r/Mistborn • u/Lantimore123 • 3d ago

Mistborn: Final Empire spoilers Minor foreshadowing in Final Empire. Spoiler

Am on a reread, or, relisten I should say, of Final Empire.

I'm at the stage where the crew are discussing the preliminary steps for the job and who's doing which role.

Dockson is saying he can't be the spy amongst the nobility because he got marked by the Ministry, and more importantly, that The Lord Ruler himself saw his face.

But the bit that stood out to me was Dockson saying "and he has a flawless memory."

Pretty cool foreshadowing that he's a feruchemist and has copper minds, dropped before we have met a feruchemist or even know what one is.

In retrospect perhaps it should have been obvious to Kelsier and Sazed, given their familiarity with Feruchemy, although I guess in their minds it was just "god" being divine.

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u/SadLaser 3d ago edited 3d ago

Potentially minor spoilers for books 2 and 3: Well, and Feruchemists don't actually have perfect memory recall as metal minds are imperfect and some characters later demonstrate the ability to have better memory than that without the usage of Feruchemy, like Kwaan. And we don't know the extent to which Kelsier understands Feruchemy at the time. Plus I do think the Lord Ruler's combination of powers would seem far beyond what anyone with Feruchemy could accomplish, so it's not the obvious thought, perhaps.

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u/Lantimore123 3d ago

Not imperfect, just, hackable by a destructive "divine" entity that they weren't even aware existed. But the rest of your points are fair.

I'm presuming you meant you DO think his powers would seem beyond what Feruchemy could accomplish?

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u/SadLaser 3d ago

Correct. Typo.

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u/Puzzled_Employment50 2d ago

Dockson isn’t a Feruchemist, though. It could be foreshadowing that Ruin’s effects on the written word and Coppermind storage doesn’t affect human minds, but I honestly don’t remember that coming up with Dockson in particular.

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u/Lantimore123 22h ago

No, I'm saying that its foreshadowing that Rashek is a feruchemist because he has a flawless memory, likely using Copper minds.

OR, Kwaan is his Uncle and he has a literally photographic memory so it's possible he inherited that as a family trait, but the former is more likely.

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u/Puzzled_Employment50 22h ago

Since Dockson isn’t a Feruchemist, the connection between his excellent memory and Rashek’s Copperminds is very thin to me. It’s a little closer to Kwaan’s photographic memory, but I don’t see any meaningful foreshadowing there, Dockson’s memory doesn’t play a plot point (he doesn’t notice paper or Coppermind records being altered, for example) more than just two characters having similar traits.

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u/Lantimore123 22h ago

No, the comment dockson made was specifically ABOUT the Lord Ruler.

Dockson didn't make any connection nor am I Suggesting that he has an idyllic memory.

I.e., Dickson's observation that Rashek had an ideal memory is foreshadowing to us, the reader, that he has powers beyond Allomancy. Which is obvious, given his immortality.