Mistborn: Difference between revisions

Long ago, a conqueror and philosopher was acclaimed as the Hero of Ages and sent to vanquish an ancient evil known only as the Deepness. The nature and character of the threat has been lost to the mists of time, but the Hero was evidently successful in his quest, as the Deepness was destroyed and the Hero returned in triumph, but not without great cost -- the sun became red, Ashmounts filled the sky with ashes that forevermore fell to the earth, plants withered and turned brown, and mysterious mists (whispered by the superstitious to be sentient and malevolent) enwreathed the lands by night. But humanity survived, even prospered, and years passed.

 

 

The main plot begins with a rebel that seeks to overthrow the the Lord Ruler. That man is named Kelsier, who arose from the ranks of the skaa. Kelsier was once a thief, blithely stealing from the nobility for the sheer joy of it, until he was betrayed, captured, and sent to the Pits of Hathsin, the Lord Ruler's most brutal prison, a mine where prisoners are forced to find one piece of the precious metal atium every seven days or face execution. No man had ever escaped from the Pits -- but Kelsier did, earning him the epithet "the Survivor of Hathsin" and a seething desire for revenge against the Lord Ruler. In the Pits, Kelsier had come into his powers as a Mistborn -- a special, powerful type of sorcerer that comes along only very rarely, and supposedly only among the nobility. While most magicians ("Mistings") can "burn" only one type of the eight allomantic metals (iron, steel, tin, pewter, brass, zinc, copper, and bronze), generating a very specific effect, Mistborn can burn all eight and some extra ones besides, giving them extensive power and versatility. Among the nobility, Mistborn are mostly used as elite assassins, but Kelsier had other plans.

Part [[Heroic Fantasy]], part [[The Con|heist novel]], ''[[Mistborn]]: The Final Empire'' is the first novel in [[Brandon Sanderson]]'s ''Mistborn'' trilogy.

 

 

 

Sanderson has compiled lengthy annotations for each chapter of the book at [http://www.brandonsanderson.com/annotation/book/Mistborn/ his website], detailing the development of the series and [[Word of God|clarifying various plot points]]. Note that they're chock-full of [[Spoiler|spoilers]].

 

 

{{tropelist}}

* [[All Deaths Final]]: {{spoiler|Even after Sazed becomes God, he can't return souls to their corpses, although he is apparently in contact with them.}}

* [[All There in the Manual]]: a lot of things, even things mentioned in spoiler tags on this very page, are mentioned in Sanderson's liner notes on the website, or on forums etc. For instance, the name of the world, the name of {{spoiler|the god-metal which makes mistborn}}, etc.

* [[A Man Is Not a Virgin]]: Inverted by Sazed, who has been a eunuch since soon after he was born and is thus physically incapable of having sex, but still ends up {{spoiler|in a romantic relationship with a woman... and ultimately turns out to be the real Hero of Ages}}. Also appears in Elend's backstory: {{spoiler|when he was young, his father took him to a skaa brothel to cement his "manhood". As per the law to prevent skaa/noble interbreeding, the girl was killed afterward. When Elend found this out, he refused to sleep with another skaa woman, unlike most nobles}}.

* [[And I Must Scream]]: {{spoiler|Marsh in ''Hero of Ages''. Ruin has absolute control over his body, but whenever he's focusing elsewhere Marsh's mind goes back to being Marsh again. However, he still can't control his own body}}.

* [[Angst Dissonance]]: In-universe example: Vin's reactions to reading the Lord Ruler's logbook that she found in Kredik Shaw. She decides that he sounds far too whiny for a man who conquered the world and became a [[Physical God]]. Turns out {{spoiler|she's right. The diary belongs to someone else}}

* [[Anthropomorphic Personification]]: {{spoiler|Ruin and Preservation, and presumably other Shard gods as well}}.

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: ''Countless'' unnamed skaa and nobles, in addition to cast members. In ''Mistborn'', {{spoiler|Kelsier dies}}; in ''Well of Ascension'', {{spoiler|Clubs, Dockson, and Tindwyl die}}; in ''Hero of Ages'', {{spoiler|Elend and Vin die}}.

