute
 * Big Brother Bully: Bizarrely mixed with Big Brother Instinct. He abused Vin because he thought that breaking her was the only way she'd survive.
 * Jerkass
 * Nice Job Breaking Her, Big Brother: It's pretty clear that Reen was cruel to Vin primarily because he thought that she'd only survive if he toughened her up and taught her to always be suspicious and cynical. Unfortunately, this also lead directly into the Broken Bird nature she exhibits, particularly early in the series. Probably an example of why emotionally damaged cynical Jerkasses, even well-intentioned ones, shouldn't raise kids.
 * Parental Substitute: To Vin, after their mother went crazy.
 * Pet the Dog:
 * Redemption Equals Death
 * Posthumous Character
 * Promotion to Parent: What with their father being out of the picture and their mother going Ax Crazy, he became Vin's primary caretaker.
 * Spirit Advisor: Vin frequently hears his voice, normally warning her not to trust people..

Marsh

 * Good Is Not Nice: At first.
 * Kelsier would probably have found this hilarious.
 * Heroic Willpower:
 * Implacable Man
 * : Deliberately.
 * : Initially..
 * Sour Supporter: He's extremely skeptical of his brother's motives in fighting the Lord Ruler, and helps the group more despite Kelsier than because of him.
 * The Stoic: Earns him the nickname "Ironeyes"..
 * Walking Spoiler: See that wall of spoilered-out text up there?
 * The Woobie
 * : Deliberately.
 * : Initially..
 * Sour Supporter: He's extremely skeptical of his brother's motives in fighting the Lord Ruler, and helps the group more despite Kelsier than because of him.
 * The Stoic: Earns him the nickname "Ironeyes"..
 * Walking Spoiler: See that wall of spoilered-out text up there?
 * The Woobie
 * Walking Spoiler: See that wall of spoilered-out text up there?
 * The Woobie
 * The Woobie

OreSeur/

 * The Blob: In his true form.
 * Canine Companion: Forced to take a dog's form at Vin's request since she doesn't want to kill a person just to give him a body. He ends up liking it more than he expects after he sees its usefulness.
 * Dead Person Impersonation: His race's ability to assume the form of living creatures after absorbing their bones makes him very good at this,
 * Fantastic Racism: Both experiences this from humans and exhibits it towards them.
 * Not So Different: When Vin tells him of her experiences as a member of a thieving crew, he realizes the experience isn't that different from having to follow the kandra Contract. Leads to an Odd Friendship of sorts.
 * Squick: His need to eat someone before he can imitate them really bothers Vin.
 * Talking Animal: When in his dog body.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting
 * Talking Animal: When in his dog body.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting

Spook

 * Ascended Extra
 * Blindfolded Vision: In The Hero of Ages his constant tin burning his enhanced his super senses to such a level that he needs to wear a blindfold during the day to even function.
 * Jive Turkey: He speaks a certain dialect of street slang. It is very nearly utterly incomprehensible to both the reader and to anyone in-setting. At least one bit of translation is given in The Hero of Ages, saying that 'wasing' means 'was doing,' and 'wasing the run of there' means 'I was running to that place'. It's still confusing.
 * Overshadowed By Awesome
 * What Measure Is a Non Badass: His attitude about himself. It motivates him to try as hard as he can to be useful and he ends up powerleveling in badass in The Hero of Ages.
 * Super Senses: Especially in The Hero of Ages.
 * Tagalong Kid
 * Took a Level In Badass: In The Hero Of Ages.
 * The Unintelligible: The accent/slang he has at first. He gets better.
 * Took a Level In Badass: In The Hero Of Ages.
 * The Unintelligible: The accent/slang he has at first. He gets better.

Tindwyl

 * Cool Old Lady
 * Cynical Mentor: To Elend.
 * Deadpan Snarker: She can even give Vin a run for her money in this regard.
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: Elend finds out the hard way. It's explicitly stated she's like this to him because as an idealistic nobleman's son, she feels he needs to be hit over the head with reality before he can become a good leader. She's much nicer to Vin, based on the fact that Vin's been the target of physical and emotional abuse for good chunks of her life and what she needs is confidence and self-worth.
 * Good Is Not Nice
 * Stern Teacher
 * Stern Teacher

Ashweather Cett

 * Badass Beard: Vin even calls it a "monster".
 * Big Bad Wannabe: Cett presents himself as a powerful, Card Carrying Villain tyrant.
 * Boisterous Bruiser: Played with; he has the personality, but is actually a cripple.
 * Card Carrying Villain: Subverted. He certainly talks the talk, but then does a Heel Face Turn.
 * Heel Face Turn: Allrianne initially tricks him into it. Vin's threats cement it.
 * Obfuscating Disability: Subverted. Vin thinks he's faking his paralysis to hide being a very powerful Mistborn..
 * Sir Swearsalot
 * Token Evil Teammate: Sort of. He's not exactly evil, per se, but is the most traditional Imperial nobleman in Elend's court.

