Brandon Sanderson Community discussion

Hi everybody, I just finished reading the Mistborn trilogy and was wondering, who are your top five favorite characters? Now I know top five is maybe a lot, but I couldn't narrow it down to less than that myself. In no particular order, here are mine:

1. Marsh. I will not lie, I find his Inquisitor form very attractive. :P
2. Breeze. Who *doesn't* like the portly, manipulative types?!
3. Spook. Spook is just plain adorable.
4. Sazed. Seriously, what's not to love?
5. Ruin. Call me completely insane, but I find Ruin to be rather charming.

Although, now that I think about it Marsh just might be at the top of that list! :D


-Ruin Holmes

My favorite main character would be Sazed.
In only book one it would be Kelsier.

My favorite minor character would have to be TenSoon. I also am extremely fond of Allrianne!

Spook, Breeze, Kelsier, Sazed, TenSoon

Vin, Kelsier, Sazed, TenSoon, Wayne.
Spook is a close 6th.
All subject to change once I read more of Sanderson's work. :)

1) Sazed
2) Kelsier
3) TenSoon
4) Ham
5) Elend
Wow, I feel odd for not picking Vin, but when I think about the books I tend to think of the other characters!

Yeah, Vin isn't really one of my favorites, either. Mr. Sanderson is fantastic at writing male characters, but his female characters tend to be a bit...annoying sometimes. I don't know, maybe I'm just too picky. Or maybe it was just Allrianne that made me think this way! Heh.

I like Ham because he felt the most real to me, like his personality was the least quirky and the easiest to relate to, but oftentimes my favorites are the quirky ones.

Now I feel odd for not choosing Kelsier!! Haha. Well, if I ever want to write a really really popular character, all I have to do is look to him for a model... XD

I actually really don't love Spook. I don't dislike him; I just didn't care for him. Every time in Hero of Ages it went to his point of view I wanted to skip the chapter, it was hard for me to read his point of view. I found him whiny, self-pitying, and quite asinine. At least Vin had been subtly influenced by Ruin for a long time- "Reen's" voice in her head was nothing strange; Spook randomly started hearing "Kelsier," and he didn't stop to think, hey, maybe this is all wrong and I'm a total idiot. He just really bugged me.

well to be fair Ruin spoke to Vin via a tiny earring, whereas Spook had a significant piece of sword stuck in his shoulder, and was granted a new metal by someone that had a whole church that worshiped him.

My favorite has to be Sazed with Elend as a close second.

Kelsier of course, and TenSoon.
Then there's also Vin, Sazed and Elend, can't miss out on loving the primary protagonists.

I liked Spook after he stopped talking in the street slang. I hated that. From Mistborn; Ham, Kel, and third book Spook were my favorites.

I just finished reading the 4th book as well and have to say Wayne is a pretty cool dude. My favorite in the overall series.

I'm about halfway through book 3 and so far my top two are probably Sazed (he always has awesome advice) and Kelsier (he's just plain awesome). However, I do really like TenSoon, Vin, and Elend. I feel weird saying this but ever since I read about the storage caches that the Lord Ruler set up to help out the people, I'm liking him more and more. Granted he was kind of an arrogant fool, he was still insanely powerful and pretty cool.

My least favorite character of the books so far is probably Zane. He was just crazy and he kept trying to get Vin to love him instead of Elend. What a jerk.

I'd like to make comments that agree with what you say about certain characters Taylor, but they are potentially full of spoilers and since you're still reading the book i will instead leave this very generic comment that now looking back on it probably wasted people's time.. Sorry.

Having just completed the Hero of Ages (about 5 minutes ago) these are probably my top 5 favorite main characters:
1) Sazed. Who doesn't love him?!
2/3) This one is kind of a tie, and it's between Elend and Kelsier. They're both just awesome.
4) Vin. She's amazing.
5) TenSoon.

I like Elend, Vin, Sazed and Kelsier. I can't think of a 5th character.

1. Kelsier
2. Sazed
3. Spook
4. Elend

I couldn't come up with a 5th one, either. Also, I never liked Vin all that much.

Vin , Zane, Sazed, Elend, TenSoon
didnt really like spook like most people did and if the alloy of law counts, wax and wayne and marasi are also some great characters

1. Kelsier
2. Spook
3. Vin
4. Elend
5. TenSoon

To be honest, I am absolutely in love with TenSoon. He's just...I don't know. I'm fascinated with the Kandra, and he's basically the coolest of them. I like Sazed, Elend, Breeze, and Spook.
Vin is likable enough, but she just isn't my absolute favorite.

Wow. So many TenSoon lovers here. I found him adorable too, and I would have liked to see him play a bigger role in the end. Among the main characters, my favorite would be Kelsier in the first book and Vin later. I liked Sazed initially, but his perpetual whining in the third book got on my nerves and I absolutely hated him for that. Well, till the final scene at least.

Taylor wrote: "I'm about halfway through book 3 and so far my top two are probably Sazed (he always has awesome advice) and Kelsier (he's just plain awesome). However, I do really like TenSoon, Vin, and Elend. I feel weird saying this but ever since I read about the storage caches that the Lord Ruler set up to help out the people, I'm liking him more and more. Granted he was kind of an arrogant fool, he was still insanely powerful and pretty cool.

My least favorite character of the books so far is probably Zane. He was just crazy and he kept trying to get Vin to love him instead of Elend. What a jerk"

I totally agree about the Lord Ruler! Finally, someone else who has this same opinion! :D I love how the Lord Ruler is never what you'd first expected...yup, pretty cool.

