Poroner

No need to worry. It was... well not exactly sarcastic but I don't feel that way anymore, unless something else surfaces while I'm reading Bands of mourning (it will have to be somewhat extreme) but for now it's all good!

@Calderis Thank you. I never even noticed the downvotes myself.

I don't know, I feel like even if I hadn't used the term there would still be downvotes, people tend to get quite touchy about these subjects. Growing up I never saw the color of someone's skin or cared who they were attracted to but after the various identity politics or however you want to call them the last few years and how in almost every form of entertainment there's been people trying to force diversity out of nowhere (especially changing the race / gender of an existing character) it has made me question the intent behind bringing up subjects such as these. So to answer your question, it just feels more genuine. There's a clear set up of how the world works, the issues and why people act the way they do. I know mistborn is supposed to take after earth and western culture but it's still supposed to be a different world and while I agree with most points brought up here I still feel like he didn't do a good job conveying some of those in the book itself. Reddit does come into it too. This for example and from Brandon's answer this has come up before and suddenly there's a couple of "militant feminists" in the books. The question about LGBT characters and kandra as well. Suddenly there's talk about genders. Why should that kind of thing bother someone else but this should not bother me? (I don't want to discredit that reddit thread, it does have some merit to it. Discussions about Elend but also about Vin from Elends end could get a bit too much at times) So I came here to discuss it, listen to what others have to say. Maybe I missed something, maybe I misunderstood and mostly to understand a bit more about Brandon and how he works which will ease my worries about his intent. Is he really writing this because he feels like it or is it because someone called him out on it and he's worried about that happening again? That's my honest answer. As I said before, I don't want to convince anyone of anything. It's just how I feel.

This is what I'm scared of. I felt this way with shadows of self but people brought up some very good points in this thread. You've got some constantly asking about more diversity and then he writes it in just out of fear of catching flak. I'm not saying it has happened so far, the already existing gay characters are pretty natural but the gender talk certainly feels like it especially after reading the question about LGBT characters. Now I'm fairly confident he won't but I still worry. This is my opinion of course and I don't want to come off wrong but it's just that I get into these kind of books to read about a high fantasy story. People and gods killing each other, political intrigue, crazy adventures etc. Reading about stuff like this (someone's sexuality, how someone perceives genders), especially when it has no bearing on the story isn't really fun. I'm not necessarily talking about Brandon's work here but in general. As a sidenote, it is pretty hilarious how Brandon has written about tons of stuff that go against his beliefs yet he still refuses to have a character have sex before marriage. I don't mind although it does get a bit weird at times. "Just **** already!"

I read the book recently and it did (unless there's something in alloy of law that I'm not remembering). Anyway, you bring up good points about Melaan and I find myself agreeing. I would have liked if her pov was better explained in the book however. But yes I see now how Brandon works and it's pretty reassuring.

I knew that he is a mormon which made Jasnah all that much more awesome and you did put my mind at ease. It's good to know that he doesn't hold those views but it still feels like pandering to a certain audience and not up to par, making a kandra a "militant feminist" was probably the weirdest decision for me. Regardless thank you for your answer. It helped, I think.

Slight spoilers for mistborn era 2 ahead. I'm gonna start by saying I'm not here to convince anyone of anything, I just want to know something. Is BS a SJW? I ask this because mostly because of mistborn Era 2. In none other of his works I've felt this way. I first noticed this when reading shadows of self and it all started with Melaan, who is an ancient being that has lived through the final empire and somehow after 600 years the thing she cares about is humans being sexist (even though there was literally no case of someone who is not already an awful person being sexist before) and somehow can't grasp the fact that kandras and humans are different. She also rants on about how harmony has no gender etc. It all seems so incredibly forced and only there to please a certain audience. Later on how Marasi started complaining to the constable captain how their uniforms are not appropriate which also came out of nowhere and it was not the time or place to discuss this and even Marasi herself says "we should discuss this another time" after bringing it up in the first place. Also all the times he mentions how "progressive" something is like we can't figure it out by ourselves. Whenever these issues were tackled in stormlight archive for example I didn't feel this way, I don't know why it just doesn't work here. He didn't introduce this as a "sexist world" as Melaan seems to think. From what he's said men and women pretty much have equal opportunities and one would think that seeing as how the ascendant warrior was a woman. Before anyone calls me anything, I'm not a sexist, bigot, racist whatever you want to think. My favorite character is actually Jasnah. I just pointed all this out so some of you can at least see where I'm coming from. So is he? Every instance of something like this in era 2 made me roll my eyes and has greatly discouraged me from continuing reading. I would have ignored it but I'm at chapter 3 of bands of mourning and he's continuing with it and seeing as how Era 2 is some of his latest work can I expect more of this in the future? I actually want someone to convince me otherwise since I'm really enjoying the cosmere but this... yeah. And I guess sorry if I offended anyone...? Also sorry if I posted this in the wrong subforum or if this place is not fit for this type of discussion in general. I didn't want to post this on the reddit sub because I believe that place tends to be quite biased.