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Alloy of Law Reactions *spoilers*


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Guest Jacob Santos

Well, if a kandra replaced someone during the book, we can rule out Wax's uncle.

The cop was pointed out as being obvious, which makes me think it's not the cop, as that would be obvious.

Occam's Razor. I think the book itself leaves enough clues as to the events. It is obvious through the reading that Brandon wanted you to know that the Uncle was not killed. This saying, Wax suspects a change in the cop's behavior and also that the cop is retiring. Also, given the fact that the cop should have recognized Wayne, it should be given that the cop is the one. I do agree it could be a red herring.

Those with allomantic powers can be removed as the Kandra. Of course, the problem with the Kendra is that they are supposed to be so well adapted to their character that you'll never know that it was them. Well, it really simply depends on how much time I suppose. The one from the Trilogy was old and it is said, one of the best of the Kandra.

The father should be ruled out as he is such a minor character with little to no significance to the plot. The only reason a Kandra would take him over is to bankroll Wax's operation. However, nothing in his behavior seems remotely different and his motivations are sound.

Steris should also be removed, since she was under watch the entire time and she would of had to of been killed. Her attitude change at the end was just her being aroused by "prince charming" rescuing her. Her motivations for the change are also sound.

I will say that if I were to guess, I would guess the Butler. My reasoning is thus: the bomb was supposed to have been planted and set off where Wax would not have known until it was too late. It is true that the butler might have called the others away and knocked out the others. The tea was specifically given to Wayne, whom would have recognized the poison and fought it off. While the Kandra might not have known about the steel button, the butler would undoubtedly known that Wax carries guns.

The only problem with the Butler being the Kandra is that Harmony and the Kandra wouldn't have known that they would have survived the explosion. Therefore, the Butler might simply have been careless and underestimated Wax. He did have three attempts on his life, how was he supposed to know he would be able to survive all of them relatively unscathed? If it really was a hint, then it was one that would have potentially left Wax dead. However, given what the Uncle said and the nature of the Kandra, the Kandra would have attempted the best alternative to the instructions, which was most likely "leave the bomb and trigger it away from the target."

Further evidence is likely that the Kandra moved the box where most likely would have been of use in a shoot out at the enemies head quarters. Of course, it could have been incompetence on the butler's part, not realizing that the best action would have been disposing of the weapons completely.

More evidence is the fact that The Suit did not realize completely the involvement of Wax investigating the Uncle's involvement.

I still think it is the cop.

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Hi, I finished the book yesterday and I love this forum.

My thougths

I don't see why everybody is so against Wax and Steris to end up together.

First of all the fact that she behaves differently is probably due to the fact that she is been kidnapped and held hostage for some time.

Steris is really a victim of her own society, since a kid she has been brainwashed that people should behave a certain way but I am pretty sure she has never been happy in her situation. She is a survivor of the high society spite, all men she has known so far are all been cast from the same mold so she believes that that is how men are supposed to be and she goes in the arranged marriage with the thought of making the best of it.

The image that she has of Wax at the beginning is of a badly behaved individual, she only sees the rough of the roughs and she does not believe men there are better then in the city. To her all Wax good intentions and crime fighting are unrealistic, his behavior a childish indulgence.

When she sees really what Wax is made of she realize she was wrong, the guy has really come to save her, his behavior is of a perfect gentleman even while he flattens out a whole building. anybody would fall for that.

I am pretty sure that Steris will grow to be a better character with time and that will be thanks to Wax.

Marasi is Young and smart, she has all life in front of her.

PS I pity Wayne since he probably has a crush for Renette which I think is the Gay character Brandon mentioned

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my reaction *explodes* I read it in a day, it's been ages since I read a book in a day, of course the fact that I've been on airplanes and in airports all day does have something to do with it, but still.....

I also agree that it was the cop that got kandra'd obviously Harmony wants Wax to stick around and have a free hand investigating things, so he had the obstructive cop offed and replaced.

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The tea was specifically given to Wayne, whom would have recognized the poison and fought it off.

Actually, I think that the butler had intended to give it to Wax, but Wayne snatched it first.

I'm starting to think you may be right about the cop. Maybe not the why, but maybe him.

