Mistborn book 2 & wind and truth s** scenes

[Enderuser53 He/him]

so, my question is why Sanderson decided to detail the s** scenes and not just say that it happened? I was reminded of this while i was going through my required summer reading for AP English 3 Lang. So why?

[Nitpicking]

He's a self-acknowledged prude.

[GG0z He/Him]

There were detailed scenes? All I know about is the shower scene in WaT

[Verdance he/him]

7 minutes ago, GG0z said:

There were detailed scenes? All I know about is the shower scene in WaT

Not fully detailed. A fade to black, i think.

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

All I know about is the Warbreaker stuff

I remember nothing about s** in other books

[Enderuser53 He/him]

8 minutes ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

All I know about is the Warbreaker stuff

I remember nothing about s** in other books

Bro, he goes into detail for the one in thaylena or wherever, but it’s not doing the thing, it’s when one guy walks in on them doing it, and then in mistborn 2 had lots of stuff

19 minutes ago, GG0z said:

There were detailed scenes? All I know about is the shower scene in WaT

In wat, thaylena

[Returned he/him]

17 hours ago, Enderuser53 said:

Bro, he goes into detail for the one in thaylena or wherever, but it’s not doing the thing, it’s when one guy walks in on them doing it, and then in mistborn 2 had lots of stuff

I wouldn't really call any of those scenes "detailed". They're present, which is a change from most of his novels. I don't recall any comments Sanderson has made about those particular sequences and so I can't give a definitive answer to your question. I do think that "just say[ing] it happened" seems like a pretty awkward thing to write in, even more so than the scenes themselves. I don't see any reason they would come up in dialogue, or how they would be worked into narration while also being totally off-screen given that they are not in any way plot-relevant. Every piece of every book was included by the author for some reason or other, and we don't usually get much specific explanation for why each one was chosen (or omitted).

They do give a bit more of a view into characters' lives and relationships, which is worth something even if not very impactful or important. The only book in which it registered for me at all was WaT, and then only because the scenes felt very tacked on. If forced to guess I might think it was a part of working gender and sexuality into WaT more broadly, where those elements have a (small) bit more prominence than in the other books. But that's a weak guess and I don't think that the small handful of references to sex do much in that direction.

Edited May 13 by Returned

[Schizoposting]

This isn't anything new—all the way back in Aether of Night Brandon include explicit references to sex and "on screen" nudity. And Warbreaker went even further. So, I'd argue that his prudishness has been rather exaggerated. 

[Treamayne]

Well of Ascension was so vague that his editor (Moshe) wasn't even sure of Vin and Elend were in a physical relationship. WoB:

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

When I was working on Mistborn 2 with my editor, he asked me, "Are Vin and Elend sleeping together?" I said, "Absolutely." He requested some confirmation of it on the page, and I explained something that has always been my policy, and one that has served me well.

I consider what I'm writing to be a very detailed script, which you the reader direct in your mind. Each person's version of the books will be slightly different, but in sometimes telling ways. The subtext of conversations will change, the visualizations of the characters, even larger implications are changed, distorted, and played with by the reader as they build the story in their imagination.

This is an area in which I prefer to leave the answers to the reader. For those who wish to imagine that the characters are having sex, then the implications are often there. (Though I've gotten better at that balance, I feel.) For those who don't want to imagine it, and wish to pretend the characters are living different standards, I will often leave the opportunity for that--unless it is a plot point I consider relevant.

Certainly, my upbringing and beliefs are an influence on this. I'm obviously more circumspect in these areas than I am in others.

But yes, for those who don't want to pretend otherwise, Vin and Elend were sleeping together. And Wax and Lessie never had a real ceremony. My editor tried to remove the word "wife" from one of the later books, and I insisted, as the shift in Wax's thinking was a deliberate point on my part--related to his changing psychology in the books. But even to him, it's more a 'common law wife' thing.

As a side note you'll likely find amusing, I do get a surprising number of emails from people who complain to me (even take me to task) for the amount of objectionable material I include in my books, and ask me why I have to wallow in filth as much as I do. I'm always bemused by this, as I doubt they have any idea how the books are perceived in this area by the general fantasy reading world...

General Reddit 2016 (March 24, 2016)

Bolding mine

[PanLin they/he]

20 hours ago, Enderuser53 said:

so, my question is why Sanderson decided to detail the s** scenes and not just say that it happened? I was reminded of this while i was going through my required summer reading for AP English 3 Lang. So why?

Considering most of his books are for an adult audience, anything approaching a sex scene is actually really lacking in detail, especially compared to a lot of other authors.

 

19 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

He's a self-acknowledged prude.

Kind of, but he's on record saying that he loves how the recent rise in romantasy is getting more adults back into reading in general. He doesn't like writing smut himself but has no issue with other people finding enjoyment in writing or reading it.

[alder24]

On 5/12/2026 at 9:36 PM, Enderuser53 said:

so, my question is why Sanderson decided to detail the s** scenes and not just say that it happened? I was reminded of this while i was going through my required summer reading for AP English 3 Lang. So why?

