Rao-seeker

Has no one considered Dylan O'Brien for Elend? Although to be honest, I'd like to see Dylan O'Brien anywhere, and he might be offered Elend and ask for Lestibournes or Zane. But still... For Vin, I'd like an unknown actress, and if it was possible, I'd like her to be of age... 15-16. I guess that's asking too much. I wonder who should be the Lord Ruler or Kelsier. Both should be impressive. The Lord Ruler should exude self-confidence and power, and Kelsier should be charismatic beyond description. Those two would be difficult.

I felt so identified with her when she explains that her lists of pre-made sentences don't get her too far, because people notice how "alien" she is. Good Lord, I've been there so many times... and she's forced to socialize, too. No wonder she asks Wax for help. I just love her. Mind you, I love most of the characters of the novels. Wax is great, Marasi is awesome, and Wayne... OK, I want to punch Wayne half the time (you despise Steris? Do you think you have the right to despise anyone? YOU?), but he can be real fun and real competent, just a real chull too. But I started to love Steris the moment she was introduced, and she's just being getting better during the novels. It's possibly one of the characters I feel most identified with. I've never read a character say so many things I could sign. And... I don't see the tsundere anywhere, either. She's just... alien. She cannot connect with other people normally, but that doesn't stop her from feeling alone. I just adore her. So much that at the end of Bands of Mourning I was wondering whether Sanderson wanted to make her that adorable, or if it's just me and a few of us who find her so. In any case, she's a delightful character and it was a pleasure to to see her grow. EDIT: A real "chull"? I remember writing something different. As in, possibly a bit inappropriate.

After treating myself for Christmas to 7 of Brandon's books, at last I found time for Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning. Oh, yeah. I'm not going to start into the EPIC proportions the Cosmere is getting. I came here to talk about love. I'm a woman but I never liked what are called "romance stories" much (or at all). I like action, and I like romance within the action, and friendship, and brotherly-sisterly-fatherly-motherly emotions, and epics... inside the action. Those feelings are part of life, not the whole of life itself, and I can't stand a story where romance is everything. I can't stand a protagonist for which romance is everything: I needed to pass exams, find jobs, pay for things, go out with friends... I had a crush, but if it was a bad idea, I could wait until I was over it. Love was not ALL of life. It was a part of life, and art that does not focus in all parts of life is limited... and boring. Plus, romance stories or movies, or especially TV series, were based in the fact that the lovers to be were idiots with ZERO ability to communicate, talk to each other and explain what the problem was. Those stories demanded from me the following of an idiotic plot, or to respect or care for characters that were acting stupidly. I wanted to scream: "TELL HIM!" or "TELL HER!" Booooring... the reason why the most enjoyable romances appeared in action or adventure movies and series is that they didn't have as much time to make the plot stupid and have the characters hide info from one another so they could be separated forcefully. Not to mention the fact that all those stories are about sexual tension or falling in love. It's rare to find a love story. It's easy to find a story about falling in love. Most instances are about unresolved sexual tension. But, love? It's rare. The best love story in a screen I've ever seen is in the first 15 minutes of UP! Wall-E's and EVE's is beautiful, but again, it's a story about falling in love, not about love (unless you count love for life, which is another type). Love goes beyond the falling, beyond the fascination, beyond the magic bubble. Falling is looking at each other in awe: love is looking together in the same direction. When you have a crush, you are on a high when the other person is in the room. When you love, the other person is like your arm or your leg: you are not fascinated by them, but you start feeling bad if s/he's not close. It's a completely different feeling, and it's hard to express or to describe or narrate, and hard to find. Sexual tension is much easier to sell. Love requires frankness, and lots of communication, and negotiation, and admitting the quirks of the other, and learning from the other, and even, whenever possible, looking at the world through the eyes of the other person and see beauty and wonder where you would never have even considered to look for it. I love the action, the magic, the politics and everything that the Cosmere offers. But after finishing The Bands of Mourning, I have also been immersed in one of the best love stories (not the crush, not the falling, not the sexual tension: love) I have ever had the pleasure to live. THIS was love. For real. As it really is, as it really grows, as it needs to be nurtured, as it changes people so they grow closer to one another, as they make little concessions to one another's quirks, as they accept each other's flaws and traits, yet try to learn from each other and become better people. I've rarely seen love in art so well portrayed. And I just had to tell someone.

Thank you, I will! I'm waiting because I'm scared of beginning a trilogy and then not getting the rest of the books soon enough... I read the first Mistborn trilogy at once. Imagine what would have been needing to stop just after the end of "Well of Ascension" Still, I want to keep on reading, so I'll take the risk and trust Sanderson's work ethics. At the rate he publishes, it doesn't seem it'll take a lot of time for us to have the books. :-) Thanks for the answer!

I know this is an old thread, but I have only read "Alloy of Law" (from the second series) and I don't want to find spoilers. I just finished "The Alloy of Law" and was just wondering if anyone liked Steris as much as I did. I mean, it's not that I don't like the other characters, or Marasi. I just happened to like Steris a lot, and I really would like to see more of her. She is very cold and under control (most of the time, now we know she can be aroused), but she is also intelligent (she gives a very good briefing to Wax when they enter the wedding reception) and actually nice. She has a lovely beautiful younger half-sister, and she takes her everywhere where her new fiancé is going to be, because she knows said lovely sister admires the man! Despite having been dumped about three times. I know Marasi is charming too, but as for marriage material, at the end of the book, when Wax was wondering why he had chosen Steris instead of Marasi... And I thought "well, first of all, because Steris is a catch as a wife, and secondly, because with Steris you can also be with Marasi!" I also think that she's very capable of feeling, both arousal and romance, and I really, really ended up wishing things to work right between her and Wax. Yes, Marasi is more beautiful, and younger, and also very interesting. But I find Steris also very intelligent, and I actually find her social awkwardness quite endearing. In short, I ship Wax + Steris. However, I have noting against Wax + Steris + Marasi. After all, Wax has permission already, and if Steris could feel jealousy she wouldn't have made the social bluff of bringing Marasi to meet her husband-to-be. I guess Brandon could have taken the easy way and made Steris completely dislikable, so Marasi would shine beside her. I like how he made Steris, a secondary character and secondary love interest (well a non-love interest at all) actually intelligent, nice, apparently good-hearted, and in her own way, "adorkable". I loved how she was able to break her social conditioning and in the end she changed "OK, you like going out on adventures... great". It feels she's letting herself loose, and I liked that a lot. She was changed (very naturally) by her ordeal. So she learns from her mistakes and is not a complete square-head, just so socially inept that she tries to compensate with logic and planification. I hope to see more of her, and if I can see more of her letting her hair down I'll be very happy.