You may or may not agree with these Mistborn tropes.
- Complete Monster:
- Original trilogy: Lord Straff Venture is introduced in The Final Empire as a brutal noble ready to commit all manner of atrocities to cement his power. He systematically abuses his children to force them to conform to his standards, even trying to have his son Elend assassinated. He sires illegitimate children to use as loyal assassins and spies, and discards his mistresses when they get too old—too old being late teens. In The Well of Ascension, he allows an army of monsters, known for their ruthlessness and utter lack of mercy, to attack an enemy city, regardless of collateral damage. He later decides to allow the city's destruction, concluding he only cares about the Atium rumored to be hidden in the city. Caring for nothing but his own power and advancement, and seeing others as nothing but tools to use or obstacles to be destroyed, Venture stands out as one of the only humans in The Cosmere completely devoid of sympathy.
- Wax and Wayne: Telsin Ladrian/Sequence is a ruthless manipulator driven by an endless desire for more. A rule-breaker since childhood, she became much worse as she grew older, rising to be a high-ranking member of the Set, who recruited her similarly high-ranking uncle Edwarn. Found overseeing the torture and experimentation of Malwish, Telsin fools Wax into thinking that she was an unwilling participant forced by Edwarn, even killing one of her own men to maintain the guise. Telsin ultimately uses this opportunity to shoot Wax, her own brother, when he's off guard. When things begin to go poorly, Telsin promptly flees leaving Edwarn and all her subordinates behind. Resurfacing six years later, Telsin masterminds a plot to destroy the city of Elendel, inhabited by millions, claiming that it is necessary to stop a more destructive invasion from the god Autonomy, yet Telsin ignores less violent solutions, with the plan actually intended to impress Autonomy enough so that they will make Telsin a god. When it appears her plan will succeed, Telsin reveals to Wax that she has always hated him since childhood, and gloats about her success, revealing her to be nothing more than a petty and callous individual who only cares about proving herself superior to others, indifferent to the countless lives that her actions take.
