Bloody Tan

[pmj812]

I don't see a thread for good ol' Bloody Tan, and he's a bit of a mystery.

Just don't seem right.

So what do we know?

We know he either anticipated or reacted to a fired bullet at close range.

We know he claims to have personal knowledge of God, Death, and the Survivor.

We know that one of the bodies in the gallery is specifically described as "spiked" to the wall.

We know that the first Vanisher attack was ~1-2 months before Wax returned to Elendel

We know that Bloody Tan's rampage began about 2 months before the prologue

We know from the end of the book that Harmony and Marsh both want to help stop the suit guys - to varying degrees.

The gunshot reaction leads me in 2 directions: Atium Misting or Steel Ferring. MAYBE, just maybe, a steel ferring with lots of speed stored could be fast enough to percieve Wax firing, then move Lessie. Atium seems more likely. Which leads me to:

Could Tan have been a failed hero? Could Marsh and/or TenSoon and/or Sazed have recruited him to be their hero, but then his mind snapped?

It would explain why he went crazy, and how he got Atium.

Alternatively, it has been suggested that Harmony is slightly more Ruin than Preservation, because of the little spark of Preservation in each person. Maybe Harmony didn't like that imbalance and had to put some Atium back in the world to get himself back in balance - and Tan found some.

Maybe it's something completely different. We'll probably never know. But it's fun to theorize either way.

[Cuaiir]

Another notable factoid: Tan stole Donal's shipment of bendalloy. That's what sparked the other two, who Wax and Lessie shot, to be there.

So, another possibility is that Tan was either a Slider or spiked himself to gain that power. That would let him pop up the bubble, move Lessie, and drop the bubble so that the bullet hit her just right. The time between bubble down and bubble up would be when Wax shot Tan.

Another thing to note is that Lessie's death pushed Wax psychologically, and probably drove him away from the Roughs, back to the city. So maybe Harmony works mysterious ways, and set up the entire chain of events that put Wax in the right place at the right time to stop Miles and the Set.

[Zas678]

Uggh. But killing 5 or 6 innocent people simply to get Wax where he may have gone anyways? Doesn't seem very harmonious to me. Also, it doesn't work with Harmony's idea of agency.

[CrazyRioter]

I definitely think there must have been more going on there then meets the eye, maybe it was Marsh's fault, he seems to be more willing to get directly involved then Sazed himself. Although Marsh would also be less able to predict what Wax would do.....unless maybe he used the Duraluminum/Atium trick?

[Necronos]

Wax, having worked with Wayne for a long time, would have been able to recognize that Bloody Tan was a Slider by the speed bubble. Since there is never a description of a speed bubble in the encounter I would lean towards that not being the case.

Throughout the book, Wax was pretty good at identifying opposing Allomancers/Feruchemists. I think that is Tan has any powers then they were of a variety that Wax simply didn't know of. He had hunted Bloody Tan down, it is presumable that he know a lot about the guy and not once did he think that he was a threat Allomantically/Feruchemically. Atium is probably something that he didn't know anything about, so I do think that that possibility exists, but I don't think that Tan being a Slider or Steel Ferring fits.

Since Tan was a serial killer of some fame, he might have simply discovered the couples 'trick'.

[FeatherWriter]

I have a feeling that because Atium is Marsh's source of immortality, he wouldn't be burning it up in duralumin flashes anytime soon. Especially since there's not a way to get more now.

[Wispsy]

of course there is a way to get more, he is good friends with a god!

[KChan]

That doesn't necessarily mean Sazed will give it to him, though.

Also, I remember hearing it said by Brandon that Tan's "gallery" may or may not have involved Hemalurgy. Interesting that he didn't give us a straight answer there....

[Dahak]

That doesn't necessarily mean Sazed will give it to him, though.

Doesn't Sazed have to lower Ruin's power somehow to balance the extra Preservation used in creating people?

If so turning some into atium is an obvious method and then he might as well make sure it ends up in his friend's hands.

Of course this may be via the kandra and the Pits of Hasthin [Or Elendel?] rather than directly.

[KChan]

Brandon has said that Sazed doesn't plan on releasing any atium anyways, but I can't remember where. If someone knows and could quote it here, that would be great.

[Wispsy]

I think I remember tht too, but! Just cos he isn't planning to give any away doesn't mean there is no wy to get some! Just gotta up your convincing skills!

[CrazyRioter]

that was posted in the HoA spoiler thread at TWG, I assume that was "as of the end of HoA", he might have decided to give some to Marsh at least since then.

[FeatherWriter]

Back on topic, I like the idea that Tan was a Slider, but I think Necronos is right. Wax probably would have recognized it. Unless,

A.) Tan moved slowly within the bubble so as not to blur from the outside and just used the extra time to be precise,

or

B.) Wax was too devestated by what happened to Lessie to mention it. He certainly didn't seem all that bewildered by it. I mean we never hear him wondering how Tan did it, he's just surprised that it happened.

EDIT: Had to put periods after the letters so the B.) doesn't turn into a

Edited November 13, 2011 by FeatherWriter

[pmj812]

Bubbles deflect bullets. That's the biggest slider obstacle.