I liked Zane, but typically I like crazy characters, so that makes sense...

I would say so much more but you haven't finished book three yet. :)

Drake wrote: "I just finished reading the 4th book as well and have to say Wayne is a pretty cool dude. My favorite in the overall series."

Oh! Wayne! Totally forgot about him, but I tend to consider Alloy of Law as a completely different series anyway...but yes, Wayne is fairly awesome. I don't remember, is he the same age as Wax or way younger? I always pictured him younger.

I believe Wayne is roughly 10 years younger than Wax

Shantanu wrote: "Wow. So many TenSoon lovers here. I found him adorable too, and I would have liked to see him play a bigger role in the end ... I liked Sazed initially, but his perpetual whining in the third book got on my nerves and I absolutely hated him for that. Well, till the final scene at least. "

He did seem pretty whiny in that last book, didn't he? It annoyed me too--but, at the same time, I figure I'd probably be pretty whiny if I'd just lost the only person I'd ever loved and was beginning to lose faith in my religion(s), don't you think? (It was a bit tedious though.)

That sounds about right.

Ruin wrote: He did seem pretty whiny in that last book, didn't he? It annoyed me too--but, at the same time, I figure I'd probably be pretty whiny if I'd just lost the only person I'd ever loved and was beginning to lose faith in my religion(s), don't you think? (It was a bit tedious though.)

It was not so much as his change in character that I disliked but the frequency with which his whining made an appearance. It felt disruptive to the more exciting things that were happening, and even without his later musings it would have been clear that Sazed was a broken man. I think Sanderson tried to foreshadow that Sazed's religions will play an important role, but he overdid it imo.

I'm currently at the end of a re-read and I'll say one of my favorite characters is breeze. He still makes me lol, literally.

I love elend's story arch as well as marsh. They change dramatically during the triology.

I used to say vin was my favorite on reading it a second time... I wasn't as impressed with her character. Not sure why. She never really laughs. I have a hard time relating to characters that don't have a sense of humor.

I also have a huge soft spot for ham. A philosophical thug who cares too much. May I order two please?

I also have a huge soft spot for ham. A philosophical thug who cares too much. May I order two please?

Sazed was my favorite and Breeze a close second. I went from hating Eland to counting him as my 3rd favorite over the course of the trilogy. I'd also say TenSoon too he's a weird character to call a favorite but something about him was endearing. If we count AOL Wayne would be my last.

Haven't read AoL yet, so from the original trilogy i would say,
1. TenSoon
2. Sazed
3. Vin
4. Marsh
5. Ham

1. Kelsier
2. Wayne
3. Marsh
4. Spook
5. Breeze

1. Lord Ruler *****
2. Kelsier
3. TenSoon
4. Vin
5. Every other character

1- VIN
2- Sazed
3- Elend
4- TenSoon
5- Breeze
I think it's ridiculous saying that Ruin or The Lord Ruler is your fav. There's no personality development or background enough to know those characters. Mistborn is one of my personal favourits among all writer's books.

My favorite character would have to be Elend, he is definitely an INFJ type. And I can related very much with him.

I wouldn't say it's ridiculous for TLR to be a favorite character. Although we never get his POV we learn a lot about him as the story continues. In fact by the end I'd say a lot of people (including myself) got the feeling he may not have been such a bad guy even if his methods were disagreeable. One of the things I really liked about the Mistborn trilogy was how Brandon Sanderson took an apparent "black" character and turned him into a "gray" character as we learned more. Ultimately I think it was Ruin's influence that turned him even though he did do good things for his people like the stockpiles.

Sorry on my phone so I couldn't edit my previous post but wanted to add. We actually get a lot of TLR's background through the blurbs before each chapter.

Sorry on my phone so I couldn't edit my previous post but wanted to add. We actually get a lot of TLR's background through the blurbs before each chapter.

TenSoon, Zane and Kelsier. The Lord Ruler was really interesting as well.

1.Ruin
2. Kelsier
3. Sazed/ Breeze
4. Elend (Last book)
5. Vin
6. Marsh

1. Elend
2. Vin
3. Sazed
4. TenSoon/Kelsier
5. Breeze

1. Sazed
2. TenSoon
3. Elend
4. Ham
5. Vin

I was really debating between Breeze and Vin for that last one, and honestly, I probably prefer Breeze as a character, but I like Vin's growth as a character and felt compelled to put her, lol.

1. Hoid
2. Sazed
3. Breeze
4. Vin
5. Kelsier

Slick wrote: "1. Hoid
2. Sazed
3. Breeze
4. Vin
5. Kelsier"

Oh, worldhoppers count? In that case:
1. Sazed
2. TenSoon
3. Hoid
4. Elend
5. Ham

Welll... The dudes been on Scadrial, worked behind the scenes in book 2 and W/W and he plays a large part as a main character in the final Trilogy. So yeah ;)

Sazed by far! He is kind and wise. He also doesn't care about what other Keepers think of him.

im the only one who's favorite character is Lord Ruler??

My favorites from the original series would have to be either Vin, for being so delightfully blunt and honest, or Elend, for being adorably naive. If we're including the Rust and Ruin books, then I'd also include both Steris and Marasai, for being super relatable and developed in Shadows of Self, and maybe Wayne, because my respect for that character like, tripled, during a single chapter in that book.

Kelsier, The Lord Ruler, spook.