What does SoS title mean?

[Red Ferring he/him]

What does the title "Shadows of Self" mean? What is it referring to?

 

Alloy of Law was referring to (I believe) the in-world term of alloy meaning a person. Like "he's a bad alloy for sure". So it could be like the alloy of Miles and Wax. Or of Wax and Wayne. Or just Wax as a person mixing his city vs roughs life.

Bands of Mourning is literally the name of something.

 

But what shadows of whose self is the title referencing? Did Brandon ever say?

Edited March 2, 2016 by Red Ferring

[tobar14 he/him]

It could be referencing all the main characters.  That book kind of shows how each character has past selves that play a role in what they are doing presently.

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

The phrase was also mentioned in Era 1 IIRC, but I interpret it as past versions/memories of yoursel

[jasenerd]

It could relate to Paalm being a shadow of her original self because of lacking a spike.

[nervousnerd he/him]

Made me think of burning gold. You could see what you could have been if you made different choices. The shadow of what you could have been.

[Red Ferring he/him]

I appreciate all these responses. I think they all make sense for what the title could mean

[IndigoAjah he/him]

Alloy of Law is from a quote by Miles- he know longer serves the Law but an Alloy blended with True Justice, in his mind. But actually, it's Wax and Wayne who serve that, even more than they do Harmony. They break the Law when it's the right thing but generally align with it and work within its bounds, accepting that raw Justice, unalloyed, is too subjective and open to misinterpretation and abuse (like Miles') whereas pure Law is too fettered and sometimes does not allow for what is right, it's too objective when actual morality is not. It is the Alloy that they serve

[Melaan]

I recently read some psychology related materiel and there was a section about shadows' or 'shadow selves'. The idea being that everyone has a shadow --  a darker (though not necessarily evil) side of themselves that they keep masked or hidden from others. Your shadow might be the person you are when no one else is around, the person you are that isn't just the show you put on for other people.
I thought this was especially appropriate for a book about Kandra.

(No one jump on the spoiler train, it says it's about Kandra on the inside flaps of the book.)

 

[Otto Didact he/him]

I definitely thought that Allomantic gold would play a major part of the plot, given the title and given that Miles would frequently check his gold shadows. It's still weird to me that it didn't.

[Melaan]

What I would love to see is an allomancer who is addicted to gold or something, and because of that they are messed up emotionally sure, but they have also figured out surprising things they can do with it.

[Otto Didact he/him]

Yeah, I'm just waiting for some seriously powerful characters who use powers that most people have dismissed as worthless (e.g. gold misting, duralumin gnat, seeker, etc.)

[Oversleep]

Yeah, I'm just waiting for some seriously powerful characters who use powers that most people have dismissed as worthless (e.g. gold misting, duralumin gnat, seeker, etc.)

Aluminium may be pretty powerful if burning aluminium makes you invulnerable to Shardblades and Aons and whatnot.

[JUQ he/him]

Um, doesn't old mate say in The Letter about shardholders becoming a shadow of themselves? He may have even used the exact words, Shadows of Self

I'm not sure if this meaning applies however.