Cosmere Adaptations Content Rating

[StormDad]

Like many of you I am hesitantly excited about the news of Apple TV making mistborn movies and a stormlight tv show. I think the thing that makes me the most excited is the level of partnership between Brandon and Apple. 
 

I know I may be unique in this concern but my biggest concern with the adaptations is the content level. I am pretty intentional about what kind of content I consume. When an adaptation is made of an IP that I love with content beyond what i personally feel comfortable with i always feel so disappointed and conflicted. I hate not being part of the discussion and my FOMO kicks in hard. I know it is my choice not to consume the content but I always feel left out. 
 

mistborn is a pretty violent story. I’ve always appreciated that a lot of the heavy violence happens off screen. For example, We never witness an inquisitor being made, but we know the gist of how it happens. But even still, the world is a violent one. Illl admit my biggest concern with movies being made is that the violence will be beyond my personal comfort level. This happened with both Rings of Power and The Wheel of Time.
 

what do you all think the chances are of the adaptations being rated pg-13/tv-14? I would really love for this to be something I’d feel comfortable watching with my older children. 
 

I also understand that I am most likely in the minority. In fact I’m sure many of you have the opposite opinion, worried that the show will shy away from some of the more graphic themes and your perspective is perfectly valid. I’m not trying to pass judgment on anybody or anyone.

[Oranjejuicemonki He/Him]

I agree wholeheartedly. There's almost no chance I watch any adaptation if it gets rated R.

I do think there's a big likelihood that he will make sure it's good for younger audiences cause that just seems more like Brandon and it sounds like he does have that amount of control. At the same time, the Cosmere is all of his adult books so it definitely could go the other way too and it's not like they're always the most kid friendly.

In short, I share your concern but also am not too worried about it at the same time.

 

[Schizoposting]

3 hours ago, Oranjejuicemonki said:

There's almost no chance I watch any adaptation if it gets rated R.

I'm genuinely curious—why? Is it because you have an aversion to visual depictions of violence and gore? Or is it for some other reason? I ask, this, because I legitimately don't understand why so many people here seem to have issues with an R rating; personally, I think that if books where rated the same way films are, then Mistborn would definitely get an R rating at the very least. Although, to be fair, a visual depiction of violence may come across stronger than a description.

[Oranjejuicemonki He/Him]

Yup, the small chance I would watch an R rated move is because just violence I'm fine with. I'm really pretty queasy about blood and stuff so I don't like if it's super way gory but I could maybe stand it. Then the other two things R rated movies have are sexual stuff and strong language which I can't stand but with the Cosmere not really worried too much about either of those. With the violence and gore idk why but reading it doesn't affect me as much as seeing it even if I know it's not real. 

With the Cosmere I'm a little more likely to watch it even if it's R cause of how much I love the Cosmere, but I still don't want any super bad swearing or strong language. 

[Frustration]

15 minutes ago, Schizoposting said:

I'm genuinely curious—why? Is it because you have an aversion to visual depictions of violence and gore? Or is it for some other reason? I ask, this, because I legitimately don't understand why so many people here seem to have issues with an R rating; personally, I think that if books where rated the same way films are, then Mistborn would definitely get an R rating at the very least. Although, to be fair, a visual depiction of violence may come across stronger than a description.

I mean I'd read about people ripping heads apart complete with bits of brains and skull inside with only mild discomfort. If I saw that... Yeah I wouldn't like it.

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

34 minutes ago, Frustration said:

I mean I'd read about people ripping heads apart complete with bits of brains and skull inside with only mild discomfort. If I saw that... Yeah I wouldn't like it.

My problem goes both ways. I want to be able to watch the movie and come out of it with the same level of innocence, but on the other hand, the execution scene is in my top 2 in Mistborn because of how emotional it is, and I think it'll be really interesting to watch in a movie. Personally, I'd be fine with an R-rating, even if I have to become very interested in the exit sign in the theater for a second. I think he'll have to walk a fine line.

Edited February 5 by ThatOneWorldhopper

[Kansas Stormcursed he/him]

Personally, as a pretty strong purist when it comes to things like Stormlight, I think I'm less likely to rewatch it if it gets toned down for film

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

3 minutes ago, Kansas Stormcursed said:

Personally, as a pretty strong purist when it comes to things like Stormlight, I think I'm less likely to rewatch it if it gets toned down for film

I, and I think a lot of others, agree. And that's part of the problem Brandon has: The fandom is split, and it's hard or impossible to satisfy both sides.