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Just a quick comment about the earrings pathians wear. They are worshipping Vin here, wax makes some internal comment about their deity not wanting to be acknowledged. And Vin didn't want to be known as a spiritual leader.

I'm not too sure on that. I think Vin plays an important part in it somehow, but they don't worship Vin or even Harmony. It's more of a guidance thing. They follow the beliefs of all religions in an effort to make the world a better place to a certain extent. Sazed also was uneasy about being worshiped so it could easily apply to him too. I think the earring is just a way that Sazed uses to not only communicate with people who are pathians, but also as a way to remember Vin.

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Wow. First, reaction wise, that was AWESOME!! Gah, it's distracting me from my NaNoWriMo and now I don't even want to write my own story because I'm basking in the awesomeness! Whew, this will probably be a long post, but hey there's a lot to react to!

Specific things (in no order of importance):

Faceless Immortals, definitely kandra. Brandon has said that they serve as messengers of Harmony, and they're immortals who can change their face. Pretty obvious. The story in the Elendel Daily about the woman who was saved by her "dead husband" really confirms it though.

The talk of High Imperial cracked me up. Oh, Spook. You're hilarious.

I absolutely loved hearing from Sazed again. He's so awesome I squee-ed. Also, seeing Marsh again at the end made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I teared up a bit when he mentioned that Wax was "doing his brother's work."

Also, how is Sazed able to read Wax's mind? I know the earring is serving as a hemalurgic spike, but I'm in the middle of reading the end of HoA to my sister, and the one thing that Ruin can't do is read minds. That's something that Vin and Elend keep using against him. So how did Sazed get that power? Is it because he has both shards? But why would that let him read minds?

I TOTALLY CALLED MOON SHENANIGANS AND NOTHING HAPPENED!!! Bluh! How in the world was there nothing about a moon in this book?! The two main characters are named Wax and Wayne!! (Waxing and waning, anyone?) There's no way that that's a coincidence, but I couldn't find anything to explain it.

Does anyone know who Hoid was in this book? I know I didn't read very thouroughly, but I don't remember the name ever coming up.

The Ars Arcanum. Did anyone else read this first? Gah, I'm such a cosmere nerd. I wish we could have seen more of the new feruchemical abilities, like storing nutrition and luck and your sense of self. Those sound really awesome, but we really only got to see new Allomancy in the book through Marasi and Wayne.

I totally called that Marasi's "useless" Pulsing would be important. Though I thought she was going to keep Wax alive after he was injured until help arrived. Brandon's version was significantly better.

What was the metal symbol on the epilogue? At first I thought it was atium in the new style, but atium only has one ring. Am I just silly and missed it, or is this a new alloy symbol?

I am in love with just about everything Wayne says. How is it that Brandon keeps writing all of these unique characters that I continue to love to death. (And, because I've read Homestuck recently, his "romance" with Ranette seems like kismestitude to me!)

Wow! That was long! And I didn't even react much to the book itself, mostly just the cosmere stuff. Nerd. Oh well, it was awesome! And I'm hoping for another book in this series! Anyone with me on that?

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I totally called that Marasi's "useless" Pulsing would be important. Though I thought she was going to keep Wax alive after he was injured until help arrived. Brandon's version was significantly better.

Haha, I totally called that one too.

As for Sazed being able to read minds, noooooo idea.

Also, Scadrial does not have a moon apparently.

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Yeah, I knew that Scadrial didn't have a moon, but I was kind of hoping it would get one by the end. Like Sazed got bored and pulled a random meteor into orbit, and this event also had some kind of major plot significance.

I mean, Wayne I can understand, but why else would you name your character Wax?

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Guest Jacob Santos

Actually, I think that the butler had intended to give it to Wax, but Wayne snatched it first.

I'm starting to think you may be right about the cop. Maybe not the why, but maybe him.

And I wrote all of that for nothing. Cheerio then. Being a butler I guess doesn't give you all that great assassination skills.

I believe a simple exercise of elimination then. Similar to how it was done in school for math class.

