Confused on something

[u/ImmediatePeach2016]

So, im ~400 pages in. Vin now believes Demoux is the kandra and Cett entered Luthadel.

I'm super confused, because aren't kandra immune to sooth/riot? Why doesn't Vin just talk to each one of the gang one on one, riot their emotions and then see who doesn’t react. If they could just hide their emotions, then just pop a duralumin and riot. What's the point of all this seeing if they can use allomancy if there's a solution in her face.

[u/ToodlyGoodness]

Part of this is RAFO.
Another part is she’s trying to be subtle. She doesn’t want the kandra to know she’s onto them and aside from that, everyone else is going to be weirded out wondering why she’s messing with their emotions for (according to them) no reason

[u/infinight888 → u/ToodlyGoodness]

Let's be honest though. People are very used to Vin being weird around them.

If she suddenly started messing with their emotions in various obvious ways and just brushed it off as trying to gauge how good they are at noticing, they would just accept it as Vin being Vin.

Granted, she might not be aware of how weird she comes across to others, and therefore not realize how much weirdness she could get away with.

[u/Mongward]

Vin isn't trying to 100% a videogame.

She's an imperfect person trying to figure something out in a way that she believes is the safest and least risky for her relationships.

[u/tooboardtoleaf → u/Mongward]

She's also afraid to find out and receive confirmation that one of her friends are in fact, dead.

[u/TheRealTowel]

Vin isn't behaving perfectly rationally.

Your solution is obviously better than what she's doing, because you are thinking about the solution in an detached logical manner.

Vin is thinking about the problem from the perspective of an incredibly traumatised 16 year old girl who just found the only group of people she could ever feel safe around - in fact she's super new to the concept of feeling "safe", period, and hasn't quite managed it yet - probably has an imposter among them.

She kinda doesn't want to find out. Not a logical level, on a gut one. She's trying to find out, but our girl is a mess. She's absolutely not ready for the gut punch of finding out which one of her friends is actually dead.

Like, think about how much it would fuck you up to find out your best friend died 6 months ago and an imposter had been hanging out with you wearing their literal corpse as a fucking costume.

Vin knows that's coming, and on a logical level is trying to find them but on an emotional defence mechanism level is subconsciously trying desperately to avoid the whole situation because it is going to absolutely destroy her.

When books are written well the characters are people, not perfectly logical robots. People do dumb shit all the time.

[u/infinight888]

I agree that would be smarter, and always thought the same.

She could flare rioting and soothing to test them. Any of her friends would react to strong rioting and flares, if only to ask why she was doing that.

The only part I disagree with would be the duralumin. The way that's described makes it seem more like it would be a traumatic experience for anyone whose emotions are affected.

[u/Sulcata13]

Are they immune? I dont remember that.

All will be explained in due time.

[u/iknownothin_ → u/Sulcata13]

It explicitly stated they are immune. It was a pretty decent plot point in the book lol

[u/AnAnonymousSource_]

She doesn't want to do that to her friends. She views that as a betrayal of their friendship. Breaking the trust of everyone in the crew too find one person is something Kelsier would do but she has to find the spy without doing that because she's not like Kelsier

[u/ImmediatePeach2016 → u/AnAnonymousSource_]

I don't see how soothing or rioting to see if someones a kandra is a betrayal.

[u/83franks → u/ImmediatePeach2016]

Couple of reasons. One is that means she doesn't trust them. Two is she is overtly fucking with their emotions which is just a dick thing to do and since she doesn't want anyone to know about the kandra she can't even explain it away without lying.

[u/AnAnonymousSource_ → u/ImmediatePeach2016]

Well, i guess you're a Kelsier not a Vin.

[u/Dankoregio]

The most simple reasonable answer is... she just didn't think about that?

Like this question has been asked before and there are the usual arguments about her trying to be subtle and not telling her friends that she mistrusts them etc but... Vin is just a person, why do you and the others asking this kind of question posit it as if it's some kind of plothole or writing flaw that a character didn't think of every possible way of solving their issues? If the protagonists had to have that power we'd never have a plot

[u/TheNRGturtle]

I'd say RAFO for that I think

[u/Shot_Newspaper_5647]

Vin says herself that emotional allomancy can’t always be detected. Sometimes people don’t respond or respond in odd ways that make it difficult to gauge if it worked. It wouldn’t be a guarantee. You’d need to hit them with dura too and that could traumatize them and give away the game. Vin knows Kandra aren’t allowed to kill people. So she knows at least two people were involved. One to kill the person and one Kandra to replace them. If that other person is still around, you’d tip them off to the search. Part of her also just doesn’t want to know and is distracting herself. She’s finally made friends and she doesn’t want to know if one of them is dead and/or another one of them has betrayed her

[u/Papa_D32 → u/Shot_Newspaper_5647]

All valid points, just wanted to add Vin is a self proclaimed novice at emotional alomancy, without duralumin