[Kansas Stormcursed he/him]

Just now, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

I, and I think a lot of others, agree. And that's part of the problem Brandon has: The fandom is split, and it's hard or impossible to satisfy both sides.

That is tough

I think something that might be interesting is to make two versions: a tamer one and then a "director's cut" version that has the stuff that was cut out of the other

[Argenti he/him]

I don't think the cosmere could conceivable go under like a tenious T-M without heavy styllization. Everything from: mistborn's

Spoiler

Hemalurgy's bloody nature, the heavy heavy themes of slavery and rape.

To Stormlight's 

Spoiler

Alcoholism, the burning of Rathalas, the enslavement and lobotomy of an entire species. 

The books are about wars, rebellion, the darkness that sits inside of us, and how the characters overcome these things. You can’t really remove them without weakening the story.

Regardless of how it's approached, the TV rating system will rate it rather highly. Too many taboo subjects for it to be pg13.

Edited February 5 by Argenti

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

4 minutes ago, Kansas Stormcursed said:

That is tough

I think something that might be interesting is to make two versions: a tamer one and then a "director's cut" version that has the stuff that was cut out of the other

Yeah, but what about the violence that's crucial to the plot? If you cut it out you have to make another movie, essentially.

[Kansas Stormcursed he/him]

Just now, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

Yeah, but what about the violence that's crucial to the plot? If you cut it out you have to make another movie, essentially.

Honestly

That being cut out is the point where I might just not watch it

That's my big concern

[Usseewa ✾ She♡Her ✾]

5 minutes ago, Argenti said:

The books are about wars, rebellion, the darkness that sits inside of us, and how the characters overcome these things. You can’t really remove them without weakening the story.

Regardless of how it's approached, the TV rating system will rate it rather highly. Too many taboo subjects for it to be pg13.

I agree.

Honestly...I want the films to be, like, emotional like the books were. Not... what's the word... diluted?

But at the same time, hemalurgygore might be hard to watch. It depends how much they show.

As for the other stuff you mentioned, Argenti, I'm fine with that and think it's important.

Just queasy stuff are an issue for me.

 

I mean, what's better? Adaptions that reach more people or adaptions that reach less but are more enjoyable/"higher quality", per se. This seems like an issue of quality over quantity (or vice versa), no?

 

Plus, kids grow up.

Edited February 5 by Usseewa

[Kansas Stormcursed he/him]

Just now, Usseewa said:

I agree.

Honestly...I want the films to be, like, emotional like the books were. Not... what's the word... diluted?

But at the same time, hemalurgygore might be hard to watch. It depends how much they show.

As for the other stuff you mentioned, Argenti, I'm fine with that and think it's important.

Just queasy stuff are an issue for me.

 

I mean, what's better? Adaptions that reach more people or adaptions that reach less but are more enjoyable/"higher quality", per se. This seems like an issue of quality over quantity (or vice versa), no?

I think it's a pretty even split on high or low age rating preference. I think what it mostly comes down to is differing definitions of "quality"

[Argenti he/him]

2 minutes ago, Kansas Stormcursed said:

Honestly

That being cut out is the point where I might just not watch it

That's my big concern

I honestly just don't think you could write around it. Unlike things like going to the bathroom or sex (which Brandon has said he doesn't really want to write about) so many of these stories we like revolve around these moments of frankly, gruesome violence. Mistborn

Spoiler

Vin's baby brother was horrifying, Kelsier seeing all those bodies, even the lord ruler twitching around as he's impailed.

1 minute ago, Usseewa said:

hemalurgygore

Suppose thats an apt way to put it. Stormlight 

Spoiler

The heralds being tortured will not be pretty. We'll probably get a scene of that- as well as a couple hands being chopped off from shard blades.

Just another reason animation is the superior art form.

[Schizoposting]

55 minutes ago, Argenti said:

The books are about wars, rebellion, the darkness that sits inside of us, and how the characters overcome these things. You can’t really remove them without weakening the story.

Regardless of how it's approached, the TV rating system will rate it rather highly. Too many taboo subjects for it to be pg13.

I agree; Kaladin's suicide attempts on their own, would give Stormlight a high rating, and you can't get rid of them without eviscerating the story. That's not to mention the brutality of the bridge runs, or the rape plot point in Mistborn—which are also mandatory.

Personally, I strongly dislike the tendency of sanitizing art; this is not to say that everything should be dark and gritty, but if you're going to write a story about war, then it should be brutal, because war is a terrible thing, and it should be portrayed as such. 