[Ryan]

He could well just have been a zinc ferring. Lots of extra mental speed = decreased reaction time?

Bubbles deflect bullets. That's the biggest slider obstacle.

I think the idea is that he would put the bubble up right as Wax was firing, see where the bullet was flying, move Lessie into its path, then drop the bubble before the bullet reaches it. It would be insanely tough to pull off.

[Thor]

He could well just have been a zinc ferring. Lots of extra mental speed = decreased reaction time?

I think the idea is that he would put the bubble up right as Wax was firing, see where the bullet was flying, move Lessie into its path, then drop the bubble before the bullet reaches it. It would be insanely tough to pull off.

If he is a Feruchemist/Allomancer/Twinborn then the Zinc Ferring idea fits best (being a Seer would work too, but he couldn't have any Atium) especially when combined with a previous knowledge of the couple's tactics (Wax says that they had used that tactic before, but with him being held hostage. Tan may have had knowledge of this event and done some planning based off it.) The extra mental speed would allow Tan to figure out where and when the bullet would strike based off the aiming of the gun. As soon as the gun was fired he could start to move her body into the way of the bullet, using more mental speed to adjust for wind resistance and Wax's Push. While being a Steel Ferring would give him enough Speed to move Lessie into the path of the bullet, Wax never mentions that he is a Steel Ferring (after studying reports on Tan, this would likely come up if Tan had used Speed) and doesn't notice an extreme speed boost when Tan moves Lessie. (Again, this may be due to shock.)

However, it is fully possible that Tan is just a creepy non-magic user who is very well informed (see above) and knows enough about weaponry to react to the shot and move Lessie into the way of the blast.

[Necronos]

Another point against Tan being a Slider is that Lessie also would have known about speed bubbles since she would have spent time around Wayne as well. I just think that if Tan put up a bubble, Lessie or Wax, or both, would have known and Wax would have either taken it into account or Lessie would have alerted him.

I still think Tan was just a regular, albeit psychopathic, guy. To go all meta here, Lessie needed to die for Wax to go back to the city. So she did. Applying occam's razor, what Tan did was completely within the bounds of a non-magic users abilities...

[pmj812]

It's not within normal human abilities, though. He reacted to a gunshot before it would be humanly possible to do so. Doing some quick research, the slowest bullet speed I could find was 180 m/s, and the average human reaction time was .2s. That means a slow bullet travels more than 100 feet before the average person could even begin to respond, never mind the additional time to actually turn that reaction into a full body movement. Wax and Tan were on opposite sides of a "small chapel." Call it 30 feet. That gives Tan 0.056 seconds to react and move - almost 4 times faster than a normal person could.

It's possible that something other than Atium allowed him to do so, or he may have just been good enough at reading Wax to anticipate when he would fire, but let's not pretend that it was completely ordinary.

Possibilities:

Atium. (Deficiency: there shouldn't be any)

Speed bubble. (Deficiency: should have been noticed, should have deflected bullet)

Iron ferring/stored speed (Deficiency: the text does say that he moved "in the same instant," and ferrings are rare)

Zinc allomancy(or just psychology) - Tan rioted Wax, manipulating him into shooting, so he knew when he would shoot. (Deficiency: the timing is still extraordinary)

[CrazyRioter]

Well the issue with atium would be solved if we assume Marsh gave him a tiny amount, enough to block that one shot, but that raises the question of how Marsh figured out he was an atium misting in the first place, I doubt Sazed would approve of that kind of thing and give him that information, I suppose he could have done what the ministry did and slipped a trace of atium into a drink to see if he could burn it, but why would he think to test such a longshot possibility?

[darniil]

I doubt Sazed would approve of that kind of thing

You know, I'm slowly revising my opinion of SazedHarmony in this new book.

In the original trilogy, I'm pretty sure I would consider Sazed to be something along the lines of Chaotic Good.

Harmony, however, I'm starting to see more like a True Neutral. I'm starting to think that it's possible for Harmony to do something that Sazed might have considered "evil" or "not quite good" because Harmony isn't striving for "good" goals like Sazed was.

To bring this back on topic, I could certainly see Harmony setting someone up to be a Seer, having Marsh give that Seer atium, and nudging that person along a path towards the destruction of the obstacle that's keeping Harmony's champion in the Roughs rather than where Harmony wants him to be - in Elendel.

[Wispsy]

it just doesnt seem like harmony to set up a mass murderer!

[Shivertongue]

it just doesnt seem like harmony to set up a mass murderer!

You mean it doesn't seem like Sazed. Sazed has been Harmony for a few centuries now, possibly long enough for the Shards to be influencing his personality. I think darnill make a a good point, in that Harmony is True Neutral. If he has a goal, and allowing a few deaths to make sure it happens it the best way to make it happen, then that's what will happen.

[Adrienne]

This is a shot that wax says he's done repeatedly. It's possible that tan knew some of those "signature" moves.

[CrazyRioter]

even so, the timing is incredibly perfect, even he knew Wax would shoot, predicting the moment that precisely is quite a feat.

[Wispsy]

harmony is playing favorites with wax, he is a shardholder, he coulda found other ways of convincing some1 to do a good act then killing the love of his life!