* [[A Plague on Both Your Houses]]: {{spoiler|The Lord Ruler}} has one of these towards the end of book 1.

{{quote|''You don't know what I do for mankind. I '''was''' your God, even if you couldn't see it. By killing me, you have doomed yourselves....''}}

* [[Applied Phlebotinum]]: Atium and its alloy are completely fictional metals.

** "Survive".

* [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]]: {{spoiler|Sazed. Previously, Vin and Rashek, though both too briefly to completely fix things. Then Vin again, when she became the new Preservation. Even before that, the two guys who became Ruin and Preservation in the first place.}}

* [[Author Avatar]]: Elend -- per [[Word of God]], Sanderson shares in particular his fondness for reading at impolitic moments.

* [[Authority Equals Asskicking]]: Averted. Though the Lord Ruler is a [[Physical God]], the most powerful nobles {{spoiler|after his death}} are a [[Super Senses|Tineye]] and a man who is not only not a Misting (much less a Mistborn) but also ''paraplegic''.

* [[Awesomeness By Analysis]]: How Vin managed to defeat {{spoiler|Zane}} despite his [[Combat Clairvoyance|burning of atium]] giving him a huge advantage. She realized she could figure out what future action on her part he was reacting to by his movements and change it at the last moment to surprise him.

* [[Badass]]: Kelsier, Vin, and (in ''Hero of Ages''), {{spoiler|Elend and Spook, too}}. Sazed has carefully rationed moments of it. Every Inquisitor also counts.

* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Sazed, and also {{spoiler|Elend}}.

* [[Cain and Abel]]: Elend is Abel {{spoiler|and Zane is Cain}}.

* [[Cape Busters]]: Many nobles employ hazekillers, normal people trained specifically to fight mistings. But against a full mistborn, ''especially'' Vin, they're [[Overshadowed by Awesome|pretty much useless]]. (Kelsier had quite a bit of trouble with half a dozen, and he's one of the best alive.)

* [[Chastity Couple]]: {{spoiler|Sazed and Tindwyl}}.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: By the end of ''Hero of Ages'', it's more like [[Chekhov's Armory]]. Especially significant ones are {{spoiler|the epigraphs in ''Well of Ascension''}} and {{spoiler|Vin's earring and the religions stored in Sazed's copperminds}}.

* [[The Chessmaster]]: Pretty much everyone, from Ruin to Kelsier. But the ultimate Chessmaster crown definitely goes to {{spoiler|Preservation}}.

* [[Chickification]]: Averted. Vin ''does'' develop from a pure tomboy to having more feminine interests (namely balls and dresses), but she ''never'' stops being a badass -- if anything, she becomes more powerful as the series goes on, culminating in {{spoiler|defeating twelve Inquisitors at once before ''becoming a god''.}}

* [[Combat Clairvoyance]]: Atium causes this, letting one see things a few seconds before they happen. It makes one almost invincible unless the opponent also has atium, which essentially nullifies the effect.

* [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]]: Applies somewhat to the Koloss, and happens later but {{spoiler|is [[Justified Trope|justified]] in Vin's fight against the 13 Inquisitors, due to her tapping into Preservation's power to superfuel her Allomancy once her Hemalurgic earring was taken out by Marsh.}} She was a hair's breadth from dying before that.

* [[Corrupt Church]]: The obligators are an interesting example, in that they're a religious body who's main concern is power in this world rather than honoring God -- but this is exactly what their god designed them to be in the first place, as he himself cared more about running an efficient empire than looking into the spiritual well-being of his people. They also have some overlap with [[Religion of Evil]] (because they form the backbone of a hellish totalitarian government) and [[Path of Inspiration]] (because their god really isn't a god, making the whole religion based on a deception).

* [[Crapsack World]]: And ''how''.

