Kelsier and Moses

[HOID WANTS INSTANT NOODLES he/him]

Ive had this idea brewing in my head for a while and have finally fleshed out a lot of the parallels. The story of kelsier deeply echoes many of the elements of the story of Moses in the book of Exodus. Both were members of the opressed group who were raised by the ruling class. Both play the role of a savior of their opressed people. Both inflict severe punishments upon the cruel ruling class. I can also see marsh as a kind of aaron figure. Any thoughts?

[Quantus he/him]

Traditionally, Moses didnt inflict anything, he simply delivered messages.  

[HOID WANTS INSTANT NOODLES he/him]

Fair but a survivorist would say something similar about kelsier and his actions. After all, his snapping was miraculous and lends credence to the idea that he was chosen to deliver a divine message. from their point of view the same is possible

[Quantus he/him]

22 hours ago, HOID WANTS INSTANT NOODLES said:

Fair but a survivorist would say something similar about kelsier and his actions. After all, his snapping was miraculous and lends credence to the idea that he was chosen to deliver a divine message. from their point of view the same is possible

Eh, at most he had single Divine visitation that gave him an overarching directive, but he then formulated the plan, found and gathered people for allies (and assets), and performed actions at his own choice and under his own Power. 

Moses never had control of the plagues, or any real say in how it all played out, and in later stories he was punished when he deviated even slightly from his divine instructions.    

[HOID WANTS INSTANT NOODLES he/him]

I cede the point, but i think the statement stands even without that

[Weaver of Lies he/him]

Sanderson has said several times that he draws inspiration from his religion, which includes reading the Bible. I would not be surprised if Kelsier has some correlation to Moses because of that. It may not have been intentional though.

[alder24]

On 28.06.2023 at 10:03 PM, HOID WANTS INSTANT NOODLES said:

Ive had this idea brewing in my head for a while and have finally fleshed out a lot of the parallels. The story of kelsier deeply echoes many of the elements of the story of Moses in the book of Exodus. Both were members of the opressed group who were raised by the ruling class. Both play the role of a savior of their opressed people. Both inflict severe punishments upon the cruel ruling class. I can also see marsh as a kind of aaron figure. Any thoughts?

I find him much closer to Christ. Jesus had nail wounds on his hands, Kelsier had scars on them, Jesus showed his wounds to his apostles in a specific pose, Kelsier showed his to Skaa, Jesus is Savior, Kelsier is Survivor, Jesus was teaching people, Kelsier too, both died and came back, both are main figures in their respective religions, the symbol of Christianity is the Cross that Jesus died on, the symbol of Survivorism is the spear that pierced him, Kelsier even performed few "miracles" and blessed kids given to him. It just goes on and on.

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

This is the most overt and obvious of my savior-imagery scenes for Kelsier. I hope you didn't feel like I was hitting you over the head with it. (I didn't actually realize the similarity between Survivor and Savior until I was part of the way through the book.) Either way, yes, the Christian imagery is intentional. I didn't put it in simply because I'm religious (after all, if you look at it, Kelsier isn't really all that Christian in the way he deals with people.) I put it in because I think that the images and metaphors of Christianity are deeply-seated in our culture, and drawing upon them provides for a more powerful story.

Part of this is to intentionally make people uncomfortable–for discomfort (when used right) leads to tension. The Christians who read this might be made uncomfortable by how strikingly un-divine Kelsier is. He's acting in some of the same roles as Christ did, but he's not the man that Christ was. He's kind of a pale imitation. The non-Christians, in turn, might be made uncomfortable by the fact that Kelsier is manipulating the people in the way that religions often do, giving hope in something that could very well prove to be false.

Either way, he is what he is. The truest Kelsier is the one we see near the end, where he's standing in the kitchen, smoldering in his black clothing. He is a dangerous man with powerful beliefs.

Mistborn: The Final Empire Annotations (April 2, 2007)