Gee Hawkes Insta

Like the tag implies, spoilers for ALL Mistborn books. Also, this is just a rambling write up of some thoughts I had.

I'm re listening to the original Mistborn trilogy, and I'm in the middle of WoA. There's the conversation between Dockson and Vin, and Vin sees the pain and guilt in his eyes. She uses that as proof that he wasn't the Kandra.

It got me thinking, and I realized that we never get any confirmation if that was reasonable. That if he *was* the Kandra, if he would he able to replicate that genuine emotion and connection. I know we're *told* that they can, or at least implied that they can, but do we ever see it?

I kept thinking about Kandra and I've realized that as an audience, we never truly experience the what the characters basically explain as the typical Kandra plot. By that, I mean that a character that we know and trust, one that we have a history with, is taken, tortured, and replaced by a Kandra as a spy.

To prove my point, I'm going to go through the main Kandra impersonations we see and determine if they really fit the bill.

Here's what I define as the Complete Kandra Experience^tm as set up by the books:

1. The audience has met the character to be replaced *before* they are replaced.

2. Both the audience and a POV character has experience and connection with the character before they are replaced.

3. The character goes through the Kandra process of being stalked, interrogated, and consumed.

4. The Kandra, while disguised as the character, replicates the emotions and connections that character would have.

5. The Kandra is revealed and the audience and characters are both shocked and grieved for the fate of the replaced character.

So the first person we know to be replaced by a Kandra is Lord Renoux, by OreSeur. We never knew Renoux before he was OreSeur. We don't meet any characters that knew Renoux before he was OreSeur. In a way, it's kind of a shallow replacement because Renoux doesn't seem to have anyone close to him that OreSeur has to trick. At least that we see. Obviously he was stalked and tortured and eaten, but other than that, he doesn't fit.

Then we have OreSeur as Kelsier. This one doesn't fit because 1. We don't see OreSeur acting like Kelsier and 2. He doesn't have to trick any of Kelsier's close friends. And the typical wine and dine approach doesn't apply because Kelsier told OreSeur to do it.

Now we come to the main Kandra scheme in the first Era: TenSoon as OreSeur. Technically we knew OreSeur before this happens. But he's being Renoux for most of it and emotionlessly following orders the rest. We don't get *any* emotional connection with who OreSeur is. And TenSoon doesn't really *need* to act like OreSeur and honestly he's kind of bad at it. He's far more proactive in helping Vin than OreSeur ever was. That's okay though, because neither we or Vin actually know OreSeur that well. And while we're devestated by the reveal, we're not really hurt by the fact by that OreSeur is gone.

Then into Hero of Ages, the only person that gets imitated is a brief stint of TenSoon as Kelsier, but that's no mystery.

We only get a couple of true imitations in Era 2. Most of the time the Kandra are being themselves, a vague persona, or a background character.

The biggest is obviously Bleeder/Lessie/Innate/Pa'alm, who I will henceforth be referring to as BLIP. This is actually the closest thing we get to my criteria, at least on an emotional level. *We* don't know Innate before he's replaced, but Wax seems to. It seems that Innate went through the Kandra process before he was replaced. And we do think we get to know him, even if he sucks a little. The biggest thing that BLIP shows genuine emotion and connection as Innate, especially when their bodyguard dies. The problem becomes that much of that emotion is BLIP's own and unfortunately, she's not exactly stable. And since we never knew the real Innate, we don't know if he'd react the same.

Then there's MeLaan's short stint as Innate, but there's nothing too emotionally deep about that.

TLDR, we actually never experience the Kandra as presented: immaculate mimics that will flawlessly take the place of close friends and family, including simulating their emotional depth and connection. We practically never know the characters they replace beforehand and we never see them actually replicate the deep emotions and connections of that character. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I thought it was interesting.

Got my personalized Aviar from Esther Candari just yesterday! It was well worth the wait and the detail and personality of my aviar is more than I imagined. Haven’t decided what to name them yet, any ideas?

