Does anyone else love Sterris now? [Bands Spoilers]

[Landis963]

I was ambivalent towards her in AoL, felt sympathy for her in SoS, and loved her in BoM. I love the entire cast, more than the original crew, even.

[Aaron Palmer]

@Jess, I really enjoyed Marasi in AoL and her character has only, in my opinion, gotten better since then. She seemed to click with Wax (and Wayne) during their time fighting against Miles. She has a bold streak in her that demolishes the "damsel in distress" role and, instead, lends her credibility when working with (and/or being with) Wax [shooting the bandits in AoL from the balcony, shooting the Mark's assassin in SoS etc.]. Also, as we see in SoS and BoM she is very forward thinking and accepting of new societal changes and advances and I think she could help balance out Wax as he seems to struggle to accept new things. Furthermore, and finally, her strong detective skills and use of statistics is a great complement to Wax's own detective skills.

 

Seeing Steris evolve over the last two books has helped make her far more likable and enjoyable as a character but I never quite accepted she was as "good" of a fit for Wax as Marasi despite Brandon's, sometimes heavy-handed, attempts to move us in that direction.

 

I find that interesting. I honestly think Marasi and Wax would get into way too much trouble together. Marasi may help balance Wax when it comes to modern thinking, but neither of them is very good at politics.  Steris is competent enough to help steer Wax through the political landscape without being too constrictive or controlling. That is why I am very happy to see Wax and Steris together.

Edited January 28, 2016 by Aaron Palmer

[The Ninja Yodeler]

I'm just glad it syncs with the characters and plot. None of it feels like it was put in because someone thought a romantic tangent was needed. It probably helps that the author is a beast.I mean, really, I enjoyed Steris more than I enjoyed Marasi this book. I mean Wayne obviously tops the charts, but Steris is on the boards now.

[Nethseäar]

[...]

 

Does anyone else love Steris now?  Or am I the only one?

Shipping aside, I think the better question is: Does anyone not love Steris at this point?

As someone who wasn't so sure about Steris, I am thrilled that Sanderson let her win us over. The Era 2 cast is superb, without exception!

[GoddessIMHO]

Wax and Marasi together would have been standard romance novel pairing. I loved Steris in AOL from the contract alone but when she went nearly orgasmic when Wax flew her up out of the building he was destroying I knew she was right for him.

Marasi didn't seem to much care for flying about with Wax while Steris lived for it. She even put it into her plans.

The big thing though was Marasi was infatuated with a legend, not the man. Steris saw Wax as a person.

[Argent]

Wax and Marasi together would have been standard romance novel pairing. I loved Steris in AOL from the contract alone but when she went nearly orgasmic when Wax flew her up out of the building he was destroying I knew she was right for him.

Marasi didn't seem to much care for flying about with Wax while Steris lived for it. She even put it into her plans.

The big thing though was Marasi was infatuated with a legend, not the man. Steris saw Wax as a person.

 

I am waiting for Wax to make her a Steelpush medallion. 

[Charononus]

It seems Wax has a thing for ridiculously competent women.

Isn't that normal?

[Ivory.]

I've always been a fan. I must admit that her character in this book made me like her even more though.

[RShara]

You know, I can't remember, have we had a Steris viewpoint yet?
Because if not, I propose that Steris is the real leader of the Set.  Just because she's so awesome and everyone is coming to like her.  If we haven't had a viewpoint from her showing that she definitely is not, then she probably is, because that's how Brandon's villains roll

[happyman]

You know, I can't remember, have we had a Steris viewpoint yet?

Because if not, I propose that Steris is the real leader of the Set.  Just because she's so awesome and everyone is coming to like her.  If we haven't had a viewpoint from her showing that she definitely is not, then she probably is, because that's how Brandon's villains roll

 

Happily for this thread, we got a perfectly good Steris viewpoint towards the end of the book in circumstances which make this even more unlikely than it already was.

[RShara]

Mmmmmm I know she saved Allik, but we didn't see a lot of her motivations or ultimate goals.

[CarolaDavar]

I love Steris now. I used to hate her in AoL and SoS. (I used to think "WHy would you do that, Brandon?")

BUt now, Bands of Mourning has Steris as my third favorite character in that book(Wax and Wayne first)

[The Invested Beard]

Isn't that normal?

 

Not always. I've known guys that were into incompetent women as a means to disguise their own incompetency and appear SUPER MANLY.

[Fiddler]

I actually loved Steris from her very first scene with the marriage contract. Pure gold!

[mattig89ch]

Woo!  I'm back, just finished the book.  And yes, just yes to her.  I wasn't a fan of her in the first book, and I started warming up to her in the second.  But by harmony, I love her now.  I honestly think shes a good counter balance for wax, and shes clearly grown enough now, to where the two make a good couple.

 

Mmmmmm I know she saved Allik, but we didn't see a lot of her motivations or ultimate goals.

 

For my two cents on this subject, the way that scene was written was odd to me.  She came across as almost a bit psycopathic.  Her seeming indifference to his suffering, her seeming emotional numbness to helping his crew.  I was expecting a bit more from her then that, not much mind you, but a bit.  It almost was as if she couldn't care if he lived or died, and given her recent adventure, it did seem out of character for her.  That said, it could have also been her emotionally curling in on herself, due to her being overwhelmed by everything recently.