Honestly, what detailed sex scenes? Where are they? I went and compared scenes from Warbreaker (2009) and Wind and Truth (2024) and they are basically the same - they have a conversation, start kissing and the scene ends indicating it happened. Nothing more. From this it seems that Brandon didn't change his policy about writing sex scenes, there is more passion and intimacy in the WaT scene but he still cuts the PoV before the deed even starts. Obviously, comparing those books to Mistborn Era 1, where you had to be a rusting detective to guess Vin and Elend were active at night, it might seem that Brandon became a lot more obscene, but I don't think that's the case. 

Warbreaker ch 45:

Spoiler

Quote

He stared at her. She stared at him. Then, hesitant, he leaned down and kissed her.
Oh, dear . . . Siri thought, a dozen objections popping into her head. She found it difficult to move, to resist, or to do anything.
Anything other than kiss him back.
She felt hot. She knew that they needed to stop, lest the priesthood get exactly what they were waiting for. She understood all of these things. Yet those objections began to seem less and less rational as she kissed him, as her breathing grew more hurried.
He paused, obviously uncertain what to do next. Siri looked up at him, breathing heavily, then pulled him down to kiss him again, feeling her hair bleed to a deep, passionate red.
At that point, she stopped caring about anything else. Susebron didn’t know what to do. But she did. I really am too hasty, she thought as she pulled off her shift. I need to get better at controlling my impulses.
Some other time.

 

WaT ch 18:

Spoiler

Quote

She nodded absently, her eyes closed. So he held her, skin against skin, slick and warm. This was perfection. This was what he’d always wanted, and had never been able to find, until he met her. Not merely skin to skin. Soul to soul. He ran his fingers through her wet hair, massaging her scalp, her cheek against his chest.
“I love you,” he whispered. She grinned back, and he picked her up off the ground a little, surrounded by joyspren, holding her tight.
[...]
He met her eyes, as best he could with both of them blinking away water. She reached up to push a cascade of soaked red hair out of her face. It might not have been the best place for a meaningful stare, but neither of them moved, and the joyspren were soon joined by passionspren—like snowflakes, but more crystalline.
[...]
She moved to slip away, without even conditioning her hair. He pulled her back. Not for the hair though.
“Surely we have a few minutes,” he said, “before running to the next crisis? I mean, haven’t you always wondered what it would be like, out in the rain…?”
She paused, holding his hand. “Drat,” she said.
“What?”
“I was trying very hard to stay focused, Adolin Kholin,” she said, “and pretend you aren’t the most gorgeous statue of a man to ever grace the world.”
“Even when he’s wet?” he said.
“Um, especially when he’s wet, love.”
She stepped back to him, went up on her toes, and kissed him, water falling around them like applause. The heat he’d been fighting off rose within him, outdoing that of the stream from above, and the passionspren fell more powerfully. It seemed that whether or not she had time to spare, they were going to find it.

 

[Frustration]

On 5/12/2026 at 1:36 PM, Enderuser53 said:

so, my question is why Sanderson decided to detail the s** scenes and not just say that it happened? I was reminded of this while i was going through my required summer reading for AP English 3 Lang. So why?

Yeah no clue on that one.

Not a huge fan of it either.

[Verdance he/him]

Honestly I dont care that much. Just because the books are intended for adults or contain romance doesnt mean he’s contractually obligated to include detailed sex scenes. I like the format he has, it insinuates things for a character without being strange.

[Enderuser53 He/him]

But what about when he just leaves a person “undressed” for a chapter, and keeps mentioning it, like I don’t seem the point in that, it’s just unnecessary crudeness in my opinion 

[Returned he/him]

18 hours ago, Enderuser53 said:

like I don’t seem the point in that, it’s just unnecessary crudeness in my opinion 

None of these books were written to please and fully satisfy any one person, specifically. That you, personally, don't like it or find it interesting isn't really something that you can call the author to account over. Some people don't like fantasy novels, so most of Stormlight is, for them, unnecessary nonsense. Some people don't like moral philosophy, so the sections of Stormlight that talk about it are, for them, unnecessary diversions. Some people don't like violence, and so the violence in Cosmere novels is unnecessary and bad for them. Some people don't like narrative depth or complexity, and much of Sanderson's writing is tedious or upsetting to them. Some people would find even the mention of sexual activity to be too crass, leaving the suggestion in the OP similarly baffling and upsetting to them as the content you're complaining about.

Some people find sexuality to be a fundamental part of human existence, and so not including it for any characters, in any way, ever seems odd and incomplete to them. Especially for characters whose relationships might suggest it is appropriate or expected. Some people find raciness exciting and will like a book better if it includes a bit of it. Sometimes elements like nudity or sex give fuller shape to a scene or theme, suggesting the dynamics of a situation or aspects of characters. I can't tell you why these specific scenes were included. In WaT I don't think that they were done very well, nor did they seem to serve any purpose I could discern (unless it really was just tossed in to appeal to those who might want such scenes). But those issues are not about nudity nor sexuality.