Logic for the cop:

  1. In the beginning he doesn't like Wax and feels threatened by his ability. It is unlikely that this would have changed during the day and a half over the course of the events. If anything he should have been even more furious for leveling an entire building, impersonating a cop, not coming forward with evidence, etc. It seems unlikely that as bad as the cop wanted to bring Wax in for the stunt he pulled at the ball / dinner, that destroying a whole lot of property and causing a commotion at the train station that he wouldn't allow Wax off so easily. Let alone acknowledge him as an enforcer of the law.
  2. The Constable-General also should have known Wayne was not whom he said he was. Now you could brush this off to Brettin having to interview a lot of people, but I would think he would pay attention to two of the people who did the most damage. I would hope that you don't simply get to be at his rank being incompetent and kissing up. Given how well Wayne can pay his disguises a lot could be said of his ability certainly. However, it is either a plot hole that Wayne would be able to play the Constable-General like a puppet like he had or Brettin was simply humoring Wayne and seeing what he was getting at.
  3. Even given Wax's bias towards certain people, Wax does exhibit some knowledge of the Constable-General's behavior. Having seen it before in his adventures. He has been a law man for 20 years and undoubtedly came across people like Brettin. Given the lost of control Brettin displayed during the aftermath of wedding dinner robbery, it is likely he would be calm after the final showdown.
  4. Page 308 (Kindle Edition)
    Something decidedly odd was going on there. [brettin] was almost like a different person.
  5. The previous happened after 1) Brettin was calm after the total craziness that happened near his precinct, 2) the embarrassment that was Wax and Wayne going alone and causing a huge mess, 3) his commandeer came and told Wax that Brettin seemed actually kind of pleased, 4) Announcing that he was retiring, 5) telling Wax that the city could use him in direct contradiction with what he stated at the dinner party.

After pondering it for a while, I'm starting to doubt the veracity of the person who suggested that one of the people is a Kandra. The only person that I believe could possibility be a Kandra would be the cop. I think also that it is completely possible that the cop realized that Wax isn't some nincompoop causing destruction and mayhem and is a competent lawman who would be awesome to have as an ally.

The only other explanation is that it is another character in the book that has little to no significance to be otherwise similar to pinning the tail on a donkey while blindfolded.

Also, I do remember thinking that the cop might be a Kandra after reading the above quote. However, this might simply be my hindsight bias speaking.

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I have to agree with you Jacob. It was me who was talking with K-Chan and FirstRainbowRose about the Cop being the kandra. Although while I was reading, I thought that the Butler might have been a kandra (simply because I believed the butler to be not-bribale)but the motivation given by the Uncle at the end satisfied that.

Also as to this:

Also, how is Sazed able to read Wax's mind? I know the earring is serving as a hemalurgic spike, but I'm in the middle of reading the end of HoA to my sister, and the one thing that Ruin can't do is read minds. That's something that Vin and Elend keep using against him. So how did Sazed get that power? Is it because he has both shards? But why would that let him read minds?

There is one time in the book that Ruin reads minds (probably). Why Zane? I don't know. All I know is that he has a self-placed spike.

"You know why I thought you'd save me?" he tried to whisper to her, though he somehow knew that his lips weren't properly forming the words. "The voice. You were the first person I ever met that it didn't tell me to kill. The only person.""Of course I didn't tell you to kill her," God said.

Zane felt his life seeping away.

"You know the really funny thing, Zane?" God asked. "The most amusing part of this all? You're not insane.

"You never were."

Vin watched quietly as Zane sputtered, blood coming from his lips.

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I have a few thoughts on somethings mentioned here...

Brettin: I just figured that he was being manipulated by emotional Allomancy, but then I never did hear that Kandra were pulling switcheroo's. I'm on the fence on this one. I was thinking that it was Steris (sp?) who was probably soothing the cop, since I don't remember if her Allomantic power was ever mentioned I just stuck her into my pet theory.

Wax and Harmony: I don't think applying what Ruin could or couldn't do to Harmony makes much sense. Harmony has the power of both Preservation and Ruin and so can probably do stuff that neither of them could do separately. I do agree that being spiked, as it were, is probably the 'in' for Harmony.

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Okay, I think I've figured this Harmony/Ruin/Preservation thing out:

  • Ruin can communicate with people who use Hemalurgy, his power.
  • Preservation can communicate with people who use Allomancy, his power.

As such, Harmony would be able to communicate with people using either Hemalurgy or Allomancy, as well as possibly having extra communication powers like mind reading.

