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The Alloy of Law shortcomings


cinek_w

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Hello, I’ve just finished reading The Alloy of Law and there are few scenes which bother me. Just to be clear, I’ve decided to post on this forum because I enjoyed the book quite a lot.

First of all, the scene where Wax shoots the pewterarm holding Marasi. He hits a bullet with another bullet, so that the former one shoots the pewterarm in the head. Well, I know this is a fantasy book, but it’s still ridiculuos. I know Wax saw the first bullet in slow-motion because of the speedbubble, so he could aim well. Yet after removing the bubble ,which was (almost) simultaneous with firing the second bullet, by the time  the second bullet reached the target, the first bullet would move similar distance away. As a result it doesn’t matter how good your aim is, it’s still impossible to anticipate the first bullet’ trajectory. Even assuming it is somehow possible, then shooting the first bullet in the right angle so it hits the pewterarm head, well that’s even more ridiculuos. I know Harmony was watching over Wax, but for me he could have just closed his eyes and fired even in the wrong direction and the result might be the same (invisible hand of Harmony would guide the bullet towards the pewterarm’s head...). Well, Harmony was supposed not to interfere too much...

 

The other problems I saw weren’t that striking, yet they still bothered me a little. First one was the scene where Wax hit the Coinshot with ceramic tip of a bullet in the eye. I know Wax has an incredible aim with his guns, but aiming at something from your eye is one thing, and the other is aiming from your chest (let’s say it is the center of your mass). I think it would be incredibly difficult to hit something with any accuracy using steelpushing, not mentioning hiting someone in the eye. Another example of an incredible luck ? Additionaly Wax just threw nonchalantly few pieces of metal, together with this special bullet, in front of him and steelpushed. Why bother with ceramic tip ? it would be enough to increase one’s weight with feruchemy, steelpush few metal bullets and the coinshot would either be shot by them ( probably not in the eye...) or thrown back if he tried to counterpush.  What is more, since everybody in the room owned an aluminum gun it would be understandable if Wax just grabbed one after killing a Vanisher and used it against the coinshot.

 

Then the fight between Wax and Coinshot + Lurker. It was discussed in another thread. Wax had 3 metal guns on him. If you’re a coinshot or a lurker first thing you do while facing someone is to search for metal on your opponent. If he has some metal on him, then you use it as much as you can to make it easier to kill him. They might have been aware of the fact that Wax can manipulate his weight, so their pushes and pulls would have to be short, otherwise Wax could counter them easily by increasing his own weight. But most of the time he was lighter than regular person so their pushes and pulls would be quite effective. I was just baffled that only once or twice the coinshot steelpushed vindication, ignoring other guns.

 

I know I probably shouldn’t be trying to find realism in a fantasy book. However, in my opinion it is possible to add some additional laws to a world, such as (allomancy, feruchemy, hemalurgy in mistborn series), without totally ignoring laws of our regular world, trying to present what it would be like if allomancy really existed. It makes people dream :)

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I know I probably shouldn’t be trying to find realism in a fantasy book. However, in my opinion it is possible to add some additional laws to a world, such as (allomancy, feruchemy, hemalurgy in mistborn series), without totally ignoring laws of our regular world, trying to present what it would be like if allomancy really existed. It makes people dream  :)

are you kidding me? we are all for realism in fantasy. Especially in fantasies like Mistborn 1.5. The only realism You cant expect from a fantasy is regarding the magic system, thats all. 

Well as for your answer any way, I will wait for some one better knowledgeable than me to answer it :) 

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Waxillium isn't really human, though, (Allomancy alone does that) and the Cosmere operates by a similar though subtly different set of physics. 

 

More about Waxillium, he's basically just that good. That's all the explanation we get. 

Edited by Varangian
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yes, i agree that the scene where he ricocheted the bullet is ridiculous. the only way to somewhat save it is to say that harmony made it possible. in general i was a bit disappointed that mistborn 1.5 sacrificed a bit of consistency in the name of cool.

 

as for the thing with the ceramic tip, it's not the first feat of improbable aiming that wax pulls. nothing too strange.

 

as for why his opponents don't push more often on his gun, yes, that also is a good point. even a moderate push or pull would throw his aim off.

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The other problems I saw weren’t that striking, yet they still bothered me a little. First one was the scene where Wax hit the Coinshot with ceramic tip of a bullet in the eye. I know Wax has an incredible aim with his guns, but aiming at something from your eye is one thing, and the other is aiming from your chest (let’s say it is the center of your mass). I think it would be incredibly difficult to hit something with any accuracy using steelpushing, not mentioning hiting someone in the eye. Another example of an incredible luck ?

Well, since that there's the steel blue lines, it may be even easier than with eye: you just have to mentally continue the line, and thus see where you are aiming. Sort of laser-assisted shot.

 

 

Then the fight between Wax and Coinshot + Lurker. It was discussed in another thread. Wax had 3 metal guns on him. If you’re a coinshot or a lurker first thing you do while facing someone is to search for metal on your opponent. If he has some metal on him, then you use it as much as you can to make it easier to kill him. They might have been aware of the fact that Wax can manipulate his weight, so their pushes and pulls would have to be short, otherwise Wax could counter them easily by increasing his own weight. But most of the time he was lighter than regular person so their pushes and pulls would be quite effective. I was just baffled that only once or twice the coinshot steelpushed vindication, ignoring other guns.

I totally agree with this point. And even with Wax F, it'd still be worth the try to push/pull his guns. Wax has to hold the guns, so a coordinate push/pull could have made him drop those; that's not like the BOM in TFE.

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Well, since that there's the steel blue lines, it may be even easier than with eye: you just have to mentally continue the line, and thus see where you are aiming. Sort of laser-assisted shot.

Even more than that, I suspect aiming from his chest has become innate, due to seeing those lines all the time as he burns steel. I suspect he often burns it without pushing, since we've seen him do that to look for sources of metal. It's probably as natural now as aiming with his eyes down a gun barrel.

jW

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Well, since that there's the steel blue lines, it may be even easier than with eye: you just have to mentally continue the line, and thus see where you are aiming. Sort of laser-assisted shot.

 

you know, that's a pretty good point for how any coinshot can aim accurately; I always found strange how good their aim could be with what was basically throwing some metal bits in the air and pushing on them. especiallly since, even if i know that steel and iron lines are straight, i can't help visualizing them a bit curving. but having the line would help a lot.

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As for hitting in the eye with the ceramic tip, I read that it he wasn't really aiming for the eye. The only thing that counted was Wax firing the hazekiller bullet and Coinshot Pushing on it what resulted in surprise projectile still coming at the Coinshot. Where it hit wasn't important, it just turned out to hit him in the eye.

The whole shooting from the bubble and then shooting the bullet with the other bullet is entirely ridiculous. Even with Wax being steel savant, Pushing on the second bullet to make it reach the first one in time, being a super-crackshot, possible Twinborn perk (maybe it's accuracy?).

The only thing that makes it somewhat believeable is Harmony guiding his hand (cause he was wearing the earring).

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but aiming at something from your eye is one thing, and the other is aiming from your chest (let’s say it is the center of your mass)

I had thought of this and came up with a few possibilities.

1. Steelpushing, being intuitive, makes people great at aiming bullets that are already flying.

2. While aiming, the coinshot gets so immersed that he believe his head to be the center, aiding in his ease to push it to the target accurately. (Highly unlikely)

 

There should be more. Let me try to remember and I'll add later.

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