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: Various throughout the series, most notably {{spoiler|Kelsier vs the Lord Ruler}} (which actually went exactly as planned for ''both'' sides) and {{spoiler|Vin's fight against the 13 Inquisitors at the end of ''Hero of Ages''}} (which flipped who was ''getting'' curb-stomped halfway through).

* [[Dating Catwoman]]: Vin (one of the most important members of [[La Résistance]]) with Elend (son of the Final Empire's most powerful nobleman) in ''Final Empire''. Also {{spoiler|Spook and Beldre}} in ''Hero of Ages''.

* [[Dark Magical Girl]]: Vin has definitely got the personality.

* [[Dark Messiah]]: The Lord Ruler is a very successful one, though it helps that he {{spoiler|really did save the world}}. Kelsier is a heroic example -- he knows he's not really a god, but paints himself as one in order to {{spoiler|give the skaa something to believe in so they will rebel}}. In ''Hero of Ages'', {{spoiler|Ruin attempts to manipulate Spook}} into becoming one.

* [[Decided by One Vote]]: The election in ''Well of Ascension''.

* [[Deconstruction]]: Of a lot of [[High Fantasy]] tropes; [[Word of God]] is that Sanderson was aiming at deconstructing the [[Evil Overlord]], [[Chosen One]] prophecies, and [[The Hero]] in particular. By extension, this series is also an example of the [[Deconstructor Fleet]] at work.

* [[The Determinator]]: {{spoiler|Spook}} in his role as Survivor of the Flames.

* [[Die or Fly]]: Allomantic abilities are awakened by being brought to the brink of death, assuming you have the right "spiritual genetics". This process is called "Snapping".

* [[Does Not Like Shoes]]: While mostly glossed over, Vin likes to go barefoot when using Allomancy (which is, almost always).

* [[Double Subversion]]: The Eleventh Metal. Kelsier insists it is the key to defeating the Lord Ruler. So when Vin burns it, {{spoiler|it just shows her [[Alternate History|how the Lord Ruler's life ''could'' have become]]. And then [[Awesome By Analysis|she uses the knowledge]] she gained from those images to realize that the Lord Ruler had killed the one everyone thought was the Hero of Ages and took his place.}}

* [[Downer Ending]]: ''Well of Ascension'': {{spoiler|Ruin, the [[Big Bad]] behind everything is released upon the world, and everything's getting darker}}.

* [[Eunuchs Are Evil]]: Thoroughly averted with Sazed.

* [[Evilly Affable]]: The Koloss are uncontrollably violent (and deeply disturbing once you find out their origin), but they're so very simple-minded that it's hard ''not'' to laugh at them sometimes, from their utter bewilderment (even through their blood frenzy) that something as small as Vin is fighting (and killing) them, to their matter-of-fact acceptance of ''any'' reason for suddenly pairing off and fighting to the death ("He ate my horse."), to Vin trying to explain gender to one of them (they're a [[One-Gender Race]]).

* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: Ruin does exactly as his name implies: he [[Omnicidal Maniac|wants to destroy everything in existence]].

* [[Face Stealer]]: The Kandra, who are essentially smarter mistwraiths have to eat a person's bones to take on their form. Partially to give themselves a skeleton to work with and partially to get the information needed to mimic the body.

* [[Fake King]]: [[Playing with a Trope|Sort of.]] {{spoiler|The switch happened immediately before the man who was replaced would have become king; so in a way the imposter was "king" all along, but he doesn't deserve it as much as people assume. And while he spent his reign committing constant acts of mass murder and oppression, he was ''also'' constantly working against the real [[Big Bad]]; see [[The Good, the Bad, and The Evil]] below.}}

** The three competing kings from the second book fit this perfectly as well -- Elend is the good, Cett is the bad, and Straff is the evil.

* [[Grievous Harm with a Body]]: If you're a guard wearing a breastplate, the best you can hope for is to get casually tossed aside by a Mistborn. If you're ''not'' lucky, ''you're'' going to be the one tossing aside your comrades. The guards are at least [[Genre Savvy]] about this; they can detach their breastplates immediately if they realize they're up against an Allomancer or Mistborn.

* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: Ruin does this to Vin, trying to convince her that everything she has done over the last two and a half books has ultimately served his purposes. He even gives her a nickname -- "Beautiful Destroyer".

* [[Healing Factor]]: Mistwraiths and Kandra can heal flesh wounds almost instantly, though they can't heal bones. Pewterarms and Mistborn heal faster than normal by burning pewter. Feruchemists can use gold to store health, and then use that as a healing factor when they need to. Inquisitors have a healing factor as well, and the Lord Ruler has this to an insane degree -- supposedly not even having him decapitated or burning him down to a skeleton was enough to kill him, though according to [[Word of God]] these incidents were exaggerated.

* [[Heel Face Turn]]: Played with multiple times. {{spoiler|Lord Cett}} does one near the end of ''Well of Ascension'' not out of any change of heart, but because he thinks his chances are better that way. In ''Hero of Ages'', we get one from {{spoiler|Yomen}} after he decides that Vin is the Lord Ruler's true successor, and from {{spoiler|Quellion}} after his [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] is fixed. {{spoiler|The Lord Ruler}} is an odd example; his eventually-revealed motivations change his characterization from [[Complete Monster]] to [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]], giving him a semi-[[Heel Face Turn]] in the eyes of the audience {{spoiler|well after his death}}.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: Multiple examples, particularly in the first and third books, none of which are possible to mention without massive spoilers.

** Averted, however, with {{spoiler|Sazed. As he takes in both Ruin and Preservation's power, he dumps the entirety of his copperminds into his expanding mind, giving him enough information to fix everything ''without'' creating unintended side-effects}}.

* [[Humans Are Special]]: Humanity {{spoiler|contains power of both Ruin and Preservation}}. As a result, {{spoiler|humans can both protect and destroy, while Ruin and Preservation are limited to destruction and protection, respectively.}} This is ultimately what allows {{spoiler|Vin to destroy Ruin, as Preservation could not attack Ruin, but Vin, with Preservation's power, ''can''.}} [[The Chessmaster|Exactly as planned.]]

* [[I Am the Noun]]: Kelsier: "I am Hope!"

** {{spoiler|And the Lord Ruler}}. He wasn't planning on dying, but he knew it was a possibility and his long-term scheming took it into account.

** And ultimately, {{spoiler|Preservation, although he lived on as a shell of his former self for a long time}}.

* [[No Guy Wants an Amazon]]: Averted by {{spoiler|Elend's}} relationship with the Mistborn Vin. Doesn't stop her from worrying about it, though.

* [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]]: The final battle of the first book, where the Lord Ruler effortlessly wipes the floor with Vin and Marsh at the same time, while casually proclaiming his divinity. {{spoiler|And then Vin got ahold of his [[Immortality Talisman|bracers]]...}}

* [[No Ontological Inertia]]: {{spoiler|Once Vin rips the Lord Ruler's bracers off, all that age he'd been holding back starts to come back, ''[[Rapid Aging|fast]]''.}}

* [[Not Quite Flight]]: Mistborn can damn near fly by Pushing and Pulling and metals just right; Vin invents a technique allowing her to cross distances extremely rapidly by juggling mid-sized metal pieces, such as a few horseshoes.

* [[Numerological Motif]]: An in-universe example, but {{spoiler|the number sixteen has a nasty habit of showing up a lot. Especially in the third book.}} The most obvious example of this motif is {{spoiler|Allomancy, which is organized into four sets of four related metals.}}

** {{spoiler|And it's not just Allomancy, either. Those 16 metals have uses in all three systems (we just don't know all of them). Also the number of people who were Mistfallen aka Atium Mistings. It's explained that the number 16 was used as Preservation's way of showing that he was giving them a hand after he died.}}

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: The author's rather fond of this one, and especially of having female characters do it.

