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Messages - Datakim

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Wheel v. Mist
« on: December 01, 2008, 03:39:39 PM »
Interesting discussion, I figured I would throw a comment here.

Based on what channeling could do, I would say that a (smart) channeler could easily beat any mistborn. There are so many things a good channeler who truly used his/her skills to their full potential could do that could be used to utterly crush a mistborn.

I will say however that I think from a literary viewpoint, allomancy is better than channeling simply because its more limited and so you dont have to make your characters look like idiots to keep the challenge up.

For example, consider the shield Rand creates in one of the books. It is explicitly said that its utterly indestructible with the only weakness being that its so solid that not even air can pass through. A shield like this would pretty much allow a single channeler to wipe out an army. Just create a coccoon like Rand did, then create a tiny gateway inside the cocoon through which air can flow and presto, you can kill everyone around you with no chance of being hurt.  Heck, even just creating the shield, using the air inside and then turning it off for a split second (to allow new air in) before creating it anew would make a channeler extremely difficult to defeat with only a tiny window where they could be hurt.  Ofcourse this would mean that Rand&Co would never really have to fear anyone again so the possibility is ignored and the shield itself is conveniently forgotten.

Or what about opening a gateway to space near the enemy and sucking him in. Or flooding an army by opening a gateway under the ocean and letting the water literally wash them away. Also whats the point of all those cool fireballs and such when we have seen that a channeler can just slice someones head off with a single sharp weave of air. And we have seen that you can literally grasp the one power and weave such a thing in a tiny fraction of a second. In one the books some guy surprises Rand by throwing a knife at him with no warning from a short range, only to have Rand capture the knife in such a weave practically as a reflex. There is no written reason given why a channeler could not use that to literally slice the Mistborn into pieces the instant the channeler saw the mistborn. Infact the same technique could be used on anyone other than opposing channelers and yet we see it only once in WoT (and conveniently never again).

Given the way the channeling system is built up, all these and so many other techniques would be possible and would pretty much make the channelers godlike in comparison to normal people (or allomancers for that matter). And yet having godlike main characters would be boring so RJ deliberately gimped his characters to keep things exciting, the downside of this being that Rand, Forsaken and generally all the channelers end up looking like blind morons who cannot seem to grasp how easily they could devastate their enemies if they simply used channeling in clever ways.

While I am a great fan of WoT, I will say that this is actually one of the things that bugs me the most. There are so many times in the books when I wish I could yell at someone for doing something stupid, when a proper and smart use of the power would easily solve everything.

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I don't remember and I lent my HoA out (that seems to be all the rage these days, lending awesome books out :P), but I definitely remember that there are points where Preservation/Kelsier speaks with people. This isn't really a surprise, because in Well of Ascension, Preservation speaks twice to Elend and Sazed.

I have never been all that good at seeing things like that if they are not obviously pointed to me. Maybe EUOL can explain it later for us blockheaded once he has the time. :) ???

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Actually, after "Preservation" died, Kelsier jumped in and assumed its power for a short time. There are a couple of voices, then, that are from Kelsier, not Ruin. At least, that's what I interpreted from Brandon's post from earlier.

Really? Cool.

Wonder if anyone knows the page numbers of these?

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Like many here, I was really sad when Vin and Elend died. It seems unfair that at the end, neither got to live a normal happy life despite all they sacrificed. I suppose it makes sense in that bad things happen to good people all the time, yet I cannot help but wish that they could have been there at the end and see the new world and have children and generally live happily ever after. Sigh. :(

I was not all that comforted or satisfied by Sazeds declaration that he had talked to them in the afterlife and that they still existed in some form somewhere. Maybe because I wish you had shown this talk and shown that they were happy instead of just having Sazed mention it in passing. Or maybe because I am not religious myself and so I have more trouble accepting the idea of afterlife sadly.

Ohwell, Sazed did imply that he might oneday be able to bring them back so maybe we will see them again, even if only as a small part in your next trilogy or perhaps a short story someday. I live in hope *Hint* *Hint* :)

Still, say what you will. The fact that I do feel sad and depressed over the fate of what at the end are nothing more than imaginary people shows your skill as a writer and how attached you managed to make me feel to Vin and Elend. Though maybe the emotion at the end of the next series could be giddy happiness instead? :) I find that, unfortunately, the real world provides all the sadness and depression that one needs. :(

Final question to anyone, people have mentioned that Kelsier had a part at the end of the book. I must have read too quickly and missed it somehow? Or not understood it when I saw it. Can anyone explain?

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Mistborn 3 Chapter 3
« on: September 30, 2008, 06:57:42 PM »
The thing that worries me is that Vin will be diminished or play less of an important role in book 3. Vin was the character that was introduced in book1 as a scrawny kid and we have seen her grow into the character she is today. Because we have read so much more about her than Elend and since we saw her from the very beginning, I am more "attached" to her and have come to like her more than any of the other characters (including Elend).

However the one thing that has made Vin special from the beginning was the fact that she was such a powerfull and skilled at allomancy. She has done some other things but it cannot be denied that other characters were generally better at those things. Sazed is a brilliant researcher, Elend has far more political ability and so on. The one thing that made Vin irreplacable to the team was the fact that she was a mistborn.

Now however with Elend (and possibly others if they ate the metal) being so much more powerfull, I fear that Vin's role is being diminished. She is not unique anymore but simply one among many others. And since I like reading about Vin, I worry that this means that she will not play as big of a role in book3, now that what she can do can also be done by the others.

I suppose there is the whole burning mists thing, but she did it only once so for all we know it could have been a fluke. Or perhaps Elend can do it too (and better at that since he has more strength).

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Mistborn 3 Chapter 3
« on: September 29, 2008, 12:19:18 PM »
Cool chapter.

Though I wonder if I am the onlyone who is a little disappointed that Elend is so much stronger than Vin. Kinda makes her a little reduntant now that the thing that made her unique (her mistborn nature&great strength) is no longer that.

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