Elend and Vin vs. Perrin and Faile [Spoilers]

[Apple Scruff]

Lots of spoilers here for Mistborn, especially...

 

 

Just finished the Mistborn trilogy last night and wow, wow, wow, it's so good!

 

Here's what I kept thinking about, though. How much better Elend and Vin's relationship was than Perrin and Faile's in WOT.

 

There are so many parallels in their stories it is easy to see how E&V do it better while P&F just fail.

 

Both V and F have proven themselves to be smart, capable women and skilled warriors, but while E trusts V to take care of herself and know the right thing to do, even if he doesn't understand it, P acts like F is a helpless idiot. I mean, let's be honest, I know a lot of people don't like F, but she was about to walk out of Mauldin without P's help when he rode down on the town with a huge army and slaughtered everyone for no reason.

 

Meanwhile, when V is captured and held captive, E chooses to retreat rather than slaughter a whole city of people. He says V can take care of herself, and even if she dies, it's not worth sacrificing the people in Fadrex to save her.

 

And that is the other issue, E&V realize that even though they love each other, the future of the Empire outweighs their love. They both realize that if the other dies in service to that goal, then that death was worth the sacrifice. They are each willing to let the other go in aid of the greater good because they are selfless. They both know they feel the same way as far as the good of the people outweighing their love.

 

Contrast this with P's attitude that "Nothing matters but F" and he would make a deal with the DO to save her. His priorities are wrong. Sacrificing the world to save the woman you love isn't heroic, it's selfish. Especially if that woman is perfectly capable of saving herself.

 

So, there are my initial thoughts. Please share yours.

[elric]

i agrea that when it come to Faile Perrin priority are VERY screwd :)

 

it not that he dont trust her or that he dont think she can take of herself, but she is literally his beating heart.

if she step on a nail Perrin will hurt lot more :)

 

i dont agrea that make him selfish, look at the White Cloack trail, he was willing to face the WC sentence (truely believing is be death) and even when presented a golden opportunity to get out of it, he didnt used it but went out of the way to save them.

 

it simply that when Faile enter the considaration Perrin lose any reason and become OVERLY protective.

[Darksmoon]

Well Perrin did go in and save Faile; however, he was also defeating the Shaido Aiel.

 

Shaido needed to be defeated. They were an Army of highly trained warriors that opposed the Dragon Reborn. Perrin also used the Dragonsworn to attack the Aiel and got rid of most of them.

 

So while Perrin saved Faile he also defeated an enemy and had a 'wildcard' unit take the brunt of the attack. That seems like great planning to me.

[Carnie]

Ditto everything Darksmoon said. At the risk of sounding crude, Perrin didn't just slaughter a city of people, he slaughtered a city of bad guys. Not exactly completely ethically sound, but big difference nonetheless.

 

Contrast this with P's attitude that "Nothing matters but F" and he would make a deal with the DO to save her. His priorities are wrong. Sacrificing the world to save the woman you love isn't heroic, it's selfish.

You are absolutely right, his priorities are wrong. That doesn't make Perrin selfish in general though, it means he has a weakness. In Towers of Midnight, he admits he'd do it all again, even though he knows that's wrong. His irrationality regarding Faile is supposed to come across as a flaw in his character. Protagonists are allowed to have flaws. And as elric said, the WC trial shows he has his priorities straight the rest of the time.

 

One more thing. While it's perhaps true that Perrin doesn't give Faile enough credit, he should not have simply assumed she'd be okay. Elend knew that Yoman would consider Vin a valuable prisoner, and Yoman is A Good Man. Faile was just one prisoner out of thousands, I don't think the Shiado even knew who she was, and Sevanna is known to be a right bitch (and Therava is even worse, although Perrin didn't know that).

[Kamin_Majere]

In Perrin's defense it's also a lot to do with what he has gone through.

 

He's 20ish and used to a very small and tightly knit community/family, he's uprooted from that and taken quite literally on the ride of his life.

Not one year later returns to this home and faimly he loves because he heard it is being terrorized by white cloaks and trollocs, upon getting there his entire family has been slaughtered and his segregate family was taken prisoner and tortured.

 

He is married to Faile and for a man/boy of 21 has been through A LOT. How tightly would you hold on to a new wife if she was the only family you had left after 17 members of your immediate family were slaughtered. People you loved and cared for and lived with most of your life. His mother, father, siblings, even aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews... all of them killed by a madman (so they probably didn't die fast)

 

I think to many people gloss over this when down playing Perrin. He's an incredibly strong individual for not completely shutting down after something like this happens or devolving into a wolf and hunting down those that did the act. His major character flaw is being a bit obsessive over the only person left in his life that he loves... all considered that's not a terrible thing.

 

Out of anyone from the Two Rivers he's the only one that has actually been through anything tragic. Rand almost destroyed the world because he was tired and depressed over things he couldn't control and women that died for him

[Darksmoon]

Those are good points about Perrin losing all of his family. That has shaped who he is and a fact that is glossed over.

 

I disagree about Rand not going though anything tragic. He has wounds that will never heal in his side, he lost his hand, he has been kidnapped and beated and put in a box.... the list goes on and on.

[Red2111]

when Perrin returns to the two rivers, thats one of the few scenes i actually cry at in this series. heck i tear up just thinking of it.

 

 

for me, i can't really compare the two, simply becuase i couldn't get myself to enjoy Elend and Vin or get attacked to them. i love Sandersons stand alone books, i've read Elantris 3 times now and can't wait for the sequel.

 

in comparison to this, Faile and Perrins early interaction is one of my fav in WoT. up until Faile gets captured, then i get turned off by the fixation by Perrin and Failes general attitude. together their great and make a strong impression, alone, both characters are sub par.

 

 

as for Elend not really being worried about Vin, i think it had to deal more with how powerful he knew Vin was and that likely he thought she was staying there because she wanted to, not because she couldn't escape (which if memory serves was partly true)

 

 

for referance, my fav character in Mistborn was Keilser adn then i grew attached to Saz. neither of which got much screen time unfortunately; which is what turned me off from the series.

 

 

edit - re-tragedy. there are different types. rands story is no more less or more tragic than Perrins. imo, Perrins is much mroe impacting because of how quickly and bluntly it happens, while Rands is a more prolonged and progressing sort of tragedy.

 

i feel for them both, one as much as the other. but it still doesnt excuse the fact that Perrin was literally willing to sell his soul to the DO to get back Faile. a poitn i feel that will be capitalized upon during the last battle if the DO is smart. if anything, it'll help to remove one of the 3 taveren.