Could Wayne Have Saved Himself?

[Gquirt]

In talking with a friend about Wayne's death at the end, he mentioned that Wayne could have potentially broken off a small piece of his gold metalmind and burned it to compound and allow him to heal from the explosion. Much like Miles did in previous books.

Here's my proposed order of events:

1. Wayne digs out and chips off a piece of his metalmind, but doesn't swallow it yet.
2. Wayne makes the duralumin speed bubble and disarms the bomb.
3. Wayne swallows the gold before the speed bubble drops.
4. Explosion happens, but Wayne heals enough to survive due to compounding.
5. Drowning wouldn't be an issue because Wayne could just heal from the lack of Oxygen.

Could this have worked? Did Wayne actually die needlessly?

[+Oltux72 he/him]

Apparently the explosion was massive enough to vaporize a metalmind inside a human body.

[Frustration]

I ran a simulation of the Harmonium blast for the Roshar vs. Scadrial thread, and the blast came out with a yeild close to large modern nuclear weapons.

[TheSurvivor00]

It was apparently the biggest darn explosion ever, trumped by only the Ashmounts, which were big enough to explode and cover an entire planet with Ash which fell for decades after, so yes I’d say it was a pretty big explosion lol

[Isilel]

Additionally, compounding via allomancy is a skill that requires time and experience to learn. Ruin's Inquisitors in HoA, for instance, didn't know how to compound, despite being capable of it. 

[Darth_Hel]

It's possible that he could have, and Harmony even tells him that he has a 1 in 100 or so chance of figuring out a way to maybe do that. But, Wayne knew that doing so would possibly doom the world and everyone else. Him not clinging to the chances is what added to his heroism. He wasn't sure to die, in which case he had no real agency, but he put all those lives ahead of his chance to survive.

[Kasimir he/him]

Could he even have compounded gold with his metalminds that drained?

On a meta-level, I assumed that was the point of the repeated fights with Dumad and the false Wayne - it was to give us a coherent reason Wayne's goldminds were more or less completely tapped out by the end, so there wasn't anything much left he could do.

Do we know how dirty a harmonium bomb is? Would Wayne also have to contend with radiation sickness?

[Storyspren]

Ok, here is the thing... yes there was a way he could have survived. We may not have found it yet, but I mean sequential speed bubbles maybe?

Maybe a giant speed bubble with one edge just outside the blast then steel push to the other side of the bubble. 
 

Reserve one vial and a couple bags of Bendalloy.

But... he was doomed.

 

[+Child of Hodor]

His only chance would have been to find a fridge to hide in. He wouldn’t have been hurt at all if he was in a fridge.

I don’t think he could have healed through it. He was right next to the largest man made explosion in the history of the Cosmere. He would have been reduced to a fine mist within a second. 

Edited November 23, 2022 by Child of Hodor

[Isilel]

Personally, I don't believe that any amount of healing would have allowed Wayne to survive this explosion, but one possible option for acquiring extra health reserves  hasn't been mentioned anywhere so far - he should have checked Gertrude's metalminds. Given how much health she had, there was more than an even chance for some of them being unkeyed metalminds filled by somebody else for her, like Lady Kelesina's metalmind back in BoM.

[Rorzikel]

The problem definitely was one more of the durability of him and the goldminds he'd be depending on- basically he'd be bloodmisted instantly and any gold would be spread like atomized scattershot. Maybe if he had a stomach full of pewter and duralumin'd while tapping an immense amount of Health to take advantage of the increased toughness w/ healing factor but I'm unsure of his odds.

[+robardin he/him]

12 hours ago, Darth_Hel said:

It's possible that he could have, and Harmony even tells him that he has a 1 in 100 or so chance of figuring out a way to maybe do that. But, Wayne knew that doing so would possibly doom the world and everyone else. Him not clinging to the chances is what added to his heroism. He wasn't sure to die, in which case he had no real agency, but he put all those lives ahead of his chance to survive.

I think the very low probability chance Harmony was referring to was "the other option" - for Wayne to use his new powers to Push hard enough against metals on shore to keep the ship from hitting anything, to keep it in the middle of the ocean "treading water" while we "figure something else out".

That would not only be difficult to do Allomantically, but also rely on "figuring something out" in that extra time that they didn't have a plan for already. It's not like they had a Plan B to go to, "if only we had more time", and maybe he could Push the ship away from shore long/hard enough to effectuate it; going that route, all they might end up with was the bombship detonating a half hour or so later than it would have originally, and Wayne being too exhausted to do his super-time-bubble Plan A.

