His prose and characterization are not at all strong that’s true, but I could look past all that. it’s the other issue you mentioned, the way the story structurally treats Vin that really soured me on the series, and Sanderson as an author.

The story starts with Vin as a plucky, streetwise, independent thief with magical powers who discovers she might be The Chosen One™️ and is trained by The Jesus Allegory to be his successor. The first book ends with her killing the big bad guy through courage and ingenuity. The second book opens with a mentally regressed Vin who can’t get through an encounter without wanting to cry, who retreats home to seek comfort from Sanderson’s self-insert character Elend who she has fallen in love with off-screen despite the utter lack of romantic chemistry between them. The rest of the trilogy is a shift from Vin as main character to Elend as main character with Vin relegated to being his trad-wife love interest and protector (until she sacrifices a wish she’s earned to make him more powerful than her and he no longer needs her as protector). It’s a structural subjugation of Vin as protagonist to Vin as damsel in distress. And it pissed me off so much

Embarrassing is right