Therefore, Wax probably doesn't need his earring to have Harmony talk to him, because he's already an allomancer. Though, because not everyone who follows the Path is an allomancer, the standard practice is to give them a spike, and make them a hemalurgist.

Although, because Wax is using both allomancy and is spiked, perhaps that's why Harmony can read his thoughts; because he's double connected. I don't know.

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OH. MY. GAWD!!! High Imperial made me cry with laughter, SO EPIC :D

What a fantastic little story, fantastic.

Was Marsh referring to Kelsier at the end when he said brother? Does that mean Kel (and the Ventures?) are still 'around'? well after reading the other posts, I've kinda convinced myself out of that, but w/e :D

damnation it Brandon, you're sooooo awesome XD

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Also as to this:

There is one time in the book that Ruin reads minds (probably). Why Zane? I don't know. All I know is that he has a self-placed spike.

I can see two alternatives to Ruin just being able to read minds willy-nilly:

1) Ruin didn't actually read Zane's mind at the end, he either interpreted the movement of his lips or just made an accurate guess based on context clues.

2) We know that Zane has to be somewhat mentally unstable, despite Ruin's reassurances, because Ruin was able to get him to spike himself, so Ruin might have the ability to read the minds of the mentally unstable.

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I think my favorite thing in the book was Wax's realization that Miles would have been a hero in the previous age - that society's changes can make one age's hero another age's villain.

Isn't Miles's outlook and morality almost exactly like Dox or Kelsier?

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About the theory of the cop being a Kandra at he end .

aren't the kandras only able to impersonate someone if they ingest their bones ???

does that means the cop is dead ???

HOW ???

aren't the Kandra supposed to be good guys ???

and if they don't need the bones anymore where is the real cop ???

what if he reappears and says "Rust and Ruin who did this" "you sir" "Mee???"

Edited by None70
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About the theory of the cop being a Kandra at he end .

aren't the kandras only able to impersonate someone if they ingest their bones ???

does that means the cop is dead ???

HOW ???

aren't the Kandra supposed to be good guys ???

and if they don't need the bones anymore where is the real cop ???

what if he reappears and says "Rust and Ruin who did this" "you sir" "Mee???"

I think it's the cop because "he'll be retiring soon," i.e. the Kandra can stop being him soon.

Maybe he died of natural causes, maybe he was targetted by the Suits (The Set? Is that what they called themselves?),

Maybe it's one of the rogue Kandras whose existence is implied by the Ars, and Wax's permission to be a constable is actually part of their plan - they'll be able to keep better tabs on him and/or keep him distracted with other crimes.

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Yeah, I don't feel like Saze is the kind of person who would kill someone just to get one of his agents in place. I'm thinking either he died of natural causes, and Sazed with his future seeing abilities, knew that that would happen and got a kandra there to capitalize on the opportunity.

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Maybe he died of natural causes, maybe he was targetted by the Suits (The Set? Is that what they called themselves?),

Maybe it's one of the rogue Kandras whose existence is implied by the Ars, and Wax's permission to be a constable is actually part of their plan - they'll be able to keep better tabs on him and/or keep him distracted with other crimes.

This, plus maybe the Set have kandra on staff?

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Guest Jacob Santos

Well, one part of contention for me is how the uncle was able to pull off the faked death. He would have needed the help of the constable. I wasn't able to remember or find where the accident happened. Not conclusive, but I'd like to think the Constable-General had something to do with it.

The motivations of the Kandra would of course be unknown, since there isn't enough information anywhere. It is also unlikely that the Kandra just came in right in the middle and decided to ninja Brettin. Kandra are supposed to have watched over their mark for months gaining information from friends, family and the mark him- or herself.

It would make sense, if the Kandra had to act quickly and not had enough time to learn everything about the mark as well as his personality.

My guess is that the Kandra already had plans to get someone in Brettin's position and realizing that he wouldn't simply give up, had him killed or better yet, was justified based on what they learned on his corrupt dealings. I would wager that the new Constable-General is a Kandra as well. I would do so, based on the nature of Kandra, they are spies and what better position to put a spy?

Also, it is unlikely Marsh spent this entire time simply waiting to give Wax a book. He probably had designs of his own and the Kandra might have been involved as well.

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