02ranger he/him Posted August 18, 2015 Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 Just something I noticed reading HoA, Vin sees somebody, Demoux I think, wearing a spear pin for the Church of the Survivor and she thinks how odd it is that the Church has chosen the instrument of the Survivor's death for their symbol. Made me think of Christianity and the Cross, which was probably intentional since Brandon is christian himself. That made me wonder, what other parallels to major religions are there in the Mistborn series? Has Brandon discussed it very much? I'm sure I've missed some of them. I imagine a lot of authors would hesitate to so blatantly imitate their own religion in this way, but I think it's pretty cool and gives you an opportunity to see things from a different perspective than you might normally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haradion Drogon Posted August 18, 2015 Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 Well, I am fairly sure they look into the remains of a Cathedral at one point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
02ranger he/him Posted August 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 Well, I am fairly sure they look into the remains of a Cathedral at one point. I don't really mean anything remotely religious, I meant more like elements of religions in the books that parallel real-world beliefs. Do some of the religions Sazed mentions have themes in common with specific real-world religions? Are there other similarities between the Church of the Survivor and Christianity? What about the roles of Vin and Kelsier in that church and how they mirror Christ and other Christian figures? I know I've picked up on other things in the book like this, but the thing with the spear pin just really stood out to me and made me start thinking about it a lot harder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThirdGen Posted August 18, 2015 Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 Spoilers for the Mistborn trilogy: There is a Mormon parallel to the thread across #2 of finding hidden metal plates. Harmony operates under Taoist principles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver he/him Posted August 18, 2015 Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 Just something I noticed reading HoA, Vin sees somebody, Demoux I think, wearing a spear pin for the Church of the Survivor and she thinks how odd it is that the Church has chosen the instrument of the Survivor's death for their symbol. Made me think of Christianity and the Cross, which was probably intentional since Brandon is christian himself. That made me wonder, what other parallels to major religions are there in the Mistborn series? Has Brandon discussed it very much? I'm sure I've missed some of them. I imagine a lot of authors would hesitate to so blatantly imitate their own religion in this way, but I think it's pretty cool and gives you an opportunity to see things from a different perspective than you might normally. The spear might also have a bit of extra symbolism (since Jesus had his side pierced by a spear while on the cross)... ...But I'm SURE I read somewhere that Brandon said the comparison to Christianity was accidental, and he didn't realize it until after he'd written it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
02ranger he/him Posted August 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 (edited) The spear might also have a bit of extra symbolism (since Jesus had his side pierced by a spear while on the cross)... ...But I'm SURE I read somewhere that Brandon said the comparison to Christianity was accidental, and he didn't realize it until after he'd written it. I'm gonna have to search for that. That's too funny if he did it unintentionally. When I read it I literally did a double-take and then started laughing. I hadn't considered the extra symbolism you mentioned, that's pretty good. I was just thinking about the weapon-that-killed-him part. Edit: I'm guessing that what you're talking about is in the annotations. This is the first I've looked at any of them, since I haven't finished the series yet. I don't mind spoilers, but I do limit myself a little bit. The Symbol of the Spear I’m not trying to overtly duplicate Christianity with the spear becoming the symbol of the Church of the Survivor much like the cross became for Christians. It just seemed a very natural symbol, and I do very much like playing with the idea of how a religion grows and changes from a loose set of beliefs into an organized theology. Edited August 18, 2015 by 02ranger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Slowswift he/him Posted August 18, 2015 Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 Have you seen this thread? It's mostly focusing on one religion, but still a fascinating discussion. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haradion Drogon Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 Mormonism is nearly non-existent here in the UK - so I missed quite a few of the parallels the first time reading. Its definitely unusually - even by Christian Standards. And I say that as a Christian. It certainly took me by surprise. He doesn't feel like a Mormon - although reading Sazed, it was clear he wasn't dismissive of religion, I came to the conclusion he was an agnostic. Seeing a potential truth in every religion, but ascribing to none. I was very surprised to see he was a Mormon when I looked it up. Maybe it was more obvious for someone who was more familiar with Mormonistic beliefs? About All I know of them at the time, was that they believed in a rather America-centric view of Jesus and Christianity in general. Lets see. Elantris was the capital of one Religion. But it had a shrine to others... I believe Rome had a temple to unknown gods in its great Temple, where people would pray to Gods other than the Roman deities. This didn't last after Constantine, for obvious reasons.I guess you could make the argument that the Steel Ministry has some common with the Catholic Church? Which underwent a period of intense corruption and abuse of power, especially around the Borgia Era, before undergoing something of a reformation. Not as much as I would have liked, but still. A lot of Halladran, and Warbreaker reminds me of the Aztec empire. Square Pyramids, bright colours, jungles. Substituting sacrificing Breath to the gods, for sacrificing ones life and you have a good one there. I am given to understand that the Second Wax and Wayne book will feature religious terrorism and sectarian violence. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
02ranger he/him Posted August 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2015 Sorry, I was still reading HoA when I posted this thread, and realized just how much religion and faith plays into that book. I knew it would be a lot, but I just didn't expect quite that much. I decided to finish the book before coming back to this thread. I don't really mind spoilers for the most part, otherwise I wouldn't have come here at all until I was finished, but I wanted to read the rest without learning anything new. Have you seen this thread? It's mostly focusing on one religion, but still a fascinating discussion. I have glanced through it just a little bit, I'm going to read it more in-depth later when I get a chance. Looks very interesting. Thanks! Mormonism is nearly non-existent here in the UK - so I missed quite a few of the parallels the first time reading. Its definitely unusually - even by Christian Standards. And I say that as a Christian. It certainly took me by surprise. He doesn't feel like a Mormon - although reading Sazed, it was clear he wasn't dismissive of religion, I came to the conclusion he was an agnostic. Seeing a potential truth in every religion, but ascribing to none. I was very surprised to see he was a Mormon when I looked it up. Maybe it was more obvious for someone who was more familiar with Mormonistic beliefs? About All I know of them at the time, was that they believed in a rather America-centric view of Jesus and Christianity in general. Lets see. Elantris was the capital of one Religion. But it had a shrine to others... I believe Rome had a temple to unknown gods in its great Temple, where people would pray to Gods other than the Roman deities. This didn't last after Constantine, for obvious reasons.I guess you could make the argument that the Steel Ministry has some common with the Catholic Church? Which underwent a period of intense corruption and abuse of power, especially around the Borgia Era, before undergoing something of a reformation. Not as much as I would have liked, but still. A lot of Halladran, and Warbreaker reminds me of the Aztec empire. Square Pyramids, bright colours, jungles. Substituting sacrificing Breath to the gods, for sacrificing ones life and you have a good one there. I am given to understand that the Second Wax and Wayne book will feature religious terrorism and sectarian violence. Yeah, Brandon's own religious views really don't show through in Mistborn. I think that's part of what surprised me so much about the parallels. It's really not that odd to find similarities to real-world religion in fiction, but for a Christian author to write a crisis of faith and questioning of religion like he did, not to mention the clear borrowing from Christianity, was surprising to me. I think a lot of authors would have either been afraid of offending somebody or possibly found it offensive themselves. If I hadn't known he was Mormon from the start, my guess would've been agnostic too. I'm continually surprised how good of an author he is. Now I have to find something else to read, probably Alloy of Law next...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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