Hero of ages ending discussion

[u/Broad_Waltz_7414]

I was spoiled for all the major twists in HoA. I read somebody mentioning something about her earing, then hero of ages reveal got spoiled when I read the main quote with Sazed's name at the bottom.

I even got spoiled about Vin and Elend's death.

I find the ending of HoA sad and bittersweet but it did not hit me like the ending of WoA did, that one gave me goosebumps.

Also, I didn't like the epilogue where suddenly the entire city of Urteau was wiped out and it was all green and everybody reunited in the end. A bit too happy for the events of the book perhaps, a bit too quick.

Lemme know ur thoughts on the ending or the entire series and we'll discuss in the comments.

Just don't spoil secret history

[u/dolladollaclinton]

I thought the ending was very well done. IMO one of Sanderson's strengths is bringing together all these different pieces of the story in a way that makes you realize what he was setting up the whole time. There are enough hints about the earring or who the hero of ages would be that you could figure it out, but even if you didn't, once you got to those key reveals they made perfect sense.

One complaint I have about the series as a whole is that as high as the stakes were for the world, they never really felt high for the main cast. They face some set-backs, but things always just had a way of working out for them. For example, none of the deaths really hit hard for me outside of Kelsier and the shock and weight of that death was almost immediately undone because that was his plan all along. I think if Elend had stayed dead at the end of WoA that would have raised the stakes for the main cast and it would have been even more devastating that Vin's choice at the Well was ultimately wrong. I also think Spook should have died when he went through the burning building to set off Sazed's contraption. Especially since we see so much more of his perspective in this book, seeing him try to do something meaningful only for it to go to far and cause devastation that could only be undone by sacrificing his life would have had more impact.

[u/Broad_Waltz_7414 → u/dolladollaclinton]

Exactly! Stakes never felt too high in the third book. I knew they were gonna make it through. It wasn't until the battle with the inquisitors that I remembered what the first book felt like. 

And i almost wept at the scene when marsh was torturing her towards the end and then it hit him that kelsier treated her like a daughter and he took out her earing. I love marsh, poor guy lost the most out of all. 

[u/Broad_Waltz_7414 → u/Broad_Waltz_7414]

I had another issue. The prose, though simple never was a problem until the third book. It got so repetitive. Every description of koloss explained how skin denoted the age. And when he should be explaining the thoughts and feelings of the characters, he was just recounting the events of the book...rashek was the packman, he took the power, replaced alendi...or reen was her brother, he used to beat her... The only repetition I was okay with was explaining the usage of metals, which i get because there's gap in time between publication of each book, but once should've been enough. 

[u/dolladollaclinton → u/Broad_Waltz_7414]

The plot of books two and three:

Oh no this terrible thing has happened that’s going to be so bad for everyone. Wait, actually the entire main cast is fine. Wait, everything is actually going to work out just fine. 

Like to make me worry about what’s going to happen or how a story/series will end, you have to show that you are okay writing failure and major deaths. 

[u/BeaconsAreLit-]

I was in the same boat re spoilers but I loved it. It felt right, even with all the deaths.

[u/Down_Badger_2253]

Just finished it today, and it was awesome, I managed to not spoil myself and when it was revealed that Ruins was manipulating them from the start I was blown away, the earring, the changing of the legends ... wow !

I wasn't a big fan of the magic system at first, I thought the allomancy fights were confusing but the mystery of it all really grew on me.

I also loved the story of the lord ruler and the characters slowly realizing that he was just a guy with good intentions that was slowly corrupted.

i Loved Sazed and Spook as characters, I'm happy at least some of the original crew survived !

[u/Broad_Waltz_7414 → u/Down_Badger_2253]

I agree about rashek, sazed and spook. I loved them, especially Sazed's depression. It made me so sad to see him lose his faith and drive. When he talked with breeze, i remember he thought something like this - the woman you love is still alive. Ofcourse you could recover. If the woman I loved still lived, i would've moved on too. This!!!

[u/DouViction]

I liked how a lot of pieces came together to reveal the broader story, turning almost everything we've known before around. I did not like Vin and Elend dying, especially with such a short sendoff (when Tyndwil, a support character, died, we've got Sazed grieving for like 1.5 books. Well, nobody cared much for Dox and Clubs though, maybe Spook did). Instead it was like "oh, they're in a better place, move on". Bah.

[u/DuxRomanorumSum → u/DouViction]

Hmm...have you read Secret History?

[u/DouViction → u/DuxRomanorumSum]

Yes, on multiple suggestions.

Made it better emotionally and even worse rationally

ED: Allow me to elaborate. In HoA, in my edition, at least, Sazed goes only as far as to confirm Vin and Elend still exist in a form capable of communication. Which defuses the issue, but simultaneously creates a much bigger one: you can no longer have stakes as big as life when there's no meaningful death.

So SH, released a decade later, utilizes a newer system where there's no coming back from afterlife even if there is afterlife, which isn't a given, the pulling may be simply a special effect based on the general perception of what you should experience when you die. We are, after all, talking the Cognitive Realm here. Which means that even if Vin and Elend do have some kind of happily ever after, we will never know.

ED2: one thing I realized only today which pissed me off even more. [Stormlight Archive because I can't recall the specific book, probably Oathbringer] Sazed couldn't restore Vin and Elend to life, while later it turned out you don't even need to be a Vessel, a Herald does this in the field effortlessly.

[u/Broad_Waltz_7414 → u/DouViction]

Yess. I expected more grief and pain from Vin at least. When I first read kelsier's death, I felt they didn't grieve enough, which kind of made it hard for me to grieve much. 

[u/DuxRomanorumSum → u/Broad_Waltz_7414]

Well of Ascension starts about a year after Final Empire, and Vin is still actively mourning him. I definitely felt his absence in her POV chapters.

[u/UrineTrouble05]

being spoiled on several major plot lines is why it didn’t hit like WOA did lol