SheepAreFluffy

I don't think we can read too much into that. Brandon has spoken of how his works can be effectively be thought of as "in translation", and Tress especially is presented as Hoid narating it for a specific audience. Even if the word that Charlie originally spoke was something different, after it's been interpreted by Hoid and then by Brandon then it might easily end up being rendered as Iriali by the time we see it. Which isn't to say that I think this is necessearily the case, more that I think it should be viewed as inconclusive.

Who knows? Beware of anyone who claims to be able to see the future. Hypothetically, from the perspective of Kelsier trying to decide whether to share his plan, I think there would be reasonable arguments that doing so could either increase or decrease the likelihood of success. On the one hand, by not telling them, they couldn't try to talk him out of it, they had a more authentic reaction to his death, there was no chance of the plan being revealed if any of them were compromised. On the other hand, if he had told them then they could have worked together to refine the plan and spot any flaws that he as a single individual might have missed, and if they knew the plan then they'd definitely be ready to do what was needed in the aftermath to move it along. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. From an out-of-universe perspective, I also think there's no reason why it couldn't have worked. If Brandon had chosen to have Kelsier share his plan to the crew and then have them all develop it together before it eventually worked out, then I don't think I'd have been left thinking "oh, how absurd, that plan could only have worked if nobody else knew about it". I don't think it would have been as dramatically satisfying if things had played out that way, but I don't think that it would have been unrealistic or unbelievable. So in short: I absolutely think that it could have worked. I guess the question is, what were Kelsier's motivations for keeping the secret rather than telling everyone else? It's certainly possible that he did a very careful and considered cost-benefit analysis and determined that the plan was more likely to succeed if he kept it secret than if he didn't, that it was an entirely pragmatic decision. But for me and my interpretation of the character, that rings a bit false. I suspect it was more of an emotional decision than a calculated one. Some combination of a flare for the dramatic and a sense that he alone is the one who has to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. That's an interesting comparison with the siege of Luthadel. Because in that case, trying to send Vin and Elend away seems like it didn't work out at all. You can never say for sure what would have happened if they hadn't been sent away, and maybe things would have played out in such a way that Vin never figured out how to control the Koloss. But by and large, it seems that sending them away was absolutely the wrong choice and that it ended up costing lives. So we have one instance where the secretive self-sacrifice worked and one case where ti didn't, so it would be easy to say that Kelsier made the right call and then the others made the wrong call, but that's very results-oriented thinking. Yes, with hindsight this is the case, but at the time when the decisions were made? I don't think that either decision was made with enough information to really predict how they would turn out. So, personally speaking, I'm more inclined to forgive the crew for sending Vin and Elend away, because at least in that case it was a decision made by consensus of multiple people rather than one made unilaterally by a single individual. Individuals are more prone to making really bone-headed decisions, because all humans are flawed and we all have our blind spots. Yeah, Kelsier's decision worked out, but I mostly see that as him getting lucky more than anything else.

I agree with most of what you're saying here, but do want to dive a bit deeper into a couple of specific parts. First, I'm not sure what you mean by "things that can't reasonably be explored through more main-line fiction"? That seems like a strange way of phrasing things. Because of course, transgender and non-binary identities can be and are explored in fiction of all genres. If the goal is just to explore trans identity then there are a lot of much easier ways to do so than to imagine a swarm of invertebrates with an emergent collective consciousness attempting to pass as human. That said, there are things that you can do in SF&F that you can't do in other genres. One that's obvious to me is to explore what the social ramifications would be if it were significantly easier for people to change their bodies to match their identities through the use of magic or tech? There's a lot of fertile ground to explore there. But that isn't what's happening here. I don't think there's anything going on here that is saying anything about trans people and identites that wouldn't be said better by including a trans character. I also think that it's worthwhile to differentiate between trans-coded characters and characters who are an allegory for trans experience. A trans-coded character would be one who isn't directly stated to be trans, but where it is implied through tropes, stereotypes, mannerism, and so on. It's all a bit nudge and a wink, plausible deniability, and "if you know you know". (See also: the Wikipedia entry for queer coding.) On the other hand, if this were intended as allegory, then we wouldn't at any point be supposed to ask if Masaka is trans. Rather, we're supposed to notice that there are similarities and parallels between her experience and trans experience. It's something of a subtle distinction, for sure, but I think a meaningful one. I was curious enough to go and look up the WoB for myself, so I'll share it here to save anyone else the effort: And while looking for it, I also found this one: (Bolding mine.) I think that suggests that Masaka was probably not intended to be trans. If that had been his intention, he probably would likely have been much more unambiguous about it. Whether she was intended as an allegory for trans experience is more up in the air, I think. But even if she wasn't intended that way, it's still a fine thing for us readers to be able to draw those parallels ourselves (or make our own head-canons).

