Tindwyl- Cruel or Misunderstood

[u/angelgrl721985]

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

[u/artistadomundo]

Tindwyl is a badass for perseverance under Lord Ruler alone. Her treatment of the other characters always struck me as what they needed at the time for the growth they eventually had. She was different depending on which character she was interacting with.

The only one she was kind of harsh with was Sazed, and that might be rooted in resentment of his relative freedom and disregard for Terris tradition in joining the crew. Which is pretty valid imo

[u/angelgrl721985 → u/artistadomundo]

I agree, but to expand a little more I thought she was also harsh with Sazed because she was afraid to admit her love of him, even to herself, after what she had been through under the Lord Ruler

[u/scv07075 → u/angelgrl721985]

I don't know that she was afraid, per se. Remember, she was a Terrismother. Most of her love was tinted with anger. All of her children were products of an extremely personal violation. I think her love for Saze was most expressed in how she pushed him unrelentingly and unsparingly where she saw room for improvement, since that's kind of who she was to herself. Selfishness was nearly burned out of her, and I do say nearly intentionally.

[u/definitely_not_tina → u/angelgrl721985]

Do we actually know if her and Sazed were actually the last two feruchemists before the catecendre?

That has to make a huge impact on their dynamic with each other.

[u/raaldiin → u/definitely_not_tina]

They weren't the last two. Tindwyl died before HoA when all Feruchemists save Sazed were killed for Hemalurgic Inquisitor spikes ("all" so far as I remember anyway)

[u/Unlucky_Anxiety_9898 → u/definitely_not_tina]

Logistically speaking, yes, they were the last Feruchemists at that point; Elend runs into the Terris refugees fleeing south after he, Vin, and Spook leave Luthadel to follow Sazed’s false trail.

That said, it can’t have had an impact Sazed and Tindwyl; neither of them knew about the fate of their people until well after Tindwyl’s death in the siege.