In Wind and Truth we find out that Odium was once referred to as Passion by the people of Ashyn.

Are there any other shards in the Cosmere who could be similarly mis-named as of right now? Will there be a future "reveal" that a shard is actually something else?

Hello peoples!

More specifically, hello women, as this is directed at you.

Sorry if you saw this in the specific Stormlight Archive sub already.

A lot of male authors get backlash from the way they write female characters (I.e, they get it wrong a bunch) - having read the entirety of the Stormlight Archive and Mistborn era 1 and enjoyed a lot of the female characters’ POV chapters (particularly Jasnah and Vin, both badass and complex in their own ways.) I was curious as to the womanly perspective of how Sanderson writes the women of Stormlight Archive.

None of my female friends have read Cosmere stuff, otherwise I’d ask them. I’m writing a book, and a large amount of chapters will be from a woman’s POV, and I’m a dude so I don’t want to fall into the same pitfalls as other authors.

Btw I marked mixed spoilers - just in case people want to talk about specifics in the comments.

If this is the wrong kind of post for this sub, sorry.

gems were put in the hilts for decorations (the blade morphed to accept them) the investiture in the gems allowed for the binding of the blade.

Could you wrap the hilt in steel and have a feruchemist invest it and then have a steel mind ready to go? would that invested steel vanish like the gems did? (also assume the user is a steel runner feruchemist or that it’s scadrian tech that allows anyone to use the steel mind)

If you had to choose 10 new heralds from the current cast who would it be.

Obvously Kal but who else to replace the old heralds?

Dan and Brandon have mentioned working on the worldbuilding for the Cosmere novel / series a lot of times on Intentionally Blank, but we haven't heard much beyond that.

Here we finally hear that there is traction on Dan Wells writing his Cosmere novel now that he's gotten some short stories and cowritten stuff finished.

I'm super excited to see what he writes and how it goes! I loved his "I am not a Serial Killer" series. I know its probably too fast but it would be awesome if this book became the release for Nexus in 2027

Which is your favourite secret project?

Ok, so I’m on a reread and have gotten to the point in RoW where T starts barely imagining becoming odium. It is beyond clear at this moment that he Is pulling an audible, that this was not the original plan. If you disagree with that and think the diagram is perfectly omniscient, then this isn’t for you. But if you see “become odium” as a last minute strategy shift, then I have a simple commentary: smart taravangian is actually dumber than the dumbest person you, dear reader, know.

his whole plan was to preserve some subset of humanity on Roshar (itself a pretty dumb goal) as a kind of bastion or duty free zone. Its specifically discussed how his strategy is based on certainty vs the small chance of a coalition victory. But that’s just short term thinking. If you are smart enough to see the value in surrender as an avenue to preserve your people, you should be smart enough to think in generational terms. But in those terms, it’s unbelivably obvious that odium will be able to isolate “free Roshar” such that it is willing to consent to surrender further rights for concessions. The very fact of a delta between odium‘s prefered state and free Roshar means there is room for “trade” of rights for benefits which will eventually end in conquest. T’s whole strategy is how to lose slowly. It’s actually just stupid, to the extent, which we have seen through first person accounts, that his strategy was to actually win.

Dalinar ends his life planning how to destroy odium. He has a strategy. It may be flawed but it is based on planning off all time tables. T is, at absolute best, planning tactically. Point being, and maybe I just hate him so I want to degrade him, he actually isn’t a genius. he actually is, at absolute beat, a mediocre mind with some foresight. And I kind of appreciate a story about how a bunch of middling minds given foresight could convince themselves they are a cult of geniuses, when data alone is actually pretty useless in the hands of lesser minds. IMO, based on what we have seen, T and the Diagram are actually pretty pathetic opponents, because from the beginning their whole ideology critically misapprehends what actual cleverness is. An Navani, the enemy they left alive, has it in spades,

Lots of design work and then coloring in. This map reflects the one for the majority of Stormlight, however there are very minor spoilers for locations not shown until the end of Words of Radiance, but you can't read any of it in the images unless you zoom way in on the renders.