Yeah, he is ultimately the one who has to make the final call on everything, but that doesn't mean that he has to make decisions without even consulting anyone else. There's plenty of room for something along the lines of "OK, we'll talk this through, brainstorm it together, come up with different ideas, but then if we can't agree then we'll do it my way". And (from memory; it's been a while) that's generally how the crew operate through The Final Empire. Kelsier is vrey open to ideas and suggestions from others... up until the point where he isn't. For his final plan of martyrdom, he didn't involve anyone else at all. It wasn't just that he was the one making the command decision. He made the command decision and didn't tell anyone else about it. That's the part that really stuck with me.

Speculative musing: I wonder if lerasium alloys would create exceptionally strong or gifted mistings of their specific power. So, for instance, let's say I have two pieces of lerasium of the same size, alloy one of them with copper and then give them to two different people. This would give us one mistborn and one smoker. But would the coppercloud created by the smoker be stronger than the one created by the mistborn (bigger radius, harder to pierce, etc.)? Inherently so, that is, rather than just a case of a specialist learning their skills better than a generalist. Would the raw potential of the lerasium being concentrated into a single allomantic ability make it supercharged?

As a thought experiment, how do you think she'd react if someone read her as being a human male? Would it be "hooray, I am a convincing human!", "oh dear, have I made some mistake with cultural assumptions?" or "no! that's not who I am! I'm a human woman!"? There's no right answer to this, of course, since we don't ever actually see this happen, but I think that how you imagine that scenario playing out is pertinent to whether one can think of her as a trans character. If you think the third one is how she'd probably react, then I think it's more than fair to think of her as trans; if one of the first two, then she's at best an allegory for trans experience. It's an odd one, for sure. Any (respectful) trans rep is better than no trans rep, I agree. But just because getting table scraps is better than going hungry doesn't mean that I'm going to celebrating table scraps. Especially because there are other authors out there who are doing amazing things with trans and non-binary characters. And to be clear, it's not as if Brandon "owes" us a trans main character or any other nonsense like that. He doesn't. I would love it if he does write one, but I will still love his books even if he never does. But at the same time, I'm not going to give him credit for the table scraps. Which is fine, because he's already pretty heavily in credit for other things... You get what I'm saying. *nods furiously* I'll add Morriumur to the "I love the character, buuuuuut" list. And I'd completely forgotten who Ral-na was and had to go look him up, which definitely does give weight to the "he sure is a character who exists" position.

There's one thing that's really stuck with me about Kelsier right from the start. He always talked up the importance of his crew and working together and all that stuff, but when it came down to his final plan in The Final Empire to get himself killed and then stage his resurection, he worked alone (except for OreSeur, who was integral to the plan). So that's who I think he is at heart: someone who is only going to trust himself when the chips are really down. Nothing I've seen of him since has changed that opinion that I've had from the start.