Edited November 23, 2022 by robardin

[Kasimir he/him]

8 hours ago, robardin said:

I think the very low probability chance Harmony was referring to was "the other option" - for Wayne to use his new powers to Push hard enough against metals on shore to keep the ship from hitting anything, to keep it in the middle of the ocean "treading water" while we "figure something else out".

This almost feels like what happens in the world where Wayne isn't on that ship to make the call - Wax isn't that good with bendalloy so he'd more or less have to work out a pushing solution.

[Stigmadiabolicum]

I was reading old WoBs and Brandon signed one of the aloy of law books with "remember Hammonder Bay" haha..

I'm wondering if they knew it would be the site of the final encounter and waynes last stand back then in 2015..

I think as a mistborn and being able to compound gold though, if he'd started compounding while in the bubble and then done a huge push right as he dropped the bubble it's possible, especially if Sazed could do the Mistblessed avatar allomancy buff vin was powering Elend with at the pits..but honestly, as much as I reeeeally wanted world hopping Wayne joining Melaan, it was fitting for his story, especially with giving the money to her and the pranks. Needed the stakes like losing vin and Elend. 

Another wob did clarify wax obviously figured out he was MB down the line, but unless they do have that one more kid they talked about idk if it'll be relevant in era 3. 

[reisleK she/her]

I really wish Wayne hadn't died. That's all. 

[X-Rae she/her]

8 hours ago, reisleK said:

I really wish Wayne hadn't died. That's all. 

I adored Wayne since the start, but I do find his passing to be quite the highlight of the book. Hero of Ages was as strong as a book for me because of loss. Not saying a character needs to die for a book to have an impact on me, but Wayne's story had a feeling of completeness to it that made it alright to me. And his will at the end made my ugly crying turn into laughter. He is still carrying the story in death 

[reisleK she/her]

15 hours ago, X-Rae said:

I adored Wayne since the start, but I do find his passing to be quite the highlight of the book. Hero of Ages was as strong as a book for me because of loss. Not saying a character needs to die for a book to have an impact on me, but Wayne's story had a feeling of completeness to it that made it alright to me. And his will at the end made my ugly crying turn into laughter. He is still carrying the story in death 

I understand why he died, but still, I really wish he didn't. Or pulled a Kelsier, even though that's not something he would do. I agree wholeheartedly on the completeness aspect, but also I really would have liked to see how he moved on from the guilt for long term future.



Off topic (ish):

Do you think if Wax had another son he'd name him Wayne?

[X-Rae she/her]

56 minutes ago, reisleK said:

I understand why he died, but still, I really wish he didn't. Or pulled a Kelsier, even though that's not something he would do. I agree wholeheartedly on the completeness aspect, but also I really would have liked to see how he moved on from the guilt for long term future.



Off topic (ish):

Do you think if Wax had another son he'd name him Wayne?

I think Wayne was finally able to come to terms with his life and reflect in a mature way through the events of this specific book. Selfishly it would have been very cool to see him be able to transverse the cosmere and world hop with MeLaan since their relationship was a lot of fun imo. I would have not been opposed to that ending, especially as another ally to Sazed because I do not think Wayne would fit the ghostbloods. Plus a short novella would have been fun. But if he had to go out, I think the way Brandon wrote it was the only way.

 

Seeing the importance of names in this story (especially his daughter being named Tindwyl) I could definitely see that, or at least that being his middle name. It would also be interesting if that son would end up being mistborn since Wax now is. 

[reisleK she/her]

41 minutes ago, X-Rae said:

I think Wayne was finally able to come to terms with his life and reflect in a mature way through the events of this specific book. Selfishly it would have been very cool to see him be able to transverse the cosmere and world hop with MeLaan since their relationship was a lot of fun imo. I would have not been opposed to that ending, especially as another ally to Sazed because I do not think Wayne would fit the ghostbloods. Plus a short novella would have been fun. But if he had to go out, I think the way Brandon wrote it was the only way.

 

Seeing the importance of names in this story (especially his daughter being named Tindwyl) I could definitely see that, or at least that being his middle name. It would also be interesting if that son would end up being mistborn since Wax now is. 

I agree with you wholeheartedly!

I wonder if Sazed unconsciously put the name Tindwyl in Wax's mind or something