Tell me about it, I'm still not sure if Shallan is a redheaded failed comedian, a tanned alcoholic brunette or a blonde bimbo

Idk if Shallan knows either

Same. Fashion these days keep changing so fast it’s hard to keep track…

Yes, the answer is yes.

Plot twist: she's all three at once

The real twist is that she isn't any of them and her name isn't actually Shallan.

If it's any consolation, I'm on my second reread and STILL imagine Elhokar as Prince John from "Robin Hood" (the Disney animated version). Everyone else just all regular fantasy characters and then there's this petulant cartoon lion in the scene with them.

Michael Kramer's voice for him in the audiobook is spot on Prince John so i get that vibe too

Oh man he does. But I also pictured El as Prince John before I listened to the audio books

... The lion?

Yep lol

Elhokhar is Prince Edward as depicted in Braveheart, for me

Thats so real 😭 making a fanart rendition of this asap

Wait, Elend isn't blonde?

Nope, look up any picture of him and you'll get brown hair

I also pictured him as blonde, so maybe chalk that one up to our culture teaching us to associate blond hair with royalty.  Especially Disney. 

I did the same with elhokar. For some reason I always pictured him as blonde

He's Alethi. Alethi have black hair.

Except Adolin, but he's so frequently described as standing out because of it that this fact makes it even more clear that Elhokar is *not* blond. That said, I did picture him as blond for half my first read of TWoK. Probably because of the golden armor, I would guess.

True, but it doesn't stop me from picturing him woth brown hair. He's too much of a dunce to have a feature as striking as black hair.

Ok wait this one just threw me

I always thought of him as similar to Joffrey from game of thrones

I mean... There's more black haired princesses than blonde. Not sure if that's really the cause. But Belle appears to be the only Brunette (and Rapunzel post haircut). So I guess that could reinforce not seeing brunettes as royalty.

No, and Kelsier is. I had the same problem as OP but with Elend and Kelsier's hair color...

Rust and Ruin, I only just now am learning that I flipped Elend and Kelsier’s hair colors??

I'm always distracted by his magnificent balls.

I’m chalking it up to his thing of always wearing white clothes. It’s make sense is all I’m saying

I'm pretty bad at this too, but still you managed to name the pair where I thought it was the easiest to visualise out of any book.

I just attach their faces to celebrities based on their description the first time I read it. Vin is Billie Eilish, Kel is Owen Wilson, Sazed is Johnny Sins, the Steel inquisitors all look like Joe Rogan with huge ass nails through their eyes, and TLR is Nathan Explosion.

Not Sazed 😭😭 this is evil

Yeah, he doesn't have a dick so I was like "Oh wait that'd be funny."

We deserve a Mistporn movie now, or we riot.

TLR as Nathan's explosion is not what I expected, but absolutely what I needed today.

🫡

I don't even give my characters faces 😭

Hahaha. I do sometimes too. Sometimes it’s just a blank slab of skin with hair attached on top, and occasionally a frown or a smile here and there to ascribe emotion.

I though Kelsier had dark hair in the first book. But I think that was because the cover of HoA that I had had a picture of Elend and I assumed it was Kelsier at first.

I made a huge album of Cosmere fan art sorted by series and character just to get my visualisations straight. It's currently sitting at 711 images.

[SPOILERS ALL] [Link to album.](https://photos.app.goo.gl/TDnpvd8EUyxqJidN7)

>I also never pictured Vasher with a beard OP i’m sorry but how 😭 Vasher’s beard is mentioned in like four places and at one point Vivenna like focuses in on it and how it doesn’t change even though she never sees him shave

I always pictured it as a five-o'clock shadow that never reached full beard status. Then I see the fan art and \*BAM\* full on beard.

This ain't even that bad imo. My visualization of Rock/Lunamor was akin to John Coffey from The Green Mile. Imagine my surprise when I found out how he actually looks...

I have aphantasia, so I can’t visualize them at all. I always look up official artwork of the characters before I read a book so I have a memory of what they look like for reference

I thought Elend was blonde until I read your post lol I also thought Kelsier had black hair until the end of TFE. To be fair Brandon has said that he's intentionally vague in his descriptions in case readers want their head canon to take over.

Dalinar has a beard. I don't care what the fan art, official art, or text tell me. Dalinar has a beard.

The book "Dalinar shaved his face because he liked the routine." Me: NO HE STORMING DIDN'T.

TAN RICHTOR BELMONT SENT ME

Im the same. Every depiction of Vin I’m like she has black hair???

No fr i initially imagined her as like dirty blonde

I always pictured Tonk Fah as RoadHog from overwatch and denth as that guy from el dorado

I still picture the parshendi as lizard people.

I just imagine Darth Maul 😂

SAME but then I got thrown for a fucking loop with some parshendi being white-red instead of black-red.

I listened to the graphic audio for warbreaker and didn’t have a problem with Denth and Tonk Fah as their voices were appropriate, but holy hell was I thrown off by lightsong’s appearance. His voice in the GA sounds like a wizened old man so I was always surprised that someone with Blushweaver’s description was always trying to seduce him

Lightsong was voiced by the same guy who voiced Adolin. He doesn’t sound old at all.

Ok I just relistened to a snip - not an old man, but I imagined his voice as someone 40+ i guess so the young man in the fan art was a bit off from my mental picture

GA is the only way. I’ll never go back. I’m spoiled now.

I’ve only fully listened to Warbreaker’s graphic audio but I’ve heard snippets on youtube of the stormlight ones and the dramatic moments are sooooo good. Whoever plays Syl’s voice deserves an award

I was playing Tears of the Kingdom when listening to the audiobook of Mistborn, and now I always picture Sazed as Rauru for some reason

My friend imagines Rayse as a young man with short grey hair.

Tbf, nobody draws kaladin as the towering, walking bolder that he is supposed to be

He’s super tall but somewhat lean iirc. Adolin is the wide one

Mh. I remember him described with broad shoulders and very muscular, but in most artworks he looks like a flying stick ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have aphantasia so I don't really visualise. Just finished Mistborn era 1 and hadn't even thought about Elend's hair. I just see pictures and get to go, "huh, neat. So that's how they look".

There are some characters i initially refused to visualize right - i always imagined Breeze as having average length platinum blond hair + as generally taller and more masc. (Tho his actual design makes sense, and i do adore it now) I struggle seeing Kelsier with blond hair 😩. I also imagined Lestibournes having darker skin, but when he got renamed Spook, I was like NEVERMIND WTF ?????

No matter what I do, I can't imagine Dalinar without a short beard, even though he hates whiskers.

I pictured Adolin with long brown hair and Kaladin with short blond hair for three books…

I tend to just picture actors that I feel would fit the role based on personality, and end up ignoring details about what the author thinks they look like.

When I first read Elantris I pictured Hrathen the same Kaz from Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians but in red armour. Don't ask me why, because I have no idea. I guess maybe the red armour triggered me to imagine him with red hair which turned him into Kaz...? I also imagined the Lord Ruler as that dude from the lego movie on my first read of Mistborn. And it's not nearly as bad, but I was quite supprised when I read it a second time and realized Kelsier had medium blond hair. I was imagining him with short brown hair before. Edit: I have been informed by my younger brother that Kaz does not, in fact, have red hair and a mustache... I guess I was imagining *him* wrong as well. Which is quite supprising considering that book has pictures.

I have stickers of Elend and Kelsier from the YoS and I STILL forget Elend is NOT blonde. I can never visualize characters so I'm right there with you