I didn't read Masaka as trans at all when I initially read the book. Going back and rereading relevant scenes now, I can certainly see how she can come across that way, though, even if it's not really a viewpoint that I share. For me, she mostly came across as a parallel to Yumi as Yumi learns how to be a person. From chapter 16 (Masaka's introduction chapter): This is right alongside Yumi interacting with not one but two non-human characters who are themselves learning how to be people. Then in chapter 33 (in which Yumi learns Masaka's identity): Again, it's about the parallels between Masaka and Yumi and about learning to be a person, rather than learning to be any particular subset of person. At least, that's how it came across to me. And while I recognise that trans people are not a monolith and all trans experiences are different, Masaka just didn't resonate with me personally. For me, the experience of transition and gender expression was a heady mixture of confusion ("wait, I'm supposed to do what?") and familiarity ("oh, yes, this feels completely natural"), whereas for Masaka I got the impression that pretty much all of her attempts to appear human were closer to the former. It felt more like "I have learned how humans work" and less like "I have always wanted to behave this way and now I have a place where I can". Even that is very much open to interpretation, though. Ultimately, we just don't get enough characterisation for Masaka to be able to definitively say one way or another, so a lot of it is just going to come down to vibes and personal interpretation. Did he also include an acknowledgement for anyone helping him out with Steris in Era 2? I don't remember one, but I don't even remotely trust my memory for things like that. And in fairness, it's not hard to imagine that he might have talked to someone who prefered to remain anonymous. A professional sensitivity reader probably wouldn't have wanted that, but if he just spoke with a friend, they might very well not have wanted to out themself to the world. Strongly agree with this, especially the part about the importance of human trans rep. Aliens and fantasy creatures as trans-allegory are all well and good, but I've seen enough of them by this point and I want more.

I'm going to say Forgery. Partly just because we've seen so little of it, and that sense of mystery always makes something seem just that little bit cooler to me. But it also matches up well with a lot of my personal tastes. I love magic that is more studied, detailed and nuanced, rather than the more intuitive, primal raw power of magic like Allomancy. I'm also really drawn to being able to change something's fundamental nature by rewriting its history, especially the ability of a Soulforger to change themself. There's definitely parts of myself that I'd rewrite if I had the chance. I also really liked that it had just barely enough in common with AonDor to feel that it was drawing off the same source and that the two formed part of a coherent whole, but that it was also different enough to feel like something totally new and fresh.

Actually a bagel. Which is good. I like bagels more than donuts, so it seems a more worthy trade for my soul. Still, I like keeping my soul anyway. (And also like doing ridiculous things, apparently.) It was a fluffy slipper boot. Which I think scores pretty low on the coolness scale, but pretty high on the keeping-my-toes-warm scale. And also pretty high on the balancing on my head scale, which I hadn't appreciated about it until today. And yes, I do like cheese. Very much. My favourites tend to be soft and smelly cheeses, but I enjoy most cheese.

(Yes, I know that "Hello" is a singularly uncreative title, but I'm not sure it's even possible to be creative here, so I didn't even try.) Hello! I am yet another new(ish) reader of the Cosmere. I first heard of Brandon Sanderson many years ago, but had always been reticent to read anything of his. I've been burned a few too many times by giant epic fantasy series that either stall out and don't see new entries or that carry on endlessly with no plan and an overall quality that trends inexorably downwards (you can probably think of examples of both). So why would I want to start reading a series that's... checks... how many books long and still ongoing? Well, I wouldn't, of course. Except that I kept on hearing more and more good things about it from more and more people, and eventually one friend was so sure that I would enjoy the (original) Mistborn trilogy, so I caved. That was in late April, when I picked up The Final Empire for the first time. It's now mid October, and a few days ago, I finished Rhythm of War and, to the best of my knowledge, I am now up to date with all published Cosmere works except for White Sand (which I haven't been able to find a reasonably-priced copy of, so I'm waiting for the omnibus to come out). So I'd say that went well. My friend gets a little metaphorical "I was right" sticker from me for that recommendation. There are a lot of things that I enjoy about the series, but my single favourite thing is that I actually feel as if I'm rewarded for paying attention. This is definitely not the sort of series that requires you to turn your brain off because all the logic will collapse if you think too hard about it. Instead I got to feel oh-so-smart and oh-so-smug for predicting things before they happened multiple times over. Now that I no longer need to worry about spoilers, I think it's time for me to dip my toes into the fandom. My friend has been excellent about answering as many of my questions as he can, but there is a limit to what any one person can know. But with a whole fandom out there, that's so many more people I can annoy delight with questions about consequentialism in the Cosmere, entropy in the Cosmere, and "hey, did you notice that one cool thing?" in the Cosmere. I also discovered today that I am very bad at yodeling with a shoe on my head.