1 hour ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

I, and I think a lot of others, agree. And that's part of the problem Brandon has: The fandom is split, and it's hard or impossible to satisfy both sides.

The only correct answer is to ignore what the fandom thinks, and to instead try and create the best art one can. Brandon has shown willingness to make unpopular decisions, for artistic purposes (this is the real reason why the fandom hates ROW and WAT), so I'm cautiously optimistic that he'll be willing to do the same for the Mistborn film.

[Frustration]

10 minutes ago, Schizoposting said:

The only correct answer is to ignore what the fandom thinks, and to instead try and create the best art one can. Brandon has shown willingness to make unpopular decisions, for artistic purposes (this is the real reason why the fandom hates ROW and WAT), so I'm cautiously optimistic that he'll be willing to do the same for the Mistborn film.

I don't think that creating art that people don't like is any form of good.

People like good art and they want more of it. I've seen a lot of people say that they've stopped reading not just SA but Brandon altogether because of how bad WaT is.

[Schizoposting]

22 minutes ago, Frustration said:

I don't think that creating art that people don't like is any form of good.

My point is that's it better to stick to a given artistic vision, than to try to please the maximum number of people. The latter is what results in garbage like the Star Wars sequels, or the Disney live action remakes.

22 minutes ago, Frustration said:

People like good art and they want more of it.

Popular != good; Fifty Shades of Grey is one of the best-selling novels ever, even though it's just an even worse version of Twilight. Remember, Danielle Steel is the best-selling author alive. At the same time, plenty of good art has been unpopular: films like Blade Runner 2049 or One Battle After Another failed at the box-office.

22 minutes ago, Frustration said:

I've seen a lot of people say that they've stopped reading not just SA but Brandon altogether because of how bad WaT is.

Personally, I think that giving up on an author you like just because they wrote one bad book, is... a strange decision, to say the least. But whatever floats their boat, I guess.

Edited February 5 by Schizoposting

[+Child of Hodor]

9 hours ago, Argenti said:

I honestly just don't think you could write around it. Unlike things like going to the bathroom or sex (which Brandon has said he doesn't really want to write about) so many of these stories we like revolve around these moments of frankly, gruesome violence. 

One of the things I'm looking forward to most is Mistborn 

Spoiler

seeing the spikes through the eyes with the points coming out the back of the head of the inquisitors. That could look so cool.

It's not "grimdark" but the setting of Mistborn is very bleak and Stormlight isn't much better. Stormlight 

Spoiler

Taravangian bleeding those people to death in his secret hospital room. Kaladin's branding. All sorts of horrible stuff happens. He doesn't dwell on it but it's very much there. 

 

[+Oltux72 he/him]

On 2/5/2026 at 4:48 AM, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

I, and I think a lot of others, agree. And that's part of the problem Brandon has: The fandom is split, and it's hard or impossible to satisfy both sides.

To a certain extent it is possible . You can do a shot from close to an elevated platform and show up ony the axes going up and down and the fountains slowly turning red with blood. You combine that with a close up of the crew members and stuff like that.

I'd say that in a case like that you need to follow the logic of the story. You need as TV Tropes puts it to get the "Godzilla Threshold" to be crossed. Like in Star Wars you needed to blow up Alderaan. You have to remove any reasonable doubt about the justifiability of Kelsier's actions.

[Aliroz-The-Confused]

On 2/4/2026 at 10:38 PM, Schizoposting said:

Personally, I think that giving up on an author you like just because they wrote one bad book, is... a strange decision, to say the least. But whatever floats their boat, I guess.

It's because the reader realizes what the author's intent and priorities are, and decides to quit while ahead, leaving mostly good memories.

8 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

You have to remove any reasonable doubt about the justifiability of Kelsier's actions.

From the minute we know that it's slavery, we should have no doubt about the badness of the baddies (The Final Empire's opening draws its tension from "will this work or will these people all die?" not "is this morally right?".  Only a results-oriented consequentialist or a deontological pacifist can argue against the morality of Kelsier's attack on the Tresting plantation).  From the point I first reads about Sazed and learns what's going on with the Terris, I thought the destruction of the Final Empire was not only justified but morally obligatory.  From the point the reader reads Dox's monologue about Devinshae, the reader knows what the nobility in general are like.  It's the same thing as Wax and Wayne against the villains of the Wax and Wayne books.