[Asperity]

I need to pinpoint Steris' exact form of psychopathology. She is definitely on the autism spectrum. I'm a bit iffy on if I want to declare her as having OCD or not.

[RShara]

I have to say I think she has OCD for sure.  Her planning, over planning, redundancies, contracts, lists, etc, and her reaction (distress) when she hasn't accounted for something is classic OCD.

[theuntaintedchild]

I am definitely loving Steris now! She's come along way since AoL. In fact I don't think there is a single character in this era of Mistborn novels who I dread reading. (Game of Thrones it was Catherine Stark, her chapters were like dental work.)

[DreamEternal]

I loved Steris since her second scene. While the marriage contract made me cringe, I saw how much she disliked the games of the nobility in the party abd understood she was very intelligent, sharp and capable even before BoM and sympathised with her difficulty to accept the chaos of the world, even if I am extremely averse to excessive planning.

[junior]

For my two cents on this subject, the way that scene was written was odd to me.  She came across as almost a bit psycopathic.  Her seeming indifference to his suffering, her seeming emotional numbness to helping his crew.  I was expecting a bit more from her then that, not much mind you, but a bit.  It almost was as if she couldn't care if he lived or died, and given her recent adventure, it did seem out of character for her.  That said, it could have also been her emotionally curling in on herself, due to her being overwhelmed by everything recently.

 

Between BoM and AoL, it's made clear that she's been a bit damaged by her interactions with other people.  In AoL we learned that her father had not been faithful to her mother, and this screwed her up somewhat (which is why she inserted the provision about a mistress in the marriage contract).  BoM has her bringing up that she has difficulty relating to other people, and that her lists are her way of coping.  When Lady Xxxxxx approaches Steris at a party and asks her about a particular topic, Steris doesn't need to spend time thinking about how not to put her foot in her mouth when she responds, because she's already mapped out the response ahead of time.  And since this method apparently worked (more or less) for social situations, Steris expanded it out to the rest of her life.

 

It's never explicitly stated, but there are hints in SoS and BoM that one of the reasons why she enjoys spending time with Wax at parties is that Wax can (because of his noble standing and his reputation as a "Roughs lawman") more or less get away with tweaking the upper crust of society.  That's spontaneity that she could never engage in as merely the daughter of her father.

[Kaymyth]

I have to say I think she has OCD for sure.  Her planning, over planning, redundancies, contracts, lists, etc, and her reaction (distress) when she hasn't accounted for something is classic OCD.

 

Not necessarily; all of these are actually hallmarks of a female on the autism spectrum (which tends to present very differently from males).  My sister is not OCD, but most definitely high-functioning autistic, and the lists and planning and rehearsing what to say are very, very much part of the autism package.

[Left]

I thought she had great parts in SoS and BoM, but I thought she was maybe a little one dimensional. She had parts where she shone, but I thought the over analytical ocd got seriously over played. Her parts with Wax flying around and other times when she showed depth I did really enjoy though.

[natc]

It's not all that's there. She does all the excessive planning as before, but also starts to admit more that she realizes how little it helps and that she only does it to feel more secure.

Her shining moments of attempting to pull her weight for the team in Bands are in fact mostly the ones where she tries to ad lib her way through things, like the deal with Allik's captain. Or trying to shoot a guy on top of a train.

[Delightful]

I thought she was kind of awkward in AoL, but then she was excellent in SoS and BoM. I feel kind of like I had the same experience falling in love with her character as Wax - from "who is this strange woman I don't understand her" to "OMG YOURE ADORABLE". I'm not sure if it was planned that way, but very cool.

[emailanimal]

I thought she was kind of awkward in AoL, but then she was excellent in SoS and BoM. I feel kind of like I had the same experience falling in love with her character as Wax - from "who is this strange woman I don't understand her" to "OMG YOURE ADORABLE". I'm not sure if it was planned that way, but very cool.

 

This is because she *was* awkward in AoL and lacked screen time. We saw her see herself as an old maid needing an arranged marriage, and then she became a damsel in distress right away.  What little screen time she had after that suggested some interesting possibilities (compare the AoL scene of Wax rescuing her with the BoM scene of leaving the reception), but she just want not the focus of the book.

 

And yes, props to Brandon for building her up this way. I am late to this particular conversation, but from the very first chapters it was clear that she is going to be great in BoM.  There are two very tell-tale moments in SoS and BoM: at the end of BoM, when, of all people, *she* is there for Wax, and second, in the train, when it dawns on Wax just how big of a jerk he is for saying "Oh, we'll not be having sex too much anyway".

 

As for Marasi - she too is awesome in BoM, but in a different way. Her arc is going from a start-struck understudy for a scarily competent independent agent. For the entire duration of the book, she and Wax share the crew leadership duties, and she hold her own each time. (Steris giving her an 83 is hilarious but not undeserved, Wayne getting a 75 is even more funny). But the point Brandon is making - perhaps too well, is that Marasi can only become the new and improved Marasi, if she stops being Wax's fangirl.  By the end of the book, she has established a partnership relation with Wax where Wax trusts and does not second guess her, and accepts her as an equal.  Compare that with her first appearance in SoS.