* [[Oh My Gods]]: "Lord Ruler!"

* [[Omnicidal Maniac]]: [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Ruin]].

* [[One-Man Army]]: At the beginning of the third book, Elend promises two armies to the residents of the town. One is {{spoiler|the attacking koloss army, which he takes control of once their leader is down}}. The other? [[Person of Mass Destruction|Vin]].

* [[Orphan's Plot Trinket]]: Vin's earring, given to her by her mother when she killed Vin's younger sister. {{spoiler|Also, it's a hemalurgic spike that Ruin uses to talk to her and is the method by which Vin's bronze allomantic power is strong enough to pierce copperclouds.}}

* [[Person of Mass Destruction]]: Mistborn are generally treated with the same degree of respect as a tactical missile strike. This goes double for Vin.

* [[Physical God]]: The Lord Ruler has learned how to use a combination of Allomancy, Feruchemy, and {{spoiler|Hemalurgy (possibly)}} to become something close to this; combining Allomancy and Feruchemy lets you break the rules of both in some major ways.

* [[Plea of Personal Necessity]]: {{spoiler|The Lord Ruler, "You don’t know what I do for mankind." Surprisingly, he was largely telling the truth. On the other hand, he may have no longer had the sanity left to do what needed done.}}

* [[Power of Trust]]: A major theme throughout the entire series generally, but especially with regards to Vin's [[Character Development]].

* [[Power Parasite]]: Called Hemalurgy. By killing a person with a metal spike and implanting that spike in your own body, you can steal one Allomantic, Feruchemic, or human power from them. Some Hemalurgists, like the Steel Inquisitors, might have up to twenty spikes.

* [[Prophecy Twist]]: And how! The Terris prophecy of the Hero of Ages uses a gender neutral pronoun to refer to the Hero, which Sazed takes to mean the Hero could be male ''or'' female, allowing for Vin to be the one. {{spoiler|It actually refers to Sazed himself, who as a eunuch since infancy is technically "gender neutral" himself.}}

* [[Prophetic Fallacy]]: {{spoiler|Ruin has been changing the wording of the prophecies about the Hero of Ages in order to make them do the exact opposite of what they're supposed to}}.

* [[Rapid Aging]]: Happens to {{spoiler|the Lord Ruler without his [[Immortality Talisman|Immortality Talismans]]}} just before he is killed.

* [[Redshirt Army]]: Most of the rebel army assembled in ''Mistborn''. {{spoiler|They get slaughtered when they attack a Final Empire garrison and expose themselves, letting an army of Empire reinforcements show up and stomp them into the ground.}}

* [[Science Is Bad]]: Averted pretty nicely, in that one of the reasons they need to defeat the Lord Ruler is that he is choking the world's development -- technology, fashion, and even language have barely changed in the thousand years of his rule.

* [[Scry vs. Scry]]: Atium vs. Atium. Notably in {{spoiler|Vin's duel to the death with Zane}}. Atium normally gives you the ability to see a couple seconds into the future, causing you to see ghostly images of something happening shortly before it happens for real; when two Mistborn burning atium engage, though, the ability gets scrambled.

* [[Sequel Hook]]: The adventures of {{spoiler|newly-minted Mistborn Spook}}, though Sanderson has said any sequel would be set far in the future.

* [[Shadow Archetype]]: Several -- The Lord Ruler to Kelsier {{spoiler|and Sazed}}, Zane to Vin, Straff to Elend.

* [[Shoot the Dog]]: Well, they don't have guns, but otherwise, this literally happens in ''The Well of Ascension''.

* [[Shrouded in Myth]]: The Lord Ruler {{spoiler|and later Kelsier.}}

* [[Sleeves Are for Wimps]]: Ham, the Thug, almost never wears sleeves. At one point when he's forced to wear a uniform, he gets even by ripping the sleeves off later and wearing it like that.

* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: The characters tend to start out at the extreme ends of the scale and gravatate towards the middle as they're given more [[Character Development]]. The extremely idealistic Elend gets a large dose of reality, and the super-cynical, street-savvy Vin eventually learns to trust others. The series itself has traits from both ends, putting it somewhere in the middle.

* [[Super Senses]], [[The Nose Knows]]: Tin grants this.

* [[Super Strength]]: Pewter grants this, along with limited [[Super Speed]] and a minor [[Healing Factor]].

* [[Thanatos Gambit]]: {{spoiler|Kelsier}}.

* [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]]: The Kandra's own law forbids them from killing humans. Those who break it are confined for life.

* [[Together in Death]] {{spoiler|Elend and Vin.}}

* [[Took a Level In Badass]]: In the third book, {{spoiler|Spook. He gains [[Super Senses|incredibly heightened sense]] from constantly flaring tin, to the point that he can dodge a sword swing because he can 'feel the swing through the air'.}} He then gains yet another level when he {{spoiler|gains the ability to burn pewter, though he loses that level by the end, only to gain about fifteen more levels by becoming a Mistborn}}

{{quote|Vin: We went ''shopping'', Allrianne. ''Once''.

Allrianne: I know. That makes us practically sisters! *Vin facepalms* }}

* [[Traumatic Superpower Awakening]]: Allomancers must "snap" in order to awaken to their powers. Mostly this is physical trauma, as enforced by parents beating their children severely, but can also happen emotionally, as with Kelsier seeing his wife's death.

* [[Troperiffic]]: Just look at the rest of the page. Sanderson loves using lots of recognizable tropes and then either subverting them, deconstructing them, or just playing them straight in cool ways.

* [[Unskilled but Strong]]: The Koloss rely on brute strength and sheer numbers to defeat their enemies. {{spoiler|Elend as a Mistborn}} also falls under this trope.

* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: Pretty much everyone at one point or another.

* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]: The Kandra, which can turn themselves into anything with a few restrictions -- they can't produce a rigid skeleton of their own, and they can't reproduce an individual's features exactly without [[Squick|digesting them first to see how all the pieces go together]].

* [[Waif Fu]]: Very much Vin's stock in trade. She's about five feet tall, weighs maybe 90 lbs sopping wet, and she will ''kick your ass''.

* [[Weak but Skilled]]: Sazed, who is a force to be reckoned with when he gets creative with his Feruchemical abilities even though he can't match Mistborn or Steel Inquisitors in raw power. {{spoiler|For long, that is; one of the tradeoffs of Feruchemy is that all the power has to be paid for, in advance, by the user... but he can use as much of what he's stored up as he wants, as fast as he wants, letting Sazed turn into [[The Incredible Hulk]] for a few minutes and squash a bunch of koloss. Allomancers get their power "for free" just by swallowing metals, but there's a limit to how hard they can push it.}}

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: {{spoiler|[[Evil Overlord|The Lord Ruler]], for all the many evils he perpetuated, was nonetheless trying to save humanity from an even worse threat}}. Kelsier has shades of this as well -- though he's pretty solidly a good guy, he can be quite manipulative and has no mercy for noblemen.

* [[What Measure Is a Non Super]]: Straff takes a very dim view on offspring, like Elend, that aren't born with Allomancy.

* [[What Could Have Been]]: In-universe, the allomantic effects of gold and malatium. Gold is something most people only ever try once; it shows you what your life could have been like if things had been different and is described as being unpleasant at best. Malatium does the same thing, but lets you see other people's possible lives rather than your own.

* [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]]: Once again, the Lord Ruler; justified: {{spoiler|Ruin's thousand years of psychological torment wore on the Lord Ruler pretty badly.}}

** {{spoiler|And it sure doesn't help that Hemalurgy brings one closer to Ruin. One spike is enough for him to sense you and push on your mind; constructs with more spikes, like koloss, can be forcibly controlled, and the Steel Inquisitors are basically hand puppets for him.}}

* [[Worthy Opponent]]: How Vin initially views Zane. Elend also views Yomen as a worthy ''intellectual'' opponent.