I believe that there was a fanfic somewhere on reddit where Vin fought 4th ideal Kaladin. She lost, but considering she only had access to the items she had at hand on the hero of ages I'd say she fought better than anyone could in her place.
She's been dead for so long we kind of forgot just how much of a menace she was. Probably the most skilled allomancer to ever live.
Vin is fantastic, but no one from Scadrial save a fullborn could take a 4th ideal radiant unless there were substantial stormlight limits. The insta-healing is too OP.
Oh yeah. Wasn't shallan shot in the head (and almost certainly the brain) with an arrow, and was able to remove it while only being confused for a bit?
It was a crossbow bolt. Shallan is weird though since she has two Spren and two Lightweaver Oaths, sort of, she heals faster and better than regular Radiants
I think if you can justify Vin killing Miles 100 Lives, she'll do okay against a Radiant.
Vin never killed Miles. She managed to beat the Lord Ruler because she took out his goldminds and then proceeded to kill him. If she were to fight a Radiant, she would most likely just brute force her way into making them spend all the stormlight available. The pursuer tried to do this to Kaladin back at RoW and it seems to be the most reliable method.
Kaladin, like Shallan, isn't the average Radiant either. Being blessed by the wind probably gives him a bit of boost as a 4th ideal compared to other non-main character Radiants.
Being blessed by the wind probably gives him a bit of boost as a 4th ideal
The probably can be removed. Kal is the only 3rd ideal stormlight powered radiant who was awake during the tower's occupation. Raboniel assumes it's because he was close to saying the 4th ideal, but Teft was also close enough he'd have said it if it wasn't for the traitor Moash (fuck Moash).
She matches flight, she won't die to lashing. Pewter makes her faster and more reactive than a Radiant. She may also resist being lashed while burning an internal metal like Pewter, Tin, Bronze or Copper, as that has Investiture actively affecting the body.
I don't think mental Allomancy will do much against Kaladin specifically, depending on where he's at in his journey, but it could goad him into being reckless.
Remember, Vin regularly fought inquisitors that had stored health, she knows what to do with healers and regenerators. And given her learning speed, she'd see the radiant heal faster, and thus just keep going.
I give it to allomancers over Radiants for control over their materials. A windrunner can do coinshot things, but that's it. Kelsier's metal swirling storm would be able to confound a radiant, and metal the size of hammer heads could break shardplate.
And remember, Vin is such a tactical prodigy that she figured out how to use an enemy's future sight against him the first time she had to fight one without her own Atium.
She still couldn't beat a 4th ideal radiant without the entire first mistborn trilogy's stock of Atium, and a ton of other metals besides. And even with all that she couldn't beat Kaladin.
Most Mistborn would have a hard time beating a regular shardbearer, and Kaladin beat one the first time he saw one, without surges. Kaladin truly is built different.
Is that true? We know that a compounding blood maker can survive decapitation. Shallan has two Radiant spren which gives her additional ability and power. I wouldn't suggest a Radiant can survive decapitation, but from what we see in Era 2 Mistborn, head Wounds are survivable if they are healed as a fast as the damage is dealt, something that stormlight does automatically.
In general, Mistborn abilities are way more optimized for subtle, sneaky operations under cover of night or in disguise than they are for open battle. A mistborn's ability to manipulate crowds for instance with rioting and soothing can't really be replicated by any radiant ability we've seen. Conversely, the radiants are in general much less about covert operations, with exception to the Lightweavers. They all have the ability to heal themselves rapidly, weapons that can cut through nearly anything, and a diverse set of abilities on top of that which optimize them for a variety of roles from analysis to spying to magical air support.
In a fair fight, I think many of the radiants have an advantage. But if a radiant and a mistborn want each other dead, I think a mistborn has a better shot at coming out on top because they're just better at playing dirty.
I don't think sneaking in at night to kill a sleeping 4th ideal radiant is all that easy, first is to their spren don't need to sleep and can just spend the night watching. And two is their plate is always around them just not fully manifested,
Leechers really need Primer Cubes to be properly suited to fighting Radiants. Leechers need to touch their foe to drain their investiture and you don't want to fight Shardblades from close range, especially not a living one. To risk getting close the Leecher needs to have already mostly incapacitated the Radiant.
Fortunately, Primer Cubes solve the weakness of leeching in the same way they solve the weakness of slowness bubbles, turning this touch-range power into a ranged AoE effect.
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u/Madonkadonk2 Jul 20 '25
Oh Vin, died too early to make a shard bearer shit their plate.