In my mind, the reasons it appears to be in doubt are 1) that Elend Venture's status as the "one good noble" primes the reader to question the rightness of destroying the Final Empire 2) while the lack of enslaved skaa points of view denies us a chance to see the main part of the good that Kelsier does,  3) Vin's criticisms of Kelsier are incredibly well-written (good enough to be compelling) but the ways in which she is myopic (especially when interacting with the nobility, and especially when it comes to the enslaved skaa) are also incredibly well-written (enough to lure the audience into turning a blind eye to the things she ignores), 4) that Elend is sympathetically-written enough that it's easy to miss the fact that for much of the story he does not regard the skaa as intelligent/human, and the ways in which he is myopic are well-written enough to lure the audience into turning a blind eye to the thigns he ignores, 5) the symbolic foreshadowing of Ruin and the hints that darker, more complicated things are pushing the characters to do these things are cleverly hidden as foreshadowing of Kelsier doing something evil and hints that he has darker, more complicated motivations, 6) the way in which other characters are allowed to criticize Kelsier and be right primes us to doubt him, and 7) the preservation-and-ruin-theming of the setting making the destruction of the Final Empire Ruin-aligned and the continuation of the Final Empire Preservation-aligned, especially with the context of Rashek's backstory and Alendi's logbook.

Most of these are load-bearing, but remove Elend Venture, and you can keep it PG-13 without compromising the audience's understanding that Kelsier's actions are entirely justified.  Or, have him be killed (or seem to be killed) in the first film so that his sympathetic-ness supports the perceived rightness of the Crew rather than undermining it.  Maybe have him show up imprisoned but alive for a surprise and have Kelsier's decision to spare him be during some sort of escape or confrontation.  Or have Elend be among the people that are going to be executed with Renoux and Spook (heck, this event is exactly where he almost dies in the book).

Or, move the conversation Elend has with Vin about how he was forced to lose his virginity up to the first movie, and make it a heartbreaking, quiet scene that does justice to a trauma the books glossed over.

Alternately, keep Elend as-is but focus on Tepper, Jassa, and Mennis, giving us at least a subplot of their trials and travails as they and the other skaa from the Tresting plantation try to survive, so that we get to know and care for the people that the Crew is doing all of this for.  Make us like them enough, and the sympathies will be rightly aligned without the need for seeing things that would require an R rating.

It's a very talky sequence, but Mennis's dialogue with Kelsier after the loss of Yeden's army does a lot to show the sheer despair and hopelessness of the skaa (while also showing their genuine desire to rebel and their resilience, courage, defiance, and endurance), and it helps show that Kelsier is not "inciting" a rebellion that would not happen naturally but enabling a rebellion that centuries of great effort have gone into making unworkable.

When I read The Final Empire for the first time back in 2009, one of the things that always stuck with me was Sazed's descriptions of extinct religions.  I found the worldbuilding fascinating, and each little glimpse of a destroyed culture was, in its own way, a heartbreaking reminder of what the Final Empire had ruined.  That some of them held out for centuries was beautiful but deeply upsetting.  Including these sequences where Sazed talks about extinct faiths and gives little human details of them humanizes them, reminding us that it's not just about stopping what's going on, it's about protecting and preserving the memory of what's been lost.  If the screen version gave us visuals of these peoples and cultures, of their cities/architecture/foods/clothing, you could go a long, long way towards making the Final Empire hateable without necessarily showing outright gore (think of the scene in The Incredibles with the computer showing all the superheroes, one after another, with text confirming their fates).

Indeed, at least one of these sequences is foreshadowing for things that will be very very important later, and only including that one more or less shines a "OH HEY IT'S THIS ONE LOOK AT THIS ONE" spotlight on it.  The more that are included, the more the audience is primed to see it as natural that the Cosmere is religion-themed, worldbuilding-heavy, and god-focused (something Elantris established in print).

I know a lot of my suggestions are dialogue-heavy, but, to be fair, that doesn't mean it can't also be an action thriller.  Just look at Jurassic Park, which balances the action with quiet dialogue scenes to create a rhythm (inhale, exhale, tension, release, buildup, payoff) that makes the action (to some people, at least) more exciting than it would be, rather than less, because it prevents burnout.  Jaws is an absolutely terrifying movie with very little in the way of actual shark-on-screen content, and from what I've heard Alien is similar (though I've heard Aliens might not be, or maybe I got the two confused).

Edited February 8 by Aliroz-The-Confused

[Nesh he/him]

On 2/4/2026 at 10:38 PM, Schizoposting said:

Personally, I think that giving up on an author you like just because they wrote one bad book, is... a strange decision, to say the least. But whatever floats their boat, I guess.

