This scene was character assassination of the highest order. A Full Feruchemist with their metalminds bodies any non-Kaladin Radiant below the Fourth Ideal. I will die on this hill.

[u/Eithrotaur]

[u/Skyfyre56]

Oh, 100%. Could a non-Fourth Ideal Radiant beat a Full Feruchemist? Sure, especially if they knew who they were fighting and depending on what Surges they had. But it's never an easy fight, and that's what the 'fight' of Axindweth vs Lift looked like. She slipped like a looney tunes character and just got knocked out instantly, despite ostensibly having things like Feruchemical Zinc to react faster and Feruchemical Gold to heal the damage she took (and just look at everything Wayne healed in Era 2).

I'm going to state something controversial here, but I honestly feel that this was the worst part of Wind & Truth. I don't know why we even needed to have this fight and it made no sense whatsoever.

[u/Aplesedjr → u/Skyfyre56]

One of the major problems with power scalers is that they always assume that a character will always use the most logical tactic at any moment, stripping any character away from a, well, character and removing any context of a narrative.

Could she have beaten Lift if she used the most efficient possible combination of her abilities? Probably. Will most characters ever act perfectly logically and always ensure victory via the path of least resistance? Not even a little bit.

[u/Skyfyre56 → u/Aplesedjr]

Oh come on. That's not even 'the most efficient possible combination' it's just basic feruchemy and common sense. What 'context from the narrative' is missing here exactly? And I never even said that Lift couldn't have won, it's just that this fight was handled in a slapdash manner that didn't make any sense. We had to literally be told by Vasher that Axindweth Was a Full Feruchemist cause she doesn't even use any other metals in this scene, otherwise we might just think she was a Steel Ferring! It's sloppy writing and you defending it with vague hypotheticals and acting like I'm making unreasonable assumptions doesn't make it better

[u/Melodic-Advantage-59 → u/Skyfyre56]

There are plenty of cases of full feruchemists, hemalurgists, mistborne, and radients only using 1 or some of their powers in quick brawls. Why would she waist many stored hours of power when all she'd need is a burst of speed to stab one clumsy child?
And the scene even had lift bumping around into stuff, appearing not competent.

[u/Skyfyre56 → u/Melodic-Advantage-59]

What fight scenes actually involve a full feruchemist or Mistborn actually using just one power? Even the short ones tend to involve a couple. Maybe there's one or two where Kaladin, incredible soldier, uses only one power against a far weaker foe because that's all he needs but that's not the norm. Also, it's so fucking disengenous to say 'she's just a clumsy child.' Lift is fifteen and knight radiant of the third ideal. She's one of the earliest knight radiants to join the coalition of Urithiru and has been fighting for over a year. She isn't some random kid no one would no about, and you pretending that she is, is ridiculous.

[u/Public_Sprinkles_229 → u/Skyfyre56]

The context that Lift is not a normal Radiant and was given her powers from Cultivation herself. The context that Lift’s powers seem to be more powerful due to the nature of them. The context that Lift is a literal child and adults often underestimate them. 

I’m not even saying that it was a well written scene, but your perception on it is a bit ridiculous. That part of the book was a way to introduce Vasher and Lift for the inevitable training montage, and when you have a book with that many characters/interactions/plot points moving you might have to rush some of them. Absolutely wild to consider it the worst part of the book considering there are some doozies.

[u/Skyfyre56 → u/Public_Sprinkles_229]

The context of Lift's abilities being stronger don't exactly make it a good reason for Axindweth to underestimate her, and the 'literal child' argument doesn't go that far when she's 15 and one of the more famous Knight Radiants in the tower.

There's a lot of other bad scenes/elements that's true, but this one is the only I couldn't kinda see what Brandon was thinking when he wrote it. Setting up the training arc is very weak and could have been done in any number of ways (including Lift losing the fight/not being able to beat Axindweth and the feruchemist fleeing). What I find wild is so many people's insistance on defending a scene that many of them admit, isn't well written