I liked well enough the WoA implications between Elend and Vin because they were appropriate to their relationship and contrasted tragically with the grim backdrop against which their marriage took place. It was also extraordinarily mild and far from explicit or detailed, as the citation from Treamayne demonstrates-- it's hard to see that as graphic content that was shoved in the reader's face. Maybe those elements didn't land for you and what little detail was there was too much for you. But calling it baffling and valueless only because you, personally, don't like any amount of that content is an awkward standard to force onto an author.

Edited May 15 by Returned

[Schizoposting]

1 hour ago, Returned said:

In WaT I don't think that they were done very well, nor did they seem to serve any purpose I could discern (unless it really was just tossed in to appeal to those who might want such scenes). But those issues are not about nudity nor sexuality.

I think that the reason for the shower scene was to foreshadow Shallan's pregnancy, and to emphasize her relationship with Adolin, since they latter end up separated. So, for me, at least, its inclusion was fully justified, especially given that it was just a few pages in a 1300-page book.

[Enderuser53 He/him]

It’s the stuff with ellands dad, and the thaylena scene that bothers me the most

[Returned he/him]

5 hours ago, Schizoposting said:

I think that the reason for the shower scene was to foreshadow Shallan's pregnancy, and to emphasize her relationship with Adolin, since they latter end up separated. So, for me, at least, its inclusion was fully justified, especially given that it was just a few pages in a 1300-page book.

I hadn't thought about it that way, but that sounds like a reasonable explanation to me. The scene didn't bother me, so maybe I'm easy to satisfy, but the only thing about the shower sequence that made it stand out for me is how unusual such a scene is in Cosmere books generally. That's probably what makes those scenes feel so disjointed to me: characters don't really have much... nonviolent, interpersonal physical activity. They don't do much kissing, there's little physical contact between them, and they don't even have very much physical attraction or response described. So to go from almost no interactions or content in that mode to giggling together in the shower, or hammock, or wherever, just feels abrupt.

5 hours ago, Enderuser53 said:

It’s the stuff with ellands dad, and the thaylena scene that bothers me the most

For Straff I read every scene involving his mistresses/slave victims as expressing how violent, cruel, vicious, and self-centered he is. Wrapping those traits in sexual encounters made them more visceral and impactful for me, in ways that simple narrations and his other actions didn't really convey. I didn't like those scenes, but I did think they were effective in demonstrating Straff's awfulness in ways that were distinctive. And even then they were not all that explicit or detailed. I put them on the same level as the scene in which he kills Amaranta: brutal, awful, and very much an expression of Straff himself. Not strictly necessary, maybe, but evocative.

The Queen Fen scene just didn't bother me, or really even register for me. They might as well have been sitting in a dining room, wearing more clothing than ever, for all the detail or impact it had. Instead it had maybe four references to her being nude and some barely-veiled references to what she and her consort get up to (which itself is no surprise, given that he is her consort). I never even read it as a sex scene until re-reading it in response to this thread; I'd thought the scene was after they were done with everything and maybe cuddling a bit, but I think it's more than fair to read it differently (especially with Kmakl's comment on page 139). Awfully mild either way. But if it bothers you, because of the nudity or anything else, it bothers you. At least those sequences are rare and brief.

Edited May 15 by Returned

[Schizoposting]

1 hour ago, Returned said:

I hadn't thought about it that way, but that sounds like a reasonable explanation to me. The scene didn't bother me, so maybe I'm easy to satisfy, but the only thing about the shower sequence that made it stand out for me is how unusual such a scene is in Cosmere books generally. That's probably what makes those scenes feel so disjointed to me: characters don't really have much... nonviolent, interpersonal physical activity. They don't do much kissing, there's little physical contact between them, and they don't even have very much physical attraction or response described. So to go from almost no interactions or content in that mode to giggling together in the shower, or hammock, or wherever, just feels abrupt.

This is probably the result of Brandon becoming more liberal over the years about profanity and sex—what happened in WaT isn't particularly out of line with something like Yumi or TLM.  Although, to be fair, some of Brandon's earlier works like AoN and Warbreaker, have a similar level of sex, so I think that this of a less of a rupture than you're implying.

[PanLin they/he]

On 5/15/2026 at 12:21 AM, Enderuser53 said:

It’s the stuff with ellands dad, and the thaylena scene that bothers me the most

I promise I mean nothing negative when I say this, but it sounds like your objection essentially boils down to 'I don't like this topic', which is fine; as @Returned said, not everything in every book will appeal to every single person. The only way to make any kind of art appeal to literally everyone is to make it so bland and lacking in substance that it stops being art.

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

On 5/14/2026 at 5:21 PM, Enderuser53 said:

It’s the stuff with ellands dad, and the thaylena scene that bothers me the most

I agree with @Returned, the stuff on Scadrial especially with the skaa is important to show how awfully mistreated people are.

[Treamayne]

4 hours ago, Through the Living Hopper said:

I agree with @Returned, the stuff on Scadrial especially with the skaa is important to show how awfully mistreated people are.

And how much the society of the Final Empire accepted that as normal. It starts in the Book 1 prologue, and Straff in Book 2 shows how even the fall of TLR did not much impact that culture of abuse outside of Luthadel where Elend was purposefully trying to change things.