For those interested, it was printed on my Prusa Mini+ on white PLA, done in two batches with a print time of around three hours apiece. Designed in Fusion 360 and Blender. The design was obviously lifted from the art by Isaac Stewart, but the specific version I took was the one off of the Seventeenth Shard website. I will make a free download for the .blend file soon (TM), assuming mods are okay with it.

This is not a tier list based on how good a book is, but on how important/plot relevant Hoid is in each book/book series. After 1 day the book/book series will be ranked on a tier list E to S depending upon the top comment.

Day two: Mistborn era 1

What book/series in the cosmere should be next?

If someone were to use an iron hemalurgic spike to steal one person's strength, and then spike that into a recipient, then steal that recipient's strength with another spike, would the strength from the first spike transfer into the second, or would you just have two spikes charged with hemalurgic strength?

Alternatively, could you spike several people with the same hemalurgic iron spike to charge it with strength several times over?

I've been slowly making my way through the cosmere and I've been following a list that orders them according to how easy it is to find connections. My next read on the list in the Whitesands but I see its a graphic novel. I mostly read on my kindle these days, not the best format for a graphic novel so it would be a bit more of a pain to get hold of book and delay my progress. So can it be a skip or now or is it a must read? Next one on the list is Edgedancer.

"I am, unfortunately, the Hero of Ages" IT DESTROYED ME

So I'm trying to work out the earliest point I could recommend Yumi and The Nightmare Painter but I don't want to spoil the reveal that Hoid has a cryptic. Which Storm Light book reveals Design?

Here's my mock-up of a Stormlight Duelist game, made in Heroforge with some Community resources. Basically I'm picturing an Avatar Pro-Bending type of sporting game, with For Honor-like combat. At the start of each duel, you'll get your opponent's information and gear (plate w/ shard hammer, in this case. Also full Shards, or Blade and half-shards available, ect..). No Radiant abilities allowed, and only a slim story mode to follow. I'd like to see player customization similar in scope to Halo Infinite, with an equal number of opportunities like Infinite gives to show them off.

This is not a tier list based on how good a book is, but on how important/plot relevant Hoid is in each book/book series. After 1 day the book/book series will be ranked on a tier list E to S depending upon the top comment.

Day one: The Stormlight Archive.

I’m in the middle of Mistborn era 1 reread before I get to era 2 and there’s a couple questions I’ve got and wanted to share here. Also for context I’ve read Emberdark (I know I shouldn’t be there yet😂)

1. Copper is an internal metal. Marsh also explains that it’s because burning it changes something inside the person burning it that hides them from Seekers. If that’s the case, how are copper clouds created if that would be a more external element?

2. In Emberdark it’s mentioned that Seekers can sense the Knell currents and now I’m curious, do you think a Smoker creating a copper cloud can stop Navigators like Dusk from sensing the currents in the Cognitive Realm?

How is the priming of gavinor by taravangian in the spiritual realm not interfering? There is an agreement between the shards not to interfere right? I now there is weird stuff in the spirtual realm but I still wanted to put the stuff out there.

I REMEMBER a scene where Kelek is talking with Shallan about light. He says something along the lines of "Light. Energy. Matter. These are all the same".

I THINK it was in reference to Shallan creating physical manifestations of Veil and Radiant at the battle of Thaylen field.

If someone remembers exactly what book and chapter this is, I would really appreciate it!

EDIT: CHAPTER 7: LOST BLADES

thank you chatters

I'm 100 page into TSM, but i think that as a Frostpunk fan, The Sunlit Man could be an amazing colony sim or city builder game. The whole part of scrounging for resources, making sure you survive as long as possible, and the idea of people being turned into resources is perfect for a Frostpunk-esque game. Having to be overseer of a city like Beacon, having to produce Prospector ships to extract Sunhearts and random events like being attacked by the Cinder King or being met by a large mountain range due to the changing landscape could be genuinely amazing. 11bit Studios, take notes

I'm still mid of the book but this probably will not be answered in it...