Allrianne Cett

 * Bratty Teenage Daughter: How she presents herself. It's only part of the truth, though.
 * The Chick
 * Hidden Depths
 * May December Romance: With Breeze
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: More like Obfuscating Superficiality. Most of what you see is Allrianne's real personality, but it's not all there is to it, and she's much smarter than she looks.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the Girly Girl to Vin's Tomboy. Yes, even Vin at her most feminine looks plenty tomboyish next to Allrianne.

Beldre

 * The Chick
 * Morality Pet: To her brother Quellion.
 * Wide Eyed Idealist: She's basically Vin's opposite in this regard; where Vin doesn't trust anybody easily, Beldre wants to trust everybody and thinks she can solve the conflict between her brother and Spook just by talking it out..
 * Morality Pet: To her brother Quellion.
 * Wide Eyed Idealist: She's basically Vin's opposite in this regard; where Vin doesn't trust anybody easily, Beldre wants to trust everybody and thinks she can solve the conflict between her brother and Spook just by talking it out..
 * Wide Eyed Idealist: She's basically Vin's opposite in this regard; where Vin doesn't trust anybody easily, Beldre wants to trust everybody and thinks she can solve the conflict between her brother and Spook just by talking it out..

Alendi

 * Angst Dissonance: In-universe- Vin thinks he's far too angsty to have become an Evil Overlord..
 * The Chosen One:.
 * Expy: Of any number of generic Chosen One types, but in particular he resembles Rand al'Thor- which became Hilarious in Hindsight when Sanderson was contracted to finish Wheel of Time.
 * Posthumous Character
 * Start of Darkness:.
 * Wangst: His journal is full of it, in Vin's opinion.
 * Well Intentioned Extremist: Though he apparently became quite ruthless, he always remained dedicated to helping the world and not taking up the power of the Well of Ascension for himself..

Preservation/

 * All Powerful Bystander: Justified because initially all his power is tied up in keeping Ruin imprisoned.
 * Anthropomorphic Personification
 * Big Good
 * The Chessmaster: Preservation is the best Chessmaster in the whole Gambit Pileup. Culminates with
 * : But.
 * The Man Behind the Man: A rare heroic example.

The Lord Ruler/

 * A God Am I
 * Evil Overlord
 * God Emperor
 * God Is Evil: What the skaa certainly think, and with good reason.
 * Healing Factor
 * Implacable Man
 * Magnificent Bastard
 * Physical God
 * Shrouded in Myth: A large part of the series deals with finding out what kind of man the Lord Ruler really was, and where the man ends and the myth begins.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Unusually, both inverted and played straight. Word of God is that  actually grew as a person as a result of acquiring and being forced to responsibly use godlike power; pity that the   he used brought him into telepathic contact with.
 * Physical God
 * Shrouded in Myth: A large part of the series deals with finding out what kind of man the Lord Ruler really was, and where the man ends and the myth begins.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Unusually, both inverted and played straight. Word of God is that  actually grew as a person as a result of acquiring and being forced to responsibly use godlike power; pity that the   he used brought him into telepathic contact with.
 * Physical God
 * Shrouded in Myth: A large part of the series deals with finding out what kind of man the Lord Ruler really was, and where the man ends and the myth begins.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Unusually, both inverted and played straight. Word of God is that  actually grew as a person as a result of acquiring and being forced to responsibly use godlike power; pity that the   he used brought him into telepathic contact with.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Unusually, both inverted and played straight. Word of God is that  actually grew as a person as a result of acquiring and being forced to responsibly use godlike power; pity that the   he used brought him into telepathic contact with.

