KOOZ

Pretty much what I thought happened in the book: by "supercharging" atium, Elend saw how the endgame can unfold, at least up to the point where Ruin is destroyed. In a way, he chose not only to sacrifice himself, but Vin too (and, as indicated by Sazed and in SH, Vin does not mind in the least), in order to give Scadrial a chance. Actually, it would be interesting to know, how far ahead Elend could see - was it minutes, was it hours? Also, given that multiple futures are possible with atium, seems that using duralumin also helped him greatly to enhance his understanding of the myriad of possibilities in the future and all the key cause-effect nodes. Hmm, since he saw the future where he dies and then the events that would follow (otherwise why choose death), did he also see what would happen to him in other Realms? And if he saw so far ahead into the future as to see Sazed picking his powers and reshaping the world, could he have glimpsed the Beyond (I guess it is unlikely, even Shardsholders apparently can't see there, yet they can glimpse the future, and predict their own deaths)?

Kelsier recruiting Fuzz definitely up there. Also, I will never forget Spanky, Hoid's trusty steed, and their friendly chats. I also quite enjoyed Kelsier messing around with the IRE folks, you could see how much he missed a good con. Alas, I'm with a couple of posters here on not appreciating Ati good bye smacking much - mostly because Ati seemed so clueless to the things that he Ruined.

So, first generation kandra definitely have souls and any of the ones made from the original mistwraiths do too. Would it not make sense that creatures that have souls and create babies in their image will mean that said babies will have souls too? Also, apart from the Paalm reference, is there anything to indicate that higher generation kandra also have souls?

Agree on that; also, they seemed more Cosmere aware than the local kandra and seemed very much detached when discussing the cleansing of Scadrial, as if they are visitors only here. Also, would not Harmony have noticed if more kandra went outside of his control? There are not that many of them (unless I am much mistaken, for sure less than 1500 individuals?), so Harmony should be able to track them easily. That's a question that has been bothering me a bit - if another Shard created a kandra-like creature, that would require knowledge of Hemalurgy - and is this not a Ruin-only specific art? Surely other Shards would not have innate knowledge of other Shards' magic systems? Judging by the creatures we meet in Shadows of Self, they are a pretty feeble attempt at new constructs - I had the impression that those creatures were the result of experimentation carried out by individuals during Era 2 (and Paalm was already "properly" spiked, Trell only provided a replacement spike)? As such, these fake kandra are probably not kandra... As for Svarkiss - is there additional information on them, apart from them being a concept used in the Derethi religion? Isn't Dominion splintered by the time events in the Final Empire takes place? In which case, the red mist, the fake kandra directing the Set, etc, seem like actions of a whole Shard? Not to mention that Trell implies a single entity, rather than Skaze getting organized and doing Evil via Hivemind?

Ahhh, you're right, got too carried away with that one - was thinking of malatium application there. Gold only good for introspection of the lucky few that would have it. I guess if the patient if a gold misting/mistborn, this scenario could work.

Definitely enjoyed the book. Character-wise, I was most impressed by the growth of Steris - even by the end of Shadows of Self I was not convinced that she could replace Lessie for Wax, yet she's grown on me in this book (although, this could very well be that she has become more Marassi like, and, in some ways, the reverse could be applied to Marassi a bit - shout out to Warbreaker?). Loved the Wayne and shotgun scene, although I wished his retribution was terminal, rather than temporary - as with Wax's return, it lessens, to a certain degree, the emotional depth of the scene (although I was almost convinced that Wax was moving on by the time he met Sazed). I see that quite a few people enjoyed the hotel arrival scene - am I the only one who imagined Mr Sanderson writing it in the middle of the night in a slight delirium because that scene just felt surreal and it almost winks at the reader? About the Sovereign, for most of the book I thought it was Marsh, because I vaguely recollected a WoB about Marsh setting out to investigate "stuff in the South" after the conclusion of the original trilogy. And, to be honest, even when taking account the ending of the book and certain information from the Secret History, I am not convinced that things are as straightforward as they seem. (This is Sanderson, after all.) For some reason, Kelsier temporarily possessing Marsh seems like the most interesting possibility. One thing I would not be at all surprised about if the body "Keliser" inhabits turns out to be someone we recognize. Finally, I feel like there are too many potential conflicts left to be resolved in just one book! I guess if they're all to be realized, then the last book will be very dense in terms of intertwined plots. In a way it's a bit of a shame we have to wait so long for the final installment, oh well!

Allomantic chromium - security checkpoints e.g. nightclubs, airports. Now, a tricky one, allomantic gold might actually be useful for psychologists - from the books, it seems gold highlights the most important decisions in one's life, thus if there are serious problems with a person, it might highlight alternative pathways which may allow for some insightful deductions. Allomantic bendalloy can be very useful in medicine and sports - any long-term serious injuries can be healed much faster. Also, speeding up harvests (a little) or brewing various drinks could be a possibility. Allomantic cadmium could also be crucial in medicine - e.g. it can be used to spring a containment field and deliver supplies to folks who are seriously hurt and cannot afford transportation. Also, with allomantic electrum, I think the betting industry and any "guess the question and win money" shows will have a huge head-ache - even if you see only a couple of seconds in the future, it is easy to place online bets or see the correct answer in a show (phone a friend option would be perfect).

Greetings, everyone! I think that, ultimately, the choice of emergency metal ingestion and burning is limited primarily by two factors which, so far as I can tell, have not been fully clarified (kindly do correct me if there are WoB on this that I missed): 1). Is the metal burning process limited specifically to the stomach, or it can take place anywhere in the digestive tract? Or, indeed, as long as the metal is located within the allomancer, it can be burned? 2). Need the metal surface be in contact with the lining of the stomach/flesh of the allomancer? For part 1, most likely we can eliminate the latter possibility, since burning allomantic metals anywhere in the body of the allomancer can be lethal - e.g. one does not wish to burn up all the iron in the body. If one assumes burning of allomantic metals is limited to stomach only, then most logical oral-based metal ingestion methods have been outlined above. However, if we assume that one can burn the metal anywhere in the digestive tract (e.g. Zane might have kept the coin in his mouth not only as an emergency landing pad, but also as an extra source of metal - the lad was creative), then there is another possibility - instead of focusing on the mouth, we can consider the other end of the digestive tract. Advantages include: unexpected place, well concealed from sight; villains, especially in that time period, are unlikely to check there, it will also take them precious seconds to get to the metal "compartment" at which point the allomancer can burn it; in addition, it is very easy and, dare I say, natural, to expel unused metals. For part 2, I vaguely recollect a WoB on how it is the structure of the metal/alloy that acts as a catalyst/key for enabling the allomancer to use a specific ability. Thus, if the ability is fully dependent on the metal lattice structure being in the allomancer, it could be that concealing the metal in something else, undigestible, is a possibility - then, as proposed before, one can put metals in capsules and swallow at leisure. I think there is one obvious example which might indicate that this is possible: people swallow aluminium (e.g. Vin in the original trilogy) and it works - yet under normal conditions, the surface layer of aluminium is covered by aluminium oxide, which lends rise to a different atomic arrangement on the surface and prevents the lining to be directly in touch with aluminium metal per se, yet the metal nugget remains allomantically active.