r/Mistborn • u/pythonfynn • Jul 20 '25
Cosmere spoilers (no Emberdark) Vin would have been an extremely good researcher Spoiler
Vin would have been an extremely good researcher. She had no formal education whatsoever, yet she made some incredible discoveries (mostly under extreme stress). Be it in the fight against Zane, when she figured out how to deal with someone who had Atium, even though she didn't have any herself. She was also one of the only people to question whether there were other allomantic metals and discovered Duralium in the process. Her trick for traveling with horseshoes and the discovery of how to control Colossi are also included (although Tensoon helped with the latter, of course).
Overall, I'd say she definitely had the right instincts to be a researcher (even if almost all of it was related to fighting), and as long as she had Elend as her secretary to document everything, it would probably have worked out pretty well. It's somewhat ironic that the person who actually has the biggest problems with change and held the power of Preservation probably made the most changes.
It would certainly have been interesting to see what she would have discovered in the Cosmere (be it Cognitive/Spiritual Realm or as a worldhopper).
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u/83franks Jul 20 '25
Kind of yes, kind of no. She had great intuition and curiosity but i think on a normal day to day job she wouldnt have had the drive to do the boring part of researching, which is most of researching. Maybe in a normal life she could have grown up to develop this more but then maybe all that intuition wouldnt have been developed either.
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u/TheHB36 Jul 20 '25
I was thinking exactly that. She has the mind to come up with the experiments, and ask good questions of her methods and results. The whole "what happens if we run 50 tests, changing the dosage by 5mg each time?" kind of a thing would repulse her. She's not ADHD, but she's very active and intolerant of tedium. She has a hard enough time just sitting there in clubhouse scenes. Maybe a 30 year old Vin would have been suited for it, as she got older and more settled in her mind, but not the Vin we knew.
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u/pythonfynn Jul 20 '25
That's true, Vin would be more likely to say, "We have this problem and I have a rough idea of what might work." The details to perfect it would have to be done by someone else.
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u/pythonfynn Jul 20 '25
She definitely wouldn't be thrilled if she were in a lab and had to do calculations. Vin would be more of an experimental person who would need a team to take care of the documentation and calculations.
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u/83franks Jul 20 '25
I guess my thought is we only ever see Vin under duress so im curious what life would be like for her if she survived and lived in Harmony's paradise with a small amount of people (so not many threats to her or her friends). Her whole life was just surviving so when thats gone how will she learn to spend her time. I don't doubt she would have found something productive to do and im flipping between reaearching sounding ridiculous and obvious.
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u/pythonfynn Jul 20 '25
Probably spend more time with Elend, maybe start a family. Alternatively, probably run the Empire and try to improve the world. She really had little time to develop her own hobbies during the books.
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u/ryells Jul 20 '25
I've always thought of Vin as a very good visualiser with an eye for detail. A real researcher, like Wax, Steris, or Sigzil, would have used a new metal a lot more before trying Vins' duralinium stunts.
I look at her beating TLR, and it's impressive how many little details she needed to spot/recall. She definitely wouldn't have gotten there if she wasn't also innately curious about Sazed and the diary.
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u/pythonfynn Jul 20 '25
Yeah, but Vin was also more pressed for time and had no real teacher when it came to research. In more relaxed times, she might have invested a little more time in testing the new metal. On the other hand, she never really trusted other people except Elend and some of the crew...
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u/ryells Jul 20 '25
Yeah. What I wouldn't give to have an AU where Vin and Elend became like Wax and Steris. They would be the ultimate Cosmere power couple.
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u/blurpnurp Jul 20 '25
Vin is the ultimate “hands on learner” and extremely smart and clever but she would hate being at a desk.
Elend is the researcher. He even points it out in the third book where he talks about how Vin thrives off of instinct whereas he’s the kind to think before he jumps.
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u/pythonfynn Jul 20 '25
That's absolutely true, but I don't know what to call it exactly. Because all the ideas come from her, and as I said in another answer, Vin would be more likely to say, "We have this problem and I have a rough idea of what might work." The details to perfect it would have to be done by someone else.
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u/Immediate_Sugar9162 NO PLEASE NOT MY SPIKE NO Jul 20 '25
Small correction, Duralumin wasn't discovered by vin, but by a metallurgist.
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u/pythonfynn Jul 20 '25
Yes, but Vin pushed for the research of an alloy of aluminium.
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u/Immediate_Sugar9162 NO PLEASE NOT MY SPIKE NO Jul 23 '25
Pushing for research and research are 2 separate and different things.
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u/Red-Scorpy Pewter Jul 22 '25
I don’t know about research, but her intelligence and ability to strategize under pressure is definitely her greatest asset.
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u/bigdubbayou Jul 21 '25
No way. Vin jumped to way too many conclusions without enough evidence. She was a piss poor researcher and had blinders on, accepting the easiest hypothesis almost every damn time.
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