Shan Elariel

 * Alpha Bitch: She's in a court, rather than school, setting, but otherwise fits the trope to a "t".
 * Murder the Hypotenuse: Not Vin's intention, but Shan was Elend's fiancee, and.
 * The Reveal: For most of her appearances, she's built up as practically a female Draco Malfoy- arrogant, obnoxious, and annoying, but ultimately harmless..
 * Rich Bitch
 * The Reveal: For most of her appearances, she's built up as practically a female Draco Malfoy- arrogant, obnoxious, and annoying, but ultimately harmless..
 * Rich Bitch

Straff Venture

 * Abusive Father
 * Archnemesis Dad
 * Aristocrats Are Evil
 * Complete Monster
 * Evil Overlord:.
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Offing the Offspring: Attempts it several times over the course of the series.
 * Smug Snake
 * Tyke Bomb: Straff made it a point to have many mistresses so that he could produce countless children who could potentially possess Misting or Mistborn powers, to serve as his personal assassins. He went so far as to deliberately violate the Lord Ruler's prohibition against allowing skaa women to bear children born from noblemen to ensure he had Misting children.
 * Tyke Bomb: Straff made it a point to have many mistresses so that he could produce countless children who could potentially possess Misting or Mistborn powers, to serve as his personal assassins. He went so far as to deliberately violate the Lord Ruler's prohibition against allowing skaa women to bear children born from noblemen to ensure he had Misting children.

Zane

 * Axe Crazy
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Straff puts up with Zane's constant attempts to kill him and his madness because otherwise he won't have a Mistborn.
 * Cain and Abel:
 * Crazy Prepared
 * The Dragon: To Straff.
 * Hearing Voices: Kill him.
 * Not So Different: See Shadow Archetype.
 * Poisonous Friend
 * Psycho for Hire: Deconstructed. Zane's a violently insane Career Killer, but he regards his insanity as a major flaw and tries to overcome it..
 * Sanity Has Advantages: He certainly thinks so, and feels he has to compensate for his self-admitted insanity.
 * Shadow Archetype: To Vin.
 * Stalker With a Crush
 * The Starscream: Subverted. He continually pretends to try and kill Straff, because that's what Straff expects, but he has no real desire to do it- he points out that if he did, Straff would already be dead.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
 * Worthy Opponent
 * Worthy Opponent

Ruin/

 * Above Good and Evil
 * Anthropomorphic Personification
 * Badass Boast: "I am mountains that crush. I am waves that crash. I am storms that scatter. I am the end. ...I am Ruin."
 * Big Bad
 * The Chessmaster
 * The Corrupter: To people who have hemalurgic spikes, with subtlety ranging from making them hold onto an item to convincing them to do morally dubious experimentation to simply urging them to kill everyone they meet.
 * He's so good at this last one that he sometimes has to force his victims to not kill everyone they meet, as it is slowing them down.
 * Destruction Cannot Comprehend Life
 * Dead Person Impersonation: Pulls one of several people, notably Kelsier (to ), the Lord Ruler (to Penrod), and  . Vin sees through the last pretty quickly, at least when.
 * Exactly What It Says On the Tin
 * Hannibal Lecture: Loves doing this to Vin.
 * Hoist By His Own Petard:
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast
 * Omnicidal Maniac: His very nature is the end of all things, and
 * Our Gods Are Greater
 * Sealed Evil in A Can:
 * Weaksauce Weakness: He can't see or directly affect words written in metal- a rather potent weakness, as his greatest success came from . He also can't read minds, though he can influence them if the person has a Hemalurgic spike.
 * Sealed Evil in A Can:
 * Weaksauce Weakness: He can't see or directly affect words written in metal- a rather potent weakness, as his greatest success came from . He also can't read minds, though he can influence them if the person has a Hemalurgic spike.

Quellion

 * Expy: He's very remniscent of Robespierre.
 * He Who Fights Monsters
 * Knight Templar
 * President Evil: His role in Urtaeu, after kicking the nobility out.
 * The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized
 * Shadow Archetype: To Kelsier.
 * Unwitting Pawn: To Ruin.

Yomen

 * Anti Villain
 * Badass Bookworm
 * The Chessmaster: Barring the Lord Ruler and Ruin themselves, he's probably the smartest "bad guy" in the series.
 * Combat Clairvoyance:.
 * Grey and Grey Morality: He and Elend both make good points, and considering the circumstances are both pretty justified in their actions- Yomen just has incomplete information.
 * He's Just Hiding: His opinion regarding the Lord Ruler- since obviously a god can't be killed, he must have let the skaa overthrow him as part of some Plan. Yomen spends a lot of Hero of Ages trying to figure out just what that plan is.
 * Not So Different: He's basically Elend, if Elend had been an Obligator.
 * Worthy Opponent: Again, he's Elend's intellectual equal, and the two of them actually enjoy their philosophical sparring, though their larger conflict is very serious.
 * Worthy Opponent: Again, he's Elend's intellectual equal, and the two of them actually enjoy their philosophical sparring, though their larger conflict is very serious.