I think a sizable portion of it, not all mind you, but a good chunk has to do with how generally polarized things are.  The amount of comments on the internet I've seen saying they're done with Brandon because he went a certain W word after WaT, but at the same time there would be people calling him all sorts of phobic if he didn't include gay or trans characters.  Hell, even now there are people who hate him purely because of his faith despite his efforts to let the gay, ace, and trans portion of his fanbase know they are seen.  There are legitimate gripes to have with WaT, but the current cultural climate didn't help.

[Schizoposting]

41 minutes ago, Nesh said:

I think a sizable portion of it, not all mind you, but a good chunk has to do with how generally polarized things are.  The amount of comments on the internet I've seen saying they're done with Brandon because he went a certain W word after WaT, but at the same time there would be people calling him all sorts of phobic if he didn't include gay or trans characters.  Hell, even now there are people who hate him purely because of his faith despite his efforts to let the gay, ace, and trans portion of his fanbase know they are seen.  There are legitimate gripes to have with WaT, but the current cultural climate didn't help.

Brandon has always been woke though, like the entire Stormlight Archive is about settler colonialism, racism, and sexism; even back in the day he was relatively liberal, for a member of the LDS church that is—if you read the (now) infamous blog post that Brandon wrote about homosexuality, then you'll see that 90% of it is him criticizing other religious conservatives for being too homophobic.

In general, I find that the average reader does not understand why like something or not; so, they latch on to random details; this is what happened with WAT, IMO—people disliked the book, and then retroactively latched on to modern language as the issue. The same goes for wokeness—The Little Mermaid was bad because it was soulless remake, not because they race swapped the main character.

The real reason why WAT and ROW (although I feel like the latter has been reappraised to a certain extent) were so poorly received, is because Brandon broke the established formula that, the fans loved; he talks about it more, here. He was right in doing so IMO, because doing the exact same thing for 10 books, would have quickly become trite.

(As an aside, I find that Brandon talking about his writing process, and the publishing industry, is a lot more interesting than some lore bomb.)

[Nesh he/him]

37 minutes ago, Schizoposting said:

Brandon has always been woke though, like the entire Stormlight Archive is about settler colonialism, racism, and sexism; even back in the day he was relatively liberal, for a member of the LDS church that is—if you read the (now) infamous blog post that Brandon wrote about homosexuality, then you'll see that 90% of it is him criticizing other religious conservatives for being too homophobic.

In general, I find that the average reader does not understand why like something or not; so, they latch on to random details; this is what happened with WAT, IMO—people disliked the book, and then retroactively latched on to modern language as the issue. The same goes for wokeness—The Little Mermaid was bad because it was soulless remake, not because they race swapped the main character.

The real reason why WAT and ROW (although I feel like the latter has been reappraised to a certain extent) were so poorly received, is because Brandon broke the established formula that, the fans loved; he talks about it more, here. He was right in doing so IMO, because doing the exact same thing for 10 books, would have quickly become trite.

(As an aside, I find that Brandon talking about his writing process, and the publishing industry, is a lot more interesting than some lore bomb.)

I don't necessarily agree with that particular criticism, I liked WaT for the most part, just relaying what I've seen online. the Shallan stuff was weak, but not because of Renarian and Rlain.  Yeah, the Shinovar arc could have used, idk something more, but I wasn't expecting Kal to be fighting much after RoW, and he'd just invented therapy like a month ago, I didn't think it should be sophisticated.  I'm saying this as an LDS member that leans a bit more to the right on some issues.  To be fair though, I've only read WaT once.  I need to work my way back through the series for a reread

Edited February 8 by Nesh

[Frustration]

55 minutes ago, Schizoposting said:

The real reason why WAT and ROW (although I feel like the latter has been reappraised to a certain extent) were so poorly received, is because Brandon broke the established formula that, the fans loved; he talks about it more, here. He was right in doing so IMO, because doing the exact same thing for 10 books, would have quickly become trite.

(As an aside, I find that Brandon talking about his writing process, and the publishing industry, is a lot more interesting than some lore bomb.)

It wasn't just them, TLM was pretty weak, TSM as much as I love it, sucked. It was terrible.

It wasn't just the pattern being broken. I've been coming to the conclusion over the last couple of months, but I honestly think that Brandon is getting worse as a writer. While he still gets a good book out every now and again the general trend has been towards a decreasing quality.