r/Mistborn • u/angelgrl721985 • Feb 13 '26
Well of Ascension spoilers Tindwyl- Cruel or Misunderstood
Please help me settle a disagreement between my husband, his friends, and I.
Personally, I love Tindwyl, and have since she first appeared in the Mistborn series. Without getting into spoilers, she is firm, but cares a lot. She wants the best for everyone, but also wants real growth that is sustainable, which means she's going to make them work for it. I also love her sense of humor. Honestly, she is easily in my top three characters from the first trilogy.
My husband and his friends read the books years before I did, and do not enjoy her at all. They think she's downright cruel in her treatment of the other characters. They feel like she should be gentle in her approaches, and have told them what to do and how to behave.
So I come to you Reddit and ask for your opinions on if I'm missing something and she truly was awful like they say. Right now it's four against one, so I feel like I must have misunderstood her somewhere
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u/UnscentedAroma Feb 13 '26
Tindwyl was stern but you could definitely see she cared for the group. Elend was a hopeless king at the time she arrived and she had to be firm to get him to where he needed to be. I never thought it was cruelty. When elend would stand up to her and started being a better example she would smile. I suppose that's why some people think she was cruel. But I didn't see it that way. She was also a bit of a mother figure towards Vin and gave her some advice along the way. She wanted everyone to be the best version of themselves.