What Kind of ATLA Bender Would Cosmere Characters Be? Part 2: Mistborn
Previously, and at anon's request, I talked about what type of ATLA bender Stormlight characters would be. I meant to do characters from across the Cosmere, but it turned out that I just had too many thoughts. So instead, I decided to do a little series! So here is what type of bender I think various Mistborn characters would be!
[This list contains spoilers for all Mistborn books in both eras, including Secret History!]
Specifically, I see Steris as a Northern Water Tribe water bender. The Northern Water Tribe comes across as both richer and more advanced than the Southern Water Tribe--but also they come across as very stuffy and tied to their traditions. And when we first meet Steris, she too is very tied to what she Must Do for Her Family and to Very Strict Traditions--just look at the marital contract she wrote for Wax. But in the end, Steris turns out to like adventure and to be adaptable in her thinking--at least when it comes to coming up with every possible variation of a plan.
I did think about earth bender for Wax, given that the Earth Kingdom feels like the place for cowboys. But Wax is Harmony's Sword, and does at point kill an entire building full of people in horrific meat grinder fashion. Plus, if we think of guns as weapons powered by ignition, then I think we could categorize them into a fire bender category. But if I'm being totally honest, I was also thinking about how opposed Wayne was to Wax & Steris, and I can imagine him protesting that fire and water are too much opposites for the relationship to work out--only for it to turn out, of course, that fire and water can work out very well indeed [cries in Zutara shipper].
There's the sense of humor. There's the way he strictly avoids killing people. There's the way he throws up time bubbles, which are definitely not air bubbles but somehow feel similar to my brain. And there's the fact that I KNOW Wayne would love the marble trick.
Perhaps it is clear by now that I wanted the Era 2 Gang to have one of each type of bender. If Steris's father and her are both water benders but Marasi is an earth bender via her mother, then it also underlines the affair and the way Marasi doesn't "fit." Marasi is level-headed and dependable, and she ends up being the person who keeps Wayne more grounded.
I mean, let's see... "desire," "will," "energy," "drive," "power"... Yeah, all the terms traditionally associated with the element of fire sure seem to fit Kelsier. That guy has so much "will" and "drive" that he simply refused to die. Plus, Kelsier is pretty much a one-man army of destruction, and sometimes he possibly goes a bit too far--and, well, fire is an element that is hard to control and full of destructive potential.
I know that I'm horribly inconsistent about whether or not I follow "ATLA genetics" of having people in the same family also have the same type of bending, but with Marsh & Kelsier, I feel like they gotta be the same type of bender. Only while Kelsier is out there burning down mansions and nobles alike, Marsh has always treated fire with care and discipline--and he can't help but judge (and envy) how free-spirited Kelsier is with the power.
I'm thinking here of Spook with his classic blindfold on--but instead of seeing through his all-powerful senses, he's seeing through the ground the way Toph does.
...Considering that I also made Szeth an air bender, a person could be forgiven for assuming that I make all bald people air benders. *coughs* It's honestly hard to think of anyone as an air bender in Mistborn Era 1, given that the era is not super conducive to joy and whimsy. But then, Aang lost his entire people, and Sazed nearly lost his. Aang clung to the memories and traditions and religious practices of his people, and so too did Sazed. Plus, there is something here about Sazed promising Wax that he had the freedom to make his own choices while also constantly manipulating him into doing what Sazed couldn't--Sazed as an air bender who lost his freedom when he took up the Shards, and now can't quite give others the freedom he knows they should have.
I don't know how much my brain simply heard "pewter arm" and thought, "Yup, that's an earth bender nickname if I ever heard one." But it's just that "punchy punchy" feels very earth bender to me. And as for philosophy, well--it was the Earth Kingdom that had the Library, after all.
I'm not sure about this one--I'll be curious to see what others say. But I am thinking about Elend as a idealist, someone who felt like he needed Vin to keep him grounded, and for whom kingship and ethics were originally more of an academic exercise than reality. He constantly had to adapt to wherever he found himself--as a noble, as a criminal, as a mistborn, as a democratically elected official, as an emperor.
Listen, I did try to avoid making anyone the Avatar, but, I mean, it's Vin. She even has the arc where she goes around and learns each power from someone who has mastered it. Yes, Kelsier is also Mistborn and so has every power, but to me, Vin is way more suitable to be the Avatar figure. I mean, she learns all of her powers and then she saves the world. Avatar-style.
After all, his name is [even louder booing drowns me out]
